EXPLORATION: ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights | Part II

I’ve put out my overall thoughts on Ender Lilies without spoiling anything, so now I will go into a lot more detail on some of the points from chapter one. So this is your one and only warning, if you do not want to get spoiled, just leave now and come back after you have played through Ender Lilies.

 

Presentation

As the presentation of visuals, story and music were mostly covered in chapter one, I’d like to go deeper into the individual areas of Ender Lilies. Technically speaking there isn’t really a lot of mandatory backtracking. And when you look at the full map, you don’t really circle around, but it spreads towards the right side. So with that in mind I’ll just go through the areas in the order that I went through them.

 

Cathedral

The cathedral is where you start the game and thus it doubles as the dedicated tutorial area of Ender Lilies. It does a relatively decent job at explaining how things work, while at the same giving you a very good idea of what kind of world you find yourself in. The dilapidated look of the first screen all the way into the cloister, really sets the perfect mood for the rest of Ender Lilies.

Once again at the start of a Metroidvania, you’re supposed to head right in the beginning of Ender Lilies, but you can also go left for a little secret. There’s not much to it just yet though as you will need some stuff from the final part of the game to progress here. Once you’ve beaten Siegrid inside the cloister, you are pretty much done with the cathedral for quite some time to come.

 

White Parish

The White Parish is not so much an area as it’s really just a passageway to get to your first real fork in the road. However, it is here that you get access to your first optional spirit, but outside of a few collectibles and I won’t go into collectibles all that much, that’s all there is to this area.

Once you get to the Crossroads resting point, this is where you will have to make your first real choice in terms of which direction you want to go to. I went towards the Witch’s Thicket first, which is downwards. I very quickly realised though, that it was probably a bad idea to go this way. So once I got my ass handed to me a few times, I decided to explore the other route.

 

Cliffside Hamlet

This is the first area that shows that life was actually a thing. People were living here and going about their business. This area is also filled to the brim with collectibles, notes and several spirits. While you’re fighting your way through the hordes of blighted, you will come across quite a few roadblocks in terms of areas you cannot reach, be they too high, too far, or just straight up physically blocked by some type of a barrier. You’ll pretty much immediately realise that you’ll have to get something, or even several things to explore this place fully. Nonetheless you do actually get rewarded for doing as much exploration as you can at this point in time, with stronger healing, relics and more HP. It’s definitely worth cleaning out the area as much as possible. It is a bit of work to tread through every screen as the amount of enemies you have to deal with and the variety of them, is far beyond anything the Cathedral or White parish have prepared you for. There’s no rush though, so just take your time and explore at your own pace.

After reaching the Bridgehead resting point, you’re faced with the second boss battle. After defeating Gerrod, you’ll now have the ability smash downwards which allows you to clear out all those red barriers that you saw starting from the White Parish. You cannot actually go any further from here though, so now it is actually time to go back and this time really go through the Witch’s Thicket.

 

Witch’s Thicket

Visually speaking this area looks really pretty in my opinion. Other areas definitely look more impressive, but still- the Witch’s Thicket is really damn pretty.

In terms of exploration, this can absolutely be one of the first areas to be a little frustrating as you cannot stay under water for the majority of the area. So there is a little bit of strange platforming going on here, which I did find quite enjoyable though. For one, the area is really pretty to look at and secondly I found the enemies here, even though they hit harder, a lot more manageable than the ones back in the Hamlet. That still doesn’t help the fact that the individual screens can be a little overwhelming, considering how big they are. To really explore this place you will need quite a few upgrades, the most important one comes from this area’s boss though.

Once you reach the Coven Halls resting place you will now have access to the third boss fight, which pits you against Eleine. After you’ve beaten her you gain the ability to move freely underwater, thus making exploring the Witch’s Thicket a lot more bearable. Once you’re satisfied exploring, you will have to make your way back to the Cliffside Hamlet and use your newfound aquatic abilities to swim to the resting place Bottom of the Well, which will lead you to the next area.

 

Catacombs

The Catacombs was the area where my deaths first started to pile up and honestly that’s pretty much what this area is about. As the name suggests it’s all very oppressive down here, without any light shining in. That’s not to say that it’s dark in here, but you do get a sense of wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. That the whole area is a deathtrap through and through all but underlines that feeling. Fake floors, mimics, infinitely spawning flying nuisances, escalator shenanigans, the whole package. The Silva boss fight at the end though; worth it.

Once you’ve beaten Silva you learn the ability to dash, which replaces your sad dodge animation and allows you to finally keep your altitude in the air when dodging.

 

Twin Spires

Not going to lie to you, this area pissed me off. It’s not bad, neither in design, nor visuals, it’s pretty cool actually. Even more when you keep reading the notes and relic descriptions to give some insight as to what actually happened here. Those vertical climbs… can die in a fire though. The screen to the far left of this area, can absolutely suck a fat one. The enemies hit so hard and those eyes when you first encounter them, are so hard to deal with. Later on they’re really nothing more than a joke, but the first time around, every time you get hit by their barrage, it really gets to you. Especially when you see the damage it does.

Then there’s also shielded enemies that don’t just stand around and wait for you to strike their backs, who also hit incredibly hard, oh and did I mention that there are dragon’s just casually flying about, trying to ruin your day? In hindsight, which is 20/20 as we all know, this area is awesome. Especially as you’re seriously not prepared for any of this. It’s a really cool experience, in hindsight. In the actual moment however, those salt levels can exceed your annual sodium allowance.

