Blasphemous is an absolute anomaly for me. I love me some Metroidvanias but I always want either the movement options or combat to be high level for me to really enjoy it. Blasphemy’s movement is as basic as it gets and the combat is virtually one combo, hit, parry, hit, repeat. But for some reason even though this game does neither of those things this game just hits. While the combat isn’t impressive I appreciate the difficulty in boss battles, i appreciate the fact that for many bosses you will probably fail once or twice but you learn just enough to quickly pick up the right ideas to come back and go toe to toe with them. The boss fights are my favorite part of this game as they all feel quite a bit different and visually are very unique and well designed. While the combat and movement don’t always hit the third huge part of Metroidvanias, exploration, was very good. The map isn’t huge but it’s end up being bigger than you’d think and it’s full of secrets.

The art in this game is extremely good. The gothic culty religious themes they went for hit. Main characters and bosses are very unique and carefully designed. Each area is eerie yet beautiful. It has an overall pretty good sound track with a few top notch songs. Superb voice acting by the entire cast.

The best way I’ve heard a description of this game is through the awesome FallenGrace “A little Castlevania, a little Dark Souls.” If you are a fan of either of those series or Metroidvanias in general I would say this is a definite recommendation from me that you should play.

My 2024 ranked:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/

My Metroidvanias ranked:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/-metroidvanias-ive-played-ranked-/

I was truly surprised when this game was first announced at that one Nintendo Direct last year. Cing has been gone for over a decade now and it didn’t look like we would ever get anything else from their most notable interconnected series, Another Code and Hotel Dusk, aside from some token references in Smash Brothers so it truly feels like a minor miracle that this remake even exists and it was given this much love and care. They even actually managed to bring back the director and head writer from the old Cing crew as well. Cing was always a dev that deserved more love than they got, being a point and click adventure game dev that managed to make such memorable games during the 2000’s, the dark age of the genre in the West. Because I'm an American I never got to play Another Code R and Last Window, though admittedly I could have imported Last Window (Though foolishly passed up on it) and emulated Lost Memories but I never got around to it. Still I’m real glad I finally got to play Lost Memories after all these years and the remake’s version didn’t disappoint.

Recollection is somewhat of a tradeoff though; you see both original games' puzzles were so tied to their respective platforms' unique gimmicks, the puzzles had to be radically changed to work on Switch. I think these puzzles are serviceably fine, nothing as clever as closing your DS to solve a puzzle and nothing that will stump a genre veteran in the slightest, but there's a good variety, especially in Two Memories which has a stronger puzzle focus as you explore the Edward Mansion and exploring the mansion is fun which a nice sense of place. The puzzles do fall off some in the latter half of Journey into Lost Memories though, as you're mainly just doing RAS door puzzles and just doing button inputs in sequence. Both games are both fully 3D though so its nice to actually to be able to walk around and explore the Edward Mansion and Lake Juliet more freely.

In exchange for the somewhat compromised puzzles, is that the narrative, atmosphere, and aesthetics have been improved and it’s well worth the trade. You can clearly tell Rika Suzuki really took advantage of getting a second go at Another Code’s narrative as a whole. Now both games are more treated as two parts of a whole story and are more strongly tied thematically. There are also a bunch of revisions as well, the most dramatic changes being in Journey into Lost Memories, which having read up on it, alters its supporting cast and essentially revises the entire last half of the game for the better. I was familiar with the fact that in the OG game a major supporting character's subplot was not resolved at all, but here it is, tying up all loose ends. The main antagonist in Lost Memories is also completely changed to become a far more interesting character and who is more intrinsically tied with the games' themes of memory and being, feeling a lot more at home with the empathetic and character-driven tone of Cing games at their best. The aesthetic of the games are changed this to watercolor appearance that looks great and character dialogue in both games are conveyed through essentially comic book panel character portraits which also looks nice. The soundtrack is also just as rad as the old Cing games, filled with chill, nostalgic vibes. The remake is also now mainly fully voice-acted and I think overall it’s quite solid.

Overall I’m truly happy I finally got to experience not only Lost Memories but to play such a great remake of two games that I never expected to see. I do genuinely hope that maybe the Cing games’ cult following will get bigger and also that we get a remake for the Hotel Dusk duology too, because I adored Hotel Dusk more than the OG Another Code. Should probably finally get around to emulating Last Window perhaps. Definitely check it out if you’re a fan of the genre or just want a solidly written game with a bunch of heart.

there are cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see :-)))

rlly makes you FEEL like ur 19 again and still experiencing religious delusions/paranoia. which is like such a specific feeling and thought process and not one I wouldve thought a video game could nail. but nah this took me right back to 2019 and how ill and scared i felt back then. loved any moment where indika was able to sit down and u would be able to cycle through all these beautiful camera angles where each one is centered on her through these like far away creep shots,, like she’s being stalked and looked at w hatred by some unknown figure. idk the feeling of being totally alone but still being watched and like ur never alone even when u want to be is ultimately like an entitled and self important one but it’s crazy to me that a game can get across these v specific feelings.

