Reviews
[Review] Exploring the Gorgeous Hellscapes of ‘Blasphemous’
From Demon’s Souls to Sekiro, From Software has managed to carve out an incredible niche for themselves over the years. While a fair share of competitors and imitators have risen to challenge their throne, few have managed to capture the magic of their hyper-challenging yet insanely addictive adventures. Nevertheless, The Game Kitchen, a Spain-based indie studio, has managed to successfully combine the unique thrills of a Souls game with traditional Metroidvania mechanics. The end result of this unholy concoction is Blasphemous, one of the most engaging 2D gaming experiences we’ve seen in years.
On the surface, Blasphemous is an action-platformer where you play as the Penitent One, a tortured soul embarking on a divine journey through a faraway land devastated by a supernatural cataclysm known only as “The Miracle”. During this ecclesiastic quest, you’ll be faced with unimaginable horrors that would make Clive Barker squeal with glee, all the while navigating deceptively simple levels that are soon revealed to be part of a sprawling, interconnected maze of unique biomes and challenges.
Of course, this is one hell of a stunning labyrinth, with gorgeous pixel art depicting a nightmare-inducing world where faith has gone terribly wrong and suffering has become the norm. Thus, death will be exceedingly common during your journey, though it won’t be permanent. When you’re inevitably defeated, you’ll be returned to the last shrine you prayed at, leaving behind “guilt” at the spot where you died. Accumulating guilt reduces your maximum fervor (the game’s equivalent to mana), but it can be recovered either through backtracking to the location of your demise or paying a fee at certain holy locations (unless you’re trying for the true ending, which is a whole other matter).
Most of the gameplay here comprises of platforming and simple swordplay (with the parry button soon to become your best friend), but there are several prayers that allow for increasingly useful magical abilities, not to mention relics and rosary beads that concede buffs and new possibilities for traversing these cursed lands. There are also several upgrades for Mea Culpa, the Penitent One’s trusty sword. However, acquiring all of these unlockables relies less on accumulating Tears of Atonement, the game’s currency, and more on finding hidden areas and items scattered throughout the map.
The lack of handholding and focus on exploration may seem frustrating at times, but they make this one hell of an addicting experience as you set off on this gruesome adventure on your own terms. Nevertheless, Blasphemous‘ commitment to the Spanish Catholicism-inspired visuals is where the game really shines. The unique art style makes for extremely memorable levels, and every little detail, from the item descriptions to the gorgeous pixel-art cutscenes, help to immerse the player in this deranged world where spirituality has gone off the deep end.
In fact, like the Souls games, most of the story is inferred through item descriptions and subtext rather than being directly told to the player. This results in a loose narrative that relies heavily on individual interpretation (and online forum discussions). This approach might not be for everyone, but it works within the confines of the gameplay.
With the exception of some of the later boss battles, Blasphemous miraculously reaches a perfect balance of difficulty and satisfaction. Most challenges require only patient observation in order to guarantee victory, and even then, there are certain items that can help impatient players get by as well. Unfortunately, there are a few bugs that can make things harder than they have to be (such as leaving guilt behind in unreachable areas and certain evens not triggering properly), and some essential areas/items are also way too easy to miss. These issues become way more prevalent towards the end of the game, which is a huge shame, though I admit that I never stopped having fun, even as I was forced to backtrack to the very beginning of the game to find a miniscule passageway that I had previously missed.
Overall, I’d say Blasphemous is a must-play if you’re a fan of Souls-like adventuring, classic Metroidvania or if you just want to set off on a dark pilgrimage to unholy lands. There may be a few issues that hinder the experience here and there (some of which are supposedly being patched as we speak), but this is still one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2019, and I think horror fans will especially appreciate the work that went into crafting this terrifying world.
Blasphemous is available now on Steam, the Xbox Games Store and PSN!
Reviews
‘The Death of Robin Hood’ Review: Michael Sarnoski’s Ultra-Violent, Dark Subversion of Legend
Myth gets brutally dispatched in The Death of Robin Hood, A Quiet Place: Day One filmmaker Michael Sarnoski‘s dark, loose adaptation of the 17th-century ballad Robin Hood’s Death. The 13th-century outlaw gets a gritty makeover in a subversion of his legendary heroics, forcing a reckoning as Robin Hood seeks peace and death in his final days. Sarnoski’s deconstruction of popularized myth comes forged in shocking violence and poignant introspection, yielding another deeply affecting story of meeting death on your own terms.
The Death of Robin Hood bypasses rehashing the origins of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, instead introducing a grizzled brute who opens the film with a ruthless culling of a young girl seeking vengeance against the outlaw. It’s a downright gentle introduction to Hugh Jackson’s Robin, who only escalates the jaw-dropping carnage when reunited with righthand Little John (Bill Skarsgård) as they seek to reclaim Little John’s home and family from vengeance seekers. These early sequences set up a stark contrast to the Disney-fied legends; Robin Hood’s heroics have been grossly exaggerated compared to the blood debts his violent exploits have racked up over the decades, which in turn have made him a hunted man spanning generations.
Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/A24
Grave injuries from battle lands Robin on a remote island priory under the care of Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer, 28 Years Later), where the strange, idyllic community, an enigmatic leper (Murray Bartlett), and a traumatized young girl, Margaret (Faith Delaney), force him to confront his legacy.
Sarnoski, who writes and directs, makes the hero the villain in his adaptation, ensuring a deeply rewarding character arc. At every point in the film, Robin is openly, often actively, seeking death. The stroke of poetic beauty here is that his view of a worthy death seismically shifts from beginning to end. What’s a hero’s death? That answer deepens and evolves along with its “hero” in his waning years. All the impressive survival instincts and battle savagery can’t outmatch or outrun endless cycles of death and loss, after all, despite Robin’s attempts to shrug off his own myth over the years.
Those cycles of violence loom large as a constant threat as the aged outlaw finds himself surrounded by those directly impacted by his past. It breeds conflict, external and internal, reflected in tense encounters and tenuous alliances that let Robin’s humanity slowly slip through his hardened survivor’s shell. It’s the type of role with just enough similarities that’ll draw inevitable comparisons to Hugh Jackman’s stellar work on Logan, but the tenured actor quickly sets the emotionally and morally complex Robin apart, whose primal ruthlessness belies a surprising capacity for aching empathy.
Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/A24
While it’s Robin’s relationship with Sister Brigid that drives his final story to its soulful conclusion, it’s the unexpected friendship between the outlaw and the cautious Leper that has the greatest impact. A quiet conversation between the pair comes barbed with soul-shattering revelations, one that irrevocably alters Robin’s outlook while serving as one of the bolder myth revisions. Still, it’s Comer’s quiet heartbreak that yields the film’s biggest devastation.
Sarnoski depicts medieval life for all its cruelty and filth. Death is not remotely gentle in the 13th century; it’s downright nasty and vicious. Cinematographer Pat Scola captures it with startlingly dark realism and grit, but so, too, the breathtaking Northern Ireland landscape that provides this intimate tale with the scale of a sprawling epic.
The Death of Robin Hood removes the simple binary of heroes and villains, combining both into a complicated interrogation of myth itself. But the biggest magic feat is its demonstration of how myth-making and storytelling can heal even the most grievous wounds, and even provide peace if earned.
The Death of Robin Hood releases in theaters on June 19, 2026.
You must be logged in to post a comment.