(Note: this review, like most of my reviews for story-driven stuff, won’t spoil any of the story.)
What is it?
It’s a videogame! It was released in September of 2023, and I had quite a lot of fun in it, so much that I went all the way and finished it 100%. Given that I tend to ramble a lot, especially about this kind of games, I’ll try (and fail) to keep it short.
What kind of game is it, then?
This is what is now known as a souls-like, which means games inspired by the “Souls” series from From Software, like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Elden Ring or, in that case, Bloodborne and Sekiro. Lies of P, in many ways, is a heavy dose of Bloodborne with a good dose of Sekiro, two games I quite enjoyed. More on that later. Let’s talk about the story-side of things.
Story, dialogs, voice actors and all manners of conveying textual information
In 18XX, you awake as Pinocchio, a puppet in the city of Krat. You’re far from being the sole puppet in this city, but almost all of them have recently gone into a frenzy for no discernible reason, killing every human on sight. Your goal? Rally a safe haven, find what’s happening exactly and why, and put an end to it. You’re quite special after all: made by Gepetto, you’re sophisticated, graceful and exceptionally strong, but also, you possess a thing that no other puppet can normally do. You can lie.
Hence the name of the game. See? See what they did?
A shorter version of this would be: A twinkified Pinocchio lies left and right while covered in blood and oil, battling through everything thrown at him.
The story is, honestly, quite good. Not incredible, mind you, and nothing surprised me much, but it was far less cryptic than what you see in souls game, especially close imitators. Some lines of dialogs were genuinely funny, some were well-written and clever, some were alright. Voice actors were all good, especially the main ones. The little extra story bits here and there on items and elements from the world quite finished fleshing out a whole world, and honestly, I enjoyed it! It’s nothing fancy, but it’s well done and does the job.
Oh, and of course, I liked the main theme of the game (lying) and what they had to say about it within the story of Pinocchio. Again, it’s nothing incredible, but it was very well done. Kudos.
Aesthetics, visuals, music and all that jazz
It is a really beautiful game. It’s not the most beautiful game, and the palette is overall very similar the whole game, but it’s still very pretty. Some sights were truly fantastic, and the character designs were quite fun and delightful, especially all the costumes you can equip.
Music is quite good. You are expected to listen to it within the hub, with records you find within the game, and I was a bit worried that it would be bothersome, but no, the music is quite nice and enjoyable. Some tracks are wonderfully catchy or beautiful, and really flesh out the overall atmosphere of the game.
Gameplay and mechanics
As I said earlier, it’s a souls-like, but it’s specifically very heavy on Bloodborne, from the horror in a somewhat nineteenth century setting to the pace of combat. However, it takes lessons from Sekiro, giving us a block and parry: whenever an enemy is about to hit you, you can block and, if you do it perfectly, you completely block the damage, slowly breaking the stance of an enemy until you can deliver a heavy blow to fully stagger them and do a “fatal” attack (usually not fatal, but it does heavier damage). If you just block, however, you take damage, but most of it can be recovered simply by attacking back the enemy within the next few seconds.
It is really quite clever. It took me some time to get used to, but once I got it, it just clicked. You may be tempted to dodge everything, you may be tempted to try to parry everything, you may be tempted even to take distance and only throw a jab here and there. But honestly, the game slowly teaches you that you have to do a bit of everything, and THAT makes the combat so good. Yes, you can, if you time it right, parry this flurry of attacks, but it’s easier to dodge it. Yes, of course, you can dodge this heavy telegraphed blow, but you should try a parry instead!
One other thing Lies of P takes from Sekiro is the mechanical arms with multiple effects, from a flamethrower to planting landmines to throwing pools of acid. When I played Sekiro, I barely used the mechanical arm and its gizmos, and from what I gathered, that’s quite common: they are cumbersome, based on a limited resource, quite slow, and only really effective in very few instances. Not at all in Lies of P: sure, they begin a bit that way, but come the mid-late game, if you are so inclined, they can really make your life easier in a myriad of ways, and the game pretty much expects you to use them.
Lastly, the weapons. A quite amusing system is that most weapons can be broken into two parts: the “blade” and the handle. The blade has a special attack/effect associated with it, a type of damage, and helps determine the attack speed of the overall weapon. The handle, on the other hand, has also a special attack/effect associated with it, but will determine both the reach of your weapon and the moveset. Meaning that if you put a hammer head on a rapier handle, you’ll try to slowly poke at people with it ; on the other hand, putting the rapier blade on the hammer handle will make you swing your blade like a hammer, which is a bit silly.
This “build-your-arsenal” thing is fun, but a little bit bothersome in the end. I tested some configurations and settled quite early on a rapier blade / spear handle combo that carried me through all my three consecutive playthroughs, giving me both the reach and the speed that I wanted. I tried some other weapons, but as is usual with those games for me, once you have the rhythm of your weapon, it’s quite hard to switch it out, even for a “better” one.
Apart from that, there are a myriad of little changes that souls connaisseurs will appreciate… or not. Bosses are never far from the closest Stargazer (the place where you can stop, rest, heal, etc). Teleportation between Stargazers is given as soon as you reach the hub after the first boss. Most of the sidequests and important interactions will be noted within the teleportation menu, making sure you don’t miss important sidestory beats or quests. Shortcuts are numerous, and the game is extremely linear. You barely come back to areas, only to uncover some secrets or do some quests. There is a skill tree that relies on items found in the world to unlock. There are records that you can play, and listening to them in their entirety affects the game in a subtle but important way. There are three endings, two of which can not be reached easily within the same save file once you’re close to the end, requiring you to make at least two playthroughs (consecutive or not), and three if you don’t copy the save files to make it easier on yourself. The list goes on.
Last note: I heard that people were complaining on release that it was quite a difficult game. Although I am quite a “gamer”, as they say, I am far from competent in my eyes, and I usually finish souls games more out of tenacity than expertise, so I was a bit worried. In the end, it seems the numerous patches that have been applied since release fixed that. I had my fair share of trouble with some bosses, but it was not that hard compared to other experiences I had in similar games (… Malenia…). This may vary for you, of course, and maybe I finally became good at video games, but maybe the game is not that hard now that they changed some numbers around.
The short of it
If you enjoy souls game, especially Bloodborne and Sekiro and would like a quite enjoyable game that will at least keep you busy for twenty hours, it’s for you! As a beginner into the souls genre, it’s probably too much, but most of the pains from the Dark Souls and other imitators have been erased, and, in my opinion, if you are familiar with some action-y games already, it should be fine (although sometimes painful).
And if you want to see a twink get his white shirt immediately soaked within fifteen minutes of beginning the game, this may also be a game for you.
