Highlights
- Blasphemous 2 stands out in the Metroidvania genre with its dark fantasy Catholicism and unique gameplay.
- The game's focus on skill-based upgrades rather than RPG elements sets it apart from Soulslike games.
- Moving forward, introducing boss weapons into the player's arsenal could be an exciting and rewarding addition to the Blasphemous franchise.
Blasphemous 2 may not have made the same splash that Hollow Knight: Silksong will whenever the latter happens to launch, but as a comparable 2D Metroidvania action-platformer bearing Soulslike characteristics it’s certainly one of the best of its ilk. Blasphemous 2 wields its dark fantasy Catholicism to its advantage with world-building not unfamiliar to anyone who’s played a Soulslike game, and while its gameplay is different it persists as a Soulslike in every positive sense.
Soulslikes are commonly defined by how rich and dynamic players’ chosen builds can be. This involves being able to orient stat allocations toward a particular weapon, for example, and detailing a custom character with a specific class that they can then mold toward stats they know they’ll desire down the road. The Blasphemous games don’t have such RPG elements and instead concentrate on skill tree-based weapon and passive upgrades. That said, Blasphemous 2 stretched the franchise’s legs in a way that could make one FromSoftware Soulslike feature seem plausible and rewarding in Blasphemous’ future.
Hades 2 and Blasphemous 2 Share a ‘Bonk’ Build Ethos
Hades 2 and Blasphemous 2 aren't alike in many ways but they do share the capacity for lone bonk builds that grant massive risk/reward scenarios.
Blasphemous 2 Made the Right Call by Going Slow and Steady with Weapon Variety
Blasphemous’ evolution between games has been remarkably and favorably granular. Obviously as an indie game it won’t have the budget or scale that FromSoftware’s Elden Ring could achieve, but what Blasphemous 2 does to improve and iterate on its predecessor is still profoundly impressive.
Blasphemous 2 could have devised a lore-retconning reason to reprise the iconic Mea Culpa as its lone weapon, for instance, but instead The Game Kitchen chose to design three unique weapon playstyles that all have necessary and authentic utility in platforming as well. This was easily the sequel’s defining trait, especially because it allowed players to choose which of the three they’d begin the game with.
The other two would then need to be found throughout the game with respective platforming and regions being inaccessible until they’d retrieved the weapon that could perform whatever traversal is required.
It’s unlikely now that a Blasphemous 3 would feature as many weapons as a Dark Souls might, and yet it’s feasible that The Game Kitchen could enjoy this formula and what supplementary weapons can provide in terms of builds or playstyle preferences. If so, an interesting way to see additional weapons introduced in Blasphemous would be if it adopted FromSoftware’s means of transposing a boss’ soul into a one-of-a-kind and otherwise unobtainable weapon, typically the one that the souls’ previous owner was wielding in their boss fight.
Blasphemous 3 Should Debut Boss Weapons
Whether it’s a boss soul or a Remembrance transposed, FromSoftware Soulslikes gifting players the weapons that their greatest foes wielded is a massive sense of achievement. There are so many weapons in all of these games that players may not care much to pursue them, especially because it’s also not an explicit feature, not unlike most systems in FromSoftware’s action-RPGs.
Still, boss weapons provide a lot of variety with iconography players can be familiar with and behave like memorial tokens of a player’s favorite bosses. Then, part of why these weapons can be so engrossing is that they often grant a unique ability or attack that their respective boss had, such as the Waterfowl Dance as a weapon skill on Elden Ring’s Hand of Malenia.
It may be a tall ask now for a potential Blasphemous 3 to include its own boss weapons since it only recently debuted a few new weapons that were all intrinsic to gameplay throughout the sequel. That said, if the Blasphemous franchise is indeed planning to persist and evolve, boss weapons would be an exciting way for weapons to be developed further.
This way, weapons could be granted to players via bosses exclusively and not necessarily be mandatory, while a starting selection is still available that can be swapped out for a preferable boss weapon. The possibilities are infinite for how a Blasphemous 3 might look, but with additional weapons being integral in Blasphemous 2 it makes sense that The Game Kitchen would want to iterate on that even more.
Blasphemous 2
The Game Kitchen's sequel to 2019's Blasphemous takes place exactly after the events of that game's DLC. The Penitent One has to traverse an entirely new world filled with intimidating monsters that not only pack an incredible punch but are also horrifying. A side-scrolling Metroidvania with Soulslike combat, Blasphemous 2 walks the line between action and horror.
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , Switch , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- August 24, 2023
- Developer(s)
- The Game Kitchen
- Publisher(s)
- Team17
- Genre(s)
- Soulslike , Metroidvania , Platformer
