Blasphemous 2 PS5 Review: Blasphemous 2 is an excellent return to the Blasphemous universe where the Penitent One returns to stop another Miracle from arising. Blasphemous 2 improves on almost all aspects of the original while painting its identity and its great Metroidvania exploration. With plenty of secrets and collectibles to find, there is plenty here for the most diehard fans to enjoy.
Blasphemous 2 PS5 Review
A Fantastic Return To The World Of Blasphemous
The Penitent One awakens in a new world only to find that a new Micricle is about to awaken. Much like he did in the original, he sets out to stop the awakening and end it once and for all. Much like the first game, it’s hard to follow the story just through its story beats. Taking inspiration from the Souls franchise, Blasphemous 2’s story follows the same type of storytelling with obscure characters and plenty of item descriptions to read to understand all transpiring in the game.
You’ll encounter many characters that, at first glance, won’t make sense in the grand scheme of things, but with enough digging around, they have their connections to the wild world you find yourself in.
Although I wish the story were easier to follow, an audience lives for this kind of storytelling. But Metroidvania’s aren’t always big on story. Where Blasphemous 2 truly shines is its great exploration, platforming puzzles, and combat.
Streamlined Combat WIth Where Weapons Also Act As Puzzle Tools
The Penitent One has access to three different weapons. When you start the game, you’ll get to select one of these three weapons. A standard sword, a rapier and dagger combo, and a flail with a massive ball on it. Each weapon is unique to the game’s exploration as well. The good news is that you’ll eventually unlock all three weapons, but the one you start with will determine what areas you must explore first due to their puzzle-solving nature.
The flail allows you to ring a bell scattered throughout the world, creating magical platforms to jump on. The rapier and dagger will enable you to strike statues holding up mirrors and travel from one statute to another at lightning speeds, even allowing you to pass through gated areas. Your standard sword cuts through organic walls of human bodies by making a drop attack from the air.
You can also upgrade your weapons, making them more powerful and giving you extra abilities to make things easier in combat. Your other combat options are Prayers that use your magic bar to provide various attacks on your enemies.
You can shoot fireballs, summon a spirit to fly around the environment and attack enemies, or, my personal favorite, a smiting that emits a massive light of energy at your location, destroying anyone caught in its grasp.
A Thrilling Metroidvania With Plenty Of Secrets To Find
Exploration shines in Blasphemous 2, with plenty of secrets to find. Locations have plenty of hidden rooms to discover and hidden items to find. Each world is divided into regions like forests, underwater temples, and deserted city streets. Every location is unique, featuring different enemies to encounter and platforming puzzles to solve. It’s a real treat to explore and try and find every hidden location in the game.
Even at the finish line, I could only complete 96% of the map. I knew the location of the areas I hadn’t explored, but I couldn’t figure out how to get to these areas. It’s not so simple as finding a hidden wall. Sometimes, it could be a hidden passage from a vastly different location that will lead to the area you’re trying to reach.
You can place tags on your map to indicate hidden rooms or chests you found but couldn’t access because you can’t reach them, like the double jump or the midair dash, which you unlock later in the game. It’s great to have the ability to mark these types of things on the map so you know exactly where you still need to go to 100% of the map.
Plenty of items to find are used to share with NPC’s and can unlock new Prayers for you to use or to trade to open more spaces to equip clay idols to warship. These idols benefit the Penitent One by increasing your mystical damage from Prayers or healing yourself when you perform executions.
Great Combat and Fantastic Boss Battles
Enemy variety is one thing that the game suffers from. Though each area has its enemy types some of them are reskins of others, and some even fight like another enemy.
One thing that I love about Blasphemous 2 is its difficulty. Though the game can be challenging, it’s nowhere near as difficult as the first. Enemies are easier to stun, and attacks are more accessible to parry and dodge. Don’t get me wrong, I died plenty of times, but it’s much more open to the casual gamer.
The bosses are fantastic as well. I enjoyed each one. They vary in size and skill, and though at first I found it frustrating constantly getting struck by attacks I know I dodged or parried, each enemy and boss becomes more manageable once you figure out their pattern, as is the case with many games in the this genre.
Visually, the game looks a lot like the original, the pixel animation is excellent, and the enemy designs are great (even though some of them are recycled from original game) with the addition of some fantastic animated cutscenes. There aren’t many, but the ones here are of the highest quality.
The soundtrack is phenomenal and features fantastic tracks that reminded me of various Castlevania titles. The orchestral soundtrack is memorable and had me spending extra time in some locations to keep listening to the great music.
Blasphemous 2 is what you want from a sequel—improvements in every department and every mechanic. I’ve always loved Metroidvania titles, but mix in the difficulty and storytelling of Souls games, and you have a winning formula from start to finish.
Blasphemous 2 releases on August 24 for PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR