00:00.00 Dave Hello everybody. My name is Dave Jackson and you're listening to tales from the backlog. This is a video games review podcast where each week I'm joined by a guest to bring a game out of the backlog play it and discuss my guest today is a friend of the show returning. A manytime guest on the show. One of the og patrons of the tube network and a model penitent one Chris Nelson chris welcome back 00:27.42 Chris Thanks for having me back. This is number 3 Yeah yeah, that's right I did do the ah we did the ah the what are you calling him. 00:30.22 Dave Number 3 of the main episodes? Yeah yeah. 00:41.11 Dave The ah we we did that bonus episode the top 3 weapons that are too good to use right? Yeah Chris was also a guest on the episode about megaman x and the episode about blasphemous which is a good thing little coincidence. 00:42.29 Chris Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:57.75 Dave Today we're going to talk about blasphemous 2 which is a metroidvania developed by the game kitchen and published by team 17 in 2023 and if you haven't played blasphemous to here's how spoilers are going to work in this podcast. So every episode of tales from the backlog is basically the same. We're not going to spoil things. During the first you know half or so of the episode and then we have a spoiler section at the end but I do want to just get out in front of this one. Um, this game like the first blasphemous game draws a lot from the catholic religion and spanish culture art and history. Which are four things that I know just about nothing about so combined with the way the storytelling works in blasphemous and blasphemous too. We're not going to have a big story discussion in the spoiler section because I don't really know what's going on and it's not really part of my experience with this game anyway. Ah, so I just want to get get that out there. Don't expect a big story breakdown and you know drawing all the analogs to catholic religion and spanish history and stuff like that. Not going to happen in this episode check out a couple of people on Youtube check out the lore hunter and a channel I found today called Gingy. GINGY for some cool story breakdowns of both blasphemous games on Youtube so other people are out there doing the work that I have decided is not my job on this show. So we're going to get into everything else that we can get into about blasphemous two though. 02:32.27 Dave And if you don't know what blasphemous 2 is we have some elevator pitches for you at the top of the show I say come to blasphemous 2 for even more penance even more catholic gore and a better metroidvania experience and don't worry all of the npcs are still having the worst time ever. Chris what would you say. 02:52.63 Chris Um, I would say it's definitely a game. You need to play if you've played blasphemous one because they improved pretty much on all marks specifically in the area of becoming a better MetroidVania. 03:09.98 Chris Heavy on the a little bit more heavy on the metro I think last time I said it was heavier on the castle I feel like they kind of went a little bit more metro d in this one. They gave you more options. So let you ah let you ah, get your metroid out instead of just the. Pennsylvania in Spain. 03:29.11 Dave Right on I played this on switch. It took me 17 hours to get to 97% map completion and 88% total completion. Um I was playing this during the review period before the game's release before the guides. Had been released. Crucially first of all, thank you to the game kitchen and team 17 for sending me a review code I did write a review back on release day so you can go back and check the blog on the tales from the backlog website for that written review. But again I did get a review code. Um. All of this was done before I could go check a guide for where to go for that last 12% and I think I fucked up a couple npc quests anyway. So I don't think I can get 100 % not that I really care but 17 hours played on switch Rand great Chris where did you play it. How long did it take you would. What completion did you get. 04:25.44 Chris Um, switch as well. Um, handheld for the most part and then ah I did 100% map um and then I think I was at like 98% total completion. 04:43.43 Chris And um I believe I don't know I I didn't do too much. Um on the guides I definitely did some because I had the opportunity to do that being that I played it later than you did So I got I think it's. Something to do with the leveling up system like getting all of the skill points on everything. So I think I'm I wasn't going to like search every corner for the upgrade points the marks or marks of martyrdom. 05:07.52 Dave Okay. 05:16.95 Dave Yeah. 05:20.61 Chris So that might be what's holding me from the full 100 or something I completely missed. Um I'm just going to say over 20 hours because at some point my and I think it might be a small bug my time looped. 05:26.10 Dave Gotcha um about how long did all that take you. 05:39.55 Chris Um, after the 20 hour and it started showing up I was ah near completion in the games that I had only played it for like an hour and fifty seven minute hour 57 minutes I was like well that's just not true. 05:47.52 Dave Oh nice, yeah, all right fair enough. Let's get into our histories with blasphemus too. Um I have a feeling both of our histories are going to be very similar with this but Chris talk about your history with this. Series and why did you want to play blasphemous too. 06:07.70 Chris The first one was and this might be a little bit again like what I said on the on the first game the it it's been on my radar I think it was even saved in my ah my wish list and um. Think I reached out to you about doing an episode and we were kind of deciding on what to play and you brought plasem is up so I went back and watched another trailer and I was like well that looks exactly up my alley kind of a 2 d vania ish fair 06:42.70 Chris And um, then I think I can't remember exactly I I think about 100 percented the last one during my first playthrough because the last dlc came out just as I was finishing the game. 06:59.69 Chris So I got to do the kind of the whole experience with the additional endings and additional bosses and all that stuff so I didn't have to do any waiting around for it. 07:05.64 Dave Um, nice, just ah for anyone if anyone wants to go listen back to that first episode. It's episode 20 of tales from the backlog. So quite a long time ago on the show's history now. Yeah for me, it's. Very similar like I played the first blasphemous because I probably found it on like a you know best switch games Youtube video or something like that. Um, absolutely loved it. 1 of my favorite like 2 d action Metroy Vania type games ever. So when blasphemous 2 was announced I was part of me was a little bit like i. You know I I kind of wish the game kitchen would make something different but I I can't really fault them for wanting to you know, capitalize on blasphemous success and you know make a sequel but I it's like obviously I'm going to play blasphemous 2. Um, and I got a chance to ask for review code was able to get 1 so. 07:44.72 Chris Oh. 08:00.80 Dave No brainer for me to play blasphemous 2 and um to give some quick opening thoughts before we dive into the story and stuff I think that this game is pretty much like a flat improvement over the first game in most of the ways that matter as far as gameplay goes, especially There are a couple of like quibbles I have with or there are a couple of little like criticisms I'd have with um some of the boss fights just not being as memorable as the first game some of the finishing execution moves not being as. Memorable as the first game but there are like you know, easy explanations for both of those things I think we'll get into those in the the main body of the episode here. But like the main thing that stood out to me was all of the criticisms that I heard about the first game were answered and then some. In this. So overall as a game I think this is better than the first one and I love the first one so this is just this is awesome. 09:04.96 Chris Yeah I completely agree there like um bosses like you mentioned maybe a little um I don't want to say underwhelming because I had a lot of fun fighting them and I don't think there was a single one that I beat first try. So it's not like I was less challenged but. 09:22.28 Chris There's there was a lot There was a little less spectacle. But I think they made up for that in like said the the the improvements to the ah overall like exploration and gameplay and also the ah the environment in general. There was a lot of really cool. Um. Set pieces and also a lot of cool ideas that they that they didn't really explore. Um, the first game had some very cool imagery but it was kind of you know snow area. Um, forest area castle. 10:00.11 Chris Library sewer. This one had some really kind of weird ah some weird and different ideas on what a I Guess what a set piece could be. 10:16.57 Dave So we're going to take a little music break here and then when we come back, we're going to kind of dive into the story and the world of blasphemous 2 10:32.94 Dave This game takes place after the events of the first game which is set in the world of cvstodia that's how I'm pronouncing it. It's spelled confusingly the first syllable has a v where the vowel should go so I'm guessing that's how you say it? um. 10:44.20 Chris Yeah I've listened to lore videos and they all say Custodia So I'm I'm set on it. 10:51.89 Dave Hell yeah, we're rocking with Cvstodia then so Cvstodia is a a land A very pious and religious land which is dominated by this this godlike force called the Miracle and the miracle kind of. 11:07.90 Dave Makes itself shown by either helping people out or fucking up their lives Beyond belief. Um, so people pray to the miracle and a lot of times like their prayers are answered in like a very monkeys paw type of way. So maybe they get what they asked for, but not the way that they hoped. 11:27.17 Dave Um, and in blasphemous 2. It seems like that's happening a lot more than people getting rewarded for being nice which you know some people got blessings from the miracle like good things in the first game blasphemous 2 Everyone's having a hard time I think. 11:43.53 Chris Yeah, they they mention it and I think one of the law items something along the lines of like once the miracle kind of came back. It seemed like there was no longer blessings. There was only punishments. 12:02.73 Chris Like like he said everybody was pretty much just getting messed up the whole time. 12:07.65 Dave Yeah, um, in in between blasphemous one and two the miracle was gone for a while so there was a a period of time like with no influence from the miracle but life still sucked. So people turned to prayer once again and it's kind of like. 12:21.46 Chris He. 12:25.15 Dave That idea of um, you know acknowledging a God or praying to a God then gives that God power. So now the miracle is back and crucially there is a giant heart hanging above the the main city in the game here and inside that heart is. A child that the miracle is going to give birth to so yeah in air quotes child. Um, if any if you're listening to this and being like that sounds bad the child of the miracle that's fucking up. Everybody's life. Yeah, you'd probably be correct so that is kind of like the. 12:45.30 Chris Child. 13:01.21 Dave Inciting event for like what's going on in the world in blasphemous 2 at the beginning of the game. 13:09.54 Chris Yeah I think I don't know if it's clearly stated anywhere and this is probably some influence from ah listening to like a lower video but it's like Ben Era sense like like they use the term like a whole era. So like. 13:25.54 Dave Yeah, it's been a while they they never say exactly but like you do see some locations that you were familiar with in the first game and it looks like it's been a long time. So. 13:25.89 Chris Thousands of years 13:39.60 Chris Yeah, so then ah the miracle comes back with a vengeance 1980 s style and just like starts screwing people up in the most. 13:56.53 Chris Interesting ways. It can this one definitely had some some some some weird. So definitely some weirder stuff I think than the last one last one was a little more gruesome. This one got a little bit weird. 