Reviews:
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Building on the foundation of an already-solid predecessor, Blasphemous 2 soars to new heights of brutality
One of the subgenres that I’ve been a bit surprised hasn’t been better represented on the Switch as a whole has been Metroidvanias. Sure, there are some great ones out there, but in terms of sheer numbers and high-quality ones compared to other genres the selection is a bit lacking. The original Blasphemous, thankfully, helped to prop it up pretty well, delivering a solid and challenging experience as a whole. Now, with the sequel, there’s some great news to fans of that original, and even people who may have been holding off. Blasphemous 2 absolutely steps up the game with more variations in your slashing repertoire, plenty of enemies and bosses that will challenge your planning and application of technique, and while still remaining tough feeling a bit more accessible this time around. I don’t know whether it may be conditioning from the original still being in place, but on the whole the odds feel just a bit more fair. Whether that’s to do with the spacing and placement of save points, just a smidge better performance, smarter enemy design and animations, or likely some combination of all the above this sequel has moved down a half-step from punishing to being somewhere in the vicinity of satisfyingly hard instead. If you’re a Metroidvania fan, and don’t mind some of the admittedly odd quasi-religious trappings and iconography, this is a satisfying sequel that should be high on your list to check out.
Justin Nation, Score:Nindie Choice! [9.2]