2.5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Blasphemous.

TLDR: While it's a knockout in most aspects, Blasphemous is not my kind of metroidvania. Gameplay: Making a souls-like Metroidvania with slow movement, repetitive combat, sparse checkpoints / no fast travel is certainly a choice. Only a couple hours in and I'm getting a bit sick of backtracking across the land. Many more hours in, it got a bit better. Once you donate enough money to the donation box, you can teleport to any "shrine" (bonfire) you want. Making the teleporters across the land semi-pointless considering that they are typically not where you want and also do NOT show you the map when you're selecting them. The Penitent One however does not have the movement one may expect from a metroidvania. There is almost no traversal upgrades so you will be running and jumping across the world in almost the exact same way the entire time. The single upgrade to movement speed just makes you feel normal, not fast. The two other upgrades you can find allow you to acess a dozen or so secret areas, but not interact with the rest of the world in a different way. I found these upgrades at the very end of my playthrough, I was sort of expecting to reach a certain point in the main quest for these upgrades to be found but upon research I discovered I missed the last steps of two seperate quests to acquire these items. And that's another issue I faced, the sidequests are entirely cryptic. A challenge I faced is that I couldn't figure out wether to take the NPC's literally or figuratively. Verbage feels directly from religious scripture and while it is pretty and sparks your imagination, it is not very clear when it comes to informing you about the game. After I surpassed the bronze door I lost track on what I'm really doing and why I was even on this quest to begin with. And that culminates in the free DLC of Blasphemous. All of which were completely hidden from me, and upon looking up how to access it left me even more confused. The true ending is locked behind a quest line that should've been reserved for the super secret path, not the true ending. I didn't even do any of the DLC quests because I feel like I wasn't going to see anything else that was worth the hassle of finding. And that is not a feeling I have often. But Blasphemous is a fine game, and I did enjoy my time with it. It's all servicable enough but just has a lot to work on for the sequel. Story: This is probably the first souls-like game I've played that FEELS like a souls-like in narrative. Most souls-like miss the mark when trying to create something interesting as well as borderline incomprehensible. But Blasphemous kept my intrigue with it's world building and mystery even though I had no idea what was occuring. The inspiration of religious Spain feels like a perfect fit for a story like this, and it's something I have never seen before in gaming. The main plot however, is lost on me. As I mentioned in gameplay, once I reached the halfway point I was totally clueless on what The Penitent One's goals were. And the final boss is some dude who I've never seen before. Upon research however, the plot is very interesting and fairly easy to follow. But how did I not pick up on any of this? Graphics: Absolutely gorgeous pixel art. The cutscenes look kind of funky because they somehow aren't as detailed as the in-game pixel art but it's good. Sound: Very good music. Fits the tone and visuals perfectly. I enjoy the sewer theme a lot. Voice acting is also great. Extra: There's achievements to collect. Some fun and some...less fun. But I'm glad they're there. Favorite Thing: Those short arena segments are really cool but over too fast. Not My Favorite Thing: True ending questline got me fucked up.