13:58.31 Dave Yep. 14:05.52 Dave Yeah, yeah, there were definitely especially with the Npcs that you meet there were multiple times that I walked into a room with an Npc and I was like what the fuck is happening with them Dear lord. 14:17.89 Chris Yeah, like what what is going on here like before it was just like ah well you know he's real bloody and he's got a ah stake through his heart and he keeps picking at it or something and this one you're just like I don't even I don't know what to explain? what's going on. 14:29.21 Dave Yeah, yeah. Yeah there's the first game it was like you know? Yeah, the first game it was like you know I'm gonna go into this room and there's a woman there. She's got a bunch of swords piercing her chest that's that's fine 14:36.74 Chris Like nothing nothing can explain. Oh. 14:45.97 Chris Yeah, yeah. 14:49.45 Dave Ah, in this game. There's like you walk into room and there's a guy whos his body seems like it's full of honey and there's honey coming out of or every orifice that he has and like what? yeah exactly? yeah. 14:55.27 Chris Yeah, so maybe not as gruesome but just odd strange like why is this man a honey pot. Why did you turn a man into a honey pot. 15:09.49 Dave Yeah, it's the the prayer that he asked for again. Whatever the monkey's paw situation was that led to that. Um, so during the period like between the 2 games the penitent one who is the the protagonist in the first game. Um. 15:14.86 Chris yeah. 15:25.31 Dave A sworn to silence because of like the brotherhood that he was a part of the penitent 1 was dead but now the penitent one has been resurrected now that the miracle's back and so the beginning of the game. There's a actually a fully animated cut scene which is ah a change from the first game where. 2 followers of the miracle walk into this throne room. They look like the penitent one but they look more fancy. The penitent one is the the one from the cover that has like this giant cone shaped helmet on. 15:53.91 Chris Yeah, yeah. 16:01.59 Dave Face and body are all painted silver and stuff like that these are like fancy penitent ones. 1 of them is wearing gold and immediately stabs themself through the chest with a sword and then the other one goes and sits on the throne and says they'll wait for your meeting I take I heard. 17:27.46 Dave So then the penitent one is resurrected. You see the penitent 1 rising out of its coffin and off you go you? This isn't a game where someone's going to like you know, tell you right? at the beginning. What's going on for you get out of a coffin you you walk to the right. And then eventually you'll meet a character that kind of gives you your goals for the game. So that's where we're going to kind of stop. We'll talk a little bit about how the structure of the game works in the gameplay section. Um, but that is like the story introduction for blasphemous to and kind of like I said in the the. Psa about the spoiler policy for this episode I played this entire game. Love the experience couldn't really tell you what was going on with the story until the final boss then I like got some answers about like oh okay, these are who these people are this is what's going on are sorry the final 2 bosses and then. The ending that I got I was like oh okay, that's that's what happens because of this setup but the sixteen and a half hours in between those I did not really take in much story. So like I said I don't have like a background in any of the things that this game is drawing from. So I don't really experience this as like a story where I'm uncovering the plot as I go just it's little like bits of flavor for me as I'm playing which is fine. Um, and the people who do want to do that digging or do have that you know maybe a catholic background. 19:03.10 Dave Or a knowledge of spanish culture more so than me, maybe you'll get more out of it than I personally did when you Chris when you're playing. Do you take? do you make connections with the story at all. 19:15.55 Chris Um, this one I felt like maybe had a little bit more than the first game because of that those first 3 kind of read like a messed up ah version of the ah. 19:31.25 Chris Ah, immaculate conception and birth and stuff because you talk there's the 2 characters and like in between each like basically boss fight you get like a a little. It's kind of just like a cutaway that gives you like and they these 2 people wanted a kid. 19:50.87 Chris And the miracle gave it to him and and then they the people heard about it and they came and then but then in like a messed up way the it all the miracle does what it always does And. Monkey Paws I'm pretty much like you said so there was a little bit more that I could follow there and then yeah it it after that you kind of got to get into the like the dark souls style lore reading like what each individual penitent in that group. 20:21.63 Dave Yeah, yeah, right? which I which I don't do yeah. 20:28.45 Chris Yeah I don't do a lot of that like I I'm like you I'll I'll I'll catch a Youtube video after I beat it I think honestly that was like 15 minutes after I finished the game I was like all right? Let's see what was going on. 20:40.80 Dave Yeah, that's kind of how I experience them too. So just to give everyone that kind of story setup here because I do think that like the world in like the concept of the miracle and how the miracle interacts with all the people in cvstodia. 20:58.79 Dave Is really interesting. It's just like that's as deep as my understanding of the story can go just because you know again I don't have that background and I also and I'm not the kind of person who plays these games and like really digs digs digs in all those item descriptions and stuff. 21:16.45 Chris And like said I mean I think that's where it does like pull from like the souls born kind of it just sets up. Ah um, an aesthetic of this kind of like you know these this hyperligious City. And the people who are continuously devout yet have no real reason to be because nothing ever seems to go their way So and you just kind of go with that the whole time like that. Everybody's. 21:42.74 Dave Yeah. 21:51.85 Chris In kind of constant pain and penance and a lot of those probably like you said ideals in like a catholicic catholicism which I did not grow up in. So. 22:10.69 Chris Um, that ah that aesthetic kind of just permeates the entire game so you don't really have to know exactly know what's going on beat to beat to understand that you know just the miracle do bad. 22:26.53 Dave Yeah, and and like you said like no matter what's going on the the people in the game. Their lives are terrible but it seems to only drive them more toward the miracle. So. 22:43.13 Dave No matter how bad the Miracle fucks up their lives like the worse it gets the more they pray to the miracle for help. So yeah, it's it's everyone's having a real bad time and that's kind of like the the story that that I take from it. It's just a parade of people having a bad time. 22:52.70 Chris Real bad time. 23:00.80 Chris Pretty much. Yeah, even the even the the ones that seem to be doing the good things for the people. Yeah. 23:06.85 Dave Yeah, yeah, especially in this game. Yeah, so. 23:14.95 Dave So I think that the game kitchen is sneakily one of the best studios out there now for evocative pixel art and music. So I think it's a good opportunity to talk about how this game looks and how it sounds starting with how it looks. And mentioned before the beginning of the game starts with this fully animated cut scenene and there are lots throughout the game of these you know fully animated cutscenes. This is different from the first game where basically things were just told in the regular pixel art and stuff. Um. But they must have had the budget for this. So what did you think. 23:55.65 Chris I was pretty great because um I think in the final dlc of the first game they had like an animated kind of like ending and that was like their first like four a so they did a lot more of that in this game to. 24:09.67 Dave Yeah. 24:13.16 Chris And I think it helps the it helps the story beside just being like looking really cool because you can kind of I don't know get more what's going on specifically with like the penitent one because I I in the. The first game you basically you you get a setup of like you're this guy in a pile of dead bodies and then you just kind of go this first one this one kind of gives you an idea of like hey some stuff's been going on and like here's and I guess I don't know if. 24:37.20 Dave Yeah, yeah. 24:51.70 Chris I don't know anyone who would play the second game without playing the first one but you're seeing some like stuff that may kind of Harken back to the first game kind of giving you a little bit of a transition. So I mean. It helps there and like you said it visually. It's just it's it's really good. Fun cool animation like gruesome like the rest of the game but with ah a smoother kind of veneer over it. 25:23.65 Dave Yeah I kind of got the feeling when I was playing and like especially watching these animated cut scenes like first I was like oh I would watch this show if they made this like a show of blasphemous I was like I watch that but then I started to think like well the penitent one doesn't talk and. 25:43.90 Dave A lot of what you're doing is just killing stuff. So maybe instead of a full show I would like like 5 minute action clips on Youtube of the pentent 1 just like killing monsters or fighting bosses or something. Um, but it's it's very like. 25:55.50 Chris Yeah, yeah. 26:00.23 Dave Everything else, Everything that's happening in the game is super gory and brutal. So the animation is kind of like that too. It's really cool I like it. 26:08.49 Chris Yeah, there's lots of skulls popping out of stuff and blood spurting and. 26:15.36 Dave Yeah, um, the game itself has really really really great pixel art and that was something about the first game too. Some of my favorite like backgrounds in the levels that you're going through enemy designs are really great. Ah, the npc is something they do with the npcs that you meet is most of them are much much bigger than you and um I don't know if that's to show status or just to make them bigger so you can see how fucked up they are with more clarity but it's a great choice because like I said before. 26:49.68 Dave All of them are having the bat having the worst time ever and the way that their characters are designed really shows this and just everything about the visuals in both blasphemous games. But this one too is really great. It's some of the best pixel art out there hats off to. Ah, the art team at the game kitchen. 27:10.91 Chris Yeah, it's um, one of the visually the best looking Pixel art games that I've played nothing ever come becomes just like a blob of pixels. Nothing. Everything is very clear. This is what they were trying to get across. 27:28.52 Chris Like even if it's like this horrendous creature that is like some kind of amalgamation of a bird and a man and ah with a cross on its back or whatever you can pick those things out and be like oh this is what is what they're trying to express. So. 27:37.91 Dave Yeah, exactly yeah. 27:46.30 Chris They do it. They do an excellent job with that a continued excellent job I think they did a great job of the first one and they've just continued to knock it out of the park with that. 27:54.86 Dave Yep 1 ah, 1 other thing that I think is really cool about the visuals. They continued this from the first game but when you're fighting a boss and you get the killing blow on them it like freeze frames on the screen goes all red and then like a silhouette of your character and the boss and your weapon. Just frozen on that killing blow which you've been having trouble with the boss and it's like you know, attempt number 5 10 n fifteen and you finally get that killing blow. It's a nice moment. You can just be like fuck. Yes, got him. 28:11.82 Chris Oh. 28:20.16 Chris Yeah, yeah, you're keeping your eyes on the boss and less on the bar and you're like you finally get that last hit and you don't have to look down at the bar just because it does that Flash screen you're like you get excited that and they do. That's. 28:30.93 Dave Yeah, it's awesome. It's a nice touch. 28:38.76 Chris Similar with your death kind of like you go. It's always kind of the same animation you go like into the air and kind of like starfish out and then like it like flashes like a blue almost or like a green blueish green kind of color and then you fade and ah. 2 There's the safe points. You know it's It's video game so you get to start over again. 29:00.60 Dave Yeah, did you play with voice acting in English or spanish. 29:05.82 Chris I I didn't follow your advice again I did it in English I should have done it in Spanish because last time mostly just to hear Penitente PeniTente a few times. 29:19.36 Dave Yeah, yeah, the um so was the English voice acting good. 29:25.80 Chris Definitely um, definitely on par with the last game on par with um, most like independent gaming. You know if you're not getting the huge big name actors in there I mean even then. 29:42.64 Chris Like ah the ah, the final boss I we'll we'll talk about it later but his his little speech um is over the top and very like. 29:50.92 Dave Yeah, yeah. 30:02.28 Chris It sounds like a like I mean I I guess I don't know like ah like a preacher or someone going up there and you know enunciating all of my words and pausing for effect because I am the penitent. 30:14.86 Dave Ah, nice. Yeah. 30:19.81 Chris 1 and you're just you're kind of like and after the fourth time that he's kicked your ass. You're just tired of hearing him. 30:27.18 Dave Yeah, yeah, um I did play with the spanish voice acting anyone listening you know again I recommend playing with the spanish voice acting read the subtitles. You'll be fine I think the spanish voice acting is worth it. Um, it's it's it's interesting. So like. Sometimes I'll play if a game is clearly set in a real place or a place that's like very much inspired by a real country I will try to play with like the native voice voice acting so I play yakuza games with japanese voice acting um, it's not that I want to learn how to play ja or. Learn how to speak japanese or anything I just think it fits really well and yakuza games have the best fucking voice acting in japanese anyway, um, the spanish voice acting here fits super super well. Um, with what else with everything that's going on with all of the other things that they've taken from like spanish architecture and. Iconography and stuff like that. But the way it's directed. Everybody is giving like the most serious and most you know they're giving one hundred and ten percent it's really great. Fun fact in this game one of the spanish voice actors is umberto villaz. Ah. Or Humberto Vs who did the spanish voice acting for Homer Simpson for the first fifteen years of the show. So that's star talent. That's awesome. 31:49.97 Chris That's that's pretty cool. Yeah, if you got yeah like homer Simpson level guy and and how I'm trying to think back to these characters. Well I guess I listen to in in english so I wouldn't know what I that's the guy in english tried to do a homer Simpson accent. 31:59.90 Dave Right? Which which would be funny and very very out of place. But yeah, the voice acting is great across the board music is also fantastic. Once again, done by Carlos Viola who I believe did the music for the first one. 32:06.79 Chris And would be to be yes. 32:19.80 Dave Um, but it is think about like music completely setting the tone from the very beginning of a game setting. The atmosphere. This is that kind of soundtrack. It's not one that has a bunch of melodies that I will like walk around the house humming to myself. But all the music fits in the background or you know during boss fights when it gets more intense. It's perfect for like the kind of vibe they're going for in blasphemous. 32:48.65 Chris Yeah, um, I've made a point to start listening a little bit more and this is not just with blasphemous. But since I mean since starting just kind of listening to your podcast because you focus on the music for like a like ah a. Not the whole thing but like you give a full section to what like the music is so you have like a really ah, kind of deep caring and you're obviously passionate about that part of stuff and it was something that I never unless it was like like you said some kind of like catchy melody. It's not something I normally pick up on for games. 33:10.32 Dave Um, yeah. 33:27.12 Chris Half the time I'm actually playing a game like in bed next to ah my girlfriend and I'm keeping the volume low and I don't throw headphones in but I made sure this time to listen with headphones in and when I could listen with the volume up on my switch and yeah like the. 33:45.32 Chris The guitar work The kind of just haunting like tone of everything like it's all very um I don't want to say creepy. It's more church Musicy kind of just like you get that kind of like haunting feeling this kind of. 34:03.66 Chris Like should be played with organs and um in a empty room with pews and that kind of thing. 34:11.29 Dave Yeah, some of it does get into I mean there are some tracks that are like really organ-based and a lot of those tracks actually sound like castle music to me which makes a lot of sense for both games to have that kind of music. 34:18.67 Chris He. 34:30.86 Dave But when I think blasphemous music I think of like stuff that's you know, heavy acoustic guitar base like you know Rapid strumming Acoustic guitar in the background and then maybe like a light melody on a piano or like some violins over the top and um, like you said like kind of that spooky kind of ethereal. 34:50.69 Dave Atmospheric tones that are moving in the background like I don't even know what instrument that would be like a heavily you know, modified Keyboard or something like that. But it's just giving you like a background almost like like the the background in like a silent Hill track or something like that. 35:06.89 Chris Yeah, it's actually I think I think it's a kazoo. 35:10.00 Dave Um, it's the yeah, they got the ah they got the Barcelona Recorder Orchestra try to come in and lay down those background chords. Yeah yeah, um, it's It's great though. It's It's really great and. 35:20.11 Chris Those background tones. 35:28.34 Dave Um, I also appreciate as ah, a bass guitar player. Um I appreciate a lot of these songs have very prominent basslines that are kind of driving the like the tempo of the song if there's you know something very atmospheric going on in the rest of the arrangement. The bass guitars is pulling you forward with like that urgency you know. 35:46.52 Chris Um, yeah, that's yeah, that's the the the more castle ones that I kind of hear you like the you definitely get those like more thumping baselines and kind of stuff like that like in the castle The the melodic kind of oh. 35:48.90 Dave The miracles can have a fucking kid get on a kid a move on. 36:04.17 Chris Pop jazzy kind of sound with a and then like said well we we discussed on another episode. 1 of my favorite parts of like Megaman x's soundtrack is just some of those thump and baseslines. So. It's like very harkens back to that kind of super nintendo era that. They I guess are somewhat trying to emulate here a little bit. 36:26.46 Dave Yeah I'm sure I'm sure they've got inspiration from there for sure. But yeah, just kind of all around like again music fantastic in every game kitchen game I've played this is the third one now visuals are always incredible for what they're setting out to make. Just think that aesthetically like artistically the studio is is just fantastic. Sound effects are also worth mentioning. They're great just you know you're slicing dicing smashing eviscerating your way through all of these monsters and everything sounds squishy and ah. Execution attacks sound real gruesome. That's great and um, yeah, like the enemies the sounds they make and stuff and and they also have a really good like walking into a new area kind of like. 37:05.26 Chris Lots of good guttural noises. 37:15.19 Chris Good stuff. 37:24.24 Dave Tone that sounds like a bell ringing that signifies like you've begun a new area. Um I I don't know that a lot of games do stuff like that. But it's something I know obviously from playing darcels and it feels like they kind of took that as a cool way like. 37:41.23 Dave You've made it. You've made it into a new area here's this cool tone to signify it. But it works. Yeah. 37:46.43 Chris Bong you know because and they don't when you enter a new area does the title pop up. Okay, yeah. 37:56.12 Dave It does. Yeah. 38:00.55 Chris And does that I don't remember is that every time or just when you enter it a new. Okay so I were like said. ah ah I did do a little bit of like ah um, guide using to kind of catch up like ah some of that that 98% or whatever that I got. 38:01.99 Dave Every time. Yep. 38:20.39 Chris And I remember bouncing around a lot between safe points and yeah, getting that kind of dong Donng tong. 38:31.77 Dave Ah, yeah, anything else about the music visuals, etc. 38:34.69 Chris No, um, we did kind of mention. Ah um, May Al may if we mentioned or not earlier kind of the the executions being a little bit more ah toned down this time are not toned down just.. There's less of them. Um like and maybe that's because they were using or they had more play style with the different weapons to utilize so they weren't going to be able to make you know. 39:08.69 Chris Ah, new execution on each enemy for every weapon and that kind of thing So there's a lot of them that he just kind of squishes with vines. 39:16.73 Dave Yep yeah I definitely noticed that it's It's kind of a bummer because those executions were all like bespoke like this enemy gets killed this way this one you know you you grab their sword and you cut them in half and then the next one. It's a big dude in a helmet and you kind of smash them into the ground. 39:34.38 Dave And yeah, in blasphemous 2 There's just way fewer of those animations but like you said I think it is because there's 3 different weapons and that you know that may require them to make 3 times the amount of animations for those things and there's like yeah, we just we got to focus somewhere else. 39:51.61 Chris Yeah, because the the main execution didn't yeah and they don't got. They don't have the huge budget but the main execution he kind of just he uses his hand. He doesn't even really use a weapon. He just like Sprouts vines down into the ground and grabs. 39:53.50 Dave You know we're not. They're not rock stars. So. 40:06.36 Dave Yeah. 40:11.60 Chris Something and it just squeezes it to death like it and it entombs it in vines. 40:14.14 Dave Um, yeah I I was never clear on where those vines are coming from or why it's there. Um I don't know if it's something to do with the tree from the the end of the first game or something like that. 40:22.40 Chris I Thought that's what it was because the the the sword in the original one had like thorns and I don't know if that like just imprinted on his hand or something I don't know so. 40:31.67 Dave Mm yeah, another one for the the Youtube lore masters. 40:37.49 Chris Yeah, exactly they can they can explain why the penitent one has a wooden hand. 40:44.50 Dave Kind of along the lines of talking about those executions. Let's talk about the gameplay in blasphemous 2 this is side scrolling 2 d action. Um, the developers stated that one of their goals for blasphemous 2 is to make it into more of a classic style metroid vania um. Which the first game was very much a metroidvania just like didn't have some of those like you know a plus metroidvania design design decisions that I think you know games like Hollow Knight. You know have so they made it a point to. 41:21.60 Dave Improve that part of the game and I really think they did like this is one of the biggest wins as far as this game goes especially over the first game is again. All of those things that people said were not great about the first game they have basically just fixed them across the board. 41:37.89 Chris Yeah, the the the idea of an item being a key that basically you know either builds a platform or opens a door kind of went out the window. They. 41:48.82 Dave Yeah, yeah. 41:54.13 Chris They had 3 weapons to play with and all all of them tied to some kind of um, either direct like kind of interaction with platforming or having to puzzle solve with them. So. 42:10.42 Dave Yeah. 42:13.51 Chris You know that's definitely that's like like you talked about a plus metro design if you can integrate an item that you'd use for fighting into the puzzle solving into the um, the platforming and they all just kind of mesh into one. That's that's exactly what you needed to do to. 42:32.20 Chris Make it more of a metroid than ah than a Vania I guess. 42:34.42 Dave Exactly? Yeah, so like you said at the beginning of the game. Ah, you have 3 weapons to pick from they are called Veredicto which is a big bonk mace flail that has fire abilities you have sarmiento y centilla. 42:52.14 Dave Um, remembering my spanish pronunciation hopefully which is a dual wielded like scored and rapier com or like dagger in rapier combo that has lightning powers and then the third weapon is called ruego al- Alba and it's a serrated kind of like you know cutting weapon it looks like a Bloodborne weapon. 