Miriam from Bloodstained feels really out of place here...

[CAPTAIN KRAMERICA]

I mean, I love Bloodstained and I love this game, but she has no business being in Blasphemous. It felt really cheesy to see her, and kinda felt sell-out-ish. This game is about as dark as a game can get, and then here comes Miriam making me run around looking for shards... Like the penitent one would really do that. Just really cheesy to me but oh well.

[emersonsk8_100]

I agree, it was very out of place with the game's proposal, for me the worst thing about this dlc is that it is focused on platforming, something extremely problematic in the game, perhaps the game's biggest defect, instead of being a cool and fun challenge and purely frustrating and irritating.

[CAPTAIN KRAMERICA]

Man, the platforming... I had a lot of problems sticking to a ladder after a jump for some reason. I think I may just ignore the bloodstained side quests. I think I am almost done with the game anyway.

[VOID]

Miriam's challenges only give you a rather "meh" prayer that forces enemies into their execution state.

I personally enjoy the platforming, so I do her challenges because I like doing them, but if you're not into the platforming, and you're not a completionist nutcase like me, you're not losing much for skipping them.

Although, I'd like to mention that some bead combinations have an effect on the player movement that might make platforming more enjoyable. I personally use the first two stone toes from Redento to enhance the dodge move (which I spam constantly to traverse the world faster), as well as the mason wheel for movement speed, and the Amanecidas sword core for a massive speed boost that allows clearing larger gaps and doing some neat tricks. Oh, and the tombstone to negate the ground slam when falling from high above.

The invulnerability prayer also makes the platforming challenges way easier by negating knockback from fireballs, or allowing you to completely ignore the pendulums.

But then again, if you're not into it, you're not into it, no shame in that.

And love as I love the game, and despite how much I like the challenges and the whole aesthetic of Miriam's scenes... Yeah, she sticks like a sore thumb in the world of Cvstodia.
I've tried looking into it and haven't found why they did this crossover.

[CAPTAIN KRAMERICA]

I finished 3 of the challenges, but then I just finished the game. They weren't awful honestly (especially when you get better at catching ladders after a jump) , just the bloodstained concept around them that irked me. I did overall enjoy Blasphemous, I may pick up the 2nd one in the near future.

[Reverent Machine]

Personally, I hate these trials, they don't fit into the story and the timing of the hazards just feels like the devs took the opportunity to troll the player at every possible moment. It is impossible to beat these trials first time, you need to die repeatedly to learn the path and get to the end within the time limit. The reward isn't even worth the repetition it takes, by the time you get the reward you've upgraded Mea Culpa enough that you just don't need it.

Ladders are a pain, wall grabs are a pain, the fact that you let go every time you're hit by a stray fireball is a pain. It's the path of pain without any real meaning or purpose to the story, just thrown in there for the sake of having an update. AND WHY IS DROP THE SAME DAMN BUTTON AS JUMP?!

The game is great, this addition to it sucks.