This game is best described as a 2D Bloodborne metroidvania. It has the same fascination for gothic art and catholic stereotypes, and the story is very similar. Even some of the enemies, like the bell ringers, are the same in the two games. I see Blasphemous as a big celebration of the Bloodborne game and universe.
As a metroidvania it is splendid and I think it does all the right things. It gives you a map so you can see where you’ve been and where you’re going. The environments distinguish themselves enough that you get a good feel for where you are. It is not as much a labyrinth as many other metroidvanias become.
It is also very welcoming. When you die you do not loose progress like a rogue like. There is a penalty, but that can be reversed by paying a small fee at a statue. The run-ups are rarely long, and there is always a save point close by a boss fight.
The world building is the strong suit of Blasphemous. It all fits together very well and become believable within its own fiction. Even if this world is so much different than our own, it becomes natural that they would worship a saint that is doomed to eternal suffering.
Where the world building is great, I think the story is a bit lacking and especially the dialogue and voice casting. The game try to take the trick from Soulsborne to throw the player into the game with little to no background, and by mysterious clues tell the story of the land. It doesn’t really work. The weird dialogue throws me off and it is not intriguing enough for the kind of investment that is needed to pursue. When I look at a “story explained” video after completing the game I go “uuuuhh”, as I only had discovered maybe 10% of what was going on.
When it comes to the action, I think the bosses are fun and cool enough, but the controls are too imprecise. After have playing Hollow Knight and experienced controls that are 100%, this seems very clunky. There is a kind of cool down to all actions, so sometimes when you try to hit or dodge the character just does nothing. When that happens while fighting bosses it becomes life/death situations.
The platforming is also a bit fidgety, as the game is designed so you would grab a ledge and pull yourself up. But sometimes it is just very hard to find the ledge and you find yourself falling to instant death, which by the way is responsible for the majority of my deaths in the game.
Last of all, the graphics and art design is really cool and the game is stunningly beautiful. The monsters and the bosses are all very fun to see and fight, and I really loved the way the whole game was presented. It was also quite long, but that didn’t hurt the experience because your progress in the game was very well communicated all the way.
I rate this game as GREAT.
Replay 