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

[HighLanderPony]

That's not how playing tag works.

"Now embrace yourself for the incoming of the "best 10/10 goty u ♥♥♥♥" crew."

Like clockwork.

[Zachmark571]

Very good review, although I did disagree with several of your cons. I do acknowledge that a game review is always affected by personal preference, so I will just make a few points to add to the discussion.

1. I do agree, the sword hearts were a let down for me personally. I was hoping for something like "gain increased fervour from attacks", "finisher grant's damage reduction", in practise, you would still get hit, but take less damage if for example you were in the middle of upward slash (upgrade). They do have their uses, but some of them are just buffs like "deal double damage, when health is below 25%".

2. Traps as an insta-kill. I like the fact that they instantly kill you and only have a problem with their positioning. Some traps require near perfect jumps to avoid. Not a fan of that, but making them do just some damage does not incentivize being more careful, at least not enough IMO.

3, Combos are very useful on some enemies. The floating man with the pike? Get the upward slash finisher and mow him down a bit faster, while avoiding other enemies.
But mainly they are great for certain bosses. With archbishop you can do more damage before he gets back in the air if you use any of the finishers.

4. Prayers have a place and right timing. They do work on every enemy and should be used carefully. I think making the animation any smaller would trivialize every big enemy.
I however think you get them way too late in the game, as I used the same one through the 3 main bosses.

5. Making fast travel super accessible, like in DS 2 and 3 would for me, make the game a worse experience by A LOT. I can't emphasize enough how bad this would be for exploration.
If I was able to travel to every shrine just like that, I would miss hidden walls, items, and sidequests as many people like to go through the game, not by looking through every nook and cranny on the first go, but by progressing like a normal person would.

6. I do agree somewhat with key explorational items being too hard to find, as I found my first (the invisible platforms) when I had already slain several bosses. But I must admit, it feels so rewarding to find them. It also greatly incentivizes exploration, while you won't obsess over finding everything, since you can't yet get to them.

[Scroubignon]

I think this is a very good review and I agree on most points.

As for the debate :

For combos and prayers, I get it, you can use them, but the point is that it doesn't feel rewarding. Why would you bother when spamming the attack button does the same thing faster? Convenience beats style for many people. I think there's one boss where the charged blow is useful, and one where the upper combo is useful but that's it. Otherwise you don't want to use those. It's a bit of a shame imo. Prayers against bosses are pretty underwhelming, high risk and little reward, and I didn't see many people use them. Swinging your sword like a madman works better! Those that come close to being worth the trouble don't last long enough...

For fast travel everywhere, I see why you could be against it, but honestly when I was collecting everything I was missing it was a chore more than anything to have to walk there directly. It's really not a problem in normal play, but in the "post game", yeah no I didn't enjoy it at all. I don't think it adds anything where you know the area very well and just come back for a vine thingy or a puzzle. It's just tedious.

Also, it doesn't seem to be very known but you can find secret rooms easily on the map because it lights up when you put the cursor on a room you haven't discovered yet. I don't know if it was intended but it's much faster than hitting every wall like a madman.

[Zachmark571]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Scroubignon:

I think this is a very good review and I agree on most points.

As for the debate :

For combos and prayers, I get it, you can use them, but the point is that it doesn't feel rewarding. Why would you bother when spamming the attack button does the same thing faster? Convenience beats style for many people. I think there's one boss where the charged blow is useful, and one where the upper combo is useful but that's it. Otherwise you don't want to use those. It's a bit of a shame imo. Prayers against bosses are pretty underwhelming, high risk and little reward, and I didn't see many people use them. Swinging your sword like a madman works better! Those that come close to being worth the trouble don't last long enough...

For fast travel everywhere, I see why you could be against it, but honestly when I was collecting everything I was missing it was a chore more than anything to have to walk there directly. It's really not a problem in normal play, but in the "post game", yeah no I didn't enjoy it at all. I don't think it adds anything where you know the area very well and just come back for a vine thingy or a puzzle. It's just tedious.

