Lies of P Review

There are only a few action RPGs that I would describe as being entirely influenced by the works of Japanese game studio FromSoftware. Among those few, only a handful are indie creations, adapting their scope to the available resources and making compromises where necessary. Most of these often-fantastic games end up borrowing specific aspects from their inspirations while simplifying other aspects of gameplay.

Not so with Lies of P. Developer Neowiz had a vision and didn’t want to compromise. The result is an incredible piece of entertainment.

Let me be straight: I dislike the term “soulslike”. I think it is used too arbitrarily and to describe games that, in my opinion, have little to nothing in common with the games they are being compared to. So, I usually avoid using the term altogether. When it comes to Lies of P, however, I almost feel forced to use that term. It is difficult to argue that Lies of P is NOT like a Souls game. It is one, through and through, borrowing most of what makes up a Souls game’s identity.

Set in the Belle Époque, it tells a story that has been told a thousand times before: human creations become sentient and revolt against their makers, unleashing chaos. This time around, the game’s perspective is very interesting, paying homage to Carlo Collodi and his tale of Pinocchio. Set in the city of Krat, you take on the role of P, Geppetto‘s creation, a special puppet with a key distinctive feature: The ability to lie. This makes P more human than other puppets, a concept that is further explored throughout the game. What is human behavior? What characterizes us as humans and makes us unique?

Without going into further detail about the game’s story arc, Lies of P‘s approach to storytelling significantly differs from what we are used to finding in FromSoftware‘s games, and I personally found it refreshing. Instead of cryptic dialogue, obscure cutscenes, and critical information being hidden in item descriptions, Lies of P adopts a more straightforward style of narrative exposition. Objectives are always clear, and I enjoyed understanding my motives without having to turn to external sources that have conducted countless hours of research.

When it comes to exploration – and this is obviously a personal preference – I quite enjoyed the linear nature of Lies of P. There is almost no need to deviate from the straightforward path, with optional sidetracks and rooms never being too well-hidden or far off the main route. Backtracking to previously visited areas is also kept to a minimum, with Trinity Sanctums requiring special keys or returning to an NPC to conclude a quest being some of the very few exceptions. Nevertheless, the game ensures that these exceptions are not overlooked. For example, the Trinity Sanctums, while not always accessible when I found them, would almost always lie along the main path. This allowed me to make a mental note of where the Sanctum was, making it easy to return upon acquiring the necessary key. The game is structured into chapters, with each chapter being almost entirely explorable before progressing to the next one.

The environments feel alive, and there is great attention to detail. While this helps emphasize the somber and grim atmosphere, I found the game’s lighting to be much too dark almost all the time, despite cranking up the brightness higher than what the calibration suggested. The darkness might add to the depressive atmosphere and highlight the dire circumstances, but I would have welcomed a bit more diversity. The placement of Stargazers, Lies of P‘s checkpoints and fast travel beacons, is very generous. Unnecessary boss runbacks are not a thing, making repeated attempts at a tough boss battle less tedious and much more enjoyable. And while there are many obsolete shortcuts, most are well-crafted, making exploration more exciting and adding a layer of make-believe complexity to the simple layout of the environments.

Since I mentioned boss runbacks, let’s finally touch upon the combat gameplay in Lies of P. The game features the well-known, stamina-based and committed combat, and incorporates multiple of the best ideas and elements that made the original games by FromSoftware stand out. Basic offensive combat feels familiar and requires a methodical approach, as attack animations cannot be canceled, and one must commit to each swing and strike. An aggressive, offensive gameplay is encouraged, given the lack of shields and the rally-style mechanic, where a fraction of damage taken can be regained by attacking during a brief window after taking damage. This mechanic is also available to your opponents, discouraging a brute force approach and instead incentivizing learning openings for safe retaliation.

Despite there being no shields, there are other methods of damage mitigation besides dodging. Blocking with the equipped weapon reduces damage taken by a fraction defined by the weapon. However, timing the press of the block button as an enemy attack lands results in a Perfect Parry, which deflects the attack and mitigates all damage. Given the beautifully telegraphed enemy attacks, utilizing Perfect Parry to take an opponent heads-on is a thrilling and rewarding experience. This concept ties perfectly into other gameplay mechanics, such as enemy stagger. Both regular attacks – especially charged heavy attacks – and Perfect Parry apply stagger build-up, eventually putting an enemy into a staggereable state. Performing a charged heavy attack during the brief stagger window then opens the enemy up for a devastating Fatal Attack. Staggering an enemy and following up with a Fatal Attack becomes a very effective and rewarding method for approaching combat, especially during boss encounters. Remarkably, this important concept is not only reserved for players with a good sense of timing. Instead, the game provides multiple ways of staggering an enemy, including the use of Electric Shock, one of the three elements in the game.

This brings me to build diversity, one of the stronger, and at the same time weaker aspects of Lies of P. The primary means of creating different builds lies in the genius weapon crafting system. Each regular weapon is split into its blade and its handle. Blades and handles can then be mixed and matched arbitrarily, with the resulting combination retaining specific aspects, attributes, and the Fable Arts of its individual components. Fable Arts are special weapon movesets, yet another fun mechanic borrowed from previous games in the genre and which makes each weapon unique. Certain combinations experience a penalty to damage output if the blade type and weapon moveset don’t complement each other, but otherwise, there are many different combinations to experiment with. Experimentation is very easy indeed. There are three offensive attributes that can be leveled up, and while weapons scale naturally with one of these attributes, they can be modified to scale with any of the other two. This enables experimentation without the need to reset attribute points. Only “magic”-focused builds are a bit less straightforward, since the three different enemy classes are weak to one of the three different elements each, requiring a magic user to switch weapons depending on the situation.

While experimenting with different weapons is very entertaining, it’s pretty much the only decisive factor when it comes to build crafting. There is no defensive equipment, such as armor, and Lies of P’s take on a skill-tree, the P-Organ, does not have a profound impact on a build’s performance. Consequently, build crafting simply boils down to choosing a working weapon combination and optionally altering its scaling, which accounts for most of the build’s performance, then supplement the build with P-Organ upgrades. It’s not the most exciting process, nor the most complex system.

Now, what would be combat without foes to fight? Regular enemies encountered during exploration are mainly weak and rarely pose a threat on their own but can become dangerous in groups. Elite enemies spice things up, often engaging in combat unexpectedly. Most of these foes are very aggressive and powerful, and can quickly ruin a peaceful stroll through Krat and leave you in a precarious situation.

Lastly, there is no way around discussing the game’s bosses and their design. Given that Krat has been overrun by puppets that once served humans, the setting allows for anything to happen. Throughout my journey, I had to fight against carnival helpers, a factory furnace defender, an enormous watchman, … but also many other carnal monstrosities. Overall, I think the game features a very nice mix of humanoid and abomination bosses. Attacks are mostly well telegraphed, which encourages engaging with the Perfect Parry system, though some delayed attacks can definitely mess up with timings. However, for most bosses, wind-ups allow you to discern specific attack sequences, making it possible to identify attack strings with delays.

And while it may be due to one of the early patches, I feel that Lies of P lacks in difficulty. Especially the last third of the game, which should feature the most difficult fights, was a letdown. I brute-forced my way through what should have been tough battles, conquering the most powerful foes, including the secret boss, without being forced to learn the fights in the slightest. This was definitely a disappointment, as I felt the visually spectacular fights could have resulted in a climactic ending, when it was instead underwhelming.

Otherwise, there are small details that definitely bothered me. For example, having to travel back to Hotel Krat every time simply to level up, while most of the other options, such as crafting weapons, were always available from any Stargazer. But besides this and similar minor details, I think there are very few things one could complain about. Lies of P knows where it took its inspiration from. It learned from the best, borrowed some of the most interesting ideas, and combined them with fresh ones to create one of the most interesting entries in the genre.