Lies of P, a curious Souls-like featuring a take on Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, has finally been released. In our review, find out if this fairy tale Souls-like is worth your time and money.
Lies of P Review and Score Explanation
Lies of P Score Explanation
| Overall | Lies of P is a fantastic game with a unique and delightful Souls-like experience, despite the lack of innovations to the formula. The combination of sharply-dressed and well-spoken characters, attention to detail, great sound design, and that familiar souls-like feeling of gratification that comes after defeating a problematic boss, make this strange adaptation of a popular children's fiction worth every penny. |
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| Story | Despite making gratuitous use of passive and environmental storytelling, Lies of P's main plot isn't anything to write about. It's quite the standard fare for people who consume apocalyptic or zombie stories on the regular. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does make the overall progression of the story somewhat predictable. |
| Gameplay | It's a cookie-cutter Souls-like game on paper. The actual gameplay is a laundry list of many things that are familiar to fans of the genre with a few, minor additions. But it magically becomes an entirely novel experience once combined. |
| Visuals | "Aesthetic" is one word I think qualifies to describe everything in Lies of P. Everything about the game is so beautiful that it's enough to make some of the minor issues it has seem trivial. It almost seems like the world itself breathes. Everything, from the enemies, to the environment, and even the weather, feels so cohesively designed to tell the same dark story. |
| Audio | This is perhaps Lies of P's strongest quality, aside from its gameplay. Punchy sound effects, a cast of talented voice actors, and boss music that chills the heart; Lies of P doesn't disappoint in the grand scheme of things. However, though not absolutely necessary, the sections focused on exploration could use some tunes. Actions may speak louder than words, but the story of Pinocchio isn't a lesson about letting your actions speak for you. A little more would've gone a long way. The songs that you can collect to play on the gramophone are all bangers, though. |
| Value for Money | At just $59.99 for a great Souls-like, Lies of P is a definite must-try for both fans and beginners. It's so hard to be disappointed when you can buy a product so at peace with itself with what it wants to be. It absolutely nails the dark, gritty, steampunk adaptation of the popular children's novel with a polished Souls-like coat of paint. |
Lies of P Review: When White Lies Become Dark Truths
I'm not gonna lie (unlike the protagonist ‘P’ in-game), when I heard that there was going to be another Souls-like game coming, I felt pretty hesitant. After all, Elden Ring basically left the field with an incredibly high bar to match. It was going to be challenging for new games to match just how enjoyable Elden Ring was using the same Souls-like formula. Maintaining that balance between the challenge of getting past a brick wall of a boss and the rewarding experience after overcoming it is something FromSoftware has mastered.
Enter Lies of P. While it isn't mind-blowing, the game possessed qualities that made me hesitate to put down the game. In fact, as I continued to play it, I found myself glued to my seat more and more. My interest was piqued by the game's mechanics, characters, and that familiar, punishing Souls-like experience. But most importantly, exploring the beautifully-designed world and engrossing myself in its abundant environmental storytelling was a treat in and of itself.
It might also have something to do with a sense of nostalgia, given its Bloodborne-esque aesthetics (please come to the PC already).
Regardless of its similarities to other Souls-like games, Lies of P manages to create an identity for itself through multiple aspects of its design, such as its uniquely balanced combat and art direction. Fans of the genre will undoubtedly enjoy this game for what it is.
In fact, I was so satisfied with my playthrough that the only time I found myself grimacing was when I faced my mortal enemy: platforming. Yes, there are platforming sections in the game for some reason. But oh well, that's for my skill issues to deal with. Man, if only this game had multiplayer!
Pros of Lies of P
| Things Lies of P Got Right |
|---|
 Perfect Likeness Of Civilization And Ruin Absolutely Amazing Audio Equipment Customization Is Fun And Functional The Combat is Uniquely Lies of P |
Perfect Likeness Of Civilization And Ruin
Utilizing a lot of visual storytelling, Lies of P excels in creating a steampunk-like version of The Adventures of Pinocchio for the players to immerse themselves in. Not only does each asset fit seamlessly into the game's theme, they all serve the game's world-building. From looking at the environment, players can immediately determine that the City of Krat is in ruins, with most of the humans and animals dead and gone. It's also immediately apparent that the mad puppets and infected, often found with corpses around them, are the cause.
