In a dark reimagining of the tale of Pinocchio, Geppetto's Puppet is awakened by the mysterious Blue Fairy in the wondrous city of Krat. Alone in a world overrun by crazed puppets and horrible monsters, he wields sword in-hand and the unique power to ignore the rules that govern all puppets. Embrace your humanity, unravel the mysteries of what happened to Krat, and save its people in this Action Souls-like, Lies of P!
Lies of P is slated to get an expansion in the first quarter of 2025, along with a sequel of some kind in the future. I've had the game in my backlog for a little while; a Timely Review seemed appropriate with the DLC incoming!
Release Date: September 18th, 2023
Developed by: NEOWIZ, Round 8 Studio
Published by: NEOWIZ, Fireshine Games
Quick Note: I played the game on the Steam Deck for a time, then my PC with a Keyboard + Mouse, then finally with my new Horipad Steam Controller. As a result, screenshots will be...a little mixed in quality, and the buttons displayed may be different between them. I spent most of my time with the Horipad, though, which had the best results.
A Grand Design
The world of Lies of P is a beautiful one...or at least, it was. Krat was seen as a technological and artistic marvel, much like Rapture of Bioshock fame (minus the politics). They discovered a miraculous energy source - Ergo - that could power their machinery and revolutionize industry. Alas it was not to remain, a crown jewel struck down by twin perils: the "Puppet Frenzy", wherein nearly all mechanical servants revolted and went kill-crazy, and the "Petrification Disease" that doomed those that remained to a horrific fate.
This is the environment Geppetto's Puppet awakens to, and the player can piece together some of the beauty hidden beneath the horror...and vise-versa. While the Steam Deck demanded Low settings, leaving things slightly blurred and darker than they're meant to be, my PC captured what remained of Krat in all its glory. Simply put, the game is a visual treat with its Belle Epoque era aesthetic, complete with a cathedral and an opera house. NPCs are dressed all prim and proper - and they talk like it, too - even given the cataclysm that has struck their lives. At least, those that haven't succumbed to the madness.
Why do I care so much? Frankly, the beauty is in the details, and while you're bustin' bots and slashin' psychos, it's the world at large that brings the lore and action together, selling a unique experience. I don't much care for the story of Pinocchio, but Lies of P is right up my alley anyway.
Speaking of that particular inspiration, Lies of P turns Pinocchio on its head and gives it another level of darkness. No one's literally turning into donkeys, but the mercenary Stalkers dress up as animals anyway to signify their status and allegiances. Gemini the guiding "cricket lantern" suffers from having had his memories stripped from him, the upbeat nature programmed within tempered with a deep-rooted concern. The Blue Fairy Sophia isn't just some wish-granting force of good, as she isn't as forthcoming with the truth as one might assume. To top it all off, we the player aren't even sure we're playing as Pinocchio! Implied, sure, but Geppetto's Puppet has its own backstory and potential motivations that differ from the one seemingly holding the wheel. Nobody's fully innocent here.
This is doubly true once you consider the Lie system, a major influence on the story at large. As stated at the top, Geppetto's Puppet can ignore The Grand Covenant, the governing laws that maintain order with the puppets. The ability to lie is a distinctly human trait, and as such you can influence one's Humanity - a hidden level that's mainly hinted at - by performing such acts. Lie to get what you want, lie to protect yourself or others, lie to provide comfort to the grieving; whatever the reasoning behind it, sometimes the truth isn't good enough.
From a utilitarian perspective, most of the best goodies are acquired via lying, so it makes gameplay sense to do it regardless of preference. In that way, I wish the game punished you more often for doing it, actually, to make you weigh your ability to lie versus the potential consequences for doing so. There should be more to it than "lying gets you the 'best' ending, and items are locked behind lying, so I see no reason to stop." In fact, I found the "bad" ending so egregiously horrible that it defied expectations; the game is brutal, certainly, but this was more of a middle-finger to the player for playing the "wrong" way, which isn't the best look. You have to get all endings eventually if you plan to Platinum the game, so....best save that one for last, eh?
Missteps in the Lie system aside, Lies of P is still fantastic in its world-building. I found it took Elden Ring's nebulous endings and NPC interactions and determined "that's cool and fun, makes for good discussion...but what if some of the characters actually explained themselves?" Not everything needs to be obfuscated for the sake of the "mystery", and there's still plenty to be had here if you want to dig for some. It ultimately makes the people and overall situation more believable, in my opinion - a character opening up to a friend, or discussing a plot-development in-game doesn't have to be some forbidden practice in Soulslikes.
Lie or Die
"Blah blah blah forget world-building, I want to hit the things!" Fair enough, let's transition to the combat. Thankfully that's just as great as the environment within which we'll do battle. While my overall library of experience with Soulslikes is low, I can confidently exclaim that Lies of P had some of the best combat systems...once I got used to it. I dodge-rolled way too often in Elden Ring, and doing that here will get you swiftly killed - this is much more of a block and/or parry system, reliant on timing and understanding what can/cannot be rolled out of.
To encourage less rolling and more blocking, the game has something called "Guard Regain": blocking does not guarantee you take no damage (only a parry does that), but instead you maintain a bit of the lost health as potential Guard Regain. By going back on the offensive and attacking enemies, you can restore that lost health (up to a point)...until you take an unblocked hit, wherein your Guard Regain is completely removed. It sometimes created a dance of moves and countermoves, encouraging choice-making that's more than just "press Attack until hurt, heal, resume Attack". Dodging, blocking, and all-out offense all have their moments, if you learn the windows of opportunity.
