Blasphemous News

We just wanted to take a moment to mark the occasion and say thank you everyone from all of us at The Game Kitchen for your incredible support - it means the world to us.

Just remember, one year of penance may have passed, but we all know penance never truly ends...

Sinners,

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, feedback and bug reports on The Stir of Dawn free DLC.

The team have loved hearing about your experiences and really appreciate everyone that took a moment to make us aware of certain issues that needed addressing.

Before we dive into the patch notes, a certain person who created the bosses you fight in The Stir of Dawn has a message for you...




Hello Sinners! It's Maikel, from The Game Kitchen.

The response for the release of our free DLC, The Stir of Dawn, has been INCREDIBLE. You've sent us so many kind words over social media, emails, and comments, that it took days and days to read all of that.

We're really glad you liked the new content that much: the Penitences System, the spanish VO, and of course the dog-petting opportunities. Thanks a lot for your support, we at the development team are really grateful.

Releasing a huge update is not an easy feat though, and unfortunately it also comes with a new batch of issues and bugs. But we've been hammering down non-stop, and there's a lot of fixes coming your way!

Those pesky Penitence Rewards will finally be actually granted to worthy penitents, and there's a lot more fixes included.

Again, thanks for your support, and I hope you'll keep enjoying Blasphemous.










After receiving reports about performance issues on machines with low specs, we have further optimised the gameplay and UI code.

We have also located and fixed a few memory leaks that were causing slowdown after long sessions of gameplay on rare occasions.




Penitence Rewards - Rosary Beads

Fixed an issue that caused Penitences rewards to reset after the credits, so players weren’t able to access their rewards.

This is a retroactive fix, so you will be able to find the corresponding rewards you already earned in your current save slots.


Laudes - Post Fight Area

Fixed several issues with the location entered after the fight with Laudes, which could cause softlock, weird collisions, and even stop players from getting the reward located there.


Tres Angustias - "Dodge this"

Fixed an issue that caused Tres Angustias beam attack anticipation to appear outside the screen, so dodging them was only possible with the help of the Miracle.


Amanecidas Combat - Fight on!

Fixed issues during Amanecidas combats that created weird interactions after interrupting their attacks. This caused them to stop attacking anymore during the fight on rare occasions.


Ten Piedad - "You're approaching me?!"

Fixed Ten Piedad fight so it can no longer be skipped by using the Linen of Golden Thread.

• Fixed an issue where the room in Gemino’s quest could be used to farm tears of atonement.
  
• Fixed an issue which caused the main menu background selection labels to display incorrect titles.
  
• Fixed an issue where Bleeding Miracle explosion didn’t cause damage to enemies.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck inside a wall during a True Torment playthrough.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Penitence Selection menu to behave incorrectly during a second playthrough.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Chalice of Inverted Verses was not emptied after using a Prie Dieu warp point.
  
• Fixed a LOT of issues causing diverse achievements to not unlock correctly.
  
• Fixed map issues that caused some tiles to not reveal on rare occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue that created duplicates of the Penitent One while button-mashing during the cutest animation in the game. Please, keep petting that dog though, he’s a really good boy.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Ash Mountain wouldn’t slow down the Penitent One.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Esdras to remain still and refuse to fight back.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused abandoned Penitences to remain marked as so, even after completing them in a later playthrough.
  

That wraps today's patch notes!

We hope these fixes bring blessings to your time in Cvstodia, thank you again for your patience and understanding whilst the team addressed what you fed back to us.

Penitent be the heart!

And so the long night is severed. Dawn cometh.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dawn has arrived in the land of Cvstodia in Blasphemous: The Stir of Dawn, a free DLC available now for all owners of Blasphemous!




To prepare you for your journey into True Torment we've compiled today's Patch Notes below for you.

We've also included some extra context from Maikel Ortega, Game Designer on Blasphemous - you can spot his comments in italics!

• Ascend into True Torment after beating the game at least once.
  
• You will keep your items, Prayers and Mea Culpa abilities. Master them to advance through this harder version of the game.
  

After finishing the main game, you will now be able to Ascend into our New Game+ mode: True Torment. This means starting a new playthrough from the beginning, keeping all your unlocked skills, and equippable items such as Rosary Beads, Sword Hearts and Prayers. And you will need them!

The difficulty has been carefully rebalanced to offer a greater challenge. Enemies will be tougher and much more deadly, so making full use of your arsenal is a must if you want to survive the True Torment.

• Choose between one of three Penitences, and face even greater challenges that change the way you approach each playthrough.
  
• Only available during a True Torment playthrough.
  
• Successful Penitence completions have their rewards...
  

The Penitence of the Bleeding Heart is our homage to classic 8-bit titles like Castlevania where we have replaced the Penitent One’s lifebar with Health Orbs. Every hit you take will deplete one orb, and to keep things interesting, all enemies will respawn every time you come back to an area. So you will really need to learn their patterns if you want to stay alive!




The Penitence of the Unwavering Faith severely weakens your normal attacks with Mea Culpa, but adds constant Fervour regeneration! Prayers and abilities will be your main source of damage, so plan your build accordingly, and choose appropriate Rosary Beads and Sword Hearts!




And the final is the Penitence of the True Guilt — by far the most punishing of the three. Choosing this Penitence will change your Bile Flasks into Azure Flasks where they will no longer replenish your health, but your fervour instead. And keeping yourself out of harm’s way is a must in this run, as you will lose all your Guilt Fragments and Tears of Atonement with a single death! Find a Confessor Statue, or retrieve your Fragment, or you will lose all those hard-earned tears too! Only true masters of Blasphemous’ combat will be able to rise to this challenge.

• A completely new quest can be started buried deep in the innards of the Holy Line.
  
• Only available during a True Torment playthrough.
  

The Amanecidas - Ancient creatures, born and forgotten centuries ago, will wake up from the innards of Cvstodia and try to stop The Penitent One. Find Jibrael, their harbinger, during a True Torment run, and follow his instructions to challenge these gilded wardens of the Miracle. This new storyline includes five completely new boss fights, harder than any other you’ve faced before in Blasphemous.

• The map has been completely redesigned and reworked.
  
• Custom markers can now be placed anywhere on the map.
  
• The map now features pixel perfect zoom.
  
• The percentage of area discovery is now visible in a corner.
  

NPC Changes

• A new NPC can be found close to Albero, in the Desecrated Cistern.
  
• The NPC Soledad has been reworked, and features fully voiced new dialog.
  
• The NPC Gémino has been reworked, and now features new sprites. His questline has been slightly tweaked.
  
• New dialog lines have been added to several NPCs and Bosses.
  

Fast Travel

• The Prie Dieu is now upgradeable, allowing for fast travel between the altars.
  
• Three new Teleports can now be found in Cvstodia.
  
• New areas and shortcuts have been added to the game.
  

Voiceover

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
As requested by many of our players from all around the world, we have added full Spanish VO, recorded by top notch voice actors and actresses. Our game is heavily inspired by our culture, so this was a no-brainer!

• Full Spanish voice-over has been added to the game. The voice-over language can be changed in the options menu.
  
• Some of the existing dialog has been recorded again with a new cast.
  

Misc

• A mysterious alms-box can be found inside the church in Albero.
  

New Executions

• Sister of the Charred Visage
  
• Spear of the Cathedra
  
• Guardainfante
  
• Lunatic
  
• Phalaris
  
• Wandering Sepulcher
  
• Carthos
  

Certain Penitent skills (Charge, Lunge & Counter attacks) will now stun these enemies when used at the right time, enabling an execution.




Art

The following areas now feature new art assets:

• Wasteland of the Buried Churches
  
• Mercy Dreams
  
• Grievance Ascends
  
• Patio of the Silent Steps
  
• Bridge of the Three Calvaries
  
• Ferrous Tree
  
• Wall of the Holy Prohibitions
  

New dwellers can be found in town, including a completely pettable and very good boy.



Some sprites, including the player's, now feature colour adjustments to better integrate in certain areas.

New animations have also been added to the Penitent One.

Cutscenes

• New animated cutscenes have been added to the game.
  
• A new intro cutscene has been added.
  
• Balance, Quality of Life changes:
  

As a game designer, fine tuning the experience you players will face in our game is always our main priority. This is why we took our time to create a satisfying True Torment mode, but also revisited the base game! Lots of Prayers, Rosary Beads, and even player skills have been revisited, tweaked, and, in some cases, made some pretty big changes.

Summon an army of Cherubs with the improved Campanilleros Prayer, or stun your foes with a perfectly timed Sacred Onslaught to the face, leaving them open for a gruesome execution.

Prayers

• Damage and fervour costs have been tweaked.
  
• Several prayers feature visual improvements.
  
• Prayer behaviour is more consistent and solid.
  

Enemies

• A few enemies have been revisited, and now feature better anticipation and recovery times.
  
• The behaviuor of some enemies has been improved to create a better combat experience. Less unfair situations, smoother and more satisfying combat.
  

Abilities & Attacks

• The player hitbox and damage areas have been tweaked to ensure combat feels fair.
  
• The charged and lunge attack have been revisited and can now stun enemies in certain situations.
  
• The ranged attack damage and cost have been rebalanced. Damage now scales with Mea Culpa level.
  

