Blasphemous

 Switch
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 208 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 153 out of 208
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 208
  3. Negative: 27 out of 208
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. ljmaddux
    Mar 12, 2021
    4
    I made this account to review this game. I feel that strongly about this...

    This could've been a home run indy game the likes of Salt and Sanctuary or, dare I say, Hollow Knight, if they'd just taken a couple of extra days to improve the controls and iron out a couple of bugs. The controls are the definition of "clunky". It never seems to know when I'm pointing up, left, or right,    I made this account to review this game. I feel that strongly about this...

    This could've been a home run indy game the likes of Salt and Sanctuary or, dare I say, Hollow Knight, if they'd just taken a couple of extra days to improve the controls and iron out a couple of bugs. The controls are the definition of "clunky". It never seems to know when I'm pointing up, left, or right, and there's a pretty significant issue with the character doing an "about face" when the joystick snaps back to the neutral position, which means charging an enemy and then flipping around to swing the sword in the wrong direction is the norm. It's also extremely easy to miss a ladder grab because it never knows when you're pointing up, and the upward strike is equally as problematic (up is really the biggest issue).

    Then the bug...

    There is a persistent bug with this game that causes you to get stuck. I believe it's the result of directing the controls to drop off of a ledge at around the same instant that he grabs it. Very easy to accidentally do this. I would say that approximately 40-50% of my game sessions involved a reboot as a result of this bug.

    Would I recommend it? I guess maybe I still would. It's a really cool game and the themes, plot, and gameplay in general are a lot of fun, but I have to give the devs a wag of the finger and a low score over these fairly significant, and endlessly frustrating, problems.    … Expand
  2. Beerbear69
    May 3, 2020
    4
    The game does have very impressive graphics, but other than that it is just a not-so-well-executed retro platformer.

    The combat in this game is made "challenging" by making enemies bullet sponges. Really, I faced a random mob requiring 6 hits to kill in my first 15 minutes of playing this game. The same goes with bosses that tend to have 3 easy to dodge moves, but then require 80 or so    The game does have very impressive graphics, but other than that it is just a not-so-well-executed retro platformer.

    The combat in this game is made "challenging" by making enemies bullet sponges. Really, I faced a random mob requiring 6 hits to kill in my first 15 minutes of playing this game. The same goes with bosses that tend to have 3 easy to dodge moves, but then require 80 or so hits to kill. The only way to fail is by getting bored of the fights and becoming unfocused.

    The platforming in this game is also very easy, and the only "challenge" is made by spikes on the ground, that you could not see coming down because the game offers no way to look down. Sometimes the only choice is to take a leap of faith in the darkness, and hope you won't land on spikes. If you land on spikes, have fun spending 3 minutes walking back to this spot.

    Controlling the character in this game is far more clumsy than it has to be. The "roll" or "dodge" move in this game has a fairly long cooldown. For this reason you will often end up in situations where you must take damage, because you used up your dodge and the movement and spawning of enemies in this game can be very arbitrary. Another complaint is that for some reason dropping down ladders in this game has been made weirdly challenging. After you press the drop down button, you should not press any other button or you will start climbing the ladder again. This minor detail caused me way too much headache for what it's worth. The combat is also super boring. For my 3 hours of gameplay I had a sword that can do a single attack, and a single boring spell. At least till this point of the game you cannot even "pogo" with your sword off enemies, which would already make the combat much more interesting. There is also no option for light and heavy attacks... or anything else to make the combat more interesting. Movement in the game is also extremely tedious, which is only further amplified by giving the dodge move a fairly long cooldown. On top of everything, the game does also suffer from rather frequent frame-drops on Switch, to make the gameplay even more poor.

    The game does offer some form of "soul losing" upon death, similar to Dark Souls. In this all you lose though is some of your maximum mana. The mana limit can be gained back by visiting the area you died. I did not feel though this mechanic offer anything to the game. The loss of 1 mana bar is very insignificant. The mechanic feels like something that was added to the game last minute hoping to ride the Dark Souls hype.

    The map system is very confusing. Normally one square on the map would mean one room, but in this game you just randomly move one square in the map. I kept constantly walking back and forth in the game because the map made no sense to me.

    The game is also just too melancholic. I like the idea behind the aesthetics a lot, but then this game offers nothing to balance the sadness. There is no humor, no companions, nothing to make the game less saddening. This also leads to the fact that the game world feels very empty. You occasionally face NPCs, but their dialogue is complete nonsense. It is written in some kind of old English, which makes it hard to read in the first place, and even so the dialogue includes nothing of value. I honestly had no idea what the characters were up to with their chatting 90% of the time.

