My Critique of Blasphemous After Completing It To 100% - Pros & Cons

[DaemonX_HUN]

I own the game on GOG but I still wanted to write a review about it on Steam.

TL;DR: Blasphemous is a great, although undeniably flawed semi-Metroidvania/souls-like/platformer hybrid that is well worth experiencing, despite many of its annoying aspects. It does a lot of things right in terms of world design and gameplay, and overall, it gives you a satisfying and meaty experience. It's just kinda disappointing that most of the problems that are present in the game could have been easily fixed and ironed out with literally minutes/hours of additional work from the developers and it would have resulted in a much, much better game. A 9 out of 10 game even. But in it's current form - which may ore may not change for the better in the future - I'd give Blasphemous a 7, maybe a 7.5 out of 10
Now that all being said, let's get into the pros and cons.

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PROS

• Responsive and precise controls
  In really skill-based games, especially in which platforming and timing are key elements, it's extremely important to have as responsive controls as possible. Blasphemous is really great in this regard, it reminds me of Hollow Knight in terms of its overall responsiveness. I can make precise jumps and combat manouvers effortleslly and the controls doesn't stand between me and the game at all - well, if I don't count the fact that it's a little bit weird/clunky how I need to let go of ledges to fall down.
  
  
• Satisfying combat
  Okay, so this is an interesting thing. The game's combat system is really, really good. Every hit has the right amount of weight to it. You can really feel the impact of your weapon. There's an option to execute enemies that while happens rarely, when it does, it can be extremely satisfying. There's also a good level of general depth here thanks to the enemy variety, thanks to the different enviroments that present unique challenges in combat scenarios, and because of your moves and abilities you have and can also acquire. The only problem is that while this is all true, you can't really express yourself as much as you want in terms of combat and you can't really explore combat to its fullest potential because the game doesn't allow you to. To put it simply, enemies will die faster before you can make anything fancy, but I'll explain this in detail in the CONS section. Overall though, despite of this, I'm really impressed with Blasphemous' combat system.
  
  
• Good enemy variety and design
  Another highlight of the game are the many different enemy types you can encounter throughout your journey. The list of creatures are quite extensive and varied, not just in terms of how they look, but in how they react, move, and attack as well. Most of them have clear, well telegraphed, and understandble attacks so you'll be able to react accordingly to their movements, but there are one or two monsters that are a little bit hard to understand when it comes to their movement.
  
  
• Excellent boss battles
  While not every boss is perfect, the team behind the game did a really good job with most of them. In general, it can be said that similarly to normal enemies, bosses have easily readable attacks and moves that you can learn and then exploit. For the most part, the battles against them felt challenging, but fair. And what's the most important is that they were fun, really fun. Each boss was really unique in terms of looks, and in what they did and how they did it, so there was always a huge variety in this aspect of the game as well. As for the late-game bosses, I had to actually play a lot smarter, and start to really thought out what jewels I want to use for the given fight in order to gain some kind of an advantage. I liked that, I liked that by the end the game required me to be more and more thoughtful, and not just skillful.
  
  
• Strong world-design and atmosphere
  I don't think I've seen such a world like Blasphemous' ever before in any video game. Maybe I could best describe it as more grotesque version of Bloodborne in 2D, but it still wouldn't do it justice. Its world is immersive, really dark, with a very strong, almost tangible atmosphere. The world of Blasphemous has many secrets to find, there's always something to look out for, there's always something new to explore, every area is meaningfully different from others. There's a huge level of variety overall but the world can always maintain its consisency and beleivability in terms of looks and feel.
  
  
• Addictive gameplay loop
  Blasphemous' maybe biggest strength is the flow of its gameplay. It just feels so good to explore, reach new areas, do side-quests, find interesting and useful items, upgrade my character, etc. These different gameplay elements mix together really, really well, therefore playing this game can be really addictive - although this can be generally said about games from its genre. The point is that even though Blasphemous did a lot of things wrong, I never really felt that I stopped having fun with it (well, maybe except two cases). It constantly kept me engaged and interested to keep playing and do more, explore more, fight more, etc.
  
