The Last Faith Review: Navigating the Shadows of Metroidvania and Soulslike Heritage (PC)

In 2020, The Last Faith made its Kickstarter debut and almost immediately surpassed its funding goal. Since the beginning, its captivating blend of Metroidvania-style gameplay, gothic ambiance, and stunning visuals resonated deeply with the gamer community, pushing the project to achieve four times its initial fundraising target.

Now, three years later, The Last Faith has launched across all platforms, and a mere glimpse at its latest images and trailers reveals the profound influence of Bloodborne and Blasphemous on Kumi Souls Games, the London-based studio behind its development.

Therefore, The Last Faith faced the challenge of honoring its inspirations and carving a distinctive identity within the saturated realms of Metroidvania and Soulslike genres, popularly cherished and prevalent in the independent gaming landscape.

On the one hand, The Last Faith draws upon Blasphemous for its 2D Metroidvania-style gameplay progression, pixel art visuals, and the spine-chilling nature of the enemies’ executions.

On the other hand, the claimed Kumi Soul’s project also embraces Bloodborne’s gothic essence and horror-infused artistry, weaving elements of its narrative and background into its own fabric.

The Last Faith is available on the Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One/Series S/X and PS4/PS5 for $27.99.

Story: An Excessive Narration Adventure

In the game, the player guides Eric, a mysterious warrior who starts his adventure with a curse on his body after waking up in a cell. With that on the scene, the primary missions unfold across diverse, non-linear landscapes, battling grotesque creatures to enhance Eric’s abilities to gain new skills and unlock access to uncharted realms.

Throughout the journey, Eric will encounter curious characters populating a central mansion, which serves as the primary hub for lost souls remaining there after their demise. Sadly, this familiar structure contributes to the first perception of the game’s lack of originality, presenting a significant weakness in its storyline.

Overall, the game treads well-trodden paths with solid tasks, offering few alternatives and heavy reliance on pre-established works, ultimately inviting constant comparison to its users. Unfortunately, this often results in The Last Faith falling short of the standards set by its predecessors.

For example, a prominent aspect highlighting this dependence is the narrative, delving into tales of hunters, cursed blood, creatures evoking werewolves and vampires, celestial entities, and institutions conducting enigmatic experiments.

Moreover, The Last Faith’s plot suffers from a fatal flaw: it is excessively narrated. While many games of this genre frequently embrace cryptic storytelling, the player here encounters unrestrained dialogues featuring sprawling blocks of disconnected phrases, making it challenging to have coherence or clarity.

The game’s dialogue issue lies in its excessive narration

Even for simpler adventure games, many users prefer the spoken dialogue to conclude before advancing to the following text box in search of clues. Yet, in this instance, the temptation to skip dialogues has turned strong due to difficulty grasping meaningful information.

In this sense, it is easy to find examples where the narrative has not quite landed in The Last Faith’s interactions, urging the players to roll their eyes in despair and smash the button for the next phase to appear.

Gameplay: A Mix of Controversial Decisions and Rushed Elements

The alleged obsession for The Last Faith on emulating Bloodborne and Blasphemous extends to adopting concepts not well-received in those games. A glaring example is the decision to prevent the restoration of healing items upon resting at bonfires, compelling players to farm supplies when running low.

Furthermore, The Last Faith exhibits elements hinting at a rushed release, notably evident in the user interface for equipped items and consumables, typographic choices, and an incomplete credits section merely displaying the studio name without further details.

Concerning the controls, these exhibit some annoying imprecision, particularly noticeable during frantic moments. However, this does not diminish the game’s overall solidity since they remain intuitive for a typical Metroidvania and Soulslike genre tribute.

In the end, this title captivates fans with a traditional Metrovania-Souls gameplay, which is amusing enough to hold them firmly until the story’s completion.

The game boasts an impressive array of animations

On the one hand, as a Metroidvania title, The Last Faith provides a decent freedom for exploration. The game encourages players to consistently mark the map for future revisits, always presenting two or more paths to traverse. Remarkably, it even allows for venturing into higher-difficulty areas in the game’s early stages.

On the other hand, as a Soulslike title, The Last Faith offers a diverse array of melee, ranged weapons, and spells, facilitating the creation of builds with distinct approaches. Notably, a standout feature in this sense is that if the player does not meet a weapon’s requirements, they can still use it, although with a penalty for inflicted damage.

In addition to this point, this title embraces a complex gameplay experience without selectable difficulty levels. Deaths in the game are frequent events, particularly when confronting challenging bosses. So, it is expected to lose significant soul counts due to seemingly trivial accidents, such as an unfortunate stumble leading to a pit filled with dangerous spikes.

A Comprehensive Gaming Journey With Challenges and Rewards

Overall, The Last Faith stands out as an exceptionally comprehensive game, providing many offensive options, items, and skills. Also, by boasting a diverse array of enemies, expansive map areas, secondary missions, and intriguing secrets, the game provides a rich and immersive experience enriched by exceptional executions during the battle, giving unique approaches for each enemy type.

Undoubtedly, the game’s difficulty is not naturally negative. Typically, The Last Faith strikes a commendable balance between presenting challenges and delivering satisfaction upon conquering them.

Yet, there are considerable moments of frustration. The concept of consumable healing items and bullets not replenished upon resting detracts from the enjoyment, particularly after coming close to defeating a boss. Also, the need to interrupt the game’s flow and embark on item-farming ventures disrupts the otherwise immersive experience.

Mastering boss patterns is crucial for survival

Additionally, the gameplay exploits altered statuses, as being burned or electrocuted can prove fatal unless the appropriate curative item is promptly employed.

Graphics & Sound: Contrasting Gothic Aesthetics and Forgettable Music

The game’s tone centers around a distinct gothic style characterized by meticulously crafted pixel-art aesthetics. While it resembles Blasphemous, at least the Spanish game distinguishes itself by intricately weaving its lore, landscapes, and enemies around Catholicism.

In contrast, The Last Faith lacks a defined identity, leaning heavily on the well-worn Castlevania aesthetic. Despite its commendable artistic style, there is a desire for a unique signature that sets it apart rather than drawing comparisons to other games.

Furthermore, the audio experience also felt forgettable, featuring an ambient soundtrack that often fades into the background during exploration. Even when attempting to evoke an epic atmosphere with choirs and orchestras during boss fights, it fails to shine or make a lasting impression truly.

Besides, the sound effects serve their purpose without outstanding qualities, and the English voice acting disappoints with lackluster interpretations and a notable absence of enthusiasm. Even though the player can find the game’s texts translated into various languages, these still need to inject the necessary spark into the overall narrative.

The Last Faith can be completed in approximately 12 hours, but delving into the additional content can substantially extend the duration. This factor is attributed to the abundance of secondary missions and side bosses, various collectibles to obtain, and three different endings.

Despite its clear issues, this title manages to leave a prevalent positive impression. Undoubtedly, a praising factor for this is the rewards system, which is fair enough with each new weapon or ability discovered and skillfully boosted for significant advantages.

The Last Faith was reviewed on PC.