A foul curse has fallen upon the land of Cvstodia and all its inhabitants - it is simply known as The Miracle.
Play as The Penitent One - a sole survivor of the massacre of the ‘Silent Sorrow’. Trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, it’s down to you to free the world from this terri...
A foul curse has fallen upon the land of Cvstodia and all its inhabitants - it is simply known as The Miracle.
Play as The Penitent One - a sole survivor of the massacre of the ‘Silent Sorrow’. Trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, it’s down to you to free the world from this terrible fate and reach the origin of your anguish.
Explore this nightmarish world of twisted religion and discover its many secrets hidden deep inside. Use devastating combos and brutal executions to smite the hordes of grotesque monsters and titanic bosses, all ready to rip you limb from limb. Locate and equip relics, rosary beads and prayers that call on the powers of the heavens to aid you in your quest to break your eternal damnation.
Explore a Non-Linear World: Overcome fearsome enemies and deadly traps as you venture through a variety of different landscapes, and search for redemption in the dark gothic world of Cvstodia.
Brutal Combat: Release the power of Mea Culpa, a sword born from guilt itself, to slaughter your foes. Acquire devastating new combos and special moves as you purge all in your path.
Executions: Unleash your wrath and relish in the gory dismemberment of your adversaries - all in beautifully rendered, pixel-perfect execution animations.
Customise Your Build: Discover and equip Relics, Rosary Beads, Prayers and Sword Hearts to give you the new abilities and stat boosts you need to survive. Experiment with different combinations to suit your playstyle.
Intense Boss Battles: Hordes of gigantic, twisted creatures stand between you and your goal. Learn how they move, survive their devastating attacks and emerge victorious.
Unlock the Mysteries of Cvstodia: The world is full of tormented souls. Some offer you aid, some may ask for something in return. Uncover the stories and fates of these tortured characters to gain rewards and a deeper understanding of the dark world you inhabit.
I've never played the soulslike games (darksoul, bloodbourne etc) before, but this feels really great!
I heard that the most entertaining part of the soulslike game is feeling of satisfaction when you beat the hard part, and this game does the same too. And yes, It feels really good.
Also I liked the RPG thingies too. Rosary, skills, and Mea Culpa upgrades makes the experience of the game more engaging.
but If I have to say some down parts, the enemies on the field are sometimes very annoying, they really disturbs the player's experience sometime and even makes you want to quit the game.
Lastly by the way, there's some collectible stuff ingame. But even if you don't like collectible contents, it is not that stressing, and is pretty reasonably made.
The pixel art in this game is gorgeous, and the heavy Spanish folklore makes it incredibly unique. It has a take on religious themes that I haven't seen very often, if at all. You can see right from the start that the team put a lot of love and care into these sprites.
The gameplay is very tight, frustratingly so, but I didn't feel it was the game's fault and instead blamed it on my lack of attention or on a miscalculation. It's punishing until you get the hang of it. It's unforgivingness makes it all the more rewarding. Each area has its own mechanics and while the enemies might be a little repetitive at times, the bosses certainly aren't.
With that said, the game does have issues which I hope will get patched in the future: things such as game savings not being read depending on whether you launched it through the GOG client or not; WASD keys are hardcoded and can't be remapped; the controls reset every time you launch the game; unlockable skins can go missing after closing the game; and more subjective annoyances such as the character grabbing every single edge whether you like it or not; scrolling/moving the camera up and down requiring their own keys which seems impractical and dodging being a bit inconsistent (some enemies you can dash through, others will still hit you).
I've seen complaints about game-breaking issues (elevators getting stuck or a boss glitching once the fight is over) but I've been lucky and haven't encountered any of those so far.
Despite all those problems, I could enjoy the hell out of Blasphemous and I'm not done with it yet. However, as much as I love it, I know not everyone will be as willing to tolerate the bugs listed above, so I can't fully recommend the purchase in its current state. I I'd suggest to wait for either a sale or a patch fixing the most critical issues.
I love this game! It is a lot like a 2D Dark Souls, but never feels like a copy. Combat is harsh, but never unfair (plus, you get to keep your leveling resource when you die...but there's another, sometimes even harsher punishment for dying...). The world building works much better for me than it does in Dark Souls (Cvstodia is a dark world indeed, but the item descriptions aren't usually as convoluted as in DS). The gameplay is reminiscent of oldschool games like, well, Castlevania, or Demon's Crest (a game for true hardasses on the SNES). The whole mechanics work perfectly and the enemies don't bore you to death.
BUT: I encountered a bug that, as I've found out just now, is probably game-breaking! Or at least game-breaking enough to restart. When I entered Jondo, I lost a lot of bonuses I had accrued: One of my rosary beads (which let you equip more items), two of my bile flasks and a bit more. Having played a considerable bit further (even as a permanent loss, well, I like a challenge...) it would now seem that my sword leveling was broken as well, and that I can't level up my sword anymore at all. It also seems like it reverted to its weakest form. So...I'd probably be stuck with its current abilities and possiby strength until...the end of the game? That seems not just harsh, but boring. So I guess I'll give it a while and revisit the game later, starting from the beginning.
I'm a backer and while I can't say I feel disappointed (since the overall quality exceeds what I expected), I feel a little cheated about all the time I've already sunk into the game. Sure, a LOT of the time that you need to play a game like this goes into "gitting gud", and "gud" I've become, but it still sets me back quite a few hours. I hope this will be the last time I encounter that bug...
This game is damn near perfect. It's one of those rare cases where my biggest cricism is that there isn't more of it. That said it isn't too short I just love it that much. It took me about 20 hours to 100% everything and every bit of that time was well spent.
The lore is there via item descriptions and the world is just so macabre, and it leans into that macabre setting and feeling so much and owns it so well that it just becomes that much more immersive. I never thought I'd use the word immersive for a side scroller, but here we are in 2019.
Long story short, if you enjoy any games that involve a lot of exploration with a non-linear layout, interesting boss fights, beautiful pixel art, great ambient music, and so much to discover and find that is findable without a guide (all the signposting is there if you know what to look for) then you really really should consider picking this one up.
This game were it released in the formative years of gaming would undoubtedly held up next to the pillars of the genre.
End Note: I own the Switch version of the game, but I can't leave a review there... but I haven't heard of any issues with the PC version and if you're getting it on PC get it on GOG.
This is a great game, gameplaywise. But it is also a work of surreal, macabre and grotesque Christian art unseen before. The soundtrack really helps pull the player into a sense of desperation and dread.
Highly recommended, 8/10.