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However items with a description explains a lot and in this game, they included a lot of the story in item description. Although most of the main conversations and cutscenes, goes over exactly what's going on in the game and what you're supposed to do.
However, if you skip those, it's easy to miss.
Why not just watch a Lore video :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4rsV0ta7D4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDJTj-ENr04
In Dark Souls, you're told right from the beginning what's going on. The intro video explains the lords, the fire, and how it's fading. When it's showing you the intro in the prison, it explains there are chosen undead to take up the task of lighting the fire. Then when you get out of the prison, the guy sitting next to the bonfire tells you specifically what your mission is and why you're doing it. Right from the beginning you know exactly what the goal of the game is.
Dark Souls sets up it's basic mythology right at the beginning and builds off that. There's a ton of hidden lore you might miss but you generally know what's up. Blasphemous doesn't do this. It's only after beating it and reading some stuff online that I basically know what was going on.
This is not a good thing.
The problem is Blasphemous doesn't start by clearly presenting the fundamental rules of the game's reality. I was never sure if I should interpret things as symbolic or literal. I mean ♥♥♥♥'s so weird, the whole thing could be a dream or something, right? It's only near the end of the game I understood everything was meant to be taken literally. This nonsense this guys describing? It's not a pretentious metaphor, it literally happened in this games world.
I don't know, that was just my experience.
Think the devs got too carried away in making the narrative as grandiose as they possible could but forgot to lay down the foundations to ease in the rest of us. Will watch the two lore videos, maybe they shed some light on what the heck I was doing.
Apparently the highest rank of the church (his holiness Escribar?) turned his back and throne to the miracle and his people, in response the miracle turned him into a giant oak tree that burned for days, when it stopped burning only a giant pile of ash was left and all impure beings that tried to climb it and reach the throne so they could gain fantabulous powers were turned into abominations for their sinful ways.
"In Dark Souls, you're told right from the beginning what's going on. The intro video explains the lords, the fire, and how it's fading. When it's showing you the intro in the prison, it explains there are chosen undead to take up the task of lighting the fire. Then when you get out of the prison, the guy sitting next to the bonfire tells you specifically what your mission is and why you're doing it. Right from the beginning you know exactly what the goal of the game is"
- bs. You know nothing about yourself and your purpose from the trailer, or from the begining of the game. You just forgot what it was about and fantasized.
From dialogs in DS you'll learn that you need to ring in two bells. Why should you do it and what will happen after would be a secret untill you'll do it. In Blasphemous Deogracias tells you from begining about your goal - find Cradle of Affliction in Mother of Mothers and carry out three humiliations to pass the gate. In both games you see only blurry path at begining. It also should be understandable, that in both DS and Blasphemous your goal isn't even that hard to reveal, but the real purpose and consequences of your actions are what more obscure and speculated - and that's part of fun.
"A person shouldn't have to watch videos to understand a game" - I didn't watch a single video about Blasphemous before playd it, yet I did understand in general what's going on, not less then, when I first playd DS. (and yes, if you care about lore and story of the world, and if the story build in DS-like style, you'll may like watching videos and comparing other's people world understanding with your's. Those games are not like Kojima style games with tons of cutscens and expositions)
And yes. The whole thread kinda feel nitpicky. You guys should go and create thread or few on Dead Cells and Slay The Spire and maybe some other games forums. Those games was so praised, yet, you know, they didn't had a story at all.
Smoking Heart of Incense
The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. First Verse.
The great dry tree into which His Holiness was transformed by work and grace of the Miracle burned in a night of heavy storms. It burned for ninety days, and as it was consumed, it left an enormous pile of ashes that covered the cathedral’s main ambulatory tower, leaving His Holiness’ Turned Throne on the top. All those who were present, and those who arrived and tried to climb to the summit, were swallowed by the ashes. And the cathedral fell silent.
Heart of Virtuous Pain
The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. Second Verse.