  
• Content-rich experience
  While my firm belief is that quality always matters more than quantity and I'd rather play a great 15 hour game than a 100 hour average one for the same price, I still have to mention that in terms of price/content ratio, The Game Kitchen (developer studio) did an excellent job. It took me approximately 19 hours to finish the game to 100% - the first half of it was going through the game's world steadily, doing quests and exploring, while the second half was just mostly backtracking before the final boss, finding the remaining collectibles, solving riddles and finishing up some remaining side-quests, etc. Overall, it's really good value for a 25$ title, especially if you consider the overall level of quality of the content that is being offered here. Also, keep in mind that I generally tend to finish games quicker than most people - for example, I pretty much completed Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition to 100% (all bosses, mini bosses, DLC bosses, optional bosses killed, all quests completed, got basically every main item, etc.) in just 20 hours, while according to HowLongToBeat, the average for this is 63 hours. The same thing goes for Hollow Knight (it took me 20 hours or so to fully complete it instead of 50), and other titles as well. So it can be easily the case that Blasphemous will take you significantly longer to complete it - I saw on Steam that most people who have fully completed the game put 40 or even 50 hours into it.
  
  CRITIQUE CONTINUIES IN THE FIRST COMMENT

[DaemonX_HUN]

CONS

• Sword hearts are useless
  Sword hearts are special items in Blasphemous that can sometimes fundamentally change the way how you play, based on which one you have currently equipped (you can only have one equipped at a time). Each of them has a unique positive and negative effect on your character so you have to choose carefully, which one you are going to use in which situation. Or at least, that's the theory. Because in reality, the downsides of each easily outweighs their benefits so they aren't worth using at all 99% of the time.
  
  
• Combos and special moves are mostly useless
  There are a lot of special and extended moves that you'll probably learn upon progressing through the game, and you will have the option to chain these moves together to form even longer and deadlier combos. The problem is that even though if you realize and understand how to chain these different moves together to become truly lethal, you won't really be able to initiate them through the entirety of the game. There are two reasons for that. The first is that by the time you would actually be able to do a real combo (so not just your normal X, X, X attack), your enemy will simply die. The second reason is that you will face an enemy which you can't stun with your hits, and after your third strike, it will strike back, which will eventually force you to either counter its move, or dodge out of it - and both of these will put an end to your own combo. I really felt smart when I figured out that I can chain together a dashing strike (Holding RT+X), then three strikes (X,X,X,), then an upward strike to launch the enemy to the air (Up+X), then a downward slam (Down+Holding X) only to realize that there's no way that I'm ever going to do it in the game. Hell, I was only able to do a much simpler special move once through my 19 hours of playtime (X,X,X, Down+X).
  
  
• Traps kill you instantly
  In the SoulsBorne titles, it was okay that there were traps that killed the player instantly, because thanks to the 3D space, you were able to have a better situational awareness, you were mostly able to identify traps and how they worked before potentially activating them, and traps were also generally rare, while the overall gameplay flow was more relaxed and slower as well. But in Blasphemous, traps are extremely frequent, they sometimes have weird hitboxes, and when there are multiple moving traps to each other, they can be out of sync in terms of movement, which can lead to a lot of frustrating deaths despite the fact that you timed your jumps right. Also, in some cases, it's not even possible to properly understand how a certain set of traps work until you have died because of them multiple times and it eventually turns an otherwise well balanced game into a frustrating trial and error experience. Not even mentioning the fact that there's no feasible gameplay-related explanation of insta-kill traps whatsoever othen than potentially wasting your time and artificially extending gameplay length. In SoulsBorne titles, insta-kill traps made sense. The games wanted to teach you to be more aware of your environment and punished you if you weren't thorough or careful enough and set you back to the previous bonfire. In Blasphemous, you can see when a set of traps start, there isn't really any way of missing them, it's a 2D game, you can't just walk past them. So if the game forces you to go through traps, and a lot of traps, without any way of going past them, the game should only punish you accordingly to that. In a way that would be fair but would also have a logical effect on gameplay. Similary to Hollow Knight and Guacamelee (other 2D Metroidvanias in which traps and platforming are key features), traps should deal some damage to your character, but shouldn't instantly kill him. This way, longer platforming+trap sections wouldn't be that frustrating to go through, but at the same time, there would be a motivation for the player to be good, because with a lot of lost health and potions it wouldn't be that easy to face against enemies on the other side.
  