Also, it doesn't seem to be very known but you can find secret rooms easily on the map because it lights up when you put the cursor on a room you haven't discovered yet. I don't know if it was intended but it's much faster than hitting every wall like a madman.

Yeah I agree with the point about whether or not the special attacks are worth using. Basic attacks are better overall, excluding scenarios like being swarmed from both sides or from above. I personally find them nice to use and they do have their niches.

About the fast travel again I see your point, but which do you think is more important, the normal play, or the "post game" for completionists? But then again each to their own.

I do hate that hidden pathways aren't marked in any way, maybe they are hinted a little bit with lamps against walls and such, but it is annoying hitting every prominent wall.

[CreamyT]

Close to finishing the game (92% i think ATM), but I agree with most of this.

Overall, there are several mounting issues the make the game tedious in the long run, most all of which you have listed. Any single one of those factors by themselves isn't necessarily bad - low amount of fast travel spots, obscure clues/items, instant death traps, loading times, etc. But all combined are rough.

I would guess I've spent 50% of my overall playtime retreading areas I've been through looking for things I've already found but couldn't quite access. I've gone through so many of the exact same rooms countless times, trying to find some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NPC that moved or some object I interacted with but couldn't "activate" hours ago. I have no plans to play this through a second time, even though I often do with Metroidvanias/souls-likes, as this has become an enormous slog to finish up.

Also just ignore Gwyn. He's either trolling or lacks the ability to understand critique. Just FYI, Gwyn, in case you aren't trolling, game designers want to hear critical feedback. Even if you don't agree with it or everything someone says, it's important to understand people's subjective experiences. You don't have a knee-jerk reaction and implement every suggestion, and you balance it with other people's opinions (like yours), and then ultimately rely on your own understanding of game design to change what you want. To be honest, you do your best to listen to overly-emotional feedback as well, you just take it with a grain of salt. Unless you're just making an art project, gamers' experiences matter.

[HighLanderPony]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bobson Dugnutt:

Close to finishing the game (92% i think ATM), but I agree with most of this.

Overall, there are several mounting issues the make the game tedious in the long run, most all of which you have listed. Any single one of those factors by themselves isn't necessarily bad - low amount of fast travel spots, obscure clues/items, instant death traps, loading times, etc. But all combined are rough.

I would guess I've spent 50% of my overall playtime retreading areas I've been through looking for things I've already found but couldn't quite access. I've gone through so many of the exact same rooms countless times, trying to find some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NPC that moved or some object I interacted with but couldn't "activate" hours ago. I have no plans to play this through a second time, even though I often do with Metroidvanias/souls-likes, as this has become an enormous slog to finish up.

Also just ignore Gwyn. He's either trolling or lacks the ability to understand critique. Just FYI, Gwyn, in case you aren't trolling, game designers want to hear critical feedback. Even if you don't agree with it or everything someone says, it's important to understand people's subjective experiences. You don't have a knee-jerk reaction and implement every suggestion, and you balance it with other people's opinions (like yours), and then ultimately rely on your own understanding of game design to change what you want. To be honest, you do your best to listen to overly-emotional feedback as well, you just take it with a grain of salt. Unless you're just making an art project, gamers' experiences matter.

I appreciate this writeup.

[Gwyn]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bobson Dugnutt:

Also just ignore Gwyn. He's either trolling or lacks the ability to understand critique. Just FYI, Gwyn, in case you aren't trolling, game designers want to hear critical feedback. Even if you don't agree with it or everything someone says, it's important to understand people's subjective experiences. You don't have a knee-jerk reaction and implement every suggestion, and you balance it with other people's opinions (like yours), and then ultimately rely on your own understanding of game design to change what you want. To be honest, you do your best to listen to overly-emotional feedback as well, you just take it with a grain of salt. Unless you're just making an art project, gamers' experiences matter.

Well, I also can say you're trolling or lacks the ability to think consistently and to understand my critique and that you should be ignored.
Game designers want to hear objective reasonable feedback. Give the game proper critique, I'll not argue, but if you bring double standarts or personal casual preferences as the golden standart of game design, and put everything that not cater your lack of interest of learning or exporing or your lack of skill as a con, well don't be upset, someone can tell you, you're wrong. I argumented each point I disagree, you bring counterpoints or don't waste time.

