Several Animation and Movement Bugs + Feedback

[Cavou]

Firstly, I just want to say that Blasphemous is an excellent game! Thank you for making such an unforgettable journey. I was among the early backers on Kickstarter and I am very happy with how the game ended up and is continuing to be supported with wonderful free DLC. I wish to help make the game even better, so I have an assortment of observations over my 42 hours of total playtime in Blasphemous.

Ladder Animation Glitch: Falling down onto the top of a ladder (a spot where you can begin climbing down it) while holding down (the input to begin climbing down) causes the animation for beginning to climb down to play twice in a row before actually beginning to climb.

Ledge Grabbing Movement Glitch: I have experienced what seems to be the problem described in this already-existing thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/774361/discussions/1/2632850242356650838/
I would just like to make it known that this glitch is still present.

Bile Flask Healing Animation Oddity: Under some circumstances (related to getting hit) while repeatedly pressing the heal button, the player can heal twice at the same time. This sometimes results in the player consuming two bile flasks and healing twice at the same time, and this sometimes results in the player not consuming one of their bile flasks (it not disappearing off of the HUD and not healing the player), but it is unable to be used. So it will seem like they have one bile flask remaining, but they are unable to use it.
A related oddity that may be able to narrow down the other issue is that if the player does a second heal at a certain point in the recovery from the healing animation (when there is a big red ring of energy around the Penitent one), the red ring effect can linger in the air and the second heal animation will not play properly. On top of this, the healing sound will get abruptly cut off.

Feedback about Enemy Collision: Enemies of the same type often stand exactly on top of one another or offset by a couple pixels from on another, doing their attacks in perfect sync. While I appreciate how predictable this makes enemy patterns, I think it would be a lot less confusing, immersive and more readable for enemies to collide with each other instead of clipping into each other.
The Penitent one can also similarly ending up standing on top of/inside of enemies as well. Some enemies do not have this problem by having the Penitent one collide with them. Most if not all enemies should have the player collide with them (but still have them able to be dodged through). The "Crucified" enemy type are a good example of an enemy that collides with the player in a way that makes the enemy have a proper feeling of presence in the world. The player should still have priority to push the enemy in situations where they are backed against a wall or edge so players don't get unfairly pushed off cliffs or clip into walls. Also, another thing to note is that the collision around an enemy should be a bit larger than the enemy visually is. This should make combat feel better in close quarters.

Feedback about Ladder Movement Speed: Climbing ladders should, in my opinion, be increased by 25% or so.

Feedback on Camera Movement: The camera lagging behind the movements of the Penitent One can sometimes cause me motion sickness, so I would recommend an accessibility option to make camera movement less smoothed.

Enemies Attacking During Executions Feedback: The way that enemies continuously attack you when you are performing executions on stunned enemies seems strange and can result in awkward situations and hard to avoid hits. It would be better if they were programmed to go idle when the player is in the state of performing an execution.

[Team17_Assist]

Hey Cavou,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

We've passed all of the issues and feedback on to the team for further investigation and consideration.

We greatly appreciate the detailed information you have given us!

Thank you for your support and kind words! We're glad to hear that you are enjoying the game despite the above.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Cavou]

You're very welcome! I'm glad I have been helpful!

As one additional note I would like to add on enemy AI in Blasphemous, I notice sometimes when an enemy is on a ledge for example, and they are aware of the player's presence but are unable to get to them, they will continuously sprint against the edge of the ledge instead of accepting they cannot get to the player and going back to patrol or something like that. This can result in it being awkward to approach certain situations. An example where this situations occurs is with some of the Custodians of the Stained Glass on ledges in Mother of Mothers.

[Cavou]

Another bug I would like to mention is that on two occasions now the Tizona enemy in Grievance Ascends can get stuck in the rapier thrust animation, unable to get hit or do another attack. I am not sure what causes this, and it has happened in two separate occasions. When it happened in the room you get locked into in Grievance Ascends, if I recall correctly, the Tizona did not count as still being alive when stuck in this state and the door opened fine.

