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"It's a sobering thought, isn't it? To be able to look out your window and see the end of the world."

The world is on the verge of being consumed by the Fog, an ever-growing mist that corrupts and destroys all life within it. Unable to reach the source, humanity has no way to stop the Fog's growth. The destruction of the world is inevitable; humanity is at the end of its time.

In Asala, one of the few remaining settlements outside the Fog, two friends are on the verge of completing their training to become knights sworn to help weather the coming disaster: the cynical Aeyr Wilder and the kindhearted Mia Alacruz. However, catastrophic events soon destroy the very foundations of their lives, and they are forced to make the choice between their precious friendship and following the path they each believe is right. Their faith in their beliefs, and in each other, will be pushed to the limit as they decide what to save and what to sacrifice as the world collapses around them.

"There is no stopping the coming apocalypse. The only question remaining is: can humanity endure it?"


Prayer of the Faithless integrates elements of classic survival-horror games into its turn-based battle system. There are no readily accessible healing abilities, so your survival depends on managing a limited supply of restorative items you find or purchase. In addition, your equipped weapons and armor will drastically affect your performance by raising some stats, penalizing others, and changing your available abilities.

To reward a playstyle of controlled aggression rather than raw power and high levels, the battle system in Prayer of the Faithless turns a number of RPG conventions on their heads: You have three actions per turn, and you can spend them however you wish during battle. Plus, allies and enemies cannot guard, but must maintain their Stamina pools to block incoming damage. You must damage the enemy's Stamina to be able to hurt them, but be careful: overusing powerful abilities will leave allies wide open to attack!

Each ally's personality traits affect their combat prowess and abilities. As the story goes on and the stakes are raised, these traits will develop (and degrade!) along with the character's mental state. You will get to truly understand how each character thinks and feels through conversations and battle performance, and see how the state of the world affects their morale and beliefs.

Latest Blog

Permanent Price Cut!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Prayer of the Faithless' launch. Thank you so much for all the support you've given the game over the past 8 years of development and post launch! The reviews and playthroughs of the game were heartwarming to see, and knowing that the story resonated with some people and got them thinking is more than I could have asked for as a developer.

While I plan to write up a more longform postmortem or self-analysis of the game and its development cycle, I'd like to express my gratitude in a more tangible form right now. So I'm announcing that Prayer of the Faithless has had a permanent price cut from $9.99 to $4.99. If you haven't played the game yet, this the perfect time to do so.

Once again, thank you so much for all the support the game has gotten over the years!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1878350/Prayer_of_the_Faithless/
https://vermillionnova.itch.io/prayer-of-the-faithless

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Comment regarding the Revnant/Ayer:


I largely suspect the Knights are withholding information about the Revenant. Though, Ayer may have control of it's power for now. It's possible that some more well-informed Knights have an idea when, or how, the Revenant's spirit will take over.

Or, maybe, it doesn't take over? Maybe Ayer will always have full control, but the Knights make him do evil deeds, make him go insane, in some dastardly, bizarre, last-ditch effort to gain political power in a world that is falling apart before their very eyes?

This is all, absolutely, sheer speculation on my part. However, as far as the game-world seems to be concerned, this is it. This is the end of the world. Other catastrophes may have come and gone, but this one isn't going to just blow over. However, like all catastrophes, it will bring out the best and worst of people, and it is this property, I think, that this game showcases best.

author=Marrend
Comment regarding the Revnant


Perhaps just call it the Revenant outside the hidden part? 'Cause we're trying not to spoil it's identity?
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=Malandy
author=Marrend
Comment regarding the Revnant
Perhaps just call it the Revenant outside the hidden part? 'Cause we're trying not to spoil it's identity?

I kinda already did that in the Character's tab on this page.

EDIT: If anything, I'm wondering if I should make it more apparent in the summary that Aeyr becomes a Revenant?
author=Red_Nova
author=Malandy
author=Marrend
Comment regarding the Revnant
Perhaps just call it the Revenant outside the hidden part? 'Cause we're trying not to spoil it's identity?
I kinda already did that in the Character's tab on this page.

EDIT: If anything, I'm wondering if I should make it more apparent in the summary that Aeyr becomes a Revenant?

Oh.

... Trilyancia "Trill" d'Atorva... Hmm... Is that an Italiany name? What's the name inspirations for each of the different regions?

