Blasphemous grips instantly. The mood is set by you waking in a field of naked corpses, each one of them masked and faceless. You are, it seems, the only survivor. What is this world? Where do you go? And dear god, what in the hell is that..?

Blasphemous is a side-scrolling explorative platformer with slow and simple combat, built around a parry button, an attack button, and after a few upgrades, a ranged attack and prayer (super magical ability) button. The combat is a huge section of the game, as in almost every screen you will find an enemy to fight. They come in terrifying, horrific designs, which I will lavish praise upon in due time, and each fight generally with an "archetype", though some areas have more unique enemies than others. Personally, I really loved the combat, and found it simple to learn but hard to master, as cliched as that sounds.
The high points of the game generally come when facing the more technically challenging bosses, that require memorization and some amount of skill to approach and battle.

These bosses, for me, were unrivalled at the top by the end of the game: Our Lady of the Charred Visage and Quirce, Returned By The Flame. They required not just good reflexes but technical prowess and knowledge of the game's mechanics. How far can the main character slide? When is the best time to hit parry? They were the standouts, though I enjoyed other bosses too; Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony, and the final boss were both enjoyable bouts to me.

Where Blasphemous slips up most, however, are in two areas: a few outlying bad encounters, including one bad boss fight, and somewhat finicky platforming controls that often result in instantaneous death. Some hallways are peppered with swinging blades and spike pits that result in an instant game over, and a return to the nearest checkpoint, a Souls-like prie-dieu "bonfire" that restores your health and healing flasks, but respawns all the enemies. One boss, while a masterfully designed one aesthetically, feels cheap and often its attacks feel entirely random and arbitrarily punishing. However, these are but bumps in the road.

What Blasphemous does very well, and everyone notices this the moment they lay eyes on it, is a gripping art direction. The world bleeds through the screen into your imagination. It begs to be explored, so you can find all the twisted inhabitants, all those "saved" by the Miracle that has come to live in this land of Cvstodia. Every single enemy was fascinating, and every location dripped with atmosphere. This was helped by a frankly amazing score, and the atmosphere of Gothic, Christian religious horror was reinforced with every line of dialogue spoken.

While I found Blasphemous' story utterly gripping, I wish there had been more of it. A tough ask of course, especially for a game that already lasted me 17 hours (and I did not even see the "true" ending) - it is a game of already decent length. But I wanted more context to my actions, I suppose. As gripping as it was, I feel it could have been even better still, had there been other characters, or some additional depth to the world. But, of course, all the complaints I have levelled at Blasphemous are mild, really.

This may be the most haunting, grotesque action platformer one will ever play. It will test your patience, and your reaction speeds, and perhaps even raise your ire if you find yourself easily frustrated. But what Blasphemous does is wrap you quickly in the world, and the world never lets you go, even if the story meanders or seems to have no definite purpose apart from scattered moments, and the combat occasionally frustrates with attacks that cannot be cancelled, or parries that require pitch-perfect timing (before you find an upgrade), or a boss or two that feels like they have no strategy that can be learned or adapted to. Blasphemous comes easily, and highly, recommended, even just for the aesthetic alone. Gloriously vivid and morbid, I feel some of the imagery here shall stay with me forever, and the experience of exploring Cvstodia will do the same. Bravo.