umamisoy

[umamisoy]

Blasphemous

Name: Blasphemous Initial release date: September 10, 2019 Developer: The Game Kitchen Publisher: Team17 Digital Limited Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems Genres: 2D Platformer, Action-adventure, Metroidvania.

A journey of penance and guilt. The Game Kitchen creates a world of virtuous suffering for their newest non-linear action platformer.

Blasphemous makes a striking first impression through its art style, presentation, and general aesthetics; the mix of catholic-inspired imagery and detailed pixel art is the strongest quality of this game and it carries the whole experience.

---

What is the game about?

You take the role of The Penitent One, a member of The Congregation of the Silent Sorrow. Armed with the sword Mea Culpa, you being a pilgrimage to purge the world of The Miracle, the corrupt manifestation of divinity that influences the land of Cvstodia.

The player character, The Penitent One

How does it Play?

It plays like a solid 2-D action platformer, mainly of Metroidvania conventions (non-linear exploration and progression of the story) with gameplay elements of the souls-like genre (altars where you are healed and regain the flasks used to restore your health, as well as serving as savepoints / respawns).

The controls are very simple: 4 directions, one jump, one attack basic attack button, one special/ranged attack button, parry button, and a spell button, plus the map (under which is the options menu and exit game… for some reason), inventory menu that's about it.

You notice how different this game is from other famous metroidvanias (like the Metroid, Castlevanias and more recently Hollow Knight) when you understand just by looking at how the levels are designed, that there's no fancy super jumping, no flying across maps or overpowered abilities; all you do is running, jumping, dashing and attacking, and the game does it very well.

Blasphemous Announcement Trailer for PS4

The whole theme of the game is suffering, pain, penance and the vulnerability of people at the mercy of higher wills, thus you are never almighty. In a similar matter to the games of the Dark Souls series, you are just a very VERY persistent warrior that through will and skill manages to surpass great obstacles. In short, your skills and stubbornness are your superpowers.

The Penitent one encounters Ten Piedad (Have Mercy)

In order to enjoy this game properly you must be aware of something: This is NOT a souls-like (even when it borrows elements like the Bonfire and Estus System), nor does it lean fully into the conventions that Castlevania Symphony of the Night established so long ago. What's here is a very linear upgrade tree (better versions of your attack and attack damage increase) plus health and mana increase, but there are no builds or different gameplay types.

This game is more of an action platformer first, and everything else second. The main focus of the gameplay is traversal through interesting, varied and challenging environments. On the technical side, the game runs great overall; load times are snappy, configurations cover the necessary standard of display, sound, and control input so there's nothing to complain here.

Plus, you can turn screen-shake on and off (which I greatly appreciate). You can rebind your inputs on your keyboard on PC however using the Y and H keys will always move the camera up and down respectively, even if you rebind them.

This is something that will most likely get a fix down the line. If you don't have a controller I recommend the following keybind setup: WASD to move

H to jump

U to attack

O to parry

J for range attack F for healing flask

Space Bar for Sliding

M for map

B for Inventory

I always use this type of setup for 2D games on my PC, following the standard arcade stick type of layout and it works well for pretty much every game 2D game I've played, including this one. Aesthetics Lady of the Six Sorrows. To the left the final execution, to the right the concept art (taken from @Blasphemous on Twitter)

Visually the game's pixel art style takes from classical catholic iconography from Spain (mainly from Francisco Goya's paintings) to set the tone of its environment, setting, and themes; I'll admit that pixel-art and romanticism are not something that I would imagine mixing well, however here it's executed masterfully with some of the best aesthetics I've seen in a while. Gameplay-wise animations are fluid, weighty, and easy to understand so you never feel like you were cheated by some attack that wasn't properly communicated. For the environments, every important element of the game conveys exactly what they want, be it the pain of the afflicted by The Miracle at the congregation of the Kissers of Wounds, or the divinity of the Lady of the Six Sorrows (Shown above).

The music goes for warm string arrangements to mellow piano melodies, then back up to intense guitar riffs for boss battles. The soundtrack of the game was made by Carlos Viola, who also made the music for The Game Kitchen's two previous games The game doesn't lean hard on the stereotypical church chorus, thus avoiding the cliche and making itself stand out even more. It's a great soundtrack, while not something you will be humming later (but personally I would enjoy listening to in some rainy days), it does its job perfectly: set the tone and create atmosphere. My favorite tracks are Tierras de Azafrán, Una Senda de Pasos Blancos, Prohibidos y Cubiertos de Polvo, Titles that translate to Lands of Saffron, A Pathway of White Footsteps, Forbidden and Covered in Dust, respectively.

. . .

How do you get into it?

The main drive of the game is not to obtain new and very different ways to play, rather the lore and themes that surround each interaction, story, and location.

Distances between zones and points of interest are far and going from one area to the next is hard, which goes in line with the hardships that are told throughout the game. It was at this point when I was convinced of the love and care that went into making this work. Everything is that written, shown, told, and experienced is in universe.

The penitent one requires fervor in order to perform his prayers, the main character is mute because he belongs to a congregation that takes silence as their penance, healing requires smashing a glass flask full of blood and smearing that to the face of the penitent one's mask, blood that is taken from a statue that bleeds, and so on and so forth.

If you are looking for a mechanically rich game with many different gameplay styles, this won't do too much for you, but if you want some good platforming, very interesting themes, setting and style this game will definitely be for you.

Final Notes (with mild game lenght spoilers)

It took me roughly 16–20 hours of my first playthrough to complete the main quest to obtain ending B, after that I did all other side-quests to then finish the game with the ending A. This varies, of course, depending on your ability to remember important spots to return to once you have the necessary items, and how good you are at the platforming and combat.

edit:

This was written shortly after the game's release and does not take into account any changes or addition that might have come up with updates and extra content.