Lies of P

“Lies of P” surely wears its inspiration on its sleeves, drawing heavily from the FromSoftware playbook in its steampunk revisitation of the "Pinocchio" novel in a mood reminiscent of “Bloodborne”. For fans of the soulslike genre, this game serves as a commendable love letter, showcasing a deep understanding of its mechanics and atmosphere.

However, the game is surely not without its flaws. Its derivative nature, combined with a somewhat linear and monotonous story progression with the same environment being repeated all over, may quickly lead to player fatigue. The incorporation of soulslike tropes also seems to border on the malicious on many occasions, as if frustration is a prerequisite for authenticity. The parry window is ridiculously tight, with the payoff not even being worth the risk most of the time. Adding to the challenge is the unintuitive timing of enemy attacks, making the learning curve remarkably uneven. Some puppets also tend to have infinite stamina and absurd attack ranges, to the point that regular enemies combined with silly traps and narrow hallways end up being more frustrating than actual bosses. The infamous fireball and fat clown sequence is the epitome of the team's questionable taste for level design.

Despite these issues, the game somehow retains an irresistible quality, compelling players to persist. Whether it's the atmospheric allure, the satisfying combat experience, or the unmistakable soulslike essence, there's an undeniable charm that keeps players engaged.

I have completed two runs and got all trophies in approximately 50 hours, with about 10 hours only spent on overcoming Fuoco and the Nameless Puppet. Those were the only two times the game demanded a deeper understanding of its mechanics. While the initial struggle may feel daunting, encountering the Nameless Puppet earlier in the game could have provided a more balanced difficulty curve, as it really helped me master dynamics like a perfect guard, guard regain, and prosthetic arm tricks, allowing me to go through NG+ almost effortlessly.

I was wrong on this one. I didn't take this game seriously at all and was kind of annoyed as people legitimately treated it as one of 2023's most anticipated releases, despite being yet another Souls-clone and by a Korean studio who aren't known for quality single-player games. But, against the odds, this is one of the all-time best Souls games which I'd rank above several of From Software's own. The combat, atmosphere, story, lore, music, and bosses are stellar and feel so much more than fan-based derivative material. I love how the game combines aspects of Bloodborne and Sekiro while delving so deep into its own freaky puppet world. I loved almost every aspect of this game and find it hard to fault anything in particular about it. The only bad thing I can say is the last couple bosses and hours felt like it didn't reach the challenge and tension of earlier moments which left it feeling weird. There is nothing all that new here but there is so much to enjoy as a Souls fan and very few gripes at all to have with it.

Well I feel like this is the game everyone has been waiting for, for over 10 years we've been getting tons of lame and mindless Souls clones, many of which have failed and been forgotten, and I'd say only Nioh was the only success, but I'll go as far as say I think Lies of P is my favorite Souls-like game that isn't a From game. At least in terms of atmosphere and overall feel. In terms of gameplay and gameplay variety Nioh is probably the stronger game, but Nioh's weakness was in its weak side quests and a lot of areas started to feel similar, and some of the bosses were a bit annoying.

Lies of P feels like a bit of a Bloodborne rip off with the Victorian design and at times I almost felt like I was playing Bloodborne. I just loved the atmosphere the different areas, the enemies were kind of cool although I do wish there was al little bit more variety in the enemies. Now there are some problems, the gameplay does feel a bit clunky at times, the dodge is pretty trash and nowhere near as good as a souls game, and some of the bosses in this are annoying and damage sponges, even with the stronger weapons. But they do let you summon a friend for the bosses to help and I feel most bosses in this are fine, but there are like 5 or so really annoying ones. I found the abilities in this kind of cool and distinguish it from the Souls games and it has the typical upgrade system of a Souls game as well as weapon upgrades which you use items similar to shards and chunks to upgrade. TBH its cool From is a cool company because they could have probably sued for all the similarities, the upgrade and even menu and having a similar weapon upgrade system and even items that increase your "Souls" and having similar things to boss souls. This honestly felt like playing a From game just without the polish. I just feel if the dodge was better and the game was a little less clunky and the bosses were given less HP this would have been an amazing game. Its still really good and like I said its probably my favorite non From souls game but it just has some annoyances, and in terms of story and side quests, its pretty minimal. There are some optional side areas and NPC quests, but they are pretty basic and don't really get you big rewards. Its also pretty lengthy and I'd say at least 50 hours or so probably even more if you explore and try to do all the side stuff.

Also I have to bring up the platforming stuff can be annoying too. Like there is one level I think in a clocktower or something with tons of lifts and enemies throw things at you and try to knock you off narrow platforms and one fall is instant death with basically no shortcuts back up till near the end. I died here like 5 times and it set me back almost 10 minutes each time. It just wasn't fun and frustrating and it felt like troll design. Hopefully they give us more games, I know they are hinting a Wizard of Oz one next, but with more polish and some adjustments, these guys could rival From

Lies of P, in addition to being an interesting dark reimagining of the story of Pinocchio, is a tightly designed soulslike which combines concepts from other games in the genre with some new ideas of its own in a pretty serviceable fashion.

