Blasphemous - 2D souls like game.

[DaytimeDreamer]

Have you played "The Last Door?" This is HD by comparison.

Ok just saw the game. Hipster game of the year?! Holy shit at that pixel size, WTF seriously.

 

[SML]

Ultra-blocky graphics aren't a terrible way to go if you want to convey "unspeakable horror" in a visual medium. If a disfigured woman's face is only four pixels, who am I to question the flavor text's description?

That said, when I was actually playing the game I assumed the low res graphics were more of a practical choice than an aesthetic one. The Game Kitchen pulled the plug on "The Last Door" because they were, apparently, not making enough money off of the series. I like "The Last Door," but I don't know how it ended up as a money sink. Was it the soundtrack?

Based on the above, I'm keeping my expectations for "Blasphemous" modest. It will probably be a good game, but it probably won't be much "bigger" than what we already see on the kickstarter page.

 

[ggallegos1]

I would love to see this come to the switch. Looks like a great portable game.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

I wish I knew how to make games
or just think one up and it would come true
I would make a game called Falling
you are falling into a pit, probably at the bottom of which would be hell, but you don't know so you try to survive just in case.
along the way you have all kind of shit try to rip you apart and you have to dodge, bounce, deflect and fight your way through.
Falling - release date 00/00/00

 

[oldschool]

Pardon the necro but this title is a week away from release (Sept.10). Really looking forward to a day-one Switch purchase if there are no delays in arrival!

 

[HornheaDD]

Pardon the necro but this title is a week away from release (Sept.10). Really looking forward to a day-one Switch purchase if there are no delays in arrival!

Nice. Thanks for the bump. Been looking forward to it.

 

[ggallegos1]

I completely forgot about this game lol

 

[Taiso]

Can I call it now and say that our hero's name is Drilldo? Like... a drill dildo?

I think I'll just wait to give my money until the game is actually out. I hated Salt and Sanctuary and disliked Slain, and both of those games promised me a lot more than they delivered on.

I couldn't get into Salt and Sanctuary for the longest time. Had it on the PS4, tried starting it up twice and just couldn't get enthused about it. Then I played it on the Switch and I've been completely enthralled by it. I think the problem is that I just wasn't in the mood for a 2D 'Souls-like' game those other times and, in fairness, I was starting to feel a lack of engagement this third go round, too. Then something just clicked and I saw how my character development was making the game easier and less of a chore to play. Then I started researching how to find the best farming spots to enhance my weapons and armor and found ways to make the process less tedious. I was killing and farming faster and that ultimately led me to my current build, LV 95 that started as a Hunter but eventually evolved into a Paladin (mix of Wisdom and Strength w/2 handed sword). I saw how enhancing certain abilities gave me better buffs and it all came together.

As for Slain, I bought Back From Hell for 7 bucks on Switch and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love its metal themed environments and story line. The gameplay is very simple and in this age of indie games being, in most cases, better planned and executed than the AAA industry, I can understand how people might feel underwhelmed by it. If I had complaints about Slain, it's that the enemy placement was beyond cheap and not very well thought out and that the different weapons didn't seem to really be as effective as they could have been. But it was worth the 7 bucks I paid for it.

EDIT:

Oh, as for Blasphemous, this does have a Slain vibe to it. If there was one thing where I thought Slain was very strong, it was in its aesthetic (art direction, animation, music,, story, etc.). I don't think I'll back it, but I'll keep an eye on it to see what kinds of rewards are offered.

Another anti-christian game, another tired cliche.

I'm not sure where Game Kitchen is from, but this game has a Euro-Metal anti-religious authoritarian feel to it. That may not be your cup of tea, and quite honestly I feel like the 'Jesus Man Bad' trope is beyond tired and I rather enjoy when stories try to portray faith and piety as good concepts to live by while not ignoring the problems of church-state as political entity, nation builder and draconian authority figure. It was one of the things I liked about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow right up until Gabriel Belmont decided 'fuck it, God failed me' although, in truth, that IS part of some Dracula myths (such as Coppola's film).