43:10.80 Chris Yeah, yeah, yeah. 43:11.84 Dave Ah, with blood magic. Yeah, so there we go and like Chris said all of them are your weapons but they all also double as like platforming movement abilities or giving you extra combat abilities that affect platforming and puzzle solving as well. So the structure of the game is set up where you pick your weapon at the beginning and then that weapon's unique platforming ability will let you go in 1 of 3 directions where you'll find a boss and you'll find a second weapon and then you can go in that direction for that weapon and. Um, until you have all 3 which then kind of unlocks the second half of the game. So the first half and the second half to some degree are nonlinear. They're linear based on what weapon you pick but nonlinear like. 44:08.95 Dave From a game design perspective. They don't know which weapon you're going to pick so all 3 of them are kind of like equal in difficulty I think um so it lets you pick the weapon you want and then roll with it until you have all 3 What did you think of this like general. Structure of like letting you pick and then like kind of tailoring your experience around that. 44:31.56 Chris Um I think it's a kind of great way to um, like said um I want gate keeps got a different term nowadays but it's a good way to separate out kind of. 44:48.14 Chris Progression in the game without it feeling too much like handholding and and path like guiding you because I don't think I found because I picked um ah the the sword El Bear or whatever Al alba yeah. 45:05.43 Dave Ruego Al Alba yeah. 45:07.89 Chris Um I picked that one as my first one and because it kind of read a little bit like the ah just the like the all arounder um like your middle of the road kind of weapon but I don't think I found the path that that one. Specifically went to until I literally found all the other I was like well I can't go any further I don't know what this is So then I moved to another hand I'm like well I can't go any further I don't know what this is then I got to the last one I'm like oh this is where I can progress. So I Definitely didn't feel handheld at all like. 45:41.36 Chris Explored as much of the map as I could until I found the area that could move me along to the next one and to me I enjoyed that maybe somebody else would be like well I just wasted my time going to all these other places but that's. That's the Metroidvania kind of like formula right? exploring until you can't explore anymore. 46:01.41 Dave yeah yeah I dug it to I liked how like you said they they kind of just set you free. They they tell you like what general direction you should look for all the bosses in but they don't tell you which one that you should go to first. 46:18.80 Dave Free to explore until you hit a dead end and then go somewhere else and I like that too I like the freedom to kind of make my own decision about like I don't think I'm supposed to be here yet. Let's go back and let's try that other path that I saw so that was good. Um, all of the other. 46:37.18 Dave Things that you pick up in the game. The big upgrade abilities the classics the double jump air dash. You have like a sliding move on the ground and stuff all of those have you know utility and platforming but also are all pretty great in combat to and I'd go. 46:56.31 Dave So far as to say like essential for a lot of them in the second half of the game. Um, your weapon choice also has combat ramifications because the let's say the the big Flail weapon veredicto can't block. 46:59.46 Chris Yeah. 47:14.50 Dave Ah, so you can't do the block and Parry which was like integral to the first game in this game. You're kind of like you're picking a weapon that you want to use like a move set that you want to use but they'll play pretty differently so like. The one that I picked I picked their dito. You can't block but you do have like a big swing arc and if you line it up right? You hit enemies twice on the spring or on the swing. So. It's a big help in combat I like. Basically used it the entire game even after I found the other ones. 47:52.81 Chris Yeah, and that one like said it kind of makes up for the inability to block by giving you like distance because you have it like it's on ah on a flail. You've got a little bit more wide arc so and then al alba the the sword definitely like up close. 47:57.60 Dave Yeah. 48:10.43 Chris And like the mechanic for that is you actually give up a life to make it stronger and hit Harder. So That's kind of like you're messing around with your health. Um I think you have veredicto was the was your what.? What do they call magic in this game faith or whatever. Yeah I can't remember. But anyway you your your magic meter gets aid up by veredicto when it's on fire and then the. 48:32.16 Dave Oh good question. It's not miracles. Um. 48:45.65 Chris The the little sword and Dagger was more of a you had to do more hits to build up to get powerful so it was kind of you could play with all these different mechanics like just like sucking up your magic and then you don't have room to do you know spells or you have to get close. 49:03.30 Chris And do a lot of hits before you become powerful because it's it's a weak but fast weapon and then the other one give up health and you'll be more powerful so it's like they definitely gave you a lot more options obviously than the first game just from the get go. But even. 49:08.62 Dave Yep. 49:21.70 Chris Mechanics inside of those options play can kind of play a ah completely different game. 49:26.80 Dave Yeah, before we dive like head first into combat I do want to mention a couple of big improvements from the first game that you know as far as platforming and exploration exploration goes. Um. The instant death spikes that so many people complained about from the first game are gone. There are still spikes. But if you fall in them. It just takes some of your health and then respawns you on the last like solid ground that you were on which is good because ah, there's a lot of platforming especially later in the game. 49:41.19 Chris Yeah 49:59.48 Dave Um, a lot of the platforming does involve like you know those spikes or bottomless pits underneath you and those are not instant death anymore. Um I in the first blasphemous game I remember talking about how like it didn't bother me that they were instant death I didn't have a big like. Didn't have a lot of trouble with them but I didn't I'm not mad that they're not in this game like obviously I'm I'm not upset about them being gone. So I know a lot of people complained about those and um. 50:21.90 Chris Yeah, yeah. 50:31.16 Dave I think one of the biggest flaws with blasphemous one was that exploring was not often rewarded with cool stuff. A lot of times you picked up like kickstarter backer items like the you know the the fibula of Chris Nelson and it just like told a story or something like that. 50:41.10 Chris Yeah, yeah. 50:49.28 Dave But you couldn't use it for anything and that's not in blasphemous 2. All the treasures replaced by like those marks of martyrdom that you can use to upgrade your weapons or rosary beads or little statuettes that you can customize your character with so just. 51:05.28 Chris Yeah, that was a cool additionion the ah because you can kind of customize our ah with those statuettes around the build that you're doing because a lot of them will directly affect whatever weapon you prefer things like that. So it gave a lot of more. Um. 51:06.23 Dave Flat improvements. 51:24.45 Chris The term gets thrown around a lot but give you more Rpg Um, light kind of you know character building. 51:34.44 Dave Yeah, yeah, so again, all those points of criticism from the first game I think have just been smoothed out in a really expert way. So good stuff. Um, yeah. 51:54.75 Dave So getting into combat for blasphemous 2 the combat is slow and methodical. A lot of times you can kind of stunlock regular small enemies and not really worry about what they're doing but for kind of larger threats. Mini bosses and of course boss fights. This is one of those games where you have to really take your time watch what the enemies are doing and react to them instead of like going balls to the wall like no regard for your own health because it is a game that like I don't think it's. Punishingly hard most of the time but it is a game where you have to pay attention and kind of you know, be responsible I guess. 52:40.33 Chris Yeah, um, there was ah there was moments because I kind of like mean the the blood sword and there was moments when I did get a little bit too zealous because that weapon kind of rewards that a little because it's like a. 52:56.93 Dave Yeah. 52:57.62 Chris Ah, timed meter. But if you continue to hit with it your your like blood pact like kind of just keeps going so being more aggressive with that weapon benefits you but it flies a little bit in the face of some of specifically the bosses like you have to wait for your moments. 53:03.41 Dave Man. 53:16.93 Chris And just getting face to face with them is not always going to be your your best. Ah, your best option you want to you want to wait them out. You want to wait for their patterns. You want to like said it's a little bit more puzzle solving than it is just ah. 53:23.23 Dave Yeah. 53:35.40 Chris Get in there and tank and do as much damage as you can. 53:40.34 Dave Yeah, and with veredicto the weapon I was using um I kind of I think that plays into the speed of the combat because I was always keeping a distance with enemies. 53:54.49 Dave Lining it Up right gives you 2 hits on one swing. So again I'm I'm keeping that distance usually jumping over enemies or like sliding past them whenever you can to like maybe they're charging at me. So then I will go the other way get that distance again. Swing. So. It definitely rewards that did you find this game to be like that difficult I don't even want to like talk about because people say that these are souls likes and I I don't really think so they took a couple of things but this doesn't strike me as like we're making 2D Dark Souls. That's not. 54:31.48 Dave What this is so what I don't know what do you think like you know you you played some castlevanias and some other two D you're You're a big MetroiVania fan. So where do you think this falls on the difficulty spectrum. 54:45.10 Chris Um, somewhere somewhere in the like Castlevania Realm um you've got a lot of ah. 55:01.78 Chris First try I guess maybe like post symphony of the night castle you got a lot of bosses. You're never, you're not gonna beat first try just because they're gonna do something halfway through the fight that is a completely different pattern that you didn't expect and it's gonna take you off track. 55:21.78 Chris You're not going to one shot these bosses then maybe um, maybe there's people out there who can but the the idea of learning the boss and like said it's more like puzzle solvy unless ah. You know this tactic works on every boss if you're gonna you know there's a supreme tactic. You know they say the souls games are kind of that Way. You know, get up get up underneath their crotch and swing at it and roll like that's gonna that's going to win you most of your fights. So um. 55:58.88 Chris This one. You definitely have to be paying attention to the patterns paying attention to their tells like you know they're their their um windups that kind of stuff like so it's definitely um I try to think of this like my dad who. 56:08.76 Dave Man. 56:17.78 Chris Play some video games but not a lot would watch me play this and say well that this game's cheating. It doesn't know it or it it. It knew you were gonna do that or it knew this and it it's gonna beach it. It would beat you anyway like it. It's cheating this game cheats. It knows what's going on and ah you' like well no, you just gotta you gotta to find the pattern learn it. 56:37.56 Chris Beat your head against it for a while and eventually you'll you'll learn what you need to do to win the fight. So I'd put that I guess yeah like said it's it's It's probably harder than um, harder than. 56:56.15 Chris Trying to think of some games I think there's definitely hollow night has some much harder bosses. Yeah, and but I'm trying to think of something kind of in the middle somewhere I don't know I feel like Metroid isn't a great one because it's like ah. 56:59.48 Dave Oh a hollow knight's much harder than this game straight up. Yeah. 57:13.40 Dave Because Metroid bosses are dog shit. Yeah um, except for metroid I would put this maybe compared to metroid dread like metroid dread had some hard bosses but a lot of them were fine once you once you learned them. 57:27.98 Dave Actually think metro dreads probably harder than this now that I think about it. Um I think castle is a good kind of touchstone like you'll beat a lot of bosses on the first try the second or third try something like that. Um, maybe there's a boss late in the game that takes you like 10 tries or more and there was 1 in this game that. 57:46.99 Dave Took me a lot but in that boss late in the game even the one that was really hard that was really kicking my ass. There was a steady progression of like the first time I had no idea and then the second time I was like okay I think I can dodge that move because again I'm playing with. The weapon where you can't block so it's all dodging for me and then the next time I'm like okay I can dodge that move every time now now the next move. Okay I think I've got it and then by the time I Finally beat it I was like grinning to myself or I was like this thing can't touch me I know exactly how to beat this and so I don't. 58:24.70 Dave That's not why I play difficult games like that's not what I live for but when it does happen like that. It's really cool and you know I did get there in this game so they are all designed in a fair way I think there's no bullshit from these bosses. 