It's not a definite canon by any means but I remember reading somewhere that someone thought the Wicker Snake in Exposito's fight is supposed to be the wicker mother's imitation of an umbilical cord
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Isidora is the best boss in the game. When I heard her sound track and saw all the crazy attack patterns this was easily the most fun fight in the entire game. I thought the Amanecida's were badass but Isidora is on another level.
I do think she is a good boss, but I hate how in the 2nd phase fireballs keep spawning. The problem is that you cannot hit them, unless you have the heart, which would also make you weaker to elemental damage. You can use the miracle Viridiana gives you but it doesn't always hit the fireballs, and granted that they keep responding till the end of the fight, you can't keep spamming it, other for the reason that Isidora herself is even more aggressive. I actually thought Crisanta was the best boss, as I love partying, hence my genuine interest for Sekiro.
Crisanta is my fav, the only mortal, her parry feels just like us. The fight is quite equal and fair, not against a giant monster but just a normal human.
Lauded was probably one of if not the easiest bosses I had ever encountered in Blasphemous, specifically because I had died so many times to the other three Amanaciedas so much that I’d essentially committed their move sets to memory, so facing something that was just an amalgamation of that was easy.
Isidora was one of the bosses I enjoyed dying to, just to learn more and analyze the attack pattern, combined with a fire soundtrack, this boss is just awesome
While I'm at it, I think I'll rank the main areas of the game, as well: 1. Mother of Mothers 2. Archcathedral Rooftops 3. Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage 4. Wall of the Holy Prohibitions 5. Jondo 6. Graveyard of the Peaks 7. Mercy Dreams 8. Wasteland of the Buried Churches 9. Library of the Negated Words 10. Where Olive Trees Wither 11. Albero 12. Patio of the Silent Steps 13. Mountains of the Endless Dusk 14. Echoes of Salt 15. Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow 16. The Holy Line 17. Grievance Ascends 18. The Sleeping Canvases 19. Desecrated Cistern 20. Mourning and Havoc I'm always a fan of cool cathedral levels, and Mother of Mothers is an excellent example. It feels like a cross between the Royal Chapel from Symphony of the Night and the Chapel from Aria of Sorrow, and the aesthetics and interconnected level design are top-notch. Also, the room with the swinging chandelier has to be a nod to an iconic stage in Super Castlevania IV where you have to platform across a bunch of massive chandeliers over a bottomless pit. I know a lot of people find Graveyard of the Peaks annoying because of the wind mechanics, but I actually enjoyed the platforming challenge there. It also reminds me of Glacial Peaks from The Messenger. Mourning and Havoc was just irritating to go through, and it's funny that such an awful area houses a boss as great as Sierpes.
The bosses become way more fun once you learn how to air stall with your blade. You can also avoid the Amanecidas wall arrow attack by jumping and air-stalling with the blood projectile.
I just played through the game for the first time and then went through it a second time on New Game + in order to face all of the DLC bosses and get the true ending. Blasphemous is certainly an excellent game, and I love the blend of Castlevania with Souls, coupled with the Francisco Goya-reminiscent art-style. My boss ranking: 1. Sierpes 2. Isidora, Voice of the Dead 3. Laudes, the First of the Amanecidas 4. Quirce, Returned by the Flames 5. Amanecida of the Bejeweled Arrow 6. Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony 7. Amanecida of the Golden Blades 8. Tres Angustias 9. Amanecida of the Chiselled Steel 10. Amanecida of the Molten Thorn 11. Ten Piedad 12. True Form Escribar 13. His Holiness Escribar / The Last Son of the Miracle 14. Exposito, Scion of Abjuration 15. Our Lady of the Charred Visage 16. Perpetva 17. Melquiades, the Exhumed Archbishop 18. Warden of the Silent Sorrow 19. Esdras, of the Anointed Legion Sierpes was a rare example of a great spectacle boss that also had just as much mechanical complexity and variability as a regular boss. It also reminds me heavily of the final boss of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, which is always a plus. Isidora was outstanding, too, and felt like an homage to the Death fights from the Castlevania series. Interestingly, I found the game more forgiving than I expected. I died about 40 times on my first playthrough and not that much more on NG+. The only boss that gave me some trouble was the two-phase Crisanta fight on NG+ (which I died to 15 times), but, otherwise, none of the bosses took me more than five attempts at most. Still, it was a great game, and it provided a decent challenge without resorting to unfair game design to inflate the difficulty. I look forward to playing the sequel.
100% agree with the top 2. In general, I loved the upper half of the boss roster and absolutely loathed the bottom half. Still, the good bosses are so good that the overall boss average is still fairly high compared to other games I played. What'd you think of the game overall? I love it as a Souls fan but after playing some more MVs I can see it sorta lacking in that regard. There's no true ability gating and the progression is a bit linear (without DLC I guess, but who the hell would go to Mourning and Havoc early?) but in spite of that I still think the game is extremely enjoyable, but Blasphemous 2 now is in my opinion better than the first in every way other than story
@@aarontruong354 I thought Blasphemous 1 was a well done game and probably on par with some of the Dark Souls games for me, but I can't say it's that high up among my favorite Metroidvanias. Having just finished Blasphemous 2 today, I unequivocally agree that it's far superior (from the bosses and the areas to the combat and overall sense of progression). Of the Metroidvania games I've played, this is how I'd personally rank them: 1. Hollow Knight (2017) 2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) 3. The Messenger (2018) 4. Blasphemous 2 (2023) 5. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003) 6. Super Metroid (1994) 7. Blasphemous (2019) 8. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989) 9. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001) 10. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002) I will say, though, that Blasphemous 2 has my favorite boss roster out of any of these games.
