I played some of the first Blasphemous, a game that's part search action and part soulslike, but not really committing to either. I found it directionless and lost interest fairly quickly.
Blasphemous 2 decided to go (almost) full Troid, and it's a far better game for it.
There are still minor Souls elements, though it can be argued (and I will!) that Souls games themselves aren't too far from search action games to begin with. It's really most apparent here with the healing flasks, and the various somewhat obtuse side quests you can find.
A neat twist on the familiar formula is that your weapons are what gate your progress for the first half the game, and you choose which one you want at the beginning, which will completely change your routing early on. It gives the game some nice replay value in that respect. I started with the big ball and chain, because it had a similar feel to a Casslebania whip, and I never switched off of it except when necessary. Combat feels fine, though sometimes enemies can stunlock you and it feels cheap. Those skelly-men with the candelabras are ass holes.
This becomes less of an issue as you progress, as it also features the classic SOTN inverse difficulty curve. By the end, if you're playing this Correctly, you're going to breeze through most of the bosses, with the exception of the second-to-last one, who's relatively tough. He took me a few tries, but it was mostly just annoying because he has an unskippable cutscene between phases. The last boss is piss-easy. I guess that's a Souls tradition.
A mechanic I really liked is that, in addition to rosary beads that increase your resistance to various elements, you have an "altarpiece" apparently worn on your character's back, and you collect figurines to place into it. These offer various expected buffs, but can also sync together if put in specific configurations to create unique effects, like stopping time when you use a healing flask.
Of course, I have to mention the game's art, which is incredible across the board. Some of the best pixel art I've ever seen, with lovingly detailed and gruesome death animations for every enemy type. My favorite one is the old witches, who after being clubbed to death, are torn apart by their own ravens for some reason. I also think it's really funny how the healing flask use animation is your character smashing it into his face. I guess that's on-brand.
By the way, I have absolutely no idea what's happening in the story of this game. It seems to assume you played through the first one and are deeply familiar with its Lore, because it has zero interest in explaining a single thing. Something about a Miracle, which I gathered was a Bad Thing like the eclipse in Berserk, or... I dunno. It don't matter. I'm not here to get theological, I'm just here to club skellingtons. And let me tell you, I clubbed HELLA skellingtons.
8/10
Blasphemous 2 decided to go (almost) full Troid, and it's a far better game for it.
There are still minor Souls elements, though it can be argued (and I will!) that Souls games themselves aren't too far from search action games to begin with. It's really most apparent here with the healing flasks, and the various somewhat obtuse side quests you can find.
A neat twist on the familiar formula is that your weapons are what gate your progress for the first half the game, and you choose which one you want at the beginning, which will completely change your routing early on. It gives the game some nice replay value in that respect. I started with the big ball and chain, because it had a similar feel to a Casslebania whip, and I never switched off of it except when necessary. Combat feels fine, though sometimes enemies can stunlock you and it feels cheap. Those skelly-men with the candelabras are ass holes.
This becomes less of an issue as you progress, as it also features the classic SOTN inverse difficulty curve. By the end, if you're playing this Correctly, you're going to breeze through most of the bosses, with the exception of the second-to-last one, who's relatively tough. He took me a few tries, but it was mostly just annoying because he has an unskippable cutscene between phases. The last boss is piss-easy. I guess that's a Souls tradition.
A mechanic I really liked is that, in addition to rosary beads that increase your resistance to various elements, you have an "altarpiece" apparently worn on your character's back, and you collect figurines to place into it. These offer various expected buffs, but can also sync together if put in specific configurations to create unique effects, like stopping time when you use a healing flask.
Of course, I have to mention the game's art, which is incredible across the board. Some of the best pixel art I've ever seen, with lovingly detailed and gruesome death animations for every enemy type. My favorite one is the old witches, who after being clubbed to death, are torn apart by their own ravens for some reason. I also think it's really funny how the healing flask use animation is your character smashing it into his face. I guess that's on-brand.
By the way, I have absolutely no idea what's happening in the story of this game. It seems to assume you played through the first one and are deeply familiar with its Lore, because it has zero interest in explaining a single thing. Something about a Miracle, which I gathered was a Bad Thing like the eclipse in Berserk, or... I dunno. It don't matter. I'm not here to get theological, I'm just here to club skellingtons. And let me tell you, I clubbed HELLA skellingtons.
8/10