reminded me lots of i saw the tv glow,,, both ultimately about how living inside ur head and through fantasy is like a v unhealthy lifestyle and bad for mental/physical well-being. how any kind of fantasy whether a positive or negative one is end of day bad for u if it’s all consuming and u can’t live without the fantasies that play out in ur head. u end up seeing and hearing what’s inside ur head rather than what’s actually there in front of u.

religious horror team ico game (tho im sure a case could be easily made that that’s exactly what those games already are) or like alice madness returns w more contemporary aesthetic pretenses. kind of shit that yorgos lanthimos would be making if he wasnt a fucking coward and freak loll and im NOT just saying this bc there’s a disorienting usage of fisheye here tho more things should def use fisheye. zulawski vibesss here too for sure. love this,, finished all in one sitting,, had me in a trance fr
(wish the gendered violence had more of a statement or take before the ending and not just in the final section but yk oh well play the cards that im given)

ok but where’s sativa tho😭

Doesn't matter what time of I day I played it, this shit had me DOZING, not in a "this is boring" way but literally falling asleep to the muted color palette, the long stretches of silence, the anonymous music... Sam Barlow pioneering some exciting new innovations in the hypnagogia-core field...

It's a decent enough depiction of the surveillance state, a subject which games have never handled with much grace. The main visual metaphor, your character's reflection looming just barely visibly over everything she watches, got old quick. Who are they telling the lies to? Ah, me, of course. Nice that they could spring for some decent actors with that Annapurna money - I like Kerry Bishe a lot, and they're all fairly convincing in spite of what must have been an awkward shooting strategy (Logan Marshall-Green seems a bit embarrassed from time to time).

The ecoterrorism plot was rote... I was much more interested in unpacking this dude's psychosexual baggage. Cop can't suspend his violent, possessive, misogynistic impulses even when he's cosplaying as a treehugging lefty? Sounds about right!

I never had the delusion this was going to be anything but another Hellblade game, like others thinking this was going to be some kind of God of War renewal for this franchise, so I was happy with what we got.

A frankly stunning videogame with probably the best graphical fidelity I have seen, with a more focused combat experience that feels visceral, desperate and raw for every swing of the sword you make. Alongside this, the audio design absolutely carries this game with just another showing of great voice acting and incredible performance by Melina Juergens.

However, just like the first game, some of the puzzles absolutely kill the pacing and they often come after long sections of walking. Likewise, while I enjoyed the more bombastic story this time around (with some incredible setpieces), the ending is way too abrupt and seemingly comes out of nowhere, which is surprising for a game of this short duration.

(Played on Series X via remaster)

This is the first time I've beaten Arkham City. I got a disc copy for PS3 when it came out in 2011 but my German Shepard puppy (who is now 13 lmao, shout out to Zeus) somehow got the disc out of the console and chewed it up. One whole dog lifetime later, I finally found the time to play through it.

As a disclaimer, I am doing a series playthrough so I didn't do any side content really, just an 8-9 hour mainline through the story. With that said, I liked City roughly as much as Asylum, maybe a tiny bit less. It feels like a one step forward, one step back type thing.

The better: I think the pivot from metroidvania to open zone with some Metroid flavor is a similarly successful pivot to the one the Jedi games made between Fallen Order and Survivor. It's a good evolution. The combat is more fun and has more impact, with thoughtful new tricks that iterate its now-legendary gameplay to solid effect. The story is better and more personal, even if the characters still vary in quality a lot. Better boss fights. Slightly less backtracking than Asylum. The high points here story/game wise are better than the equivalent points in Asylum.

The worse: Something big was lost in the shift from the cohesive, consistent, polished, perfectly paced structure in Asylum to City's downright strange pacing. City tells 70% of its story in 3 hours and then makes you spend another 4-5 hours on the last chunks. it has a tendency to make the story move too fast when it should take its time and then pad things out with enemies/puzzles when you're ready for the game to be over. City has good, real boss fights but it also has a bunch of really flimsy boss encounters that make it seem like Rocksteady ran out of money/time at the finish line.

Really good, important game -- just maybe shows its age a little bit more than I expected in 2024. As an aside, I played the BioShocks last year and the thing I realized is that PS3/360 era games now totally have a classic games vibe to them. It's so odd.

Tweaking- the game

Seriously though game is a technical marvel easily one of the best looking games ever and it’s a great experience, one of a kind. Sound design is incredible too you have to play with headphones and slaughtering those mans is so satisfying.

Suffering builds character development was a person it might be Senua😭

Less substantial than the Dredge DLC as the rewards are just a few new dishes and a Godzilla bowhead, and its mostly one big boss fight which isn't the game's strongest aspect. Still they have Miki from the Heisei era movies and Ebirah show up so there was clearly some genuine fan love here instead of just getting the Godzilla name for the publicity alone so it’s all worth it. Make sure to add this to your account though, because apparently it'll only be available until like the end of the year or so.