    A big positive for the game though is that, you will find spawning points quite frequently. Even if the boss fight would be very boring - at least you don't have to spend more than half minute walking there again. Finding other outstanding positives for the game on top the already mentioned graphics is really not so easy.

    The game is overall just a very basic retro platformer that does nothing innovating and feels like a chore to play, due to it's boring gameplay and overly depressing aesthetics.    … Expand
  3. saxo27
    Sep 12, 2019
    3
    Editing my review. After playing some more, I can say for myself that this game is not fun. It is full of artificial difficulty. One boss has a ton of hp and I continue to lose because it is such a tank that eventually it will widdle me down unless I am perfect. Did the devs do a no hit test run of bosses like Castlevania?

    Also, instadeath as a mechanic is frustrating and artificial. I    Editing my review. After playing some more, I can say for myself that this game is not fun. It is full of artificial difficulty. One boss has a ton of hp and I continue to lose because it is such a tank that eventually it will widdle me down unless I am perfect. Did the devs do a no hit test run of bosses like Castlevania?

    Also, instadeath as a mechanic is frustrating and artificial. I don't want to spend a good percent of my gaming time trekking back to where I died and repeating.

    This is also compounded by the left joy Con drift. One whacky drift and it's instadeath, then tedious jog back.

    Yeah. I dislike this game a lot. Good artstyle but tedious gameplay. This game has difficulty but not based on good game design.Money wasted.    … Expand
  4. MedusaMadman77
    Jun 20, 2020
    3
    Absolutely the most overrated game in recent history. Clunky controls, bad collision detection, & sluggish gameplay, make for a really unenjoyable experience. It's just a slog that's more hassle than it's worth. Like playing a bad SOTN clone at 70% speed. There's just too many better games out there.
  5. Rookie4
    Aug 6, 2020
    2
    So I came back after hearing about a big patch and dlc with NG+ mode.
    So here we go.. From the very start the game wipes your save slot to make the NG+ then asks you to choose from 3 pentances or nothing at all, though the game hints into some hidden content that only made through penitence. So I try to read the description and it was in all gibberish lingo that the game uses. I say ****    So I came back after hearing about a big patch and dlc with NG+ mode.
    So here we go.. From the very start the game wipes your save slot to make the NG+ then asks you to choose from 3 pentances or nothing at all, though the game hints into some hidden content that only made through penitence. So I try to read the description and it was in all gibberish lingo that the game uses. I say **** I'll give it a go anyway, I chose poorly and want to chose otherwise and try out the other pentinence to understand what I me getting myself into. The game then says **** you you shouldn't have done that and gets you out of the whole pentinence dlc RIGHT FROM THE START. So yeah Took me around 5 minutes to start and I'm already finished. Goodbye!    … Expand
  6. CookeKeyes
    Oct 20, 2021
    0
    This is actually a fantastic game, but not on the underpowered switch. The switch version is virtually unplayable due to the input lag. There’s a good half-second delay to everything you do, and in a game that demands as much precision as this one, that makes it unplayable. If you’re thinking about buying this version, be sure to try the demo first. I have a feeling they only added thatThis is actually a fantastic game, but not on the underpowered switch. The switch version is virtually unplayable due to the input lag. There’s a good half-second delay to everything you do, and in a game that demands as much precision as this one, that makes it unplayable. If you’re thinking about buying this version, be sure to try the demo first. I have a feeling they only added that just so you could see how bad it is on switch before buying; no other version of this game on other systems has a demo.… Expand
  7. Android
    Feb 20, 2022
    4
    This game looks and sounds great it's like a heavy metal album cover come to life. Unfortunately, it's also a compilation of the worst parts of NES-era Castlevania platforming and level design. If you enjoy gameplay that consists largely of jumping from one platform to another with no air control, to find an enemy appear on the ledge you're jumping on and hit you backwards into an instantThis game looks and sounds great it's like a heavy metal album cover come to life. Unfortunately, it's also a compilation of the worst parts of NES-era Castlevania platforming and level design. If you enjoy gameplay that consists largely of jumping from one platform to another with no air control, to find an enemy appear on the ledge you're jumping on and hit you backwards into an instant death pit or spikes, then this is the game for you. Otherwise, I'd look into the many other better Metroidvanias out there. The combat and boss design is also nothing to write home about.… Expand
  8. ruzhyo2000
    Oct 31, 2021
    0
    This is a profoundly unfun game.

