What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Sumez]

Blasphemous has long been my go-to example for why I'm generally struggling to enjoy Metroidvania games. It's a game that's baseline "good", and obviously it features some absolutely jawdropping artwork.
But at the same time it's such a generic run of the mill metroidvania game that it can't help feeling like something I've played countless times before. It adds nothing to the formula, resulting in an experience I barely remember anything from.

I heard several people saying Blasphemous 2 was "much better", and the physical release was really cheap, so the curiousity got the better of me.

Spoiler alert: It's not. It's completely the same ordeal. Extremely toothless, forgettable and formulaic, excelling at absolutely nothing outside of -once again- the incredible aesthetics.

The exploration element seems fine at first, apparently giving you several different places to go, but exploring any of those paths very quickly boils it down to an apparent "do any of these three areas in the order you want before proceeding", after which you're then just taken to a series of other areas one at a time, following a very linear structure, only really tapping into the interconnected world via rigidly forced backtracking employed just to access various pickups you need to pass over at first.
The graphics, despite being artistically really pretty, struggle to truly separate each area from eachother in any real distinct manner. Especially coming straight off Afterimage which is incredible at achieving all of these things as well as I could imagine, Blastphemous 2 just feels extremely pointless in comparison.

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I seem to recall the heavy and methodic "mildly souls-influenced" combat of the original Blasphemous being at least a bit challenging. Either way that is absolutely not the case with the sequel. Enemies seem to exist mostly just to inconvenience you rather than challenge you, and even the traversal puzzles are so repetitive that they also feel like work. The one thing I would say the game actually does poorly is enemy/encounter design. You spend a lot of time just methodically dodging attacks while wailing on enemies with far too large health pools, and fighting them is very rarely any resemblence of "fun". This really makes me anxious about the prospects of the new 2D Ninja Gaiden title from the same team.

The boss fights however are actually occasionally quite fun, but most of them suffer from most likely going down first attempt. The ones that don't are probably the highlight of the game, albeit a small one.

So to reiterate - really not a bad game, but similarly to the first one it's a really tough one to recommend. You need to absolutely love Metroidvanias in general to justify also spending time with this one. And anyone considering doing it regardless, truly 100% needs to go through Afterimage first. It's a much, much better attempt at doing the same thing, in every concievable way.

[ryu]

Blasphemous has long been my go-to example for why I'm generally struggling to enjoy Metroidvania games. It's a game that's baseline "good", and obviously it features some absolutely jawdropping artwork.
But at the same time it's such a generic run of the mill metroidvania game that it can't help feeling like something I've played countless times before. It adds nothing to the formula, resulting in an experience I barely remember anything from.

What? Blasphemous is the -one- metroidvaniagame that sticks out to me because of its high difficulty. It's almost like a NES action platformer, but with exploration.

Blasphemous 2 is the generic one because it's so easy in comparion. :/

[Lethe]

I'm going to be contrarian and say that Blasphemous's worst failing is its aesthetics. If there was substance behind the imagery to make it add up to more than the sum of its parts, I'd be more forgiving of nondescript gameplay. But it is just all imagery, there's nothing to it. Both issues have the same root cause - the developers simply weren't able to produce the spark of art, so inevitably the result is workmanlike. The same shit happens in 95% of the current fad-genre releases, formulas are copied over and over by people who don't understand why they worked in the first place, while they've only got one or two ideas of their own to slap on top.

[Sima Tuna]

I really can't agree about Blasphemous. I think the game is beautiful and the story, while rather incomprehensible at first, feeds back into its religious-historical inspiration. I'll admit I bounced off Blasphemous pretty hard the first time, and I still kind of think the instant death spike pits in a game where you can't easily retry areas is a little bullshitty. The hit detection on the spikes themselves feels overly generous... In favor of the spikes. So that you get impaled sometimes when it feels like you shouldn't.

But other than that, I loved my time with Blasphemous. The game IS pretty easy compared to classic era platformers and arcade games, but it's a metroidvania and you generally can't enforce the same per-screen density in screens you're meant to be moving through again and again and again in the process of exploration and backtracking. But if you do want per-screen density in your search action games, check out Astalon. I ragequit that game because I was tired of solving the same rooms over and over and over when there was no fucking reward for it except a "chance to backtrack through an area to maybe get to the next area that might have progression in it but probably doesn't."