That wraps up today's patch notes!

We're incredibly excited for you all to experience this free new content for Blasphemous. Oh and one last word from Maikel:

If you’re new to Blasphemous, or a veteran pilgrim, I’m sure you will deeply enjoy your travels to the updated world of Cvstodia. Sorrowful be the heart.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/

Hello Sinners,

Following on from our Torment, Penitence and Amanecidas post earlier this week we wanted to take the opportunity to share even more with you on what’s coming in The Stir of Dawn!

When creating The Stir of Dawn the team were keen to read through player and community feedback to see what you really enjoyed about your Blasphemous playthrough, as well as what you thought could be further built upon or adjusted to improve your experience with the game.

The team spent a lot of time discussing what we learnt from the community and where possible we have implemented it into The Stir of Dawn!

To begin, let’s start with one of the most commonly requested feature updates - The Map!




Rejoice, the map screen you currently know has been fully overhauled!



When looking at how to improve the map for The Stir of Dawn we approached it from the angle of improving overall usage, readability, practicality and usefulness to the player.

We are pleased to confirm the following features in the map overhaul:

• Complete rework of the old screen - Out with the old, in with the new!
  
• Tile Resolutions - Choose between different handmade tile resolutions to get your ideal setting.
  
• Map Markers - Manually mark points of interest and other useful locations to aid you in your journey through Cvstodia.
  
• Map Completion - Wonder no more! The percentage of rooms completed will be visible on the map.
  

Now we’ve revealed the new map and how it works, let's take a look at another hotly requested improvement - expanded fast travel!




Warp Points

Upon installing The Stir of Dawn update new fast travel options will be available to all players whether they’re playing on ‘New Game’ or ‘New Game+’ modes.

On top of the existing fast travel system, players will now be able to upgrade the Prie Dieu altars throughout Cvstodia.

Upon doing so they will gain a new look, activating the ability to travel between any previously visited Prie Dieu altars.



This new feature offers a lot of versatility and travel options, minimising excess backtracking and allowing you even more freedom to explore the map.


Shortcuts

Whispers travel through the townsfolk of Abero, rumours of new shortcuts that are on the cusp of being discovered by the keen eyes of the Penitent One…

These new shortcuts which we’ll be leaving for you to discover allow for some natural transitions between certain areas to aid you in your travels, if you can find them that is!




Prayers

Most of the Prayers in the game have received blessing from the Miracle, increasing their damage or effects for the Penitent One. To reflect these changes their costs have also been tweaked.

You should also notice some new visual flair for them too!


Rosary Beads, Sword Hearts and Ranged Attack!

During our own pilgrimages through Cvstodia we noticed that some of the Sword Hearts and Rosary Beads weren’t applying their bonuses as intended. This has now been fixed!
We’ve also given the Penitent One’s ranged attack some attention, rebalancing it so that it now scales in damage and cost based on Mea Culpa’s level.


Enemy Behaviour & Executions

Whilst going through your feedback we saw that some players, whilst enjoying the combat, felt that more could be done to make it feel smoother, more responsive and ‘fairer’.

In The Stir of Dawn we’ve revisited some enemies who will now feature better anticipation and recovery times.

On top of this we’ve already updated the behaviour of some enemies to create a better combat experience that will feel smoother and reduce the occurrence of situations where the player feels they were beaten unfairly.

To further highlight the importance of the above point we have also adjusted the player hitbox to make combat fairer and reward skilful / risky plays!



We were really pleased to see how popular executions have been for everyone. We also saw how many of you wanted to see more instances of them, so we’ve added a new mechanic that will allow you to instigate an execution through skilled use of your abilities.

On top of the existing system, Charged and Lunged attacks can now stun enemies in certain situations, such as a counter attack or striking a foe during the wind up of their attack.

Please note, this stun mechanic only works on enemies that can be executed!






Before we sign-off for the weekend and head towards Dawn, we also wanted to highlight that many areas of Cvstodia have received a visual update.

We don’t want to spoil these as we think you’ll greatly enjoy seeing as the world has evolved, with new furniture, decorations and background NPCs really bringing the world alive.

We will leave a little peek for you below though…



Penitent be the heart.

Sinners,

As many of you know, The Stir of Dawn free DLC comes to Blasphemous for all players on August 4th.


To prepare you for what awaits in the dark, forgotten corners of Cvstodia we’ll be sharing some behind the scenes looks on the run up to launch. This will include new content, quality of life improvements, balancing and more!

