{"id":45906,"date":"2025-03-21T13:39:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T04:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=45906"},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T04:39:22","slug":"ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in The Mist<\/strong>, the anticipated sequel to 2021\u2019s hit dark fantasy metroidvania Ender Lilies, got its full official release in January 2025. In a recent interview with AUTOMATON, director Keisuke Okabe and lead game designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama explained how they incorporated feedback from Ender Lilies, as well as player comments on Ender Magnolia\u2019s Early Access release, to enhance the sequel. This included questioning and sometimes removing common elements of the Metroidvania genre – like contact damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key component of the Metroid and Castlevania titles that inspired the Metroidvania genre, contact damage adds a sense of danger to enemy encounters- making it hard to sneak past and often causing the player to attack faster to avoid touching enemies- thus speeding up the tempo of the game and adding thrill. Many metroidvanias from recent years, like Hollow Knight, make use of contact damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ender<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, in the interview, Ender series\u2019 lead designer Yokoyama reveals that one of the most common complaints that the team received about Ender Lilies was related to contact damage. Ender Lilies\u2019 gameplay is more about understanding enemies\u2019 movesets and responding accordingly with attacks and dodges, so players complained that contact damage felt unnecessary and annoying. This is because it was easy to lose a chunk of health simply by walking into enemies by accident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving some background, Yokoyama explains that the devs originally added contact damage to Ender Lilies because they believed that it would add a good sense of speed and tempo to the gameplay. \u201cContact damage makes the gameplay all about timing when and in which direction to dodge. In other words, the risk of contact damage can significantly increase players\u2019 movement speed, evasion performance and response.\u201d Yokoyama comments. \u201cSo, we introduced contact damage thinking it would be good for the game, however in the feedback, many people found it unconvincing that you\u2019d take damage just from bumping into enemies.\u201d As a result, the mechanic was removed from Ender Magnolia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ender<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both Yokoyama and Okabe talk about how releasing Ender Magnolia in Early Access on Steam allowed them to get players’ opinions on the game\u2019s new RPG-style elements, as well as the changes and improvements to aspects such as the map and UI. Yokoyama notes that \u201cWe were wondering how people would react to these changes, especially things like the removal of contact damage and the new map. The feedback was so positive that we went ahead and implemented them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for the full interview on the making of Ender Magnolia, coming soon on AUTOMATON WEST.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4\/PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam<\/a>).    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies’ contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":45912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-45906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnder Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies' contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia.\" \/>\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\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies' contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-21T04:39:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-21T04:39:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\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=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\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":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies' contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies' contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-03-21T04:39:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-21T04:39:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Verity Townsend","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Verity Townsend","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/"},"author":{"name":"Verity Townsend","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d093b34094aa444f3b5cf8d2af3a6bad"},"headline":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d","datePublished":"2025-03-21T04:39:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-21T04:39:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/"},"wordCount":476,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Indie Games","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/","name":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-21T04:39:20+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-21T04:39:22+00:00","description":"Lead designer Yasuhiro Yokoyama gives insight into Ender Lilies' contact damage, and its removal from the sequel Ender Magnolia.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250321-45906-002.jpg","width":1200,"height":675,"caption":"Ender Lilies devs on Ender Magnolia contact damage removal"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ender-magnolia-devs-removed-contact-damage-in-response-to-player-feedback-it-felt-unconvincing-to-take-damage-just-from-bumping-into-an-enemy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ender Magnolia devs removed contact damage in response to player feedback: \u201cIt felt unconvincing to take damage just from bumping into an enemy\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d093b34094aa444f3b5cf8d2af3a6bad","name":"Verity Townsend","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pz-WVnDc_400x400-100x100.jpg","caption":"Verity Townsend"},"description":"Automaton West Editor and translator. She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/verity-townsend\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45906"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45916,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45906\/revisions\/45916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}