And another movement oddity I found, seemingly unintentional, is if you are attacking while pressing against a ledge that can be grabbed, you will fall for as long as the attack animation takes afterwards before being teleported back up to the ledge, instead of the attack being cancelled or the ledge grab not happening. The time spent falling before the teleport can be extended by doing a longer midair chain of attacks, but does not work if the player touches the ground.

[Cavou]

Another strange behavior is that when attacking when standing at the top of a ladder, it seems combos can be prevented from stringing past the first hit, seemingly due to the game trying to get the player to climb the ladder for one frame or something like that. I experienced it while fighting a giant in the Library of the Negated Words.

[Cavou]

While this is a *very* small visual issue, I wanted to note that when you anoint yourself with the oils of the pilgrims to increase the maximum fervor of the Penitent One, the notches on the fervor meter showing the casts of the prayer you have equipped do not update (new ones get added) until you switch prayers or reload the game. If the Penitent One has full fervor upon anointing themselves, this results in the flashing part of the fervor meter to get abruptly cut off. Again, this is very small but I wanted to note it regardless.

Perhaps the game could have a check or refresh of the player's prayer upon upgrading their fervor as an easy fix? Definitely don't make it a constant check or it could result with performance issues or stutters.

[Cavou]

I've spotted ten other issues I wish to give feedback on.

1. It seems like, if the Penitent One is hit at the exact moment of grabbing onto a ledge, they will be unable to climb up onto the ledge and will remain stuck there until killed. This happened to me in the Tres Angustias fight. I am not certain it was caused by me being hit, but I was hit at the moment of grabbing onto the ledge, though it is possible it was another circumstance or input that caused it, though I am unsure what.

2. The Mountains of the Endless Dusk is colored brown when viewing it when the map is zoomed in, but when the map is zoomed out it appears green instead of brown. Similarly, the Ferrous Tree is the same color as the Bridge of the Three Calvaries.

3. Lazarino enemies have strange behaviors when it comes to them dying when forming. If the Pregonoro summoning them dies when they are in the middle of manifesting, they will appear fully summoned for a brief moment before dying. This also happens when they are killed while in the middle of summoning. This visual oddity could be resolved by having them fully manifest before playing their dying animation if they die when in the process of manifesting (similar to how the Bedillo enemies will only due once they touch the ground if they die when jumping).

4. When fighting Soldiers of the Anointed Legion in the Archcathedral Rooftops, the spin attack they do can only be parried when standing further away when it looks to be necessary in order to parry successfully. The parry window should be adjusted so that the Penitent One can parry these foes when closer to them (a similar range as to what works when parrying their other, basic melee attack). The parry timing itself seems fine.

5. During the final boss fight with His Holiness Escribar (the first phase in his human form), I was hit by one of his lightning attack while in the air toward the left side of the arena, and I became knocked down onto my back in mid air. I stood back up, standing on nothing, and was unable to move or jump. I could attack, but could not become freed from this state until Escribar put me out of my misery. I am not exactly sure what resulted in this happening.

6. Escribar (again, the first phase of the final battle) leaves behind a lingering contact damage hurtbox for a few seconds after teleporting.

7. The death animation of the Amanecidas is cut off at one end, specifically the explosion effect at the end.

8. Sometimes a floating particle effect will appear in the air, especially in rooms separate from the main map, such as merchant rooms (in those cases, the particles float around the center item display, as they appear focused at the center of the room/first screen), and they also have appeared for me in the 'Dream' with the desert full of dead bodies where you get the Three Holy Wounds. The particle effect seems to always be mirrored, looking almost like the outline of a pair of wings, though it is clearly a glitch.
This anomaly is even visible on the main menu whenever a submenu (such as the skins menu) is closed. It also seems surrounded by a large translucent rectangle when viewed in such a way. The rectangle may always be present otherwise, but hard to see with other visual elements on screen.