Also don't agree about the visuals not being inspired. Blasphemous seems to me one of the very few indie games that is more than a soulless copy of what came before. It's less Souls than Castlevania, tbh. There are really very few true Souls elements in Blasphemous. The game does have a pretty typical metvania structure (where certain content IS gated and not truly freeform) but I don't think the game is bad for it.

Now, Blasphemous 2 looks quite a bit more uninspired than the first game, and I've heard they toned the difficulty down a ton. I'm not a huge fan of the instant death spikes in B1, but they've been reduced to nuisance status (from what I have heard) in B2 and that's the opposite extreme.

I don't know if you played Blasphemous in the original Spanish audio, but I think the game benefits a ton from embracing the narrative experience that way. Granted, not everyone wants a narrative experience in their 2d action scrollers and I get it.

I dunno man, I just don't think Blasphemous fits at all with what I think of when I imagine nu-retro, boring, workmanlike indie slop. That would be more like the Scott Pilgrim game or Wayforward's products. Stuff that is technically "fine" or mediocre but feels kinda like shit to play.

[Sumez]

What? Blasphemous is the -one- metroidvaniagame that sticks out to me because of its high difficulty. It's almost like a NES action platformer, but with exploration.

Blasphemous 2 is the generic one because it's so easy in comparion. :/

Thanks for confirming this. I do recall the first game actually putting up a bit of a fight occasionally, and me actually dying and having to retry sections. There is really none of that in the sequel which makes it feel really bleak.
That said there are many metroidvanias which are definitely a lot more challenging.

[Sumez]

but it's a metroidvania and you generally can't enforce the same per-screen density in screens you're meant to be moving through again and again and again in the process of exploration and backtracking.

I understand this dilemma, and I honestly don't really have any solution for how to overcome it, it's one of the biggest issues with Metroidvanias, typically. Because you also want your game to actually be fun to play right? Wading through enemies who do nothing to stand in your way really isn't fun. Also, when Blasphemous 1/2 doesn't really do anything to cash in on either fun combat or exploration, what is there really outside of looking at the cool art?

Again, I didn't have this issue with Afterimage. It's not a particularly tough game either, but there's plenty of sections where I had to concentrate to make sure I would be able to progress, not unlike a Souls style game. Seriously. Play Afterimage.

[guigui]

Seriously. Play Afterimage.

Still seconding Afterimage, great Metroidvania.

When it comes to this genre I had the most out of SOTN, Hollow Knight, Bloodstained, Afterimage, Order of Ecclesia. Was disappoint by Blasphemous, Sundered.

I like to come back to the genre once in a while, but not sure which one to go next. Any other recommended titles you guys might have ?

[it290]

Blasphemous 1 is also one of my favorite 'Metroidvania' games, although I really feel this is a bit of a misnomer, since very little if anything on the game's critical path is gated behind unlocking movement tech. These abilities exist, but mostly for the sake of discovering additional items and content — they are pretty much entirely optional. I think the aesthetic is utterly unique and really holds the game together, and in fact I think both games are pretty narratively cohesive if a bit vague in their backstory (which bothers me not at all).

The first game admittedly has some annoying QoL issues (like why I can't I equip all the relics at once), but it's been fun enough for me to clear multiple times including 100%ing the map and all the challenges, and the three penitences you unlock in NG+ significantly vary the way the game plays which along with the multiple endings add a ton of replay value. The boss designs are, for the most part, good and satisfying, and there's a lot of varied strategy in the way you can take them down.

I enjoy the second game as well — have not completed it yet — but it's definitely nowhere near on par with the first in terms of overall vibe or level/world design. Unlike the original game it relies _heavily_ on movement tech and backtracking, and I think this strips out a lot of made the original special. Still a good game, just not an exceptional one. I'm not sure if I agree that it's significantly easier, though — some of the bosses I've found to be on par with those in the OG game.