  
• The map lacks some key features
  One of the core pillars of any Metroidvania and Souls-like title is the exploration and the high level of immersion that comes with it. When I play a game from these genres, I pretty much always try to complete them 100% and I like to do that by relying only on what the game tells me and alllows me to do, neglecting online collectible guides and things like that as much as possible. The problem is, however, that Blasphemous simply fails to give me the proper tools that are required to be able to play it a fully immersive way, without relying on any outside sources. In Guacameele, you have a map which shows per area, how much percentage of it you have completed and it gives you a rough idea about how many things are left that you still have to find there. It gives you just enough help but it also trusts you that you will eventually find the secrets. Hollow Knight is also a great example. You can buy different markers so whenever you find something interesting on the map (an area you can't reach, a wall that you can't break yet, etc.), you can mark these spots on your map, which will eventually make your exploration/cleanup/backtracing easier in the later stages of the game when you will have more explorational and traversal tools available. But in Blasphemous, there isn't any of that, so you either stop your game every fifth minute to screenshot a place you can't go yet, or you just turn to a guide eventually at the end when all you have left do to is to clean up the map - or at least if you don't want to wast tons of hours with a potentially less effective backtracking.
  
  
• Key explorational abilities/tools are extremely hard to find
  In basically any Metroidvania, abilities and tools that will help you to reach areas are placed in such an intelligent way that you will find them through basic exploration and progression. You will find them slowly and steadily, one by one, and each will open up some new shortcuts, main areas and secret areas. However, in Blasphemous, while none of the available traversal items are required to finish the game, each of these are placed and hidden in such a way and requires such a cryptic method to acquire that there's a quite high chance that you will complete the game without finding any of them - and this ultimately means that you will miss out at least on half of the collectibles and also on some extra areas. This is just a very badly thought out and poor gameplay design, an improper implementation of a key genre element.
  
  
• The problem of stun-locks
  While it can happen against normal enemies as well, I mostly experienced this problem when I fought against some bosses. Basically, some attacks of some bosses have such a timing that if they manage to hit you with them, you will receive the follow-ups of those attacks without you being able to do anything. What comes to my mind is Quirce's fire explosion attack - if he hits you one time with it, by the time you stand up, you will be hit again, then again, and basically, you can die in a very cheap way thanks to a single attack. This is also true for the final boss' lightning attack which to make things worse, is very hard to notice because the tells of it have roughly the same color as the background. I think that there's also one more boss who has this problem, the guy on the bridge who spins around and does lightning attacks all the time.
  
  
• The need of QOL updates - Multiple smaller problems
  There are a couple of small things in this game that should be tweaked for a more pleasent gameplay experience. I don't want to talk about them seperately because they are too small for that, but I still want to mention them somewhere. First of all, why the "mana" doesn't recharge fully if I rest at a Shrine? I can recharge it by cutting the player by holding (B) then I can rest again to recover my HP. It would just be more convenient and simple this way. Also, why there's auto-scrolling when it comes to texts from ghosts? Why I can't scroll manually? This way I have to close and re-open sometimes the same dialogue box multiple times just to be able to read that piece of lore. Another thing: why the item descriptions are needlessly convoluted? Why I have to scroll down again and again under each equippable jewel for example, if I want to actually know what it does? Why the actual item description is hidden under its lore? It just makes managing and switching jewels a pain in the ass.
  
