Una representación del cristianismo español espectacular, es todo lo macabro que me hacía llorar de niño al entrar en una iglesia. Ambientación y referencias al barroco, arte y cristianismo español increíbles, doblaje muy bueno y usando variedades dialectales del sur de España.
El castellano "eclesiástico" que usa el juego para narrarlo todo es impecable, una pasada.
Es por todo esto que quiero darle aunque sea un 5, porque todas estas cosas las he disfrutado de verdad.
Lo malo, el juego no aporta absolutamente nada nuevo más allá de esto, ni al metroidvania ni al "soulslike", es más, toma muy malas referencias de estos géneros.
Bugs en cada esquina, hitboxes extrañísimas, elementos del entorno como plataformas y puntos de agarre mal delineados, el pataformeo y el combate de este juego es torpe, no me apetece ni entrar en detalles.
Llevar el diseño de niveles del primer dark souls, que tradujo el diseño de niveles de los metroidvania a un entorno tridimensional de forma orgánica y llevarlo de vuelta a un mundo 2D metroidvania hace que pierda la gracia y deje de ser orgánico, acaba siendo un diseño corriente y moliente, con la tontería de los atajos que no funciona de la misma forma que en sus referencias.
Da una sensación constante de amateurismo, de que el juego no ha sido testado o de que el desarrollo ha sido tormentoso y muchas cosas se han quedado a medias, sin desarrollar o no ha habido tiempo para echarse atrás en según qué decisiones (seguramente sea así, a juzgar por la actualización Stir of Dawn que arregló muchos problemas de base del juego, esta review es después de la actualización, también jugué al juego de salida en su día y lo abandoné a la hora).
En resumen, es un juego que no trae nada realmente nuevo sobre la mesa más allá de su ambientación, una decepción grandísima que no creo que solucionen con la secuela o spin-off que se insinua al final, que al tener que ir tan ligado a este primer producto seguramente acabe pecando con los mismos errores y sea más de lo mismo, pero menos original en su ambientación al ser secuela. Espero equivocarme.

One of the best looking pixelslopvanias. It feels very thorough, but it's also very simple, so I guess that was the price. It's like grimdark but it's christian. it's like chrisdark. romcathdark. spaindark. grimberico. all of these words were invented by me

My pet peeve: When an action game with combos and abilities suddenly turns the final boss (of Ending A at least) into a dodgefest where you can only attack once every five minutes - I will kill for this slight towards my time and enjoyment.

I enjoyed exploring, except when I had to do ladderjumps (so retarded a concept it breaks immersion by its sheer existence) and trying to attach myself to a ladder midair with an animation system that could barely understand when I was trying to crouch and attack at the same time. I died more times to spikes than enemies in this game I'm almost certain

For some reason every indietroid soulslite supersouls fromlike independent video game thinks it needs to keep the patented "really vague bullshit story" mechanic of all Souls games, but you actually don't. That's a lifehack from me right there. In fact you really should not do that. Honestly, please stop. PLEASE stop, just give me any hint where to fucking go, I am BEGGING you. What the fuck does "the door behind which lies that which the holiness itself condemned to eternal reclusion" fucking mean. I am bleeding out of my ears

Song

When I had initially played Blasphemous (2019) I had thought it was incredible. Mainly the reason why I had thought this was due to what it most clearly mimicked from the Souls series. Most particularly a checkpoint system and echoing audio design during voiced dialogue. I still believe that Blasphemous is really good, and I don't particularly mind its lack of mechanical iteration in the way others do. What it seems to lack in tight level design for example is made up with from its other more artistic iterations. In particular its application of spanish folklore into the realm of the religious gothic with grace. This guy goes into that more if you're interesed but for me, the flamenco nuevo soundtrack makes it all worth it alone. I can excuse a lot of mechanical flubs if the art and sound is good, so for a long time I had hyped this up in my head as an ignored masterpiece.

Sadly though Blasphemous is not a masterpiece, it's just good. I have a couple really weird arguments for why this is the case. However before we really get into that, you will have to accept some terms and conditions first. Similar to my Tunic and Hollow Knight write ups, I will be taking this and blatantly drawing comparisons to FromSoft's souls design. I know that on first blush such a comparison may seem tedious and I agree that in many cases it is. I hate the term souls-like more than anybody because of how constraining it is. Simultaneously, though, Hollow Knight actually feels great to play in part because how derivative it is as a souls title in terms of its design space. At some point we have to admit to ourselves that one of the reasons why Dark Souls (2011) feels as refreshing as it is, is because of its smart mechanical design decisions that push against the player. Dark Souls and to a lesser extent Demons Souls (2009) introduced through experimentation design decisions that simply make sense. For example autosaving, checkpoint systems, stamina systems, currency on death, etc. These all introduce friction to a player probably used to save scumming and throwing lives away at a problem without risk. So that's why everyone is obsessed with it and why comparisons are drawn. These elements and how they play together function as 'mechanically rich' design that constantly tests the player.

Every action based title probably should be considering the design of the Souls titles at some stage of development because its sensible design. That being said, I don't think that these elements should lock a title that is deriving from them to a sensibility of being derivative because everything derives off of good design from before. It's why I prefer the term 'search action' over 'metroidvania', its good to find the common denominator in my view rather than constraining the future of design in a medium to its past.

With all that said blasphemous and Hollow Knight are actually more derivative of the souls titles in particular in a few nuanced ways that deserve that point of comparison. Most notably hidden 'good endings' through obscure actions the player has to follow. A point of discretion that many of the Souls games involve in and that Hollow Knight, Tunic, and blasphemous follow in stride. Along with weird ways of shrouding its content through esoteric access points. For example the DLC content of Wounds of Eventide for blasphemous and Godmaster for Hollow Knight are both performed through strange and easy to miss access points that are nested away. There's no beating around the bush with this, this esoteric design is something I'm not particularly fond of and I think these titles need to cut this shit out.

For what it's worth I like when it's done for characters having them move about and being able to miss their sidequests that's all fine. It's legitimately cool that I had thought for example Petrus from Dark Souls was a cool dude for literally years, because I didn't know about his sidequest and its implications that he's a terrible rapist. I think this can add an extra allure to a story that justifies its position in the medium of 'videogames' because it makes sense that being able to hide secrets and offpaths through discovery is something this medium naturally can take advantage of. So I understand the appeal there. I don't think the novelty of hiding special good endings through weird actions is great though. blaphemous has an ending accessible through breaking the healing statues but theres nothing to indicate that they were breakable. These design decisions don't need to be imitated or used because instead of making the player feel like they 'found' something they are instead just obscuring content which will be unimmersive because it's going to be found through a walk through. It's not actually testing the player its just a marketing gimmick. Yes it 'feels cool' but its genuinely unsatisfying in retrospect. By comparison anybody who knows Cruelty Squad (2021) probably knows how obscure some of the endings and content is. I wont spoil it but Cruelty Squad is justifiable for this because if you replay the levels and talk to the NPCs they actually do tip you off about it, the aspect resolution reveal is a great example of this. Even aside from that though none of Cruelty Squad's secrets feel tidy. They feel disturbing, which in my mind is how secrets typically should feel. Portal has the ratman secret, a secret so great and so disturbing that it has become an iconic point for appreciating it fully. There's something to be said about secrets as a form of disturbing the player rather than rewarding them, something that Cruelty Squad has so successfully realized that I genuinely hope people obsess over the design of that title soon before people just forget about it. Along with this, Cruelty Squad also suceeds through not making its endings typically triumphant, I won't say more than that because of spoilers but this sensibility of rewarding players with the groteque is an important element. By comparison the endings for Tunic, blasphemous, and Hollow Knight are binaries. Either 'you didnt do enough, play again' or 'you did it, you found everything'. Do I really need to explain why this sucks? Let's move on.

The other place blasphemous flails is when it ironically doesn't derive enough from the frictional design of Souls. Some of them are obvious I think. blasphemous doesn't have a currency on death system you lose no tears in it when you die, probably because of its tree progression system of leveling. In order for the tree progression system to work you'd need to not punish the player via that risk system. However that risk system is there to stop players from simply throwing bodies away. All you have here is a minor diminishment of the mana bar when can be fixed so easily as to trivialize them. Small aspects like this I imagine these developers don't want to borrow from because of that fear of being derivative but yeah I think that not only should designers shamelessly borrow from them they should realize why they are even there in the first place.

There are more nuanced examples of this to. For example in contrast to the esoteric access point system, which everyone seems to like but secretly sucks. There is an inverse: A system everyone claims to hate but is secretly pretty good. That system is the boss runback. Dark Souls does not present a bonfire right before its bosses where blasphemous does. Now on paper that should mean that blasphemous made the better design decision right? You allow the player to do the challenge they want to do, you don't mess with them with a tedious run through to the boss allowing them to focus. This misunderstands the point though, Dark Souls has these runbacks both for immersion and to keep the player on their feet. I'm legitimate when I say that one of the reason Orstien and Smough is an iconic fight is because you do have to navigate and run past those giant enemies on the way in. People forget this part obviously, but Orstien and Smough would feel like a different fight if the bonfire was right next to the fog door. Elden Ring on the other hand takes this 'straight to the boss' approach via the Miraka statues, and if you ask me I think it makes the experience a little more lame. Feeling a small thrill of being chased and distanced from the action reminds the player to prepare and creates just that extra bit of friction making the issue of 'losing' have a bit of impact. If you lose against the boss this run up is your punishment. To me as long as there's some enemies chasing you that you have to navigate in the run up this is a good design decision.

Boss run backs are one of those aspects that nobody wants to defend and I wont warp this whole post into a defense of boss run backs aside from what I already said. However the point of this illustration is that there are nuanced design decisions like this everywhere that due to consumer pressure is often removed. People only vocalize hating these aspects of design. Saying things like 'X old game would be better without a loading screen' or 'fuck live systems they just artificially make the game longer' but I think extrinsic frictions like this are actually a motivator and a title that extra character. In retrospect we always want these frictions to not exist in part because of how memory and replay actually function. Nobody is consciously thinking about the Loading screen or fetch quests, we 'fast forward' our minds to these cool moments and as we age and our time becomes more precious we want games themselves to 'fast forwards' as well. Part of the reason for this is quite depressing: Even without the Hedonic Treadmill involved, playing Megaman as a kid and as an adult are functionally different due to both the abundance of other titles and our relationship to leisure. If other games exist that have no loading screens, why the hell would I play one that does? Not to mention that even in terms of enjoyment, games that get too frictional actually can alienate because you simply aren't being dripfed the amount of joy you are used to. Developer wise, there are a couple work arounds here, two that come to mind are either just ignoring that alienation and slapping 'retro' or 'masocore' on the title, or making the frictions only very slight (I choose the O&S souls example on purpose here since it's the easiest run back in the game). However, its not so simple from a critical consumption side because we have to say stuff beyond just pure enjoyment. I am maybe one of the only people that defends a static load screen and want to see it, because to even promote this idea is patently absurd. However its not that functionally different from what the risk of a currency on death system does. They are both Systems that slow down the player.

