I struck gold with my first Metroidvania demo of Steam Next Fest, which feels like Bloodborne as a 2D Castlevania

I had a very specific hankering going into this Steam Next Fest. I wanted a Gothic 2D Metroidvania with some Bloodborne vibes. I've just been in that kind of mood since blasting through Lies of P, and frankly I thought it would be harder to scratch the itch. Lo and behold, The Last Faith was the first Metroidvania demo I tried, and it absolutely whips.

Developer Kumi Souls Games – which has perhaps revealed its hand right in its name – describes The Last Faith as a "dark, Gothic fusion of Metroidvania and Soulslike," and this could hardly be more in my wheelhouse. It's grim, grisly, and grungy – Bloodborne by way of the classical Castlevania games. 

You play as Eryk, an amnesiac warrior who could pass for a true-blue Belmont. He's even got a whip, which is one of the many cool weapons I've found in the demo so far. I started as the Brawler class, which brings a melee focus to the game's Dark Souls-lite stats. I'm also a big fan of the starter axe, which has a clunky special attack but makes up for it with hefty swings that stun-lock most enemies in a way I haven't seen since Demon's Souls beloved guillotine axe. All my mana has been going to the whip special attack, though, because it basically can't miss. 

Eryk feels great to control thanks in part to an impressive jump and nimble dodge-roll. I did have to get used to the pacing of attacks, though. Enemies have some well-drawn wind-up on their attack animations, but Eryk also has a deliberate swing to him, not unlike the whip in the first Castlevanias, so you have to play methodically. Weaving in your gun and spells of choice to pick off annoying or low-health enemies adds another wrinkle to fights. 

I've only had two hangups with the demo so far. One of them is inevitable, and the other is just a matter of experience. Firstly, with this being a sample of a sprawling Metroidvania, I can never be sure if the dead-ends I'm hitting are a function of the level design to be solved through exploration, or a limitation of the demo itself. Metroidvanias don't often demo well for this exact reason, so I won't hold that against The Last Faith.

Secondly, there's the healing situation, which is a big question mark for me so far. You don't seem to have an Estus Flask equivalent that refreshes when you die or rest, or at least I don't have one yet. Instead, you have collectible consumables similar to Bloodborne's Blood Vials. This was always the worst part of Bloodborne for my money, and I've rapidly been running out of healing items as I backtrack around The Last Faith's demo, which is annoying. 

The only other way to heal that I've encountered is a special move called a Stigma, with the default version performing a healing counter when you time it just right. Stigmas use their own unique resource separate from health and mana, which is good, but the timing on the healing counter is extremely tight, which is bad when you're already low on health. It's possible I'm missing something, but otherwise I guess I'll just have to get good if I want to find and beat the demo boss, which I most certainly do.  

These are the best Metroidvania games you can play today. Meanwhile, the most popular demo in Steam Next Fest so far is a Valheim-style survival game with Dark Souls-style bosses.