We will have to see how it plays out here. Maybe the church has been corrupted and made into a profane mockery of what it once was? Maybe because human beings have free will in the 'rules' of Christianity, many of us are easily corruptible and evil's triumph is to take our most sacred icons and get us to defile them? Maybe the game isn't 'blasphemous' because of its devilish imagery but the main character is 'blasphemous' because he is a defender of the true faith and, given that all of the environments he's traversing appear ancient, the contemporary view of the (now unholy) faith is that he's blaspheming against an order that is corrupt but which has been the norm for a long time. Game comes out next week, so we will see.

 

[Poonman]

Speaking of clichés, how is this souls-like?

It's cut from the same cloth as supernatural themed, 16-bit sidescrollers like Actraiser, Chakan, Castlevania, Demons Crest, and maybe even Spawn.

Fuck, even Rygar has more in common with this than souls
Or am I missing something here?

Does this guy accumulate currency from killing things, then level up with it?
Does he drop all of it on death? Do you
min-max stats and build your guy around a certain weapon or skill?
Do you put a soft cap on said levelling based on community consensus?

No? None of that?

 

[roker]

The demo is available on steam. I played it. It's more sotn than souls like. The animation and art are amazing but I dunno I wasn't blown away. That said, I'll probably still pick it up.

 

[k'_127]

I wish I knew how to make games
or just think one up and it would come true
I would make a game called Falling
you are falling into a pit, probably at the bottom of which would be hell, but you don't know so you try to survive just in case.
along the way you have all kind of shit try to rip you apart and you have to dodge, bounce, deflect and fight your way through.
Falling - release date 00/00/00

Can't tell if serious, or sarcastically referencing this:

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Can't tell if serious, or sarcastically referencing this:

I never knew that game existed. Honest

Edit: it looks really cool. For a short gaming session.

 

[HornheaDD]

The demo is available on steam. I played it. It's more sotn than souls like. The animation and art are amazing but I dunno I wasn't blown away. That said, I'll probably still pick it up.

Tried to download the demo but I guess they pulled it. It said it was available until the 4th and I was on my PC around 6pm. Couldn't find a link on steam or externally.

Ah well, few more days.

 

[roker]

Tried to download the demo but I guess they pulled it. It said it was available until the 4th and I was on my PC around 6pm. Couldn't find a link on steam or externally.

Ah well, few more days.

I wish there was a way to share it. It's pretty short. Game is pretty difficult. I know people get excited by that but I dunno, pacing seemed off. I might change my mind with more time spent playing it. The animation and art are the real show here, imo. Earlier I meant I wasn't blown away by the game as a whole, but the animation and art are very much top tier.

 

[Taiso]

After reading a lot about this game and seeing gameplay vids and some of the trailers, I think I'm sold on it. Only 23 bucks on Switch right now. If I like the aesthetic enough, I may double dip and get the Steam version for all the extras (OST, digital art book, etc.).

Will let you know what I think.

 

[Taiso]

Okay, so I may have to do this one as a running commentary of my experiences. But unlike Dead Island, which I did for laughs and out of frustration stemming from the game's unevenness, this one may be vastly more satisfying to me

Right off the bat, the game drops you into a world teetering on the brink of oblivion. It's not our world, as far as I can tell, but one very similar to Europe in the middle ages during the worst months of the Great Mortality (black plague).

Religion is, as expected, the driving theme behind the narrative. As with Christians in the middle ages and even some sects of Buddhism in feudal Japan, one's devotion to their faith is equal parts pursuit of bliss and acceptance of eternal suffering. Life is punishment and pain meant to be endured as a means of measuring and testing one's own resolve in their faith and spirituality.

I don't consider the game 'anti-religious', specifically, but more an examination of what it means to have faith. Spiritual people believe that the baseline for human existence is suffering that must be overcome, and this interpretation of faith is, at this point in the game, a representation of that balance.

For example, what few people remain in the first village of Alhero are wallowing in the muddy streets outside the rotted wood structures they might have once called home. It's clear that these last few who haven't either died or left in the hopes of finding greener pastures are clinging to the belief that something better is coming. Once again, that duality of suffering leading to salvation by way of sacrifice. It's a compelling philosophical theme, and so far the grim aesthetic of the game serves it well.

There is a small group of priests and nuns giving what healing they can but they lack in supplies and ask you to bring them anything that may be used to cure the sick and injured. Charity is also a tenet of spiritual faiths, a sort of karmic belief in reward for struggling for a sense of meaning in this life.

In short, the themes are off to a pretty great start.

One aspect of the lore is that there is a fear that god has abandoned them to this fate, a common anxiety shared by many people in austere societies on the brink of total anarchy resulting from mass death. This, I am sure, will be explored in greater detail in the game's many environments and bosses. Could it be that the virtue of the almighty jBlasphemous is dependent on the faith of the masses? And if people are dying and those that survive are privately resentful, does that mean that their corrupted belief structure is the cause that effects a corrupted diving being? We shall see.

In terms of the overall aesthetic, it's a cross between Dark Souls, Diablo and Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal, where the sacred has become so subverted as to almost be profane (i.e., Jons' conversation with the painter in the chapel early on in the film). The world wants you to lose faith in your cause by presenting so much of what should be benevolent as sacrilegious. It's easy to understand how, in such a world, the only ones that can hang on to their conviction are the most devout and the most desperate; everyone in between is a coward or a survivor hanging on by a thread.

That's enough about the art direction, which so far is top notch.

The graphics are glorious, highly detailed and demented genius. This is the kind of twisted world I dreamed about exploring in the heyday of the SNES. The animations are fluid and with sharply contrasted pixel shades to help give the environments a greater degree of depth and personality. I'm glad this is 2D sprite art; the abstract presentation helps you visualize the world on your own terms, akin to the older Final Fantasy games. The enemies are all grotesque and mortifying and all seem to represent some kind of ultimate failure of human consciousness or ideal. Fans of Berserk and Dark Souls will know what I'm driving at here.

As for the mechanics, they are deliberate and methodical as with Dark Souls but the character progression is more SotN. It's a combat engine built on anticipation and counter strikes, and the more abilities you unlock, the more varied the combat becomes.

There is an item equip mechanic that allows for customization based on your preferred play style There is a rosary screen where you can attach different beads, with each one having its own effect so I imagine you can build whatever you want.

There is a spell system, of sorts, and each of the spells has its own effects and capabilities for further customization.

So far, the game's character progression seems to be more item based than anything else.

With your XP, you can 'upgrade your weapon', which is a way to unlock new attacks. There is no overall character level, which truly makes this game a merging of dark fantasy aesthetics with hardcore simplified enhancement.

There is a penalty for death in having to go back and retrieve lost XP/currency, a la the Souls series. But rather than seeing this as derivative of Dark Souls, I feel like it's more of a reflection of how that series has altered game development when it comes to games of this type.

Enough for now. More to come.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Okay, so I may have to do this one as a running commentary of my experiences. But unlike Dead Island, which I did for laughs and out of frustration stemming from the game's unevenness, this one may be vastly more satisfying to me

Right off the bat, the game drops you into a world teetering on the brink of oblivion. It's not our world, as far as I can tell, but one very similar to Europe in the middle ages during the worst months of the Great Mortality (black plague).

Religion is, as expected, the driving theme behind the narrative. As with Christians in the middle ages and even some sects of Buddhism in feudal Japan, one's devotion to their faith is equal parts pursuit of bliss and acceptance of eternal suffering. Life is punishment and pain meant to be endured as a means of measuring and testing one's own resolve in their faith and spirituality.

I don't consider the game 'anti-religious', specifically, but more an examination of what it means to have faith. Spiritual people believe that the baseline for human existence is suffering that must be overcome, and this interpretation of faith is, at this point in the game, a representation of that balance.

For example, what few people remain in the first village of Alhero are wallowing in the muddy streets outside the rotted wood structures they might have once called home. It's clear that these last few who haven't either died or left in the hopes of finding greener pastures are clinging to the belief that something better is coming. Once again, that duality of suffering leading to salvation by way of sacrifice. It's a compelling philosophical theme, and so far the grim aesthetic of the game serves it well.

There is a small group of priests and nuns giving what healing they can but they lack in supplies and ask you to bring them anything that may be used to cure the sick and injured. Charity is also a tenet of spiritual faiths, a sort of karmic belief in reward for struggling for a sense of meaning in this life.

In short, the themes are off to a pretty great start.

One aspect of the lore is that there is a fear that god has abandoned them to this fate, a common anxiety shared by many people in austere societies on the brink of total anarchy resulting from mass death. This, I am sure, will be explored in greater detail in the game's many environments and bosses. Could it be that the virtue of the almighty jBlasphemous is dependent on the faith of the masses? And if people are dying and those that survive are privately resentful, does that mean that their corrupted belief structure is the cause that effects a corrupted diving being? We shall see.

In terms of the overall aesthetic, it's a cross between Dark Souls, Diablo and Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal, where the sacred has become so subverted as to almost be profane (i.e., Jons' conversation with the painter in the chapel early on in the film). The world wants you to lose faith in your cause by presenting so much of what should be benevolent as sacrilegious. It's easy to understand how, in such a world, the only ones that can hang on to their conviction are the most devout and the most desperate; everyone in between is a coward or a survivor hanging on by a thread.

That's enough about the art direction, which so far is top notch.

The graphics are glorious, highly detailed and demented genius. This is the kind of twisted world I dreamed about exploring in the heyday of the SNES. The animations are fluid and with sharply contrasted pixel shades to help give the environments a greater degree of depth and personality. I'm glad this is 2D sprite art; the abstract presentation helps you visualize the world on your own terms, akin to the older Final Fantasy games. The enemies are all grotesque and mortifying and all seem to represent some kind of ultimate failure of human consciousness or ideal. Fans of Berserk and Dark Souls will know what I'm driving at here.

As for the mechanics, they are deliberate and methodical as with Dark Souls but the character progression is more SotN. It's a combat engine built on anticipation and counter strikes, and the more abilities you unlock, the more varied the combat becomes.

There is an item equip mechanic that allows for customization based on your preferred play style There is a rosary screen where you can attach different beads, with each one having its own effect so I imagine you can build whatever you want.

There is a spell system, of sorts, and each of the spells has its own effects and capabilities for further customization.

So far, the game's character progression seems to be more item based than anything else.

With your XP, you can 'upgrade your weapon', which is a way to unlock new attacks. There is no overall character level, which truly makes this game a merging of dark fantasy aesthetics with hardcore simplified enhancement.

There is a penalty for death in having to go back and retrieve lost XP/currency, a la the Souls series. But rather than seeing this as derivative of Dark Souls, I feel like it's more of a reflection of how that series has altered game development when it comes to games of this type.

Enough for now. More to come.

As always great to read your feedbacks. I will have to pick this little bugger up it seems

 

[Taiso]

I've beaten one of the first bosses and have some more information.

There is an NPC that you can ask for help right before this boss fight, and I believe this pattern will repeat itself at every boss fight. The benefit of having her on standby is that she will cast healing when you're close to death, but it seems like there's a cooldown and she may have only a limited number of uses, so you can't fight the boss recklessly. I died to it once and when I went after it again, she reappeared so at least it's not like Dark Souls where you have to keep asking the NPC to contribute.

I'm willing to guess that the rewards are greater if you don't ask for assistance.

There is a fast travel option but so far the only one I've unlocked is accessible after defeating the boss. When I went to the fast travel map, it was an overworld with only two locations available at the time (where I was and the starting village). Again, I'm certain that more locations will become available as I unlock them.

The backgrounds are gorgeous, absolute masterpieces of concept realized. The creative ways in which bodies and blood are woven into nearly every aspect of the environments tells a story of death and desolation all its own. The monster concepts continue to be unholy perversions of sacred icons and images, leading me to wonder exactly what is going on with this world. Is it corrupted? Is this some nightmare fever dream? Is the Penitent One (the character you are playing) in hell and having his faith tested? If all of these enemies are somehow connected to the Penitent One's religion and he's killing things that are derivations of his religion, is he some kind of inquisitor cleansing his church of evil's influence?

Whether it be cardinals sitting on floating chairs shrouded in holy rainment stabbing downwards at you with spears, self flagellants roaming around looking for sinners (read: you) to punish, priests lumbering back and forth with candelabras slung over their shoulders as weapons or black clad initiates that hover and throw magic projectiles at you, every opponent is, somehow, a corrupt version of your expectations. It's certainly allegorical to historical concepts inherent to Christian religion but I'm still wondering what's going on. After I defeated the first boss, I was teleported to a desert wasteland where bodies were fused with the rocky formations in the distance. There was a golden headed visage that seemed to be the Miracle's (this game's interpretation of God) representative, it spoke with the sound of a dozen voices (male and female) and rewarded me for my efforts with an artifact I will need at the end of the game.

The duality inherent to the concept of duality is really being pushed as the prevailing theme here and I really like the atmosphere of this game, which goes for days.

So far, the combat seems to be most effective when you parry and counter strike. You can button mash, but just like with Dark Souls and Salt and Sanctuary, you're meant to punish exposed enemies to expedite their elimination. Sometimes the enemies can overwhelm you and precise timing is required to quickly finish them off one at a time in rapid succession. This can be tricky because once they notice you, they make a beeline and if you aren't spot on with the parry timing, you'll find yourself overwhelmed.

Dodging gives some invincibility and allows you to phase through most enemies but you can be punished on recovery and you can't spam it so be careful.

Your magic spells require you to build meter to power their effects, and you build meter by killing things. Some items can be equipped to build meter when smashing objects.

The boss I fought was giant sized and relied heavily on AOE attacks and fractioning the environment with persistent attacks that remained until they were struck. When the boss stomped around, he would often destroy his own land mines though, so at least that's fair.

The journey continues. The combat itself isn't what I would call limited, necessarily, but it relies on a formula for the best effects.

You have this game's equivalent of 'estus flasks', start with 2 (can earn more as you go) and can recharge them every time you reset the zone with a checkpoint (a la the bonfire system of Dark Souls). You spend your gathered 'souls' at different locations, however. I've only found one place (the basement of the first village) but now that I can teleport back there it's not as much of a problem.

Every item you find has 'Lore' that you can, and should, read. It really helps to set the tone for a world that is already visually striking and dissonant.

The journey continues.

 

[roker]

awesome review

I love the aesthetics, but I'm not sold on the gameplay. While it's not broken or bad per se, it's not exactly what I would call fluid. I'll buy this after I finish some games on backlog. I was going to day 1 it, but some things popped up.

 

[Renmauzo]

I had backed this and actually participated in the alpha and beta, and gave feedback based on those experiences. I'm hooked on the lore that's been created here, and I'm a sucker for occult and religious based lore and stories and as Taiso mentioned, it delivers on that front in spades. I like the combat and it's deliberateness, and the controls feel tight and responsive (with the exception of the downward thrust which always seems to go into a sword swing before actually triggering).

I only gave it a go for a bit last night after OT, so I'm looking forward to the deep dive this weekend. Between Blasphemous and Children of Morta, I'm set for the next little while.

 

[jro]

I'm nowhere near as deep into it as Taiso, but it makes a damn good first (maybe an hour?) impression. Reminds me of Death's Gambit, but it's superior to that title with a little more polish and more enjoyable fighting mechanics.

 

[Taiso]

I had backed this and actually participated in the alpha and beta, and gave feedback based on those experiences. I'm hooked on the lore that's been created here, and I'm a sucker for occult and religious based lore and stories and as Taiso mentioned, it delivers on that front in spades. I like the combat and it's deliberateness, and the controls feel tight and responsive (with the exception of the downward thrust which always seems to go into a sword swing before actually triggering).

I only gave it a go for a bit last night after OT, so I'm looking forward to the deep dive this weekend. Between Blasphemous and Children of Morta, I'm set for the next little while.

Did you get digital materials with your pledge? I am REALLY interested in looking through the digital art book. Some of the monster and environment designs are mind blowing in their concept, proof and application.

 

[Taiso]

About 10 hours in and I am really gripped by this game's dolorous tone and concepts of sin and atonement. It really brings into question the entire concept of devotion to a faith. We, as outsiders living in supposedly more reasonable times, can look at the concept of holy reverence. What is of greater value to one who lives in service to the divine; the homage one does to the greater power or the salvation they hope to receive from worship?

