Nowadays, no one will be surprised by another metroidvania – the genre has been replicated so much. To somehow stand out, developers need to come up with something truly catchy: surprise with previously unseen mechanics or unusual art design. Creators Blasphemous decided to take the second route rather. On account The Game Kitchen, tiny studio from Seville, there was already a point-and-click quest The Last Door, so the Spaniards had any experience in game development.
work on Blasphemous they started back in November 2016. Then, in 2017, a successful Kickstarter campaign followed. So successful that with the initially requested amount of 50 thousand dollars, the developers raised six times more – potential players liked the concept and visual style of the project so much.
In the new game The Game Kitchen was sensitive to the historical and cultural heritage of Seville, and it is woven in so subtly that if you don’t dig deep, you might not even notice references to Spanish legends or paintings in what is happening Francisco Goya, mistaking everything for the surreal and dark fantasies of the developers. However, talking about Blasphemous possible not only from the standpoint of its aesthetics. This is, first of all, a game that makes everyone suffer: the main character, episodic characters and, of course, the player himself.
Blasphemer of Seville
The game takes place in the lands called Custodia. And don’t look at the fact that in the original it is written as Cvstodia – this is all a stylization of classical Latin, and there will be many more phrases in this dead language in the game. Custodia is a world of torment and pain. It is simply impossible to find someone happy and serene in it – all because the people living there suffer for the sins of His Holiness Escribar. Many years ago, he was punished by a Miracle: he was burned, and the remaining ashes filled the cathedral in which he lived with his minions. Years later, the souls buried in the ashes, including Escribar himself, emerged from there, becoming even more insane and bloodthirsty than they were before their death.
As for the more positive heroes, one of them is our protagonist – the Penitent, a nameless servant of the Brotherhood of Silent Sorrow, who has taken a vow of silence. He is the only one who survived the massacre that destroyed his comrades, and the only one who can save the world from suffering.
If you think that this whole story is told in plain text in the game, then I hasten to disappoint you (or please): no, the “lore” here is served in portions. We read information about the world and its inhabitants in descriptions of objects (including parts of other people’s bodies) and try to understand them from infrequent dialogues. The latter, however, do not add clarity – the characters mutter about guilt and repentance, and we can only listen to them with an expressionless face.
The developers say that they hid the protagonist’s face under a mask so that players could identify themselves with him. Well, to leave an aura of mystery, of course.
However, the most unusual element of the hero’s appearance is not even a mask, but a conical cap. He appeared in the game for a reason. Kapirots – that’s what these headdresses are called – were first worn by self-flagellation flagellants, thus publicly expressing repentance for their sins. Then, in Inquisition-ridden Spain, such caps were a mark for those sentenced to death. In addition, participants in religious processions during Holy Week used to wear kapirots and continue to wear them. Moreover, they call themselves repentant sinners. As you can see, the authors invested in Blasphemous much more meaning than meets the eye!
Examples of the developers’ reverent attitude towards their historical past can be seen in the images of bosses and episodic characters. Thus, the huge burnt head of the Lady of the monastery was inspired by the Seville legend about the aristocrat Maria Coronel, who, fleeing the obsessive advances of King Pedro the Cruel, who was in love with her, poured boiling oil on her face, just to ward him off. This happened just in the monastery, which once again emphasizes the connection between the two images.
The bearded, three-faced woman, who seems to be a figment of someone’s sick imagination, also came into the game straight from Spanish legends. And again, the story is connected with the fact that the girl did not want to be near a man who was unpleasant to her. Vilgefortis, the daughter of the Portuguese king, begged God to make her ugly so that the Sicilian ruler would refuse to marry her. According to legend, she grew a beard, and the groom quickly revised his plans. But such a turn did not suit Father Vilgefortis, and he sentenced the girl to crucifixion.
Blasphemous also has some biblical references. Thus, the image of the Lady of Six Sorrows can remind us of the Sorrowful Mother of God. It literally repeats the appearance of the Virgin Mary, pierced by seven swords, symbolizing the Seven Sorrows from the life of the Virgin Mary.
In fact, the list of such allusions can be endless, but it’s time to tell you how to play this whole thing.
Not a word about Dark Souls
The first enemy the Penitent One encounters on his way is the boss. On it, the player will have to hone the skill of dodging and dashing, in order to then enter the world where he will have to constantly use this skill. A little later, we are introduced to the parry system: having parried a blow with his sword in time, the silent hero counterattacks the enemy and inflicts much more damage than usual. There is no “stamina” in the game, but you won’t be able to slip past all the enemies in a location in one go – a second dash requires a short break.
Simply waving your sword at your enemies https://bubblesbetcasino.uk/ isn’t always the best tactic. Every opponent in Blasphemous requires a personal approach. Someone needs to be defeated by parrying, someone needs to be hit only in the back, and someone, on the contrary, has a stone sarcophagus secured behind their back, reliably protecting them from sneaky blows. There are opponents who do not attack themselves, but call on henchmen or do some dirty tricks like overturning cauldrons with scalding liquid.
Enemies do not have the habit of being resurrected after the Penitent One has left the location, however, they are reborn after his death and the activation of the sanctuary, which makes a save and replenishes vitality. There aren’t that many “bonfires” like this: there are usually one or two for each zone.
At the place of the protagonist’s death, a fragment of guilt remains, which would be good to pick up: the more of them scattered around the world, the lower the hero’s zeal scale (analogous to mana) and the worse things go with receiving tears of atonement after defeating enemies.
Tears are the local currency: they can be spent on replenishing healing flasks at the blood fountains, goods in the store, or improving abilities. The Spiked Sword of the Penitent One becomes stronger with each Mea Culpa altar found (from Latin this name translates as “my fault”), and skills are purchased from the same altars. Upon reaching a certain level of the sword, the hero will be able to shoot something like a bloody boomerang, make a powerful lunge in a tackle, or complete a combination of three swings of the weapon with a strong blow.
IN Blasphemous You can’t change weapons and armor (only their colors), but they didn’t leave the Penitent One completely without equipment. During the passage, the player will find beads that give small bonuses such as increasing the zeal scale or protection from poisonous fog. They can be hung on a rosary and changed at any convenient time depending on the situation. But the core of the Mea Culpa sword cannot be replaced so easily – for this you need a sanctuary. And in essence, the core is a thing with a catch: it gives not only a bonus, but also a side effect. Let’s say, how do you feel about the prospect of taking grains of life force from your victim, but at the same time receiving minimal treatment from the bottles?? I personally don’t really care, although in words such vampirism sounded tempting.
There is also magic in the game. Spells here are called prayers, and you also have to look for them in all the nooks and crannies of the world or receive them for completing tasks.
Ghosts of Goya
Blasphemous is a typical Metroidvania with a branching map, searching for shortcuts and secret rooms. Tapping a sword on every wall is a sacred thing, His Holiness will wait! Some places are accessible only if you have special items – without them, the player simply will not see either a path made of bloody platforms or a hanging vine that can be caught on.
Quite a lot of time in Blasphemous will have to be spent jumping on platforms and overcoming traps. But this process is not implemented very friendly towards the player – the spikes here kill instantly and are often more dangerous than ordinary enemies. After unsuccessful attempts, the realization comes that you need to press the button when you are already half standing in the air, but even understanding this does not always help. The jump cannot be adjusted in any way during the process, and often, flying over the spikes, you bitterly admit that you will no longer be able to jump to the platform.
Without a certain item, the protagonist dies for some reason if he falls from one screen to another. At the same time, the game does not cause fall damage within the same screen. For metroidvanias, this approach seems something wild – even in relatively recent Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night There was no such problem and Miriam easily fell down, covering long distances.
Jumping on walls is also not made very conveniently, but in terms of the level of discomfort they are all given a head start by breaking platforms, to which the Penitent cannot cling.
There are other moments in the game that would be considered bad form in other metroidvanias. The game encourages backtracking and world exploration (which is great!), thanks to which we are always finding collectibles in hidden corners. At the same time, we are at the beck and call of a few NPCs, trying to guess what they really need. But at the same time in Blasphemous only five teleports for the entire game! The prospect of running through enemies and traps again quickly kills the desire to return again.
You cannot leave marks on the map or zoom in on it. If you forget where the key character is or the room with the riddle, that’s it, explore the locations again or look at the walkthrough. By the way, about the last one – without guidance and tips it’s quite difficult to get to the good ending on your own. However, it’s a stretch to call it good.
Side quests also cause strange feelings, the ways of completing them are not very obvious. It seems like you help the characters, but then they die anyway, so it would be better not to touch these unfortunate people. It’s also easy to fail quests by delaying delivery or arriving at the right place without the required item. For example, if you do not quickly bring oil to the sufferer in a thimble, he will become numb and will not open the passage to the secret cave.
Another NPC after the quest chain can simply throw himself off the roof if the hero does not have an item with him that could make him change his mind. Moreover, this happens unexpectedly, and the player is not given the opportunity to correct the situation and return with the desired item later.
Not without bugs. The hero can get stuck in the textures when trying to hang from the edge of the platform, and then he will have to roll back to the last sanctuary – this happened to me a couple of times. Also, during the battle, the boss may lose interest in you and freeze. And not for a few seconds, but to stop thoroughly and stop resisting.
I don’t know if this should be considered a bug, but the fact that touching an enemy sometimes takes away health, and sometimes not, also gives me mixed feelings. Sometimes attacks pass through the Penitent without causing him damage, and this oddity, of course, is already pleasant. But when the hero does not get onto the platform that he clearly should jump on, it already makes you boil with rage.
Beautifully you entered my sinful life
Admire the visual style Blasphemous it can take a long time. Recent Dark Devotion next to it it now seems uncouth and rough in terms of the elaboration and design of locations, although everything there seems to look nice too. Perhaps it’s in the details: Blasphemous they received great attention. You want to admire the backgrounds, and ordinary enemies convey the spirit of the suffering Middle Ages with their appearance.
We need to say something about the bosses separately – each of them will certainly be remembered by you for its phantasmagorical nature and the cruelty with which it attacks the Penitent. Unless, of course, it freezes.
The music is also amazing. The dark and beautiful soundtrack, with its guitar plucks, sometimes resembles music from Diablo. In some locations, instrumental melodies are replaced by ambient music, which conveys the depressing mood of a particular area. And when the sounds are diluted by someone’s screams in the distance, it becomes completely uneasy.
The language in which the characters speak Blasphemous, stilted and heavy. It is in the style of the entire game, and the translation into Russian matches it – it also uses pretentious words that you are unlikely to find in ordinary speech. But, alas, errors in translation still occur. So, the location The Sleeping Canvases is called Sleeping Sails, but there are no ships in it. But there are paintings that sometimes even come to life. The word canvas has several meanings, and, as you probably already guessed, among them are both “sail” and “canvas”.
One can also add to the list of localization shortcomings that stylized fonts, as often happens when translating into Cyrillic, have lost their sophistication – in our case these are ordinary letters.
The Game Kitchen paid tribute not only to its historical heritage, but also to its fellow countrymen in Blasphemous. Shovel Knight, RiME, Maldita Castilla, Crossing Souls, Unepic, Lamentum – all the games presented in the pictures were created by Spanish independent developers. And the burger is a reference to their, so to speak, creative association.
Blasphemous is a painstakingly crafted game inspired by the culture of Seville. Medieval legends here are intricately intertwined with the religious image of the world of that time and embodied in the characters, enemies and appearance of some locations. This metroidvania is filled with cruelty (which is worth only the bloodthirsty finishing off of opponents) and suffering. She immerses herself with the help of even such seemingly unnoticeable details as the use of healing flasks – the main character quickly breaks them on his mask, rubs a blood-red liquid over it and makes the sign of the cross.
But, unfortunately, the great idea had problems with technical execution. I hope the bugs will be fixed over time, but it’s unlikely that the developers will do anything about unresponsive jumps or instantly killing spikes. Perhaps the phrase “Let your heart be in sorrow” put into the mouths of some characters was addressed not only to the silent Penitent, but also to the player.
Pros: everything related to the aesthetic content of the game: design of locations, characters, soundtrack, attention to detail and careful study of the “lore” and its connection with the real historical past of Spain; The gameplay, in particular the battles with bosses, although it makes you sweat, ultimately gives a pleasant aftertaste.
Cons: many bugs (some players even lost all their progress because of them); unfriendly platforming; tedious backtracking due to lack of teleports.
