5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of The Last Faith.

"The Last Faith" is one of the most anticipated metroidvania games at the moment, taking inspiration from top games such as the "Castlevania" series, the beloved "Bloodborne" and the perfect game "Blasphemous". "The Last Faith" is the successful combination of the 3 games. Made by "Kumi Souls Games" and published by "Playstack", "The Last Faith" lived up to my expectations, I could say that it's one of the best metroidvania games ever made. With solid combat, interesting lore and enviable Art Direction, "The Last Faith" has become one of my favorite games of 2023. "The Last Faith" starts strong with an absolutely AMAZING cinematic, the pixel-art in the cinematic is very well produced, besides that, the sounds and music in the background gives you a perfect feeling of goth vampires. Afterwards, the game presents you with a simple tutorial to get you through the game, for new metroidvania players, the tutorial is a must-do. "The Last Faith" gave me a very good impression from the tutorial, the level of production is insane, besides all the good things the game offers you, the aesthetics are the most surprising. It's a feeling you can't describe very easily, everything seems so dark and scary, as I mentioned above, "Blasphemous", "Castlevania" and "Bloodborne" combined, can bring a real masterpiece. When it comes to the combat, the game does not excel at all, it is a good combat, not very flashy or fast, however, in the first 3 hours of the game it is very difficult to get used to this combat, especially if you came directly from "Blasphemous 2", where combat is the holy grail of metroidvanias. I probably forgot to specify, but the game tends to go on the side of "souls" very much. In addition to working like a metroidvania (it's a metroidvania), the game also has a leveling system, similar to the one in the "soulslike/soulsborne" games. That can be a little unbalanced, being able to easily charm "souls" for hours to reach a level well above the obstacles in the way. Another very interesting addition to "The Last Faith" are the weapons and abilities you acquire throughout the game. "The Last Faith" adds a ton of melee and ranged weapons, all of which are unique and Overpowered for certain bosses. I could say the same thing about "skills", they are categorized as "ranged tools", but they use mana, you also have certain firearms, which use bullets instead (reference to Bloodborne, most likely). Considering that we have decided how the weapons and "skills" work, let's move on to "the variety of enemies", I could not criticize this part a lot, I tend to prefer the variety here compared to "Blasphemous 2", all the enemies were unique and had a spectacular, scary design, as the game should be. Buttt.. the bosses? How are they?.. In my favor as a fan of "metroidvania" games, I can say that the bosses are just right, they were all 10/10. The design, the music, their size, have fulfilled all the criteria for the "perfect boss/ bosses". However, the level of difficulty was much lighter than the one of "Blasphemous 1/2", but that does not make it worse, but more balanced. Besides all this, the exploration in "The Last Faith" is a very good one, as in any "metroidvania" game, "The Last Faith" forces you to leave some areas in order to return to them later, when you unlock certain abilities, such as a "Double Jump", "Dash in the air", etc. I place the movement in the category of "good things that the respective game does", the fluidity of the movement is very well associated with the combat itself, not only when exploring, but also with the bosses. We have reached the most important part that "The Last Faith" delivers to us, AESTHETICS. The aesthetics of the game are absolutely AMAZING, quality and clarity at the highest level possible, the feeling that the game gives you is unprecedented in its kind. The level of detail is at a completely different level, the developers have put all their passion into creating a visual masterpiece in the gaming industry, all areas have insanely well-made Art Design, although the game should give you the feeling of horror, I could feel the feeling of home, the feeling of quiet and peace. The design of the enemies and the bosses is equally good, it has many similarities with "Castlevania", a ton of enemies being mutated vampires. Possibly that "The Last Faith" should be the last game that fulfills the goth theme in a metroidvania properly. As for the sounds, I can't give my opinion clearly, the game has some creepy sounds, very suitable with the irresistibly dark aesthetic. The enemies, the characters, and even YOU, I could say that they all make ambient sounds, perfect for the aesthetics of the game. On the other hand, the music... the music is absolutely insane, above all the praises I can say among them few words, the composer did a really great job with this music, I declare that "The Last Faith" has the best soundtracks that I have heard this year in a video game. Purely simply, "PERFECTION!" The story of "The Last Faith" is not very interesting, it is very difficult to understand, similar to that of "Blasphemous", a "souls" type of story. However, although I was very confused and i didn't understand much of the story, I can tell you everything I understood. Our main character's name is "Eryk", a monster hunter who goes on an adventure to recover his memories and stop the chaos of "Mythringal". Over time, "Eryk's" mind becomes more and more affected, his flesh begins to slowly fall off and his condition begins to sink. As we are used to "souls", the purpose of the main story in "The Last Faith" is not the first in the line, instead, the lore of secondary characters, zones or bosses, all of these are much more detailed and put to the point. With extraordinary combat, an absolutely delightful aesthetic and music made by the gods, "The Last Faith" becomes one of the best "metroidvania" games of all time. The Level of production is at the highest level, the battles between the bosses are on a huge scale and the exploration is almost perfect. All these criteria define a good "metroidvania". Being the first game of the developers, I can only say praises, the level of passion that the developers have put into the game... that makes it good, you feel like you're playing something, it's not simply a "Soulless" game, as I've already stated above, this "Goth" aesthetic is creepy, but at the same time, it's also very familiar, I felt like I was at home. All in all, the game is a true masterpiece, although it has some flaws, the game itself brought me a lot of fun. 9.8/10 Made by DanteHR