58:40.97 Chris No, and they um, they vary enough to wear. Um, each one was fun in a way that was like said it was diff. It was fun because it was difficult. But. None of them felt exactly exactly the same I had a lot of comparisons to the first game I'm like oh this is like that fight and other like castlevanias and metroidvanias. You're like oh yeah, this is similar to you know that like I think in the first game I compared the 1 guy in the room to like a megaman boss and I didn't get any invals in this one but like there's some stuff that if you've played in this genre. A lot. You're gonna be like okay this is this type of boss or it's this kind of fight. So if you're if you're steeped in this culture to. 59:30.39 Dave Yeah. 59:35.70 Chris Put it in probably the dickheadiest way I could the game doesn't feel terribly difficult I couldn't throw this at my dad and expect him to get anywhere. 59:37.76 Dave Ah, yeah, right? But for people who play a lot of games like this 2d action games I don't think this is a super punishing one. 59:56.69 Dave With the exception of that one boss and then again even with that one I did end up seeing the matrix and kind of acing it the time that I did beat it which is cool. Um, we talked about it at the beginning but it's it's fair to bring up again. The boss fights themselves feel. 01:00:14.79 Dave Like a little less imaginative than the first game. Um, we've we've been talking about it off off air as they say um, where it really feels like they just they used all their best ideas for bosses, especially designs for bosses. 01:00:32.80 Dave In the first game and then they're like well we're making a second one we already use the lady with you know the hole in her skull where you have to smack the exposed brain where he used her where he used the skeleton priest that's held up by the the bunch of hairy arms and stuff like that. 01:00:50.46 Chris Skeleton pope. 01:00:51.59 Dave Yeah Skeleton Pope we already use skeleton pope. So now we got to come up with other stuff and the bosses are still cool to look at, but there weren't there weren't as many in blasphemous to where again when the fight starts and I go oh what is that? Yeah, you're finding a lot of dudes. 01:01:07.37 Chris There's a lot of just kind of dudes like just some dudes. Yeah and ladies ladies and dudes slightly taller ladies and dudes. Yeah ladies and dudes just ladies and dudes. 01:01:11.28 Dave And and ladies. 01:01:17.90 Dave Ah, yeah, ladies and dudes with various weapons. Yeah. 01:01:24.63 Chris Let's less ah kind of abysmal creatures from some realm unknown you got um, got no babies that are ah being carried around by a snake creature. Yeah. 01:01:36.74 Dave Yeah, yeah, and no giant snakes like in the first game in the dlc. It's it's still cool like again catholic inspired horror for boss whites. But it's just not as memorable. We'll say. 01:01:43.77 Chris Yeah. 01:01:53.69 Chris That's a good way to put it not as memorable. 01:01:55.36 Dave Yeah, um, little kind of like miscellaneous combat stuff. You have a couple types of magic that you can use and again this all goes toward like building the type of you know combat style that you want to use. Ah you have 2 types in this game. Yeah, like quick magic that you can throw out real fast probably doesn't do a ton of damage but it also might the one I was using was fucking. Great. You have other magic spells and they're they're mapped to 2 different inputs. The other ones you have to charge up for a little bit and they do a big you know a big thing or. Maybe they'll take you home to like the city or you know I like the one that called down a lightning storm for that quick spell thing I like to be the blood boomerang that was really great so you get a lot of them though so you can experiment you can you know choose the stuff that. 01:02:40.84 Chris No yeah. 01:02:50.14 Dave Fits the style you want to play with um I picked a couple that I liked and used them the entire game but that's kind of how I play these games Anyway, you know why mess with what's been carrying me basically. 01:03:03.37 Chris Yeah I messed around with all. Um there was a blood boom the blood boomer ring because that's like the first one you get I think if I'm not mistaken and ah the one that kind of is the well only one from the first game. 01:03:09.19 Dave You. 01:03:18.77 Chris Think everything else was kind of more the big like room clearers in the first game you had less? Yeah so I used the blood rumoring and then there was one that was like ah 4 little like green daggers you would throw and then it would home in on ah an enemy. So um. 01:03:21.44 Dave In the first game. Yeah. 01:03:33.66 Dave Nice. 01:03:37.33 Chris But man yeah, with the big guys I mostly used the um I think it was another one kind of from the first game you made like a big old. Holy pillar kind of just around yourself. So and then the the send me back to the city that was probably in my in my charged 1 for most of the game. 01:03:56.39 Dave Yeah, yeah, um I think the lightning storm one that I used was probably in the first game. Also, it's just it's real good. So you know why mess with success. We the other thing is we mentioned those execution moves. But. 01:04:00.97 Chris Yeah, yeah. 01:04:11.79 Dave Um, I think that how it works is enemies have a hidden posture bar and if you parry them enough or hit them enough with heavy stuff. Um like with the big Mace weapon most of the time I would kill an enemy before their posture would break but sometimes with bigger enemies. Their posture would break. They'll go into like this kind of. 01:04:30.99 Dave Downed state and you can go up and press a button and do this brutal execution finishing move. Um, like we said there's a lot less variety to them but doing them is still cool, especially if it's an enemy that's been given you trouble like those those big dudes with the big like Bronze helmets on that kind of. 01:04:48.49 Chris Um, yeah charge you. 01:04:50.72 Dave Still in helmets that yeah they charge you and they can like pin you up against walls. So a little bit of vitriol when I'm taking them down sometimes. 01:04:53.92 Chris Yeah, one of my favorites was ah and there's like 4 flavors of them and they all shoot some different kind of colored fire at you and they're like they're like in a stock almost like a singular stock and they've kind of got their face through this piece of wood and when you can like. 01:05:12.27 Dave Oh yeah. 01:05:18.48 Chris Stun them it like pauses them and they start choking on their their fire I guess and you basically jump on top of them. Slam their piece of wood down and then just like step on their head from like ten feet in the air. 01:05:26.24 Dave Yeah, yeah, yeah, the big enemies seem like they have their own kind of because those are like bigger than the average dudes. The bigger enemies. Maybe they have more kind of bespoke execution animations but a lot of the smaller ones you kind of just like. 01:05:33.86 Chris Yeah. 01:05:45.76 Dave Slam your your wood hand into the ground and vines come up and just kind of squeeze the enemy to death which I'm saying that like it's not cool I know it is cool. Yeah, it's kind of kind of lame just kind of all my my thorns are smashing enemies to death. 01:05:49.48 Chris And you just kind of do that. Whatever no big deal. 01:06:04.39 Chris Thorn Hand whatever last so last year. 01:06:07.66 Dave Yeah, but man from ah from a gameplay perspective. This game was just it was a treat I got to like I said I got to 97% map completion which is higher than the first game. Um, it's higher than I ever got to in holite which is you know my gold standard for this kind of name. It's just a pleasure to run around fight stuff. Do these. You know these brutal moves find treasures they're all really rewarding I think that's why I got to 97% um, if I checked a guide at any point between the time I finished it and now I could have gotten 100 % just to find those 3 rooms that I was missing probably but didn't get around to it. But that's you know all this to say. From a gameplay perspective blasphemous 2 is about as about as good as it gets in the genre for me personally I had a great time. 01:07:07.37 Chris Yeah, and like said we we've kind of talked about like a total improvement over the first game but just like if it as a standalone. Yeah, it's it's just a great metroidvania like plain and simple like um, all the way around fun to play. 01:07:16.53 Dave Yeah, yeah. 01:07:24.80 Chris Fun to explore combats fun. You don't ever feel fully like you're being 100% punished for either missing something or ah. 01:07:41.83 Chris Having to explore the exploring feels a lot more kind of fun I don't know penitent ones any faster in this game but I never felt like I was doing those long kind of like drug out like runs from one area to the other. But maybe that's because there's more save points I think. 01:08:00.27 Dave Um, yeah, they did feel a bit friendlier with the save points. But um I I don't know I played the first game after they added more save points into it with like an update. 01:08:00.78 Chris And think you had mentioned that. 01:08:16.89 Dave And then this one felt fine. You know I didn't um I didn't ever sometimes I felt like you know from the fast travel room to the place I was trying to get to was a little bit too far but as far as the save points go it was fine like even if it's like. 5 screens away or something like that it doesn't take that long to to get there so it was all right. 01:08:39.14 Chris No, especially once you're near the end with all your movement upgrades and everything you can get around pretty quick. 01:08:45.49 Dave Yeah, yeah, so who would you say that you recommend play blasphemous 2. 01:08:57.38 Chris MetroidVania fans who are looking for a game steeped in its aesthetic. 01:09:12.44 Dave Yeah, yeah. 01:09:14.34 Chris Because you're not gonna get a whole bunch of story. Um, which kind of harkens back to old Metroid um, you're gonna fight bosses 3 4 Times you're gonna learn their patterns and it's gonna it feels rewarding when you do do that. So if you're looking for a challenge but not I don't know I hate using it all the time but not the hardest. Dark souls levels of challenge then this one's definitely definitely I feel a little bit more friendly to a maybe ah a more casual gamer. Maybe I could make I could recommend blasphemous is is somebody's first Metroidvania I feel like like don't think I'd throw someone in hollow night as their first metro vania. 01:10:13.85 Dave Yeah I think so. 01:10:20.75 Dave Yeah, maybe not hallow night but blasphemous 2. Especially because again they got rid of some of those instant kill platforming things. Um, yeah, it wouldn't be bad for that and I guess we've we've kind of like danced around it but haven't directly answered like. 01:10:40.55 Dave Question do you need to play blasphemous 1 before 2 and I think like you might connect with the situation of like where the story is and what's happening at the beginning but from like a. You know this isn't a game where it's like it's going to start and you're like I don't know who any of these people are I don't understand like they kind of explain what you need to know and it's not like the first game has the first game was a complete story and now they've picked it back up. 01:11:11.28 Chris Yeah, there's yeah, there's not a whole lot of like well then this character did that and it affected how things work here. It's just kind of this like. 01:11:13.20 Dave So because of that like you're not picking up in the middle of something. So I think you could pick this up and without playing the first one. 01:11:30.23 Chris Ah, you you kind of talk this and bit or all encompassing miracle This bad thing that's happening. 