@@rpgfan1187 awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've only played a few MVs but of the ones I've played: 1) Blasphemous 2 2) Hollow Knight 3) GRIME 4) Blasphemous 1 5) The Last Faith Imagine there's a planet sized gap between 4 and 5 though. I kinda hated The Last Faith, but I really enjoyed Blasphemous 1. Hollow Knight is almost as amazing as everyone says but I do think it's just slightly overrated (but nonetheless great). I'm just such a sucker for boss fights and Blasphemous 2 knocks it so far out the park that I find it the most fun of any MV I've played. Not to mention the great level design, AMAZING soundtrack and art, and much improved combat I can gush about the game all day lol. Can't wait for more updates to it, Blasphemous 1 had some really great DLCs so I expect even better out of the second game
@@aarontruong354 Yeah, I definitely agree with Blasphemous 2 having the best boss roster of the lot. That's one aspect where Symphony of the Night falters by comparison. It has some standout bosses, but a lot of the fights in that game are laughably easy. Regardless, SotN still has outstanding level design, gameplay mechanics (like the ability to turn into a bat, mist, or wolf), a wide variety of enemy-types (which are mostly taken from different mythologies, similar to SMT), aesthetics (which are similar to Blasphemous' in some ways), and one of my favorite OSTs ever, which makes up for its lackluster boss roster in my eyes. That's one I recommend trying out at some point if you can stomach the underwhelming boss roster. Still, the Blasphemous duology is phenomenal, with the second game being a prime example of a sequel that improves upon the original in a plethora of ways.
I just randomly found this channel and I truly appreciate your shared passion for gaming and producing thoughtful content, from Jack’s faithful Spanish pronunciations and Alex’s admission that he can’t roll his R’s, but still providing poignant clarity in his reviews. Y’all are dope.
I did a few mistakes that made this game have a really challenging moments, but making the late game too easy. My first boss was the Tres Angustias, instead of my third boss. It was really hard to start the game with that but I loved that it was so challenging. Later, I found Isadora really early and had one hell of a time trying to beat her. She would kill me in 2 to 3 hits, I barely did damage to her. I realised I could have came back to her after all the items I got late game and beat her way easier. My favorite boss. The final 3 bosses were disappointment for me sadly. I just found out there is a 2nd game in the works and im excited to try it.
Once I learned there was a 2nd game in the making, I came back to this one to fully complete it and get the true ending, as I always gave up mid game, because I got lost and SOMEHOW didn't notice Mother of Mothers was a whole area in of itself.
This game is amazing, glad I got to play it in time for the sequel next month I had an absolute blast. I've already put in three whole playthroughs, doing the DLC to completion on the second and third, and might even try and beat the game a few more times with some of the NG+ penances if I'm up for it. Everything about it, art style, music, gameplay, story, bosses, it checks off almost every box. In terms of boss design, its lows are not complete and utter dogshit. While I do borderline hate my least favorite boss here, it is not in the same league as some other truly horrific bosses from other games. The boss average here is very impressive, all things considered. 19) Our Lady of the Charred Visage (slightly more tolerable on NG+ but only slightly so. Second phase sucks, there's moments of unavoidable damage and it's pretty tanky so it doesn't even end quickly. Not a fan) 18) Esrdas of the Anointed Legion (I love that you can just skip this fight in the WoE ending. Lingering hitboxes, tanky as shit, and not very exciting. The three Esdras minibosses in the Archcathedral Rooftops solidifed how much I hated fighting this guy, even with less health and less moves) 17) Warden of the Silent Sorrow (a boss with only two attacks is somehow not last place. You don't even need motor function to beat this guy, but he beats out the previous two just because he isn't frustrating. Even when you are ganked by two of them in the Wall of Holy Prohibitions they pose zero threat lol) 16) Melquiades, the Exhumed Archbishop (getting cockblocked by the lasers is pretty shitty. If he had a larger DPS window, it would help the fight a lot, as I actually kinda enjoy it. The invulnerability prayer makes this fight MUCH more bearable) 15) Exposito, Scion of Abjuration (I suck at dodging fireballs in this game for some reason, but that's not even the worst part. The spastic movement is pretty annoying, but it's fun nuking him with prayers since he has two hurtboxes on his body. Design is memorable enough to keep him from being bottom bunk) 14) His Holiness Escribar and The Last Son of the Miracle (pretty much carried by the cool spectacle and story importance. The fire attacks here are pretty nonsense, especially because the platforming in the second phase has screwed me over a lot. If you don't nuke the second phase with Debla of the Lights, the fight is boring at best, but it's a fine way to end the original game) 13) Ten Piedad (simple and inoffensive. I really would rather fight this guy over Escribar) 12) Perpetva (also simple and inoffensive. Her inclusion in the WoE storyline helped a lot tbf) 11) True Form Escribar (it's fine, Crisanta showing up for help is pretty cool and it's fairly short so it gets a pass) 10) Tres Angustias (interesting platforming challenge, and on NG+ it moves a lot faster so there's an added sense of urgency. An early game highlight) 9) Amanecida of the Molten Thorn (my least favorite Amanecida mainly because it's repetitive and not very difficult. Still very good, the music is my favorite track in the game, but the others are more engaging for me. I really start loving the bosses from here on out) 8) Amanecida of the Chiselled Steel (a little more engaging than Molten Thorn. I do like that you have to be smart about where to hit the projectiles, but the others are more fun) 7) Amanecida of the Golden Blades (the spinning axes are the only thing I don't like about this one, but it is otherwise extremely fun and the arena getting more narrow as more fire fills it up is awesome) 6) Quirce, Returned by the Flames (I wish he had a bit more health, I feel like he goes down a little too quickly. This fight is a ton of fun and I wish it went on for longer. A lot of spatial awareness needed for this, it's fun trying to find openings to hit him while he's zipping around all over the place) 5) Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony (I already liked base Crisanta, but the WoE version is even better. I love rival fights in this games, and this one really delivers. Intense, challenging, but fun and rewarding) 4) Laudes, the First of the Amanecidas (this fight is absolutely phenomenal but it's out of the top 3 for a couple reasons. One is because it somewhat dismisses the interesting arena design from the others, that being the instant death floor from Chiselled Steel, the climbable walls from Bejeweled Arrow, and the fire pillars from Golden Blades. The second is that the fight is just way too easy, seeing as how you are required to fight the other Amanecidas before her, and she doesn't do enough new things for me. Maybe if she dynamically switched between all forms regardless of health, that would be more interesting) 3) Amanecida of the Bejeweled Arrow (this might shock some, but this is the Amanecida I had the most fun fighting. This was my first Amanecida as well so it really set the standard high lol. All around very well designed and the most fun I've had fighting a boss in a while) 2) Isidora, Voice of the Dead (Isidora checks off every box for me. It's everything that I love about bosses, and fighting her is always tense, no matter how many times I fight her, she's still difficult. "The song of the dead cannot be stopped") 1) Sierpes (this was given. Everyone loves Sierpes and there's many reasons why. Challenging but fair, amazing atmosphere, huge moveset variety, he's got it all. He only slightly edges out Isidora for me because I like this arena better, although the fire lighting up the background in Isidora's arena is awesome too. It's just cool as shit that you're fighting Sierpes on his body with an amazing backdrop of shipwrecks and rain. I'm so eager to see how Blasphemous 2 is going to top this)
@@Cytonox This is a variant, the best way for me is to squat at the end of the platform, and hit every time when she come close. This way I can break her crystal with minimal effort.