To start things off on your journey toward Dawn we will be focusing on the following for today’s post:

• New Game+ - ‘True Torment Mode’
  
• The Penitence System
  
• New Bosses - The Amanecidas
  
• New NPCs
  

Whilst we shall be sharing useful information from our tomes of forbidden knowledge, we will be leaving some surprises and secrets for you to discover as you play through The Stir of Dawn yourself…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]




SPOILER WARNING - GAMEPLAY & BOSS DETAILS

New Game+ comes to Blasphemous in The Stir of Dawn, giving the penitent amongst us the opportunity to play through the whole game again with a greater challenge!

Enemies will:

• Deal more damage to you.
  
• Be able to take more damage from you.
  
• Feature better anticipation and recovery times (Also in NG).
  
• Improved behavior to create smoother combat and less ‘unfairness’ (Also in NG).
  

But fear not! Whilst your foes have grown stronger, so have you!

When starting a True Torment playthrough the Penitent One will start with the following upgrades from your previous playthrough:

• All Mea Culpa upgrades earned
  
• All Sword Hearts collected
  
• All Rosary Beads collected
  
• All Prayers unlocked
  

Just as the Miracle gives, it takes away - The Penitent One will start NG+ with their base levels of Health, Fervour and Bile Flasks. In order to restore these precious resources to their former glory you will have to venture out and reclaim them once again!




Shortly after awakening in NG+ you will be offered a choice. The Miracle will bestow upon you the choice of the ‘Three Penitences’.

Each penitence offers a set of handicaps and bonuses that lets you experience and play through blasphemous in a different way. These will offer a greater challenge that changes the rules of the game…

Penitence of the Unwavering Faith

For those looking to have a more Prayer focused, caster style build.

• Melee attacks are half as effective.
  
• Fervour regenerates over time.
  
• Taking damage will reduce your fervour stocks.
  

Penitence of the Bleeding Heart

For those that relish combat and do not fear death.

• Your HP bar is replaced by Life Orbs.
  
• Taking damage will remove an orb.
  
• Bile Flasks will replenish multiple orbs over time.
  
• Taking damage during the healing process will halt it.
  
• Enemies will respawn every time you reenter a room.
  

Penitence of the True Guilt

For those that see failure as unacceptable.

• Upon death, all Tears of Atonement are placed on your Guilt Fragment.
  
• Falling in battle will maximise your Guilt Level.
  
• Bile Flasks do not heal you, but instead refill your Fervour.
  

But then, penitence has its rewards…

Those that manage to embrace their chosen penance and prevail will be rewarded with a new skin as well as a powerful, unique Rosary Bead that both share the theme of said penance.

Each penance has its own set of rewards. Will you earn them all?




The Amanecidas - New Game+ & The Stir of Dawn questline only



The Amanecidas are ancient guardians of the Miracle, resting underground in their gilded sepulchers buried throughout Cvstodia.

They present the greatest challenges in the game and will push the Penitent One to their limit…

• Each Amanecidas wields a different weapon and moveset.
  
• New animated cutscenes are attached to them.
  
• Each feature a set of hand-crafted animations that rival that of the Penitent One.
  
• Get ready for new mechanics, moves and attacks never seen in the game before!
  
• Fight and defeat them all to face their master and engage in the most difficult boss fight in the game...
  

Much like the three penitences, besting the Amanecidas and their master will earn the Penitent One powerful gifts. What they are, you will have to find out…


New NPCs

From August 4th you will encounter new NPCs throughout Cvstodia. All of them will be available in NG+, however some will be absent in your NG (first) playthrough as they are directly linked to The Stir of Dawn DLC which is only available in NG+.

You may have spotted the new NPCs in the trailer or in our recent Spanish VO post, but to keep the mystery and reward of discovery we’re only going into detail about two of them today.

Jibrael



Jibrael is the condemned harbinger of the Amanecidas and a key NPC in The Stir of Dawn questline. You will meet Jibrael early on in your NG+ playthrough, if you find him, and by interacting with him you will begin the DLC questline.

Keep an eye out for Jibrael as you progress through NG+ as only they and they alone can awake the Amanecidas from their slumber for you to challenge.


Albero’s Newest Resident!

The Penitent One’s pilgrimage is arduous and wrought with suffering and danger, but when The Stir of Dawn arrives so will some comfort in the form of a furry friend…



This particular resident of Albero will appear for particularly lucky Penitent Ones, so if they do be sure to take a moment to give them a pet or two, or three, or twelve…




That wraps things up on our New Game+, Penitence System and Boss / NPC overview, but there’s more to come!

We’ll be creating another post on Friday that will detail:

• Community feedback and how we’ve put it into action.
  
• New map & expanded fast travel system.
  
• Enemy & Prayer rebalancing.
  
• Further gameplay and quality of life improvements.
  

Penitent be the heart.