History VideoGame / Blasphemous

The setting is a morbid world where people's sins have physically manifested, due to something called the "Grievous Miracle" twisting humans into painful monstrosities. Players take on the role of "The Penitent One," the [[LastOfHisKind last member]] of a congregation known as ''The Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow''. After the deaths of his group, he finds himself in Cvstodia's "Age of Corruption", following the transformation of The High Pontiff into a burning tree whose ashes swallowed up a majority of the church leaders and transformed them into monsters. To set things right, the Penitent One is told to seek out the Cradle of Affliction, but to do so, he must first face three trials known as the Three Humiliations, all the while hunted by agents of the Church, whose leaders seek to ensure the Miracle remains so they can continue to draw power from it.

''Blasphemous'' is a 2-D HackAndSlash {{Metroidvania}}, developed by The Game Kitchen of ''VideoGame/TheLastDoor'' fame and published by Creator/Team17. Its Website/{{Kickstarter}} [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/828401966/blasphemous-dark-and-brutal-2d-non-linear-platform campaign]] launched on May 23, 2017, reaching its goal in a little over a day. It concluded on June 20, earning a total of $333,246 (an appropriate ''[[NumberOfTheBeast 666%]]'' of its original goal). The game was released on September 10, 2019 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]], UsefulNotes/{{macOS}}, UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}}, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port censors a lot of nudity from the original game, most notably with the Lady of the Six Sorrows, in which she appears topless in the original game, but in the Switch version her nipples are covered with a narrow strip of cloth.

*** The skin based on the UsefulNotes/GameBoy color palette is named "The Adventure", referencing ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheAdventure''. The "Alcazar of Grief" minigame where you find said skin is also very reminiscent of the NES ''Castlevania'' titles, particularly the part where your health can only be refilled with chicken legs that you find in walls.

* BottomlessPits: The Penitent One can fall to his death this way, even if the map indicates the pit has a bottom. The Penitent One can find a relic that allows him to survive the fall in some cases.

* NotTheIntendedUse: The *Taranto to My Sister* prayer creates several bolts of vertical lightning around the Penitent One. This allows him to easily defend himself from either side, but it also trivializes damaging things directly above him for more than a screen away. This includes lurking enemies or even breaking the prisons of cherubs nominally protected by jumping puzzles.

* EarlyGameHell: The Penitent One starts the game with two Bile Flasks that will each fill about 40% of his meager health bar, no Rosary Beads, sword hearts, relics, or prayers, and only the most basic attacks in Mea Culpa. Even the basic ranged attack must be learned later. Additionally, if the player isn't accustomed to Soulslike combat, the learning curve can be brutal, especially with such small margins for error. Needless to say, AssistCharacter Viridiana tends to have much higher impact against Ten Piedad, the first first boss you can ask for her help with, than any of the other four she's willing to contribute against.

* AssistCharacter: The ''Strife and Ruin'' DLC adds a prayer which lets the Penitent One summon Miriam to assist them in battle. When summoned this way, Miriam will make a single HerdHittingAttack before disappearing.

* UpgradeArtifact: The Penitent One carries a rosary with space for several beads[[labelnote:*]](two initially, can be increased up to eight by finding additional Rosary Knots)[[/labelnote]] and a reliquary with space for up to three relics. Rosary beads provide passive buffs (such as increased defense, greater health, or increased Fervor generation), while relics provide more active abilities and gameplay changes (such as making certain platforms appear or allowing the Penitent One to talk to spirits of the deceased).