01:11:34.97 Dave Yeah, yeah, so for people who didn't play blasphemous one you could play this one first I think you should play blasphemous one. It's awesome. Loved it. But you could play this first. Obviously if you liked the first blasphemous game. This is a no brainer you you should play this because I think pretty much everything you liked about the first one is here and everything you didn't like about the first one has been fixed just going on like you know the many conversations with different people I've had about the first game. So. Ah, fans of metro vanias this is a very good one. Um I think all of the stuff that you like about the genre you know the rewarding exploration exploring off on your own in a like kind of nonlinear way. Maybe running into dead ends but trying to remember where those were you can mark those on your map in this game too. You can you have little pins. You can drop so all of those things all of those people. This is a no-brainer I think this is great. It's one of the best games in 2023 that I've played new releases from this year or just in general like trying to think back. This is maybe the only but definitely the best metro. No I played several metroid games yeah this is the best metroidvania I played this year pretty comfortable saying that. so so easy 01:12:57.92 Chris I'm trying to remember this year a lot of it was zelda. 01:13:02.64 Dave Easy to recommend So before we get into full spoiler time a little bit of housekeeping here. Um I would ah like to give the call for people to leave a rating and review on the podcast platform that you're listening to this episode on. 01:13:21.69 Dave If you're listening on Apple Podcasts Spotify or podcast addict those reviews or star ratings are really helpful for kind of pushing the podcast up in search results and helping people find it. Um, if you enjoy the show. It would be a big help if you could leave a rating or if you don't want to type out. A review again. Just do those star ratings really helpful. Either way we have a Discord server full of cool people who like fun games such as blasphemous too if you want to come in and talk about that game or any game or talk about movies music. Whatever else is going on in your life. Um. Come on in. There's an invite link down in the show notes we would love to have you in there and if you would like to support the show monetarily you can go to patreon.com/realdavejackson that is the place where you can support that way. There's lots of different tiers. You can sign up to lots of different rewards. Everybody who signs up. At least gets the ability to vote in polls for what games come up on the show. Um, you'll get some bonus episodes every now and then it's a good time I also have another podcast called a top 3 podcast where we do top 3 lists. We do weird drafts. It is mostly a comedy show that is also a fun time. Um, really recommend you come check out that stuff so Chris and I are going to take a break and when we come back the full spoilers begin for blasphemous 2 01:15:11.93 Dave All right Chris and I are back and it's time for spoilers for blasphemous 2 we talk about our favorite npcs our favorite quests boss fights stuff like that the ending again. We're not going to. Talk about really like the plot of lasphemous 2 or what's going on with the characters and stuff. But um I do just want to point out like I thought it was really cool to come across the level mother of mothers which was a level from the first game. It really showed just how. Long it had been and how far this place has fallen into disrepair like in the first game. It was like a really nice like chapel type place and in the second one it's like nah this is this is also fucked. Everything's fucked. 01:16:10.13 Chris Yeah, and if I remember right? It's the the city The kind of Hub City you're in is right on top of it. So it's like they literally built the city on top of the old chapel that used to be kind of like the. 01:16:19.20 Dave Yeah, it's above it. Yeah. 01:16:28.51 Chris You know that obviously the miracle and all the the super religious ah world that that blasphemous is so the mother of mothers being the biggest most opulent kind of chapel going into disrepair and then literally Just. Building their new city on top of it kind of speaks to the fact that these people have like for however, long, kind of lost their religion as it were. 01:16:56.97 Dave Yeah, yeah, so it was cool to run across and um I like when yeah I like when you can recognize stuff from the previous game like if we are continuing in the same world with some of these same characters. 01:17:12.83 Dave Ah, even if it's been a long time I Love to go through like the decayed ruins of the old place. 01:17:14.35 Chris Yeah I miss I missed a what was his name who is your guide in the first game. Yeah deogracias. The only time you see him is he's holding your coffin and he's all turned to stone I'm like man where's my boy deo gracius yeah. 01:17:22.85 Dave Deogracius. Yeah, at the beginning. Yeah, he's he was I guess after the penitent one died he was sworn to protect the coffin or something so he just stayed there until he died and now he's made of stone. Yep. 01:17:36.87 Chris Yeah, just holding the the coffin for old Penitente 01:17:47.92 Dave Yeah, um, and the coffin has a bunch of like worshippers around it too. So apparently people were happy with whatever the canonical ending for the first game was. 01:17:58.16 Chris Yeah, the because it I guess spoilers for the first game. The the the final dlc had you going and killing god so rpg jrpg. Um. 01:18:16.00 Chris And I think that's kind of how because you destroy the miracle all of the things with the miracle go away or there's a whole bunch of stuff but basically the miracle goes away and then because of that. 01:18:33.10 Chris The penitent one dies because he was resurrected by the miracle for some reason to then destroy the miracle I don't know um the ah the the world I guess kind of like said loses its religion, everything else kind of. With that religion goes into stasis and they just move on and realize that stuff sucks even without a vengeful god. 01:19:02.90 Dave Yep, yeah, ah, speaking of stuff sucking. Um, let's talk about the Npc's memorable ones that we came across you know, maybe not talking too much about their quests but like I don't know. 01:19:19.43 Dave Tell me tell me an npc that you found to be memorable. 01:19:23.59 Chris Um, I'm going to try to think of kind of a ah more weird one but um, he wasn't really like 1 of those huge ones or one of the kind of odd ones but the guy who did the carvings for you. He made your little um things. 01:19:37.95 Dave Um, oh yeah. 01:19:40.80 Chris He he was like a blind sculptor and you you you give him things to he's building a statue of a woman I don't know they may have described exactly who it was but she's obviously some kind of important person in the the. Religious iconography and um, eventually he basically his penance is to make this statue and you give him all the supplies to make it and he dies and then the statue just gets put up in the middle of the city and then his daughter comes to. Like basically replace him as at Npc but they don't really I guess I'm assuming he dies but they just kind of they don't talk like after it's Done. He goes away his daughter kind of says. Yeah, his penance was complete and there's like really no fanfare about it. He kind of just he made the statue. 01:20:37.40 Chris And then he goes away. 01:20:37.23 Dave Um, ah, interesting I Never got to the point where you like get all the collectibles for him. So yeah I didn't get to the point where he goes away but that's interesting. 01:20:42.38 Chris In yeah, it's kind of an interesting one like maybe not not not the weirdest one but kind of an odd one. 01:20:53.51 Dave Yeah, for a weird one. There is the woman who helps you with your flask upgrades your bio flasks Um, who number one she has like a pool of blood in there. 01:21:08.60 Dave And you you can like drink from it I was never clear on what drinking from the pool does. 01:21:11.77 Chris Yeah, it wasn't know if it was like and you had to fill it to then upgrade or if you could do upgrades without filling it I mean I filled it every time just because I was like well button says I should push it so I push it. 01:21:24.13 Dave Yeah, yeah, exactly she's like do you want to? you know, drink this this vase of my blood and I was like ah yeah I might as well. So. 01:21:33.10 Chris Yeah, then you can do your your kind of traditional like health upgrades which to to top the first games health upgrade person was was an impressive feat. They they did I feel like they did. 01:21:37.83 Dave Yeah. 01:21:48.87 Chris I Think in the first one was the dude who was growing out of that. Guy's chest and. 01:21:50.53 Dave Yeah, yeah, you gave that guy like the the silver or mercury or something like that they had 2 different Npcs 1 gave you more flasks and one made the flask stronger and in this game. It's the same person. But. 01:22:04.44 Chris Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:22:10.26 Dave In order I guess because she's helping you in 2 different ways as you go through and slowly upgrade your flasks. She gets progressively more and more skinned go the little cherubs are holding her like. 01:22:20.13 Chris Yeah. 01:22:27.59 Dave At the beginning. They're just kind of there and then at the end ah like after a couple they're like starting to like you know skin take the skin off of her hand and they're holding it and then like the next time it's like up to her arm and they're like just kind of fly in there holding her like skin flap. It's real fucking weird and then eventually it gets to the point where. 01:22:43.23 Chris Yeah, yeah, she's just a blood red Skeleton and I don't know if is do they have her skin somewhere did they did they did they take the skin and they're like doing the whole. 01:22:47.35 Dave It's all gone. 01:22:55.58 Dave Yeah I have no idea what's going on. 01:23:02.85 Chris Ah, three little kids in a trench coat with it. 01:23:07.60 Dave Trying to get into a rated R movie or something like that. Yeah, that was ah absolutely memorable for sure. 01:23:16.49 Chris Yeah, and then I think the one that we're we're both. We're both going to have to mention is the ah the guy who has I guess he's taken his. 01:23:22.30 Dave Oh yeah. 01:23:34.25 Chris Wife or some he's taken a breast and implanted it onto himself to feed his child to prove to the miracle that he's a loving father. 01:23:37.60 Dave Yes, yes, and what it is if you look in. He's kind of squeezing this breast and just kind of squirting milk on this baby's face for. Like the whole time you're in there and he's like crying as he's doing it. It's a whole scene and they you know they wait. This is pretty late in the game when you first find him? um that is wild to come across. 01:24:02.50 Chris Yeah, you're definitely,, You're expecting kind of gore and viscera and that kind of like stuff from everywhere else and then you just kind of come upon this Scene. Of I Guess a loving father. 01:24:27.12 Dave He's he's trying again. This feels like I wasn't sure if this was one of those Monkey Paw things where it was like you know I want to provide for my baby and then the miracles like oh you want to provide for your baby huh. Okay, here's how you're going to do it but it sounds like he kind of did some bad shit. 01:24:39.25 Chris Yeah. 01:24:45.93 Chris Yeah, there's some there I think there's some stuff in there that kind of alludes to the fact that he ah he was trying to be more pious and he wanted he wanted this fate upon him. So and. 01:24:57.81 Dave Yeah, did you ever finish his quest what happens because I never did. 01:25:03.16 Chris I did in it the the baby just he goes away and the baby gets put down in the wax and he's just covered in wax like stationed there in the so he he basically I don't know he he leaves the baby with the nuns. 01:25:11.57 Dave Okay. 01:25:22.75 Chris The wax nuns and I don't know if the wax nuns cover the baby in wax. But now you got a wax baby. It's it's wax. 01:25:29.27 Dave Yeah congratulations. Man Yeah, the only other Npc that I wrote down was the the woman who was trying to know there's There's two more So. There's There's one that I fucked up the woman who's trying to hold up the stones like in a cave if she's in like a doorway. 01:25:51.57 Chris Um, yeah I don't I don't know if that's fucked up or not because you you get her little idol from doing that. But yeah, um, you basically you kill her. 01:25:53.44 Dave Um I killed her on accident. 