This heavy curtain that separates sin and confession, crime and judgment, conceals naught but shadows
When it comes to games getting a sequel, I never really saw Blasphemous ever getting one, but it seems I was wrong because of the first game's true ending. It pretty much said that the devs were working on a sequel so with all of that said, Blasphemous 2 has come out. Despite me having a number of issues with the first game, I enjoyed it quite a lot and was actually some what looking forward to playing the sequel. Although with all of that said, I do think the devs of The Game Kitchen, took a step forward but a few steps back.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Fun metroidvenia gameplay with a lot to explore
Three different weapons for you to use, each with unique abilities
Actually useful upgradesNice side quests for you to do
Lots of collectibles for you to findNice pixel art style and animated cutscenes
Cons
Two out of the three weapons are underwhelming to use
The same enemies are reused most of the time
Bosses were underwhelming and just did not feel fun to fight
The world is not really fun nor memorable in this game
Story
The story for Blasphemous 2 is a bit interesting because there is actually a story that makes sense here. The Penitent One is resurrected and is tasked with retrieving these three regrets, he must go and defeat someone by the name of Eviterno. Who is trying to get the Miracle’s new child born so the Miracle can be prevented from returning.
I am conflicted about the story of this game, but it is nice to have a story that makes sense. It does take away something that I think the first Blasphemous got right and that’s the mystery that the story had with it. This game does have mystery to it but not as much as the first game had and I think it’s missing from this game.
Gameplay
An interesting thing to note for Blasphemous 2’s gameplay is that you have three to choose from instead of having one weapon with you. Although you can only select one from the start, you can eventually find the other two. This also gives you access to what secrets and hidden items you can get from the game.
The weapons I went with first were the Sarmiento and Centella, as they were a sword and dagger combo, as they are usually my preferred weapon of choice in hand and slashes because they can do high amounts of damage with their combos. Although I’ll get back to this whole combo thing later down the line in the review. Overall though the gameplay is very fun
The three weapons that you have access to, each have a unique ability for platforming. Sarmiento and Centellia give you the ability to teleport from certain mirrors, you can access other platforms, you can also chain to other mirrors and you will need to attack that mirror in quick succession to get to other mirrors.
Veredicto is the slowest of the three weapons but it does the most damage out of them all. It has the ability to attack these bells that will give you access to these platforms that will disappear after a few seconds. This is my favorite weapon to use when it comes to the platforming as I do think the devs took advantage out of it, unlike the other two. Also if you time it just right, Veredicto can actually damage enemies twice in one attack. I have no idea if this is a glitch or not but it’s something I did like.
Ruego Al Alba is the last weapon and is pretty much my favorite out of the three, I’ll get onto why soon though. This weapon is the most balanced out of the three but it’s the least useful for platforming, as it only gives you the ability to destroy these walls. However, now I can go onto why this weapon is my favorite and I will also be talking about one of the biggest issues I have with the weapons in Blasphemous 2. Ruego Al Alba, can combo, the other two weapons can’t, you only get a basic attack for those two.
This is very odd, as this is a platformer/metroidvenia, so you would expect all three of these weapons to combo, even when you put upgrades into these two weapons. As a matter of fact, in the later parts of the game, Ruego Al Alba just out-classes these two weapons, it’s sad because I like the ideas they had for the gameplay.
Although speaking of platforms, that’s one thing the game has improved on, so there is that, no more broken ladders in this game. The upgrades you can get have also gotten a major overhaul and are actually useful. There are upgrades for your weapons, weapon memories for new abilities and more. The abilities you can get also have changed in some ways, instead of them being for combat, they are instead used for platforming, which is something I did like.
There are also some side quests for you to do and they can offer some very nice rewards, like some upgrades or abilities. There are a ton of collectibles for you to go out and find and the game does encourage you to go out and explore its world.
Although that’s really it I have to say on some of the other positive stuff because I have a few more negatives that the game has. One of the issues is that the enemies are just sometimes reused. The only difference that these new enemies have is that they have a different elemental attack that they can use and are reskinned. They end up being a bit boring to fight, just like the bosses. However, the boss fights are another issue here and in my opinion, are the worst aspect for this game. They aren’t fun to fight and are just giant sponges, the only two bosses I actually liked were Bendicta of Endless Orison and this may be a hot take but Odon of The Confraternity of Salt were my favorite bosses.
Although that was it, sadly the rest are pretty bad, with Evterno. Father of the Penitents is the worst boss. It has an easy first phase, a massive difficulty spike in phase two that makes you do things the game has never thrown at you and you can’t afford to make a mistake due to you not having many opportunities to heal. All of this combined makes this boss not very fun but the worst part is his unskipable dialog that he does every time.
The overworld is also at times not very interesting to explore, even with the new abilities and collectibles I can get. There isn’t really a reason to go and revisit the areas of the game due to them all being interesting.
Graphics and Performance
The pixel art style is something I would like to praise the game for, even the animation during the cutscenes were also nice, even if a little odd for this game. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing and the game ran very well, should be able to work on any computer.
Final Verdict
I am at odds with Blasphemous 2, while I had a ton of issues with the first game, I still enjoyed it but in here. I had more good to say but the cons outweigh the pros, I am kind of sad because deep down, this game is good. If you do want to pick this game up, I recommend you wait for a sale but if you are someone who really liked the first game, you may be a little disappointed here.
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