Lies of P is a polished experience with AAA production values and exceptional performance... but the core ethos and design philosophy of the game are uninspired and derivative and this lack of innovation and poor execution of tired fromsoft tropes dominant the play experience (in spite of some few moments of greatness).

The defining combat feature which deserves some criticism is the hybrid parry dodge system, which is dominated by a clunky and visually ugly jump-step/roll and an unrewarding and generally unsatisfying parry system. They could have gotten away with a parry that does little to advance the encounter if most bosses didn't have a way to negate the player's execution of this mechanic (via a force-stun or forced reposition/knockback). This repeated gimmick of preventing the player from attacking after successfully pulling off a difficult perfect guard, combined with the over-used tendency for bosses to back-dash distances after their combos or one return hit, and the players lack of stamina after stringing together a series of parries, strongly contradicts the 'aggressive' combat approach some of the mechanics of the game infer (rally mechanic, bosses regenerate, etc.).

As there is no poise or superarmor the player also can't trade their health (a resource) for damage like almost every other souls-like. This removes some interesting strategic options, and again dramatically slows the pace of most fights.

This leads to most boss fights not having an exciting back and forth trading blows like you would expect from bloodborne or Sekiro, the titles this game unabashedly steals almost all of its identity from. The player mostly does big chunks of damage on scripted openers, and a few specific moves you wait for. This manifests as:

3-4 light attacks -> minor stun -> charged heavy or ash of war -> posture break -> charged heavy into visceral into charged heavy

This general play pattern means you end up doing almost all of your damage with basically zero interaction from the boss. You are on the backfoot for long stretches against very aggressive bosses, do a big chunk of damage all at once, repeat. The game is generally missing the back-and-forth dance like nature of bloodborne/sekiro, or the general interactivity and ability to dictate the terms of a fight with enough skill like Nioh or Thymesia.

As a general TLDR for key game elements outside of combat-

Trying to list all of the fromsoft design elements this game shamelessly rips off (and generally executes often poorly, but mostly inoffensively) would be impossible... literally every system and design element is so ingrained in existing fromsoft titles its harder to acknowledge the genuinely new gameplay twists or derivations Lies of P introduces.

Exploring and clearing areas is easy and boring- there is generally not a satisfying threat or danger from normal enemies or the environment. This amounts to the majority of your game... thankfully there are numerous minibosses littered throughout, of varying, but generally good, quality.

The level design is generally pretty poor. The maps are extremely linear, with plentiful shortcuts. There is a very rigid order you must explore and progress the game.

That unique souls-like experience of being low on resources, while carrying a ton of currency, and weighing whether to keep exploring a dangerous and unclear environment or return to the bonfire to preserve your progress... that sense of relief when you discover a bonfire... does not exist in this game.

Also some warnings:

• No pause button or accessibility options of any kind... genuinely, unforgivably pathetic in 2023
• Useless 1 minute runbacks to bosses that add literally nothing to the experience
• Lack of meaningful character or playstyle customization... no real reason for multiple playthroughs
• Poor equip load system (lol 20lb amulets)
• Frequent two phase bosses with very easy or manageable 1st phases that must be repeated
• Human enemy NPC AI is straight out of 2010, backstabs and all
• Weak narrative, really missing the environmental story telling and thematic ambience of other souls-likes... there is no exploration, basically no optional areas or bosses, little indirect exposition, no factions, etc.

This is a fun game if you are diehard fan of the genre, but its faithfulness to the absolute worst elements of fromsoft's previous titles, and general failure to deliver the few positives from those titles (satisfying and distinct combat styles, art direction, god-tier music and compelling lore) really relegate it to the pile of underwhelming copycats, albeit with much more polish and production value this time around.

A good game with mostly good bosses and boring exploration, with AAA polish, that's ultimately forgettable compared to the premiere games of the genre. The fromsoft formula from 10 years ago this game is built on is really showing its age... maybe one of the reasons why fromsoft themselves have seemingly abandoned it with their most recent releases.

When Lies of P was first announced, I like many others had to wonder if it was for real. Some kind of Bloodborne-esque edgy game in which you take on the role of emo pretty-boy Pinocchio just couldn't have been on anyone's Bingo card. Perhaps even stranger, it actually looked good. As goofy as the premise sounded and despite the fact I've only played a handful of non-FromSoft soulslikes, I was definitely interested and planned to get it from the beginning. And I did, but as happened with a lot of games I started in 2023, I ended up being a little too distracted and despite enjoying the opening couple areas and style, I didn't end up actually playing through the game until my Halloween marathon in 2024, rather foolishly—though successfully—slotting in this 30-hour game as just one of 15 I planned to play through in the month. That said, thankfully, it ended up being one of my favorites of the month and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lies of P, perhaps even more because of how I pushed to play through it in a short time frame, mostly over the course of four or so days. It's not without its issues, but I found it thrilling and engaging from start to finish.

So first, the less-good: the story leaves something to be desired. I don't think it's "bad" per se, it's just not terribly interesting, despite the rather unique premise. You can kind of predict a good deal of it from the pretty early on and there's not a lot of emotional import as you move from plot point to plot point for most of the game. That said, I do appreciate that the narrative aims for something more straight-forward and character-based than its soulslike source material as it fits the story the game wants to tell much better. There are some choices you can make throughout the story that have some minor changes based on a morality system of sorts but I often felt the game tonally oversold its ultimate significance.

Importantly, I would distinguish between the story and the related element of world-building and atmosphere, which I think Lies of P does a great job with. I'm not really a huge fan of the whole robo-puppet and gear punk stuff in a vacuum, but I always am a fan of a premise that is given the proper attention and leans into its style rather than using it as shallow set dressing. Further, the focus on the much more gothic elements that give the game more of a Bloodborne appearance than anything else are more my thing and I feel they were done quite well. While map layouts were a little simplistic, I did appreciate the different areas and felt there was a good variety of locations to visit that offered a fresh look while never feeling out of place or like they didn't fit with the rest of the game. There are some great vistas throughout the game that really nail the gothic juxtaposition of magnificence and dread. Further, the grim isolation of every dark alleyway give the game a spooky feel that made it perfect for my October list, while never really feeling like the game was necessarily attempting to be "scary." We get a dark world that lacks the fear of exploration that a horror game might provide, but I appreciated every dark discovery along the way. Everything is brought to life with decent graphics paired with competent art direction in a way that just works well.

As a soulslike, Lies of P's primary appeal is its gameplay and combat. This is the point where I've seen the most contention around this title but I personally had a blast with it and it was a big part of why I had such a good time with the game. Despite the similar aesthetic, Lies of P features combat that is quite unlike Bloodborne's and instead focuses heavily on blocking and parrying. I've heard complaints that the dodge is useless, which I never really agreed with, but it is clear that the game intends for you to use the perfect block and parry as a core part of your approach. There was a time I definitely was terrible at parry combat, but after conquering Wo Long, I have become much more comfortable with the style and definitely see the appeal in just how satisfying it is when you nail the timing on that perfect block. Sometimes this is basically necessary for overcoming some enemy attacks, but unlike Wo Long's rather punishing system, I found the timing in this game much more forgiving. This really made a lot of the fights quite thrilling.

Naturally given the genre and style of the game, combat excels most in Lies of P's boss fights. Some of these bosses are more interesting than others, but overall, each has a fairly unique design and style to adapt to that tests your skills with the game's systems in new ways without totally departing from earlier mechanics either. It was clear to me that real care was put into delivering a diverse but fine-tuned series of boss fights from beginning to end which leads to several challenging but engaging encounters that really stuck with me long after I defeated them. Like some other soulslikes, admittedly the boss fights shine so much more than the levels leading to them that it weirdly makes the levels feel like a less interesting warm-up rather than their own equal and independent appeal, but while that's not necessarily ideal, it is largely due to how much fun I found the bosses, pretty much without exception.

I have seen a good deal made of the difficulty in this game but when I played it, I thought it was a pretty solid balance. I think at least one balance patch had come out since launch that made the game a little easier, but it was mostly about where it was at launch and I think they've since added an easy mode that leaves the normal mode intact. Either way, I found the game challenging but fair. When I lost a fight I pretty much knew exactly why and what I should have done to fix it. If I didn't, I was always missing something, it was never a matter of bad RNG or bullshit attack patterns. I don't usually play these kinds of games with summons but I tried it on a boss or two and felt that it trivialized the encounter, making it kind of hard not to win the fight. Given their availability on all but one or two bosses—if memory serves me right—and the new easy mode, I expect a lot of people will be able to find a playstyle that works for them to experience the game if the difficulty is too much. Though if you're up for a challenge, I recommend at least trying it on normal with no summons as I can't understate how satisfying it is getting the cadence of combat down and the game's bosses will put those skills to the test in a satisfying way.

I came to the game with curiosity from the start, measured with a bit of skepticism toward the wider soulslike genre that can be a bit hit or miss beyond the core classics. I have seen a decent amount of hate for the game and it does seem it's not for everyone, but if you're intrigued by the stunning aesthetics or the promise of the gameplay, I'd say Lies of P is definitely worth a shot. I have yet to play the Overture expansion since—as neat as the shadow drop was—I once again was quite busy and had other games on my plate when it released. But I'm really looking forward to it for this year's Spooktober lineup.

Lies of P's concept-- that of a soulslike where you play as Pinocchio in a city heavily inspired by Yharnam, of Bloodborne fame-- sounds so off-the-wall that there's no way it could be anything but a joke with too much budget. It has its issues for sure. The enemy and level design don't manage to hold much of a candle to the games it pulls so much from. The combat is a janky mix of stuff that never quite came together properly. The attempt at a tighter narrative than its contemporaries mostly falls flat due to poor storytelling and head-scratching plot contrivances. And yet I was impressed still with just how decently it pulled it off, despite it all.

As crazy as playing as Pinocchio sounds, it's handled quite well. The game takes itself seriously (most of the time) and there was no point where I felt as if suspension of disbelief flew beyond my reach. I thought it was pretty neat the way lying in dialogue was incorporated, though it could have felt a bit more significant in the grand scheme of things. As far as I can tell it affects your ending outcome and not too much else. The devs thankfully avoided having Pinocchio's actual nose grow and instead include some clever nods to it that I felt did the concept justice without allowing the absurdity of it to mess with the intended tone.

Krat is a pretty neat setting. It feels a bit too close to Yharnam if I'm honest, though. The way enemies lurk around the streets mumbling to themselves, the way NPCs speak to you from behind closed window blinds, and the gradual transformation of the city itself as you progress through the game all feel overly derivative. The game even essentially rips one of its bigger twists as well as its finale structure straight out of Bloodborne, which doesn't feel good. BUT I really dig the steampunk angle they went with here. The city looks gorgeous and several of the locales within do stand above the others as pretty well put together. Venigni Works was a favorite of mine.

When it comes to the actual level design though the game drops the ball pretty hard. I'm not sure there are any significant branches for you to explore outside of the occasional optional miniboss and the main path through each area is typically linear with too much of a spattering of ambushes along the way. Shortcuts are decently placed and do a great job of cutting down corpse runs, but rarely delighted me in the same way the ones in Dark Souls did. Maybe because they rarely felt organic (or earned, even) and I could typically see where the shortcut was the first time I entered each area so there was no surprise when I unlocked it.

There's not much in the way of hazards outside of the enemies themselves so might as well move on to them. The variety here is pretty lacking. Most of the roster are just small variations on humanoid puppets and flesh monsters with a sharp object in one hand. Occasionally you'll get a fun surprise, like a muscular boxing guy late in the game, but otherwise Lies of P kind of bored me with its repetitive enemy encounters. I began running by them later on out of lack of patience more than any other reason, which isn't great.

The combat itself is odd. There's a certain jank to the way Pinocchio moves that is fitting for a puppet but also makes for odd attack patterns. This game opted to pull in Bloodborne's rally mechanic (healing back damage by dealing damage of your own) alongside a parry not unlike Sekiro's. These two systems always felt at odds for me because you only get the opportunity to rally back HP if you are guarding while you get hit but ideally you should be aiming for a perfect guard, which demands tapping guard at the moment you're hit. So if you try for a perfect guard and mess up you often don't get to rally back HP because you weren't guarding when you got hit. All this to say that there are some bosses and combos from said bosses that simply aren't worth trying for a perfect guard on because they come out too fast and you're better off guaranteeing some amount of potential healing in return than failing a guard and just losing health outright. I can see that they wanted to reward trying for the perfect with healing (I think) but it just didn't work that way in practice for me very often.

Speaking of attacks coming out too fast, there are some enemies and late game bosses where the name of the game is to overwhelm you completely. These moments (projectile spam from offscreen in Black Rabbits round 2 and all of Laxasia phase 2, namely) are just beyond frustrating to deal with because there's no opportunity to learn. Just panic rolling and praying the bosses don't decide to fuck you over with their combo choices. It reminded me a lot of Malenia in Elden Ring as well as Promised Consort Radahn. Not a good thing. It's exhausting to get a few seconds to practice with a boss before being slaughtered and having to go redo the (typically easy) first phase to get another chance. Speaking of, we didn't need half the roster to be multi-phase bosses in this game.

One great thing though is the blade and handle weapon system is very cool! It allows for some great playstyle augmentation, even if I typically stuck with the handle each blade came attached to personally. There's an elemental system at play as well that comes in three flavors: fire, static, and acid. I played with an Advance build, which meant focusing on elemental weapons. I wish I had a few more to play around with but the options were fun as-is too. The definitely-not-Sekiro arm wasn't something I played around with too much, but it seemed like it had some potential for those willing to invest time into it.

And finally, the story. I think this was the biggest letdown for me because the game starts off fairly strong in this department. You wake up and have to make your way through a city overrun by murderous puppets to reach the tenuous safety of the Hotel Krat. You get a clear goal and characters get introduced as they guide you to it. After this though the actual goal becomes a bit more nebulous. You end up wandering through the city to figure out how to stop the puppets and this takes up half the remaining time, after which you actually get a villain introduced... who then disappears until the end of the game. Sure, there's some negotiation of where to go with NPCs to fill in the spaces between but otherwise there's just not all that much going on here to chew on. Sophia, too, starts off as an interesting ally and quickly fades into obscurity until the game remembers she has a role to play in its final leg. Even the various letters and journals you pick up for lore reasons feel mostly aimless (and often oddly written, maybe due to some translation issues?).

The twist is likely something you'll see coming from the start even if you haven't played the game Lies of P rips it from. I just came away wishing I could bring myself to like these characters and ultimately feeling unable to. There wasn't enough to latch onto, for me.

Lies of P is among the more competent soulslikes I've played, but it still fumbles in several pretty significant ways that kept me from really enjoying my time with it. The visuals are great, the world feels inspired, but I need to want to explore. If you're going to aim for a real narrative there has to be more than this game gave me and it needs to be less sloppy. There's potential, with this dev team, for sure. But I want to see them be a bit more ambitious with the elements they take inspiration from.

hands down one of my favorite games i played in a long time. lately very few games have managed to glue me to the couch for 10h straight and this one was one of them.

aesthetically, lies of p is absolutely gorgeous, the dark steampunk design with the grotesque sickly touch was right up my alley. the character design of the bosses was incredible (Fallen Archbishop Andreus my beloved one winged angel <3) and although i love open world first and foremost, the level design was very enjoyable to explore (it does feel strictly linear but that is something i was expecting and i was very pleased with it!) and it tells a lot on the story of what happened/is happening to krat.

i was also infinitely grateful that they added difficulty options, it was my main drawback when i was considering buying it because, even though i dont care about being bad and looking for help or asking someone else to finish a fight for me, i dont like having to bug others to help me with my game. the easy difficulty was exactly the perfect one for me, i still struggled like hell and found it hard but it was that sweet spot of being challenging in a fun way without being so frustrating that it sours my mood and makes me want to quit. the boss fights were so enjoyable i even repeated them, combat was very engaging and knowing that i could just summon the specter for extra help (which was not the biggest aid out there) made me a bit more confident and it made it much more fun.

now the story was my most favorite part. slowly piecing things together through the dialogues, boss lines and collectibles, the hints being thrown around since the beginning, sitting at the end connecting all the dots mwah chef's kiss. i love all the lore and how the different plot points end up intertwining in the end. i also saw a general overview of the dlc's story and uuu i love what it adds, it doesnt feel like its just more boss fights just for the heck of it, it expands on the characters and lore already established and i like that a lot.

my biggest (and only? i think? perhaps also simon feeling less present and less of a threat than i would have liked, i only started focusing on him on the last few hours of the game so he felt underwhelming, but i dont know if i was just too focused on that fuckass gepetto) gripe of the game was with the lying mechanic. even though lying throughout the game is relevant not only story wise, but for the ending that you get (which i went for the bad one cause i love the angst), every lie you tell feels quite a bit weightless. mostly only dialogue lines changes and you get some items or not but i was a bit disappointed in it because i was expecting something bigger either affecting the gameplay or the story. still, it was not enough to make me lower my rating cause it was not enough to truly affect my own enjoyment.

overall an amazing game i will definitely replay to at least see the good ending, and i am 100% getting my hands on the dlc

also theyre gonna release a wizard of oz game??? cause sign me the fuck UP

<< Rise Of P ending + Overture, Legendary Stalker >>

I was already the target market. Bloodborne for steampunk twinks? Uh-hyup, count me in. But the low expectations I'd had set by, let's face it, basically every other Soulslike were vaulted over by this elegant, resonant and sumptuous banquet of a game.

While Bloodborne is the clear blueprint (and this may be the closest we'll ever get to a sequel), there's a healthy dose of Sekiro, Bioshock, Nier, the novels of Isaac Asimov. Lies Of P wears all of its influences on its sleeve and is better for it - the combination of flavours is what excites.

More than that, the game perfects existing Souls mechanics in a manner that From Software could stand to adopt. The crafting system separating handle from blade allows for much more variability in playstyle; the tutorial dummies right next door let you test your new weaponry without consequence. The guard system encourages a back-and-forth dance on par with Sekiro.

Then there's the weapon durability. Keep in mind I'm fresh off the back of Dark Souls II and its abysmal equivalent. Lies Of P has the best goddamn durability system I've seen yet. Your blades must stay sharp, and can break, but repairing doesn't REQUIRE A CONSUMABLE - just enough of a break in combat to allow you to grind. It's exceptional and fits into the flow of combat effortlessly.

There's a great deal less consequence to death, which makes the increased difficulty of the DLC in particular less punishing. Overture (which too many people complained about) has all the best characters, locations and bosses of the game - it's so very worth the occasional grinding of teeth over that friggin final boss.

