So I was at a convent today as the penitent boy and met a playtester for the sequel

she told me that the codename/secret name for the testing phase of the game was

"Project Hat"

If I had to guess it's referencing the penitent ones big ass hat

Just a cool little fact

but I can’t seem to think of what I’m missing apart from few corpses, last child of moonlight.

Possible Spolier ahead, though I tried to keep them to a minimum!

So I'm new to the Blasphemous series. That was actually super interested in the first one when they showed the first trailer years ago, but life got in the way with kids and everything else and I never ended up playing it. But this week the second one was on sale for 7 bucks and I could not pass it up. And what an excellent purchase it has been!

I'm currently sitting at 23 hours with what I think is close to half of the main game (I have the three people unlocked at the bottom of your pause screen but kome of the birds). But about 8-10 hours of that have been spent in The Third Sin DLC and what a fucking ride! Like I really can't say enough good about this DLC, bit I'd love to sing a bit of it's praises.

First of all the art direction is absolutely impeccable. Even my wife, who's not really a gamer, stopped what she was doing at several points to watch and remark, "wow, that looks like a painting." And she's completely right. From the massive library halls you navigate, to the corridors filled with spikes and broken stone pillars, and especially during the scenes where you're outside and the moon is behind you, this DLC has some of the best background art I've seen in a long time. There is one fight in particular on a dark bridge with the moon backlit behind you. It was a pretty tough fight for me, but the whole thing was extremely epic.

Then you have the sound design. The enemies all have dope sounding attacks and movement sounds that they make. The new weapons and spells all also sound really good. The voice acting for the new characters was really well done in my opinion. But the best part to me has been the background music. And this is really been true for the entire game, it's got some amazing background music. But they really knocked it out of the park with this DLC. like, they have legitimately been moments where I've stopped playing just to sit and listen.

I also think they nailed the enemy design in general. I have not really looked into the development of this dlc, but between the weapon you get and the enemy and the level design, it screams classic Castlevania to me. And I mean that as an absolute compliment. The enemies are all creepy, haunting, and best of all deadly. When you have dudes throwing their razor chakrams at you, well ghosts are shooting projectiles at you, and gargoyles are spitting fire, it's complete chaos and when you overcome it, you feel like a champion. The enemies here are deadly, but they did a great job of making the Penitent One more deadly as well.

The addition of Embrujo (again, Castlevania anyone?) is probably my favorite part of the DLC honestly. There's a few different reasons I like it so much. For one, just the attacks that it gives you look cool, feel cool, and do some work in the dlc. I haven't tried it out of the dlc, but I imagine it's still pretty good. Being able to aim your attacks in different directions (which I SUCK at sometimes) is really helpful when you're dealing with enemies that like to strike downwards and fly around a lot. The special attacks it comes with in the skill tree are all really cool as well. Spending your little whip-spike-chain around is fucking cool and always will be. But it also adds some of the toughest and coolest platforming sections I've seen in a game in a while. There are parts where you are having to use the skill of the embrujo to whip around, hit bells in midair to activate platforms, switch to Sarmiento to zip around with some mirrors, switch back to Embrujo AGAIN to hit another bell, and then whip around on grappling points that are only active for a few seconds. All while deadly spikes cover the floor beneath you. Let's just say my butt has been clenched a lot the last few days.

Seriously, I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here but this game has been an absolute blast. Sometimes I forget how much I like to do platformers until I play a good 2D platformer. And this is a great 2D platformer. It's like a weird mix of Metroid/Castlevania, Dead Cells, and Dark Souls. Maybe with a little Shadow Temple from Zelda thrown in. It's weird, kinda creepy, and super fucking addictive. Without too many spoilers, can anyone tell me if the other DLC holds up as well as this one?

I don’t really mind that you can lock yourself out of Ending C; finding the Incomplete Scapular to spare Esdras is not too difficult or obscure if you’re exploring thoroughly, and the game is relatively clear about the following steps you need to take prior to fighting Crisanta.

What I DO mind is being unable to unequip the Apodictic Heart of Mea Culpa; I get the narrative purpose, but the fact that it locks you out of completing the Library of the Negated Words puzzle specifically feels more like a design oversight than anything else.

I’m glad Blasphemous 2 allows you to unequip and/or refrain from using your true ending items so you can actually get everything in one playthrough (though I guess the first game does a better job encouraging multiple runs anyway with the Amanecidas and the way that Relics carrying over varies your progression).