As soon as the first trailer came out, Blasphemous catched my eye with it's outstanding artistic vision. I loved it's brutal gothic style and christian themes. Now that's something I don't see often. Living in a country with strong ties to catholic religion, where every small town has a church and a bell, it warmed my heart to see the best of it brought to an even bigger scale. Monster design is fantastic and reflects major themes of guilt and penance. Brutal. Loved it. A lot of variety when it comes to locations. All of them are visually easily recognizable and even small areas have a lot of thought and hard work put in them. And to keep things from getting stale, almost every major area has it's own gimmick. The world map is constantly branching, it gives plenty of room for the exploration and small rewards that come with it: collectible bones, quest items or upgrades for the Penitent One. The usual boring stuff, right? Yes and no. If you're engrossed with the worldspace, you'll find a lot of lore written in item descriptions, not unlike another popular franchise, whose name eludes me at the moment. The fighting is serviceable. It's not the best thing in the business, but it get's things done. Most enemies are a fair fight and each require a different approach. Also, you'll be constantly fighting new foes, so they never overstay their welcome. Inventory sistem also helps a little. Most of the items won't radically change the way you play, but they can spice things up a little. Boss battles are great. Tough but fair. Each boss battle looks and plays different from the other and is the highlight of their area. Strangely enough, when it comes to them there's no difficulty progression. You might have problems fighting the Lady of Charred Visage, but effortlessly defeat the final boss. Concluding, it's a game built by people who had the vision, skills, passion and dedication. No cut corners, only hard work. Something that's very rare today and should be respected.
