The Last Faith Reviews
The Last Faith fails to make waves in a market already far too saturated to make space for something that doesn't bring innovation. Beautiful design, both in sound and scene, is let down by predictable gameplay.
Despite its incredible art direction and pixelated visuals, The Last Faith fails to encapsulate what makes its inspirations so brilliant. The plethora of poor and frustrating game mechanics and design choices, combined with technical performance issues and lack of accessibility options, makes this one of my biggest gaming disappointments of the year.
Although it does a lot right, The Last Faith ends up feeling unnecessary and forgettable, especially in such a super-saturated genre.
Though it has its issues, The Last Faith feels like an overall welcome addition to the Switch's overstuffed Metroidvania and Soulslike libraries. Its tough combat, gothic aesthetic, and labyrinthine world all feel engaging, even if some of the upgrades feel underwhelming and performance can be rough. We'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed either of the Blasphemous games or fans who can't get enough of the Soulsike formula-The Last Faith isn't the best example of this kind of gameplay, but it's an overall solid effort. However, we'd recommend investigating other platforms that can deliver better performance than Switch, if that's an option for you. Performance drops can really hurt the experience, so we've got our fingers crossed for further updates.
The Last Faith is a beautiful but inconsistent rehash of older, better games.
While some elements didn’t come off as well as planned — world building and narrative fall flat despite obvious attempts to bring them more into the spotlight, for example — the overall package will still go down a treat for Metroidvania fans, and offers plenty to even bring new followers into the fold.
As for balance issues and so forth, they are things that can be fixed. I had enough fun with The Last Faith to keep me playing. I do look forward to where things go from here, as I had been anticipating this release for a good while. Conceptually though, the things that I admire about the game, I do so because they’re what I admire about other releases. The Last Faith is an ambitious metroidvania and Kumi Souls has succeeded in creating something that will definitely be mentioned in the conversation about positive indie Soulslikes. Ultimately, there’s fun to be had and improvements to be made in equal measure.
The Last Faith feels great to play, the combat is entertaining yet challenging, and it's stunning in motion. However, some unfortunate design decisions and difficulty spikes hold it back from greatness.
Despite many issues dragging down the experience, I would not say that I had a bad time overall with The Last Faith. The combat is genuinely thrilling and impressively varied when it functions well, and I was impressed with many of the game's locations, boss fights, puzzles and enemy designs. However, The Last Faith feels like a particularly inelegant mixture of many different elements from popular Metroidvanias and Soulslikes without quite executing them as neatly. With its obtuse-for-the-sake-of-it narrative, occasionally stodgy combat and platforming elements and a lack of its own identity, Metroidvania fans will have an enjoyable enough time with The Last Faith, but there are better examples of what it has attempted to execute out there.
It’s hard to deny The Last Faith its place as a solid entry into the greater canon of metroidvanias, but its successes aren’t without any caveat. There’s no shortage of content, but that content is somewhat inconsistent in how fun it is to play through. Boss fights are addictive to learn, but leave the player wanting for more variety in their patterns. The standard metroidvania progression is fun, but the soulslike elements can feel tacked on. This is all to say it’s well worth the time for even seasoned metroidvania enthusiasts, but it can be hard to ignore the areas that needed a bit more refinement while spending said time with it. The Last Faith is a strong title with some clear stumbles, but quality still wins out more often than not, and I’m eager to see Kumi Souls Games’ next effort as a result.
The Last Faith is a soulslike metroidvania with many strengths and just as many flaws.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I really think that if the developers continue to work on The Last Faith and fix some of the issues I mentioned earlier with the button layouts, weapon glitches, and other weird bugs they can get the game up to a much higher quality. I still found it to be good fun overall even though it’s not really bringing anything new to the table in the world of Metroidvanias.
The Last Faith is full of rough edges. But Kumi Souls managed to create a very exciting game that motivates you to explore every corner of this mysterious world.
Review in Russian | Read full review
All in all, The Last Faith competently blends the Souls-Like and Metroidvania subgenres, dressing the package in a very compelling gothic Victorian aesthetic, one clearly inspired by Bloodborne.
Everything on display here has been seen before, and though it does those things well, its reliance on a tried-and-true formula and its liberal borrowing from Bloodborne in particular work against it, denying it a unique identity. Yet despite the impulse to think that The Last Faith could just be 2D Bloodborne 2, the final product is a great Metroidvania on its own, and - aside from some of the writing - its adaptation of the work that inspired it is very well done. Ultimately, The Last Faith feels sharp, looks great, and it's a lot of fun to play. Playstack clearly loves and understands the genre, and anyone looking to scratch the itch will certainly enjoy this game.
The Last Faith is not the pinnacle of 2D metroidvanias, but its collection of weapons is genuinely cool and busting the masters of its samey levels is satisfying.
The Last Faith is a mostly good game, with a few moments of brilliance, and a few more that drove me into a rage. It’s a beautiful, great-sounding game with decent combat and a world I found intriguing. In a year of stellar releases, this is one to, at the very least, add to your back catalog.
The Last Faith is a very challenging soulsvania game that doesn't bring much innovation to the genre, but as you play you'll realize you don't want to put it down.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
While having an undeniably dark / attractive look and ambiance, the gameplay and overall design lack refinement
It's a shame it doesn't have more personality, because under all those borrowed ideas there's a really solid metroidvania and an engaging soulslike that fans of both genres will surely love.
Review in Spanish | Read full review