Blasphemous
TALK ABOUT A GUILTY PLEASURE... ALEX SPENCER
PUBLISHER TEAM17 / DEVELOPER THE GAME KITCHEN / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £19.99/$24.99
sometimes, and Blasphemous lives
right on it.
The Penitent One – let’s call him
Penny for short – is armed with the
Mea Culpa, a thorned sword he pulls
from the chest of a statue in the
opening cutscene. The weapon has
a handle designed to cut into the
palm of the wielder, but ol’ Penny’s
still pretty handy with it. As well as
the usual hacking and slashing, you
can tap the right bumper to parry. This
isn’t a block button you can just hold
down, but must be hit at the right
moment to deflect an incoming blow.
If it’s a heavy attack, you’ll be sent
skidding back but unharmed. Anything
lighter, though, can be countered
with a powerful attack known as a
‘Retribution’, because of course it is.Holy hell
Chip away at an enemy’s health, and
you might get the chance to deliver
an ‘Execution’, tapping Y to trigger
a wonderfully gruesome animation
that’s bespoke to each enemy type.
Perhaps you’ll stomp their shield downCorinthians, 16:13:
“Be on your guard;
stand firm in the
faith; be courageous;
be strong.” Yes, this
is a Bible verse, but
it could just as easily be a line lifted
straight from Blasphemous’ lore.
It’s a tough Metroidvania-style
game with an intricate combat
system, which builds its Dark
Souls-style dark fantasy world using
iconography of the Catholic Church.
Not so much the actual religious
content, but everything else: the
stained glass, the Latin and all the
guilt. You kind of imagine it would’ve
been called Original Sin, if only there
weren’t already a notable game with
the same title.
You play the Penitent One, a
swordsman dressed in robes and
a metal capirote – the tall pointed
hoods traditionally worn by flagellants,
zealots who repented for their sinful
existence by flogging their own flesh.
There’s a thin line between Catholic
history and metal album covers,
on their head, turn their weapon on
them, or just tear their torso in half.
In Blasphemous, every body is just a
bag of blood waiting to be exploded.
The game’s pixel art helps abstract
this gore a little, ensuring it has the
bloody charm of a ‘90s Mortal Kombat
Fatality rather than tipping over into
something genuinely disturbing.
Every movement, ultraviolent or
otherwise, is beautifully fluid. Penny
runs with his sword outstretched
behind him like some kind of Catholic
ninja. Timing a parry perfectly freezes
the game for a single stutter, the
arc of a Retribution uppercut leaving
a trail. Although the 16-bit art can
occasionally leave you squinting
to decipher an enemy’s shape, the
action is always as easy to read as it
is gorgeous.
Blasphemous is an incredibly pretty
game. It essentially takes the long
history of devotional art – paintings
of Saint Sebastian, his side pierced
with arrows, through to Hieronymus
Bosch’s visions of hell – and uses the
very gnarliest of it as concept art. Theshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
A Metroidvania which
treats the Bible like a
D&D sourcebook.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Fighting your way
through a grimdark
Renaissance
painting.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Art history students
with a lust for blood,
and people who grew
up Catholic.082 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE