29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Journey Through Toxic Fumes That's a Breath of Fresh Air
It wasn't supposed to, but Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist made me snicker. This generally inventive, risk-taking game occurs below ground in the Land of the Fumes, which made me think about gas jokes. In reality, what lies within the often-melancholy environments is a complex tale about the ravages wrought by an unseen dictator or a poisonous environment, probably both.
Lilac, a young girl in a black-and-white school uniform who reminded me of a nicer Wednesday, is an Attuner, a magical being who can absorb the essence of the stronger enemies she has subdued.
To get to them, she battles enslaved robotic creatures called Homunculi. Toxic gas has made them lose their minds, and the big ones are terribly violent. But they willingly let Lilac be their host. It's safe there. She's an innocent, and though they have to fight through her, they're happy to be part of her. Lilac's essence is like a sanctuary city.
Bloom in the Mist, part of the Metroidvania genre, is the sequel to Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights, from 2021, an equally dark tale of blight that deranges the world's inhabitants. Throughout Bloom in the Mist, Lilac accrues a variety of abilities. The defeated battle ardently, emerging ghostly from her body with, say, a gun that emits blue bullets or a slashing sword.
The gameplay can be difficult, even early on. The Shackled Beast, a cigarette-puffing human-rhinoceros hybrid, whips around a deadly lantern on a chain like Roger Daltrey of the Who used to wield a microphone on a cord. If that weren't enough, the beast's head is also a potent battering ram.
Once it is defeated, Lilac moves closer, slowly raising her left arm as if to cast a spell. Then his powers become yours.
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