Introduction:
Lies of P, a new soulslike from Neowiz Games and Round 8 Studio set in a re-imagination of the story of Pinocchio by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. You play as the inventor Gepetto's puppet set to find out what caused the puppet outbreak in the city of Krat, defeating some challenging bosses on the way.
Visual Spectacle:
Lies of P is a very good looking video game with a fantastic and unique art stlye. The world is filled with intricate details and imaginative character and boss designs that draw players into its Belle Époque-like environment. The artistic vision behind the game is commendable and sets it apart from other titles.
Mixed Souls Style Gameplay:
Lies of P's gameplay is best described as a mix of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro. The game draws a lot from FromSoftware's genre defining masterpieces. The gameplay is mostly centered around a Sekiro like parry system with a hint of Bloodborne's sidesteps and a spin on it's health recovery mechanic. We also have a visceral attack type finisher move called fatal attacks mixed in with posture breaks that you can achieve with a fully charged heavy attack when an enemy is in a certain state. The developers also put a bit of a spin on the usual soulslike weapons, they offer a great deal of customization to fit your playstyle as you mix different weapon parts to achieve wastly different results, including fable arts which is this games spin on unique weapon abilities. The game offers plenty of very challenging mini-bosses and bosses that will keep you on your toes until the end and through multiple playthroughs even.
Decent Sory:
The game's narrative takes a bit of a side role as we are used to in soulslikes. You can pretty much choose how much you want to interact with the story. Lies of P still has an interesting story filled with intriguing characters, mysteries, and moral dilemmas. Players take on the role of P, a puppet who might have the opportunity to become something else as you dwell deeper into the game's world. There are multiple endings that can easily keep you in for multiple playthroughs.
Performance:
We had no issues with the game's performance whatsoever, which is very refreshing to see in 2023. We didn't see any major bugs. The game runs smoothly at all times.
Room for Improvement:
To put it simply, Lies of P's gameplay lacks the polish and great amount of refinement you would find in FromSoftware's highly rated video games. We still think Lies of P is one of the best non-FromSoftware created soulslike game but it has a lot of small issues that can really add up to an at times extremely frustrating experience.
Like the parry timings being very unforgiving. Parries lack a bit of an impact in general too, and we weren't big fans of the fatal attack implementation here, having to do a fully charged heavy attack when you basically already should have earned a posture break on an enemy is a questionable design choice. Enemies having way overused delayed and deceptive attacks that constantly bait the player into making mistakes then handing out a hefty punishment for those mistakes. Your enemies also rely on very long multi-hit combos chained together that at times barely give you an opportunity to do damage, if you combine this with a slower weapon type then you are in for very frustrating and unbalanced times. Even in general P feels a bit slower than he should be, the recovery times from attack animations are a bit too long, the time it takes to get up from the ground when knocked down is unreasonably long.
The single biggest issue with this game in our opinion is the skill tree. It has a number of upgrades that quite simply should not be upgrades, they should be a baseline you have at all times, like the better dodges and more equipment slots. These are not upgrades, these are necessities you need to have in a game like this and locking some of these things behind a skill tree was a major mistake done in this game.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Lies of P is a very good soulslike showcasing a unique artistic vision and a decent story, with a very good mix of gameplay elements from the games it was inspired by. While it faces some gameplay hiccups that could be polished more, it offers an engaging experience for players who appreciate soulslikes with their strong focus on gameplay and challenges. Lies of P ears a rating of a 7/10 panda's on our scale, recommended to every soulslike fan, be prepared though, it's going to be tough.
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