The greatest compliment I can give it is that the moment I got my ending, I genuinely considered an NG+. Bloodborne is my favourite game and NG+ scares me in that. Only Sekiro has managed to tempt me back at higher difficulty.

The one knock I'll give it is that the voice acting is occasionally pretty subpar - Lea is exceptional, Gemini is annoying, and Geppetto pissed me off from the start. Appropriate, really, given that the voice actor is also Margit in Elden Ring.

Sus inspiraciones son evidentes y no deja de ser una amalgama de todo lo que han hecho los souls hasta ahora. Tiene un poco de Sekiro, mucho de Bloodborne y por supuesto algo de Dark Souls. Su historia tiene su aquel, pero para mí lo que destaca es lo sencillo y placentero de su exploración, acompañada de una ambientación bastante lograda. El combate es sólido, especialmente para una de tantas "inspiraciones" soulslike, pero su sistema de parry... ¡ay su sistema de parry!

En algún momento quizá os encontréis buscando como se hacen bien los parries perfectos y os daréis cuenta de que es una duda muy extendida, en parte porque el juego no explica bien el sistema. Pero el mayor de los problemas es lo impredecible de ciertos movesets enemigos y distinguir cuando un ataque realmente va a hacer impacto (especialmente en enemigos grandes). Resumidamente: es contraintuitivo y puedes llegar al final del juego sin entenderlo del todo (como aparentemente le pasa a muchos) y bastante frustrado con determinados combates donde se vuelve necesario. Otra mecánica horrible es la capacidad de determinados ataques básios del enemigo de 'paralizarte' impidiendo reaccionar de ninguna forma y haciendo que te comas todo un combo.

En general todo esto crea momentos en los que te sientes indefenso y en un juego injusto. Pero quitando estos escasos momentos de frustración (porque el juego en realidad es bastante fácil), tenemos una obra de notable a la que le falta pulirse un poco y quizá algo más de chispa narrativa.

... or that could've been Hans Eysenck title of his review.

I liked Lies of P. The combat is good, level design is good and the enemy and environment design is compelling if not a bit derivative. The story is trash; merely a thin veneer over a random-looking grab-bag of levels and boss encounters.

But as I said on a previous status I couldn't stop feeling like a game that copied its homework. As this was my first soulslike, I can't tell for certain which elements are lifted directly from it's influences, but I can feel the superposition of very clever game design elements with weird jank.

Take the main premise; the one that gives the game its title. The game makes it a big deal that your character is a robot that can lie, and there's this whole thing that you become more human the more you lie. But as well as being a stupid premise, lying comes up half a dozen times at most, mostly in optional sidequests and its effects are purely cosmetic: as far as I know, they only change your appearance and the ending cutscene.

But what actually matters is the combat. In the big schism among between dodge and parry, Lies of P preaches for the church of parry, and I have to say it took me into the fold. It's a special kind of satisfying to effortlessly raise your sword and negate all damage from an attack that by all rights should've turned you into pizza dough. Parrying also endows battles with a very enjoyable flow. It almost turns them into a rhythm game or sort.

The parry mechanics in Lies of P are not all good, unfortunately. While the game does try to encourage blocking attacks instead of dodging out of the way, the benefits or parrying are, I believe, not well-balanced with its inherent risks. On one, hand, the benefits are dealing an unspecified amount of stagger damage, and the possibility of breaking some bosses' weapons. But heavy blows do a lot of stagger damage, and breaking weapons is usually more trouble than it's worth. On the other side, long combos can fuck you up if you fail only one parry, the strong knockback often puts you far from attack range, and the stamina system might prevent attacks after a series of blocks.

But, as I said, I liked to parry just for it's own sake so I did it anyway. And the game is fun. It's got some neat bosses, like the first phase of the King of Puppets, or the first phase of Laxasia, or the weird frog bishop, and it's fun to laugh at it's stupid bits, like the dumb Pinochio/Portrait of Dorian Gray mash-up.

So it gets a passing grade even if it needs to go see the principal about its lack of academic integrity.

This game scratched that souls itch for me. I was very impressed with the presentation of the game. After spending 30 hours with the game, here are my thoughts.

Pros:

• Environments are unique and feel well established throughout the game. This game stands on it's own and the atmosphere feels original.

• The story is interesting. I don't know much about the original tale of Pinocchio, but from the little lore dive I've done after completing the game, I think what the team did here was really cool. The story was a lot more simple and linear to follow compared to FromSoft games, but I'm trying really hard not to compare this game too much to FromSoft titles. I enjoyed the story and learning about the world of Krat. I'm curious to see where the next game takes us considering that post credit teaser.

• The OST caught me super off guard. From the moment I heard "Feel", I knew this was something worth paying attention to. Boss fights music is great, but honestly the more somber tones of the Hotel records are what caught my attention more. I loved listening to the records while resting at the hotel.

• The weapon system is really cool here. The ability to combine weapons is awesome, though I think it could be refined a bit for the sequel. I'll explain more in the "cons" section.

• The boss designs are all really cool. I honestly can't think of any that I consider bad aesthetically. The fights are another story, but at least from a design standpoint, the art team exceled at the bosses here.

Cons:

• The weapon combinations and weapons themselves are kind of boring aesthetically. This is a personal bias, but I'm not a huge "steampunk" fan. Pipes and bolts and motors just don't do it for me. I refuse to believe that a average sized boy can lug around giant hammers and the like, which is why I opted for more "refined" weapons like the rapier and Two Dragons Sword. I used the rapier handle combined with the puppet's saber all the way through the game up until I got the Two Dragons Sword. God Damn, that was a mistake. I didn't even realize I was heavily nerfing myself by using that weapon combination. Apparently, some blades don't pair well with some handles, and the game expects you to figure this out on your own. It wasn't until I told a friend who had previously played the game about my weapon combo that I realized I was doing it wrong. The puppet's saber has "poor" stabbing abilities, and that's what the rapier handle does. I struggled against a lot of bosses in outputting damage, and I finally figured out why. I wish I would've realized sooner.

• Combat I'm mixed on. I blame myself partially because I went in trying to play this game more like Sekiro because I thought the parry was way more important than dodging. Turns out I was wrong, and I definitely should've tried implementing more dodges into my gameplay. That said, the deflect/parry system here is wonky. Boss attacks come out at the speed of light, and the perfect guard counter is VERY tight. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as in Sekiro, and even though I finished the game, I still don't feel like I completely mastered the combat here. These boss fights are TOUGH. I won't say it brings the game down entirely, but I'd put this up there with the likes of Elden Ring and Sekiro.

That's all I can think of for now for my pros and cons with the game. I did enjoy it overall, and am sad that I finished it. I also regret the ending I got. Yes, I got the "real boy ending by giving Geppetto my heart : ( I'm not sure why I did this, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time? I missed out on the Nameless Puppet boss fight which is a damn shame, and I ended up murdering all of my friends in the hotel which was bizarre. Kind of nutty, but it's the rarest ending on Steam lol. I want to enter New Game Plus to get a different ending and fight Nameless Puppet, but I'm convincing myself to hold off until after the DLC releases. After I play through the DLC, then I can see myself going through New Game Plus to exact my revenge on Geppetto. I'm hoping that the boss fights I struggled on are more manageable now that I have a better weapon (Two Dragons Sword FTW! Badass weapon and super fun move set). All the bosses were hard, but the hardest for me had to have been The King of Puppets, Victor, Swamp Monster, and Laxasia. I even had the Two Dragons Sword against Laxasia, and she put me through hell. I really enjoyed her second phase when she threw lightning orbs down though and gave you a chance to deflect (reminded me of Divine Dragon from Sekiro).

I think overall this game does more than enough to set itself apart from FromSoft titles, but also pays respect to it's source material. This was a great souls like, and I can see myself coming back to it in the future for additional playthroughs. I'm hyped for the DLC and Sequel!

I need to preface this with the fact that I am not a soulsborne player. In fact, I am still to play a FromSoftware game from start to finish, a goal I had for 2023 but which I sadly didn’t accomplish. I’m always pulled into these worlds by their aesthetic, yet always pulled away by some of their design choices. This is to say I may not be the intended target audience for soulslikes either (even though I did play a few of those throughout the years), so I’m not sure how all this will resonate with more seasoned players within the genre.

That said, I liked Lies of P. At times, I loved it. Once I came to terms with how closely it wears its inspirations on its sleeve, I was ok with most aspects of the game that were annoying me: I accepted the game not having a pause option, the limiting hotkey mapping, the obtuseness when explaining the game's systems and mechanics, the convoluted feel of menu, the inconsistently spread out stargazer checkpoints, or the comical lip syncing. I accepted almost all of this as design philosophy deeply rooted in a genre I’m not overly familiar with, and for the most part, these aspects began to frustrate me less and less.

Certain other issues, however, felt annoying - incomprehensible even - pretty much until the end of my playthrough. I don’t get the need for the back attack to feel this hit and miss (there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why it worked on some enemies but not on others). I don’t get the lack of polish in certain combat situations, such as continuously missing the enemy and hitting the wall instead when you’re near a corner, or getting stuck in tight spaces during boss fights almost unable to react, making combat artificially tough. I don’t get the weird difficulty balancing, where the game takes you through these insane, senseless spikes, often more seemingly tied to a fake rather than an organic, progressive challenge. I don’t get the boringly repetitive and near-ubiquitous 2-stage boss fights, where almost every boss gets a new, considerably harder second phase with its HP bar reset, and a few get this infuriating newfound skillset where they do nothing but spam brutally powerful moves that often make it impossible for you to react. This simply feels like a cop out to account for lack of boss design creativity, one that, on occasion, seemed like a really cheap way of locking you out of certain fights if you happened to mess up your build (here I’m talking mainly about weapons, since you can respec about everything else in the game).

Above all, I don’t get, or rather strongly dislike the obligation to farm, in any game. I know this is contentious, and that some not only like it, they actually feel it essential in some genres. But personally, I just find no enjoyment whatsoever in a rinse-repeat formula that forces me to beat enemies I’ve already beaten, over and over, just so I can collect more currency - or in Lies of P’s case, more ergo. Especially when I haven’t shied away from anything and spent tons of time previously fighting every enemy and thoroughly exploring every area I came across. There’s nothing fun about this to me. If I were enjoying a particular game’s combat loop that much, I’d simply jump straight into a new playthrough after finishing my first one. To me, provided that you’ve done your due diligence in terms of tackling enemies and exploration, farming for the sake of it is never, ever the answer.

After all this criticism, you’d be well within the realm of logic if you were to ask why I said I even loved Lies of P at certain points throughout my time with it. Well, there are things that the game does exceptionally well, a couple of which I’m personally very partial to. The standout, to me, is atmosphere. Maybe some will label it a Bloodborne ripoff, but I’m such a sucker for these dark fantasy settings that I’ll always embrace them. Lies of P’s world is truly captivating, boasting an audiovisually oppressive tone that is frequently awe inspiring. It was the vibe of the game that kept me coming back until I finished it, time and time again, despite my frustrations. The setting is a character in itself, one that gives you plenty to stare at and contemplate. And speaking of characters, Lies of P features a surprisingly interesting cast of NPCs, very competently voiced and written, ones I was not expecting to relate to as much as I did due to the nature of the game. Tied to this is the story, which is, yet again, better and more fleshed out than I had initially anticipated. Lies of P’s spin on a classical, seemingly innocuous fairy tale narrative in a world filled with puppet chaos is a stroke of genius, and without going into detail, the ending(s), opens the door to lore-rich tantalising possibilities in terms of sequels.

Another aspect I thoroughly enjoyed, and a staple in so many of these types of games, is level design. It is difficult to overstate how good the interconnectedness between areas feels: experiencing the closure of a long-winded loop, by finally being able to unlock a shortcut straight to the starting point, was satisfying every single time I went through it, and I do believe Lies of P does this particularly well. One other thing normally highlighted within the genre is the weapon models, and it’s a thing this game also excels at. Most weapons look incredible, serve a specific function, and the concept of swapping handles around to give them different abilities and looks adds a welcome layer of creativity (though I do wish they had done a much better job at explaining this system in a more concrete manner). Finally, and also tied to this last point, there’s of course the combat. For my criticism of some of its aspects, Lies of P feels great to play, with punchy weapon and enemy clashing, and P’s obvious mobility becoming a strategic advantage in lots of different situations. This worked really well in tandem with the frequent addition of new mechanics, which kept my playthrough interesting and varied. I take umbrage with the range of some of the weapons, but overall, this was a highly satisfying combat system to engage with, good enough to keep you wanting to fight the mobs rather than avoid them.

When digesting all of this, I find myself concluding that I was, in the end and if I’m being honest, expecting a tad more from Lies of P. I had heard several people lauding it as their personal game of the year, and although I caught glimpses of why, its downsides are too impactful not to take them under serious consideration between the haves and the takes. However, and for what the opinion of a poorly-experienced soulsborne player is worth, this is still a great game in my book. I would be lying if I didn’t say that there were moments of my playthrough I thought of dropping it, but I’m glad I persisted. It was a formative experience in a standout beautiful dark world, one that ultimately has me looking forward to a possible sequel. 8/10

This is a game that thoroughly lived up to its reputation. A highly refined and engaging Soulslike that stands almost shoulder to shoulder with the best that FromSoft has to offer. Almost. That said, there are some aspects of this game that easily match a FromSoft game and the average quality is honestly better than your typical FromSoft endeavors with caveats.

The game wears its inspirations proudly on its puppet strings. If you've ever played a souls game you know what this is about. The opening sequence is very intentionally similar to the start of Bloodborne. You wake up in a medical chair completely disoriented with a vague calling to move forward. From there a very linear path forward ensues. There's nothing wrong with a linear game, especially when it's as well paced and executed as it is here. Of course, one of my favorite aspects to a Souls game is the exploration, and while there is some exploration in Lies of P it is extremely limited and hemmed in. That said, this linear structure does double down on some of the best of FromSoft design. Namely looping level design and limited checkpoints. Using shortcuts more often to loop back to a previous checkpoint. Most levels and gauntlets will have this design. It does become predictable, but it's not bad design by any means. While I do wish there was more exploration, the art design and level design were still great. It was just a very linear experience.