The combat, while not the greatest I've experienced, was pretty satisfying and enjoyable overall. It has a deflect system in the vein of Sekiro where blocking attacks at the right moment wears down the enemy's stance, and while it doesn't feel as free-flowing in comparison, Lies of P is balanced around that design the vast majority of the time. It also borrows a sort of rally system from Bloodborne where you can regain health by attacking enemies after an imperfect deflect.

There's a variety of weapons to choose from, and an interesting mechanic where you can mix and match their blades and handles to create new weapons of your own, which was a neat thing to experiment with.

Something Lies of P does very well in my opinion is the level design. Every area feels as though it had a lot of thought put into its construction, no area felt clumsily cobbled together. Even in the late game where my build was essentially completed and I didn't need any new upgrade materials or loot, I still explored these areas because I found their layouts to be interesting to look at and exciting to check out. Perhaps the fact that enemy placement wasn't very oppressive or unfair helped with that. Checkpoint and shortcut placements were also on point, I felt like they were placed exactly where they needed to be, ensuring there were no absurdly long or dangerous runbacks

The game did have a few negative subtleties I want to touch on. For one, I thought the voice direction was a bit odd at times, and some of the dialogue was too on the nose and in real need of some embellishments. The golden coin tree concept also felt rather half-baked, as the rewards for looting the tree were too meager in my opinion, mostly providing bonuses to an optional specter you could summon for boss fights. I also thought the shock status effect was rather annoying, as it horribly lowers your stamina regeneration, and Laxasia's second phase was a bit too bombastic and stringent for this gameplay style in my opinion.

But overall, Lies of P was a pretty enjoyable romp that blended some of the memorable concepts of games past in a respectable form. If you're a fan of soulslikes you'll most likely enjoy this game on some level.

In July of this year, I decided to take a deep dive into the Souls-like genre by finally dusting off my copy of Dark Souls III and completing it for the first time. After enjoying my time with the game, I completed Sekiro (a masterpiece) and about half of Elden Ring (a game which I did not have a good time with and probably deserves its own review at some point down the road). Before moving on to Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, or a Dark Souls III replay, I decided to move off the beaten path and check out Lies of P. I am happy to say that Lies of P offers some of the best that a Souls-like has offered thus far.

Lies of P uses a combat system that employs a mix of other Souls-like games, taking the dodging and rolling from Dark Souls and combining it with the "perfect parrying" system of Sekiro. This blend of combat keeps fights feeling urgent while also leaving a lot of choice up to the player as to how they beat certain bosses. Getting a feel for a boss's attacks? Perfect parry them until you break their weapon, negating most of the damage they give out. Finding it hard to learn timing for said attacks? Dodge around them to get behind the boss and sneak attacks in. Even if not every boss is amazing, the combat system feels great and keeps you engaged throughout.

Aesthetically, Lies of P is also a huge success. Using the Pinocchio fairy tale as a barebones framework, the devs construct a world that blends steampunk influence with corruption, zombie-like creature design. The overlap between these two, especially in the latter half of the game, is striking. These gorgeous visuals combine with a lush soundtrack in a really masterful way.

My major gripes with Lies of P are mostly found in the third act of the game, and largely have to do with an overreliance on status effect encounters. Balancing in a Souls-like context is tough, and oftentimes devs have to ride a very fine line between satisfying challenge and frustrating challenge. Unfortunately, the amount of enemies (both bosses and normal enemies) in the final third of the game that inflict obnoxious status effects on you is staggering. These status effects range from decaying your weapon faster to just killing you immediately. They are easily the worst the game has to offer, which may be a positive thing in a game full of stuff to love.

The boss quality in Lies of P is great overall. Although the game has its fair share of your average beast-like Souls bosses, there are some pretty stellar fights scattered throughout that feel like fast duels which really force you to learn there moves. One in particular, Laxasia the Complete, is perhaps one of the best fights in a Souls game period. The feeling of slowly learning her attacks and chipping away at her until you finally best her calls to mind many of the best encounters in Sekiro, which is some of the highest praise I could offer a game of this caliber.

All in all, Lies of P is a very good Souls-like that makes improvements not yet incorporated even by Fromsoft. I look forward to the DLC for Lies of P, as well as the other games they make down the road. If you are at all interested in Souls-likes, you would do well to check out Lies of P.

When a Soulslike game got a solid story. Starts off fresh and unique, but the gameplay gets way too stale and boring, especially toward the end of the game. Beware, some of the late bosses in the game makes you punch a hole in your wall out of frustration!