Blasphemous (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.8 Update + DLC

Blasphemous is an action-platformer that will put your skills to the test, combining fast-paced hack-n-slash combat with a gripping and immersive narrative. The land of Cvstodia and all its inhabitants have been cursed by a terrible fate known only as The Miracle. This game is a Metroidvania video game developed by Spanish studio The Game Kitchen and published by Team17. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on 10 September 2019, with Warp Digital handling the console ports. Versions for macOS and Linux were released on 21 September 2020. A version for Amazon Luna was released on 20 October 2020. It began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. A sequel, titled Blasphemous 2, was released on 24 August 2023.

GAMEPLAY

Blasphemous is a Metroidvania action-adventure game taking place in the fictional region of Cvstodia. Players assume control of the Penitent One, a silent knight wielding a sword named Mea Culpa, as he travels the land on a pilgrimage. The game involves exploring Cvstodia while fighting enemies, which appear in most areas. The Penitent One can fight enemies by attacking them with his sword at close range, or by casting spells that can be learned. By damaging enemies with melee attacks, the player gains Fervor, which is consumed to cast spells. Each enemy has a certain attack pattern which players must learn to dodge and avoid taking damage.

Some enemy attacks can be parried by blocking at the right time, leaving foes vulnerable and allowing the Penitent One to counterattack them for increased damage. When getting hit, the protagonist’s health decreases, but it can be recovered by consuming Bile Flasks. Defeating enemies rewards Tears of Atonement, the game’s currency, that can be spent on shops to upgrade the player’s character and obtain items. Numerous upgrades can be acquired at various points of the adventure, which include increasing the Penitent One’s maximum health, Fervor and amount of Bile Flasks carried, and unlocking new abilities for world exploration and combat.

By exploring, interacting with NPCs, and completing sidequests, multiple items can be found which, when equipped, provide stat bonuses, reduce or nullify certain types of damage, or provide access to otherwise inaccessible areas. There are collectibles in the form of bones that can be delivered in a certain place to receive rewards, and Children of Moonlight – trapped angels that can be freed by attacking the cages they are in. There are multiple checkpoints in the form of altars located in multiple areas of the map. The player can rest in these checkpoints to fully replenish their health and refill any used Bile Flasks, save their progress, and equip certain abilities, but doing so will also cause all previously slain enemies (excluding bosses) to respawn.

The Penitent One will die if his health is fully depleted, or if he falls into spikes or a bottomless pit. Upon death, he will respawn in the last checkpoint visited, and a Guilt Fragment will appear in the location of his death (or near it, if he was killed by spikes or falling). The player will have reduced maximum Fervor, and gain less Fervor and Tears of Atonement from enemies until the Guilt Fragment is recovered by reaching its location and interacting with it. Alternatively, there are certain points where this penalty can be eliminated for a fee.

SETTING AND CHARACTERS

The game is set in Cvstodia, a land of religion, highly influenced by Roman Catholicism, its iconography, Holy Week in Spain, and Spanish culture, particularly that of Andalucía. The land is hallowed by a force known as “The Miracle” (also referred to as “Sorrowful Miracle” or “Grievous Miracle”). This force manifests itself by sometimes blessing and sometimes cursing Cvstodia’s inhabitants, transforming them into twisted creatures, subject to eternal torment. The protagonist is The Penitent One, the sole survivor of the Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow (called so because their members have agreed to a vow of silence). He wears a mask and helmet that consists of barbed wire and a pointed helmet similar to a capriole.

His sword originated when a woman, praying for punishment to ease her guilt, repeatedly hit her chest with an effigy of The Twisted One, who is in turn considered the First Miracle. The sword is adorned with spikes like that of a rose and an effigy. At the beginning of the game, a thorn is given to the Penitent One to attach to the sword’s handle, which allows it to feed on its wielder’s sins. During his pilgrimage, the Penitent One meets characters such as Deogracias, who is found in several key moments of the story and acts as a narrator for the game. Redento, a pilgrim who walks with his back bent and his hands tied as a form of penance; Candelaria, an old merchant who sells various items; and Viridiana, who offers assistance to the player in boss battles. There is a governing Church led by His Holiness Escribar, who was reborn as the Last Son of the Miracle long before the game’s events.