Set in a steampunk version of La Belle Époque, a period in European history set in the 1870s to 1880s, characters don attires, hairstyles, and mannerisms for which the era is known. Most of them also wear dull colors to compliment the dark atmosphere ever-present in the game. In contrast, most of the puppets appear to have a sort of vibrancy incorporated in their original design as if they were meant to appeal to children. But this appeal is immediately betrayed by the bloodstains on their bodies and the weapons in their hands.
Enemy designs are especially unnerving, which is awesome, given the game's theme. They aren't entirely new, groundbreaking designs or anything. It's hard to be truly original when there are just so many horrific monster designs out there from the countless studios seeking to perfect the art of the abomination. But, they are still well-suited for creeping the hell out of the newcomers and getting the blood pumping for the experienced. What's more, their fear factor isn't just limited to the way they look, but in the way they attack as well. This is especially true for the puppet enemies, with their frighteningly twitchy movements and shrill cries.
The game also utilizes cinematics well. One part that blew me away was when P exits the game's first area. Even as I continued to play the game, nothing really beat what that first big reveal provided. I was treated to an eerie yet beautiful shot of Krat City's nightscape, with a town square strewn with corpses, broken carriages, a few lit windows, and mad puppets roaming about. It not only opened up the map to me, showing that the game has more than just narrow corridors to explore, but it also showed the game's scale and provided a glimpse of where my adventure was leading me: Hotel Krat.
I learned more about the game from that single scene than from the numerous letters and markers scattered throughout the game. It was a landscape specifically designed to depict a once prosperous city that has fallen into ruin due to the malfunctioning puppets, with its citizens being forced into hiding or otherwise abandoned out in the rain.
Absolutely Amazing Audio
Action RPGs are almost as reliant on sound design as they are on their general combat mechanics. A good sound design can turn an otherwise bland slapping contest into an epic showdown between demigods.
Fortunately, Lies of P's sound effects complemented the combat very well. The sound of explosions, metal tearing metal, and even the unnerving screeches the enemy puppets make, all served a singular purpose of increasing player immersion as much as possible. They were very weighty, too, and can sometimes even make it feel like the action was happening in real life, just meters away from the player.
The background music during the boss fights was also an absolute treat to listen to. It fit the pace of each fight just right, and increased the excitement without overstepping its bounds. However, I mentioned "boss fights" specifically because those were the only places with any background music, besides the hotel music at the main hub. When you're exploring the streets of Krat, the game mostly only graces you with the sound of your footsteps, environmental noise, and the occasional screams of horror from a distance.
Voice acting is another thing of wonder. None of them feel forced into their role, and they have natural accents that fit their characters. It's just that... for some reason, the characters' lips keep moving even after their lines are done. Minor nitpick, true, but I felt like pointing it out since it does look pretty funny.
Furthermore, the songs you can play through the game's gramophone are so good. And not only are they great pieces, they are also functional. How they're functional is something you should figure out for yourself.
The music is so amazing, in fact, that I'm writing this review while listening to those tunes. They're seriously so good, and may just be the most memorable aspect of Lies of P's audio. I'm not kidding. Give them a listen.
Equipment Customization Is Fun And Functional
To defend the City of Krat against the big baddies, P can be equipped with various weapons, tools, and trinkets to assist in his endeavor. These include a very cool prosthetic called a Legion Arm, an upgradeable engine called the P-Organ (he is a machine puppet, after all), and a variety of weapons and accessories that you can scavenge or purchase from the city.
The most striking of this set of equipment is the first one mentioned; the Legion Arm. Simply put, it's the only outwardly physical indication that P, like many of his foes, is a puppet. In combat, however, it functions as more than just an appendage. It's also P's offhand weapon, which can provide a variety of functions depending on what kind you equip. These include acting as a flamethrower, a grenade launcher, a grappling hook, and many others to compliment your playstyle. The Legion Arm enhances the gameplay experience by leaps and bounds, providing an alternative, readily available choice for every situation.
Then, we have the P-Organ. It's P's upgradeable heart that can use Quartz, a type of loot you can collect from chests or enemies, to augment his abilities. Unfortunately, you can only obtain a limited amount of these from every playthrough, so you'll have to manage your upgrades very carefully. But the bonuses it affords are pretty significant, allowing you to specialize in specific game mechanics, such as gaining pulse cells or chaining multiple dodges. With this alone, you can customize P to master a particular or a set of skills that fit your playstyle easily, without feeling like the game is being too generous.
Finally, we've saved the best for last: the weapons. How so, you may ask, when weaponry is the staple for these kinds of games? Well, it's because Lies of P's weapon customization system is perhaps a quarter of why this game is so much fun.
You see, aside from special weapons you could obtain from bosses, all of the weapons in Lies of P can be disassembled into their constituent parts: their blades and handles. These parts handle different aspects of the original set. Specifically, the blade dictates its damage stats and type, while the handle determines its moveset and scaling. The sum of these parts dictates the resulting weapon's range and appearance.
Each part also has its own Fable Arts, which is equivalent to Elden Ring's Weapon Skills.
It's probably easy to imagine where I'm going with this. The ability to combine different weapons gives you the power to create some genuinely awesome, and sometimes completely baffling tools of mass destruction. You could, for example, attach a greatsword blade to the handle of a polearm. Great for a weapon with long reach! On the other hand, you could also fasten a giant wrench on the handle of a dagger. I have absolutely no idea why you would ever want to do that but, hey, the system will definitely allow you to do it. The sky's the limit!
The Combat is Uniquely Lies of P
Combat that emphasizes patience and precision, responsive controls that make it feel like the character is part of the player's body... those are the things that make Souls-like games so appealing to me. Lies of P possesses those qualities, but in a way that's different from the most popular games of the genre.
"It's basically Bloodborne and Sekiro combined," is what a lot of my friends have summarized the experience to be like. There's some weight to that argument. After all, it has the same aesthetics and Rally mechanic as Bloodborne, which allows you to heal by damaging enemies, and it heavily promotes parrying as Sekiro does, with its Perfect Guard mechanic. However, while it is true that Lies of P is basically a combination of multiple Souls-like games, it is still able to create a product that feels unique. In other words, the final result is something distinctly "Lies of P" rather than just being both Bloodborne and Sekiro.
Yes, the controls are responsive. Yes, combat requires learning an enemy's moves and adapting to them. However, minor adjustments made, purposefully or not, make the game stand out. For one, P is a bit slower than The Hunter in Bloodborne. His rolls have a delay on them as well. Both of these factor into perhaps the game's attempt to make the player rely on Perfect Guards more than dodging, which is also reinforced by Lies of P's Rally mechanic. However, due to his markedly sluggish attacks, he cannot make use of this mechanic as well as The Hunter. This unique combination of advantages and disadvantages forces players into a playstyle that balances these aspects as well as they can, instead of the kind Bloodborne and Sekiro's faster gameplay encourages.
Lies of P features another mechanic that rewards players for balancing aggression and a defensive playstyle. Their version of the Estus Flask, the Pulse Cells, has a unique capability to refill themselves. However, it can only be done when P has entirely run out of them. To earn another use, P must deal damage to enemies. But because you'll only need to gain another charge when you've run out, players must also avoid getting damaged too much by relying on whatever they can. Basically, aggression is rewarded, but only when a wise, defensive playstyle is deployed. Right at the edge, players are allowed to bounce back to defeat their foe. It's an incredibly fantastic mechanic unique to Lies of P, which I argue might even serve well to be implemented in other Souls-likes in the future.
