Video Game / The Last Faith

The Last Faith is a Dark Fantasy / Gothic Horror video game that uses a fusion of Souls-like RPG and Metroidvania mechanics released in November, 2023 by Kumi Souls Games.

Players take the role of Eryk, an amnesiac man who awakens in a crumbling asylum filled with mutant monsters. Fighting his way to freedom, he learns that the creatures he defeated with the victims of the Nycrux; a plague-like curse that has been sweeping the world, transforming its victims into deranged horrors. Worse, he too is infected with the Nycrux. So Eryk sets off into the decaying world around him, seeking to find some way to cure himself before he too succumbs.

Provides examples of:

• Arc Words: The word "heart" is used many times in dialogue which seems to be the word used for someone's humanity.
• Bat Out of Hell: One of the first bosses you fight is Edwyn the Shadowscourge, a massive skeletal bat-monster that can summon orbs of dark energy. A note you can find after beating him suggests he Was Once a Man, and is yet another victim of the Nycrux.
• Bloody Murder: Blood is one of the five elemental powers in the Last Faith. An enemy in the Liturgical Passage can create tracking orbs of blood and short-ranged bursts of blood to attack. A boss called Mannfred uses blood as projectile attacks.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Other Soulslike/Metroidvania hybrid games tend to take a control scheme from one genre or the other, using either the face buttons or triggers/bumpers for attacks. This game's default control scheme splits the difference, putting one attack on X and the other on the right trigger. For added frustration, the right trigger attack is the left trigger in Bloodborne. This was alleviated with patch 1.5 adding support for controller rebinding.
• Dark Fantasy: "The Last Faith" takes place in a fantastical world with an aesthetic loosely akin to Victorian Europe, which has been ravaged by the rise of a dark power called the Nycrux, which combines elements of curse and plague.
• Degraded Boss:
  • The Giant Patron, the first boss of the game, ends up becoming a Giant Mook you can kill.
  • It's possible to fight a Voracious Terror in a combat gauntlet before you fight the version with a boss health bar. A later combat gauntlet involves fighting two at once.
• Elemental Powers: The differing attacks in the game are all divided into one of five different elemental attributes; Fire, Electric, Blood, Frost or Dark. The player has access to spells that can do at least four of the five damage types.
  • An Ice Person: Moonshade Tears summons three diagonal spears of ice out of the ground a short distance ahead of Eryk to impale foes.
  • Casting a Shadow: Accursed Phalanges throws an orb of Darkness (represented as purple fire) at a target, which explodes and then leaves a patch of purple flames that continues to burn any enemy that enters it for a time. Corrupted Star lobs a small orb of Darkness in a short-ranged arc, similar to the classic Axe subweapon in ''Castlevania.
  • Playing with Fire: Old Ashes causes Eryk to charge forward a short distance before hitting the target with a punch that explodes. Combustion Rings sends two helix-shaped blasts of fire shooting out to either side of Eryk.
  • Shock and Awe: Barsov's Electrocution discharges a lightning bolt from Eryk's outstretched hand, which can be sustained in a manner akin to a flamethrower. Omniscient Eye of Protection surround Eryk with a field of electricity that damages enemies on touch. Thunder Conjuration smites an area directly in front of Eryk with a powerful lightning bolt. Explosive Candle causes Eryk to hit the ground and produce a large explosion of electrical energy.
• Elemental Weapon: There's at least one elementally infused weapon for each of the five elemental types — Fire, Frost, Lightning, Darkness and Blood. These weapons do bonus elemental damage on each attack, and consist of the Firestriker's Blade and Leena's Bow for Fire, the Illygarth Boreal Blade and Holy Winged Axe for Frost, the Stormchaser Macewhip for Lightning, the Spinal Chain Blade and Devourer of the Betrayed for Darkness, and the Rift of Blood for Blood. There's also a consumable for each elemental type that can temporarily add that elemental attribute to the current weapon.
• Evolving Weapon: All of the player's "Right Hand" weapons, as well as their guns, can be upgraded by an NPC at the mansion in exchange for special objects and currency unit, which improves their damage rating.
• Gatling Good: Hidden behind a breakable wall in the Liturgical Pass is the Hexabarrel Repeater, a six-barreled rifle that will fire repeatedly so long as the secondary attack button is held down, with each bullet consumed translating into multiple shots in the game. This allows it to chew through an enemy's health bar.
• Gotta Catch Them All:
  • Several areas require Eryk to find several switches, items, or support chains and flip/destroy/collect all of them in order to open the way to either the area boss or huge cache of loot. This can involve some Guide Dang It! moments, especially in the Damned Ruins of the Osseus Fortress, where all four are guarded by combat gauntlets that are themselves inside secret rooms.
