Blasphemous’ story of remorse, terrible suffering disguised as “miracles”, and religious fervor continues in Blasphemous 2, released a few weeks ago. We at DualShockers liked Blasphemous 2, but like the first game, we were left with more questions than answers about what on earth happened after playing it. Why is there a heart beating in the sky? Why is this big man crying and feeding his baby milk from a horribly stitched up chest?

To understand the story of Blasphemous 2, it’s best to first summarize what happened in Blasphemous 1. This is because the story is carried over directly from it and it’s all very complicated.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get started.

It’s unclear exactly how much time has passed between the events of the first and second games, but the hit Steam game “A Thousand Years Later,” available after defeating the tutorial boss, seems to make that pretty clear. In the opening sequence of Blasphemous 2, we see Chrysantha from the original game, Miracle’s former enforcer and now its nemesis, stab herself with a sword and a mysterious figure sit in a throne-like chair in front of her, a shawl draped over her shoulders, which is then thrown away. We later learn that this is Eviterno, the father of the Repentant.

Miracle appears to be acting of its own volition this time (rather than under the control of a higher will defeated in the first game) and drops a heart-like object from the sky, which contains the child of Miracle. The City of Blessed Name, the new central location of Blasphemous 2. The Penitent awakens from his coffin, where lies the petrified form of Deogracias, his friend and guide from the first game.

The Penitent meets Annunciada, who commands him to stop the birth of a mysterious genius (she waits for you in front of your coffin, so we can assume it’s her who resurrected you). To do this, he must defeat the Three Penitents, members of the Great Brotherhood of Penitents, who hold the key to access the Noble Temple that appears above the city.

On his way to the Three Penitents, he may come across an area that looks familiar from the original game. The Grand Master of Mothers, a cathedral that appeared in the original Blasphemous, appears here, but it is completely destroyed, in ruins, and buried under most of the other areas of the game. This suggests that a lot of time has passed since the first game, and that an entire empire has been built on this grand edifice that was once dedicated to the Great Will.

The three penitents can be fought in any order, and each has a tragic story. The great teacher Radames was a confessor who kept himself alive by listening to the sins of churchgoers. Eventually, all the sins he had absorbed over the years erupted from his body with a cacophony, causing the monastery to collapse (that’s why we fight him underground).

Remus, the immortal sacristan, was a martyr who was decapitated by the Inquisition and then miraculously resurrected in metal armor, his head visible through a glass cover on his abdomen. The Embroiderer of Olispina is the most sadistic of the three penitents, enjoying playing with her victims like a cat with its prey (how she repents is not entirely clear, though).

Once you have defeated the Three Regrets, a Noble Temple will appear above the city, displaying a backstory explaining why Miracle returned to the land after seemingly eliminating him at the end of the first game. After a “long time” without a miracle, a man and woman, desperate to conceive a child, begged Miracle to grant them a child.

This act of faith conjured up a miracle, but the child granted by faith accidentally manifested as a plague, which spread throughout the land, killing numerous people, mutating them, and creating many of the monsters you fight throughout the game. The first mutation caused by this plague was a witness who was present at the birth of the Miracle Child, afflicted with feathers (a fairly mild cure for a Miracle disease!).

Soon you will hear the “narrative voice” of the witness, as the witness’s body was perfectly preserved in the Chapel of the Five Doves, and his testimony regarding the child’s birth will be preserved forever. The witness gives the penitent his next task, which is to find the five keys to the five cages in the Chapel of the Five Doves. These are of course in the hands of the other five bosses.

Of course, on your journey you will meet various oversized people who have been touched by miracles, often in grotesque ways. There is Cesareo, who cut off his wife’s breasts to show his devotion to the miracle; Casto, a thief so disfigured that he was punished with being imprisoned deep in the world and cannot show his face; and a giant with honey flowing from all his orifices.

Next there is the Cypoptic nun you meet in the City of the Blessed Name. She tells you to find the Cobihada sisters around the world (for every two you find you will receive two Tears of Reparation).

You will also meet Yerma, a warrior who knows the destructive ways of miracles and seeks revenge. She witnessed a special disease of miracles known as the Curse of the Bell, which rang in the Palace of the Two Moons and disfigured most of the people there. The ringer of this bell is probably a woman named Svsona from Formosa Fembra. She was obsessed with her beauty and prayed for a miracle that those in the palace would no longer see their own reflection in the lake. Of course, bad things happen when people pray for miracles). Yerma will offer to take part in a boss fight. Her main target is Svsona, who holds the key to the last birdcage. However, if you want Yerma to help you, you will need to get a special weapon oil for her, otherwise she will die as soon as you enter the boss arena.

After defeating Svsona, the witness explains how the Miraculous had long sought a way to creep into people’s spirituality and restore the influence of darkness on Custodia. This eventually took the form of the Heart of Heaven, which contains a new physical manifestation of the Miraculous, with the goal of uniting those around it and giving them hope (ironically, the last time the Miraculous appeared, it was after the Miraculous had ravaged the land; the world was like a plague). By creating a physical being in its image – an actual living, breathing god – it hopes to be worshipped (and thereby empowered) by the people of Custodia once again.

This leads to a final climb up the Crimson Rains to reach the Heart and stop the birth of the child. But between you and this newfound genius stands a powerful Repentant, Eviterno the First Repentant, specially chosen to protect the child as it is born. Before him we see the kneeling corpse of Crisanta (from the opening scene). Apparently she was thwarted by Eviterno in an attempt to prevent the birth of her child.

Once you have defeated Eviterno, you will face the Prodigy himself, the Incarnate Devotion, a physical manifestation that the Prodigy has been trying to give birth to for so long. After defeating this terrifying creature, you will experience one of two endings depending on your actions during the game.

Blasphemous 2 Endings Explained

Ending B (Bad Ending)

After a battle with the Avatar Devotion, the Penitent and the Child sit in a puddle of their own blood. Through this pain, the Child (newborn and trying to understand his purpose) realizes that he and the Penitent must merge to create a new form of God and usher in a new era of miracles.

As the Penitent and the Child merge into blood, their bloodstreams merge together and flow towards the sky, merging into a tree-like form. Of course, that’s not a good thing, because it means miracles will once again enchant the people of Custodia.

Ending A (Good Ending)

This is the “good” ending, and you’ll have to jump through some hurdles to get there, but we’ll cover that in another guide. If these criteria are met, defeating Incarnate Devotion will cause Wonder to disappear, vanishing with no will to empower him. The penitent will ascend into a heavenly space, surrounded by many friendly faces encountered in both games. Finally, a true happy ending awaits the penitent, with soaring music and a poignant final line:

No doubt there will be DLC later on that will flesh out the story of Blasphemous 2, and the post-credits scene suggests that this may also be involved. Crisanta is an old favorite to some extent, but as of the base game, this is the story of Blasphemous 2.