Lies of P is amazing

 

The other face of my Souls-Like extravaganza was spent in the world of the sixtieth Pinocchio adaptation of 2023- Lies of P. Alongside my struggle through Lords of the Fallen I rewarded myself after every section I dragged myself through with a preciously brief dose of a Lies of P area to make up for the suffering- in doing so offsetting my time with one of the roughest high budgets Souls-likes of all time with what might go down as one of the best of the genre. A game borne from a bizarre adaptation decision that ended up carving a unique model for itself in the market and securing a potential series down the line if they have all their ducks in a row. I am thrilled to say that everything they say about The Lies of P is true- the game is a downright masterpiece of the genre!

When I heard of the premise I'll admit to being a bit sceptical. Dark Fantasy Pinocchio in a Souls-like? Seriously? It sounded like the set-up for a bad joke and I make no apologies for the fact that I straight assumed this would just be throw-away from a premise angle. I always liked the look of the game, from it's delightfully on-point 'world expo' style robots to it's retro 'city of the future' industrialism angle embodied in Kryat. But I figured the heart of the game would at best be gimmicky in it's relation to the story of it's origin and the theme it exposes. Which really rubbed with me because I always saw the Souls-genre as a vehicle for some of the best most medium-effective stories to ever grace gaming. Dark Souls' wider exploration on destructive obsession, Hollow Knight's subversive underground epic- I'm not surprised when new entrants to the genre-type fail to live up to those examples- but I always kind of sad when I see someone not even try. I think Lies is going to be a new game I include up there in these comparisons from here on.

Taking the very nature of 'puppetry' and the theme of 'defining humanity' that is lightly brushed on by the source material, Lies of P presents a story about seeking legitimacy through the pursuit of the abject prospect we call 'humanity' whilst raising the query of what that even is. I won't pretend there's any great insight into the nature of mankind even attempted by this game, but the very strong reigns by which it weaves around these decent mature pillars forms an emotionally resonant and strong-willed narrative that sticks with you. Like any great Anime, it comfortably rests on the edge of significant discourse and weaves a solid narrative in that space.

But the plaudits don't end with the narrative, that's merely where they start. Lies of P follows the footsteps of Sekiro (and I supposed Bloodborne but given how that game is sentenced to forever remain on the PlayStation 4 I'll never be able to validate that for myself.) by taking a more light-footed, dodge and parry approach to the traditional Souls-Like gameplay whilst sticking staunchly to the build variety of other Souls-Like style games. Action is fast paced, death comes quick, but you aren't at the whim of 'learn to time your parries or die'. You can still build to whack around your enemies with a big stick or dodge through attacks to get that perfect back-flurry- of course with that comes some limitations. The biggest one being parrying itself. This game does not offer you nearly the same amount of tools that Sekiro does with it's parrying system. There is no telltail glow, there is no generous parry window, there is merely the promise that if you nail the exact moment of contact (because the deflect is instant) you entirely avoid damage and whittle down their invisible poise meter.

Lies of P really is a very active kind of Souls-Like, where you are encouraged to be aggressive and resourceful with the weapons you use, the Legion Arms you equip and the Sword-arts you pull out in dire situations. Your reward is big damage windows on guard breaking, gorgeous animation work and the kind of cinematic flair when you finally dominate a fight that is really rather rare in this genre simply for the style of games that it encourages. Which is not to say P is as active or dangerous as Sekiro, mind. In fact, given the still 'Experience based' levelling, the generally slower enemies and the forgiving damage-recieved; Lies of P is actually a lot more accessible and easy than Sekiro- in a manner that I think leads a lot of people into a false sense of security before the second half of the game rushes at you with violent abandon. 

P also presents us a visually stunning and interesting world in the fallen city of Kryat, dipped in it's secrets and it's factions and characters. Whilst I think the actual environmental storytelling could do with some work- a lot of the incidental documents you pick up are rather dry pamphlets that offer very little more than what can be gleaned by simply looking at the world around you, or name drops vague historical background not exactly pertinent or additive to current events or themes- there's a clear purpose of design present in every unique district, each area feels cohesive and intent driven- I never feel lost in a maze for the sake of there being a maze or stretching out a level. (Besides, perhaps, the final climb at the end of the game which really does stretch out for a bit!)

And, of course, we have the bosses. Large and small, Lies never falls back on gimmicks to make a fight interesting but rather incorporates spectacle-tipped extravaganzas of moves fast and slow which engender great tests of skill and build- as this genre is best served facilitating. Poise breaking can be somewhat unreliable for bigger bosses, so big-bonk builds aren't always rewarded, but playing more to this game's style- dodges, parrying, blocking and health reclaiming- creates these genuinely solid duels that zoom through so fluidly. Additionally, can I just commend this team for really getting it with all the minutiae about how to give a boss fight. No major boss is ever sprung out of nowhere- you always have a summoning pool outside of big fight arenas to tip you off. Whenever you die your Ergo is placed outside the entrance to the boss, allowing you to retreat and restock if you need it. (because literally nothing is benefitted by locking Souls inside of a boss arena. That's such an antiquated practice.) And you'll find respawn points never further than thirty seconds from the boss- they know the futility of the runback. In terms of fixing points of friction within this genre type, consider Lies of P at the exact opposite end of the spectrum to Lords of the Fallen.

It may have been said before but it bears repeating- Lies of P is pretty much the only Souls game capable of giving FromSoftware a run for their money in the best way. They aren't following the example of FromSoft trying to catch a hint of their magic, they're doing their own thing, iterating where possible and building the foundations of a team worth paying attention to in the years to come. P is very obviously not the extent of their ambitions, the cliffhanger finale is equal parts ridiculous and exciting to consider- and I'll just bet it makes Miyazaki smile to see others finally getting to that point of mastery within this new face of the 'action adventure genre' that he helped bring into this world. And goodness do I hope those rumours about a bubbling DLC are true, because I need more P in my life.

So now we've all played Lies of P

Does 'P' stand for potential?

Talk about an unexpected surprise! I know this is about the time of year that the indie demos come to flood the market, spurred by the famous 'summer of play' that Keighley instituted, but I honestly never expected to see a nigh-on AAA title make it's debut in the same fashion! Dropped that very moment as the Summer Games fest's conclusion, Lies of P has broken the mysterious aura around itself with a blowout that can't be beaten- a playable gameplay slice. Truly this is the way you give it all to the people who have been sitting on their hands buzzing about this title for the longest time- by allowing everyone to get a feel for the game themselves. And it is significant for a Souls-like, because that impossible to visually show feel of a Soulslike is just oh-so very important. As something of a lover for the Souls style of game myself, let me tell you how I think the Pinocchio tie-in game fairs up.

First off the game looks increadibly pretty, but that's something we all knew going in, now isn't it? The art direction is intriguing in its lavish grandeur plucked and dropped in decay and derision. It's nothing that we haven't seen before from the world of Souls, but it's brought to us with a unique steampunk/functional gothic flair many have found themselves quite captured by. I'll admit I love the 'puppet' enemies and their gear-ridden bodies and rigid mechanical strikes like the twisting arm of a clock face- familiar iconography, such as the classic British bobby police hat, slapped on a dead porcelain mug with sinister red life peeking from the inner workings. It's alluring and dangerous, like a lavish children's doll stuffed with knives- I'm drawn to the danger! I did notice one particularly bad texture-wash moment (which was heightened by the fact it was during a cutscene close-up) but that was one minor visual hiccup in a otherwise meaty demo- I can overlook such small things.

Many others who have played Lies of P, and even in the time before it got into our hands, came back with comparisons to Bloodbourne, and if the visuals are anything to go by that would make an apt comparison because Bloodbourne does very much seem to be the chief inspiration. (At least visually.) Unfortunately, last time I checked Bloodbourne was very much still a Playstation exclusive and so, yep, I still haven't played that game and so I have to base my thoughts on literally every other Souls game in existence. Lucky for me, there's a lot of crossover. Most notably the presentation, UI, unpausing menus- even the sound effects all borrow that basic 'Souls like' make-up box that everyone lends from with this genre. (except for Remnant.) However Lies of P does provide some slight distinctions of it's own, such as the two item quick select menus which I absolutely could not get used to throughout the whole demo. (I just ended up not bothering with consumables. I needed more time to break the hard-set single item-menu souls rule that practically every other game of this type follows.)

