2023-10-14 14:35:02
Game news The hardest Souls-like of the year? It’s neither Lords of the Fallen nor Lies of P. Try your luck!
Published on 10/14/2023 at 4:35 p.m.
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Are Souls-Like becoming popular? Without a doubt. This is evidenced by the big releases of the genre in this year 2023. This does not mean, however, that they are becoming more popular: as evidenced by this game expected in November which will be in line with these very demanding titles.
Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P… Une année pleine de Souls-Like
Clearly, games close to the Souls saga (Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, Bloodborne and Elden Ring) from the From Software studio are becoming popular. The so-called Souls-Like were released this year 2023. For example, we saw Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty at the beginning of March, followed to a certain extent by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It is therefore especially since the summer that the publication of these demanding games has intensified. At the end of July, Remnant 2 was released for co-op TPS fans.
A few weeks later, another sequel in a very different genre also appeared with Blasphemous 2. Goodbye 3D, we return to the source of video games with 2D, pixels that work hard in a universe around the Inquisition more than mastered. This two-dimensional parenthesis is only short-lived since the little boy Pinocchio brings back to school with Lies of P. The South Korean studio delivers an intelligent rewriting of history with gameplay very inspired by FromSoftware. But it works !
Finally, for the past few days, Lords of the Fallen has continued the Souls-Like tour. After a first episode, forgettable and forgotten, of the same name, the HEXWORKS studio tries its luck with a soft reboot for a rather satisfactory result if we do not take into account the major performance problems of the title.
The Last Faith: presentation of the new kid
The Last Faith
To continue this astonishing monthly regularity, the Kumi Souls Games studio is adding its stone to the building with its The Last Faith. This is the studio’s first game. It is published by Playstack: a name that some will recognize since it is to him that we owe the famous Case of the Golden Idol. But with The Last Faith, it’s not about mysteries or investigations: it’s really an action and platform game. More precisely, it is a metroidvania : the different regions of the game are unlocked throughout the adventure thanks to powers found along the way.
As part of Steam Neo Fest, developers Kumi Souls Games announced the game’s release date. It therefore arrives on November 15 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch. It is also a demo that has been available since the start of the event. Enough to make us quiver with enthusiasm at the idea of submitting to a new demanding challenge. And it’s not much saying.
When Bloodborne meets Castlevania
Unlike Blasphemous 2 already mentioned above, The Last Faith remains more traditional in the choice of its universe. When viewing the images and videos released by the publisher, we quickly realize that the title borrows a lot from Bloodborne and Castlevania in its aesthetic. The city we visit in this trial version is reminiscent of Yharnam when the design of the map and the character we play immediately brings to mind Castlevania.
More than logical inspirations: The Last Faith is a metroidVANIA whose gameplay is similar to that of Souls. It is even very close to that of Bloodborne since our hero carries a pistol with him. He can use it, unless he wants to keep his (very) precious ammunition, to kill his enemies from a distance. Depending on the class chosen at the start (there will be four for launch), two melee weapons will accompany it. They each have their own attack (like the ashes of war in Elden Ring), their own statistics as well as a damage bonus depending on the amount of our character’s characteristics.
The player can therefore attack (X/Square), dodge attacks using a roll (B/Round) or a jump (A/X). A classic configuration which is complicated by the parry system: it requires pressing RB and Y/Triangle to launch the counter. However, the animation is very long for a parade animation. In the first hour of play, this is the only aspect that we were unable to get to grips with.
Something damaging that tends to cause the game’s difficulty to skyrocket, with parrying being one of the only ways to regain health. There are still Healing Injunctions that act as extra blood bags, but they are rare… and don’t recharge, even when you die. A small detail that makes the difference compared to Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen or Blasphemous 2. An observation that will certainly frustrate some in advance. Not having healing on bosses is suicide. But going back to get some healing injections too. Have you been told the game is similar to Bloodborne?
In The Last Faith too, death is around every corner. The different enemies you encounter can drain your life bar in the blink of an eye. Caution is required, even if we learn very quickly to circumvent their offensives. The game then offers an exhilarating dynamism, highlighted during the demo’s only boss fight. The latter did not have an incredible variety of moves, but enough for us to try it several times. Once the cycle of blows has been identified and the way to dodge them found, we atomize the big monster with well-placed ax blows with a background sound reminiscent of Light of the Seven from the Serie Game of Thrones.
Even more punishing and exhilarating than the other Souls-Like of the year, this is the promise that The Last Faith makes with its demo (available until Monday 7:00 p.m.). However, the latter does not answer all the questions we ask ourselves during the adventure. How does the character upgrade system work? Are the different classes just reshuffled statistics? How can we make our weapons and powers stronger? What influences do side quests have? Will the variety of weapons and abilities still be present in the full version of the game? What about level design? Lots of questions that we can’t wait to have the answers to with the release of The Last Faith on November 15.
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