01:26:03.72 Dave Ah. 01:26:07.70 Dave I Think there's a way for you to do the quest where like you get a reward from it but I didn't because I think I was going through the cave and just like I saw a wall that could be smashed and I smashed it and then she died so nothing. 01:26:25.63 Dave Happened but I did see a screenshot of like being in the shrine and then like her ghost is in there or something like that. 01:26:30.95 Chris Yeah, yeah I did the same thing you smash that wall and you're like well where's this lead and then you just see her feet kind of dangling out the rocks and you're like oh shit that was that lady she was holding up the whole upside down spire with her. 01:26:40.42 Dave Yeah, you're like oops yeah whoops Sorry lady. Um, yeah, did you ever figure out what's going on with that. 01:26:49.74 Chris With her strength. 01:26:54.80 Dave Woman that's holding like the sleeping child in her lap on under the city. Okay, because I never I couldn't even interact with it the whole game. 01:26:58.43 Chris Yeah there's um, that was one I had to do a guide for I had I had yeah um, you have to I can't remember where you first pick it up but you basically get a an incomplete lullaby. And then there's like 5 more kind of hidden throughout the game and ah once you finish the lullaby she can so read read it to the the child. She's holding and then it sends you into like ah there's that whole like dreaming. 01:27:19.33 Dave Okay. 01:27:34.81 Chris World. There's like there was in the first game to I think which I think is supposed to maybe be like I don't know purgatory or something but they send you into there. You do like a platforming challenge and then I think you get an idol from it and then she gets covered in thorns and so does the kid. They just kind of. 01:27:50.27 Dave Okay, oh and that's how they spend the rest of their life. Yeah because everything is fucked up in this world. Um. 01:27:54.43 Chris Are there nip pretty much did you ever find the guy sorry did you ever find the guy that was ah like imprisoned. 01:28:13.59 Chris Behind a wall and he would sell you things. 01:28:18.32 Dave I did find him I wasn't able to do anything like I bought a couple things and then I think I never went back but I didn't do anything special there. No um. 01:28:23.77 Chris Um, yeah, he kind of just talks about how he stole stuff from the dead. So I think he was because. 01:28:38.21 Chris I think he could sell you stuff that you might have missed off of things or something along those lines because his whole thing was that he took stuff from the dead. So I don't know if it's like to try to help you clear things up throughout the rest of the game. 01:28:50.14 Dave Wow. 01:28:56.78 Chris I Don't know if that's like a full if that's fully what it's for or if that's just kind of how I ran into it because I feel like I picked some stuff up from him then I was like oh that talks about some other character that maybe I missed something so he's. You never see Him. He's just a man behind a cage or in a prison cell. So. 01:29:18.25 Dave Gotcha Yeah I didn't didn't go back to buy stuff. Um I think another Npc quest that I didn't finish was finding all of the like nuns that were around I. 01:29:29.00 Chris Yeah, the the ladies with the one eye. 01:29:35.18 Dave Ah, of actually there's 2 There's the ones that are sleeping and then you like go into their dream and do a combat challenge or something I think I did do all of those. Um, but the the ones that do like the little whispers when you're nearby. You have to find them I never. 01:29:38.30 Chris Yeah, yep. 01:29:47.45 Chris Oh yeah, yeah, the they're all. Yeah, they're all fully covered up kind of like a I guess yeah like a none I guess I didn't point to none I don't know why my brain didn't go to none. 01:29:51.79 Dave Never got all those. 01:29:55.75 Dave Yeah. 01:30:03.38 Dave There's multiple versions of that I mean this version of that character is definitely like weirder and more evil looking than the ones that are asleep. Yeah oh um, in. 01:30:08.69 Chris Yeah, they they whisper. 01:30:19.21 Dave It might have been in mother of mothers but it might have been another level. There's like that old couple that's like at a dinner table I I feel like I like completed that but I'm not sure what was going on there like ah I brought an item back and then like. 01:30:22.10 Chris Oh yeah. 01:30:34.20 Dave Gave an item to the woman. She said something and then like the next time I went in the man was awake and I could never like get anything else to happen is there is that a quest or was that just like. 01:30:44.30 Chris Yeah, it's you get you get their idols or whatever and um, essentially I think depending on which side of the like room you enter from the first time determines who. Think she dies I don't think she just goes to sleep because whichever one ends up alive at the end they they give you something and then you can get their little idol from it. Their little wood carving and then. 01:31:01.60 Dave Okay. 01:31:16.59 Dave Ok. 01:31:20.94 Chris The other one. You've basically got their item with you the whole time like you'll finish the game and you'll have like he I think he has a book and she has a bonnet or something I don't remember but I had that bonnet like the whole time I'm like what does this do like I ended eventually look at an up like. Like oh yeah, you'll you because she died you keep her bonnet and you get the idol and then he you eventually get the idol for him from from somewhere else. So they're just in one of those idol quests And yeah, we mentioned Bee man earlier. 01:31:48.23 Dave Okay, gotcha. 01:32:00.39 Chris Or honey man. 01:32:01.89 Dave Oh yeah, Honey. Um, so I did not go further with money. Man's quest but I did see like pictures of where that goes and it basically his body turns into. Honey or like melts into honey or something. 01:32:17.00 Chris Him? Yeah, Basically he just becomes all honey and ah his item he has an idol and it breaks and then you go back to him and then he puts it together back together with Honey. And then ah after a certain amount of times eventually he just yeah, turns all the way into honey and the idol I think becomes something different I can't remember exactly what it was yeah. 01:32:45.20 Dave Who weird. 01:32:49.76 Chris Kind of ah, a weird one in there just a man made of honey. 01:32:52.74 Dave Yeah, so were there any boss fights that stand out to you as being like really you know, excellent, fun or like visually memorable. 01:33:07.50 Chris Um, I really enjoyed um the ghost lady I'm gonna pull up the website ah benedicta of endless arise it was the one in the. Ah, the ah the painting tower the tower with all the like ghostly paintings without faces I think and um without heads and the boss is kind of like this like ghost. But she's carrying around a body 01:33:44.70 Chris And it's more of those one of those ones where you're interacting with the stage more than you're interacting with the boss and she's like throwing ghostly pillars at you and you're on a chandelier the whole time kind of jumping around but ah her um, just her kind of aesthetic altogether. 01:34:03.40 Chris But her her death animation when you finally kill her and it does that freeze frame and then it comes back. She's like holding onto the body like trying to prevent it from falling away from her and then the ghost eventually like disappears and the body just falls and it's kind of like oh that's like a cool little like she doesn't want to give up her. 01:34:23.39 Chris She's she's she's got one last death throw before she finally falls to her death. 01:34:24.31 Dave Yeah, yeah, that's pretty sick I honestly did not remember that fight at all I had to go on the wiki to look it up. It's probably you know I'm looking at the the bosses now and there are 12 01:34:30.70 Chris You know. 01:34:42.10 Dave Listed here I probably beat half of them my first try and like they just didn't make much of ah, an impression because of that. So I think that's one of those um, especially a lot of like the Humanoid bosses. Um. 01:34:54.99 Chris Yeah, yeah. 01:34:57.58 Dave There's the dude who has like a looks like a coffin that he's swinging at you or like um like a pair of stocks golden armor. There's the guy named odone who has like the big po arm. Um or Halberd beat him on the first try a lot of them. 01:35:01.53 Chris Yeah, yeah. 01:35:16.30 Dave Um, the ones that like stick out are there's one called cnodo himm of the thousand voices which is like ah this it looks like you know there's 1 big head at the top and it looks like you know, ah like a robe like a. 01:35:29.68 Chris If. Yeah, and it keeps swapping them. 01:35:34.99 Dave Ah, papal robe or something like that. But then there's these 6 other faces down the sides. Yeah, that was cool and but that was a fight that took me like 4 or 5 tries to beat. So I had a lot of time to like see the attacks and see all these i. 01:35:45.27 Chris And. 01:35:51.40 Dave You know, cool animations like you said with the faces swapping and stuff like that and it's that was one that felt like a blasphemous 1 boss design whereas. 01:35:57.30 Chris Yeah, the area was cool too because it was like if like felt like it was like inside of a giant Bell almost like the walls were kind of encompassing like they they almost Curt Looked like they curved up. 01:36:03.85 Dave Yeah, yep. 01:36:11.58 Dave Yeah, yeah, so that one made an impression but like I'm looking at a lot of the bosses and it's like there's a lady with ah a like a fencing offenser that you fight and you know the fight had some cool moves some cool animations in it. But. 01:36:20.35 Chris Yeah, and the yeah I will say the big dude with the coffin at and I did not expect a little baby to jump out of it. 01:36:29.14 Dave It's not super memorable. Other than that. 01:36:37.88 Dave Ah, you why? Why would you expect that. 01:36:38.64 Chris Yeah, because I fought him and I I feel like I cleared him first try and I was like well that wasn't too much and then this little baby pops out and starts flying around throwing daggers at you and I think I beat her. 01:36:50.26 Dave I mean. 01:36:57.35 Chris And then you got to fight both of them I guess I don't know if it's a her but it's a little baby and then you got to fight both the baby and the big guy at the same time and I think I lost in that fight and then beat him the next time so that was weird. 01:37:09.97 Dave Yeah, that one maybe like 1 or 2 tries. Yeah, um, the the most memorable ones to me are the. 01:37:15.33 Chris Ah. 01:37:20.18 Dave Penultimate and then the final boss. So I guess like before we get to them. Do you have any others that stood out to you. 01:37:26.73 Chris Um, ah the weird one that felt very anime. Ah I'm looking for him a filla a phillio a fellow or sentinel of emy. He's got the. 01:37:37.31 Dave Oh right? The what the ah the grindstone and stuff. 01:37:42.85 Chris Yeah, the grindstone on his back but he he just kind of reminded me like like an anime character because he's got this big old like kind of gaunt weird smile and he's jumping around and yeah, silly little hat so he was. 01:37:55.21 Dave Got like ah a funny hat ah like a top hat. 01:38:01.53 Chris He was fun I think I beat him another one like second try. 01:38:04.23 Dave That one took me a few tries like a it wasn't memorable enough for me to say what exactly it was that I had difficulty with but it did take me a few tries so we didn't talk about that penultimate boss. 01:38:22.83 Dave Evertino father of the penitents the the first penitent one I suppose he's got this badass like blood red sword that it looks like it has like looks like has like barbed wire wrapped around it or something like that. This was. 01:38:39.87 Dave By far the hardest boss in the game for me. 01:38:41.47 Chris Yeah I mean and it and they kind of did like they did in the in the first game with a of the the pope guy the all red pope. 01:39:00.26 Chris Because you had 2 stages and the first stage where he's kind of just doing his like Dracula thing like where he's poofing around and throwing fireballs at you you I felt like I learned that fairly quickly and I beat him. 01:39:13.53 Dave Then. 01:39:19.94 Chris And like well okay, cool. There's got to be more obviously like I'm I ah I've played these and then I get into that second fight and I I think I lasted ten fifteen seconds the first time like he just got me in a a combo and it just wiped me out. 01:39:21.70 Dave Yeah, ah. 01:39:30.99 Dave Yeah. Yeah, in the second phase of that fight. He's got a couple attacks that will just stunlock you to death so they're real hard to avoid if you don't know they're coming then like once you learn how to avoid them. It's not that hard. But. 01:39:51.50 Chris Yeah, and I was I don't know maybe I just wasn't parrying enough but I felt like there wasn't a really a good Perry strategy I was pretty much like just. 01:39:53.76 Dave It is one of those that will teach you by killing the fuck out of you a couple of times. 