  • There are Achievements for finding every primary weapon, every spell, and every firearm.
  • There's another achievement (and a few items) gated behind collecting Unborn of the Midnight Aristocracy.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • As mentioned above, some of the areas require finding out of the way objects and activating them (usually as a set of four) to open the boss arena or cache of gear at the end of the biome. Bonus points to the Damned Ruins of the Osseus Fortress, where all four are behind illusionary walls.
  • Collecting all of the Unborn of the Midnight Aristocracy requires all of the traversal relics and some clever platforming.
• Guns Akimbo: Hidden behind the cannonfire that guards the road into the city of Erlim is a chest containing Blackhall's Double Menace, a pair of matched pistols that lets Eryk fire two shots at once per attack of the left hand weapon.
• The Great Serpent: One of the late-game bosses is a collection of enormous snakes.
• Hammerspace: The Last Faith eschews the storage box found in most 3D Soulslikes, with Eryk simply carrying his whole inventory on him. Despite this, his sprite doesn't include any noticeable backpack or other storage space.
  • When using his left hand weapon, the weapon in Eryk's right hand disappears and vice-versa. This is especially noticeable with large weapons like the Holy Winged Axe and Hexabarrel Repeater.
  • Ditto for switching between weapons in either hand. Again, especially noticeable when the enormous double bladed axe disappears and is replaced with the elaborate coils of a whip.
• Magic Knight: The player is able to find a number of different elemental spells, which they can use akimbo along with their melee weapons.
• Metroidvania: Play centers on exploring the large and sprawling map, which slowly opens up as the player collects special equipment that gives them new abilities.
• Mirror Boss: Three of the bosses Eryk fights, Leena and the two Hunters, use the same weapons, spells, and fighting style as Eryk himself. They can even heal themselves with potions, just like Eryk.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: There are multiple "hybrid" weapons in the game, including two different Whip Swords.
  • The Starfall Macewhip is normally used as a mace, but when its Focus Attacks are used, the head detaches on a lengthy chain to strike from afar like a whip.
  • The Severance Reaper is normally used as a double-bladed scythe, but when Focus Attack is used, the player detaches its blades as a sword/dagger for a flurry of rapid strikes.
  • The Holy Wing Axe functions similarly to the Severance Reaper; normally used for slow, powerful strikes, it can be broken into two hand-axes for rapid-fire slashes.
  • The Blunderblade is a sword with a gun built into it, allowing the player to use Focus Attack to fire it like a shotgun.
  • The Firestriker Blade is another gunblade, but when Focus Attack is used, it discharges a built-in flamethrower, which also temporarily ignites the blade to increase its bonus fire damage. Whilst the blade is burning, using Focus Attack has Eryk swing the blade to launch a fiery Razor Wind projectile.
• Multiple Endings: The game has three endings, though none are very positive.
  • The first ending sees you accept Annabelle and Caterina's throne. However, it's heavily implied that you haven't defeated Lord Patryk Laddak so much as BECOME him.
  • The second ending sees you refuse the throne, and defeat Annabelle and Caterina in a fight. However, in the aftermath, you quickly succumb to the Nycrux, allowing the minions of the True Final Boss to finish you off.
  • The third and final ending sees you defeat Medeya the Cosmic Voice. However, you nevertheless succumb to the corruption, and the barrier between the celestial and mortal realms is broken.
• Named Weapon: Every last one of the weapons the player finds has a name.
  • The starting sword is the Nightfall Blade.
  • The starting pistol is the Nightbane Pistol.
  • The axe is called Skullcleaver.
  • The whip is called Nighttide's Rout
  • The first gun/sword hybrid is called the Blunderblade, whilst the second is called the Firestriker Blade.
  • The two-handed sword is called the Ethereal Great Blade.
  • The matched pistols are called Blackhall's Double Menace.
  • The shotgun is called Doppietta.
  • The electrified mace/whip hybrid is called the Stormchaser Macewhip.
  • The two-handed Whip Sword is called the Spinal Chain Blade.
  • The scythe is called the Severance Reaper.
  • The gatling gun is called the Hexabarrel Repeater.
  • The katana is the Devourer of the Betrayed.
  • The two-handed katana is the Rift of Blood.
  • The bow is Leena's Bow.
  • The longsword is called the Illygarth Boreal Blade.
  • The double-bladed axe is called the Holy Wing Axe.
• Secret Weapon: The two katanas are both hidden behind mini-quests where the player has to tack down four interactive shrines to unlock an enchanted altar that will teleport Eryk to a hidden room with chests where the associated katana is found. The Rift of Blood is connected to hidden torches in the Osseus Fortress that must be lit, whilst the Devourer of the Betrayed is connected to shrines that must be smashed in Mythringal.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: The Spinal Chain Blade is made from the magically-treated spinal column of a mutant, with a cutting edge made up of jutting, scythe-like, razor-sharp bony protrusions. This causes it to "saw" through enemies when it strikes.
• The Six Stats: The player uses harvested essence from slain enemies to level up five stats; Vitality, Strength, Dexterity, Mind, and Instinct. These in turn boost the player's Health, Focus, Power and Fate, as well as their elemental Defenses and Resistances.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The first uninfected person that Eryk meets ends up being killed by the game's first boss just as Eryk finally escapes from the asylum as well.
• Shout-Out: Lots, to the games' inspirations:
  • Blasphemous: The animation for using the Healing Injections looks very similar to that of the Bile Flasks. The visual designs of multiple backgrounds and assets are very similar, such as the Warp Whistle altars that you use as save points. The graphic for collectables in the overworld is almost identical.
  • Bloodborne: Many of the enemy designs are like 2D versions of those in Bloodborne, such as the Pilgrims that wear top hats and swing axes or shoot rifles at you. Mythringal is clearly modeled after Yharnam, with its gothic architecture and Victorian aesthetic. The Starborn Nighthunter looks like the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, and even uses some similar moves.
  • Castlevania: The backdash move is similar to Alucard's backdash in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. One of the gargoyles in Mythringal also looks very much like the one Alucard sometimes turns into when petrified. Eryk's design is likely modeled on Gabriel Belmont.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The region called the "Damned Ruins of the Osseus Fortress" on the map is set high in the snowy mountains, so the enemies do Frost elemental damage and the terrain is covered in snow. A subarea is set in the frozen caves of the region, and here the player can encounter ice-slick floors on which traction is lowered, making it hard to maneuver. Ice Crystals abound as a hazardous environmental feature, and one type of enemy throws icy projectiles that cause them to sprout wherever they strike. The adjacent region, the village of Telwynill, is so cold that it is subjected to sporadic gusts of freezing wind so cold that Eryk takes continual Frost damage and risks being Frozen if he is out of cover when they occur.
• Souls-like RPG: Picture Blasphemous with the Gothic European atmosphere of Bloodborne and you have The Last Faith in a nutshell.
• Sword and Gun: Due to the unique "two hands" system of equipping weapons, the player is able to fight with a melee weapon in their right hand and either a pistol or a spell in their left, alternating between which they use by button input. The first two weapons the player even finds are a sword and a pistol, for a literal example of this trope.
• Sword Plant: Weaponized with Skullcleaver and the Ethereal Great Blade. When the Focus Attack is used with either of these weapons, Eryk leaps forward to smash his weapon into the ground, producing a deadly shockwave attack.
• Underground Monkey:
  • A number of enemies and even bosses clearly recycle basic sprites, with some cosmetic tweaks. A prominent example are the winged bat-like creatures in the first city, who have a variant in the Osseus Fortress and Telwynill that are blue-colored and launch Ice Crystals as projectile attacks.
  • Enemies can be found in some areas that are identical to their counterparts in other areas, but have much higher health-bars.
• Walking Armory: The player is able to find a large number of weapons over the course of the game. Weapons are characterized as either "Right Hand" (melee weapons) or "Left Hand" (consume either bullets or Mana) and can be used in combo. Right Hand weapons can also use "Focus Techniques", which requires pressing two buttons in synch and drains mana to unleash a special attack unique to the weapon.
  • A shortsword that doubles as a Whip Sword.
  • A pistol.
  • A matched pair of pistols.
  • A double-barreled shotgun.
  • An axe.
  • A whip.
  • A sword with a shotgun built into it.
  • A Flaming Sword with a flamethrower built into it.
  • An electrified mace that can also double as an electric whip.
  • A two-handed sword.
  • A second two-handed sword that is also a Whip Sword.
  • A scythe.
  • A gatling gun.
  • Two katanas; one single-handed infused with darkness, and the other two-handed and infused with blood.
  • A double-bladed axe infused with ice.
  • A bow that launches heat rays.
  • An ice-infused longsword.
• Whip Sword:
  • The Mana-consuming special techniques for the Nightfall Blade cause its blade to extend on a chain, turning it into one of these.
  • The Spinal Chain Blade is normally swung as a two-handed sword, but Focus Attacks cause its blade to separate and detach into a serrated whip infused with Darkness.