[aub]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Gwyn:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από 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.

Even if sword hearts can be useful, they don't seem worth the effort to learn to use properly, since the game is fairly easy anyways.

[Nyarlathotep]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Gwyn:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bobson Dugnutt:

Also just ignore Gwyn. He's either trolling or lacks the ability to understand critique. Just FYI, Gwyn, in case you aren't trolling, game designers want to hear critical feedback. Even if you don't agree with it or everything someone says, it's important to understand people's subjective experiences. You don't have a knee-jerk reaction and implement every suggestion, and you balance it with other people's opinions (like yours), and then ultimately rely on your own understanding of game design to change what you want. To be honest, you do your best to listen to overly-emotional feedback as well, you just take it with a grain of salt. Unless you're just making an art project, gamers' experiences matter.

Well, I also can say you're trolling or lacks the ability to think consistently and to understand my critique and that you should be ignored.
Game designers want to hear objective reasonable feedback. Give the game proper critique, I'll not argue, but if you bring double standarts or personal casual preferences as the golden standart of game design, and put everything that not cater your lack of interest of learning or exporing or your lack of skill as a con, well don't be upset, someone can tell you, you're wrong. I argumented each point I disagree, you bring counterpoints or don't waste time.

There is basically no such thing as objective feedback. Its not math, and unless you are simply stating a fact, such as there is an item here or this boss can do this attack, feedback is always subjective. Its opinion. The only way you can experience a medium is through your own lens, and thats all you can report. If you have a different experience, Gwyn, then that is equally valuable, and I'm sure the Devs would like to hear it. There is no need to insult anyone else's opinion, however, unless it somehow causes harm, which this doesnt.

[DaemonX_HUN]

A respond to Gwyn's first comment in this thread:

Most of your counterarguments are not exactly counterarguments. In most of them, you either just call me a casual and look down on me, or you just throw random words together but you don't explain properly why I'm not right about specific things I've mentioned.

It's easy to make a complex game, it's easy to make an overly hard. frustrating, and complicated game. What's harder is to make a properly balanced game in which every single element works seamlessly together for a very pleasant gameplay experience. A game in which everything is streamlined in a smart way without compromising the depth of the gameplay.

That's what I have asked for. A more streamlined game that flows better. And you should understand that making a game more streamlined does not equal to a more casual game, and also asking for a more streamlined and better thought out game doesn't mean I'm casual. I just wanted a game that is better designed.

Just to give you an example, Dark Souls can be a much harder game than Blasphemous if you don't know what you are doing and it's also much deeper. Yet, I never really felt that it was unfair or badly designed, aside from some very minor cases. Because it's a game that is deep, but almost perfectly streamlined and designed at the same time.

Also, I'm anything, but casual. I played many PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, PS Vita, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, SNES, N64, Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC titles and I completed nearly 700 video games and I even have an almost complete Excel list about them.

I also completed every single meaningful Souls-like and SoulsBorne title, and under a very short time compared to others and I even wrote a post about them on Reddit not too long ago in which I explained what made each of them special for me.

And, you know, these types of titles are often considered to be some of the hardest games... and not casual ones. Not to brag, or anything, but it just seems like you really picked the wrong guy to call casual.

In my eyes, you are the casual, who is so far up in his own ass and knows so little about proper game design that he can't admit that something he likes (in this case, Blasphemous) has some critical game design flaws. It's just childish.

[DaemonX_HUN]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Scroubignon:

I think this is a very good review and I agree on most points.

As for the debate :

For combos and prayers, I get it, you can use them, but the point is that it doesn't feel rewarding. Why would you bother when spamming the attack button does the same thing faster? Convenience beats style for many people. I think there's one boss where the charged blow is useful, and one where the upper combo is useful but that's it. Otherwise you don't want to use those. It's a bit of a shame imo. Prayers against bosses are pretty underwhelming, high risk and little reward, and I didn't see many people use them. Swinging your sword like a madman works better! Those that come close to being worth the trouble don't last long enough...

Yeah, I really agree with this, most of the time I just spammed (X)... and it wouldn't have been possible to do combos anyway, maybe rarely, because of the things I explained in my post.

[DaemonX_HUN]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bobson Dugnutt:

I would guess I've spent 50% of my overall playtime retreading areas I've been through looking for things I've already found but couldn't quite access. I've gone through so many of the exact same rooms countless times, trying to find some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NPC that moved or some object I interacted with but couldn't "activate" hours ago. I have no plans to play this through a second time, even though I often do with Metroidvanias/souls-likes, as this has become an enormous slog to finish up.

This was the case for me too, roughly 50% of my playtime was just spent with backtracking and collecting remaining items, etc. It become a little bit tedious after a while, mostly because I wasn't able to fast-travel and because of the lack of any active or manual map markers.

[Gwyn]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nyarlathotep:

There is basically no such thing as objective feedback. Its not math, and unless you are simply stating a fact, such as there is an item here or this boss can do this attack, feedback is always subjective. Its opinion. The only way you can experience a medium is through your own lens, and thats all you can report. If you have a different experience, Gwyn, then that is equally valuable, and I'm sure the Devs would like to hear it. There is no need to insult anyone else's opinion, however, unless it somehow causes harm, which this doesnt.

You're right, there is no such thing as 100% objective critique, but as more reasonable and impersonal your feedback, then more close to objective it is. And that's why different critique has different value in it. That's why people love so much to watch some consistent honest reviews, critics and laughs on others - biased or sold out like kotaku poligons reviews, etc. (I'm not compare OP to those, just as a simple example)

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από DaemonX_HUN:

A respond to Gwyn's first comment in this thread:

Ok, I know that word "casual" is a meme, and some people can see it as offend, but it's actually not, and it wasn't my goal to insult anyone. Diffirent people has different reaction, memory, petience, skill and I don't think that a person who not good at something is by any means deserves despise. It's totally ok if you're casual player, not a bad thing. The problem is that, there are enough of casual players, who think that difficulty or no overguidance in games is objectivly bad thing. They think that if the game wasn't designed for thier average or low effort/skill, that game is bad. And that's what I see in your critique. All cons about "why should I read descriptions" sounds like a jokes, don't you see it? All cons about navigations or useless items or timings as well.

About fact that you playd a lots of games, I respect that. About soulslike games "often considered to be some of the hardest games" - considered by whom? By players who didn't play anything harder then Skyrim? Yes, they can be difficult, but also you can literally cheese all soulsborne franchise in many different ways. You mentioned "trap" section as a con, for example, and that was one of reasons I named you "casual" - if you don't like that word replace it with "lack of skill and attention". There is only one small section I can think of, that can be problematic for some people, and even that part is very easy, when you're not rush. You mentioned Hollow Knight here - have you ever playd White Palace or Path of Pain? Those are so much more rigorous, then that simple small platforming location in Blasphemous. And people love it, not putting it in cons. I wish we had more and harder platforming sections in Blasphemous. Difficulty in general isn't a con.

Anyways. Your opinon has right to exist and I still think it's a poor critique for reasons I stated. It's good that you're trying to analize and critique things, but then you should be ready to receive critique as well. My goal wasn't to upset you or to saltshake. My goal was to help you understand, where are real cons and where are "things just not for me". Just to bring you a window for improvement.

[Kamamura]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από HighLanderPony:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Gwyn:

I like inconvenience.

Sad.

Yep, masochists do not really count when trying to progress.

[Gwyn]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Kamamura:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από HighLanderPony:

Sad.

Yep, masochists do not really count when trying to progress.

So true. I flail myself every time I'm playing through those impossible platform sections in Blasphemous. And I don't even ask for markers, because you can find your sacred path only when you complitely lost in imposible to memorize infinity mazes of doom, created by mad architect will. And you'll complitely lost your mind, when I'll tell you, I go so far, that I'm playing Hollow Knight without wayward compas!!