    The good: The art is incredible. The bosses are pretty cool. The bad: Controls are sluggish. Progression feels very slow. Just moving around in this game does not feel fun. Because a lot of the dungeons rely on moving platforms or other threats that are timed, just getting through each dungeon feels tedious. The story and general dialogue in the game    This is a profoundly unfun game.

    The good: The art is incredible. The bosses are pretty cool.

    The bad: Controls are sluggish. Progression feels very slow. Just moving around in this game does not feel fun. Because a lot of the dungeons rely on moving platforms or other threats that are timed, just getting through each dungeon feels tedious. The story and general dialogue in the game is absolutely nonsense. Everyone speaks in riddles and it comes of as a pretentious attempt to be deep but no one is actually saying anything of substance. If you like Metroid don't buy this game because the movement and controls are just not up to the standard it sets. The bottom line is it is just tedious to play and not rewarding.    … Expand
  9. tangerine_dream
    Jun 23, 2023
    4
    This game took like the worst aspects of metroidvania/platformer games and souls-like titles and slapped it together lol.

    Controls are clunky, one shot spikes deaths are annoying, there's certain lack of check points and portals, so the playthrough is artificially longer since you have to rerun the whole thing often because of that random off-screen-pushed-to-pit death, or you have to    This game took like the worst aspects of metroidvania/platformer games and souls-like titles and slapped it together lol.

    Controls are clunky, one shot spikes deaths are annoying, there's certain lack of check points and portals, so the playthrough is artificially longer since you have to rerun the whole thing often because of that random off-screen-pushed-to-pit death, or you have to backtrack A LOT just because... why not?

    Some enemies are hella annoying, and most of them are just hit sponges, there's nothing hard about them really it just takes 5-10 shots to kill them. Some enemies don't care if you block or dodge their attacks, or even pass through them, they damage you anyway.
    There are barely any RPG elements though, compared to idk Dead Cells let's say, these songs or w/e they are called don't have any significant impact, and you have to swap them constantly in inventory menus. Like, wtf?
    I like the aesthetics and graphics though, story-telling is... weird I guess.

    Game looks fun at first, but more you're playing more you're getting bored because of the same actions over and over again. Not the best Metroidvania nor Souls game to be honest, and that mixture makes sense only for die-hard fans of both genres.    … Expand
  10. appledinger
    Jul 1, 2022
    0
    2 hours in, 3 game breaking bugs. cool.

    Since it's making me type more, the game makes you retrace your steps a lot if you die, and it's less of a challenge and more of a "try not to get bored and lose focus" challenge. Once you know where enemies are, you can robotically repeat the same strategies to get past them without using your brain, so it's just burning time. it's like dark    2 hours in, 3 game breaking bugs. cool.

    Since it's making me type more, the game makes you retrace your steps a lot if you die, and it's less of a challenge and more of a "try not to get bored and lose focus" challenge. Once you know where enemies are, you can robotically repeat the same strategies to get past them without using your brain, so it's just burning time.

    it's like dark souls except it forgot to be good.    … Expand
  11. whoaskedhim
    Sep 14, 2021
    4
    September 2021 Update: So many patches! And not one of them fixes the issues with the core platforming mechanics! Bumping the score down from a 6 to a 4 for missing so many opportunities to solve such low-hanging fruit. Why are falls still instant death that sends you back to your last save? This is a platforming game, and one with less than ideal handling. You fall far too often to beSeptember 2021 Update: So many patches! And not one of them fixes the issues with the core platforming mechanics! Bumping the score down from a 6 to a 4 for missing so many opportunities to solve such low-hanging fruit. Why are falls still instant death that sends you back to your last save? This is a platforming game, and one with less than ideal handling. You fall far too often to be punished so harshly.

    ———

    This game has incredible atmosphere, lore, and boss combat, but lackluster, unresponsive platforming. Unfortunately, that platforming makes up >95% of the game play.

    - When you jump up onto a platform, the bottom of your feet pixels need to be above the top of the platform pixels. This isn't intuitive because the sprites are designed to appear to have depth, so your instinct is to aim for the apparent "surface" of the platform when actually you need to aim well above the sprite itself. I couldn't break this habit even a dozen hours into the game. The sprites are that well designed and convincing.

    - Compounding the above, falling to your death is needlessly more punishing in this game than other popular platformers (e.g. Hollow Knight). Instead of losing a unit of health and being reset to your previous platform (or even the start of the room), you die outright. Dying outright in this game, like other Souls-like games, adds cumulative stat punishments to your character until you recover your "soul" where you last died—which is often very difficult because of the poor platforming and instant fall death.

