Am i missing something with this game?

[Dehra]

Saw the review scores, went to watch some gameplay. It looks like 2D cutouts swinging at eachother, not actually hitting because theres no impact at all. Very flash style game. I mean Hollow Knight is the king of souls-like 2D metroidvanias...the games are light years a part. Paid reviews? Low standards? I'm so confused.

edit - the game is twice the price of HK even.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Yeah you're missing actually playing the game.

[Dehra]

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

Yeah you're missing actually playing the game.

The concept of spirits doing the fighting but this looks just like Deaths Gambit, i don't want to waste money. So i'm asking what specifically people like. Just the story? The music is good. Just the combat is so blehhh

[Wolfofdoom3]

Originally posted by Dehra:

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

Yeah you're missing actually playing the game.

So i'm asking what specifically people like.

Everything.

[Groen90]

It's a simple case of the good outweighing the few flaws it has, which is the case for many other metroidvanias as well (HK included). Game's absolutely not a masterpiece but still very solid, and reviews are overall good because the game is, overall, good.

Not everything needs to be on the level of Hollow Knight to be enjoyable, but if that's the case for you, as your OP makes it sound, you're probably better off just going back to replay that while you wait for Silksong.

[Hexo Mia]

Originally posted by Dehra:

Saw the review scores, went to watch some gameplay. It looks like 2D cutouts swinging at eachother, not actually hitting because theres no impact at all. Very flash style game. I mean Hollow Knight is the king of souls-like 2D metroidvanias...the games are light years a part. Paid reviews? Low standards? I'm so confused.

edit - the game is twice the price of HK even.

dude if you are not even going to buy the game to try for your self, get the hell out of here, thanks, talking ♥♥♥♥ out of your own ass 101.

[Hexo Mia]

Originally posted by Groen90:

It's a simple case of the good outweighing the few flaws it has, which is the case for many other metroidvanias as well (HK included). Game's absolutely not a masterpiece but still very solid, and reviews are overall good because the game is, overall, good.

Not everything needs to be on the level of Hollow Knight to be enjoyable, but if that's the case for you, as your OP makes it sound, you're probably better off just going back to replay that while you wait for Silksong.

Hollow knight is overrated AF, is sad how other people think is the top standard when it comes to this type of games, that game have so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ flaws, is far for being "the best" the HK fanbase is full of these religious zealots, so sad, they are the worst part of the game.

[Dehra]

Originally posted by Roderick✪Legend:

Originally posted by Groen90:

It's a simple case of the good outweighing the few flaws it has, which is the case for many other metroidvanias as well (HK included). Game's absolutely not a masterpiece but still very solid, and reviews are overall good because the game is, overall, good.

Not everything needs to be on the level of Hollow Knight to be enjoyable, but if that's the case for you, as your OP makes it sound, you're probably better off just going back to replay that while you wait for Silksong.

Hollow knight is overrated AF, is sad how other people think is the top standard when it comes to this type of games, that game have so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ flaws, is far for being "the best" the HK fanbase is full of these religious zealots, so sad, they are the worst part of the game.

I actually prefer Blasphemous in terms of combat. But overall polish/theme/story/content/music HK is the gold standard. It also has the hardest content.

This game is super rudimentary combat without any weight. I don't need to play it to see that. It looks like an old flash game as I said The music is fantastic, I'll give it that.

[Mizufluffy]

Maybe it's just as simple as some players enjoy certain kind of games more than you do?

I personally had a lot of fun with the game. This goes for combat, platforming, game mechanics, music, visuals and some other things.

A game's review score is nothing more than the sum of players' opinion ("not recommended", "recommended") in number format. No matter how good or bad a game is, there's usually someone who recommends a game that most players would not recommend or someone who would not recommend a game that most players recommend. I'd say it's better to ask yourself what kind of games do you like to play if you don't find yourself agreeing with the common opinion. There are plenty of games that might have overwhelmingly positive reviews but aren't the type of games I would enjoy.

Anyway, if you only looked at the review scores then perhaps those who reviewed the game positively also explained why they recommend the game, right? I think it's a bit rude to accuse them for being paid reviews. Just because someone recommends a game doesn't mean they received a compensation for that. About 95% of the 11926 total reviews reviewed the game positively. This is roughly 11300 players who recommend the game.

If we for a moment imagine that some of those were "paid reviews", just to go along with your idea, then let's for a moment assume the game "normally" would have 70% positive reviews and 30% negative reviews (roughly 8350 positive vs. 3570 negative. If someone wanted to raise that rating from 70% to 95% by encouraging some players to change their rating from negative to positive it would equal about 2980 players vote change. Then, if we assume what would be the very minimum compensation for someone to review the game it'd most likely be the price of the game if not more. The game costs about 25 € and paying that to almost 3000 players would cost almost 75 000 €.

Now let me ask you this. Do you seriously think some small studio would have the money to pay the players to review the game positively against their own will?
In my personal opinion I think it is much more likely that there honestly just were that many players who thought the game was good enough to recommend it to others. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of players who liked it was actually higher than the number of positive reviews because even when I like some games I rarely review them (although, same is often true for negative reviews too!). I don't review games often because then I want to write them properly which can take time and effort.

Anyway... I'm fine with whatever opinion you have about the game if you've made it with enough information on hand. I'd just would like to add that one should not judge a book, or a game, by the cover because fun looking games can sometimes be disappointing or boring looking games might surprise positively.

[Groen90]

Originally posted by Dehra:

This game is super rudimentary combat without any weight.

It does feel "weightless" due to lack of hitstop, but that doesn't mean the combat is rudimentary; the game lets you mix and match all kinds of different weapons that you can even combo together or use in creative ways for exploration, that alone makes it objectively deeper than Hollow Knight's or even Blasphemous constant normal attack spam from the same weapon interspersed by the occasional spell or parry for the whole game. Please realize, as stated above, how you're indeed talking out of your ass here.

[Wolfofdoom3]

The lack of hitstun isn't even exactly true, enemies do get stunned but after depleting their stamina bar.

[Groen90]

Originally posted by Wolfofdoom3:

The lack of hitstun isn't even exactly true, enemies do get stunned but after depleting their stamina bar.

Sorry wrong term, I meant to write "hitstop"... what I mean is essentially that split second that the game freezes whenever you hit an opponent.

[Wolfofdoom3]

Ah.

[Shroom Ragoon]

I mean if you haven't played HK yet then just play that, but since I suspect you already have and are looking for a new game to try.. you're SOL if you just want HK but with a different coat of paint. Ender Lillies has good visuals, decent animation, great music, fair story, and fun levels with a bit of interesting platforming challenges. Nothing intense or all that difficult like you can find in HK though. If you're looking for a game that emulates HK in it's combat or platforming, I have no suggestions. I can just tell you that having 100%'d the game and experienced most of what the it had to offer, I would have valued that experience at $35.

I'd pay maybe 45 for HK.

I want for more people to try this game because I really enjoyed it and really think other people will too. I get what you mean when you said you looked at the gameplay and it looked like sprites swinging at each other. Though reductive, I saw that too. Playing the game yourself definitely combats that feeling. It does not *feel* the way it looks. Maybe you've felt that way before too? The fact that Lilly (the player character) is naturally disconnected from actual combat, seeing as all attacks are performed by spirits that appear, I think helps keep the combat from feeling disconnected from physical space, where it would feel a bit weightless if Lilly was the one connected to the melee weapons. That's enough rambling though.
I really like this game. Never encountered any bugs (HK is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ full of them, those lazy bastards), and was only truly dissatisfied with the final boss. Not terrible, just not as good as the other bosses. Killer soundtrack though. Sure I mentioned that already. Main theme is great & the primary motif is used to great effect! When I heard it for the first time within the context of empathizing with Lilly, Harmonious hit much harder than I was expecting from any of the songs.

[Dehra]

Originally posted by Shroom Ragoon:

I mean if you haven't played HK yet then just play that, but since I suspect you already have and are looking for a new game to try.. you're SOL if you just want HK but with a different coat of paint. Ender Lillies has good visuals, decent animation, great music, fair story, and fun levels with a bit of interesting platforming challenges. Nothing intense or all that difficult like you can find in HK though. If you're looking for a game that emulates HK in it's combat or platforming, I have no suggestions. I can just tell you that having 100%'d the game and experienced most of what the it had to offer, I would have valued that experience at $35.

I'd pay maybe 45 for HK.

I want for more people to try this game because I really enjoyed it and really think other people will too. I get what you mean when you said you looked at the gameplay and it looked like sprites swinging at each other. Though reductive, I saw that too. Playing the game yourself definitely combats that feeling. It does not *feel* the way it looks. Maybe you've felt that way before too? The fact that Lilly (the player character) is naturally disconnected from actual combat, seeing as all attacks are performed by spirits that appear, I think helps keep the combat from feeling disconnected from physical space, where it would feel a bit weightless if Lilly was the one connected to the melee weapons. That's enough rambling though.
I really like this game. Never encountered any bugs (HK is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ full of them, those lazy bastards), and was only truly dissatisfied with the final boss. Not terrible, just not as good as the other bosses. Killer soundtrack though. Sure I mentioned that already. Main theme is great & the primary motif is used to great effect! When I heard it for the first time within the context of empathizing with Lilly, Harmonious hit much harder than I was expecting from any of the songs.

Yes, i've basically completed HK besides some of the harder challenges. I got addicted to Blasphemous before the very hardest HK content. I am just after Darker themed 2D souls like games. I completed Ori and the Will of the Wisps in like 2 sittings, that even scratched the itch. I completed Deaths gambit and that had trash combat, i've since tried a Ender Lillies on a friends Steam. My suspicions were correct. The combat is even worse than Deaths Gambit, it literally is a flash game. The music is great in Ender Lillies, the theme/visuals and setting are all fantastic imo. I love the idea of the spirits fighting for you. The animation is lackluster, The levels have felt all very samey, the enemies are incredibly stupid. I had this mage that shot down purple projectiles up and they dropped down in a line, i stood between the projectiles and he just kept firing the exact same pattern with them missing me and i stood still. All the enemies seem to randomly attack if they notice uoi you, even if out of range.

If this had better animation, actual feedback from hitting or being hit, move away from samey enemies and basic level design i think the game would be a masterpiece. The world just needs more feedback in a general, i don't feel immersed in it at all. Dark Souls makes you feel every death, every time an enemy hits you.

The game clearly isn't for me, but i will but watching Ender Lillies 2 with anticipation.

[kukukachu]

The only way you're gonna truly know is if you play the game.
That's my advice to you.