{"id":45783,"date":"2025-03-19T13:51:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T04:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=45783"},"modified":"2025-03-19T13:51:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T04:51:04","slug":"what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/","title":{"rendered":"What made Ender Magnolia \u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d? A balance between story and gameplay rarely seen in metroidvanias was one factor, devs say\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Binary Haze Interactive officially released <strong>Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist<\/strong> on January 23, after a 10-month Early Access period. Following in the steps of its prequel Ender Lilies, the dark fantasy metroidvania RPG got off to a strong start, quickly gaining an &#8220;Overwhelmingly Positive&#8221; status on Steam as players praised its art, UI and combat. At the time of writing, the game maintains its popularity, with 95% out of 10,500+ reviews on Steam being positive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist - Full Release Announcement Trailer -\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cvSf1pOO084?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What made Ender Magnolia so successful? AUTOMATON talked to director Keisuke Okabe and lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama to get their perspectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yokoyama explains that Binary Haze Interactive\u2019s CEO Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who started the Ender series and acts as its producer, was always passionate about art and worldbuilding \u2013 which are definitely aspects that make both Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia stand out. However, Kobayashi was also conscious of the need to incorporate fun gameplay into his worldbuilding, and sought to combine emotional narrative with entertainment value.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1392\" height=\"776\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1392px) 100vw, 1392px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-001.jpg\" alt=\"Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist\" class=\"wp-image-45788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-001.jpg 1392w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-001-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-001-768x428.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ender Magnolia\u2019s success, according to its developers, may be a sign that they managed to achieve the balance they strived for. \u201cThere are games out there that are moving in terms of story but have their quirks when it comes to gameplay. At the same time, there are games that tend to rely too heavily on just gameplay \u2013 but I think that the Ender series may have struck the perfect balance between the two,\u201d Yokoyama comments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights came out in 2021, one of its most often-mentioned strengths was its haunting and somber atmosphere, which Magnolia inherited. While the sequel <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-dev-explains-why-they-lowered-the-sequels-difficulty-you-only-need-one-soulslike-a-year-that-should-be-a-fromsoftware-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lowered the difficulty, shifting away from soulslike influences<\/a>, it introduced many improvements to gameplay, including more rewarding exploration, smoother battle mechanics and more customizable playstyles.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4\/PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2725260\/ENDER_MAGNOLIA_Bloom_in_the_Mist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama talks about the series&#8217; balance of gameplay and narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":45787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-45783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What made Ender Magnolia \u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d? A balance between story and gameplay rarely seen in metroidvanias was one factor, devs say\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama talks about the series&#039; balance of gameplay and narrative.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What made Ender Magnolia \u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d? A balance between story and gameplay rarely seen in metroidvanias was one factor, devs say\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama talks about the series&#039; balance of gameplay and narrative.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T04:51:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T04:51:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1391\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What made Ender Magnolia \u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d? 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A balance between story and gameplay rarely seen in metroidvanias was one factor, devs say\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama talks about the series' balance of gameplay and narrative.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-03-19T04:51:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-19T04:51:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1391,"height":780,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250319-45783-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/what-made-ender-magnolia-overwhelmingly-positive-a-balance-between-story-and-gameplay-rarely-seen-in-metroidvanias-was-one-factor-devs-say\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"What made Ender Magnolia \u201cOverwhelmingly Positive\u201d? 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She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45783"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45789,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45783\/revisions\/45789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}