Lies of P was one of the most unexpected pleasant surprises of 2023 for me. This game came out of nowhere from a relatively unknown Korean company and managed to instantly grab the hearts of all soulslike enjoyers, me included. And if that’s not enough, they even announced a DLC down the line. Since I loved the main game a lot, I bought the DLC at launch. The result: I am so glad that Arcesius is busy stacking bananas in Balatro, because it’s my opportunity to steal this review from him.
Prerequisite: give a read to his fantastic review here first before continuing!
Ok where were we: Lies of P takes inspiration from the Pinocchio story; you play as the puppet P, the only sentient puppet in a city overrun by murdering puppets and deranged creatures. With a tight, parry-focused combat, an amazing weapon building system and – most importantly in my opinion – a solid, atmospheric story, the game offers a neatly packed experience that is pretty much complete if you ask me.
This lead to a small concern however, when I heard about the DLC: If the main game is this complete, why would we even need a DLC? I was a bit worried that it would consist of extra content that could potentially hurt the main product, even negatively influencing the gripping story.
Fortunately, I can confirm that this is not the case, Overture further enhances the already high quality of the main game. Not only do we get amazing new weapons, crazy bosses and fun extra locations, but also a deeper look into the story and background of the puppet P and those close to him.
But first of all, taking a small page from the original Dark Souls, in this DLC our mechanical character is thrown into the past via a remote stargazer. You are given no explanation as to why, it’s up to you to figure it out why you were teleported to that specific point of time.
You start your new adventure in the snow-covered Krat Zoo, a place where all the animals and inhabitants have been corrupted and turned into deranged zombies. It’s a very strong opening level for the DLC, considering that now you have to fight various monkeys, wolves, kangaroos and even a sinister chimera elephant that took me by surprise. These new enemies pack a very mean punch so make sure you are well equipped before tackling the DLC. You are also presented the newest mechanic, Frostbite, that slows your movement to a crawl and constantly drains health from you.
But this isn’t the only level in the game. This DLC is actually quite big, adding an additional 5 chapters to the main game, so you will also visit the mandatory creepy amusement park, pre-Disaster Krat and several other disturbing places that further exposes the experiments and goals of the villains of the main game. Probably my favorite level design-wise would be the underground asylum, a truly horrific place full of failed experiments that are more than eager to take you down.
Unfortunately, and this is one of the very few downsides of the DLC…the new enemies aren’t really that interesting. Other than the Krat Zoo enemies, you mostly find variants of the main game enemies. The only ones that stand out are the puppet ballerinas that attack you gracefully, being incredibly unpredictable in their moveset.
If the enemies weren’t that great… my goodness, the new bosses are an absolute delight! They all hit fast, hit hard, have unique mechanics and really put your game knowledge to the test. You better be good with your parries, because dodging won’t help you much in these fights! They’re also a step above the bosses from the main game, so if you were slightly disappointed with the low difficulty of the main game, well the DLC encounters won’t let you down!
Without spoiling too much, there are three bosses that really stood out: Markionna, a puppeteer boss that brings a unique take on the “duo boss “concept, the Anguished Guardian, a rather large fella that makes quite the impression when you first encounter him, and the final boss.
I will not say more to avoid spoilers, but if you remember Laxasia from the main game, this final DLC challenge makes her look like a joke. The final boss of the DLC is one of the toughest enemies I have faced in this genre, but oddly enough he’s also one of the fairest bosses ever made. There’s no cheapness involved, it’s just the boss testing all the skills that you have (hopefully) mastered by now.
Of course, in order to properly combat these new menaces, you are also given a rather impressive set of weapons. The regular weapons that you can disassemble are in a tier of their own, from a propulsion spear that launches you forward, to a pinwheel can opener that spins according to how much you actually sprint. These weapons, while fun, can’t hold a candle to the boss weapons, however. The boss weapons are an absolute delight, the highlight being a gunblade that has become my favorite weapon in the entire game.
There’s also the final weapon that you receive… which really is a “congratulations, you beat the DLC, now destroy everything in your sight” kind of weapon. It’s the proper reward that you should get after defeating the final challenge.
In my opinion, what made this game stand out compared to other soulslikes is the story and atmosphere. And boy this DLC nails it! In the main game there are a few notes mentioning this “legendary stalker” that was the most powerful mercenary in existence, the trainer of Carlo, the boy that was the “template” for the main character P. While the main game barely mentions her, the DLC follows her footsteps and I can guarantee that the payout is fantastic. You discover all the links between the main characters, including more details about P’s background and his creator.
It’s all so detailed and dare I say emotional, that I ended up researching and connecting every piece of lore. Again, I don’t want to spoil too much, but if you liked the main game’s story, this one will make everything better… and sadder at the same time.
One final piece of immersion – you do arrive at the Krat Hotel, the game’s central hub/place of respite where NPCs gather, but you do so before its grand opening. The best part is that some of the actions that you do in the past have actual ramifications in the future. Several events and items suffer slight alterations depending on what you did in the past in Hotel Krat. Nothing you do will influence the overall plot, but there will be slight bittersweet differences.
Just a small heads-up: Rosaura’s sidequest might make you shed a tear.
The DLC also adds some new features that further enhance the main game. Now you have the ability to select the difficulty of the game, should you feel that the challenges are too much for you. The new difficulties are Butterfly’s Guidance (Very Easy), Awakened Puppet (Easy) and Legendary Stalker (the game’s default difficulty before the DLC), which also was my difficulty of choice when tackling this DLC.
But the biggest improvement is the ability to rematch the bosses of the game. You can fight every major boss from both the main game and the DLC, being able to also set their difficulty from 1 to 5, with difficulty 5 equalling their difficulty on NG++. Moreover, there’s a Boss Rush section where you can fight a maximum of 3 bosses back to back, should you wish to test your skills even further. This is a feature that has always been desired by FromSoft fans yet never added in the Souls games (minus Sekiro). I am incredibly glad to see that it was added in Lies of P.
In terms of trophies, the DLC is an extension of the main game. Most of the trophies will unlock naturally while you progress, but the Records are elusive as ever, being hidden behind quests and some gold variants being available in NG+ only. I do recommend a trophy guide for the Records, should you aim to 100% this DLC.
This DLC is a must play if you loved the main game. It just adds more excellent content to an already great game and it actually made me happy that a development team FINALLY cracked the code and manages to get the idea of a Souls game. I have high hopes for this genre and I am looking forward to see what they have in store for us next!