The wind blew strongly through the fractures of the cathedral that the Great Tree had originated, lifting the ash creating dense gray clouds, hiding the whole Mother Church and drowning her in a deep darkness of lead. The ground began to tremble. Then a terrible cry was heard from the depths of the mountain of ash. And that cry was joined by more and more. Guttural screams, animal roars, monsters, and one which was heard above all: the scream of all old man, which resounded gravely, as out of the throat of a giant.
Heart of Cerulean Incense
The Works and Graces of the Sorrowful Miracle. Third Verse.
All those who were once swallowed by the ashes emerged from it in great hordes: the Hordes of the Miracle, the Punished. With only faith in their minds and only rage in their guts. Willing to punish all those who had escaped from such a holy fate, from the will of the Miracle itself.
Heart of the Single Tone
Watch them. Watch as they climb up the burning ash. Watch how they crawl like hungry beasts. The ash swallows them up one by one, insatiable. Such is the faith that the Miracle stirs in them. It makes them climb towards the Turned Throne by promising them a communion that will, indeed, happen, but not in the way they expect. Soon, when all of them have been swallowed up, they will be reborn, filled with faith that neither you nor I will ever get to comprehend.
They tell you who you are, you’re the penitent one it’s in the name bruh. The games tells you more as you continue on your journey. If you listen to the guy in M/S bondage then you’ll get a good explanation on what you have to do as for the why, you’ll learn about it later on. The rest is kinda self explanatory, the bell guys hate you cause religion, the monsters hate you cause monsters, the NPC don’t give a ♥♥♥♥ since they have their own issues and it’s up to you to save the day.
But that's the problem. I'm sure everything is eventually explained and things possibly make sense once you beat the game and whatever. In the meantime, a person is confused and has a hard time getting attached to what is going on. We're given an objective of beating three bosses, but we don't know why. We're running around with a cone on our head and some thorny sword relic, but we don't know why. Everybody seems to know who we are, but we're not told why.
I don't really find that things explain itself. It seems as though there's a possible plague of some sort that is hitting the people in the village, but it's never flat out said and nothing else seems to be affected. The enemy designs don't make any sense. They seem to mostly be regular people, but why are they attacking us? Who or what is Ten Piedad? Why did the nun lady that burned off her face and devoted herself to god, suddenly turn into a 50 foot tall creature that is shooting lasers and fireballs at us?
I agree with what Nilex said. I've been playing games since the 80's, and I don't think I've ever been this confused as to what is taking place in a game before. It seems that the developers created this world with all of it's lore and stuff, but forgot that anyone outside of the development process doesn't know what is going on. Good storytelling will always have some element that helps explain things to newcomers. Whether that be a person that isn't from that world and is clueless as to what is happening, or maybe hearing rumors and stuff from people that are talking, or even just a simple narrative that helps summarize what is taking place. But dumping a person into a new world, shoving a bunch of things into their face with no proper explanation, and then supposedly having it all explained around the end of the game, is not a good way to tell a story.
You are part of a silent order. Meaning you took a vow of silence as their penance. Everyone in that order sheds "Tears of Atonement" by drenching themselves in the blood of the Monsters/Corrupted. You learn this from Item Descriptions, what some NPCs say(mostly the first time you meet the Healer guy in town) and from the cutscene after you kill your first boss.(It's also why you get Tears from killing monsters and why they are so valuable to others. Notice that the NPCs which award Tears of Atonement are actually giving you beads filled with Tears.)
The Pile of Dead Bodies? Your other brothers/members of the Order. Presumably they were all killed(including you) from the first boss. Later on you learn that the Order became excommunicated by the Church when it was discovered the Penitent Ones opposed Escribar(who is basically the Pope.)
For some reason "you" were chosen amongst all the others and thus came back to life. Hence the Cherubs/Moonlight children Rezzing you when you die and giving you your sword.(which is a very significant relic)
Except you are told why. If you paid attention to the opening cutscenes you know that the "thorny sword" is a special relic(Mea Culpa). The sword is basically the embodiment of Guilt and allows it to absolve others of their Guilt.(cutscene from first Mea Culpa shrine) Granted the opening is a bit hard to follow so I can understand why people would be confused about this bit.
