Blasphemous II

Blasphemous 2 is not a good Blasphemous game. I will not be reviewing this game as a game itself, as most people who come to this game probably expect more Blasphemous. And I'm here to tell you, don't. Blasphemous 2 is an ok and serviceable game, but it isn't a good Blasphemous game. I'll get the good stuff out of the way first. I think the combat being divided into 3 sections with 3 weapons is a cool idea. Unlike some fans, I like this change, it adds a bit more personality to how you play. The weapons also being movement abilities for moving around the world is also a good change. Plus the parkour has generally gotten more better. The music was fine, nothing really stood out to me. The interconnectivity of the map was pretty good, and exploration (ignoring the enemies) was fun. Now, what went wrong? First of all, let's revisit that 3 weapon idea. This idea is the reason why 1) wall stabbing which was a thing you could always do, is now an ability. This is stupid and just adds to the 7 (I'll get to this later) movement abilities. 2) It completely killed the execution style. Something that used to have flair and genuine passion, is now dulled down to either stupid vines, or some watered down execution. They didn't need to do this, they could have given every enemy an execution with specific weapons. And you could have just placed the wall stabbing within the swords kit and made it closer to the start. And btw, 7 movement abilities? This is genuine padding. I don't think I have ever seen this many movement abilities within a metroidvania. Speaking of padding, the game is padded as hell. After the water city area, I was completely checked out. In both bosses and the areas. Most of the enemies are either random ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that don't look cool or that gruesome look that the first game had, or they are just a color change. This genuinely sucks as I feel like they aren't even trying. The first game had enemies that were essentially a different level of an enemy, but those guys would have pretty good changes to them added. Plus, these enemies are just so tanky. I don't know why they are, but they just take too much damage. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid fire spitting fatass or the bed ridden magic dudes are the bane of my existence. Why are they this tanky?? I have a horrid time just waiting to take a poke at them because the gameplay just feels like it shifted more towards a waiting game. I hit an enemy, they do an attack I can't hit through unless I jump across. This just explains so many of the enemies within this ga,e Plus, let's talk about the bosses. The bosses are just not it. The simple song and dance feel isn't there, and the bosses just feel like they exist to be an obstacle without as much world building aspects imo. The challenge also doesn't feel natural, I can just feel the fact that they are trying to make it hard. The first game had this natural level of difficulty that didn't feel too padded. But this one feels like it's meant to be hard and I think that gives off a more bitter taste for me. And I don't know what they are aiming at here. Are they trying to broaden the experience or limit it more? There are some changes here that go both ways. Now when upgrading your flasks one isn't removed, as they saw most people just not doing it so they made it more accessible, and also paying for certain stuff is removed. I don't mind these, but they made some baffling choices on the other hand. Now even if you pick up the guilt fragment, you will not get that bar removed if you died enough. Normally it's not that bad, but they removed the non-paid way to remove guilt. And also, the guilt you build up now causes you to take more damage. This is just horrendous. I'm bad at the game, so I get nerfed even more at the game I'm bad at. And also, the beads are just not that good anymore. They are mostly just resistances, having no fun beads like the first game. All the more fun stuff got moved to the statues section. This is an ok change, but it just feels like padding again. There was no reason to make this change. They could have gotten rid of the bead system completely and double down on the new changes, or they should have stuck with it. Again, I'm not against the changes here, I'm more confused on why they half assed the change in the first place. The statues of remembrance is a cool idea that sounds cool, but the slots cost stuff that you have to farm or find more of in the world. And farming them seems tedious. They could have just replaced beads with statues. And last but not least, the visual look of the game. First of all, no idle animations exist within the game like the first one. And the animation for getting new abilities are just the same used over and over again. You might think I'm just nitpicking minor things here, but this is a form of proof that they just didn't have that dedication. And the coloring of the map also is a bit more iffy. I think the colors being more muted and dull is a bad change. The first game looked grumpy and sad and agony filled too, but it had these colors that were vibrant and nice in a weird way. This game just looks more dull and bad compared to that. And also I thought the animations were just not it with this one. They opted out of the more grungy look to smooth it out, which was a mistake imo. Again, this game is not a bad game if you ask me. I just don't think it captures the reason Blasphemous stood out in the depths of metroidvanias. It was a basic game that wasn't overly complicated, it had a brutalist feel, and it was unique. It went against a few tropes most games have. It felt good to see a game bring up a story it wants to tell, and tell it completely without trying to add more. The original Blasphemous took me around 14 hours, which is an understatement because I have around 40 on the mobile version, it's just a good game. But those 40 hours were earned, not padded. I played that myself, knowing I had already finished the game, DLC and all. But this, I finished this in 22. And I don't think I would finish it in 22 if I had the choice. This didn't feel as fluid as the first one did. I know I said this a lot already, but if you just want to play a game, you can play this game. It's not a bad game at all, just a bit padded. But I'm sure people can enjoy it. I, myself, did enjoy my playtime, but not as a Blasphemous fan. I enjoyed it as a normal game. It's a bit iffy on that account, tbh. I don't know if I'd recommend this as a normal day to day consumer. But I made up my mind on if I would as a Blasphemous fan. I'm sure though, people will enjoy this as they always do. If you like it, all the power to you. This is just my random ramblings.