I'm gonna guess that the guy is the unknown guy is the one who teleports in after the Junsunia fight, whatever his name is.

And that the last unknown is a girl, right? ... Doomsayer... Reminds me generally, of various girls that precede the apocalypse...

No comments on the levelling stuff or Concentration?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=Malandy
I'm gonna guess that the guy is the unknown guy is the one who teleports in after the Junsunia fight, whatever his name is.


My memory's more than a bit fractured on this point, but, I think he was called Gourudo? Or something like that? I dunno. The guy gets a total of, like, two mentions by name, and one of them is a message box with ellipses.

As for your theory that he's a playable character? I have exceptionally vague memories of a tech demo of this game that displayed all the characters, and their various interactions in combat. Perhaps it was made for a Release Something event? Would it still exist? I mean, what you suggest might be possible. I'm not really sure either way.
I think he was called Gourudo?

Gauron. I think.

Him being the first ??? is a good guess; his behavior does seem to fit being a "protector of the undeserving", and the gaunt face seems like it could match up... It's hard to tell without knowing the portrait's hair color, though.

author=Ell1e

- Meanwhile, things are going unbelievably smooth for Mia. The villagers love her, Paladin Jerkface has stepped down and everybody is going to follow her lead, reinforcing all the naive ideals she holds. Again, I'm reasonably sure that this is not going to last, but it still felt weird.


I don't think that's too unusual -- she took a very brave risk and was rewarded for it, that's a common narrative trope. And it expedites her character growth by placing her in an important position. I think what she's going to learn next is that being a leader is harder than it looks, and she may have to make hard decisions of her own very soon.

Vance backing down that easily was strange, but maybe he's planning to undermine her later. I suspect he's going to cause more trouble down the road. Or hey, maybe we'll get a lesson that being a cynical extremist doesn't necessarily make you evil and unreasonable? Wouldn't that be a refreshing change of pace.
Well, there's 3 people per party... Mia's Party is Mia, Amalie, and Luke? We've got 7 characters, so when the smaller parties meet up, we can switch people in and out? Or they don't meet up and fuse.

Given that Mia's "The Unwilling Martyr", she might die and we'll be down to 6 characters, for 2 parties... Oh wait: "6 playable characters. Each with a unique approach to battle." So, who's gonna be unplayable? I'll guess the last girl listed, 'cause she's the last on the Characters page.

Also, argh, I noted that there could be living martyrs in my post on the Characters page.

And there's multiple endings... How to select between them... Those who've played Soul Sunder can guess at selection mechanics? ... 9-12 Hours of play. ... How long was it supposed to take to get to the end of Mia's prologue?

... And I wasn't on the latest vers. *sigh* ... And updated. No stats changes? Well, we reported after the update came up...

What's the Mark cap, anyway? I've got 1000+, so are there things that cost that much? Then again, I was grinding in the Hill Zone...
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
No comments on the levelling stuff or Concentration?


No comment more substantial than, "I'm looking into it." I haven't had a lot of time to really delve deep into the code lately, but it's on the priority list. I know that Concentrate is supposed to last until the end of your turn, and that Mia being able to use it once the following turn is not supposed to happen.

As for your theory that he's a playable character? I have exceptionally vague memories of a tech demo of this game that displayed all the characters, and their various interactions in combat. Perhaps it was made for a Release Something event? Would it still exist? I mean, what you suggest might be possible. I'm not really sure either way.



You're mostly correct. There was a prototype made for this game that was released in the Release Something weekend, but that's so terribly out of date that I don't think you should really go back to it to try and piece together much info. Character's have been renamed, stats have been overhauled and functions have drastically changed.

I can say for certain that no, Gauron is not one of the playable characters you see on the list.

And there's multiple endings... How to select between them... Those who've played Soul Sunder can guess at selection mechanics?


That's the intent. Just like Soul Sunder, I'm working to make the endings come more organically than a lame End-o-Tron 3000 that lets you choose which ending you get.

9-12 Hours of play. ... How long was it supposed to take to get to the end of Mia's prologue?


Mia's prologue as you see it now was actually broken from her planned full first chapter due to popular demand to see more of her and how she was holding up after Aeyr's prologue. That's why it's so short. Don't worry, the ratio of content for Aeyr and Mia will be pretty even going forward.

What's the Mark cap, anyway? I've got 1000+, so are there things that cost that much? Then again, I was grinding in the Hill Zone...


Right now, I don't think I set a cap on money. However, that is something to think about going forward. However, I'm trying to discourage grinding as much as I can, so I should probably be setting some limits on the wallet, huh?
Oh! You're back! Then again, it's not like you don't have work or whatever, so not being online 18-7 isn't unexpected...

***

What's the damage formula again? Strength - Armor, yeah, but how does SP play into that?
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I've been pretty busy for the last few days, so I haven't had much time to go in depth.

Physical and Tech damage formulas are the character's Strength or Tech stat minus the combined value of the enemy's Armor and SP. Magic damage is different in that it's the character's Tech minus enemy Psyche, with no reduction by SP. Basic attacks follow Strength formula, and attack items follow Tech formula but ignores enemy SP.

Another thing to note is that Guard Break attacks (attacks that damage SP) follows either the physical or Tech formula, but ignored reduction by enemy SP and divide es the difference in half. So essentially: (character Strength/Tech minus enemy Armor) / 2. I didn't explain that because I felt it would be a bit too technical to cram down a player's throat at once.

Maybe I ought to create a little codex for players to reference in-game? Hm...
author=Red_Nova
Maybe I ought to create a little codex for players to reference in-game? Hm...


Yes please! I always appreciate it when games with complex mechanics do that. It would also be nice to know exactly how critical hits work.
Utterly barebones TvTropes Page:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/PrayerOfTheFaithless

Might... No... Gonna work through the tropes via notes and Lets Plays. Doing a whole replay feels too tedious? And got other things to play... Sorry?
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
That's fine! Thanks so much for creating it!
What is Mia's natural hair color?
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I don't think it was ever mentioned in-game. I read the skit related to it, but her original hair color was never brought up.

It's brown in my notes, but I don't think that's fair evidence.
I'm here to submit my Fassive Mail in Prayer of the Faithless.
I'm currently stuck at when you're returning to the Honneleth refugees camp with Mia.
I used up all my First Aid Kits and (somehow) managed to get Mia to have 1 Hp point left. I can't escape the fight when Parker is kicked down the mountain.
I'm shrekt.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say here, but... if you need a new savefile for that particular point in the game, here you go.

P.S.: This is why you always use multiple save slots.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Only 1 HP and no First Aid Kits? Yikes. Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done at that point, so I'd definitely recommend using NS' save file (thanks for that, by the way!). And also follow the suggestion about rotating saves to ensure that doesn't happen again.

This makes me think about adding a Hints and Tips tab. Do you think that would be helpful to people?

If you have Mia's Metal Plated Sheath, you can use its Concentrate Drive in combination with Lightning Moment and Echo Slash to deal serious damage and potentially kill an enemy outright if their SP is low enough. Mia has no ability to cancel an enemy's Miasma Charge, so if you see one charge up, your best bet is to try and kill it with your best Drive combination and/or attack items.

Good luck!
Thanks so much guys! This will allow me to resume my playthrough in the game(although I probably won't have the same levels as I used to have in my own file, since I grinded a bit and got Aeyr to level 8, but no matter, I'm sure I'll get another opportunity later)
(plus, grinding is complicated in your games, Red, but I understand, since it's more a survival RPG than a regular RPG, forcing you to manage your resources(and not waste them with grinding))
I think a help tab would be very appreciated, Red, although RPG maker games are rarely played by people not very experienced in RPGs, it's pretty nice to add this to the game, to help the guys out. Remember, details are the sign of a dedicated developer!
Once again, thanks for all. I played Soul Sunder and got the best ending unintentionally on my first playthrough, it would have been sad to re-do the 2 hours I spent in this game, it would probably make me lose the interest I had in it for a while, until I managed the guts to play it again.
Thanks everyone!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
No problem, I'm glad I could help. Situations like these are why I save obsessively in RPG Maker games, and I keep all those save files in their own dedicated folders nowadays. You never know.
I may be a crazy person, but at least I'm a useful crazy person.

Also, yes, I think a Help Tab for this game would be very useful to, well, help people who find themselves struggling. No matter how well-designed your game in itself is, there will always be situations where you didn't expect players to have problems. And there's no shame in breaking the immersion a little bit by offering some help from the "outside."