@@Cytonox This was the toughest boss for me, when I was just starting to play the game. Now I kill her just for fun. Tres Augustias is the boss that still gives me trouble and I hate the most.
Nice video, but there's one thing I don't agree with at all. Melquiades is my personal favourite fight of the vanilla game, he has some neat mechanics and a striking design with cool music. Personally I'd put either Exposito or any of the Escribar fights at the bottom of my list. Neither are bad bosses but I feel they're a little *too* reliant on RNG, especially the Last Son of the Miracle. WoE escribar doesn't really count since you can't actually lose his fight. My top 5: 5- Sierpes. Really unique and amazing visual design and concept. A neat moveset but rather easy to dodge, the real challenge is one of endurance since he has an absolutely MONDO health bar and will do his damnedest to outlast your resources. 4- Melquiades for the reasons mentioned above 3- The four lesser amanecidas. All are equally amazing in my eyes. Each has a very fun moveset, Baile de Violetas is an absolute jam, and the spectacle of fighting each of these apocalyptic forces is absolutely phenomenal. 2- True Crisanta and Isidora. Both of these fights are extremely intense and fast-paced, and incredibly satisfying to beat, equally so to me. On average the bosses in blasphemous are easier but more fun than those of other souls like games, with these 2 managing to be both as difficult if not harder while still retaining the fun factor. 1- Laudes. Easy cream-of-the-crop top-tier for me. Visual design, arena and music are simply second to none. She has all the positives of the lesser amanecidas with minimal negatives. Only thing she lacks is difficulty outside of the fourth sorrow. I feel that, rather than just being a mini-rerun of the four amanecida fights she should be able to switch weapons on the fly. That would make her much more difficult and unpredictable, maybe even one of the harder fights. Ignoring that, everything about the mystical dance with laudes is perfect, and there's nothing else I'd ever want to change.
Alex here, I’m the bigger Melquiades hater of the two of us. If I had to give him props for something though I do find it really funny how he’s not even alive and is just being puppeteered by a huge mosh pit. Makes me imagine them all shouting commands to each other, “move his left arm down! smash him with the staff! call some lasers! yeah!”. The design inspiration is also really cool as Jack noted, I’ve been scrolling bejeweled saints on google for a while actually.
@@Cytonox Now that you mention it, it is pretty funny to picture all of his puppeteers clamouring over eachother. Even though I know it isn't intentional, that's going to be my new headcanon for why his AI occasionally bugs out and he just sort of floats around not doing anything.
Jack here, I don't particularly mind Melquiades, rather he's just not interesting compared to basically all other base game bosses. I dig his design and the theme is pretty decent, although yeah Exposito is likely worse although it's like choosing between dirt and soil; Great top five, I don't find Crisanta as intense as the rest of the newer bosses that are intended to be overly intense, but your list is still great! Thanks for watching!
@@Cytonox And thank you for hearing my thoughts. Great work on the video btw, I was actually waiting for one to cover all the bosses like this for a while now and I wasn't disappointed.
Isidora is the real kick a$$. Though Crisanta's second phase is near impossible, she would give you requiem aeternam at least 15 times before you understand what's happening. My two favorite bosses actually.
Awesome video, Guys! I haven't played Blasphemous, myself, but I've heard great things about it. Gameplay footage reminds me heavily of both Hollow Knight and Castlevania bosses, and I love both of those franchises. I'm not sure if you noticed this, but Ten Piedad resting in the statue's arms is definitely an homage to Michaelangelo's "The Pieta" (a famous sculpture housed in the Vatican of Mary holding Jesus' body). "The Pieta" has been referenced in many forms of media over the years, including other video games. One of the most memorable examples is the third phase of the final boss fight against Kefka Palazzo in Final Fantasy VI. Also, the footage of the Sierpes fight reminds me of an end-game boss battle in Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, which is an incredibly overlooked Action-JRPG on PS4 that I highly recommend. Anyway, I'm enjoying your content as always, and I look forward to your future uploads!
Jack here, thanks for watching! "The Pieta" is super neat, and yeah it basically is Hollow Knight and Castlevania merged in Souls-inspired world. It's beautiful. Thanks for watching!
Idk if I beat Escribar at a level where I was way weaker than I should've been, but I kinda don't like the fight. Imo I feel that there is a lot of down time because of having to wait for the ice platforms to appear and it really annoyed me. Rather than other highpaced bosses, this one wants you to wait every once in awhile, which means you might not get as much damage off as you should've because he closes his faceplate due to no platforms helping you.
I actually find lady easy and ok fight, hate Isidora and that three flying ladies from the bottom of my heart, DLC Crisanta is the most satisfying to beat because the learning curve and I just love her character
I like how when 1 of you is talking about a boss there's text from the other with their own comment. Kinda like you're chiming in with a quick thought. Probably weirdly specific but 1 of the little things I like about the channel
I was able to tear through Isidora using the cloistered ruby rosary bead. it's very effective against her, for some reason 🤔 I feel bad for taking her down so easily. I wish I had given myself more of a challenge, aha
I'm trying to get the wounds of eventide ending but I'm doing it on new game + with the no healing penitence which might have been a bad idea. I think that I might not have had the intended experience with these bosses because the temptation to use the invincibility prayer is too strong especially now with fervour flasks in my current playthrough. Although if I use a different prayer and try it properly with no heals I might get extremely angry. Also how did you get that bright green skin and that skin you were using in the sierpes boss battle?
The no healing penance is miserable and I didn’t even choose a penance when I (Jack) played Stir of Dawn. No tips there, just grind grind grind. Best comparison would be Souls Lvl. 1 run, you just have to keep improving. Anyways, so the green skin is from a secret wall in the newly added arcade game. It’s near the bottom of the Desecrated Cistern, behind a wall with a hole on the bottom you can slide under. Then in the actual arcade game there’s a specific wall about halfway through, on the upper level of the screen, that you can jump through leading into an all green, Game & Watch-esque room. You jump through the hole in the room and kill yourself to get the Arcade skin. The other skin is called Ancient History, and you get it from inputting a button code when you first load up the game, there’s guides online. Thanks for watching!
@@Cytonox I might give up on the penitence then if I get too annoyed at it. I thought it would be harder to get those skins so thank you for telling me because I was trying to get right to the end of the arcade game which is what I had assumed I had to do
"This is my least favorite amanecida" *puts in a better place than the amanecida mentioned two seconds ago*. Dude, the amount of inconsistency, why a place is better if you only have bad points to stand out?
because it’s both our opinions. one of us may like one a lot more, but the other might hate it so it’ll be in a mixed spot that may be more representative of one of our opinions
meh, laudes is just a boring refight against the 4 really epic amanecidas, the true final boss way too boring and easy as well as the regular final boss, and crisantas second phase is one of the coolest and challenging fights in this game since healing is extremely hard to pull off and finding the time to actually attack her is tricky. and her theme's remix goes way too hard
Our Lady of the Charred Visage and Isadora get lowest for me, and the boss gauntlets really isolate how hopeless their fights are. Bullet hells. Isadora gets a plus because her fireballs seem to follow a strange cancel out rule, but, there is some unavoidable damage spaces despite it. Her scythe MUST be parried to negate damage...no jumps or dodges will avoid it aside from her sweeping move. But the fireballs MUST be jumped in certain moments because they canNOT be sliced or parried. Prayers can mitigate this, but, no true pattern or strategy emerges without them. It's chaos. When jumping becomes unavoidable, there's nothing to prevent getting sliced, because you're helpless in the air. The Charred Visage again creates too much OVERLAP in damage rain for such a slow character. Again, some i-frames can be activated during certain high level prayers, but...is this what it comes to?
Alex here, I’ve definitely encountered some seemingly unavoidable damage situations while fighting Isidora, but as Jack said a lot of it comes down to positioning, which manifests as just avoiding getting stuck in those situations in the first place imo. For example, you want to avoid the edges of the screen as shown by Jack’s footage of getting ragdolled over and over by terrible rng. I can definitely see how it would be frustrating and make you dislike Isidora, but in my experience you can avoid those issues if you’re really careful which is an interesting challenge to me. As for the lady of the charred visage, yeah I’m not sure how to avoid some of her moves either, that swirling flurry of energy balls is really chaotic
Jack here, I personally find it fine that she requires parrying. It forces in a mechanic most people (me and you for example) overlooked and makes it feel much more flowing, as well as deserved when you eventually beat it. Our Lady of the Charred Visage is fairly decent, I do agree however that sometimes it's unavoidable and there's really nothing you can do except pray. Thanks for dropping a comment and watching!
It's not a definite canon by any means but I remember reading somewhere that someone thought the Wicker Snake in Exposito's fight is supposed to be the wicker mother's imitation of an umbilical cord
that’s really interesting damn - jack
It came from the wicker statue, as seen in the concept art.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Isidora is the best boss in the game. When I heard her sound track and saw all the crazy attack patterns this was easily the most fun fight in the entire game. I thought the Amanecida's were badass but Isidora is on another level.
I do think she is a good boss, but I hate how in the 2nd phase fireballs keep spawning. The problem is that you cannot hit them, unless you have the heart, which would also make you weaker to elemental damage. You can use the miracle Viridiana gives you but it doesn't always hit the fireballs, and granted that they keep responding till the end of the fight, you can't keep spamming it, other for the reason that Isidora herself is even more aggressive. I actually thought Crisanta was the best boss, as I love partying, hence my genuine interest for Sekiro.
This. That 2nd phase is abysmal.
@@PersonGuy968found you as well
I didn’t fight her why ?
Crisanta is my fav, the only mortal, her parry feels just like us. The fight is quite equal and fair, not against a giant monster but just a normal human.
True, crisanta top 1
Lauded was probably one of if not the easiest bosses I had ever encountered in Blasphemous, specifically because I had died so many times to the other three Amanaciedas so much that I’d essentially committed their move sets to memory, so facing something that was just an amalgamation of that was easy.