* LoopholeAbuse: A game mechanics example. Resting at a Prie Dieu shrine refills the Penitent One's health and [[HealingPotion bile flasks]], but has no effect on his [[ManaMeter Fervor]] and also causes slain enemies to respawn. The Penitent One can scourge his flesh with Mea Culpa, recovering a large amount of Fervor for 10 Tears of Atonement and a significant amount of health. However, nothing is stopping the Penitent One from resting at a Prie Dieu, scourging himself for Fervor, and then resting ''again'' at the cost of... respawning the enemies that he already respawned. As such, the Penitent One should always be leaving a Prie Dieu shrine with full health, fully-loaded bile flasks, and as much Fervor as he is willing to pay the Tears cost for. It's a small mercy from a game that otherwise has [[NintendoHard very little mercy to give]]. The devs seemed to think that even this mercy was not enough, because Stir of Dawn expansion added the ability to upgrade the Prie Dieus so that they can refill fervor as well, making this abuse unnecessary...but they [[ObviousRulePatch also increased the cost to ''one-hundred'' Tears of Atonement.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: A game mechanics example. Resting at a Prie Dieu shrine refills the Penitent One's health and [[HealingPotion bile flasks]], but has no effect on his [[ManaMeter Fervor]] and also causes slain enemies to respawn. The Penitent One can scourge his flesh with Mea Culpa, recovering a large amount of Fervor for 10 Tears of Atonement and a significant amount of health. However, nothing is stopping the Penitent One from resting at a Prie Dieu, scourging himself for Fervor, and then resting ''again'' at the cost of... respawning the enemies that he already respawned. As such, the Penitent One should always be leaving a Prie Dieu shrine with full health, fully-loaded bile flasks, and as much Fervor as he is willing to pay the Tears cost for. It's a small mercy from a game that otherwise has [[NintendoHard very little mercy to give]]. The devs seemed to think that even this mercy was not enough, because Stir of Dawn expansion added the ability to upgrade the Prie Dieus so that they can refill fervor as well, making this abuse unnecessary...but they [[ObviousRulePatch also increased the cost to ''100'' Tears of Atonement.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: A game mechanics example. Resting at a Prie Dieu shrine refills the Penitent One's health and [[HealingPotion bile flasks]], but has no effect on his [[ManaMeter Fervor]] and also causes slain enemies to respawn. The Penitent One can scourge his flesh with Mea Culpa, recovering a large amount of Fervor for 10 Tears of Atonement and a significant amount of health. However, nothing is stopping the Penitent One from resting at a Prie Dieu, scourging himself for Fervor, and then resting ''again'' at the cost of... respawning the enemies that he already respawned. As such, the Penitent One should always be leaving a Prie Dieu shrine with full health, fully-loaded bile flasks, and as much Fervor as he is willing to pay the Tears cost for. It's a small mercy from a game that otherwise has [[NintendoHard very little mercy to give]]. The devs seemed to think that even this mercy was not enough, because Stir of Dawn expansion added the ability to upgrade the Prie Dieus so that they can refill fervor as well, making this abuse unnecessary.

* HubLevel: Albero evolves into this over the course of the game. A ''lot'' of shortcuts lead back to it in the first half of the game, and it hosts the second Gate of Travel you're likely to uncover (the first being the one that lets you warp to it and unlock its door). As such, you'll likely pay it quite a few visits.

* CliffHanger: [[spoiler: The true ending added in the DLC sees the Penitent One and Crisanta meet and kill the very source of suffering in Cvstodia, The High Wills, seemingly ending the miracle. Only at the very end we see a mysterious new entity descend from the clouds. This strange being appearing as a man inside a heart-shaped-womb and we get no explanation on what it is.]]

** The lore entry for the Thorned Symbol item reveals that this is the case for Ten Piedad. Driven by dreams of the Miracle, the person who was once Ten Piedad took his rest in the arms of the statue seen in the boss area. The Miracle appeared to him one more time, more vividly than before, and when he woke up his body had transformed into a monster, constantly filled with rage and pain, and he no longer had control over it. In a twisted sort of way, for a boss whose name in Spanish means "Have Mercy", [[JustForPun killing him is a mercy to him.]]

** In general, the amount of inspiration the game takes from the arts- ranging from various paintings, sculptures, literature, clothing, architecture, even cinema- cannot be understated, and is best read about in detail in the artbook.

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* RapidAging: An initially young woman named Viridiana offers her assistance with some boss fights, casting a healing spell to keep the Penitent One topped up if he runs out of Bile Flasks. However, beating a boss with her assistance causes her to age about 30-40 years immediately. After three bosses, the now frail old woman thanks the Penitent one for allowing her to fulfill her mission of assisting him, gives him a Prayer, and falls over dead.

* BossRush: Completing the game unlocks a side mode where you are challenged to fight through some of the main bosses in quick succession, with a break in between each boss to adjust your loadout and one-time refills of health or fervor. You are graded based on the time taken, flasks used, and number of hits taken.

* BeefGate: Early in the game you will find a place where the path splits in 3 directions. Going forward is blocked by a massive gate that requires you to obtain three plot coupons first, so you are left with going up into the mountains or going down through series of underground and low lying areas. While nothing is stopping you from going either direction, the mountain path is significantly harder then then underground route due to steep, often vertical climbs, shifting winds that affect your jumps, and much more difficult enemies then you're expected to face in the early game. The lower route, by contrast, has a smoother difficulty curve, less difficult traversal and far more upgrades to find along the way. It still doesn't stop new players from accidently blundering into the mountains and trying to make the difficult climb into the Graveyard of the Peaks because they don't know any better (and because the game is difficult enough they may not realize the difficulty spike is supposed to warn them to come back later).

* BossRush: Completing the game unlocks a side mode where you are challenged to fight through some of the main bosses in quick succession, with a break in between each boss to adjust your loadout. You are graded based on the time taken, flasks used, and number of hits.