Blasphemous 2

Introduction

Blasphemous 2 sends the Penitent One back into a grim, Catholic-horror-inspired world, armed this time with three distinct weapons and a wider set of traversal tools to explore a fresh string of regions and bosses. Developed by The Game Kitchen and published by Team17, it released 24 August 2023 for NZ$47.95, currently discounted 75% to NZ$11.98. Over two years on, it holds 20,848 Steam reviews sitting at Very Positive, roughly 90.7%, with recent sentiment holding close at 90% across its most recent 100 English reviews. This review reads a substantial share of both the negative and positive samples, and finds a solid, well-liked sequel on its own terms, wrapped around two specific, real problems worth a prospective buyer's attention.

Combat and accessibility reviewers genuinely credit

Start with what draws consistent praise across this review's sample: combat. Reviewers repeatedly describe the three weapon types as quick, responsive and genuinely distinct from one another, giving players real build variety rather than a single clearly optimal loadout. That accessibility extends to the wider experience — several reviewers specifically frame Blasphemous 2 as a strong entry point for players newer to metroidvanias or the series specifically, drawing comparisons to Hollow Knight as a genre benchmark the game meets without feeling like a lesser imitation. Environmental art and world design retain real strength too, with the series' grotesque, Catholic-horror-inspired imagery earning consistent credit as distinctive even from reviewers with other, sharper complaints.

Longtime fans arguing the sequel is a step down

Set against that praise, a significant share of this review's sample comes from reviewers who loved the first Blasphemous specifically, and their verdict on the sequel is more mixed than the game's overall percentage suggests. The clearest, most repeated argument is that Blasphemous 2 trades away what made the original distinctive: reduced platforming complexity, an easier overall difficulty curve, and movement that several detailed reviewers describe as less unique than the first game's more demanding traversal. Writing and story draw a related, more specific complaint — several long-time fans argue the sequel's handling of the original's central mythology feels less carefully considered than what came before. A smaller but genuinely cross-cutting complaint concerns cutscene art direction: it shows up not just in the negative sample but inside one of this review's highest-voted positive reviews as well, whose author's only real complaint is that the new cutscene style doesn't match the game's own in-engine visuals the way the original's did. That a shared criticism appears on both sides of the recommend button is worth taking seriously as a genuine, broadly felt observation rather than a matter of pure taste.

A boss bug that reviewers say has never really gone away

The most serious concern in this review's sample is technical rather than a matter of taste: a specific, reproducible softlock tied to certain boss encounters, most often cited around the boss Benedicta, where dying to a lingering attack at the same moment the boss is defeated can corrupt the player's save entirely. An official October 2023 patch addressed a specific trigger for a related Benedicta death bug on console, according to the game's own patch notes — but reviewers on Steam continue to report the softlock recurring as recently as late 2025, more than two years after that fix, several explicitly noting the issue is well known and still unresolved for them. This review can't reconcile the gap between the documented patch and the ongoing player reports with certainty — it may reflect an unpatched variant, a PC-specific recurrence, or simply bad luck repeating across enough players to be noticed — but the pattern across multiple, independent, detailed reports spanning years is credible enough that anyone playing Blasphemous 2 today should know the risk exists and keep independent save backups around major boss fights.

Final Verdict

Blasphemous 2 succeeds as a solid, combat-focused metroidvania on its own terms — responsive weapon variety, a genuinely accessible entry point for newcomers, and environmental art that keeps the series' distinctive grotesque atmosphere intact. What keeps this from a stronger recommendation is twofold: a meaningful, specific argument from the original game's biggest fans that this sequel traded away real difficulty and atmosphere for accessibility, and a boss-related softlock bug that reviewers report persisting well past an official fix aimed at it. At its current discounted price, this is still an easy recommendation for newcomers — just go in with save backups and, if you loved the first game specifically, tempered expectations about what changed.