The Last Faith from Kumi Souls Games and Playstack is a dark and gritty action-packed game that fuses together the “Soulslike” and “Metroidvania” genres. Touting “merciless and precise combat with a huge range of weapons, firearms, and custom executions at your disposal”, it certainly sounds great on paper.
Does it deliver on its claims though?
The Last Faith
In The Last Faith players will take on the role of Eryk, a protagonist who has no recollection of recent events. All he knows is that he has to survive and the game throws you straight into the deep end with monstrous enemies out to get you. Sounds familiar right? Yup, Dark Souls did similar back in the day and The Last Faith is dripping in that same kind of vibe and aesthetic.
Where things diverge lie with the fact that The Last Faith is a 2D side-scroll action adventure that’s incredibly reminiscent of games such as Hollow Knight, Blasphemous and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. In fact, if you’ve played Blasphemous, you’ll feel right at home here since the game plays out very similarly to it.
Players will be able to slash away at enemies, dodge and fire weapons as well as use magic abilities. Additionally you’ll have access to something known as “Focus” which really augments your damage output. Knowing when to use focus to dish out massive amounts of damage is really essential to victory in some fights in the game. There’s different combat styles on offer too so you should try them out and see which works best for you.
Core Gameplay
Gameplay in The Last Faith is an eclectic mixture of fast paced combat, more precision-based dodging and timing and pinpoint precision platforming. There are plenty of dastardly traps in the game much like in Blasphemous and the enemies in this title are just as relentless too. You will end up dying a lot here so if you aren’t into games that require player skill, you might want to look elsewhere. It won’t be uncommon for you to die repeatedly to boss enemies or to pitfall traps and the frustration can set in if you’re a gamer that prefers a more casual experience.
Where The Last Faith excels is in its level design.
There’s a lot of interconnected areas and exploring feels incredibly rewarding. You don’t know what to expect when adventuring forth and while there can be some nasty surprises waiting, the sheer joy you’ll get from progressing just that little bit further into an area is unmatched. Especially after defeating a tough boss enemy or getting through a particularly difficult platforming section with enemies around. The core gameplay loop of exploring, defeating enemies, levelling up and progressing further works well, as expected of a title in this genre.
The Last Faith requires players to really strategize and be specific with their actions. Rushing in and button bashing will just lead to your untimely death. You’ll have to carefully use your focus to defeat enemies and ration your consumables to ensure survival. Resting at an Altar will respawn enemies and you can farm them to gain “Essence” which you can use to upgrade yourself. Parrying for some strange reason is tied to a 2-button combo which makes things a bit more difficult.
If you’re playing on PC you can get around this by setting up a macro on your mouse or keyboard but this shouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully the developers can patch this to alleviate the unnecessary difficulty this causes.
Speaking of PC, The Last Faith has some performance issues on PC. The game has crashed a few times and seems to have an issue where if you’re using a controller, it will stop responding abruptly. This needs to be resolved because it can really ruin things in the heat of battle.
The story of The Last Faith is told via in-game conversations with characters and via lore from items. It’s again, very reminiscent of Dark Souls and other Soulslikes so if you’re used to that kind of thing, you won’t mind this. If however you wanted a more straightforward narrative, you won’t be getting that here. You’ll have to piece together the tidbits of info you get yourself and it might not entirely make sense in the end.
Graphically, The Last Faith is beautiful though. The 2D pixel-art aesthetic is fantastic and the animations are extremely fluid. Your playable character can also perform executions on enemies and these look great every single time. As you’re playing you’ll want to pull of executions whenever possible because of how satisfying they are to do and how great they look.
The soundtrack of The Last Faith is about what you’d expect from a game in this genre.
There wasn’t anything particularly standout or catchy but rather, the music just added to the dark, horror vibe the game gives off. The sound effects of attacks are perfectly suited to the game and match up well with the flashy animations.
Final Verdict
Overall The Last Faith is a fine addition to the Soulslike genre. It blends the Castlevania essence into the Dark Souls formula and the result is a game that works remarkably well. This kind of game isn’t exactly groundbreakingly new but it will scratch the itch gamers who love the genre might have. If you’re a fan of Blasphemous, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night or Hollow Knight, you’ll most likely enjoy The Last Faith even though it is a bit unrefined and rough around the edges.
Be warned though, it has some confusing design decisions like requiring pinpoint precision actions and there will be moments where the game will frustrate you immensely. Do give it a try though. It’s well worth a playthrough.
The Last Faith Trailer
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