KickStarter Blasphemous - gorgeous looking religious horror metroidvania

[toro]

I hope it's as solid as Salt & Sanctuary. I'm not expecting it to be as masterful as Hollow Knight.

It's not. Sorry.

 

[Ivan]

I hope it's as solid as Salt & Sanctuary. I'm not expecting it to be as masterful as Hollow Knight.

It's not. Sorry.

did you have alpha access?

 

[toro]

I hope it's as solid as Salt & Sanctuary. I'm not expecting it to be as masterful as Hollow Knight.

It's not. Sorry.

did you have alpha access?

No. But at some point it was streamed on twitch. I thought that it was released already.

I confused this one with Death's Gambit.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

There's a demo now availabe on Steam. But it's time limited and will expire on September 1st. So try it while you can!

 

[Ivan]

Bump ^^^

Finished the demo in 40 min or so. Found some secrets and two powers. Boss fight was p. cool as well. Enemies hit p. hard, nice to see.

 

[Baron Dupek]

if they not put this thing in game I will be disappointed

 

[Latelistener]

 

[Neerasrc]

I liked the game visually. Art style is like "ghosts and ghosts(snes)" I'll give this game a chance.

 

[Ivan]

full report to follow.

 

[toro]

full report to follow.

it's good

edit: this is not dead cells, it's more like salt and sanctuary (although not so good)

 

[Ivan]

Impressions after 5/6 hours:

This definitely feels a lot more like the classic Castlevanias from the NES/SNES than the Igavanias. While there is a sizable interconnected open world, areas aren't gated by abilities. Much like the progression of Dark Souls prior to Anor Londo, you have free reign to explore the different zones before you can proceed to an ultimate destination (not sure if this is the "final area"). Platforming is fine, but I do find the ledges to be quite sticky. There are instant death spike traps that are annoying, but nothing like the bullshit from the old Castlevanias with enemies knocking you off platforms.

Presentation: gorgeous animation, I love the running animation, it's the little things that count

Combat: Some of the best death animations I've ever seen make combat a great joy. Lots of neat variety with monsters and well thought out enemy placement.

Environmental Hazards: there's a zone with high winds that makes for fun platforming sections, toxic areas in sewers that will tempt and murder unsuspecting players

More classic Castlevania than Igavania, more "basic" gameplay than Hollow Knight (no fancy platforming or air dashing here). Definitely enjoying my time and looking forward to finishing this and clearing the map. Also, this isn't punishingly difficult either, I would say medium with some boss fights swinging more to the Hard side, but not by a whole lot.

Some screens (will need gifs to show off the delicious death animations):

Secrets Galore

like Dark Souls, you can be a bitch and request help with bosses. Don't be a filthy casual.

gorgeous backgrounds

ditto

 

[Jinn]

Looks like a lot of fun, and absolutely beautiful. Would have purchased and been playing already if I didn't have a couple other games I'm focused on at the moment.

Look forward to reading more impressions!

 

[Grauken]

Visuals are utterly beautiful, controls are perfect, but the level design is kinda boring, although I'm not too far in. Also much easier than I expected

 

[cvv]

I'm not into platformers or pixel art, like, at all but I've been watching a random video for about 30 mins now and strangely can't stop. Love the aesthetics and the ambient OST is one of the best things I've heard in a while.

Such shame I don't enjoy metroidvanias despite being a giant Souls fan. It's like you wanna fuck but your dick just doesn't get up.

 

[Grauken]

To be honest it feels more soulslike than metroidvania, but so far Salt & Sanctuary was better in terms of gameplay

 

[Lagole Gon]

So 2d soulslike is a whole genre now, eh?

Let me guess, there's no real story, only some cryptic bullshit imitating DS approach.

 

[Grauken]

So 2d soulslike is a whole genre now, eh?

Let me guess, there's no real story, only some cryptic bullshit imitating DS approach.

Story is cryptic to the point that I have no clue whats really going on, despite lots of really neat voiceover

 

[Lagole Gon]

So 2d soulslike is a whole genre now, eh?

Let me guess, there's no real story, only some cryptic bullshit imitating DS approach.

Story is cryptic to the point that I have no clue whats really going on, despite lots of really neat voiceover

I was afraid this might happen. Pretentious "cryptic by design" approach.
I like DS oneiric BS, but that's because it comes from a genuine place. You can't easily replicate being an autistic jap, who just sucks at communicating the story so much he kind of creates his own style.

 

[Haba]

There never was a sidescrolling game with a cryptic story before DS, that is for sure.

 

[Lagole Gon]

There never was a sidescrolling game with a cryptic story before DS, that is for sure.

Nigga please. It's not like they are hiding the inspirations.

 

[Scroo]

Wow, this looks absolutely incredible. I'm actually happy they took their inspirations from DS

 

[Great Deceiver]

I knew nothing about this game and was just blown away. It has the best pixel art I've seen in a long, long time. Gameplay is fine, not up to Hollow Knight standards but again, it's not trying to be. It's much simpler.

 

[Grauken]

The art is definitely on another level, great looking, very crisp, not too little and not too many details and very much wedded to its theme

I do wonder if people from a Christian background find the iconography in the game offensive?

 

[North Gibraltarian Dog]

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 "regeneration 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.

 

[Ivan]

Reached the first ending in 10 hours (thorough exploration). I imagine clearing the map and doing x y z to unlock the "true" ending would add a few more hours to it. All in all I had a great time. I still think spike floors are bullshit, I learned to fall better to avoid sticking to ledges, and the game continues to have gorgeous art and satisfying sound and death animations. Another successful kickstarter story. Holler if you run into any secrets you can't quite reach.

who the fuck thought it was good idea to place a death pit so close to the exit/entrance

teleportation & new threads

DMC devil gates

love love love the running & jumping animation

gorgeousity made flesh