by Neal Ferrera
Blasphemous (2019) is a milestone for Spain in the video game sphere. It seamlessly wears its Spanish and Catholic influences on its sleeve and uses them to deliver a profoundly different look in a classic video game genre. Blasphemous is a single-player PVE Metroidvania published by Team 17 and developed by the Sevellan studio The Game Kitchen.
Seville is a very important cultural city in the Catholic world, and it is where much of the game’s staff is from. Seville has both a Muslim and Catholic influence in its architecture due to it history, as explained by Aire Magazine’s “History of Seville: Feel the Magic of this City”: “The Late Middle Ages started in the 13th century with the Castilian conquest of the region of Andalusia in 1247, known as the Reconquista, and extended until the end of the 15th century.” This source discusses the Reconquista, an effort by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle to drive the Muslims out of Spain. This historical context is what makes the cities in southern Spain such as Cordoba and Seville unique.
And this Southern Spanish influence is very important in regards to the aesthetics of the game. In Blasphemous, the player takes on the role of a nameless protagonist, referred to only as Penitent One, to obtain an artifact called the Cradle of Affliction. The Penitent One travels the bleak world of Cvstodia (CUST-oh-dee-uh) and obtains this artifact by completing the “Three Humiliations,” fighting three different bosses in different areas. There are two other endings included with the game’s free DLC; those endings hinge on the player’s actions and timing of those actions.
The game features hack-n-slash elements more akin to a Souls-like but with the pixelated artstyle, platforming, and side-scrolling elements of a Metroidvania. This blend is not what makes the game unique among its sub-genre, though. What makes Blasphemous more worthy of scholarly attention among the independent Metroidvania sphere is how it uses its Catholic and Southern Spanish roots and implements its world and game design, to show that in a world that seems to stagnate, new and exciting aesthetics, styles, and blends are still possible.
The Rule of Three
In Christianity, not just Catholicism, the number three is one of the most important numbers to know. This importance is present in Blasphemous as well. This is just one way that the game’s Catholic influences are present in the game. Some examples of the number three being used in Catholicism is the time between Jesus’s death and his resurrection being three days, the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as the tale of the Wise Men giving Jesus three gifts, just to name a few.
In Blasphemous, there are side quests, characters, and even story elements that give the sacred number three its own importance within the world of Cvstodia.
Figure 1: Just after the woman is turned to stone and stabbing herself with Mea Culpa. Sourced from The Art of Blasphemous, © The Game Kitchen, 2019.
The very first instance of three appearing is in the opening cutscene. The player is thrown into a cinematic of a woman hitting herself in the chest with a strange icon and expressing a wish for pain. It is after hitting her chest with it three times that the icon suddenly becomes the hilt of a sword, and the blade pierces her in the chest (See Figure1). After she dies, an unknown light shines over her and turns her to stone. The Penitent One then pulls the sword out of her and it remains the primary weapon of the Penitent One throughout his journey. This introduction immediately puts the power of three in the player’s mind, as it is after the third hit of her chest, that the sword is made. Each thump in the cutscene being the only sound besides her voice and the ominous music, and what would be the fourth time, is when she stabs herself. It is this act that makes Mea Culpa, the sword of the Penitent One.
Next, is the actual objective of the Penitent One, explained in the beginning: the Three Humiliations. This is the main objective of the first half of the game. Before the Penitent One can go to the Archcathedral known as the Mother of Mothers, he must fight three different bosses, each within their own area. It also appears in reaching the top of the Archcathedral, where His Holiness Escribar, the final boss of the game, resides.
This is not the end of the rule of three: for if the player goes for the true canonical ending, which is the hardest ending in the game, they are hit with more of the sacred number.
His Holiness Escribar is unique in that he is the only boss which undergoes a complete transformation upon beating him the first time. In the true ending, he undergoes a transformation twice, leading to three different fights. And on top of that, upon defeating him a third time, the player is face-to-face with the force behind the Grievous Miracle: the High Wills, which are three faces crying tears of gold. The number three is not just a vague reference to Christianity in this game’s world and quest of the Penitent One, it is actively important in the world of Cvstodia’s religion. The game takes this religious convention and builds upon it, such as the Three Humiliations. That quest is an example of the number three’s importance in the world. Three also appears in fighting His Holiness Escribar three times, creating an emphasis of the number’s importance. This is not the only convention that is adopted by the world of Cvstodia’s distinctly Spanish-Catholic aesthetic.
The Capirote
The conical headdress—the Capirote— with a long and tumultuous history is seen widely in Blasphemous. While in the United States, conical headwear is unfortunately associated with the white supremacists known as the Ku Klux Klan, formed in 1866, that association has nothing to do with this game. Instead, the headpiece has Catholic origins. This headpiece is worn by numerous characters in the game, many of them being incredibly important to the story of the Penitent One, such as himself.
Image 2: An original two-dimensional drawing of the Penitent One’s design and the explanation of the Capirote’s use in the game. Sourced from The Art of Blasphemous, © The Game Kitchen, 2019.
Explained in the screenshot from the artbook (see Image 2), the Capirote was worn by penitents in the Middle Ages to express that they were repenting for their sins. It was then adopted by the Inquisition to shame those who were convicted of their crimes.
With this uniquely Spanish-Catholic context in mind, nearly every game character with a Capirote can be identified as someone guilty of some deed or crime. Interestingly enough, the Capirote is just about everywhere in Cvstodia. And even if the player is not familiar with the Spanish history of the Capirote, the dialogue from Deogracias establishes the Capirote outside of its Spanish influence—in the world of Cvstodia. He does this by referencing his and the player character’s penance after greeting the player. This, coupled with sharing a different but similar headpiece to the Penitent One, Deogracias subtly tells the player that those who have a headdress similar to the two of them are also penitents. The Capirote is both an intimidating and ominous piece of headwear. But the Capirote is always tied to Spain, and The Game Kitchen implements it as one of their many unique stylistic choices in a very aesthetically Spanish game.
Figure 3: Animation of Deogracias, showcasing the rope around him, and his capirote as he looks down at the Penitent One in an in-game cutscene. © The Game Kitchen, 2019.
One of the primary characters in Blasphemous is the self identified “witness and narrator to the acts of the Grievous Miracle,” Deogracias, and much of what the player learns about the game’s world is from him. It is from Deogracias that we learn of his penance, explained in the quote above, as well as being the first person to call the Penitent One the name used by everyone else in mentioning him. Deogracias, though he is much taller than the player character, shares a distinct feature in common with him: the conical headgear, albeit with a greenish color and a wicker placemat (GIF sourced by u/MooncakeS2 on Reddit).
Concluding Thoughts
There are countless other examples of The Game Kitchen using their Spanish roots in the game’s world and characters outsides of the Penitent One and Deogracias, but much of that is explained far more eloquently in the digital art book. This analysis is more to highlight some of the more immediate connections with the game’s Spanish and Catholic influences. And it is my wish that more studios take such bold and native influences into the art of making video games. Blasphemous shows us the how oftentimes, the most unique aesthetics and styles can come from one’s own backyard.
Works Cited
Cabeza Mogollo, E., & Fernández, J. M. (2019). The art of blasphemous autor, Enrique Cabeza Mogollo ; Traducción, José Manuel Fernández García. GTM Ediciones.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2025, April 15). Ku Klux Klan. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ku-Klux-Klan
The Game Kitchen. Blasphemous. Team 17, 2019.
[email protected], A. S. S.-. (n.d.). History of seville: Feel the magic of this city. History of Seville: feel the magic of this city | AIRE Magazine. https://beaire.com/en/aire-magazine/history-of-seville
u/MooncakeS2. (2024, October). Characters from Blasphemous. Reddit. May 5, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterDesigns/comments/1fefgmv/characters_from_blasphemous/