    - Ladders, which make up a surprising amount of the platforming, just don't work well enough. Your character will only successfully grab onto a ladder when the sprites are perfectly centered over each other, and you press "up" on the analog stick. Not "up and slightly left or right," I'm talking "perfect 90° up". You will fall through ladders a lot, throughout the entire game. This is incredibly annoying when you often have to platform jump onto ladders suspended in the air over an instant death fall, or from ladder to ladder.

    If a patch was released that tightened up the platforming and the fall punishment, I would honestly see myself giving this game an 8/10.    … Expand
  12. Daige
    Jan 10, 2023
    3
    This game has SERIOUS control issues! I'm a longtime gamer who is VERY familiar with platformers, Metroidvanias and I can handle really difficult games but this game just makes me rage.
  13. no_one2
    Dec 29, 2022
    1
    first impressions is great, feels fine, when attacks hit feels/sound great, i don't really look around the story. so i have nothing to say about that. what matters the most is the gameplay.

    and after playing for hours i started to hate the game more and more. - like enemies in the edge of the screen hitting you, before you can even react, knocking you off of the platform - death pits    first impressions is great, feels fine, when attacks hit feels/sound great, i don't really look around the story. so i have nothing to say about that. what matters the most is the gameplay.

    and after playing for hours i started to hate the game more and more.
    - like enemies in the edge of the screen hitting you, before you can even react, knocking you off of the platform
    - death pits and spikes that i can't see because i'm so high up,
    - fast travel is non existant save points being so far apart from one another.
    - questionable bell hit boxes in the castle
    - started feeling the char walk to dang slow, making going through the game feels like a slog.
    - so many, and i MEAN SO MANY ANNOYING ENEMIES.
    - dodges feels so sluggish. due to the cooldown that shouldn't exist.
    - that one enemy boss in the bridge, where i have problems looking at the animations. because the start of the attack animations is the same as his other 9 atk animations, and i just have to quess which one's which, why am i playing a guessing game here.

    i've played so many metroidvanias, and most of the time when i lost to something i can see what's the problem and not do it again in the future.
    but this is by far the most annoying game i've ever played out of every one of em. i quit,come back, quit,come back,quit come back again and again and everytime i tried coming back to the game, every death, every damage that i got from the game, feels like i'm not at fault.

    my biggest problem is how **** the mobility of the character feels and that's the biggest reason i gave it a 1/10    … Expand
  14. Mattersend
    Aug 25, 2023
    3
    As someone whole absolutely loved hollow knight and defeated radiance I cannot recommend this game. The art and ambience is great but the gameplay is simply not fun. Movement is sluggish and to confound frustration the game requires you to play it a certain way, I.e. slowly. Each enemy is a puzzle and should be defeated a specific way. There is absolutely no “flow” to the movement orAs someone whole absolutely loved hollow knight and defeated radiance I cannot recommend this game. The art and ambience is great but the gameplay is simply not fun. Movement is sluggish and to confound frustration the game requires you to play it a certain way, I.e. slowly. Each enemy is a puzzle and should be defeated a specific way. There is absolutely no “flow” to the movement or platforming. You are regularly punished in unfair ways because you did not approach the enemy or situation the way the game expects you to. In order to have a shot at the last boss you have to do a ton of backtracking to fully upgrade your sword, otherwise expect to never beat the final boss. That backtracking is extremely tedious due to how not-fun the movement and platformibg is. To sum it up I’ll put it like this: whereas in HK I enjoyed every second of the two days it took to beat the white palace and radiance, Blasphemous feels like a chore the whole way through - it’s just not fun.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Gamers' Temple
    Apr 1, 2020
    97
    Blasphemous is a gothic horror masterpiece that can't be missed.
    Read full review
  2. FNintendo
    Mar 26, 2020
    90
    Blasphemous is a marvelous work of the Metroidvania genre with an art style based on pixel art and which features exquisite combat mechanics and an eye-filling visual environment marked by gloom and desolation. This is without a doubt one of the richest and most defying Metroidvania adventures to reach the market in recent years and a fundamental game for everyone who enjoys a good gaming experience of this kind.
    Read full review
  3. IGN Japan
    Jan 28, 2020
    78
    Blasphemous is a high-difficulty metroidvania-like side-scroller. Its gory violence is not for everyone, but together with its grim yet beautiful background scenery, it delivers a well-crafted ominous world. Just like a splatter movie, this is the kind of game you might want to dive into if you’re looking for serious thrills.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »