Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights [Xbox]
Developed by Live Wire and Adglobe, and published by Binary Haze Interactive, Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights sees you as Lily, a young girl who wakes up with no memories, in a world destroyed by rainfall. This rainfall isn’t your ordinary rain, no - it’s not even that absolutely nightmarish rain that comes lashing down almost every single day in a typical Glasgow summer - this Rain of Death, as it is known, has devastated Land’s End, corrupting all living beings and warped them into monstrous undead husks known as The Blighted. You are introduced to a Spirit, the Umbral Knight, who acts as Lily’s guardian on her quest.
You can wield the Umbral Knight’s powers (as well as those of other Spirits you encounter and Purify) as your own - denoted by floating orbs following you, swiftly returning to their ethereal full-forms when in use. Three Spirits can be in action at any one time, with six in total being able to be equipped across the two sets that can be switched between at ease. Within the pause menu you can view Quests at any time, as well as return to the last Respite you visited. These Respites act as Checkpoints, where you can restore HP as well as Spirit/Prayer use and save the game, but like Dark Souls’ campfires, will respawn all Blighted upon your visit. You can rewatch custscenes that you’ve encountered via the Blighted Memories option at the Respites, and take on previously defeated bosses through the Purified Memories. Additionally, you can fast travel to other unlocked Respites, as well as view and enhance your Spirits, making them more powerful. Relics can be equipped too, and these give different buffs to Lily, such as increasing your maximum HP, making your healing Prayers more potent, and granting you more power to deal extra damage.
Having the freedom to select which Spirits you want to accompany you along different parts of your journey is great, as it gives you the benefit of finding trios that work well together and complement your playstyle. Each has their own attack style, with Main Skills such as your OG Spirit Umbral Knight’s sword flurry and Gerrod’s heavy hammer blow, to Subskills including Western Merchant’s ranged attacks and Headless Defender’s blocks. Some Spirits will be marked as Aquatic, allowing them to be used underwater - so it’s beneficial to have at least one in each Set that is classed as such, otherwise you might run into some problems! Likewise, some Spirits have a limited number of uses before needing restored at a Respite, so prioritising attacks to manage this is useful, and equipping ones with unlimited use is always handy.
Bosses, ranging from the smaller bosses right through to big bads, are well designed - and taking them on gets progressively more challenging, but it’s always exciting to know that you’ll then gain them as a purified Spirit to help you on your quest after their defeat. Combat is constantly evolving due to this, as you will learn which Spirits are useful against different enemies; some have slashing attacks, others have projectiles and they all come in a variety of sizes and strengths, with some being slower but far more powerful. The combat feels really great, with a wonderful flow to battles when utilising your Spirits to combo enemies for maximum damage, and whilst you’ll no doubt fall back on one or two Spirits when traversing the world - they all get their time to shine against Bosses. You’ll also unlock new abilities, such as double jumps, swimming, and an alteration to your dodge/dash that will help you access other areas that were previously out of reach, and these are usually tied to different Purified Spirits, with their attack styles and backstory cutscenes explaining this further.
Ender Lilies is absolutely gorgeous, with a very visually interesting style across the world. Areas that once would have looked grand and ornately designed now appear overgrown and rotten, and the buildings you come across as you go have been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. The enemies plaguing these locations have a variety of undead, twisted appearances, with some retaining an essence of their former selves; their souls destined to remain trapped inside their decomposing tombs, until you can purify, and set them free. There’s a sadness woven all through the DNA of the game, from these poor souls, to the notes you find and the beautifully sorrowful soundtrack - and it all works exceptionally well to draw you deeper into the story. Mili, the soundtrack’s composer, has done a terrific job in capturing the emotion of the world’s inhabitants, the bleakness and despair, yet also a glimmer of hope that permeates the tracks.
There’s tonnes to do across the vast world of Land’s End, with a bunch of different collectible Relics and ‘Findings’ - which consist of notes from before everyone succumbed to the Blight, hidden around for you to find. These are usually off the beaten track, and frequently require the use of different abilities to reach them, so you’ll need to make sure you backtrack at times to explore any areas that are incomplete. Thankfully, the map has its own key that provides different information such as rooms that are complete, unexplored pathways and Respites - so you can easily check this to ensure that nothing has been missed.
Available for £21.99 on the Xbox Store, Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights will give you a good, solid 12+ hours of playtime, with an engaging and enjoyable story - and just the right amount of challenge. The gorgeous yet grisly visuals, along with the fantastic soundtrack were enough to hook us right away, but the interesting lore and variety of Spirits to test out really kept us captivated and coming back for more.
In the end, we decided to give Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.
Have you played Ender Lilies yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Binary Haze Interactive for the Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights Xbox review code!