You will make it through eventually though and reach the very top, obviously. You take a breather using the Mourning Hall resting place, after that you are going to fight the next boss, which is Ulv. Beat him and you will finally be able to climb up walls. Up to this point I had honestly already given up hope that this ability even existed in Ender Lilies. This is usually something you get very early on, which is not really critique, just something I found strange. The level design so far did accommodate the skill progression, but still. In any case, with this skill, on top of the other skills you have collected, the map really starts to open up for you in previous areas. Before you move on to the next area you’re most likely going to collect quite a few things in those previous areas first.

 

Stockade

To reach the Stockade you will have to first make your way back to the Witch’s Thicket once more and reach the Aqueduct resting place. Whatever you experienced in the Twin Spires, is pretty much added to inside this place. There are once again new enemy types on every corner, some that are very fast, others can straight up teleport and mimics are also still on the menu of course and hit harder than ever. While there’s a lot to collect here, the area loops around itself and kind of helps you out in that regard. There are however still things you can’t reach and so you will eventually make your way towards Execution Grounds resting place, the resting place before our next boss fight, which is against Hoenir.

Once you’ve beaten him you now gain the ability to use a hookshot. Remember all these inconspicuous lantern type things you’ve been seeing everywhere, those are your hooking points.

 

Hinterlands – Ending A

The Hinterlands are technically a part of the Twin Spires, but you first reach them from the Stockade with your new Hookshot ability. There’s nothing to do here other than loop back into the Twin Spires to collect more stuff, or to continue towards the right to end the game. That’s right, this is the first ending you get access to in Ender Lilies. Ending A, which actually acts more as a hint that there’s still more exploring to do. With that knowledge, as you’re booted back to the title screen, you load up your latest save and make your way to the penultimate area of Ender Lilies.

 

Ruined Castle

The Ruined Castle for the most part feels and looks like an upgraded version of the Twin Spires. The way you progress here is technically more difficult, what with all the challenge rooms you have to clear for the gates to open up again, but it’s so much more bearable in my opinion as there’s less of that endlessly frustrating verticality to deal with. There are some new enemies like the spellcasters that do a tonne of damage, but then you realise that you can just stun them really quickly too. There are more shielded nuisances, but the trip towards the King’s chambers is all in all quite straightforward and without too much hassle. This entire area is absolutely jam packed with collectibles though, so it will still take some time to find everything your first time through.

Once you do make it to the King’s Chamber’s resting place, you will now finally be pitted up against Julius, who you have read so much about at this point. Once you’ve beaten him you finally learn the ability to bust through those red walls. Until now you only had the ability to break the red floors, but now it’s once again time to go through old areas and clean up.

 

Verboten Domain

There are two entrances to the Verboten Domain. One is from the Witch’s Thicket and the other is from the Stockade. The one from the Witch’s Thicket is a trap though. You will absolutely need to enter from the Stockade at least once, as that’s where you get the relic that reduces the passive damage you take from the Blight in the air. Without it, you will die before you make it anywhere and that’s not even taking into account the enemies that will also be very keen on punching you in the face.

Going through the area itself can feel disoriented at times, but your main goal is to get the elevator shaft type part of the map to work. Which means you have to find a few switches on opposite sides of said elevator and of course deal with the hordes of blighted and the blight in the air and everything does a tonne of damage, so it’s definitely a little challenge in the beginning. Once you get used to the layout and what the enemies are doing, the difficulty really simmers down though. After you have managed to open up all the gates for the elevator shaft and make it down to Subterranean Lab B5 it’s time to fight Miriel, the beloved. Once you’ve beaten her, you don’t actually get to purify her. Instead you get to purify someone else, which will grant you your last ability… unlocking doors. Yeah I know, it’s not the most spectacular skill especially being the last one, but with this skill you’re now able to clear out the entirety of Ender Lilie’s map. So before you make your way down, this is the time to quite literally clear out the entirety of Ender Lilies’s map; so go ahead do that.

 

The Abyss

You’ve cleared out everything, every room on your map is marked as ransacked, you have collected all the tablets and obtained the Luminant Aegis Curio, which means it’s now time to make your track through the very last screen of Ender Lilies, before you reach the final boss.

The room itself is actually not all that bad, but if you don’t pay attention to where the enemies are, well; those flying things hit so damn hard that it can make you really nervous going through here. That is it though, you make it to the last resting place of Ender Lilies, beat the final boss, twice, once for each ending and you are done. To get to the 100% mark you actually need to collect one final relic after beating the final boss, which will be placed next to the resting place on reloading your save file. I personally also still had to grind out like 5 levels to get to Level 100 for the final trophy, but that really is all there is to it.

 

Closing Words

So these are all the areas Ender Lilies has to offer, which area of the game did you like the most and which one gave you the most trouble? While I said that the Witch’s Thicket looks the prettiest, my favourite area would have to be the Ruined Castle, simply due to the fact how much you’ve read about what’s been happening and finally getting to fight Julius. The area that gave me the most trouble was without a doubt the Twin Spires though. Again, you get used to it, but when I first went there, I got smacked left right and center at every step I was trying to take. Let me know in the comments, either here or on YouTube! My name is Sasa and I will see you next time.