Cons of Lies of P
| Things That Lies of P Can Improve |
|---|
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Vague Placement For Essential Services The Progression is Very Predictable |
Vague Placement For Essential Services
Similar to most FromSoftware games, Lies of P trusts its players to learn about the game themselves. Their works are famous for having a hands-off approach when it comes to teaching them about the game, such as never mentioning that refusing Melina's accord in Elden Ring meant never having the ability to level up or how you had to talk to Emerald Herald multiple times to access the same feature in Dark Souls 2. However, unlike most FromSoftware games, Lies of P takes it further, too far even, by making them confusing. One such example is leveling up. When the player first comes across the game's equivalent of a bonfire, the Stargazers, they are told that they could use it to level up. But it's also mentioned that its " strength doesn't last forever." Sure enough, if the player finds it in themselves to grind on the various puppets they could infinitely farm around them, they'll soon hit a wall as the Stargazers stop allowing them to level up further. This is probably just the game's attempt to stop players from over-leveling to face the first boss.
However, even after getting into Hotel Krat, which functions as the main hub, the option to level up never appears again on Stargazers. That is because, similar to Elden Ring's Melina, Sophia is the person to interact with to raise your levels. But the difference is that Sophia cannot be interacted with through Stargazers, unlike the former, who's always at your beck and call on Sites of Grace. The game never tells you this, so players who are eager to continue playing instead of interacting with the NPCs (despite Souls-like games traditionally encouraging doing so) might get lost early on and just think they can't level up anymore.
Another instance of this happening is when P obtains his first real Legion Arm from the game's equivalent of a blacksmith, Eugénie. Though a cut-in mentions that the player can modify their Legion Arms on the Venigni Craft Machine, the usual thought process would be "Oh, it must be somewhere in Eugénie's room. She's the blacksmith, after all." Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, the Craft Machine is located in an area across Eugénie's that looks like it's in the middle of being renovated. Most players would ignore that area because of how unassuming the place looks.
Granted, this location becomes a vital section of the hub later in the game, so it becomes a bit more obvious. Still, it has a use before that point. Players could easily miss it and would benefit from a better way to indicate its location, such as a spotlight directly on it or a small lamp next to it. That, at least, would work way better than the dark corner it's in until the area's eventual development.
The Progression is Very Predictable
The original story of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio is all about being truthful. Only then could we improve and become better versions of ourselves. However, real life is seldom so black and white. There are times when we must lie to protect others, to make them happy, or to give them hope. This contradiction is what Lies of P explores extensively and is central to its plot and development.
While this seems like a great philosophical conundrum to trouble yourself with, it comes at a cost. You see, aside from the ultimate goal of saving the city from utter destruction wrought by mad puppets and monsters, Lies of P's interactions rarely step away from that overarching theme. And unfortunately, once you realize this is the case, everything becomes very predictable.
You could almost tell immediately after arriving at the crux of a quest if it will involve you choosing between telling the truth or otherwise. Moreover, you can often tell what kind of lie P will come up with on the spot. Why? Because in every single instance presented to you, lying is usually the more empathetic choice to make.
The message behind this predictability is to show that we are similarly rooted in these choices as human beings, who have the natural ability to come up with a white lie to protect others.
This moral is especially driven home by the game's Lie System, a scale that measures P's "humanity," which he accrues from performing the very human act of lying. While it's unclear if this scale affects you gameplay-wise (at least I didn't see it affect his stats at all), it does affect what kind of ending opens up to you.
While that all sounds great on paper, it effectively eliminates any surprises from P's interactions with people. It’s like learning about a surprise birthday party as well as all the gifts people got you before your birthday.
All you can do to keep yourself in the dark, for the most part, is skip all of the passive world-building done through the game's many journals and newspaper clippings on your first playthrough. This ironically brings in a different idiom, that ignorance is bliss. But at least that way, you'll still have a few pleasant surprises as you play through the game.
Lies of P Overview & Premise
Set in a cruel, steampunk reimagination of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lies of P puts you in the shoes of the titular character from the popular children's story as you destroy rogue puppets and unravel the mysteries behind their madness. Along the way, you will encounter characters who will aid you, such as Sophia (the game's version of The Blue Fairy), your father Geppetto, and Eugénie, as well as those who would stand in your way, such as the Stalkers.
The game features Souls-like gameplay and a unique feature in the "Lie" system, which will influence how P develops as a character further down the road. Will you choose to tell the truth? Or will you choose the more human, often more empathetic, option of lying? It's a gripping battle, both physical and psychological, that fuels this game's heart. This game is a definite must-try for fans of the genre.
Who Should Play Lies of P?
Lies of P is Recommended if You Enjoy:
• Bloodborne
• Sekiro
• Dark Souls
If you're a fan of Souls-like games, then you'll definitely enjoy Lies of P. The game sticks to the formula faithfully, opting not to introduce any mechanic utterly foreign to the games and instead combine different ones into a product that feels different and even unique.
Is Lies of P Worth It?
Honestly? It’s Worth Every Penny
Lies of P may be the best Souls-like of 2023. Not only is the combat and audio among the cream of the crop, but it's also aesthetically excellent, with a good, solid story to boot. Although the contrast in its difficulty between bosses and regular enemies is a bit staggering, the challenge is still fair, exciting, and, most importantly, satisfying. At just $60 with a promise of up to 40 hours of gameplay (60 or above if you aim for its other endings), Lies of P is a steal, no questions asked, no lies told.
How Lies of P Matches Up to Recently-Released Games
| Games That Came Out Recently | How It Matches Up With Lies of P | |
|---|---|---|
 Armored Core 6 |
A fair fight. Both of them are excellent games with solid performance. At the end of the day, it might just have to boil down to preference. If you love mechas, then definitely pick up Armored Core 6. Otherwise, Lies of P will suit you better. | |
 Sea of Stars |
Another tough choice that must boil down to individual preferences since both games are excellent in their genres. If you prefer retro RPGs, you'll have a great time with Sea of Stars. But if you prefer the challenge, action, and tight controls of a Souls-like game, then get yourself a copy of Lies of P. | |
 Thunder Ray |
Lies of P and Thunder Ray offer wildly different things to an exquisitely high standard. The former offers an immersive world filled with suspenseful moments and philosophical conundrums, while the latter offers a narrow but amazing view of a heart-racing fighting game. | |
How Lies of P Matches Up to Similar Games
| Games Similar to Lies of P | How It Matches Up With Lies of P | |
|---|---|---|
 Bloodborne |
The gameplay between both is astoundingly similar, aside from Lies of P's emphasis on balancing dodging, and blocking. Aside from that, it's just a matter of choosing between getting shanked in Britain or mauled in France. While both are great games nonetheless, Bloodborne offers more heart-pounding gameplay with its faster pace. | |
 Elden Ring |
In Elden Ring, the game trusts its players to create their own adventure by providing them with a massive open world to explore. You'll have none of that in Lies of P, where the story is mostly only influenced by P's ability to lie like a human. Combat-wise, Elden Ring is also much more forgiving due to the many busted and wacky builds players can make. | |
 Code Vein |
Imagine Lies of P, but really, really anime. That's basically what Code Vein is. Additionally, the two differ in general gameplay experience, with Lies of P heavily relying on player skill compared to Code Vein basically allowing people to cheese bosses into the afterlife. There's also magic in Code Vein. Another point of comparison is lore; Code Vein also appeals to fans of God Eater due to being in the same universe, while Lies of P is a standalone game. | |
Lies of P Trailer
Game8 Reviews
Lies of P Product Information
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| Title | LIES OF P |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 19, 2023 |
| Developer | NEOWIZ, Round8 Studio |
| Supported Platforms | PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | Mature |
| Official Website | Lies of P Official Website |