To turn back finally to blasphemous I'm not saying that its actually bad. It's a great experience to 'feel' again for its best boss fights through listening to the soundtrack, and generally its a fantastic experience from the audiovisual direction. It's just that it doesn't 'stick'. To paraphrase friend Femboygenius said that Cruelty Squad, something that only came out 2 years ago, is one of the only 2 games worth playing. Obviously this is a take meant mainly to enrage but I do think its interesting. FemboyGenius' favourite games all are from the past 10 years, and really stick to frictional design which means it's not an issue of something needing to be a 'classic' or not, just need to obey the principle of frictional design. I agree entirely that Cruelty Squad is probably one of the best fast FPS shooters since DOOM (1993). The reason I think this is because I have a similar flavor for so called 'masochistic' design, design that is constantly testing me to make those standout experiences matter. blasphemous and Elden Ring are both great audio visual experiences and to a certain extent this is enough. However there is something to be said about the aspect of what makes something iconic and really stand out, and that's putting obstacles in the way of the player rather than servicing them, Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby for example is a browser meme classic because startled players with its difficulty, this is what everyone remembers when the dust settles.

The good will please us, the great will test us.

A little Castlevania, a little Dark Souls.

I went into this from a recommendation through a random YouTube video and had a fantastic time. The game leans towards the vania part of Metroidvania very much. You play as the Penitent One, the survivor of a massacre in a world turned into miracles and curses. To be honest I understood little more of what was going on though I soaked myself in the lore and atmosphere around the title.

It's a standard Metroidvania then, exploring levels and unlocking abilities to gain access to new areas and bosses. The one aspect of the game that lets it down for me is actually the combat and upgrades. It's perfectly functional just not flexible or interesting. Essentially you attack, parry, and have one ranged attack and one spell that you can equip. There are a ton of items you can equip that give slight dodge range extension, elemental defense boost etc. but it all feels like fluff rather then really effecting the game. (I sped run to the end of the game in less then 3 hours on a second run barely equipping anything as an example)

That didn't effect my enjoyment of the game though and going through the aiming for trophies like not healing on boss fights was fun as I had to learn to parry and dodge at the right times to get through them which was a fun challenge.

The art style, graphics and audio absolutely excel. I love a lot of the enemy, character and boss designs. My partner watching described one of the bosses as a mixture of Month Python and Catholic horror which is a fair description if ever I heard one. The pixel art is gorgeous and I like the colour palette throughout. What really surprised me though was the audio quality. Certain attacks have serious impact when they connect wearing headphones. The music at times is fantastic too, certain tracks during bosses were a thrill but above all on the audio side is the voice acting. It's just fantastic. Reminds me a little bit of Dark Souls in some ways, each character is unique and puts real feeling in their voice. Coming from The surge 2 where the voice acting is pretty bland and phoned in to have this quality in an indie game really blew me away.

The game took me about 20 hours on my first run getting 100% of the map, items, abilities and collectibles. There is already free DLC with ng+, extra bosses and platform challenge levels available to boot. It's a fun good value game that looks and sounds fantastic, they just need to make the abilities more interesting for exploration and combat in the announced sequel.

+ Fantastic voice acting.
+ Graphics and art design are excellent.
+ Good value for money.

- Exploration and combat abilities feel unexciting.

Tengo demasiados problemas con el diseño y enfoque general de los metroidvania modernos como para explicarlo aquí. Para resumir, diré que muchos están enamorados de la construcción de su mundo y es ahí donde ponen su énfasis, pero lo terminan despojando de cualquier peso a cambio de otorgar esa sensación de progresión a la que parece que está condenada el género. Los metroidvanias son los reyes del backtracking, y no hay cosa que me desapegue más que revisitar camino andado y parecer una tanqueta indestructible en escenarios que antes existían para ser hostiles. El fenómeno es algo común al videojuego de aventuras/acción en general, pero aquí se hace más obsceno e incoherente que en ningún otro sitio.

Blasphemous esquiva esta sensación haciendo que, por mucha mejora que obtengamos, El Penitente nunca parezca un superhéroe. Si la principal enmienda del protagonista es cargar con la culpa de todo prójimo lo lógico es que nos movamos con relativa lentitud, nos cueste dar espadazos y seamos más bien toscos. Esto se mantiene más o menos de principio a fin de la aventura. Nuestra espada se llama Mea Culpa y al desplazarnos la sostenemos como quien arrastra un objeto pesado que se resigna a intentar levantar del suelo. Pocos detalles más obvios se me ocurren.

Cvstodia, el enclave donde se desarrolla Blasphemous, pesa más que la Hallownest de Hollow Knight porque, aunque también fía gran parte de la construcción de su mundo al lore y apartado artístico, no confía en él para aguantar toda la carga narrativa de sus escenarios.

Con todo, no puedo elevar a Blasphemous porque la representación de su penitencia personal es algo pueril. Da igual las capas que se superpongan porque debajo de todas ellas hay un plataformas en dos dimensiones con combate en el cual nos hacemos más fuertes a medida que avanzamos a pesar de ser contraindicativo por los pecados ajenos y propios que vamos asumiendo por el camino. La intrahistoria del juego tiene su propia excusa para esto, pero perdonadme si ir dando brincos por ahí no me resulta la forma más acertada para enfrentar el pesar religioso de toda la humanidad.

A nivel personal, Blasphemous me interesa más que sus similares por la cultura a la que pertenezco y cómo esta forma parte de las conductas y formas de afrontar la vida de algunos de mis seres más queridos, pero sólo hace las cosas un poquitín mejor que la media.

Já falei algumas vezes aqui que MetroidVania é o meu gênero favorito de jogos, e esse jogo é simplesmente um MetroidVania quase perfeito, a liberdade que o jogo te da para explora cada uma de suas áreas iniciais para abri o Portão de Bronze é fantástica, as mecânicas de combate são simples mas satisfatórias, não me senti enjoando do combate em nenhum momento, oq é raro para mim, o backtracking não é cansativo, pois tem alguns teleportes muito bem posicionados no jogo, sem contar a infinidade de conteúdo que o jogo base tem.

Mas eu nem sequer falei onde esse jogo brilha de fato, que é no seu visual, todo o cenário, personagens, animações é de um capricho que eu nunca tinha visto antes em nenhum jogo, a pixel arte disso aqui é quase que perfeita.

Ele só não perfeito pois a segunda parte do jogo não tem toda essa excelência, senti ela mais arrastada, mais cansativa, e mais frustrante tb, mas não diminui em nada oq o jogo é. Por fim, recomendaria para qualquer amante de MetroidVanias e jogos lindos

A game that looks brutal from its art (especially with the CRT filter on) and gameplay. It was a very enjoyable adventure and I think it's worth a try if it catches your attention.

Blasphemous is an exploration platformer with a focus on hack 'n slash style combat. Its main attraction is its detailed pixel art and its setting, which brings us a unique world with a somewhat strange story inspired by Christianity, which is told vaguely through NPC dialogues, object descriptions and the same cinematics and in-game events.

At first I wasn't enjoying it at all, but once I started exploring more, gaining more skills and getting stronger in-game, I grew to love the game. One of the things I liked the most is how at first the map is very open and you can go exploring between different options, some more difficult than others, but it's up to you to choose. In each of the areas here, you'll find environments and enemies that you'll have to pay attention to and move cautiously, because if you make a mistake it's very possible that this will cause you a defeat, which will make you lose a bit of the magic bar, but you'll be able to recover it if you return to the point where you were defeated, although I didn't feel that such a penalty was unfair.

The gameplay focuses on combat, which you can improve either with amulets or by finding certain points on the map where you receive a slight upgrade for your attacks. You can also equip yourself with a special attack that is executed by pressing L2/ZL, these attacks are the ones that consume your magic bar and are usually very powerful, but I found very few of them to be useful.

The soundtrack of this game may not be one of the most memorable for me really, but it is undeniable that it helps Blasphemous produce a feeling of despondency, which complements very well with its story and setting.
Overall, a game that despite its flaws ends up being very entertaining and maybe even a little addictive.

I recommend it to anyone who likes platform games with a bit of high challenge, but satisfying to overcome.

I would lie if I said that I could follow any of the lore in this game even in the slightest, it went way over my head. Still, I can absolutely appreciate the worldbuilding achieved and admire the depth and consistency present in every aspect of the storytelling, even if it isn't the most digestible narrative. It certainly feels fresh in the mythology and cultural background used, even if the tone and gruesome nature mirrored in the gameplay is familiar in the genre.
What drove me to almost 100% this game is a really tight gameplay loop where most collectibles serve an in world purpose and are hidden at a perfectly balanced rate, where you actually feel like you can totally collect everything without investing dozens of extra hours searching every corner. This is also helped by a strong map that removes frustration by showing you when a room is or isn't a dead end if you pay attention.

The boss fights are definite highlights, offering creative mechanics and making the fights clearly accessible to master with the moves available to you, avoiding big frustration points often present in these tough Souls-likes. As tight as the combat is, the platforming didn't work that smoothly too often, unfortunately, even if the added speedrun challenges were extremely fun to master once accepting the quirks of the platforming.

In general, there has been a lot of work being done on the game in the form of free updates since release. Since this was my first time playing, I can't speak to the differences, but I really enjoy how they implemented the new content into the base game, where I didn't know something was added until looking it up specifically, which makes Blasphemous at this point a really nice package and one of the better metroidvanias out there.

Excellent Metroidvania experience with interesting and varied environments, balanced and consistently enjoyable combat, a unique and polished aesthetic, and arguably most important for the genre, a wide range of secrets and rewards for exploration.

I was fully engaged throughout my entire playthrough of this game, at least to some extent reminiscent of my time with Hollow Knight (although a much different experience still). I found the combat to be quite fun, and the overall difficulty of the game to be very well-balanced, with plenty of difficult areas and fights but nothing too egregious or 'unfair'. Overall this game is extremely polished, sticking to its aesthetic and themes throughout and engrossing you in a beautifully horrific world backed by almost-always-excellent gameplay.

9/10

Excellent sprite work, wonderfully crafted world building, impeccable voice acting. All of this is let down by the quite frankly frustratingly shitty combat, which leaves a sour taste in its wake.

This review contains some minor spoilers.

1. Bosses
It's very clear that this game draws an astronomic amount of inspiration from Dark Souls in every nook and cranny of the game, all the way down to the design philosophy of the bosses. Unfortunately, it fails to recognize what makes the bosses of the Soulsborne games any good. As a result of the 2D plane this game utilizes, the combat suffers heavily from bosses that use moves which necessitate an eagle eye to determine what course of action to take. Many bosses have moves that use the same animation as a startup for different attacks. Many of your deaths will be purely through RNG and the inability to telegraph what move the boss will use to strike you. It's a majority of guessing until the last frames of the startup, where you can actually determine the attack to be used.
Another facet of the boss that leaves behind a feeling of discontent is the lack of awe they bring. Consistently, vanquishing a boss in most of the bosses featured within the Soulsborne franchise will leave you feeling like you've overcome an insurmountable foe. That triumphant feeling of overcoming a boss is absolutely not present in this game. On every single one I fought, I audibly groaned at my victories. Displeased with the revelation that none of the bosses I encountered were interesting or captivating in any way at all. Beating them just had me feeling like “that's it?” it was upon my 3rd hour playing the game where I came to this realization, regardless, pressing on another 13 hours to actually beat the game. The final boss being the worst offender of this, I won the fight in less than a minute on my first attempt.

1.5. Mobs
Mobs and enemies encountered in the over world are an absolute joke. Genuinely futile. The only difficulty comes from the occasional abominable platform placement. Many times, the platforming will be your enemy more so than actual enemies. More on this later.

2. Combat
The upgrades are absolutely inconsequential, and I wholeheartedly believe you could beat the game without upgrading your weapons at all. The extra moves you get are so trivial, the best of the worst being the ranged weapon or the dash slice. Plunge attack, charge slash, and either of the combo finishers are completely unnecessary and have very few use cases during gameplay. You have to actively look for a scenario to use these because their usefulness depends on your determination to actually find a way to utilize them properly. The plunge attack especially is terrible because your vertical vision is so reduced and isn't helped much by the fact that changing your camera doesn't give much leeway for faraway vision.

3. Exploration
One of the few things about the game I actually enjoyed. Inevitably leading to its detriment. For some inexplicable reason, the entire upper half of the map has no waypoints whatsoever. Once you start truly exploring the lower half of the map, the devs decided to start hurling all the necessary waypoints, entirely neglecting the lack of northern waypoints until the midpoint of the game. Traversing elevators gets especially tiring when you have to run through the elevators with no way to simply teleport up to either of the important northwestern regions. Exploration as a whole is COOL!!! As stated earlier, this is one of the few parts of the game I found enjoyment in. Entering new areas fills you with a sense of awe. The backgrounds are wonderfully crafted. Musical references to its culture are beautifully incorporated. Many areas are eloquently made in reference to Spanish Gothic architecture and design. When you're able to pay no mind to the awful gameplay, it's truly a beautiful experience.

4. Platforming
Platforming in this game is quite honestly one of the BIGGEST fumbles this game makes. Throughout the entire exploration experience, I can absolutely safely say that one area of many gave me an actual challenge with its platforming. The rest of it is piss easy. Often times, the devs opt to use terrible enemy placement or bad obstacle placement to make platforming difficult and a chore to traverse. Namely, the swinging axes of the “Sleeping Canvases” area. Their inclusion is so extraneous and makes 0 sense for being present. Not much else to say other than what has been said. Bugs are also prevalent in quite literally only the platforming. Countless times, I have grabbed ledges from a noticeable distance above or below, failed to grab a ledge my character was pressed right up against, and teleported through floors. Bugs impact purely the platforming throughout my playthrough.

5. Music
Incredibly graceful.The use of Spanish instrumentals paired with the Christian symbology is unquestionably the best part about the game. Cantes de Confesión, Entregarás Tu Rostro a La Señora, and Coplas de Incienso are by far my favorite tracks the OST offers. Simply beautiful work.

6. Story & Sidequests
Not delving into the story/lore because the way that it is handled, it's pretty removed from the actual progression of the game outside the content that is spoon-fed to you through required interactions. That being said, it was okay, I suppose. I feel that too much information is packed into the “lore” button for items and weapons, which is quite annoying. Talking with the dead is a pretty cool mechanic, and some side quests provided a very cool dive into the world of Blasphemous.

CONCLUSION
Unfortunately, this is a game that doesn't stand up to the expectations that are set by the promotional content. I'm overall displeased with the game and moreover disappointed with the juxtaposition of eloquent visuals & music alongside terrible buggy gameplay. It manages to rope you in and keep you hooked until you realize that it's disappointing overall.

I think this is my nominee for Average Game of the Year for 2019.

Things I loved:

+ The backgrounds are great to look at, especially further along in the game.
+ SOME bosses are interesting enough

...and that's really it.

There's a lot of stuff it does fine, but it also flubs things a bit because I feel like it's trying to be both a Metroidvania and a Soulslike game without really being strongly in either camp in a good way. I could write a long diatribe about prevailing issues with the game, but for how very average it felt, I feel like I'd rather just go play something else now, instead.

As of writing, I have yet to play any Dark Souls games, or any games spun off from that series. It initially started off as a lack of interest and opportunity, but I think that at this point it's just a personality trait. The thing is, despite never playing any of those games, I can still tell that Blasphemous derives quite a bit from them. The flasks, the tone, the general gameplay, it all seems pretty similar, although feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Whether or not my lack of experience with Dark Souls had an effect on my perspective, I did enjoy this game. There are some issues, as there are with pretty much every game, but as far as Castleroids go this isn't bad. I think one thing this game does very well is backtracking. The map is tightly designed and a pretty good size. It's not too big or small. Even that aside, many in the Castleroid genre simply give very generous warp points for backtracking, unlike Blasphemous. While the opportunity for that does eventually present itself in this game, much of the level design is simply built around making backtracking easier, with switches and doors that will open and make travel more interconnected and convenient.

This also works well with the death system, something else taken from Dark Souls. Now, if there's one thing I didn't like about Hollow Knight, it's dying and having to return to where I died lest I lose all my money. I think that's a pretty annoying punishment for non-linear games where I might just want to explore another area. Blasphemous has a similar system, but I like it a little more because it's not quite as punishing. Honestly, it maybe should've been even more punishing than it is, as a few times I'd just not bother to collect my guilt, even before a a couple of bosses. At the end of the day, I'd still just prefer a flat money decrease upon death to this shenaniganry that seems so prevalent. However, I'll take my blessings where I can get them.

The combat is good, barely above average. You have your basic sword strikes, special attacks called prayers, a ranged attack, and a few more sword attacks, many of which... honestly don't matter. Honestly, aside from using the different prayers I didn't really feel that combat ever actually changed. Most fights I would just do chip damage, see a big opening, raise attack speed, and unleash whatever sword combo I had. There's also a parry and dodge with i-frames. They're... fine, but some enemies are explicitly designed around waiting and parrying, which I don't like, and I'm a bit tired of dodges with i-frames. Generally though, my biggest issue is that I don't think the progression changed my combat approach that much.

That stagnation of gameplay unfortunately extends to any platforming abilities. If you think of most Castleroids, you'll notice that almost all of them have some kind of platforming upgrade. Double jumps, high jumps, grapple hooks, jet packs, high-speed dashes, and more. These are very effective because stumbling across a future area, you go, "Oh, I guess I'll be able to reach that place somehow with some new ability." Different Castleroids have varying focus on this aspect. Metroid has tons of it, whereas a game like Iconoclasts has very little. Blasphemous is one of the few Castleroids where you essentially gain no new abilities that allow you to progress further in the world. Instead, you gain items that will add extra platforms to the world or grant you immunity to poison, along with quest items that open up new paths. The fact is, very little of what you earn in this game actually changes the way you play. This is fine I guess, but I still would've liked something to actually change how I traverse the world, since that can often be the best part of these kinds of games and I can't think of any downside to adding such a thing, especially since the level design rarely feels super specialized or finely-tuned.

What about the story? What's it about? That's a good question.

Anyway, onto the audiovisuals. I say once again, "I'm kinda tired of indie games doing pixel art but this game does it really well". There's clear inspiration from Spanish Catholicism with the imagery here, all of which looked really cool as it went over my head. The music is also pretty good.

All in all, a pretty good game, but I think better progression would've improved it a ton. I'll probably get the sequel not too long after it drops. 7/10, closer to a 6 than an 8.

So the narrative might just be a series of proper nouns. I could not, gun to my head, tell you the plot.

But who cares, Cvstodia is a great place to raise a family.

Would it surprise you to learn that there are no crucifixes in this game? The makers understand that what haunts most Western minds about Catholicism isn't the Jesus part. It's the obsession with the arcane, the centurys-dead history, the bones of saints placed under glass, the body and the blood, eldritch horrors that have been hidden away since Roman times. So we get a Bizzarro Roman Catholicism that remains just at the edge of recognition.

And...thank the High Wills there's a parry system! It's the key to my enjoyment of metroidvania games, and sorely lacking in so many of them.

Blasphemous is one of the most focused artistic executions I have ever seen. What this team has achieved is really amazing, though it is unfortunately undercut by some awkward design and imperfect implementation.

Blasphemous is a world ripped directly out of the most horrifying of Christian mythology, with an intense amount of attention paid to sin, penitence, and eternal torment. This is a brutal world where everyone in it is suffering in some way, usually because they believe their suffering will bring them absolution from The Miracle, a godhead inflicting punishment and horror upon this world. I don't think I really understand anything about the story, but I loved going through it.
The art is amazingly well done, though a lot of it can be tough to look at. Blasphemous presents beautifully rendered scenes of intense, biblical torture in a way that isn't voyeuristic or crass, but vividly flesh out this world and the people within it. This specific flavor of religious fanaticism is a perfect choice for this game and the use of intense Medieval European style and Latin phrasing bring it all together.
One minor issue (that leads to the navigational problems below) is that item descriptions are often more thematic than useful, with misleading or unhelpful information preventing you from really understanding what some of the things you are collecting do or can be used for.
The sound, music and voice acting are very effective as well. The music is melodic and haunting, driven by organs and bells, complimented by extremely violent sound effects as you stab and slash your way through this world. The voice acting is very overwrought, which fits perfectly. Everyone in this world delivers information with the utmost gravitas and loquaciousness.

All of that aesthetic impressiveness is let down by the gameplay and structure, unfortunately.
This is a metroidvania, and does a competent job of it, but many of the side quests and things you unlock in the game give no information on how to achieve them or what to do. There are a ridiculous number of items with unintuitive Latin names that you have to take to a specific NPC who doesn't ask for them in order to complete quests or advance the plot. Characters move from area to area with vague or no direction on how to proceed or help them, with your only option to search the whole map continuously or look up a guide. I found it to be mostly tedious and unintuitive, even with a fairly well featured mapping system in place. The frustration is compounded by the presence of an initial fast travel option that is more annoying than useful and a more reliable one that is unlocked by an arbitrary quest that isn't signposted.
Combat is simple, with a single combo (extendible through upgrades) and a selectable magic spell you can use. It didn't really get boring, but I didn't feel like there was much here to master. The difficulty in boss fights comes from learning patterns, parrying, and getting attacks in when you can. Most of these are fun and feel good to learn, but a few just feel cheap or like they simply require Tiento to your Thorned Hairs (spell granting ten-ish seconds of invulnerability).
Unfortunately, the controls can be very awkward, with unnecessarily overloaded inputs, long animations, and windups on things that make everything besides your basic combo just feel unresponsive. The parry feels good when you land it but felt a bit too ambiguous for me to enjoy it much overall.
A couple of choices like instant death from spikes and pits and extreme knock back push things into frustrating territory more often than I liked. Additionally, I ran into quite a few input bugs. I would frequently get stuck in a state where I couldn't jump or use spells, making the game functionally impossible until death.

Blasphemous is an artistic tour-de-force that is unlike any other game I have played. It knows exactly what it wants to convey and how to convey it, but it unfortunately doesn't know how to make the gameplay live up to the standard set by its art and world design.
I liked it quite a bit and am glad I spent the time to play through it, despite how rough the mechanical execution and other design elements are.

I have to say, I'm quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. It takes a lot of effort, time and energy for me to fully be invested in a game of this ilk, and thus I demand much more from these games. Most of them usually don't deliver, but Blasphemous does.

I think the game's best quality is the exploration. All the areas are interconnected in such fun ways, and each have their own design quirks that does more than enough to differentiate them. Not to mention many of these areas are drop dead gorgeous, making the most out of the art style. There's a couple areas where I find the obstacles to be somewhat annoying, but these are few and far between. Finding a hidden area or shortcut never gets unsatisfying, and there's a lot of them. The game is designed in such a way, that you could stumble upon some of these secrets by chance or accident, and these experiences will give you insight on how to find/access the other secrets. There are also side quests that are based on this hunt for the unobvious, which adds a lot to the inherent addictiveness of finding new things.

The design of these secrets leads to another point: approachability. Many other games try to present themselves as puzzlingly vague, and in my experience, the level of confusion that I have to deal with doesn't line up with what I'm getting as a reward. Blasphemous gives you just enough straightforward hints to enjoy most of its gameplay and narrative inner workings, without losing the satisfaction of figuring out its puzzles. It is relatively modest but filler-less in scale, which makes for a condensed-feeling game that doesn't overwhelm you. There's also a very helpful map system that allows you to process all the areas in a much thorough manner without overworking yourself.