01:40:11.00 Chris Be out of his way in the right direction and come in get a couple pokes then get the hell out. 01:40:15.96 Dave Yeah I was still using veredicto for this fight like for all of them so I wasn't blocking at all dodging the whole thing and it felt very very learnable to dodge everything I mean it. It took me. 01:40:21.13 Chris No Yeah. Oh. 01:40:32.21 Dave Probably 20 tries to beat it including taking a break because I got frustrated and mad. But after that you know I did get around to to beating it and it's it's weird to say that the hardest boss in the game is probably also my favorite one but it is probably because it. 01:40:32.23 Chris Yeah, yeah. 01:40:50.88 Dave Did give me that right like Goldilocks zone of challenge where it was really hard and I had to learn it through repeating it and learning but it wasn't it never felt unfair. It always felt like you know I got too greedy and I got caught in one of those combos or like. 01:41:06.37 Chris Oh no. 01:41:09.97 Dave In the second phase again like I didn't keep proper distance and he caught me in one of those huge attacks and that's my fault and next time I won't do it and I just won't get hit by it which is it's good. 01:41:14.61 Chris Yeah, yeah, and like so they're like 4 step combos like he hits you and if you you mess that first one up he's gonna catch you on the second one and then the third one and then you're kind of you're done. 01:41:28.40 Dave Yeah. 01:41:34.30 Chris So you you don't have to be perfect. You can definitely screw up a little bit but you got to you got to know when to back off and when to get close. 01:41:49.74 Dave Yeah, it's also another boss that will like punish you for just dodge spamming like you have to dodge with purpose in that so that was that was fun I liked that it again it it really reminded me um, a lot of the structure of this game is. 01:42:07.22 Dave Basically the same structure as blasphemus one write down to like the penultimate boss you fight someone? That's your size using a weapon like yours. It's probably a test of parrying before you go to the final boss which is like your room filling bullet hell type. 01:42:26.61 Dave Final exam and this is the exact same kind of setup. 01:42:33.61 Chris Yeah, um I think I think I think I did the final boss in one try um, it might have been to I might have fell into the fire. Once. 01:42:43.14 Dave Yeah, yeah, it was I don't know 2 to 5 tries for me. It was pretty easy like the first time I just I don't know what attacks are coming and so I got you know just destroyed by a couple of room filling like bullet hell attacks. But yeah, not that hard. 01:43:02.85 Dave Um, it's the final boss is the baby from the the heart. The baby's born and you fight it. It's called devotion incarnate and it's It's a really cool design. It's like this very evil looking. But you know pale human looking thing but it's it's. 01:43:05.98 Chris Nice now. 01:43:22.84 Dave Like chest and head are all like adorned with like gold and stuff. It's It's cool. It's a really cool design. 01:43:30.28 Chris Yeah, and like you said it is kind of the ah the test of like your kind of room filling Bullet Hell can you dodge and be in the right area at the right time and. Get your hits off kind of. 01:43:46.27 Dave And and that type of like um, you know now we're going to take the floor away and you have to get up on the platforms and then there's going to be projectiles. You're gonna have to like platform around while trying to get a couple hits in when you can. But I don't know just like same with the final boss in blasphemous one I. 01:44:05.33 Dave I Just didn't think it was that hard and this one again, not that bad. 01:44:10.74 Chris Now Oh I forgot about ah inverto He he goes Off. He goes all full ah nights of the round on you he has that attack where he sends all of his little minion dudes. All the other bosses in their ghost form at you and ah, ah, they ah they kind of do all these like room kind of you have to be ready to dodge each and every single one of them kind of thing and. 01:44:28.98 Dave Um, oh that's right? Yeah yeah. 01:44:38.72 Dave Yeah, like remembering what their attack was from their boss fight that was kind of cool. Not that hard but cool. 01:44:44.61 Chris Yeah, yeah, no, just kind of a cool little like hey these were the his his ah generals or whatever and ah this is what they're. Their main gig was this one through towers at you This one ran at you with a sword you know, kind of a remembrance of everyone you had just beaten. 01:45:08.42 Dave Yeah, yeah, yeah, was cool stuff. Um, so I misssuming the first time you beat the boss I assume you got the bad ending right. 01:45:20.83 Chris Yes, yeah I went back and I had a guide that told me how to do it? yep. 01:45:23.76 Dave Did you ever get the good ending. Okay all right? So let's talk about the bad ending first. Um, so the bad ending you fight the miracle. Um, the the child of the miracle after the fight it says that like it's. 01:45:35.52 Chris Yeah. 01:45:43.64 Dave It's like a newborn so it says like oh now I understand pain as it's like baptism. It says it's baptismal sacrament which is religious words that I had to look up in the dictionary this afternoon but basically like it's you know penance or responsibility for what I'm to understand. 01:46:03.22 Dave Um, and so it merges with the penitent one to be reborn as a new symbol of the miracle which is not the ending that you were probably hoping for at the end of the game literally merges together becomes like a statue and rises up into the sky. So I guess this. 01:46:22.99 Dave Means the miracle is back. Um, it actually has a ah a quote that says this marks the beginning of a new era for the miracle the second psalm So like you by doing all of this. You just made things worse. 01:46:36.45 Chris Yeah, and it's like kind of like you've got from the first game. The the symbol of the miracle was the the twisted one the the guy that was like merged with the tree and then even like the the pope guy eventually like became a giant tree and. Because that was his like punishment from the miracle. So. It's kind of a similar iconography. You've got the dependitent 1 and then this like miracle child baby like kind of merged together and then like with these branches kind of and trees coming out of them. So it's like literally. A second psalm of like the what the original miracle was like now there's 2 of them. It's gremlins too. Everybody gets a gremlin. 01:47:20.82 Dave Um, oh no, Ah so um, what did you have to do to get the good ending before we talk about what happens. 01:47:35.14 Chris It's not nearly even as dumb as the first one. It's something that you could maybe figure out from reading the lore notes so in that room where the mother the father and the the weird angel. 01:47:37.20 Dave Okay. 01:47:53.60 Chris Baby that got born where you eventually like you rise up into the city and then there's like the doves are in that room and there's a picture of the mom and then eventually when you beat all 4 of those guys in the doves. You go to the left through the door where the mom's face was. 01:48:08.14 Dave Right. 01:48:10.90 Chris There's a fixture of the father on the other side and he talks about being adorned in golden vestiments and if you have collected all of the um or 4 specific um of the the little wooden carving guys. 01:48:30.37 Chris 4 of them have gold cloth like wrapped around them then you have to put them in a specific space in your little wooden like where you socket the the idols. 01:48:33.60 Dave Okay. 01:48:44.47 Dave Yeah, the the convenient little display case. That's like in your back or some shit. 01:48:48.31 Chris If you put the yeah yeah carved on your back for some reason I mean I guess I don't but yeah, so you put them in base I think the interior corners with all of them facing each other because they're all looking kind of in a direction and so that they're all looking in the center. You talk to the dad it opens a door you throw him into the fire. You get an amber and then when you beat Eviterno you get an option. 01:49:25.70 Chris To I think basically throw the ember or burn the Ember or something basically gives you an option to do something before you transcend beat the boss and then in that ending he's just kind of dead curled up in the corner. And um, the angel lady with the big old cloth who's kind of been your guide through the whole game comes and tells you that you get to go to heaven. 01:49:56.15 Dave Yeah, and that's that's what happens after you beat the the child of the miracle. Um, all of the you know the plans of the miracle fail basically. Um, and then like you said the penitent 1 is carried up to heaven by all of the cherubs that you've been like rescuing throughout the game and it's kind of cool like I watch this on Youtube as the penitent one is going up and ascending you see all the characters that you've met in both games. 01:50:26.98 Chris The the important ones. Yeah, my boy. 01:50:29.28 Dave Not all of them but a lot of them So like yeah Deo Grasia is up there for example, yeah he made it So it's kind of cool that was a nice like ah like celebration like good like much better of an ending than I would have expected. Um. 01:50:48.94 Chris Definitely I mean? Yeah, basically he gets to kick it with a God I guess because the the miracle boy the twisted ones there. 01:50:48.96 Dave But yeah, penitent one goes to heaven and sees all his friends. 01:51:03.44 Chris He's kind of the one like in the background as you're looking at everybody so him and God and deo Gracius and that fat little chair baby. 01:51:10.65 Dave Yeah, did you find all the cherubs. What do you get for doing that probably a wood carving if I'm learning anything about this. 01:51:17.11 Chris Yeah, ah shit What do you get? Yeah I think so I think you do get the the the cherub the the big guy The the the the big fat baby with the gold head. 01:51:31.69 Dave Nice. 01:51:33.83 Chris Think you get his thing and there's more like as you climb there's like rewards to like kind of in the middle sections. 01:51:37.47 Dave yeah yeah I think there's like 38 of those cherubs and I think I found like 25 of them or something like that without you know following a guide or anything. 01:51:48.62 Chris Yeah, there and I don't remember if they were any more difficult in the first game. But yeah, you can you can get a good amount of them before because I think at the end I had like 28 I had to go back and use a guide to get. next next couple 01:52:08.40 Dave Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that is blasphemous too. Um, just really good experience. You know, maybe this boiler so section sounds a little bit like a bummer but. You know we we just have a couple of memorable bosses to talk about I guess some some fucked up npcs to talk about too really not a whole lot of story that stuck with me or that I went digging for um, from what I watched on Youtube a lot of the story that's going on is cool. Um I just didn't want to like. You know, watch a Youtube video and write down everything they said and then bring that as like my own you know thing on the podcast here. So. 01:52:47.53 Chris Yeah, like said I think you when you say it at the beginning like it's somebody else's job to do the lore. We're not really, you're not really focused on doing a ah you know dissertation on blasphemous Laura we're just kind of talking about the game. 01:52:59.30 Dave Yeah, not not for this game? Yeah, so yeah, thanks man, Thank you for coming on and again talking about the sequel with me. 01:53:10.32 Chris Yeah, thanks for having me back on. Ah I definitely enjoyed playing it and I definitely enjoyed talking about all the weird Catholic stuff going on. 01:53:24.39 Dave Yep, and again, there's even more weird catholic and spanish cultural stuff going on that we didn't even touch on. So again, you can find your favorite lorehound on Youtube or podcasts or something and support the people that are doing that work. But. This has been fun again. Thank you for coming on blasphemous 3 if and when that comes out considered a date. Yeah, um, yeah, so thank you everybody for listening. You've listened this far I know that I love and appreciate you more than anybody else. That's right, anybody. 01:53:44.89 Chris I Want to play as crisanta. 01:53:59.61 Dave Um, so thank you for listening as always tune in next week for the next game to come out of the backlog.