Ivan
Arcane
~15 hours in
Blasphemous 2 feels like a confident sequel. It smoothes the rough edges from the original by more organically introducing some of the QOL features more organically. Specifically, there are fewer deaths caused by spike traps/invisible floors that weren't 100% clear if they were death inducing/and more thoughtfully introducing the warping system. The map is a joy to explore and I had a blast doubling back through it once I acquired new verbs with which to navigate the environment. Combat and platforming feel as good as I remember from the first game. This time around you have 3 weapons at your disposal, and each have an exploration mechanic tied to them which adds some spice to the game. I would have liked to have seen an end-game map that focused more on you properly using all 3 in tandem. The game has a solid difficulty curve up through its initial gatekeeper bosses. After that, the difficulty takes a nose dive as you can get super strong after acquiring the movement abilities. I'm currently at what I believe to be the final boss and it's properly kicking my ass. That said, this is easily my GOTY. As I said before, this game oozes confidence and I'd love to revisit it once they release an expansion.
Blasphemous 2 feels like a confident sequel. It smoothes the rough edges from the original by more organically introducing some of the QOL features more organically. Specifically, there are fewer deaths caused by spike traps/invisible floors that weren't 100% clear if they were death inducing/and more thoughtfully introducing the warping system. The map is a joy to explore and I had a blast doubling back through it once I acquired new verbs with which to navigate the environment. Combat and platforming feel as good as I remember from the first game. This time around you have 3 weapons at your disposal, and each have an exploration mechanic tied to them which adds some spice to the game. I would have liked to have seen an end-game map that focused more on you properly using all 3 in tandem. The game has a solid difficulty curve up through its initial gatekeeper bosses. After that, the difficulty takes a nose dive as you can get super strong after acquiring the movement abilities. I'm currently at what I believe to be the final boss and it's properly kicking my ass. That said, this is easily my GOTY. As I said before, this game oozes confidence and I'd love to revisit it once they release an expansion.
