4/5 ★ – notesurfer's review of Blasphemous.

88% completion. Blasphemous is a gory metroidvania takedown of medieval Spanish Catholicism. While the writing is occasionally overwrought, the story does successfully evoke both Dark Souls and grimdark Fantasy-Spain. Every animation is a masterpiece, and the overall tone is both thematically consistent and varied. This game oozes atmosphere. It also manages to innovate on the genre without departing from the core gameplay that makes metroidvanias fun. This is some of the best Castlevania level design I've ever played. The majority of bosses are also tremendous fun, as they mostly involve figuring out weaknesses and movesets. It's only very late in the game when they become endurance test meat sponges. One boss in particular has a move which requires one of two responses, but does not telegraph which response is needed. Movement also starts to show some cracks in the more demanding platforming challenges. The nail in the coffin for me was a particularly long sequence that I kept failing due to inconsistent ladder grabs. For these reasons I would say that Blasphemous is the very definition of a flawed masterpiece. What it does well it does exceptionally, but its failings left a sour taste at the end of an otherwise delicious playthrough.