I had a similar experience too actually, i felt pretty cool beasting on her first try
-Alex
Jack here, without question she was way easier than any of the Amanecidas except for the second one.
@@Cytonox Absolutely. Bejeweled Arrow was the first one I encountered, followed by the Chiseled Steel and that fight destroyed me.
Isidora was one of the bosses I enjoyed dying to, just to learn more and analyze the attack pattern, combined with a fire soundtrack, this boss is just awesome
Sierpes on NG+ was like that for me (he has another phase)
While I'm at it, I think I'll rank the main areas of the game, as well:
1. Mother of Mothers
2. Archcathedral Rooftops
3. Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage
4. Wall of the Holy Prohibitions
5. Jondo
6. Graveyard of the Peaks
7. Mercy Dreams
8. Wasteland of the Buried Churches
9. Library of the Negated Words
10. Where Olive Trees Wither
11. Albero
12. Patio of the Silent Steps
13. Mountains of the Endless Dusk
14. Echoes of Salt
15. Brotherhood of the Silent Sorrow
16. The Holy Line
17. Grievance Ascends
18. The Sleeping Canvases
19. Desecrated Cistern
20. Mourning and Havoc
I'm always a fan of cool cathedral levels, and Mother of Mothers is an excellent example. It feels like a cross between the Royal Chapel from Symphony of the Night and the Chapel from Aria of Sorrow, and the aesthetics and interconnected level design are top-notch. Also, the room with the swinging chandelier has to be a nod to an iconic stage in Super Castlevania IV where you have to platform across a bunch of massive chandeliers over a bottomless pit. I know a lot of people find Graveyard of the Peaks annoying because of the wind mechanics, but I actually enjoyed the platforming challenge there. It also reminds me of Glacial Peaks from The Messenger. Mourning and Havoc was just irritating to go through, and it's funny that such an awful area houses a boss as great as Sierpes.
The bosses become way more fun once you learn how to air stall with your blade.
You can also avoid the Amanecidas wall arrow attack by jumping and air-stalling with the blood projectile.
I just played through the game for the first time and then went through it a second time on New Game + in order to face all of the DLC bosses and get the true ending. Blasphemous is certainly an excellent game, and I love the blend of Castlevania with Souls, coupled with the Francisco Goya-reminiscent art-style.
My boss ranking:
1. Sierpes
2. Isidora, Voice of the Dead
3. Laudes, the First of the Amanecidas
4. Quirce, Returned by the Flames
5. Amanecida of the Bejeweled Arrow
6. Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony
7. Amanecida of the Golden Blades
8. Tres Angustias
9. Amanecida of the Chiselled Steel
10. Amanecida of the Molten Thorn
11. Ten Piedad
12. True Form Escribar
13. His Holiness Escribar / The Last Son of the Miracle
14. Exposito, Scion of Abjuration
15. Our Lady of the Charred Visage
16. Perpetva
17. Melquiades, the Exhumed Archbishop
18. Warden of the Silent Sorrow
19. Esdras, of the Anointed Legion
Sierpes was a rare example of a great spectacle boss that also had just as much mechanical complexity and variability as a regular boss. It also reminds me heavily of the final boss of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, which is always a plus. Isidora was outstanding, too, and felt like an homage to the Death fights from the Castlevania series. Interestingly, I found the game more forgiving than I expected. I died about 40 times on my first playthrough and not that much more on NG+. The only boss that gave me some trouble was the two-phase Crisanta fight on NG+ (which I died to 15 times), but, otherwise, none of the bosses took me more than five attempts at most. Still, it was a great game, and it provided a decent challenge without resorting to unfair game design to inflate the difficulty. I look forward to playing the sequel.
100% agree with the top 2. In general, I loved the upper half of the boss roster and absolutely loathed the bottom half. Still, the good bosses are so good that the overall boss average is still fairly high compared to other games I played. What'd you think of the game overall? I love it as a Souls fan but after playing some more MVs I can see it sorta lacking in that regard. There's no true ability gating and the progression is a bit linear (without DLC I guess, but who the hell would go to Mourning and Havoc early?) but in spite of that I still think the game is extremely enjoyable, but Blasphemous 2 now is in my opinion better than the first in every way other than story
@@aarontruong354 I thought Blasphemous 1 was a well done game and probably on par with some of the Dark Souls games for me, but I can't say it's that high up among my favorite Metroidvanias. Having just finished Blasphemous 2 today, I unequivocally agree that it's far superior (from the bosses and the areas to the combat and overall sense of progression). Of the Metroidvania games I've played, this is how I'd personally rank them:
1. Hollow Knight (2017)
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
3. The Messenger (2018)
4. Blasphemous 2 (2023)
5. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)
6. Super Metroid (1994)
7. Blasphemous (2019)
8. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989)
9. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001)
10. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002)
I will say, though, that Blasphemous 2 has my favorite boss roster out of any of these games.
@@rpgfan1187 awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've only played a few MVs but of the ones I've played:
1) Blasphemous 2
2) Hollow Knight
3) GRIME
4) Blasphemous 1
5) The Last Faith
Imagine there's a planet sized gap between 4 and 5 though. I kinda hated The Last Faith, but I really enjoyed Blasphemous 1. Hollow Knight is almost as amazing as everyone says but I do think it's just slightly overrated (but nonetheless great). I'm just such a sucker for boss fights and Blasphemous 2 knocks it so far out the park that I find it the most fun of any MV I've played. Not to mention the great level design, AMAZING soundtrack and art, and much improved combat I can gush about the game all day lol. Can't wait for more updates to it, Blasphemous 1 had some really great DLCs so I expect even better out of the second game
@@aarontruong354 Yeah, I definitely agree with Blasphemous 2 having the best boss roster of the lot. That's one aspect where Symphony of the Night falters by comparison. It has some standout bosses, but a lot of the fights in that game are laughably easy. Regardless, SotN still has outstanding level design, gameplay mechanics (like the ability to turn into a bat, mist, or wolf), a wide variety of enemy-types (which are mostly taken from different mythologies, similar to SMT), aesthetics (which are similar to Blasphemous' in some ways), and one of my favorite OSTs ever, which makes up for its lackluster boss roster in my eyes. That's one I recommend trying out at some point if you can stomach the underwhelming boss roster.
Still, the Blasphemous duology is phenomenal, with the second game being a prime example of a sequel that improves upon the original in a plethora of ways.
putting perpetua before melquiades is crazy 😭
i loved melquiades dude that fight was fun asf
Melquiades is defo top 5, a lot of fun
I just randomly found this channel and I truly appreciate your shared passion for gaming and producing thoughtful content, from Jack’s faithful Spanish pronunciations and Alex’s admission that he can’t roll his R’s, but still providing poignant clarity in his reviews. Y’all are dope.
I did a few mistakes that made this game have a really challenging moments, but making the late game too easy.
My first boss was the Tres Angustias, instead of my third boss. It was really hard to start the game with that but I loved that it was so challenging.
Later, I found Isadora really early and had one hell of a time trying to beat her. She would kill me in 2 to 3 hits, I barely did damage to her. I realised I could have came back to her after all the items I got late game and beat her way easier. My favorite boss.
The final 3 bosses were disappointment for me sadly.
I just found out there is a 2nd game in the works and im excited to try it.
Once I learned there was a 2nd game in the making, I came back to this one to fully complete it and get the true ending, as I always gave up mid game, because I got lost and SOMEHOW didn't notice Mother of Mothers was a whole area in of itself.
11:16 the spin attack is avoided by crouching at the edge of the arena, which is even less interactive than parrying lol
This game is amazing, glad I got to play it in time for the sequel next month I had an absolute blast. I've already put in three whole playthroughs, doing the DLC to completion on the second and third, and might even try and beat the game a few more times with some of the NG+ penances if I'm up for it. Everything about it, art style, music, gameplay, story, bosses, it checks off almost every box.
In terms of boss design, its lows are not complete and utter dogshit. While I do borderline hate my least favorite boss here, it is not in the same league as some other truly horrific bosses from other games. The boss average here is very impressive, all things considered.
19) Our Lady of the Charred Visage (slightly more tolerable on NG+ but only slightly so. Second phase sucks, there's moments of unavoidable damage and it's pretty tanky so it doesn't even end quickly. Not a fan)
18) Esrdas of the Anointed Legion (I love that you can just skip this fight in the WoE ending. Lingering hitboxes, tanky as shit, and not very exciting. The three Esdras minibosses in the Archcathedral Rooftops solidifed how much I hated fighting this guy, even with less health and less moves)
17) Warden of the Silent Sorrow (a boss with only two attacks is somehow not last place. You don't even need motor function to beat this guy, but he beats out the previous two just because he isn't frustrating. Even when you are ganked by two of them in the Wall of Holy Prohibitions they pose zero threat lol)
16) Melquiades, the Exhumed Archbishop (getting cockblocked by the lasers is pretty shitty. If he had a larger DPS window, it would help the fight a lot, as I actually kinda enjoy it. The invulnerability prayer makes this fight MUCH more bearable)
15) Exposito, Scion of Abjuration (I suck at dodging fireballs in this game for some reason, but that's not even the worst part. The spastic movement is pretty annoying, but it's fun nuking him with prayers since he has two hurtboxes on his body. Design is memorable enough to keep him from being bottom bunk)
14) His Holiness Escribar and The Last Son of the Miracle (pretty much carried by the cool spectacle and story importance. The fire attacks here are pretty nonsense, especially because the platforming in the second phase has screwed me over a lot. If you don't nuke the second phase with Debla of the Lights, the fight is boring at best, but it's a fine way to end the original game)
13) Ten Piedad (simple and inoffensive. I really would rather fight this guy over Escribar)
12) Perpetva (also simple and inoffensive. Her inclusion in the WoE storyline helped a lot tbf)
11) True Form Escribar (it's fine, Crisanta showing up for help is pretty cool and it's fairly short so it gets a pass)
10) Tres Angustias (interesting platforming challenge, and on NG+ it moves a lot faster so there's an added sense of urgency. An early game highlight)
9) Amanecida of the Molten Thorn (my least favorite Amanecida mainly because it's repetitive and not very difficult. Still very good, the music is my favorite track in the game, but the others are more engaging for me. I really start loving the bosses from here on out)
8) Amanecida of the Chiselled Steel (a little more engaging than Molten Thorn. I do like that you have to be smart about where to hit the projectiles, but the others are more fun)
7) Amanecida of the Golden Blades (the spinning axes are the only thing I don't like about this one, but it is otherwise extremely fun and the arena getting more narrow as more fire fills it up is awesome)
6) Quirce, Returned by the Flames (I wish he had a bit more health, I feel like he goes down a little too quickly. This fight is a ton of fun and I wish it went on for longer. A lot of spatial awareness needed for this, it's fun trying to find openings to hit him while he's zipping around all over the place)
5) Crisanta of the Wrapped Agony (I already liked base Crisanta, but the WoE version is even better. I love rival fights in this games, and this one really delivers. Intense, challenging, but fun and rewarding)
4) Laudes, the First of the Amanecidas (this fight is absolutely phenomenal but it's out of the top 3 for a couple reasons. One is because it somewhat dismisses the interesting arena design from the others, that being the instant death floor from Chiselled Steel, the climbable walls from Bejeweled Arrow, and the fire pillars from Golden Blades. The second is that the fight is just way too easy, seeing as how you are required to fight the other Amanecidas before her, and she doesn't do enough new things for me. Maybe if she dynamically switched between all forms regardless of health, that would be more interesting)
3) Amanecida of the Bejeweled Arrow (this might shock some, but this is the Amanecida I had the most fun fighting. This was my first Amanecida as well so it really set the standard high lol. All around very well designed and the most fun I've had fighting a boss in a while)
2) Isidora, Voice of the Dead (Isidora checks off every box for me. It's everything that I love about bosses, and fighting her is always tense, no matter how many times I fight her, she's still difficult. "The song of the dead cannot be stopped")
1) Sierpes (this was given. Everyone loves Sierpes and there's many reasons why. Challenging but fair, amazing atmosphere, huge moveset variety, he's got it all. He only slightly edges out Isidora for me because I like this arena better, although the fire lighting up the background in Isidora's arena is awesome too. It's just cool as shit that you're fighting Sierpes on his body with an amazing backdrop of shipwrecks and rain. I'm so eager to see how Blasphemous 2 is going to top this)
Our lady is my favorite fight and you can in fact avoid all the attacks.
How does the warden have a higher ranking than esdras 🤔
That was a really good video guys. Great work!
appreciate it bro
This is my first video I’ve seen on this channel and you guys are really making some great stuff! Im looking forward to watching this channel grow 🤘
There is very easy way to avoid the spinning attack of this amanecida.
Alex here, I parry it myself. Jack is aware of this now but was not at the time we made this video is all
@@Cytonox This is a variant, the best way for me is to squat at the end of the platform, and hit every time when she come close. This way I can break her crystal with minimal effort.
@@Cytonox This was the toughest boss for me, when I was just starting to play the game. Now I kill her just for fun. Tres Augustias is the boss that still gives me trouble and I hate the most.
Nice video, but there's one thing I don't agree with at all. Melquiades is my personal favourite fight of the vanilla game, he has some neat mechanics and a striking design with cool music. Personally I'd put either Exposito or any of the Escribar fights at the bottom of my list. Neither are bad bosses but I feel they're a little *too* reliant on RNG, especially the Last Son of the Miracle. WoE escribar doesn't really count since you can't actually lose his fight.
My top 5:
5- Sierpes. Really unique and amazing visual design and concept. A neat moveset but rather easy to dodge, the real challenge is one of endurance since he has an absolutely MONDO health bar and will do his damnedest to outlast your resources.
4- Melquiades for the reasons mentioned above
3- The four lesser amanecidas. All are equally amazing in my eyes. Each has a very fun moveset, Baile de Violetas is an absolute jam, and the spectacle of fighting each of these apocalyptic forces is absolutely phenomenal.
2- True Crisanta and Isidora. Both of these fights are extremely intense and fast-paced, and incredibly satisfying to beat, equally so to me. On average the bosses in blasphemous are easier but more fun than those of other souls like games, with these 2 managing to be both as difficult if not harder while still retaining the fun factor.
1- Laudes. Easy cream-of-the-crop top-tier for me. Visual design, arena and music are simply second to none. She has all the positives of the lesser amanecidas with minimal negatives. Only thing she lacks is difficulty outside of the fourth sorrow. I feel that, rather than just being a mini-rerun of the four amanecida fights she should be able to switch weapons on the fly. That would make her much more difficult and unpredictable, maybe even one of the harder fights. Ignoring that, everything about the mystical dance with laudes is perfect, and there's nothing else I'd ever want to change.
Alex here, I’m the bigger Melquiades hater of the two of us. If I had to give him props for something though I do find it really funny how he’s not even alive and is just being puppeteered by a huge mosh pit. Makes me imagine them all shouting commands to each other, “move his left arm down! smash him with the staff! call some lasers! yeah!”. The design inspiration is also really cool as Jack noted, I’ve been scrolling bejeweled saints on google for a while actually.
@@Cytonox Now that you mention it, it is pretty funny to picture all of his puppeteers clamouring over eachother. Even though I know it isn't intentional, that's going to be my new headcanon for why his AI occasionally bugs out and he just sort of floats around not doing anything.
Jack here, I don't particularly mind Melquiades, rather he's just not interesting compared to basically all other base game bosses. I dig his design and the theme is pretty decent, although yeah Exposito is likely worse although it's like choosing between dirt and soil; Great top five, I don't find Crisanta as intense as the rest of the newer bosses that are intended to be overly intense, but your list is still great! Thanks for watching!
@@Cytonox And thank you for hearing my thoughts. Great work on the video btw, I was actually waiting for one to cover all the bosses like this for a while now and I wasn't disappointed.
Isidora is the real kick a$$. Though Crisanta's second phase is near impossible, she would give you requiem aeternam at least 15 times before you understand what's happening. My two favorite bosses actually.
This video was very entertaining well done!
I need to check out the soundtrack again.
Awesome video, Guys! I haven't played Blasphemous, myself, but I've heard great things about it. Gameplay footage reminds me heavily of both Hollow Knight and Castlevania bosses, and I love both of those franchises. I'm not sure if you noticed this, but Ten Piedad resting in the statue's arms is definitely an homage to Michaelangelo's "The Pieta" (a famous sculpture housed in the Vatican of Mary holding Jesus' body). "The Pieta" has been referenced in many forms of media over the years, including other video games. One of the most memorable examples is the third phase of the final boss fight against Kefka Palazzo in Final Fantasy VI.
Also, the footage of the Sierpes fight reminds me of an end-game boss battle in Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, which is an incredibly overlooked Action-JRPG on PS4 that I highly recommend.
Anyway, I'm enjoying your content as always, and I look forward to your future uploads!
Alex here, thats some neat trivia I was not aware of regarding “The Pieta”! Glad you liked the video too, thanks for watching as always!
@@Cytonox Yeah, if you look up an image of "The Pieta," you'll definitely notice the similarities.
Jack here, thanks for watching! "The Pieta" is super neat, and yeah it basically is Hollow Knight and Castlevania merged in Souls-inspired world. It's beautiful. Thanks for watching!
Great video!
Idk if I beat Escribar at a level where I was way weaker than I should've been, but I kinda don't like the fight. Imo I feel that there is a lot of down time because of having to wait for the ice platforms to appear and it really annoyed me.
Rather than other highpaced bosses, this one wants you to wait every once in awhile, which means you might not get as much damage off as you should've because he closes his faceplate due to no platforms helping you.
Nice video!
I actually find lady easy and ok fight, hate Isidora and that three flying ladies from the bottom of my heart, DLC Crisanta is the most satisfying to beat because the learning curve and I just love her character
True Form Escribar ranks even lower for me because the trailer made me think the High Wills would be an actual boss fight.
I like how when 1 of you is talking about a boss there's text from the other with their own comment. Kinda like you're chiming in with a quick thought.
Probably weirdly specific but 1 of the little things I like about the channel
thanks for noticing! appreciate you bro
you can avoid the spinny attack by hanging off the edge of the arena
smart, never thought to try that!
I am in trouble with esdras, harder than our lady visage, damn it.
parry him i believe in you - jack
I was able to tear through Isidora using the cloistered ruby rosary bead. it's very effective against her, for some reason 🤔
I feel bad for taking her down so easily. I wish I had given myself more of a challenge, aha
I can easily beat most all bosses in bad ending but Crisanta that lady was craziest
Wait, your struggled with Chrisanta first phase?
I'm trying to get the wounds of eventide ending but I'm doing it on new game + with the no healing penitence which might have been a bad idea. I think that I might not have had the intended experience with these bosses because the temptation to use the invincibility prayer is too strong especially now with fervour flasks in my current playthrough. Although if I use a different prayer and try it properly with no heals I might get extremely angry.
Also how did you get that bright green skin and that skin you were using in the sierpes boss battle?
The no healing penance is miserable and I didn’t even choose a penance when I (Jack) played Stir of Dawn. No tips there, just grind grind grind. Best comparison would be Souls Lvl. 1 run, you just have to keep improving. Anyways, so the green skin is from a secret wall in the newly added arcade game. It’s near the bottom of the Desecrated Cistern, behind a wall with a hole on the bottom you can slide under. Then in the actual arcade game there’s a specific wall about halfway through, on the upper level of the screen, that you can jump through leading into an all green, Game & Watch-esque room. You jump through the hole in the room and kill yourself to get the Arcade skin. The other skin is called Ancient History, and you get it from inputting a button code when you first load up the game, there’s guides online. Thanks for watching!
@@Cytonox I might give up on the penitence then if I get too annoyed at it. I thought it would be harder to get those skins so thank you for telling me because I was trying to get right to the end of the arcade game which is what I had assumed I had to do
"This is my least favorite amanecida" *puts in a better place than the amanecida mentioned two seconds ago*. Dude, the amount of inconsistency, why a place is better if you only have bad points to stand out?
because it’s both our opinions. one of us may like one a lot more, but the other might hate it so it’ll be in a mixed spot that may be more representative of one of our opinions
Good content, but love that you respected the game enought to pronouncing the names alright!
i think there is no boss in this game that is bad and thats pretty rare
I feel like they nerfed the tutorial boss
meh, laudes is just a boring refight against the 4 really epic amanecidas, the true final boss way too boring and easy as well as the regular final boss, and crisantas second phase is one of the coolest and challenging fights in this game since healing is extremely hard to pull off and finding the time to actually attack her is tricky. and her theme's remix goes way too hard
Our Lady of the Charred Visage and Isadora get lowest for me, and the boss gauntlets really isolate how hopeless their fights are. Bullet hells. Isadora gets a plus because her fireballs seem to follow a strange cancel out rule, but, there is some unavoidable damage spaces despite it. Her scythe MUST be parried to negate damage...no jumps or dodges will avoid it aside from her sweeping move. But the fireballs MUST be jumped in certain moments because they canNOT be sliced or parried. Prayers can mitigate this, but, no true pattern or strategy emerges without them. It's chaos. When jumping becomes unavoidable, there's nothing to prevent getting sliced, because you're helpless in the air. The Charred Visage again creates too much OVERLAP in damage rain for such a slow character. Again, some i-frames can be activated during certain high level prayers, but...is this what it comes to?
Alex here, I’ve definitely encountered some seemingly unavoidable damage situations while fighting Isidora, but as Jack said a lot of it comes down to positioning, which manifests as just avoiding getting stuck in those situations in the first place imo. For example, you want to avoid the edges of the screen as shown by Jack’s footage of getting ragdolled over and over by terrible rng. I can definitely see how it would be frustrating and make you dislike Isidora, but in my experience you can avoid those issues if you’re really careful which is an interesting challenge to me. As for the lady of the charred visage, yeah I’m not sure how to avoid some of her moves either, that swirling flurry of energy balls is really chaotic
Jack here, I personally find it fine that she requires parrying. It forces in a mechanic most people (me and you for example) overlooked and makes it feel much more flowing, as well as deserved when you eventually beat it. Our Lady of the Charred Visage is fairly decent, I do agree however that sometimes it's unavoidable and there's really nothing you can do except pray. Thanks for dropping a comment and watching!
I hate Isidora second phase. Those fire balls are so damn annoying and distracting.
11:20 you can just crouch...
Melquiades is the worst? That is the moment when I'm closing this video with dislike, bye.
Lol “queer-say”
no wonder they burned him alive
@@Cytonox B A S E D are the ways of the Miracle
Fallen order and God of War 4 are the same game. Its annoying and wish that was talked about more.