Blasphemous

[Ross Scott]

Genre: Platformer

Year released: 2019

Ross's rating: Unrated

Link to game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/

Free to play: No

GaaS: Unknown

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[Gun]

This one didn't grab me. This is more like Dark souls 2 of dark souls but not as good.

[biosynth8]

I would recommend it. It has many things that rubbed me the wrong way, for example the too few fast travel points and endless backtracking without any reward, but in the end it was decent. They could have done so much more with the idea, though. Many of the environments are bland and not much thought went into the bossfights. 

It's not that hard as people often claim. The difficulty is highest in the second hour or so and then takes a deep dive. I almost got stuck on the second boss and then didn't have a problem until the last one. The last boss has random platforms appearing, so you can just have a bad luck streak there.

The music could also be better for that kind of setting. They should have dared to put more organ and more Spanish guitar into it, more choirs. 

Still, the world is interesting, the Dark Souls-like backstories for all the objects are fun to read and I liked the general style.

I'm sure I would have liked it more if I hadn't played it right after Hollow Kinght. This way I was always thinking: "It's fine, but not as good as Hollow Kinght". I think that also sums up the whole game.

There's a free expansion out since yesterday, so I'll give it another go.

[kerdios]

3 hours ago, biosynth8 said:

I would recommend it.

Is this a typ0 or did you forget to add the parts you'd recommend it for?

[biosynth8]

10 hours ago, kerdios said:

Is this a typ0 or did you forget to add the parts you'd recommend it for?

No, it's as I wrote: It's worth a try as it is fine, it just could be so much better.

[kerdios]

6 hours ago, biosynth8 said:

No, it's as I wrote: It's worth a try as it is fine, it just could be so much better.

No worries, what would you say are the good points?

[biosynth8]

4 hours ago, kerdios said:

No worries, what would you say are the good points?

The atmosphere is great and I liked the story, as cryptic as it is. The voiceacting is very decent. The speech of the last boss is really great and I didn't mind listening to it several times. The update added a Spanish version due to the setting, but I think the English one is better. The enemy design in general is pretty good, though some of the bosses are boring. The controls are good and the designers knew its limits when building the levels. All in all it has quite a lot of content and much of that is good - it's just spread out too thin.

[kerdios]

49 minutes ago, biosynth8 said:

The atmosphere is great and I liked the story, as cryptic as it is. The voiceacting is very decent. The speech of the last boss is really great and I didn't mind listening to it several times. The update added a Spanish version due to the setting, but I think the English one is better. The enemy design in general is pretty good, though some of the bosses are boring. The controls are good and the designers knew its limits when building the levels. All in all it has quite a lot of content and much of that is good - it's just spread out too thin.

Thank you

[biosynth8]

On 8/6/2020 at 7:27 PM, kerdios said:

Thank you

After spending some hours with the new expansion, I have to say that they tackled a lot of the issues I complained about. The bland backgrounds are now a lot more lively and they implemented an improved but rather well hidden quick travel feature. That makes the game quite a bit better. They also changed the design of some NPCs, but I'm not sure if I like that. 

[StrixLiterata]

This is a Love/Hate for me: I had a lot of fun, but the amount of bactracking required to get the best equipment is criminal.

[biosynth8]

3 hours ago, StrixLiterata said:

This is a Love/Hate for me: I had a lot of fun, but the amount of bactracking required to get the best equipment is criminal.

The backtracking was a bit improved on in the last big patch. After some upgrading, you can warp from checkpoint to checkpoint.

[StrixLiterata]

1 hour ago, biosynth8 said:

The backtracking was a bit improved on in the last big patch. After some upgrading, you can warp from checkpoint to checkpoint.

I knew, but this is about Blasphemous, not Breaking Dawn. In the base game there is no warping between Prie Dieus.

[biosynth8]

 

On 11/21/2020 at 10:59 PM, StrixLiterata said:

I knew, but this is about Blasphemous, not Breaking Dawn. In the base game there is no warping between Prie Dieus.

I don't get what you mean. This is the base game now. There's no way to play it without Breaking Dawn.

[StrixLiterata]

6 hours ago, biosynth8 said:

 

I don't get what you mean. This is the base game now. There's no way to play it without Breaking Dawn.

So the expansion is free? I didn't know: I've had the game since when Breaking Dawn didn't exist yet.

[biosynth8]

16 hours ago, StrixLiterata said:

So the expansion is free? I didn't know: I've had the game since when Breaking Dawn didn't exist yet.

Yes, it's a free update. To be frank, the gamplay and graphics enhancements are the main appeal of it anyway. The Breaking Dawn storyline is rather lackluster with copy-pasted bosses.

[Deep Dive Devin]

Played this recently, didn't do most of the extra stuff. Really enjoyed the core combat, exploration, and atmosphere. Brought across the Spanish-Catholic cultural influence well with some excellent art, music and environmental storytelling. Worldbuilding is very cryptic, limited to lavish and kind of confusing item descriptions, but with less Berserk and more Jesus than in Dark Souls.

 

Ran into problems occasionally where my character couldn't dash or jump off of climbable walls.

 

I was annoyed to discover you can warp between checkpoints, but only if you donate enough money to the church, and there are no overt signals to what the benefits of donation are. That would've helped the endgame search for health potions and items.

 

I've also decided I just don't enjoy the "pick your shit up when you die or else here's more problems" mechanic in souls-style games. This one just caps your magic power more and more until you pay a toll to get it back, it feels pointless. Even in Dark Souls, it's just more busywork to get the souls back if you lose them.

 

Still worth a recommendation just for the utter uniqueness and the incredible richness of the tone and world, it's like nothing I've played before. Backtracking is not nearly as big a problem if you just pay your communion dues and don't forget like I did.