9. If you attack an enemy while he is standing on an elevator and the elevator begins to go downwards, the enemy will begin to rapidly jitter back and forth in mid-air, unable to move. This happened to me with the elevators in the Wall of Holy Prohibitions when fighting a Flagellant enemy. Something similar also happened when a gate closed on a Flagellant enemy in the ambush where the Lion Head giant comes down on an elevator, where the Flagellant jittered back and forth while standing within the door, unable to move until the gate opened.

10. When the Penitent One is on a ladder and a ground-based enemy is beneath them, the enemy will sometimes stand directly beneath the ladder and jitter back and forth, trying to find a way to reach them despite it being impossible, as opposed to them going back on patrol after realizing the player cannot be reached.

[Team17_Assist]

Hi Cavou,

Thanks for getting back to us.

We are aware of a few of the issues you have mentioned and passed over your reports to the team for further investigation.

We greatly appreciate the feedback you have provided on some other aspects of the game.
We'll pass this on to the team for consideration.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Cavou]

In case it helps you, here are four screenshots of the strange gray 'butterfly pattern' I noticed manifest. The pattern manifests during screen transitions on the title screen, and is persistently visible within certain rooms such as the merchant's shop and the Dream where the Penitent One receives the holy wounds.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216638067

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216638046

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216645209

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216669036

[Team17_Assist]

Hi Cavou,

Thanks for sending these over.

We've passed this over to the team for further investigation.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Loren]

Originally posted by Team17_Assist:

Hi Cavou,

Thanks for sending these over.

We've passed this over to the team for further investigation.
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

Please also check this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kf7VYRRvA4

[Team17_Assist]

Hi Loren,

Thanks for sending the video over.

Could you please let us know exactly where the issues occur and what the issue exactly you are having is?

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

[Loren]

Originally posted by Team17_Assist:

Hi Loren,

Thanks for sending the video over.

Could you please let us know exactly where the issues occur and what the issue exactly you are having is?

Get back to us when you can.

Regards,
Team17 Support.

Please try asking the youtuber. This does not belong to me. I was checking to see if your game was bug free before purchasing it. (Beside the DLC reward slip-up.)

[Cavou]

A lot of the bugs in the video that Loren shared are fairly self-explanatory, but I will go over them all, instead of Loren doing it. Keep in mind I am not the original video creator either, but I am familiar with some of these bugs, and if not I know enough about game programming to have a decent idea of what is going on.

The first glitch shown is simply the Penitent One briefly jittering up after sinking partially through the floor when executing a Shieldmaiden. This seems to be due to the way the game re-positions him and the Shieldmaiden he is executing downward for the animation to play out.

The second glitch shown shows a Flagellant getting stuck in a falling animation after using the fully upgraded plunge attack beam to attack him while he is off-screen at a higher elevation than the Penitent One. This seems to be caused by the way the game culls off-screen enemies and simplifies their location and movements for optimization's sake, from what I can guess.

The issue with the Tizona enemy getting stuck is featured in the video, the one I reported earlier and saw another person on the forums report, so this is definitely known about, but hopefully the video shows it off best. Not sure exactly what causes it, but may be due to them hitting edges of platforms in their dash and getting stuck.

The next glitch in the compilation shows the Penitent One getting stuck in a falling animation by using a plunging attack and landing at the top of a ladder, similar to the glitch I mentioned a while ago where the Penitent One can end up doing the animation of mounting a ladder twice in succession by holding down while landing on a ladder top when falling from high up enough. This seems to be due to the game not taking into proper account falling conditions combined with ladder mounting.

The Penitent One facing away from NPCs when talking to them by moving away at the same time as talking to them is a tiny glitch and not a big deal, but was also shown in the video. It's likely a matter of the game simply processing two inputs on the same frame.

I am unsure why the Amanecida got stuck in place exactly, but it seems like she was trying to begin to perform another attack or action but something prevented it from happening properly. No idea what it could have been, I never experienced that issue myself.

I have experienced the issue where the Amargura (four-legged beast that spits fireballs) shoots a fireball that comes from the opposite side of the screen, instead of from it's mouth. This seems to be due to the way the game handles those projectiles when they are too close to the edge of the screen when they are created.

