a silent knight on a quest for redemption in the cursed land of Cvstodia. The gameplay involves exploring interconnected areas, battling grotesque enemies, and solving environmental puzzles. Combat is precise and punishing, requiring players to master timing and strategy to defeat formidable bosses. 9/10

Very good metroidvania. The combat feels great and well tuned. The enemy/boss design is amazing. Artstyle is great as well. I thought the lack of convenient fast travel would be a larger problem initially, but the design of Blasphemous' world is good enough that it's not too big a deal unless you're mopping up missed stuff at the end game (and at that point you **can** get better fast travel, but I didn't know that until too late). The many sections of the map loop back around to other previous sections in interesting ways such that you'll never feel like you need to travel too far to get anywhere on the map once you've explored a decent chunk of most areas. To be completely honest, I didn't really know what was going on with the story, but it didn't really personally bother me- the game's tone and world is great as is. My only major criticism of the game is that there are a couple secrets/puzzles that are way too cryptic/hidden for someone to find without a guide. Admittedly I think it comes with the territory of metroidvanias, but personally I think the game would benefit from giving a bit more direction as to how to complete certain quests or find certain secrets. Overall, I'd strongly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of action/adventure games in general, especially for metroidvania fans.

Note of warning to anyone half-completionist minded like I am. If you intend to get ALL the endings, I would highly recommend reading a guide on the endings before starting the game. It is VERY easy to lock yourself out of certain endings/boss fights if you play without a guide, which I don't personally like. Also, be sure to mark all collectables you come across but can't reach yet on the map. There is no good way to tell which of the main collectables you missed, so failing to mark the ones you don't have yet can make finding the collectables you missed a pain in the ass at the end. The last recommendation is that, once you reach the endgame, you should look up a guide on how to unlock the easiest form of fast travel. I did most of the endgame collectathon/mopup without this and I wish I knew about it ahead of time.

THANK YOU for making this game!! I had so much fun.
Also I really appreciate the OST <333