FAITH: Chapter II Prologue (formerly known as Chapter II Demo) is the sequel to FAITH before Chapter II was released. It offers an experience slightly different to Chapter II, featuring John Ward walking through a cornfield and exploring a church.
Plot[]
The game seemingly takes place after Chapter I's "When Faith Endures" Ending, in which John drives away from the Martin Residence after shooting Michael. The screen fades to John standing in front of his crashed car. The screen to the right shows a bloodied, smiling thrall in a dark-green truck; we can assume sort sort of collision happened between them and John and they both crashed.
If John leaves and returns to the truck, the thrall will be gone, and a blood trail leads into the cornfield. Following the trail, we can spot a cultist running away. In front of John lies a scarecrow, eerily smiling at him. Exorcising the scarecrow multiple times doesn't reward anything, however a hole starts to grow on the scarecrow's face everytime you defeat the demon in the cornfield around. Walking upward, individual cornfield stalks trample from an unknown entity. Whatever it is slowly follows John, killing him if he doesn't point his crucifix on it. A demon reveals itself, calling John various degrading sentences.
Banishing this demon is tricky, when it reveals itself, it moves at pace faster than John's. It's impossible to outrun it, the strategy is to move into the central point of the screen and wait for it to teleport. Providing enough distance space, it should be enough time to point the crucifix for it to disappear again. Two more times and the demon will be defeated, fleeing to the north.
Walking upward, John can find a corpse of a dead dog with two Wretches in the distance. Exorcising the dog makes a note appear saying the demon showed up in the cornfield in the '50s and shortly after its arrival, the dog bolts off into the cornfield, it was found dead days later. Walking some more, a statue of St. William and six graves can be found. Exorcising the statue will drop a note saying that besides warnings, six orphans wandered off into the field and too wound up dead.
Eventually, John will come across a dilapidated church, with dead bushes around it. He enters inside.
death awaits[]
At the entrance, the building looks like it's been inactive for years. The walls and flooring are breaking down and debris are everywhere. A note is found near the entrance, explaining the church's history when a nun named Sister Bell was hired to take care of the place. Walking to the left, a red chalice is on a table. Exorcising it will have a demon appear, telling him "IT'S TOO LATE FOR YOU, PRIEST.".
Defeating this demon is simple, it has an attack pattern similar to Amy's. Four copies of the demon surround John, pointing the crucifix at the right one will banish it, dropping a note about Miriam's odd behavior with the new orphans.
Walking up, John will see a seal blocking the entrance to a staircase. A note is next to it, detailing an unnamed detective who's tasked to investigate a missing case of a missing woman, four of the six new orphans, and the death of an elderly nun. Walking to the right, a shadowy figure quickly ducks underneath debris. Exorcising a St. Mary painting and leaving, a cultist pops out and attempts to kill John. Going back to where the seal is, another note drops detailing the unnamed detective having nightmares about people with bodies painted red.
Walking to the left, there's a confessional booth and the same shadowy figure ducking behind a window. Exorcising a purple skull on a table will have a cultist jump out of the booth and rush John. Walking back towards the seal, a note appears saying how the head of the church, Father Clarke, goes down the basement to chase Sister Bell while the detective remains outside.
Going upward, multiple cultists are seen sitting on benches. They don't attack John strangely. After exorcising one of the stained-glassed windows that depict the Second Death ritual, the cultist's heads start to twitch and repeat an inaudible phrase in a trance. The seal to the basement is open, however John must leave the room quickly before the cultists ambush him. John goes down the basement.
darkness surrounds thee[]
It's pitch-black and impossible to see. John picks up a nearby flashlight and enters the next room. Walking towards the central point of the room will have a demon standing in the darkness. After pointing the crucifix at it for a while, a fight ensues.
This battle is overall simple. The demon will teleport to a random part of the room. It will stay stationary unless it says, "HERE I COME", where it either slowly approaches or rushes John within the dark. The best strategy is to point the crucifix in all directions until you hear the sound effect of something getting exorcised. Move accordingly to the demon's speed. During all of this, satanic symbols, purple children, a shadowy figure, and Wretches can be seen while walking around in the dark. They do not harm John at all, just adding more tension to the environment. With enough time the demon is banished, saying "THEY ARE MINE FOREVER".
Walking back upstairs, a final note will now be on the floor. It cryptically details the other ending of this prologue, about "burning the purified effigy with fire".
Endings[]
This game has two endings, one of them is required to get a full 666 score.
HERE I AM[]
This ending is simple. After defeating the Basement Demon, walk back upstairs and go upward to where you originally exorcised a stained-glass painting. The cultists are back on their benches and will not attack. Two purple children holding hands are standing in the middle of the room. Approaching them will have Miriam appear out of nowhere, saying "HERE I AM" and "MY LITTLE ONE". The screen fades into the title screen for FAITH: Chapter II with John saying his (infamous) catchphrase "What I am about to do, has not been approved, by the Vatican". Chapter II will now begin where we get to temporarily play as Father Garcia in his apartment room.
GET OUT[]
This ending is slightly more involved, but still easy and is needed to get a full 666 score.
After defeating the Basement Demon, walk all the way back to where John encountered the scarecrow. Now, satanic symbols surround the scarecrow and has a large hole in its face. Two red eyes peer out of the hole. You have to exorcise the scarecrow so that the eyes disappear. Next, walk to back to John's crashed car, with fire still engulfing the vehicle. You must catch yourself on fire and quickly run all the way back to the scarecrow (immediately north of which the twins are now standing), setting it ablaze. John doesn't die and nine more purple children emerge from the cornstalks, with eerie music increasingly getting louder.
Suddenly, the screen changes to John as a Wretch in the Unseen World. Crawling within this dimension, you will find Miriam staring away from the screen. Approaching her will play rotoscope animation of the nun slowly turning around and her white face starts to show eyes and a mouth. She screams "GET OUT" and the screen fades into the title screen for FAITH: Chapter II with John saying, "What I am about to do, has not been approved, by the Vatican". Chapter II then begins as normal.
Differences[]
Chapter II and its Prologue overlap slightly in terms of location and enemies. However, the story revealed in the prologue is unique and adds much needed context to the entire series.
- This game has a score system. Every time you read a note, defeat a demon, or witness an event (like seeing the cultist's blood trail from the truck) will yield points. Although it's not required to get a high score to start Chapter II, it's needed if you want to unlock the Steam Achievement of getting the highest score and an extra background.
- The Cornfield Maze Demon, Chalice Demon, and the Stalker are only shown in this game. Although the other two demons appear as an apparition during a boss fight, the Stalker doesn't appear again.
- The layout of Snake Meadow Hill Church and the path towards it is different compared to Chapter II. There isn't a cemetery nearby the church shown in Chapter II.
- The scarecrow isn't nearly as important in Chapter II compared to this game.
- This game provides detail of an incident of the Cornfield Maze Demon killing six orphans in the cornfield and Miriam sacrificing six new orphans. Miriam is not mentioned to be associated with the church as much in Chapter II compared to this game, and it's an important piece of her, John's, and Lisa's history that we get to see in Chapter III.
Is it Canon?[]
This is all speculation, but from context clues it seems like this game is a nightmare John is having after his second failed exorcism of Amy on September 21st, 1987, similar to Chapter II proper. This means that this takes place sometime between September 21st and September 28th of 1987 since Chapter II is another nightmare John is having a week after his failed exorcism. These increasing nightmares are likely controlled by the UNSPEAKABLE to break down John's faith and potentially tempt him into joining the cult. It's trying to emotionally break John down by having him relive events of when he was an orphan at the church back in the 50s. (The theory of John and Lisa living at the church is further explained in the page for the Injection and Snake Meadow Hill Church).
Trivia[]
- It's (legally) impossible to get the standalone version of this game from the internet. When The Unholy Trinity was released on October 21st, 2022, all single versions of Chapter I, II, II Demo, and III Demo were removed from their respective itch.io websites, only being accessible if they were bought previously. There is not much of a difference between the standalone version of each game mentioned to The Unholy Trinity but it's just something to note.
- The prologue is not included in Marathon Mode.
- Besides unlocking the Steam Achievement of getting a high score, a pixel-rendition of Airdorf's dog Jane is shown, congratulating the player for finishing the game.
Gallery[]
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