KickStarter Blasphemous - gorgeous looking religious horror metroidvania

[Machocruz]

The one thing that does irk me is how so many of these games are tethered to Daddy Dark Souls. You have your flasks, you have your bonfires, you have the lone and mute wanderer facing a brutal and harsh world, you have lore via item descriptions and even "You Died" or "You Vanquished ___" screens. It's a bit of a shame in the case of Blasphemous because I think the presentation is very engaging and strong enough to stand on its own without having to resort to Dark Souls fluff. Obviously I'll keep playing it because I really enjoy what I'm experiencing but it does disappoint me that such a strong premise with such a great visual atmosphere feels inclined to piggyback. I think this game could have stood on its own and maybe have shown other indie developers out there you don't need to reduce your work to being a wannabe.

Welcome to Fanboy Game Design Town, you must be new here.

But no, there's a ton of this shit going on in game development, indies especially. Rampant. It's bad enough every other crowd funding presentation begins with Our Game Is Like Souls/Earthbound/Fallout/Some 90s FPS/etc. At least I can understand being like "Fallout is one of the best RPGs ever. They don't make them like that anymore. But I'm going to." Or "I like Mega Man. I'm going to make my own Mega Man." That's a general outline, and obviously there is a market for spiritual successors and clones.

But it's ? to me copying down to specific details. Bonfires? Nothing amazing that needed to be recast in several other games. Is that what people were hooked on? The ostentatious names...Our Lord and Savior Jesus Sanchez. Tina the Private Dancer of Thunderdome. Why not just Zombie Baby or something like that? To their credit, such names fit the religion motif. But it's obvious they got the idea from Souls, not real world texts or culture. Just think of all the ways they could have gone with different things but didn't because they had to emulate their idols. Any one of us could have come up with a dozen ways to do a player death screen.

I'd be thinking about what is the crux of DkS. It's not "You Defeated"

 

[Falksi]

This looks great. Wank me off.

 

[Grauken]

Bonfires are just save points and a much older concept than Dark Souls

 

[lightbane]

Even the songtrack's names are edgy. Plus that sign looks like it was borrowed from Berserk.

I think the devs are from Spain.

They are. The game is good to boot, instead of being a hipstery abomination like Celeste that later on turned out to support child abuse and transmutants.

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

It adds up. I think the devs are from Spain.

Yeah, I know since the moment I have seen how "local", too specific, is most of its iconograpy. They are from Seville, Andalusia (southern Spain), btw.


As andalusian I want to share some comment about this game in context:
It's sad that this little, simple game, it's the best andalusian* computer game that I can remember since... always. There is a couple of mildly interesting projects in development and a large bunch of casual shovelware published since indie boom, but not much more. There is not a single andalusian game in my spanish PC games Top 50 list.

Andalusia is the most populated spanish autonomous comunity/region, about 18% of spanish population, 15% of video game market (330 million aprox., similar to Poland...) however, unlike mobile, the PC gaming industry is virtually non-existent.

 

[†††]

however, unlike mobile, the PC gaming industry is virtually non-existent.

Easier for gypsies to steal mobiles than computers

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

Easier for gypsies to steal mobiles than computers

 

[BlackGoat]

sigh

Got the knotted tongue thing and the blood platform thing and the jump in muck thing, which means I'm now wandering back across the entire game seeing where I can use it. Not a fan of this type of metroidvania design, where there's SPECIAL TILES that can only be used or activated when you have a certain item. Feels less like I'm unlocking areas with a new ability and more like I'm just using a red or blue keycard. And since the game scatters this shit all over the place, there's never that "Ah ha!" moment where I rush back to that one area I couldn't access before. Instead I'm just basically playing from the very first area again which sucks. And then I just get a ribcage of a saint or something.

Also, the seemingly complete lack of reward for freeing all those babies and finding all the saint bones is a bummer. I mean, I'm assuming something unlocks eventually.... but with Hollow Knight that caterpillar daddy was dishing out the goods for every single one you found.

 

[Grauken]

There's more beyond the red platforms, happy hunting

 

[BlackGoat]

Actually, I think I'm suddenly over it. I'm just gonna head to the end

It's the little things like not being able to attach to a climbable wall if you've been hit by an enemy that really make me rage. Especially when it results in my falling on insta kill spikes. Cool game!

 

[v1rus]

spikes are really fucking cheap, yeah, especially locked view thing

but otherwise, design seems ok for now, not far into it tho. got one of the three mcgaffin thingies, explored the cistern, good times

the atmosphere and style are fuckign superb, the game looks fucking gorgeous, and the whole esthetic of it with equipping prayers and beads is fucking awsum.

even the Dark Souls crypticism seems tolerable for now, i sure fucking hope it will stay that way. really tired of that trend in games, even more than "ill tell you everything through journal entries"

 

[Tom Selleck]

I love this oppressive, bloody, rusty, gothic, dark hypercatholicism so much. Like so, so much. Can anyone suggest any art (games/books/music/pop-up book) that has any similar vibe whatsoever?

 

[BlackGoat]

Beat it. Got the "bad" ending, maybe one day I'll slowly churn out the good ending, tho looking at the procedure to do so LOL yeah nah, maybe. Assuming they patch it up properly, people coming to do this game later will have a much better time

Lingering impression? I can't wait for Silksong

 

[Ivan]

sadly the "good" ending doesn't change the final boss, nor unlock a cool second phase or anything. I'd skip it, the process isn't very interesting IMO

 

[BlackGoat]

Good to hear. Uninstalled

 

[v1rus]

Can you do the good ending the Hollow Knight way?

You beat the final boss, the game gets you back before it, and you are free to explore/get a different ending?

 

[Grauken]

The one upgrade besides getting the red platforms and the vines to appear is the Linen of Golden Thread, that allows you to fall down deadly pits without dying and falling to the various levels belows. In my opinion one of the biggest game changers, especially if you're not too good with the whole platforming

 

[sputtering fart balloon]

Just installed this morning. Game runs smoothly but cutscenes will weirdly either freeze or go very fast (while text/narration continues) then end without being able to tell what's going on. Given the game's lore + story focus, this ruins the experience. I have restarted from the beginning several times trying windowed mode etc. but the early cutscenes are always unintelligible. Anybody else dealt with or resolved this issue?

I love this oppressive, bloody, rusty, gothic, dark hypercatholicism so much. Like so, so much. Can anyone suggest any art (games/books/music/pop-up book) that has any similar vibe whatsoever?

Warhammer 40,000 is the granddaddy of this aesthetic if you haven't checked it out yet.

 

[BlackGoat]

I love this oppressive, bloody, rusty, gothic, dark hypercatholicism so much. Like so, so much. Can anyone suggest any art (games/books/music/pop-up book) that has any similar vibe whatsoever?

Dark Souls 3 is like this, tho not quite as extreme.

Goya's Black Paintings and his Los caprichos and Disasters of War print collections.

Ken Russell's brilliant (and insane) film The Devils.

The graphic novel Nemesis The Warlock by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill is sort of this but in SPACE

Spoiler

 

[vazha]

Whoah! What a weird approach to andalusian catholic motives! Many are general catholic ones, but the details are clearly inspired by Seville religiosity.

The iconography is bit too excessive for any person that know minimally Seville Semana Santa to the point that general focus seems more on make a (blasphemous) parody of those religious traditions than made a fun hack&slash with Seville religious traditions as mere inspiration for the fantasy world. There is an overabundance of references and actual existing motives: religious clothes including the capirotes, those huge baroque relicarios, those little ones with blood? on the UI, the women crying faces carved on rocks are inspired by the different crying virgin Mary images that people worship fervorously as if they were different entities, the baroque architecture motives, I think I identified one of the most iconical Marian invocations in a "reneration altar"?, the weird giant head monster with half face full of wax (from wax candles), the religious parades inspired music, etc.


To be honest andalusian Semana Santa is impressive but kinda creepy for foreigners (specially kwanzanians):

Some random Malaga guy on the left

Those game altars (mana or vitality regeneration?) are inspired by this:

and this

This custodia-relicario is the inspiration for the "hat" that appears on some monsters head:

I'm going to buy right now on GOG this marvelous weirdness for my rarities collection.

Could you tell us (well, me) more about that Semana Santa practice? I ve read up on wiki, it doesnt say much. For example, when would the best time to visit Ceville to witness this in all its glory?

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

Could you tell us (well, me) more about that Semana Santa practice? I ve read up on wiki, it doesnt say much. For example, when would the best time to visit Ceville to witness this in all its glory?

There are procesions on every day of the "long" Holy Week, most of them between Sunday Palm and Easter, but Seville Semana Santa summit is the "madrugá" (andalusian for deep night or pre-dawn), the night and early morning between Holy Thursday and Good Friday, the moment of the Holy Week in which most people gather to join the processions (devotes, curious and thousands of tourists) and is possible to watch the most celebrated Seville's fraternities to march with their images and advocations: El Silencio, El Gran Poder, La Esperanza Macarena, Esperanza de Triana or Los Gitanos.

The Holy Week date is variable, in 2020 will be between 5 and 12 of April, so the madrugá will be between the night of 9 April and the morning of 10 of April.

The most relevant traditions in andalusian Semana Santa (copied recently in some other places of Spain... sadly, they had their own traditions also) are: Pasos/tronos (big ornamented platforms, usually with noble woods and precious metals, with baroque images of Christ, Mary and different scenes from the passion), nazarenos/penitentes (members of the brotherhood with the typical tunic and pointy hood), costaleros/portadores (those that carry the pasos/tronos, usually as a form of penance), saetas (a religious "lament" chant with flamenco style directed to the Christ or Mary) and the hermandades/cofradías (brotherhoods) different groups centered around a specific church and their advocations.

The most noticeable difference between Holy Week processions between two biggest andalusian cities and biggest Holy Week celebrations in Spain, Seville and Malaga, is than while in the first the pasos are carried from below with the porters hidden by the platform and cloths, in Malaga the tronos (literally thrones) are carried thanks to bars on the extremes of the platform, being visible all the men. Another spectacular Holy Week processions are those of Granada.

A brief video summarizing Seville Semana Santa in a cinematic style with a John Keats poem:



Another video with epic tones with images of diverse Holy Week processions in Malaga province (mostly Malaga city and Ronda):



One Saeta by the singer Diana Navarro in Malaga Holy Week (the other guy on the balcony is Antonio Banderas again):



Some interesting additional data:

-In the andalusian tradition the "marianism" (Virgin Mary adoration) is even stronger than in catholic general tradition, so is not a surprise than a great part of the most popular and followed procesions are Virgin Mary "titles".

-There are two old "ethnic minorities" brotherhoods in Seville, both very popular: Los Gitanos (the gypsies) founded in 1753, in which the direction position (the "Big Brother") must be gypsy and Los negritos (literally, the "little blacks") founded in 1393! for black people, until middle XIX century was a black only brotherhood, since then "old autoctonous blacks" are extinct by miscegenation, but there are yet some "new" blacks (african of recent arrival or "blacks" with only few generations in Seville) in the brotherhood.

-"Macarena", name famous around the world by some horrible song, is a popular female name in Seville because La Esperanza Macarena virgin advocation, but it's the name of a Seville quarter older than the religious tradition.The toponim shares the end in -ena with many other andalusian placenames, from a original latin word in -ana transformed by the arab language. So Macarena would mean "of Macarius", as Marchena means "of Marcus" or Lucena "of Lucius".

 

[vazha]

This is breathtakingly beautiful, esp that woman singing. Gotta go to Andalusia this Easter then. What kind of money one would need to have for, let's say, one week's modest stay? As in, affordable accomodation, food, a beer or two in the evenings, nothing fancy.

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

Well, in first place, modest or not, to find something reasonable in Seville on Semana Santa It's advisable to book well in advance, let say some months before at least.

Righ now really modest accomodations with good prices could cost between 20 to 30 euros per night for more than 2-3 nights trips.

A good price, medium level accomodation could cost about 40-50 euros per night.

Eating outside is really cheap on any andalusian city if you go to little "tapas" restaurants (and with mostly medium to high quality food). You can eat some traditional tapa for 1-3 euros, beer, wine or other drinks are really cheap on those traditional "tapas bar" also. For 5-10 euros you can eat a very diverse set of tapas with some drink. A traditional tapas bar is usually good quality food at "fast food" prices.

Prices on supermarkets are not too expensive, a little bit cheaper than in Germany or northern Italy (or even Madrid-Barcelona) but not so cheap as Portugal, Greece or "richer" slavic countries.

The most expensive monuments are about 10 euros, but those are only the most touristic ones, most little churches or monuments and some museums are free. Seville cathedral is second biggest "old" cathedral in Christianity, after Vatican's San Peter and was built over old Seville great mosque, there are many late-moorish, late-gothic -the dominant style- and baroque treasures there. City center is one of the world's most extense medieval cores (Seville was one of the world's biggest cities in Almohad times, XII-XIII century, and later again in XVI-XVII as spanish colonial empire centre), with the little street labyrinth, traditional andalusian white architecture, "plazas" and typical tapas places. Other beautiful visits are the "Reales Alcazares" (medieval christian city palace in pure "mudejar", late-moorish style). One of the biggest historiographic treasures in the world is the General Archive of the Indies in which is kept the vast majority of documentation about America's discovery, conquest, colonization and even private documentation about colonial life, it's possible to visit the old building and some little expositions. There are dozens of churches, towers, wall remains, baroque-moorish palaces, that deserve a visit.

Tourists oriented shops and restaurants are mostly overpriced (I'm not talking about typical souvenir shops, but apparently normal shops or tapas bars wich are mostly "guiri's"/for tourists). Those are easy indentify: all what is over-picturesque in a plastic way, full of weird colours that contrast with other shops and too much english posters, are for tourists.

English level on Seville is not the best in Europe, but it's reasonably good among young people and most people in touristic oriented places. Sevillano spanish as in the rest of Andalusia is a little... too much dialectal for a foreigner (even for northern spaniards sometimes, probably among the most difficult -or most divergent from the norm- spanish dialects). It's something as caribbean spanish, but even more systematic in the changes and differences. However if you talk spanish from total begineer level to advanced with strong accent, most people will try to pronounce in a less dialectal way (is less effective with words and expressions, but still).

People is in general very, very friendly and welcoming.

I hope you enjoy your visit if finally come here.

 

[vazha]

Thank you so much <3

 

[Serious_Business]

Not too much into this kind of gameplay but holy shit this game's aesthetics are something else. They are just pure black metal or something, translated into a video game. Feels like home