But all of this would have been for nothing if the game is not inherently fun to play. Thankfully the basic movements and combat in this game are good enough. Jumping, dashing, and air thrusting through all the levels feels pretty responsive, although the game can feel a bit imprecise sometimes, especially in the more demanding areas. The combat takes a while to fully flesh out, since you have to unlock some moves by progressing far enough to upgrade your sword, but once it does, there's a lot to enjoy here. The combat is very fundamentals-based, it's all about fast reflexes and proper positioning, which is my favorite kind of combat. Many of the items you find will help tailor the gameplay experience to your liking by providing helpful buffs, although you have to explore thoroughly to find the best ones.

I do have some complaints. While the bosses are all visually striking, most of them are pretty unsatisfying in terms of mechanics. The last two main bosses, and the two optional bosses for the hidden ending are the only ones that I find to be legitimately fun bosses. I also wish that the music wasn't so ambient most of the time, it rarely struck a chord with me.

In a sea of challenging games, Blasphemous stands out as a focused and thoughtful game that truly respects your time, and it satisfies without asking too much from you.

I’d assumed Blasphemous was primarily a derivative game when I originally played the demo sometime around April 2022. I mean, on first glance, it’s just so Dark Souls. From the dark fatalism to the deliberate pacing of combat, not to mention the whole bonfire thing, it just seems to wear its influences on its sleeves. If you look at it for a bit longer though, there’s a lot of unique flavor and feel here, and a lot of smart changes to that old souls formula. Where originally I saw pure opportunism, what I see now is people taking a formula they liked and really truly taking their own spin on it.

Let’s start with their variations on the formula. First and most obvious of all, the game is 2D, so pretty much by default combat is much tighter and more intuitive. There’s no third dimension to add uncertainty to your sword swings. That’s not exactly revolutionary though. On the other hand, when you die, you don’t lose your “Tears of Atonement” (read: souls). Instead, your magic bar’s maximum level gets reduced until you go back to where you died and pick up your “guilt”. What’s more, that “guilt” pickup stays there beyond multiple deaths. In fact, you can have multiple pickups all over the map if you feel like it. This, along with a lot of smaller changes, pushes the pacing forward at a much steadier pace, more akin to a classic metroidvania than a soulslike. “Take as many risks as you want!”, they say, “your stuff will still be here when you get back!” On top of that, the game just isn’t super huge. The areas tend to be fairly short, and as a whole the game only took me about 15 hours, normal for a metroidvania but wildly short for a soulslike. It just feels less punishing, less grueling, and less daunting than a true souls game, and honestly I think it works really well.

Even with all that though, the obvious standout of the game is the art. Actually that might be underselling it. This game has some of the most gorgeous art I’ve ever seen in a game. You see, it’s got this wonderful pixely art style, which is great in the moment to moment gameplay, but then these short cut ins and massive sprites come up and it’s really just unlike anything else. Everthing feels more detailed and more… fleshy? than pixely styles like often get across. The only point of reference I can come up with is FAITH, but that’s completely different in its own way. Blasphemous just really uses the indie pixel art 2D style to its fullest, its most mosaic-esque, which fits the content wonderfully. You see, Blasphemous was developed by a spanish studio, and the art and story heavily reference spanish catholicism. It’s a dark fantasy soulsy perversion of it of course, but even through that this is one of the most unique sets of designs for any game I’ve seen. For example, the protagonist (The Penitent One) wears a big pointy helmet that’s heavily based a Capirote, a spanish catholic hat heavily tied to… penitence! It’s more than just cute references though. You journey through gorgeous churches, cathedral rooftops, buried holy sites, and all in the name of carrying out your penitent duty, and cleansing corruption from the church. It’s unique in its religiousity among most other games, and even more unique in its depiction of the religion, and I fully wholly love it.

So yeah, I’d say you should at least try the demo. The combat gets more fluid after the part in the demo, so if that’s the only thing holding you back, I’d say go for it. Also, if you’ve been looking for a hard but more forgiving souls experience, this could be a good place to start (especially if you want something shorter than hollow knight)

When you riff off of something in design philosophies according to gameplay and themes it's really important that one actually hold true to that foundation and/or offer something actually unique. Salt & Sanctuary understood 2d spacing and level design when it came to a slow methodical action platformer. Blasphemous seems intent on knowing nothing at all.

What's the point of having a disgustingly powerful parry and dodge when the enemies have ridiculously slow attacks and are placed in such easy not very interesting locations? What even is enemy placement here? What's the point of making platforming punishing for failure when the platforming isn't interesting? Why copy the structure of ringing the bells at all?

I had to ask myself these questions while I played a lot as I searched for an answer on why I was playing this game at all other than the indie buzz that barely caught my ear. (4.5/10)

É um bom jogo, com uma ótima lore e ambientação. Um dark souls metroidvania com uma premissa interessante, uma trilha sonora excelente e que combina perfeitamente com o tema, além de uma gameplay satisfatória e fluida.

Apesar disso é um pouco maçante e enjoativo, ao meu ver, por causa do seu maior defeito: o back-tracking desinteressante e fraco. Além disso, Blasphemous tem uma dificuldade desproporcional em alguns momentos do jogo, enquanto quase todos os bosses são extremamente fáceis, alguns cenários são irritantes e muito cansativos.

Enfim, curti bastante o jogo, tem uma progressão muito boa e que te prende fácil. Só não achei divertido o suficiente pra pegar tudo, nem dificuldade nos inimigos que me fizesse ir atrás de segredos pelo mapa, fui matando os bosses com tranquilidade e zerei bem rápido.

Eu duvido que com um título como esse, Blasphemous passe a ideia de ser um jogo muito sensível ao tópico religioso e, de fato, ele não o é.

Blasphemous me parece, à primeira vista, um jogo que quer tratar de uma mensagem e usa a gameplay para levar o jogador a ver e ouví-la, não se contentando em fazer isso apenas uma vez, mas duas ou mais, visto que o final verdadeiro requer que o jogador se dedique intimamente à jornada do penitente sem nome e sem voz.

Narrativamente, este é um jogo que requer certa atenção ao que é dito, além de se beneficiar de um jogador mais atento aos detalhes visuais. A história, porém, ainda não é exatamente clara e suspeito que a tentativa de criar uma religião fictícia (com uma inspiração um tanto óbvia) tenha prejudicado em alguma medida a capacidade do jogo de ser compreensível. A falta de clareza, combinada à imagética que pode ser facilmente associada a algo que os jogadores terão, minimamente, um conhecimento superficial sobre, ajudam a construir a onipresente sensação de desconforto que o jogo provoca (ou tenta provocar).

Visualmente, Blasphemous é um jogo grotesco, abusando do body horror, com bastante violência e sofrimento explícito e implícito. Entretanto, como disse, o jogo abusa desse recurso e, depois de algum tempo, parece que toda aquela violência eventualmente só serve o propósito de chocar o máximo possível; O que é uma pena, considerando que o jogo faz muitas referências culturais e históricas que poderiam ter sido melhor exploradas se os desenvolvedores (um grupo massivamente latino/hispânico) de fato tornassem algumas delas mais explícitas.
Um exemplo disso é uma quest opcional que envolve recolher os restos mortais despedaçados de uma mulher e entregá-la a uma igreja, fazendo alusão a uma prática da Inquisição que, fazendo o mesmo, afirmava que ao separar as partes do corpo, a alma dos hereges seria impedida de alcançar a paz na morte.

Há de ficar claro que este não é um jogo que faz apologia a uma determinada religião, mas que usa de sua fictícia para denunciar a apatia e crueldade vistas na história humana nas diferentes formas de perseguição religiosa, aqui, presumo, com ênfase na Inquisição Espanhola.

Por fim, antes de comentar os pontos negativos, faço uma menção honrosa à trilha sonora desse jogo que faz um trabalho impecável em ambientação e consegue contribuir muito bem ao ambiente opressivo e de sofrimento do jogo.

Blasphemous é um jogo com muito sofrimento para distribuir e dessa distribuição nem mesmo o jogador escapa.

A começar pelas armas e progressão de personagem, limitadas fortemente pelo enredo do jogo, todo o jogo se baseia em um combate com uma única espada e algumas variações de golpes e combos.
Todo o combate do jogo se resume a partir pra cima dos inimigos e tentar acertá-los com força e velocidade e, mesmo que o jogo nos dê algumas opções de golpes à distância, somos prejudicados pelo level design que dificulta ou inviabiliza estratégias do tipo.
Além da movimentação padrão, o jogo nos fornece um dash limitado ao chão e uma habilidade de parar (e contra-atacar) golpes de inimigos.

Apesar de ser “vendido” como um jogo rápido, a impaciência e imprecisão são constantemente punidas pelo jogo, do cenário aos chefes, tudo implica em realizar ações bem pensadas ou sofrer as consequências. Felizmente, o jogo dá aos jogadores mais persistentes um bom arsenal de equipamentos para ajudar a resistir aos diferentes tipos de dano, o que não torna a experiência frustrante apenas porque sim.

Outra ferida aberta neste jogo são seus inimigos que, embora sejam conceitualmente interessantes, são uma mistura de inimigos trolls ou inimigos indiferentes, com o cansativo efeito de "toque da morte" (causam dano por mero contato, mesmo sem atacar). Bosses são uma feliz exceção a parte desses problemas e geralmente oferecem um bom desafio.

O que torna parte da experiência em algo francamente exaustivo é que o gameplay se torna repetitivo e, pra quem joga por longas sessões, torna-se frustrante com certa rapidez, uma vez que os defeitos começam a ofuscar as qualidades do jogo e no fim, é provável que você apenas queira terminar o jogo (só pra descobrir que terá de fazer tudo de novo).

Blasphemous é um jogo que testa sua resiliência e te faz um penitente tal qual seu personagem controlado. Felizmente, não poderia dizer que jogar é uma Summa Blasphemia, mas se pensas em ir até o fim com este jogo, prepare-se para Exemplaris Excomunicationis.

Que surpresa agradável esse jogo, na época em que saiu haviam algumas reclamações sobre, que eu definitivamente não senti jogando atualmente, isso se deve as atualizações e DLC's que acabaram saindo pro jogo gratuitamente com o tempo. E que sorte a minha jogar o jogo em seu estado mais completo. Pra começar que esse jogo é um dos jogos com a pixel art mais linda que já vi na vida, dá gosto explorar e ver as diversas criaturas e chefes, um mais bizarro e interessante que o outro. O papel da história aqui, diferente de muitos metroidvanias, é muito interessante e importante pra imersão do jogo, os duelos me agradaram demais, principalmente o parry, que é uma das minhas mecânicas favoritas de jogos. Não tem muito o que reclamar desse jogo, talvez só o monte de coletáveis e alguns itens que não agregam tanto na jornada. Mas de resto, um jogo QUASE perfeito pra mim.

The sprite work in this game is out of this world. Each enemy is so hauntingly beautiful and the bosses were all super fun. Although, I do wish some of the earlier bosses were a bit more difficult. Every area is so masterfully crafted and really gives you a sense of awe. The dark and desolate city of Cvstodia paired with the religious themes makes for a perfect setting.

Unfortunately, I found the controls to be super janky at times with no room for forgiveness. Getting hit by an enemy and getting stuck in a constant loop of damage until you inevitably die or missing a ledge by a pixel and instantly dying to spikes happened way too often. I found the backtracking not as tedious once you unlock fast travel, but a lot of the quality of life features are hidden behind obscurity.

All in all though, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Blasphemous and cannot wait to try out the sequel!