In this Blasphemous review of mine, we'll be talking about the game in-depth and figuring out if it's really as good as people say it is and if it's worth anyone's time.
Blasphemous is a violent action-platformer that takes place in the nightmarish world of Cvstodia and features expert hack-and-slash combat. It’s a game where players are encouraged to explore, develop skills, and carry out brutal killings on the legions of adversaries that stand in their way of breaking eternal damnation.
Although it’s not as violent and brutal, Magical Delicacy is a great platformer with a delicious twist. I just wanted to introduce a more lighthearted type of game because you might need one after playing Blasphemous.
Now, we’ll proceed to the review portion and get up close and personal with this game that a lot of people commend!
Blasphemous Analysis: Taking a Look at the Game's First Impressions
Blasphemous creates a powerful first impression with its gory look. Unquestionably amazing are its complex battle animations, passionate devotion to perverted religious imagery, and a modest hero who frequently breaks vials of blood onto his metallic capirote-style helmet, but fashion doesn’t always translate into the content. Blasphemous, another Metroidvania and Soulslike platformer, is a fun journey into a harsh world that is only slightly tainted by tedious monotony and some clumsy gameplay.
It should come as expected that everything had ruthless religious imagery when the game’s title is Blasphemous. Christianity serves as the basis for a chaotic universe in Blasphemous, complete with thorns, rosary beads, screaming nuns, and eerie cathedrals.
The Penitent One, your silent hero, must perform the Cradle of Affliction, an act of penance that leads him to the Mother of Mothers. Blasphemous relies on being mysterious, which is why everything there sounds strangely arcane.
A character dubbed Deogracias, the witness to the Grievous Miracle, gives a sequence of instructions that resemble riddles, and the prose verges on pretense.
Here’s a video of what Blasphemous’s gameplay looks like:
Explore the Various and Chilling Landscapes in Cvstodia
Although the quest to reach the Mothers of Mother might have been distracting, Blasphemous is excellent at establishing a chilling mood, which you’ll find to be true after reading this Blasphemous review and playing the game. When you first meet the Penitent One, a heap of bodies with similar capirote helmets protruding from the highest point of the human debris surrounds him.
I knew immediately that this was going to be a dark and merciless voyage. Naturally, the spooky, depressing tone made me think of Castlevania games, except much more brutal and violent.
Blasphemous has a vintage feel because it’s a game with gorgeous pixel imagery, yet the meticulously detailed animations are more contemporary and terrifying. This is good for my Blasphemous review because I love games like these.
Details Riddled With Devilish Precision, Passion, and Care
The enemies that prowl the corridors of each region on the expansive terrain are largely distinct. Foes normally at least have a different appearance, though there are occasional reskins and duplicates.
The snow-capped mountains are home to wall sculptures that extend their hands out to swipe you and ghouls that emerge from beneath the frozen surface. You also have a library that houses ghoulish men and floating heads that are hurling heavy books at you.
One of the many villains in the convent is armed with an elaborate metal container, and others are dressed in religious attire. I didn’t realize the twitching limbs were sticking out from under the cover until she had repeatedly beaten me.
As they say, the details are crucial. And the details in this game are just gorgeous, which is another point for my Blasphemous review.
Beautiful Pixel-Art With a Mix of Detail-Obsessed Animations
Unquestionably, Blasphemous has a familiar vibe to it. With a number of uniquely themed locations that can be explored in a non-linear manner, it’s a rather conventional 2D Metroidvania.
It has Prie-Dieus save locations and brutal fighting that relies on a lot of dodges and timing parries. This makes Blasphemous a Soulslike platformer that everyone is going to love.
Blasphemous makes good use of these inspirations, but aside from its excellent atmosphere and animations, it falls short in a crowded genre that includes some of my all-time favorite games, such as Hollow Knight.
Combat Is Great But a Lot Can Still Be Desired—According to My Blasphemous Review
Generally speaking, combat is a reactive experience that frequently devolves into an entertaining but robotic competition of cat and mouse in which you dash in, land a few blows with your reliable long sword, and then either parry or avoid oncoming strikes.
The window to effectively parry feels a little too forgiving, which detracts from the joy of setting off a powerful counterattack. However, parries are especially satisfying because they cause a temporary slowdown in time. You’ll understand what I mean in this Blasphemous review once you start playing it.
Occasionally, finisher opportunities also appear (almost randomly—unless you perform a righteous riposte), leading to intricate, violent animations as the Penitent One executes an extravagant move using either Mea Culpa (his sword) or an enemy’s weapon.
