Blasphemous II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Nintendo Switch)

Blasphemous was a fantastic metroidvania that breathed new life into the crowded genre for me, styling itself as it did on religious horror. After recently playing through it again in order to see the newly added canonical ending as part of the final DLC (Wounds of Eventide) I moved onto its sequel, Blasphemous II. With early indications this was also a great game I was excited to get into it. Could it possibly live up to the excellence of that first game though? Spoilers for the canonical ending of Blasphemous to unavoidably follow.

As a quick recap, Blasphemous saw you as a resurrected penitent who was tasked with defeating a Pope like figure who was using the 'miracle' for his own perverted means. The miracle is an unexplained phenomenon that has the power to twist the wishes of the devout, often turning them into monsters based on the guilt they hold within their heart. After the penitent one defeated the mystical beings who were secretly controlling the miracle, that power left the land, and the penitent one fell down dead, due to the miracle's power no longer sustaining him.
A long time later (according to many people online it is about a thousand years later, though I don't recall anything in game stating it to be that long), the miracle returns to the land in the form of a gigantic beating heart containing an unborn gigantic mystical being floating in the sky above a giant city. The miracle's return brings the penitent one back to life, where he is tasked to make his way to this giant being and stop it from being born, as it has been judged to be a false God.

Initially I was very impressed with Blasphemous II, and don't take that to mean I didn't enjoy this, it was a great game, it just didn't live up the lofty heights of the first for several reasons. Upon starting the game you are given a choice of three different weapons. There is a giant metal ball on a chain, slow but powerful, and has the ability to ring bells that create floating platforms to appear. There are twin rapiers that are quick but weak, these also grant you the ability to teleport between mirrors dotted around the various rooms. Finally is a barbaric looking sword, this one has a powerful downward slash move that can be used to break through vines blocking doorways. My issue with these weapons is that the ball on a chain was by far the best weapon, it may be slow but it has a big reach and can often hit enemies multiple times as it swings by them. Outside of one boss fight designed for its use, I only used the rapiers for the teleport sections, and as for the sword, I never once used it in a combat situation. With the metal ball being so powerful it outclassed the other weapons far too much, making their inclusion feel a bit pointless. Each of these weapons has its own skill trees, granting various bonuses.

The item screen is better designed for the sequel, no longer do you have to switch in and out the special abilities you gain over the course of the twenty five hour or so game (roughly the same length as the first), but they aren't as interesting. You get four abilities that allow you to explore and open up more of the game world, but included among these are a very unoriginal double jump and air dash; useful, but not very exciting. There are no end of side quests to complete, with various grotesque friendless dotted around the map. Many of these are located in the central hub area, where there are a variety of shops. The fervour gained from killing enemies are now used solely for buying new items, with the upgrade trees dependent on a seperate currency earned or found around the levels. You have new wooden statues you can equip that give various buffs, and the rosary beads are back. As always, everything has lore attached to it, but where before you always seemed to get several paragraphs of lore, now, many objects give you just one or two sentences.
There are two endings, to get the good ending one of the steps is to collect the thirty three floating cherubs hidden around the game. On paper that didn't sound too bad, but I spent two or three hours right at the games end searching every inch of the maps for the remaining two, meaning that was one of the dullest parts of the game.

The design of the world isn't as memorable for the sequel. The first game had locations that seemed to naturally and logically lead off into each other, here the design felt more gamelike, with seemingly random locations all dumped on top of each other, making this feel much more like a video game than an authentic atmospheric world. Some areas do shine, I thought the wood area made for a decent change, a return to a key area from the first game now in ruins was neat, while there was a fantastic level set in an upside down cathedral covered in wax, that place really invigorated me late into the game due to its combination of fascinating design and fantastic music. In general the soundtrack is great, I wouldn't say it had as many memorable tunes as before, but there are still some great ones here.

Along with plenty of new enemies types, a large chunk of enemies return in the exact same form as before. The game also liked to reskin these a lot, so later game saw you battling different coloured and tougher versions of earlier enemies. My favourite of the new enemies was this weird combination between a bishop and a slug, and old crones who were eaten by crows upon dying. Sadly, many of the special kills that were unique to each enemy type have been devolved. Most special kills now all use the exact same animation. Bosses are also nowhere near as memorable. The first game had a heavy reliance of horrific screen filling monsters, the few human adversaries you faced made for a nice change. Here it is the complete opposite, nearly every boss encounter is against a human enemy, with only a couple of giant bosses. While the boss encounters were all a lot of fun, they really were nowhere near as memorable, I'm not sure why it was felt these needed to be changed.

Blasphemous II is a great video game, but it loses some of the cohesiveness of the first, with a world that felt far more artificial, and bosses that were a bit underwhelming in terms of design. There were some lovely changes made here (thank God spike pits no longer cause instant death!), some not so good changes (automatic markers on the map showing you where to go to next) and a smoother feel, but I wish it had made its world as hauntingly intimidating to explore. Where Blasphemous was a nine out of ten, very close to a ten, this one is a solid eight. Hopefully, like that one, there will be a lot of DLC added over time, which I will be sure to get,

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