Reviews: Blasphemous 2
Spoiler free review of the base game. I have not played the paid for DLC Mea Culpa.
About the game
The Penitent One awakens as Blasphemous 2 joins him once again in an endless struggle against The Miracle. Dive into a perilous new world filled with mysteries and secrets to discover, and tear your way through monstrous foes that stand between you and your quest to end the cycle once and for all.
The game was released in Sept 2023 and was developed by The Game Kitchen and published by Team17.
There is DLC scheduled for Oct 2024.
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: One setting
Completed: yes - main story
Time: 28 hours
Summary: Stylistically as captivating as the first one with more details in the pixel art. Improved combat options with more weapons, which also have to be used and mastered for the many puzzles. The additions of the puzzles with some platforming elements added to the fun factor for me, while many bosses seemed a lot easier, which is occasionally a let down … until the end.
Score: 8/10
I am writing this over 28 hours in, and with multiple attempts at killing one of the last bosses, so I have not completed the main storyline yet. Luckily the free update I received today included a slight life improvement … paying off guilt is a lot cheaper than it was 24 hours ago. :D
It is now a couple of days later and I was close to giving up. This almost final boss was so much more difficult than any other in the game. It almost felt like I cruised through the game compared to the first one. As I mentioned in the heading I have not played the new pay for DLC Mea Culpa, but I have explored the extra bits of the map, and the free DLC gives big quality of life improvements, that just made it even more enjoyable to play.
More fun factor
Over the first game, this one is an improvement. Working in tech I feel like Blasphemous was the “Minimum viable product”, and Blasphemous 2 is the accumulation of the learning from the first one and packed up with more fun.
The main difference for me is that this is definitely a metroidvania. The map is pretty freely explorable, bar some areas for which you need certain skills, which you unlock quickly enough. The addition of waypoint markers was helpful to keep you more on track, whereas as the first game made you feel pretty lost.
Being in my late thirties with a full time job, a household and pets, I don’t have much time to keep guessing where I am meant to be going, so I appreciated the waypoint markers. (I also am very bad at reading maps.)
In addition to a well executed metroidvania element, we have more puzzles and platforming challenges, based around the three weapons you can use to adjust your play style. This was a stroke of genius and the puzzles felt interesting and difficult enough, without becoming frustrating. The character moved well through these and I had a lot of fun doing these, maybe more than the fights.
I alluded to this in the beginning but the enemies and boss fights were mostly a let down, apart from the last-ish boss which for some reason I could not beat for two evenings. :D
All the other fights weren’t as interesting as the first game, especially in terms of art.
Pixel Art
This game was picked up straight after Blasphemous one. It might have been in the same evening. This led to me feeling a bit disappointed with the art. There was a bit of flat feeling, and some of the NPC did not seem as gruesome or interesting to look at as in the first game. Seeing the ending cut scenes made me remember what this feeling was. The art style in the cut-scenes is completely different (Almost a bit disney-like) and it was pretty jarring. So as the game starts and you see this different art style in the cut scene it left me a bit confused and cold.
The more of the areas I got to explore the more I appreciated the evolution of the art style again. Maybe because the art was more detailed, I did not fill in the gaps with my own imagination and hence it felt flat. Once I accepted the style I really enjoyed it (the cut scenes are still a mismatch though in my opinion), and looking back at Blasphemous it is an improvement, but my “magic” factor wasn’t really there. A handful of the enemies are repurposed from the first game, which is fine really, but some may want to see more differences and evolutions of those.
Which game to play?
Being an “older” gamer I understand that there is less time to game and we also want to make purchases that are worth our time and money. I really think you can skip the first Blasphemous and go straight to the second one. It is so much more approachable and you are not really missing out. Blasphemous 2 is a great evolution, taking the best bits of the first one and adding to them and making things like fast travel a lot easier.
I found that there is a bit for most gaining styles in this game despite it being a metroidvania. There are puzzles (basic but still) and platforming elements that keep the gaming style varied and stop you from just smashing through the story as I tended to do with other games.
I did have to look up an NPC quest, but I have no shame in that and wanted to see what happens when I complete it. :)
Verdict 8/10
I enjoyed Blasphemous so much that I was surprised how I fell in love with Blasphemous 2, especially because first off I thought it was a bit flat. This was definitely one that grew on me and the fun factor grew too. The more abilities I unlocked the more of the platforming challenges I could complete and this was really where the fun was for me. If you can only play one of these definitely give Blasphemous 2 your time and money. It has the fun factor for me.
Have you played one or two of the games in the series? What about the DLC? I was tempted to get it but will wait for a little bit, as I go through my backlog.
Nice review! Though I'll try the first game anyway. It just looks too interesting to ignore.