However after slaying the first boss, you meet good ole bondage scroll boy. He literally tells you that you have to kill 3 Bosses because it will allow you pass the sealed gate. Then, after you pass the gate; you can find him again and he tells you more stuff and heads to the golden tree. If you meet him by the golden tree he prattles on about how it was created. Then he just stands there since he desperately wanted to pray there.(Kind like how in DS1 the only thing you know is that "Chosen Undead" must ring 2 bells, one above and one below. You don't know why(it opens Sens Fortress/Londo) but you have to do it to "Link the Fire". You don't know why you have to Link the fire until much later)
Everything is affected by the "plague/corruption". It's kinda heavily implied that this "plague" is Sin. The physical effects stem from the Miracle punishing people with it. There's an item/bone description that basically says Alberno was fine until a guy showed up with the "plague". Then there's also that shrine via the fountain that lets you bless items. He says he is a fake but a bunch of people started worshiping it/him thinking it would save them from the plague... it only made it worse since it was a false idol and now his/its penance is to live as one.
Don't really understand why you are pulling the "game experience card" considering how most games back in the 80s was basically "Stop this guy!" or "Kill this thing chosen one!".
That said, this game's storytelling is akin to Dark Souls. You get barebones story/lore from a few key figures but most of the "meat" comes from Item Descriptions. I really take issue with how you(and couple others) act like DS plainly laid out the story and whatnot. As someone who 100% Demon's Souls all the way to Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne ... a lot of the "actual lore" came from items/souls.
TLDR:
However I don't disagree that Blasphemous is kinda convoluted with the presentation and there is a lot of stuff that can easily become confusing.(like "The Dream") IMO, I think it's because the game wants to be Religious but tries to emulate the vagueness of it and things get lost. A few instances it almost feels like "The Player" is meant to fill in the blanks with their own interpretation of stuff.
Should the most significant event in the game's history only be described in four random item descriptions? What really annoys me is that this event is described very nicely in the games kickstarter. I wonder if the developers just assumed the player would be familiar with that so they didn't bother explaining it well in the game.
Dark Souls foreshadowed things with more oomph so you knew what was important. All the main bosses are introduced at the beginning of the game in a wonderful cinematic. In Blasphemous if they're mentioned at all it's in some vague dialouge or in an item you might not even find.
And when Blasphemous does emphasis something with a cutscene it's often of little importance.The health upgrade lady apparently needed one and yet your epic rival Cythna doesn't warrant being mentioned at any point in the game at all.
In conclusion, I don't think I need to GIT GUD at deciphering the lore, rather the developers need to GIT GUD at presenting it. [/smug]
Well AAA vs Indie aside, pretty much every Boss is Dark Souls seems "significant" even when they really aren't in the grand scheme of things. E.g. Ornstein and Smough are basically just royal guards, Asylum Demon is just a "Welcome to Dark Souls!" mat, etc.
AFAIK, a lot of major Bosses in Blasphemous also have NPC dialogue(though some of it you need a relic equipped) then you usually get an afterword. E.g. the first 3 Bosses and Ezdras are like this. However after opening the Bronze Gate, it does seem quite hit or miss.
I wouldn't say that considering some scenes. Mea Culpa Shrine, first Boss, etc. Though I do agree with your Cythna point. I always thought that was "out of the blue" and seemingly random too. As an aside, to your Health Upgrade Lady... I could be wrong but I think she is the Spirit of the woman who killed herself and thus created the Mea Culpa sword since her dialogue implies you are taking one of her Pains stemming from Sin and absorbing it to rid your soul of that Sin, thus purifying the flesh as well as body. Though I could have interpreted that completely wrong lol.
Maybe. IMO, I think is more of a perspective/interpretation issue though. Kinda like the story of Limbo. (here's an emoticon for you lol)