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Blasphemous II | Review Thread

Woopah

Member
Never played the first but absolutely adored Ori, Hollowknight and Metroid Dread so I'm guessing this is for me?
 

Mr Hyde

Member
30% completed so far. Killed one boss and discovered a second, which handed me my ass several times. This is good shit. Been absorbed the whole time. Not as kick ass as the first one, but it's a high bar to reach. The different weapons and abilities makes the gameplay fresh and exciting. Can't wait to continue tonight.
 
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Thief1987

Member
Could you please détail ? Thanks ‘
Well I just don't like the changes they have made. Game also feels lower budget as odd as it sounds. They reused most of the enemies from the first game, and while asset reuse is a common thing, but c'mon game was in development for more than 3 years. They also didn't even bother to make execution animations for the new enemies, there is single standard animation for all of them instead, while old ones have unique animations, again, reused from the original. Animated cutscenes are mostly gone. There are far less NPCs. There are no collectible items. You have interesting substories like saving Kissers of Wounds in Albero in the original, there is nothing like this so far in the sequel. There is a city but it's just a decoration, because there is no a single NPC beside merchants and those who give you perks and upgrades. Art is weaker, it feels sterile and generic in comparison with the first game. Bosses so far are weak from the design perspective and they are too easy. Combat feels less punchy and satisfactory. They removed Righteous riposte. Why? It was a fun timing-based mechanic. In my opinion different weapons didn't bring anything worthwhile to the game. They are mostly just split the same Mea Culpa's moveset between the three weapons and call it a day. Why I need to switch between weapons to perform basic stuff that I could do with just one weapon in the original? Why I need to use one weapon for the charged attack, the other for the upward slash in mid-air and another for the air impulse? Why I need to switch between weapons to activate different devices? It adds nothing to the game beside the clutter just for the sake of clutter. Why they took some basic moves, like wall crawling, which were available by default in the original and present it to you as an upgrade in the sequel? Just for the sake of the more distinct metroidvanian flavour? Who asked for this?
Well, no instant death from the spikes and pits is a positive change at least.
 
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Solrac

Member
Well I just don't like the changes they have made. Game also feels lower budget as odd as it sounds. They reused most of the enemies from the first game, and while asset reuse is a common thing, but c'mon game was in development for more than 3 years. They also didn't even bother to make execution animations for the new enemies, there is single standard animation for all of them instead, while old ones have unique animations, again, reused from the original. Animated cutscenes are mostly gone. There are far less NPCs. There are no collectible items. You have interesting substories like saving Kissers of Wounds in Albero in the original, there is nothing like this so far in the sequel. There is a city but it's just a decoration, because there is no a single NPC beside merchants and those who give you perks and upgrades. Art is weaker, it feels sterile and generic in comparison with the first game. Bosses so far are weak from the design perspective and they are too easy. Combat feels less punchy and satisfactory. They removed Righteous riposte. Why? It was a fun timing-based mechanic. In my opinion different weapons didn't bring anything worthwhile to the game. They are mostly just split the same Mea Culpa's moveset between the three weapons and call it a day. Why I need to switch between weapons to perform basic stuff that I could do with just one weapon in the original? Why I need to use one weapon for the charged attack, the other for the upward slash in mid-air and another for the air impulse? Why I need to switch between weapons to activate different devices? It adds nothing to the game beside the clutter just for the sake of clutter. Why they took some basic moves, like wall crawling, which were available by default in the original and present it to you as an upgrade in the sequel? Just for the sake of the more distinct metroidvanian flavour? Who asked for this?
Well, no instant death from the spikes and pits is a positive change at least.
I agree on every single point. For me, I was always defending the original Blasphemous as one of the best metroidvanias of the decade, even superior to Hollow Knight. But this sequel... I don't know, it feels off. I'm not going to repeat what you said, but I'm going to add another point. They abuse the Spanish guitar for every single theme in the game. As a Spanish person, I remember when playing the original, only one or two themes had a Spanish guitar, and when you heard them, it was something 'special.' Now, in this sequel, they abuse it so much... Maybe with time and more content, it could be improved, but right now, the first one is miles better

PS: I beat the game with the secret ending and they remove that fantastic NG+ from the first one, so no more penitence, a shame...
 