STORY

Blasphemous begins in the Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow, a religious order opposed to His Holiness Escribar’s authority, after all its members have been massacred. The last of their kind, the Penitent One, is resurrected by the Miracle and departs on a pilgrimage. After defeating the Warden of the Silent Sorrow, he finds Deogracias, who tells him about the Cradle of Affliction, a sacred relic that the Penitent One seeks, and the Three Humiliations he must perform to be deemed worthy to reach it. He also gives the Penitent One a thorn to add to his sword’s handle, wounding and feeding off the user’s guilt. This thorn will grow as the player completes certain optional dungeons, and its state at the end of the game will affect the ending.

The Penitent One travels to different locations in Cvstodia, including the decaying town of Albero, the snowing hills Where Olive Trees Wither, and the underground Desecrated Cistern. He completes the Three Humiliations, each of them involving a trial against a different boss, to obtain the Holy Wounds of Attrition, Contrition, and Compunction from the three Holy Guardian Visages. After defeating Esdras of the Anointed Legion on the Bridge of the Three Calvaries, the Penitent One gains access to the Mother of Mothers, the massive cathedral where Escribar and the Cradle of Affliction reside.

Throughout the journey, Escribar’s voice is heard, telling his backstory: A long time before the Penitent One began his pilgrimage, His Holiness Escribar had turned his throne away from his congregation, believing that the Miracle had forsaken them. Gradually, the Miracle transformed Escribar into a massive tree that suddenly ignited one day, leaving behind a massive pile of ash, atop which stood Escribar’s throne. The Miracle drove countless people to attempt climbing the mountain, but all of them failed, swallowed by the ash. As punishment, they re-emerged from the ash as mindless beasts (the game’s enemies) cursed to carry out the Miracle’s will. This included Escribar, who was reborn as the Last Son of the Miracle.

The penultimate boss is Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony, the leader of Escribar’s soldiers and a female knight whose armor resembles the Penitent One’s, also revealed in the prequel comic to be responsible for his first death and throwing his corpse to where the game began. The Penitent One triumphs this time, but she escapes. Proceeding to the top of the Mother of Mothers, the Penitent One battles and defeats His Holiness Escribar. The latter engages once more, revealing his true form as the Last Son of the Miracle, but is once again defeated. The Penitent One then finds the mountain of ash, where Deogracias encourages him to climb it and reach the Cradle of Affliction.

If the player did not complete all the optional dungeons and upgrade the thorn to its final form, the Penitent One fails to reach the top and sinks into the ash, leaving behind nothing but his mask – which Deogracias picks up and deposits next to a pile of countless identical masks, declaring the protagonist’s penitence over. However, if the player completes the dungeons and fully upgrades the thorn, the Penitent One reaches Escribar’s throne at the top of the ash mountain, sits there, and stabs himself with his sword. His lifeless body turns into a tree and becomes worshiped by the people of Cvstodia as the new Father and Last Son of the Miracle. In a post-credits cutscene, Crisanta reappears and draws the Mea Culpa from the Penitent One’s body.

In the Stir of Dawn DLC, the Penitent One can optionally meet Jibrael on a New Game+ playthrough, a giant, hunchbacked man with a bugle contorted around his arms. Finding Jibrael in different locations will allow him to play his bugle, releasing the crystal sarcophagi of the Amanecidas, four women created by the Miracle from the immense passion of Laudes, a devotee of the Twisted One. For revering the Twisted One more than the Miracle, the High Wills punished Laudes by sealing her and the Amanecidas away as undead warriors to be awakened only with the Saeta played through Jibrael’s bugle. After defeating the Amanecidas, Jibrael can awaken Laudes, who battles the Penitent One with the combined abilities of the Amanecidas. After defeating Laudes, she dies peacefully, and Jibrael, implied to have loved Laudes in life, is similarly able to find peace and pass on.