Blasphemous and The Penitent One

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There are times when I feel like I've been pushed out into the world a little too late. As if I was born into a time that is way faster than I can process or my taste in entertainment inadvertently lags behind a decade or two. At least that is what Blasphemous, similar Metroidvania or roguelike games seem to keep telling me time and time again. Or it could be that I take gothic-looking arcade platformers way too seriously. In any case, Blasphemous, despite being a relatively new game from last year, took me on a trip of nostalgia that I didn't want to experience.

Before we go any further, let me warn you in the most solemn way possible that this will not be a review or a descriptive piece of any kind. Instead, this would be the mumble of a guy who just fought his way out of sickness, and while parasites fought against his antibodies, this guy chose a very discomforting game over praying for good health. This is a tale of how one of the most innovative video sharing platforms aggressive suggestion feed sometimes does a great job of letting people find what they otherwise would've missed.

A few years back, while scrolling through youtube home feed searching for something worthy to rest my eyes upon, I found this song, preferably a DJ music track named White Flag; Music released by a relatively unknown band called Delta Heavy. Intriguing enough, it boasted this quality AMV based on the actual paradise lost poem by John Milton. In the contra like platformer type 2D AMV, this song, in its entirety, summarized the whole poem of more than ten thousand lines in only a 3:15 min duration! Watch the actual AMV I'm sharing down below, and you'll get a clear picture of what I'm trying to get at! Such short and sweet but overly creative elements of modernity are what I strive for. They even dropped some Easter Eggs in it too, as if it was an extracted clip from a well-made platformer game that nobody ever heard of! And that clicked something in me.

For the next couple of days, whenever I listened to it, I searched and looked through google to find something similar. It could've been anything, from animated videos to games or anything to that end. But, I only found some videos and some roguelike games here and there. Nothing is strong enough and plays around with concepts similar to paradise lost, which portrays an alluring picture beyond popular beliefs. And that too in a 2D digital format. It had become this wild bigfoot hunt until it wasn't anymore!!

A couple of days ago, I found Blasphemous in a feverish trance, which turned out to be precisely what I hoped it would be. When severe fevers hit, everything gets changed into this mashed bowl of potato salad, but it was my YT playlist instead of potato. White Flag played out in a loop after what I believe is a year or more. And then randomly, a let's play for this game started playing. Usually, this autoplay annoys me, but this time it didn't :)


As the name suggests, Blasphemous is a game highly influenced by the twisted representation of Spanish Christianity from the time of crusades that also kind of plays around with loosely profane concepts. Our hero, in this case, the anti-hero, is called The Penitent One.

In a faraway land named Cvstodia, there rules an omniscient and omnipotent being named The Miracle. Her sense of justice is nothing less of heresy in itself. So, in this land, there was a religious order called Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow whose members were massacred by Escriber, who is The last son of Miracle. To get some equilibrium throughout the land, the miracle reanimates the penitent one and sends him on a pilgrimage of penance. Penitent one wears a mask and a helmet with a crown made of thorns in its helm. He wields a sword named Mea Culpa that literally came to exist by bursting out from the chest of a woman who, too, was seeking penance.

The game opens in an underground dungeon filled with weird nameless creatures. Some look like priests and preachers, and some look like deformed monsters. But all are enemies of our anti-hero. Just as we try to leave, our first boss fight takes place. It's with The Warden of the Silent Sorrow who has a weird shaped cross as his weapon. As we kill him and get out of the first dungeon, we get to meet with Deogracias. He is the game's take as a pathfinder shaped into a character. He tells us what to do and where to go, and the game moves forward from that point.

Like many other Hack and Slash games, this also encompasses some essential common elements given cool names to make it look unique. Fervor, Magic, Bile Flasks, and Tears of Atonement, instead of health and other resources. The game physics, too, is similar. There are some timed sets of movements every enemy does, so to get better at the game, you also have to match your combos accordingly. You can dodge and block attacks by parrying. The climbing animations are quite hectic tbh, but it's better than many other similar games, in my opinion. You can collect relics to upgrade your damage or nullify getting damaged. There are two primary sets of attacks; magic and melee. Spells make it a bit easier to play, but I've seen gamers do speed runs with no magic and half the upgrades. You can explore various portions of the maps and can always revisit them. There are health fountains at points where your health will reset along with some buffs if you rest. But, except the bosses, the previously defeated enemies to re-spawn when you rest.

There are two endings. You'll get the good one if you complete all the tasks and clear all the dungeons. And the generic second ending is what most people get when speed running through. Some bosses are tough to fight because of the built-in damage reversing rules they have, like not weak spots, but others without such restrictions take massive damage. It's basically Soulsborne except its 2D. The game mechanics in itself is not that pleasing, but the 2D creepy and gothic artworks do the trick for me. The link you see below shows an area where a gigantic monk-like NPC talks with the penitent one. You can go there to upgrade your bile flasks, which are essentially health potions, and every time you go there, you'll see this creepy thing trying to come out of its chest:P

Even though it will not suit everybody's taste, but it's a great game story-wise. You'll get tons of lore to explore about and some quick-witted artistic terrain that, if you look past the weird monsters and bosses, will get you hooked pretty quickly. And as I said, my point of attraction is from a whole different perspective. So if you decide to play it, don't blame me if you don't like it:V It is a great game anyway.:D


All the photos and gifs are either credited or taken from Blasphemous Fandom Wiki. You can check the fandom wiki site out if you want to learn more about the game.



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You know I stopped reading game related post (especially the ones from you) because each time I do, I always have this urge of going to the market and getting myself a nice PlayStation.. Sadly (or luckily) my bank account always reminds me of things to do and things not to do.

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I completely understand brother!! I too have never owned a PS:( I play on my shitty pc that crashes all the time!! Otherwise the only way of getting my fill is to watch gameplay videos on YT, which sounds super lame, that much i know. But what can a guy do now! LOL:v

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