It's a compelling irony that gets revisited time and time again in this game; is life worth living if your value proposition, the 'great reward', is in service to one who subjects you to unending torment and doleful burden? On the one hand, you could easily say 'treat yourself' but is a life of transitory pursuits really more meaningful than a life of dutiful service? This is the inherent irony of all faith structures; we are individuals and, as individuals, we choose whether or not to ascribe to the collectivist dogma of doctrine.

And whose doctrine? In Blasphemous, there are different NPCs with their own interpretation of what faith means, and some who believe that God (here, the 'Miracle') has been misinterpreted. I've heard Jehova's Witnesses describe human interpretation of the Holy Bible as the 'Doctrine of Man', a sort of nihilistic chicanery meant to manipulate the masses through the power of conviction. We've seen that this is the case many times throughout history In Blasphemous, once proud cathedrals serve as corpse pits and abodes of perversions of the religious ideal that have either become monsters or always were monsters. Or became monsters when their faith reached an apex. Jury's still out on all of this.

A lot of the lore in this game is about people who once ascribed to faith but were either faking it the whole time or who once had it but, much like the hollowed of Dark Souls, lost hope and doubted God and their own commitment to him. The question remains, then: what lies at the end of this path? Has anyone even begun to scratch the surface of the divine or are they so unable to see eternity because of their suffering that they just 'gave up'?

In terms of gameplay, I finally started using the minimap 9 hours in because I've finally reached that wall. Had to happen eventually.

I discovered that when you die, you don't lose XP. What happens is that a vestige of your failure is left behind and that is called 'Guilt'. Obviously, since failing in a religious context comes with the inference of assumed guilt, right? The more Guilt that you leave out in the world, the less XP you get for killing monsters. This is a great mechanic, a nice modification of the penalty for death that was introduced in Dark Souls. You can rid the world of Guilt by praying at giant statues called Confessors. No matter where you are, the Guilt is removed. I don't know if that's region specific or global. That's convenient, but what's more interesting is that I was able to destroy one of the Confessor statues and it created a warp point where I can go into a caged enclosure and fight various monsters, no doubt manifestations of Guilt coming back to have their due. If you defeat them all, you get a reward. I did this completely on a whim and, just like that and without any preface, I discovered a new aspect of this game. Does this mean my character will now have a slightly altered ending? Do I have to smash more of them to, as a character in this world, abandon the concepts of Guilt and Redemption? Is doing this a rejection of the doctrine or is it just another test of my faith?

The metatextual elements of this game's philosophy are very well represented by its mechanics.

There are many different kinds of fixtures you can interact with for different benefits. There are shops that sell different kinds of buffs and items that will help you progress. I bought a key at one merchant that allowed me access to a tower where a valuable power up was being kept. There is a spirit trapped in a cage that can enhance the number of knots in your rosary, allowing you to add more bead enhancements, if you have the right item to trade it, clearly another manifestation of the game's 'faith as suffering' concept. Fountains can replenish your health and flasks for a price and, if you have empty flasks that you've found along the way, you can pay more to activate those and add them to your live inventory. And another altar allows you to perform weapon upgrades. It may seem inconvenient for you to have to go to different places for different upgrades, but faith means travail and suffering after all. I think in Blasphemous, conveniences should only be offered when completely necessary. A life of service will feel monotonous if you tire of it, after all. Not everyone will appreciate the meta of this sort of stuff, but I certainly do.

I also came across a NPC with six swords sticking out of her chest and when I pulled one out of her, I believe I got a health boost (if I'm remembering it correctly). It was interesting, visually striking and, of course, another representation of the game's themes.

More to come.

 

[Renmauzo]

Did you get digital materials with your pledge? I am REALLY interested in looking through the digital art book. Some of the monster and environment designs are mind blowing in their concept, proof and application.

I've got the digital artbook (physical on the way when it's ready), the digital comic, and the digital OST. I'll send you a PM so that I can get them to you, Taiso.

 

[Poonman]

Diablovania sounds like a good way to describe this as far as aesthetics go, would you say it takes place in some kind of religious purgatory?

The setting doesn't look demonic, heavenly, or terrestrial and all the occupants seem to be forsaken or abandoned, rather than damned....