Blasphemous 2 is an action, metroidvania, roguelite from Sevilla-based game developers The Game Kitchen and published by Team17. Its second DLC, The Third Sin, was released on June 6th, and it is completely free.
Blasphemy, Sin, and Penance
The Penitent One returns to extinguish the sins of the Miracle and bring back peace and balance to mortals once again. In this beautifully grotesque and bloody re-imagination of Spanish catholic themes, the protagonist of this not-so-little expansion sets out to stop Asterion, First of the Penitents, in his fanatic pursuit to fulfill the Miracle’s apocalyptic wishes. Get ready to slice, dice, squash, maim, stab, behead, disembowel, mutilate, and otherwise cut your enemies into tiny little pieces Spanish Inquisition style!
Gameplay
Yes, The Third Sin DLC is completely free of charge. The game will automatically update and download the DLC on your PC or console. Nevertheless, players will still need to slash their way through half of the map, beat four boss fights, unlock several abilities, find at least three weapons, and locate a couple of quest items to gain access to the DLC area. Ease peasy bloodbath and brains squeezy.
A Pilgrimage Of Blood And Steel
Let’s first start with how to unlock the double jump ability and where to locate the necessary quest item, without which The Third Sin DLC area is simply inaccessible.
Firstly, players will need to unlock all three main weapons of the game. You can find Veredicto, a giant incense burner turned into a brutal flail, in the deepest depths of the Sacred Entombments. Sarmiento y Centella, the lightning-fast dual swords, can be found in the Palace of Embroideries. Finally, Ruego al Alba, the most balanced of the three weapons, can be found in Crown of Towers. Each weapon unlocks a unique ability that helps the Penitent One overcome obstacles, break barricades, and reach further in vertically designed maps.
Secondly, players will need to unlock the Passage of Ash ability, also known as double-jump. Sounds easy, right? Well, you’re going to have to hack your way through Beneath Her Sacred Grounds, descend to the dark pits of Mother of Mothers, and defeat the boss Afilaor, Sentinel of the Emery. After you defeat him, to the left is a new chamber with an angelic altar holding up the Passage of Ash.
Thirdly, and lastly, you’ll need to find the Lamp of the Whisper of the Mist. You can only access that catacomb after you’ve unlocked the double jump ability. You’ll find a creepy coffin in the sewers of the City of the Blessed Name, right below where you would upgrade your life flasks. Grab the jar, and make haste to the lower sections of the Choir of Thorns. Without this last item, you will lose yourself in the mist and magically find yourself back at the entrance of the map.
Welcome To The Pain Zone
Once we’ve completed all that, The Penitent One can finally walk through the fog and reach the other side. The Third Sin welcomes players to the new DLC with a little boss fight as soon as you reach the Castle of the Mist. As long as you avoid getting hit by this minotaur’s golden horns, you should be fine.
Speaking of new enemies, The Castle of the Mist is filled with them. From flying ghosts that shoot tracking arrows, to tough-as-nails minotaurs, flying gargoyles with four different attack modes, vanishing spectral duelists, fire-ball shooting clergy men, and other weird giant monstrosities, the DLC is absolutely loaded with new and unique opponents.
Personally, I found the map filled with the zombies, the three ghosts, the duelist, and the minotaur to be excessively punishing. In fact, it was so tough that I had to go back to the main game map and upgrade my life flasks and other items before I could return and defeat them all.
An Ode To Castlevania
The new weapon in The Third Sin DLC is called Embrujo. It is basically a chain-whip-sword, very much inspired by the one wielded by Belmont in the old-school PlayStation 1 classic, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
This new weapon, in addition to being a powerful new tool to trash opponents, unlocks new parts of the castle. The Penitent One uses the whip sword to pull himself into the air like a medieval armored Spiderman. It is really fun to use until you need to swing from one latch to another without falling into the pit of permanently bloodstained knives.
Graphics & Audio
As is usual with DLCs, graphics and audio don’t change much. After all, it is an expansion of the original game. The pixel art and twisted, dark-fantasy religious aesthetics haven’t changed, except that the DLC mostly takes place inside a castle. The world design of The Third Sin is very much bound to keeping it within the walls of a giant castle with its library, dungeon, high towers, secret chambers, and more.
The game developers did add a couple of new soundtracks, leaning heavily into the gothic medieval that fit the castle theme. The new tunes helped add a sense of nostalgia for Castlevania games. The music most definitely added to the strange yet magical sense of deja-vu.
Longevity
It took me close to nine hours just to reach the DLC area. Once in the Count Dracula-themed castle, the expansion took me about another eight hours of exploring, unlocking weapons and abilities, and quest items. The ramped-up difficulty, the new monsters, new boss fights, and new abilities really add up to an enjoyable playthrough. The map is so different, you feel like you’re in a Castlevania game.
Once completed, players can still return to the main game for another eight hours or so. Additionally, the Mea Culpa DLC (which is not free), and which I haven’t played yet, is estimated to be between six to eight hours long. When you add all those hours together, Blasphemous 2, with both its DLCs, takes more than 30 hours to complete. Probably closer to 40 hours if you die as frequently as me.
Final Thoughts
I’m not sure how to express my final thoughts on Blasphemous 2: The Third Sin DLC without sounding like a complete fan boy. I’ll try to keep it short by simply stating the facts. It is a free DLC that adds about eight hours of gameplay, with a completely newly designed map, a new soundtrack, new abilities, a new weapon, completely new and different opponents, new boss fights, and a new and intriguing storyline. Quite frankly, I’m not sure what more one could ask for from a product that is, I insist, 100% free.
Paying homage to its Metroidvania genre origins with the new Embrujo sword was just a chef’s kiss.
Blasphemous 2: The Third Sin gets the Thumb Culture Platinum Award!
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