  
• Improper implementation of fast-travel
  First of all, what's the point of limiting the players' choices to only a couple of fast-travel gates? It doesn't make the game any harder or more challenging, it just simply wastes the players' time. Players should be able to travel between shrines just like how they can travel between bonfires in Souls titles. And why it's not possible to travel from a random spot/room to a shrine? I had to quit to the menu and reload my save tons of times just to be able to achieve that. Why I have to rely on this, why this isn't an implemented feature?
  
  
• Using Prayers is needlessly cumbersome
  Prayers in the game are basically special abilities/spells powered by your mana. These are cool, but instead of the game incentivizing the usage of them, it makes their usage needlessly cumbersome. First of all, they should activate instantly upon pressing the corresponding button, but their activation animation is huge and it can slow down the general rhythm/pace of the game and its fights, not even mentioning the fact that it can lead you to getting hit... a lot. The other problem is that if you don't cut yourself like a suicidal maniac all the time, your mana will always be very limited even if you have dealt with a lot of enemies and you won't really be able to cast Prayers. Each cut makes you bleed, this way making you lose some HP but also getting some mana. Ideally, with each cut, just as much mana should be gained (and HP should be lost) that would be enough for one use of the currently equipped Prayer. It would make the whole thing more streamlined. Finally, there should be an option to switch Prayers "on the fly", maybe using a mini-wheel (using a controller), or by switching between them using a D-Pad, etc. Anything but messing with them in the inventory. Because if I have to mess around in my inventory and stop the actual game every time I want to try out something new, I'll probably rather just continue playing and do not try out anything new at all.

[DaemonX_HUN]

Originally posted by Electric Wizard:

Good writeup and all, but why not just write a Steam Review instead of posting it here?

I can't, because I only own the game on GOG. Also, I wanted to write a more detailed review/critique in order to be able to give proper feedback to developers and to also help people in deciding whether to buy the game or not. Also, it would have been too long for a Steam review anyway.

[iWaNN]

You forgot about some things and quests with you can fail completely at first try and can't try to kill/make it with second try. You should restart the game and try to complete all whole game again. That really suck.

[MASA]

I completely agree with your review!! I would also say that progressing in the game or side quest is a bit too obscure, and since there are very few teleporters and that the traps insta kills, it makes backtracking and exploring very tedious.

Another detail is that collectibles (angels and relics) don't give you anything until you collect all of them it seems. The incentive is very weak. The little worms in Hollow Knight felt rewarding because they were intermediary rewards when you collect them.

I know I won't 100% the game because even if I follow a guide at the end, it will just be a chore to re explore everything.

[mayonnaise on an escalator]

I kinda disagree on the fast travel point. I loved DS1's world not needing fast travel (until near the end, and even then, only to specific bonfires). Unlocking a new physical shortcut is so, so much more rewarding if you can't just fast travel around it.

[HighLanderPony]

Overall agreed, will save you the nitpicks. Now embrace yourself for the incoming of the "best 10/10 goty u succ" crew.

[Soulmyr]

Agree with most of what you've said. I love the game, despite some glaring flaws, and I hope the devs take these criticisms and improve the game

[GhostofWar]

The attacks in the game you mention where you take all follow up hits are so stupid, just kill me outright getting hit repeated times before you can even have control back again is such a rage inducing mechanic.

[Gwyn]

Highly disagree on cons.

- "Sword hearts are useless" - they are useful and helps a lot depending on your build or on sides you weak at.

- "Combos and special moves are mostly useless". If your imagination limits your playstyle doesn't mean it's a con. I personally used combos a lot and many enemies had clear ideas behind them for you to use different specific techniques.

- "Traps". To conclude just BS whining based on low level of skill against few mediocre difficulty platforming sections in entire game. If small section of mediocre difficulty platforming is a con for you, that's pretty sad.

- "The map lacks some key features". I wouldn't mind markers but again the point of this con you throw "make exploration easier". It's personal preference not a con, many people would say thats all casual, and would prefer playing without map at all or with approximate map. Many gamers hate casual navigations in many nowdays games, like quest markers, quest compases, maps and overdose of hints. When games act like a player is a dumbass with zero attention and memory.