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A few hours in and I'm loving this so much. Every single death I've had so far I saw my mistake immediately. No awfully designed platforming sections so far either, which is a plus. Smooth animations, and good impact on hits as well. We'll see how it goes in the later sections, but so far, it's exactly what I wanted.

I wish the "cutscenes" were not so clean looking. Would prefer them to be in the same style as the actual game.
I can understand that. This is one of very few times I'd have opted for a film grain, noise filter or something.
 
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Thief1987

Member
So far(around the middle of the game) it's something like 6.5-7/10 while original is a solid 9/10 game. Disappointed.
Yesterday I was irritated by some things in the game and feel like I was too harsh. Played the whole evening today and after unlocking more traversal and fast travel options I warmed up to the game. I stopped near the end, with 92% of the map opened and, going by the trophy list, with 3 bosses remain. In the end I think it's a good game, if nothing changes in the remaining part I will give it a 8/10. The problem is that the first game was truly exceptional and I still prefer it over the sequel.
 

ssringo

Member
I mostly enjoyed the game but the next to last boss really soured the overall experience. Unskippable cutscene > phase 1 > unskippable cutscene > phase 2. Yeah, on repeated attempts they shortened the scenes down but they're still rather lengthy and it makes trying to "git gud" at the much harder phase 2 very annoying.
 

SpiceRacz

Member
I just finished the game with 95% completion in 20 hours. My immediate thoughts are that this is a masterpiece of the genre. It's not exactly innovating, but it executes everything near perfectly. Level design flows better than the original. Difficulty is more balanced and not getting in the way of the experience. Nothing is exactly easy here, but I never ran into a boss that required more than a few attempts. The imagery and soundtrack are breathtaking, which is to be expected. Probably my GOTY up to this point.

Tip for anyone having trouble with the final bosses - There's a certain prayer that freezes time. Just make sure you equip the Favour that increases fervor gained with each attack.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I just finished the game with 95% completion in 20 hours. My immediate thoughts are that this is a masterpiece of the genre. It's not exactly innovating, but it executes everything near perfectly. Level design flows better than the original. Difficulty is more balanced and not getting in the way of the experience. Nothing is exactly easy here, but I never ran into a boss that required more than a few attempts. The imagery and soundtrack are breathtaking, which is to be expected. Probably my GOTY up to this point.

Tip for anyone having trouble with the final bosses - There's a certain prayer that freezes time. Just make sure you equip the Favour that increases fervor gained with each attack.
What do you do to get that prayer? I’m going to jump back into it.
 

Oberstein

Member
The imagery and soundtrack are breathtaking

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Yep. Every screen is gorgeous and that soundtrack... Jesus!

But I'm a bit worried that it's going to go unnoticed, considering all the games out right now.
 

simpatico

Member
The first one was close to perfect. Just a few really annoying enemies in every level bring it down for me. You can have challenge without annoyance.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
GOTY right now but having major troubles with Eviterno. The other bosses have been challenging but fair, but Eviterno is just a brick wall. He hits way too hard, leaves almost no room for healing and you have to watch the dialogue every time you retry. Game Kitchen dropped the ball here, imo.
 

Paasei

Member
The first one was incredible, total surprise for me as well. The only reason I got it was because I saw a screenshot of the artstyle/setting.
Didn't have a clue how good it was until I finished it.
 

SpiceRacz

Member
GOTY right now but having major troubles with Eviterno. The other bosses have been challenging but fair, but Eviterno is just a brick wall. He hits way too hard, leaves almost no room for healing and you have to watch the dialogue every time you retry. Game Kitchen dropped the ball here, imo.

Yeah that fight is my only real complaint with the game. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but you can spam the prayer that stops time and it turns it into a cakewalk.
 

Pimpollo818

Member
Blasphemous 2 is a mostly satisfying sequel with a few shortcomings in light of the inaugural title and its DLC expansion. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the new map and unleashing violence upon the enemies and bosses. This time around I found the bosses lacked sufficient HP, particularly the ones after the initial 3, many I beat on my first try. I would have loved the ability to retry the boss fights, perhaps after beating the campaign. There's no NG+ to speak of at the moment, which seems a bit odd. Also, I was left feeling like there would be one more big bad but nope the "final" boss currently only has one form. Do I want more Blasphemous? Absolutely, but I sure wish they take more risks and provide more of these QOL features.
 
I wish the "cutscenes" were not so clean looking. Would prefer them to be in the same style as the actual game.
The cutscenes look really jarring. It's like you're suddenly in some cheesy Netflix quasi-anime. I'm baffled that a team with such great art direction went this route.

I have to say the game is...good because it's more Blasphemous I guess. I'm about 6 hours in and it feels too much like more of the same for me in the first few hours. The backgrounds look very too similar to many stages in the first one and I'm not sure the expanded weaponry adds much for my tastes. It seems more like "more stuff" was added because people criticized the first one for it rather than it feeling particularly inspired or surprising.

Maybe I played the first one too much but so far I'm surprisingly disappointed/cold on it despite it still being a good game because the template is great.

But yea, the cutscene art straight up sucks imo.
 
This last boss(I think it's the final one) is something...
GOTY right now but having major troubles with Eviterno. The other bosses have been challenging but fair, but Eviterno is just a brick wall. He hits way too hard, leaves almost no room for healing and you have to watch the dialogue every time you retry. Game Kitchen dropped the ball here, imo.
Just made it here, and yeah, this guy might be a real problem. Once he gets going, holy hell, literally. Seems you can slide under his swipe attack, but I haven't gotten any further progress. Two hits nearly kills you at full health, and he's fast. Let's go into the lab and figure this out...
Yeah that fight is my only real complaint with the game. I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but you can spam the prayer that stops time and it turns it into a cakewalk.
Dude, this is a damn Dark Souls quest. Holy shit.
 
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If you talk about Eviterno then he is not final boss, but it would have been better if he was, because the actual final boss is a joke.
Jesus. I'm hard locked on him right now, so who knows if I'll ever even see anything past him.

Edit: Finally, he has been slain. Damn that was a battle with little room for error, but there was a pattern there to exploit. Just had to keep calm and be present.
 
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Thief1987

Member
Edit: Finally, he has been slain. Damn that was a battle with little room for error, but there was a pattern there to exploit. Just had to keep calm and be present.
Yeah, his moveset is not that big or hard to learn. For me the main difficult was his relentlessness and him giving very little room to breath. Oh, and some of his attacks are doing ridiculous damage.
 
Yeah, his moveset is not that big or hard to learn. For me the main difficult was his relentlessness and him giving very little room to breath. Oh, and some of his attacks are doing ridiculous damage.
Definitely. You have to have some patience with him, and know that he isn't going out quickly. That said, I wonder if using a weapon that has parry can level him out in style. I played the entire game with Veredicto, so never had access to a true parry/counter.
 
Some of the stunlocking in this game annoys the shit out of me. Getting knocked down by an attack only to stand back up into instant touch damage because the enemy is on top of you pisses me off to no end.

It's not like I die to it a lot but damn, relax. It's also really easy to get cornered into a cycle of this.
 

Thief1987

Member
Some of the stunlocking in this game annoys the shit out of me. Getting knocked down by an attack only to stand back up into instant touch damage because the enemy is on top of you pisses me off to no end.

It's not like I die to it a lot but damn, relax. It's also really easy to get cornered into a cycle of this.
Yeah, it was a real problem for me in the early game, though later when you get health upgrades contact damage become negligible. Doesn't change a flaw in design.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Hits the mark as the best metroidvania of the year and just an amazing sequel to a classic. Also not a fan of high res hand-drawn cutscenes, other than that - reading through the thread makes me wonder if we were playing the same game smh
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member
Quitely played through this one a few weeks back. I enjoyed it a little more than the first one. The first seemed more tactically difficult if we're going to compare boss fights.
This one is more fun to traverse, though. The enemy design is refreshing. This was a nice game to go through, while waiting for Bloodstained 2 news.
I've collected a ton of stuff that I haven't even found a use for, so I am more than certain that I have a few more hours left to wring out of this game, at least.
 

Needlecrash

Member
Need the DLC to come out already. Skins, New Game +, Boss Rush, Collaboration with other franchises, etc. Just more stuff already lol. The music is damn good too.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I finally made it to the Mothers of Mothers. Took me a while to find it. Is this like half way point? So far, it’s been very enjoyable.
Quitely played through this one a few weeks back. I enjoyed it a little more than the first one. The first seemed more tactically difficult if we're going to compare boss fights.
This one is more fun to traverse, though. The enemy design is refreshing. This was a nice game to go through, while waiting for Bloodstained 2 news.
I've collected a ton of stuff that I haven't even found a use for, so I am more than certain that I have a few more hours left to wring out of this game, at least.
Takes me back to fighting the librarian. Those were good times.
 
I'm at the last boss so this is the point where I allow myself to finally look up what I missed. On my own I found:

- all the mementos for the wood carver
- 31/33 cherubs
- all the candle vigil girls
- all chalices/shards (was missing one receptacle)
- 4/5 fervent kisses (and this is bugged for me, didn't get the key upon turning in the 5th)
- sword and rapiers fully upgraded, 70% of flail unlocked
- all rosary beads
- all but 3 relics
- all but 3 prayers/chants
- all wax seeds
- all but 4 wood carvings
- all but 2 nuns

Beat Eviterno on my 2nd attempt (with a healing potion to spare!) using Debla Lights + Ruego Al Alba with wood carvings that boost prayer/mystical/crit/Alba DMG, easy as pie. Was able to solve the 1st and last clues of the letter quest for the time-stop spell but fuck the other 3 clues lol.

As I said in an earlier post, Blasphemous 2 is pretty much the perfect sequel. They dropped the ball with executions and I wish there was a touch more enemy variety but that's about it. My indie GOTY and will be hard to top the OST as best of 2023 👌
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
So where was the path? I don't remember that one lol. Also, how you likin the soundtrack?
There was a single drop down in the southern part of the map. I completely missed it while searching for a way down. The music has a lot of ambiance and fits the mood. I don’t remember the music from the first game. It takes me back to SOTN.
 

Needlecrash

Member
I'm at the last boss so this is the point where I allow myself to finally look up what I missed. On my own I found:

- all the mementos for the wood carver
- 31/33 cherubs
- all the candle vigil girls
- all chalices/shards (was missing one receptacle)
- 4/5 fervent kisses (and this is bugged for me, didn't get the key upon turning in the 5th)
- sword and rapiers fully upgraded, 70% of flail unlocked
- all rosary beads
- all but 3 relics
- all but 3 prayers/chants
- all wax seeds
- all but 4 wood carvings
- all but 2 nuns

Beat Eviterno on my 2nd attempt (with a healing potion to spare!) using Debla Lights + Ruego Al Alba with wood carvings that boost prayer/mystical/crit/Alba DMG, easy as pie. Was able to solve the 1st and last clues of the letter quest for the time-stop spell but fuck the other 3 clues lol.

As I said in an earlier post, Blasphemous 2 is pretty much the perfect sequel. They dropped the ball with executions and I wish there was a touch more enemy variety but that's about it. My indie GOTY and will be hard to top the OST as best of 2023 👌
The devs are very receptive to fan feedback. So if we list our concerns or wish list items, they might take it into consideration. I say this because I was a backer of the original Blasphemous. It was a good but...rough. After some time, fans had some legit criticisms about the game and the devs made lots of changes and added content too based on the feedback.
 
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protonion

Member
I'm at the last stretch. 97% of the map explored and have most of the collectibles.

The game rocks. And the further you are the better it gets. Completing the quest lines and making rounds around the map with all the abilities and exploring is great fun.

For the record I abandoned the first game after a couple of hours.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member

Patch Notes have some spoilers in them. They reduced the time stop from being game breaking. They reduced some cutscene length in end game. Some other things here and there.

Did anyone have a boss not attack? I had it once. The boss would go up and down without attacking.
 
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