Ender Magnolia trades up the medieval ethereal world of 'Ender Lilies' for a more tangible steampunk vibe and is a confident display from the developers that they know what they are doing. Almost every single element of the first game has underwent multiple levels of QoL upgrades

• Music is incredible.
  
• Art is more mature, with cut-scenes instead of static images
  
• Environment design reflects this maturity while still retaining its uniqueness and scope
  
• Story is now told more dynamically and organically whilst you're progressing through
  
• Combat is more creative, fluid and fun
  
• Boss fights are definitely harder, though still a little easy
  
• Exploration has a few more tools under your belt, with some challenging platforming and hard to reach areas
  
• Everything just looks...better.

Despite mechanically being more rich and developed, I couldn't shake the feeling that this game felt slightly more generic than the first one for reasons I can't fully put my finger on. It may be a combination of:

• The world is less interconnected--each area is very separate and the map feels more like level selection than a lived in world
  
• The story--whilie told more richly--isn't as unique. It's still a cool sci-fi adventure, but one that has been done a few times before.
  
• It is less mysterious and easier to navigate. The first game was littered with lots of areas that had you puzzling for quite a while on how to get through, but Magnolia felt a little linear; 'Get this ability, go here' kind of thing.

Still a very cool metroidvania that I would definitely recommend, but I would say if you were to only play one, play the first one.

Not the rain again..

Great game that I recommend very much. If you enjoyed the first game I don't see you disliking this one. While in my opinion, the story of the first game is better (that's not to say that this games story is bad) I feel like the gameplay would more than make up for any perceived disappointment.

Give it a try I'm sure you'll enjoy it.