The issue of getting stuck on top of Quirce's boss chamber simply seems to be what happens if you jump to the furthest right of the hole above the boss room, and continue holding right as you fall, due to having directional control even when falling into a new room. That mechanic of directional control when falling into a new room can be very useful when using the Linen of Golden Thread to fall down pits that normally kill the Penitent One.

The softlock with Laudes' introduction cutscene seems to be due to skipping her dialogue too quickly, messing up the scripted event's timing.

The effect of the 'copy' of the player running in place seems to be caused by the Brilliant Heart of Dawn, where the blue versions of the Penitent One that appear behind the player to create the effect of motion blur can get stuck in a running animation if the action of running is abruptly cut off by interacting with something such as the chapel in Albero.

The glitch of being able to move during the fight with Chrisanta is something I had experienced and had been investigating. It seems to be caused by getting hit by an attack with powerful knockback at the same moment as sliding. This is not exclusive to Chrisanta's boss fight.

The glitch of the player's Guilt Fragment appearing in a place other than where they died seems to just be caused by the game trying to find solid, reachable ground so that the fragment can be retrieved, and sometimes that causes small issues by making it appear elsewhere in a room than the spot where the player died. This glitch is something I consider extremely minor.

And lastly, the final glitch in the video shows a Guardainfante getting stuck in a wall in a Confessor Statue arena. This happened at the moment of it spawning, seemingly due to a misplaced spawn point for it, most likely.

I hope I have been helpful! And Loren, thank you for sharing the video with the developers and I.

[Cavou]

Completely unrelated to the video, but I also have some more feedback to provide about further improving the feeling of fairness in a few battles in Blasphemous. The Stir of Dawn made many improvements in this aspect but I wanted to help with even more improvements in fairness.

Quirce has frames of animation where he will block damage before his arms are up in front of him (normally his arms up in front of him during one of his dash attacks indicate that he is immune to damage from the front).

Quirce cannot be damaged when grabbing his sword off of the wall even though he can be damaged when leaping off the wall during the move where he throws his sword into the other side, which is inconsistent behavior.

I reported earlier that the Soldiers of the Anointed Legion enemies in the Archcathedral Rooftops area have a spin attack that requires the player to be rather far away from them to parry that attack, despite that not being required for other attacks in Blasphemous. I discovered a few other oddities with them, including it being possible for the hitbox of their regular swing attack to become out of sync with their animation, meaning the player will be seemingly hit by nothing.

The Soldiers of the Anointed Legion also have an oddity where they have hyper armor (damage immunity) during a lot of states where they seem like they shouldn't, even just when walking around or seeming otherwise vulnerable. This should probably be changed due to it being inconsistent behavior compared to most other enemies, including Esdras, who fights similarly to them.

Related to the unusual damage immunity/hyper armor that the Soldiers of the Anointed Legion have, a few enemies in the game have a state to them where they aren't in a vulnerable state but also don't have hyper armor protecting them from damage. In this state, the 'attack deflected' or 'attack blocked' effect will not happen, the enemy will bleed upon getting hit, and also no sound effect will play other than the sound of the player swinging at thin air. So, no sound of the enemy getting hit, no sound of the enemy blocking the hit, and no sound of the enemy deflecting the hit with hyper armor damage immunity.

This strange state mentioned above is present not just with the Soldiers of the Anointed Legion, but also effects the Charging Knell enemy (big guys who wear a giant bell and charge at you) when you attack them from the front when they are recovering from a charging attack. The third and final enemy I am aware of this oddity with are the phantom copies that some of the Amanecidas create, such as when the Amanecida of the Chiseled Steel creates a copy that explodes soon after; if you attack those copies, the silent bleeding effect happens. Those copies, however, appear to be unkillable and there is no reason to damage them before they explode on their own.

I hope I have done a good job explained myself, hopefully this feedback is helpful too! If you have any questions about anything I said, please do ask.

[Team17_Assist]

Hey Cavou,

Thanks for your reply.

The team is currently working on the reported issues.
Thanks again for all of your feedback!

Regards,
Team17 Support.