A Combat That Feels Fresh at First But Gets a Bit Boring
Although the most basic foes are initially cool to fight thanks to smooth combat animations, their novelty soon wears off. Blasphemous, which prioritizes memorization over quick thinking, is about making mistakes, identifying telegraphed movements, and responding.
Eventually, once-exciting interactions began to feel regular, as if I were merely going through the motions, especially when I was going back in time. Blasphemous mostly depends on its combat (similar to what I’ve written in my Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review), with very few platforming obstacles and very few puzzles to mention.
Everything is new and thrilling when you first arrive in a new place, but after a while, the novelty wears off.
Good Thing the Boss Fights Liven Things Up—Plus One Point in My Blasphemous Review
Fortunately, there is a fantastic boss fight in every area to get things going again. There are about ten boss fights in Blasphemous, and each one has a very distinct appearance and style of play.
Many of the boss battles are amazing and truly capitalize on Blasphemous’s fighting prowess, which includes parrying and dodging. For instance, you face Quirce, a demon that wears his own capirote hat, in a tiny, enclosed arena.
He throws his burning sword around the room or charges at you with it. Dodging at the right moments and parrying his physical blows is the focus of the entire battle. This encounter turned out to be one of the most satisfying scenes in Blasphemous once my technique finally took hold after several unsuccessful tries.
Here’s a video of what Quirce’s fight:
The Boss Fights Are the Highlights of the Game
Personally, the bosses and the boss fights are what makes the game super interesting, aside from the plot. Another game with good boss fights is God Eater 3, which I did talk about in my God Eater 3 review. I particularly enjoy fighting the humanoid bosses because their attacks are dynamic, fluid, and fun to dodge or parry.
Generally speaking, the boss fights are interesting, challenging, and equitable. A handful of the bosses, though, seem a little cheap. Some attacks cause you to tumble to the ground instead of just recoiling a little.
This is usually not an issue, but some bosses have successive projectile strikes, which can sometimes leave you with little time to recover before being struck again. In fact, it can lead to instances where you are annoyance-pronely condemned to death by a single error.
You Also Have Sword Upgrades, Prayers, Rosary Beads, and More to Contend With
Combat is made more exciting by sword upgrades, which include upward slashing finishes, charge attacks, and even more fashionable assault animations. Personally, the lunge attack is my favorite, which mixes stabbing and evading to produce the ideal long-range blow.
Naturally, all of these blend in with the refined fundamental movements. Unfortunately, several of Blasphemous’ combat mechanisms are a little unrealistic and perhaps unnecessary.
You encounter Prayers, special skills that employ a power known as Fervour, while wandering. Prayer spells can produce enormous area-of-effect assaults, summon airborne attacks, speed-up attacks, and more.
However, when a Prayer is activated, an animation is started wherein the Penitent One uses his sword to strike the ground. They are frustratingly difficult to activate because you remain susceptible to attacks throughout the animation, which is very unfortunate.
A Unique But Punishing Mechanic Activates Every Time a Player Dies
In a sense, the death penalty was less serious since prayers were not used. Tears of Atonement (money) are not lost when you pass away. Rather, your Fervour meter starts to decay, reducing its maximum capacity until you either pay to be blessed or go back to where you died.
Dark Souls is further imitated by resting at a Prie-Dieu, which revives vanquished foes. However, death doesn’t seem like a severe penalty, which is a little surprising for a video game with such a threatening tone.
Blood vials, which the Penitent One humorously smashes on his helmet before ingesting to restore his health, follow the same reasoning. Even though the animation isn’t as long as the Prayers, it’s still rather easy to get attacked while recovering and, strangely, end up having less health than you had before. You start out with two, but you can receive more.
My tactic was usually to look for crucial moments to heal during boss encounters. However, unlike prayers, when I played wisely, the risk associated with healing paid off.
Here's the Verdict of My Blasphemous Review
Blasphemous is a spooky and disturbing action-platformer with a haunting atmosphere, stunning pixel art, and sophisticated animations that never cease to astound. Although the battle can be rewarding, it depends too much on memory, which eventually makes going back through the non-linear environment boring.
Many have even had to rely on a guide for obscure quests, like our Blasphemous Chalice of Inverted Verses guide. Additionally, Blasphemous lacks the depth found in numerous other titles in the genre due to unnecessary and badly designed upgrade mechanics. However, the visual diversity at least keeps everything appearing new.
I hope you guys found this review helpful. Be sure to read our other articles to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not in the gaming world. Stay tuned and catch the gaming current with GameEels!
