Without it's art Blasphemous doesn't really stand out at all. It has many clear influences from other games in and adjacent to the metroidvania genre but mechanically doesn't seem to have any sort of identity of its own. The combat feel fine I guess but the parry is too easy to use for how strong it is and even with all the abilities you can find it always feels like there's something missing. Unfortunately the level design also does not complement the combat well either making it extremely easy or sloppy and frustrating. The platforming is also just not that interesting and having instant death in a game like this is a baffling decision to say the least.

Despite all that I still think I might have been willing to finish it if it wasn't for a few other problems that are more serious in my opinion. First of all, It's weirdly linear for a game that is clearly trying to be exploratory and interconnected. Second of all, it does the annoying fantasy writing thing where all the dialogue is just exposition about a bunch of made up words and characters without any context for the player (but that the player character is supposed to understand). As a result the npcs feel totally lifeless as they have no other purpose or personality outside of this. The sum of these two problems ruins the atmosphere and leads to a world that feels devoid of purpose. I would say I'd like to see where it takes its primary theme of Catholic guilt but that just wasn't enough to sustain me. It is totally possible that the game improves later on but it simply failed to establish any sort of intrigue - mechanically, narratively, or otherwise.