So while the exploration is not as good as a FromSoft game, where this game truly shines is in the combat, encounters and bosses. This is where the game is consistently high quality and great. The combat for me was a combination of Bloodborne and Sekiro. There is a heavy emphasis on parrying with an interesting doubling down on weapon durability. Where your weapon degrades rapidly, forcing you to repair your weapon in the middle of or after combat. Escalating the tension. Some of the more difficult boss fights will require this mid fight repair, where you will need to be cognizant of timing. You do take chip damage unless you perfect parry, but you can also just hold the block to get guaranteed damage mitigation. But learning the parry window does reward you with no damage and you dealing damage to a bosses/enemies weapon and stance. What's really cool is you can focus on parrying early in a boss fight, break the boss' weapon and then for the rest of the fight their weapon is broken. For example, for the Black Rabbit brotherhood fight, if you break the big brother's sword, his range and damage is significantly reduced. You can also dodge all attacks and most attacks can be parried. So unlike earlier Souls games, where parrying may not be possible against most bosses, the skills for most normal encounters directly apply to boss mechanics.

The boss fights are the highlight of this game. I did manage to beat each boss without using a summoned ally, but they are included for all major bosses. Not sure how they perform since I didn't use that mechanic, but all boss fights were balanced around you beating them alone. One thing this game does well is multiple enemy boss fights. Something that even the best Souls games rarely get right. The Black Rabbit Brotherhood fight is a great multiple enemy fight. The enemies rarely attack you at the same time, instead it's more staggered, forcing you to watch and react to both, but rarely getting sucker punched by both at the same time. It creates a cadence that feels balanced. Most bosses are also quite varied. There is a repeat that doesn't drastically shake up the formula, but multiple bosses feel climatic and like they could have ended the game, but it kept going. Not a bad thing since I was enjoying it.

Another major mechanic that is wholly unique to this game is in weapon assembly. You can swap out the handles and blades for all non-boss weapons given you tons of customization. You have a giant blade? Attach it to a dagger for a fast moveset! You like the weapon skill on this handle but the damage from that blade? Combine them! I did this with a high damage blade and attached it to a handle that scaled C and C on strength and agility but had a great weapon skill that was a cheap 3 strike slash. Plus the handle gave a reasonably fast moveset. So I was swinging fast and hard with a powerful weapon skill. Eventually I used the dragonsword katana which was just an awesome weapon. Its charged attack gives you a harder parry move that does more damage. Thus is higher risk with a higher reward. The weapon variety is great and being able to swap out blades and handles gives you an even broader toolkit and further encourages experimenting. Easily one of the best parts of the combat and customization.

The game does feature a plot and cryptic lore like you would expect from a FromSoft game, and it's not bad. It's certainly uncanny and creepy. It doesn't feel as sprawling as a FromSoft game where there are often many competing factions and world building, but it's focused and still intriguing.

So in summary, great combat, encounters and bosses. The level design is sharply focused but very linear. Given that the pacing is strong across the board, the linearity didn't bother me. I was still excited to see the next encounter or boss and those didn't disappoint. While it's tempting to just label this as a Soulslike, it does bring enough personality to the table to stand on its own. Though it does wear its inspiration shamelessly on its puppet strings.

This game wears its... we'll say "inspiration", since plagiarism might be mean... of Bloodborne on its sleeve. The gothic architecture, the city full of denizens driven mad by disease, the cursed dogs locked in cages, the side quest-givers hidden behind their windows, the masked hunters—er, "stalkers"—you meet along the way. And yet, it seems they so committed to copying Fromsoft's homework that they forgot to improve upon the formula. In fact, they doubled down on Fromsoft's worst mechanics. For example, the amount of ambush shittery in this game is insane. I get that it's a useful tool for building tension, but they lean on it way too much.

And now, for a mechanic that is pure trash with zero redeeming qualities, let's talk about the multi-phase boss—especially in cases where each phase has its own health bar. It was bad when Fromsoft did it, and it's worse here. For one, they gave half the bosses in the game a second phase... just because? Even Fromsoft intended for it to be special. It isn't special if you just give a second phase to everyone. Having to slog through a boss you've already beaten a dozen times just to get another chance at trying to learn the mechanics of the second phase is so dumb, and I sincerely hope this godawful trend dies with this game.

To the game's credit, their environments and character design look great, and the game offers a level of performance that Bloodborne fans have been dreaming about for years. It also offers a fantastic amount of build variety and opportunities for tailoring the gameplay to your preference. The story also does a lot to differentiate itself from Bloodborne, and what's there is pretty good. This game was so close to being really good. Hopefully they take some lessons from Lies of P and really nail it on their next project.