The Last Faithwears its inspiration on the proverbial sleeve: it is atrue-to-form Metroidvania titlestyling itself after the likes ofBlasphemousandBloodborne. This much is obvious from a passing glance at the game, however, and it’s its status as a true Soulslike that we’ve been wondering about.
Much ofThe Last Faith‘s pre-release marketing hypehas focused on it being a Soulslike. The thing about this particular gaming niche, however, is that it tends to extend to all manner of titles. For example, you’ve got a game likeLords of the Fallen, which is arguably as straightforward of a Soulslike as one gets, but thedelightful rogue-lite platformerDead Cellsis tagged as a Soulslike on Steam as well. It’s easy to see how confusing this whole discussion can get.
The Last Faithitself, however, has proven to be as much of a Soulslike as it is a Metroidvania from our experience, and here we aim to illustrate why that is the case!
The Last Faith is fairly similar to true Souls games
Blasphemousand its sequel,Blasphemous 2, are two of the most well-known and highly regarded Metroidvania Soulslikes on the market right now, as well as the decidedly more obscure platformerSalt and Sanctuary. Over the years, there have been other examples of the prototypical Metroidvania Soulslike, too, but these games are most often referenced as such.The Last Faith, in comparison, stands shoulder-to-shoulder with them. Not necessarily in regard to quality, mind, but in the sense thatThe Last Faithbasically has all the makings of a true Soulslike title.
To summarize many of its key soulslike features,The Last Faithhas examples of the following genre tropes:
We could take this discussion a step further still, in fact, and compareThe Last FaithtoBloodbornespecifically, which appears to be more of an inspiration for the game thanDark Soulsproper. From that point of view, the game also allows the use of various firearms and Victorian-looking machinery, helping separate it from other examples of this particular niche.
Taking all of this into account, we can safely say thatThe Last Faithdoesn’t just market itself as a Soulslike. Instead, the developer Kumi Souls Games appears to have successfully identified and implemented all the crucial features of this specific sub-genre, and developed a genuine Metroidvania Soulslike in the end.
Fair warning, though:The Last Faithis about as hardcore as Soulslikes get, for better or for worse.