Further rewarding one's aggressiveness is the Fable meter, which fuels your special weapon skills. Outside of acquiring certain passives, Fable is returned via landing hits, and only when enough blue bars are full can you utilize the ability. Multi-slashes, special counterattacks, shooting out waves of energy; I found them all to be quite fun, and a mechanic I didn't fully appreciate until later in the game. You can inject yourself with Fable via an item, and I never once used it until the final chapters because I'm a dummy! The Fable abilities at your disposal are directly tied to the blade and handle of your weapon, meaning you can mix-and-match the abilities to customize your playstyle (more on that later).
The last major aspect of combat that must be considered is your Grindstone...because who doesn't love weapon durability?! The gray meter in the bottom right denotes one's remaining Durability, which is lost from striking enemies or being inflicted with ailments like Decay. Lose all your Durability and the weapon will break, causing you to deal significantly reduced damage and denying you the ability to repair it via the Grindstone on your mechanical-arm.
I actually found the system to be perfectly fine, in fact, and barely a nuisance in the grand scheme of things. My weapon only came close to breaking like twice ever, and it created some additional tension during longer encounters; as long as you maintain the weapon in-between fights and not completely ignore it, you'll never have a problem. The Grindstone can apply special effects on your weapon, too, which is a nice little bonus, and the animation and sound of the weapon-grinding was pretty cool all-told.
Ironically, once I figured everything out, the game became much easier than Elden Ring. I died more often in regular exploration than against bosses - which is par for the course with me and this genre - but I do wonder if Lies of P is a bit on the softer side for challenge. That or I just "got gud" and did better than anticipated, given how many comments I saw online of the apparent difficulty!
That being said, similar to the Spirit Bell of the aforementioned Fromsoft title, you can summon Specters to help you in a boss fight if you're having trouble. And much like Elden Ring, this leads to a war between Soulslike "purists" who demand you do all the fighting solo, and people like me who will utilize whatever is provided to get the job done. The consumables in this game are quite powerful in general, like throwing items and weapon-applications, and with how many Star Fragments I had drop, I saw no reason not to spend them and summon a Specter. Did I undermine the above statement about Lies of P being easier, using Specters (and thus denying myself the challenge)? I guess that's certainly possible. I didn't use them for literally every boss, but having an AI that can pull attention away from you was obviously invaluable.
Proof of Humanity
Of course, on the journey to possibly become a real-Soulslike, Lies of P stumbles in its occasional flaws. Don't get me wrong: the game is great, with a ton of quality-of-life improvements over the more established contenders in the genre. But humans aren't perfect, and neither is this game.
Unfortunately, a lot of my complaints come down to me saying "that's cool...but why would I bother?" The biggest one is the weapon customization: every weapon is comprised of a blade and a handle, and most of them can be disassembled and rebuilt in whatever combination you prefer. The blade determines your first Fable ability, your damage characteristics (does it have Fire damage, can it inflict Critical Hits, etc.), and how effective the weapon will be at charging Fable and reducing damage while blocking. The handle determines your second Fable ability, as well as the weapon's regular attack moveset and Attack Type (Stab, Slash, or Blunt).
This is all very cool, and you can go to town making the perfect weapon for yourself. Do you want a rapier handle for thrusting attacks, but a greatsword blade to have longer reach and more damage? Go right ahead. The "problem" is that I was not truly forced/encouraged to use the system. I only customized a weapon at the very beginning of the game: when I found the Booster Glaive in Chapter 3, I stuck with that (with the same blade + handle) until I acquired the Puppet Ripper scythe, which cannot be disassembled. That worked for me until I got the Two Dragons Sword, another special weapon. I had a ton of fun using these weapons, but that meant all the blades and handles in the world meant nothing because the Puppet Ripper and Two Dragons Sword had to remain as they were.
A similar situation occurred with the mechanical arm of Geppetto's Puppet, the "Legion Arm". You can also customize your Legion Arm to do a variety of things - a flamethrower, a shield, a grappling hook, etc. - but again I found its application to be niche. Could be a lack of imagination, or just simply forgetting I had the damn thing, but I barely ever used my Legion Arm. Granted, there were some instances where it was very helpful: pulling a gun-toting enemy to you, for example, to close the distance - but they were few and far between. Didn't help that the Puppet String hook didn't have the best vertical aim to aim at enemies above you, the main reason you would use it in the first place...
Conclusion
I have my issues with Lies of P, but don't think for a second that the game isn't good because of them. The world-building, characters, and music are fantastic, the combat is very fun, and the unique selling-points - the Lie system, the weapon customization, and so on - are great additions to freshen up the formula. With the right tweaking, be that in the form of the DLC or a sequel, this underappreciated gem of a game will truly shine.
The DLC is supposed to arrive sometime in the first few months of 2025, and I for one cannot wait. If you're a fan of Soulslikes, or you like Action games and want to tip your toes in the genre, this could be the game for you. Unless something truly amazing happens, Lies of P will be on my end-of-year list for "Must-Play Favorites", and that's no lie.
Bonus Gallery
I took over 200 screenshots of Lies of P, chronicling my adventure. I pared them down to this collection - if you'd like to get a greater view of the game, then look no further. But you've been warned: I cut the ones that blatantly gave away secrets, but that doesn't mean the gallery is spoiler-free!
Have you played Lies of P? What did you think - does it hold up as a great Soulslike? Are you excited for the DLC and/or the sequel? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Really enjoyed reading through this review and the game definitelly scaled in my "priority list" because of it.
Thank you very much! :D
Of course! Glad to be of service hehe
I would add two things to the review, which I lost track of and couldn't find space to add in after the fact: