Blasphemous (Foul Metroidvania Inquisition Murder Game)
Yeah wow. Let’s just make that the review; save you some time. Not me though because it took me like 15 minutes to write that. And it will take you about a million times that to fully conquer everything in this masterfully foul Spanish entry into the metroidvania genre, Blasphemous. It’s rare I find a title so expressive in its own lore and so brutal with its aesthetics, and even rarer such a risk would score so high, but here we are. Accept the end, cover yourself in blood, and destroy the unholy with frikken combos and shit. Blasphemous has an incredibly deep plot and world for a game of this type, and I won’t waste your time with full details because it’s readily available elsewhere (also you can, you know, pay attention to the story). But esoteric, yes, a bit of that, or more like a lot of that.
Essentially as the “Penitent One” you’re trying to save the world after a religious cataclysm and, armed with your sword Mea Culpa have to frikken smash it all. Blasphemous provides non-linear play surrounded by themes drawn from the worst of Catholicism and the Spanish Inquisition. The devs drew beautifully from both ideas with vast cathedrals in the Spanish style, horrifying, giant bosses killing for Christ, and the like. It’s impressive to look at, but also impressive to play. You can upgrade abilities, whip out combos, gain skills with special artifacts, prayer beads, and smash giant skeleton bishops in the goddamn face. The amount of searching back and forth may discourage some players, and the density of the plot can, at times, obscure your goals, but otherwise it’s a nearly perfect example of this type of game and its dreadful vision of humanity perfect for this time, or actually any time because human beings have always sucked. So slay them, flay them, and play them, or something. Just get this sick game.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Blasphemous
The Game Kitchen (developer), Team17 Digital Ltd (publisher)
4.8 / 5