- "Key explorational abilities/tools are extremely hard to find". Some relics you can't miss if you explore simply locations, some relics can be find if you simply read key item descriptions. And others secrets can be revealed if you read dead bodies notes. How exremely hard to read it must be.
"This is just a very badly thought out and poor gameplay design, an improper implementation of a key genre element." - nope that's a great game design and again you attribute flaws based on your casual preferences. Bad objectification.

- "The problem of stun-locks" - surprisingly your first adequate con. But it happens rare, only on few attacks.

- "The need of QOL updates - Multiple smaller problems"
"First of all, why the "mana" doesn't recharge fully if I rest at a Shrine?" - because it also spends tears. Maybe it would be more simple, if you'll do not spend tears and recharge fervor near bonfire, but why should it be "more simple" in the first place? You noticed you can do it - good for you. Some players don't recharge fervor, because they didn't notice that. Atention rewarding.

"Also, why there's auto-scrolling when it comes to texts from ghosts?" - no idea, doesn't affect anything.

"Another thing: why the item descriptions are needlessly convoluted? Why I have to scroll down again and again under each equippable jewel for example, if I want to actually know what it does?" - yes, I got it, reading too hard for you. It's not a con, even not a small one. It's your con as a player.

- "Improper implementation of fast-travel" - again "make game more casual" false con. Fast travels exists not to make your journey trivial jumps from one key place to another. Item for teleportation to bonfire would be ok, but it doesn't matter.

- "Using Prayers is needlessly cumbersome" - "First of all, they should activate instantly upon pressing the corresponding button" - first of all you're casual, who don't understand timings.

"their activation animation is huge" - one second

"it can slow down the general rhythm/pace of the game and its fights" - it's a part of game's rhythm. Thats a pro and exact thing, what many people liked in HK, where you should manage your healings on openings.

"not even mentioning the fact that it can lead you to getting hit..." - oh no. "a lot" - not suprised you put it in cons then. Blame game, not own inability to understand timings.

"The other problem is that if you don't cut yourself like a suicidal maniac all the time, your mana will always be very limited even if you have dealt with a lot of enemies and you won't really be able to cast Prayers" - there is a bead and "useless" mea culpa hearth, which lets you gain verfor fast. Or you can cut a bit of health, if you want relly on prayer much. They're there not to be spamed like maniac. Or pay some price for spam. It's called balance.

"Finally, there should be an option to switch Prayers "on the fly" - it's your own preference, not a con. Say ty the game pause itself in menu unlike soulsborne, where people gain actually skill, how to swap in a second.

Overall, your cruitique childish, with a lots of bias and casual preferences as cons, but lack of understanding many pros, that game has. Lots of water, and lack of objection. I respect your opninon and value your critique for solid 3,5/10.

[Dung Defender]

When I was hit and killed by last boss lightning x3 without a chance to counter. I just think to myself: What the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ point? may as well make it an instant death.

Note to devs: Taking away players control is always the dumbest idea of game making.

[Dung Defender]

^ sword hearts is useless, aside from the increase blocking time.

[Dung Defender]

Also why did devs write misleading description? With downward sword thrust, you say "press" but it is actually "hold" to active it.

[Gwyn]

Originally posted by Dung Defender:

^ sword hearts is useless, aside from the increase blocking time.

1. Sword hearts are useful. I can describe how so, every single heart, if you really want, but I think you'll probably know yourself, you just wasn't bother much about their functionality, and just expected something OP.
2. A word "press" more often used in "tap" meaning, but it's also can mean "hold". The term not incorrect, just can be understood differently.
3. Why single moment in discription bothers you that much? Maybe it wasn't best word to describe clearly, but how far do you go in your sensitiveness?

[HighLanderPony]

Originally posted by Gwyn:

I like inconvenience.

Sad.

[Gwyn]

Originally posted by HighLanderPony:

I'm obsessed griefer hater.

Sad.