Combat is another apt comparison. Formulaic and conceptually simple with simply an attack, a dodge and a painfully narrow-windowed parry- paired against enemy animations being the key deciding factor oin combat evolution. Clearly this game has no interest in providing shields or defensive play options, but it can be quite frustrating to deal with a slightly heavier feeling style of character control whilst being told you're not supposed to eat literally any attack. P isn't exactly nimble, least of all when he 'dodges'- a movement option with a particularly ungenerous 'cancel' window, an action que (for some reason) and a movement radius so slight that most forward pushing attacks (which seems to be the most common type of attack for the early game) will hit you anyway even on a perfect dodge. So essentially the dodge is useless for it's function, but decent for getting behind an enemy quickly. Then there's the parry system.

I both respect and dislike how Lies of P deals with parrying. On one hand it borrows from the Sekiro system of having parry be a tap of the block button, so that even unsuccessful glances have a chance to absorb some impact of the blow if you miss. However there's no 'incoming hit' visual to play off, such as that silver glint on the blade present in Sekiro, and the window seems to be in the exact five or so milliseconds that the attack lands- a painfully unforgiving implementation of a system that large chunks of the combat feel built around. Still, there's a little touch of diversity to your arsenal which can make the player not entirely reliant on parrying, at least with smaller enemies. Their 'borrowing' of the Sekiro prosthetic arm concept allows for various alternative attachments such as a Scorpion-style cable for pulling far away enemies towards you- great for isolating enemies who wander in groups. We've seen but the beginning of this system, but it's a neat way of throwing an extra bit of life into the player's toolset without just overloading their consumables bar.

On a slightly stranger note that I have trouble really identifying myself, there's a curious slant to the way that dialogue is written and performed in the game that I found... vaguely disconnecting. Not in a massively jarring manner mind you, but more in a subtle 'unsatisfying' light. Perhaps it's just the pedigree of the genre throwing undue expectation upon me, mixed with the gothic grandeur of the visual local vicinity which seemed to demand the same standard of... verbosity. What I'm trying to say is that the game has a curiously casual and straight manner of writing it's dialogue and descriptions. No faux old English, no aristocratic turns of phrase, not really any stylised manner of speech at all. It's a little... bland to read. Honestly, it kind of reads like English is the writer's second language, which they're good at enough at to portray the basic idea they want to get across but not quite to the level where they can be artsy with it. (There's even a side quest with the option of lying to a woman with the dialogue choice 'She's cute baby'; which is the kind of grammatical slip up that feels unbecoming of the tone and pedigree of the world around it.)  

And finally I suppose I should talk about the bosses. Perhaps I shouldn't be so happy that Lies of P is leaning into the idea of boss phases, but after playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey in it's entirety I was starting to believe the practice was approaching 'lost art' status. The bosses we've seen so far have been largely in the 'big and bulky' category, with obvious tells offest by large sweeping hitboxes. Being unable to block and with parry being so temperamental, these fights pretty much remain 'tooth and nail' from beginning to end. Catching a single errant swipe you failed to dodge out the way of (no thanks to the particularly poor dodge animation) will put you in the danger zone- thankfully the 'Estus' animation equivalent is far more forgiving than what most Souls games have provided in the past. There's even a curious system somewhat similar to Sekiro's 'stagger' bar also in the game, where if you pile on enough concurrent attacks there's a chance you make the enemy 'groggy' and line them up for a free critical hit- but unless I'm blind to it there doesn't appear to be any visual indicator of when such a stagger is approaching possible so it's not really the most reliable metric to shoot for. That being said, a final finisher strike is a cool way to take down any boss, so points for style.

My only other thoughts on the game are insanely nit-picky things that only a Souls deepcut fan will understand, such as my utter bewilderment to why Lies of P would employ Dark Souls 1's increadibly outdated jump button mapping, being locked to same button as sprint. (I thought we moved past that as  a people.) But in general I really did find my time with the game to be a promising and interesting glimpse into a dark fantasy adaptation I never quite could have imagined. Alice in Wonderland becoming an increadibly dark fantasy? Yeah, that makes sense to me. But Pinocchio? That unexpectedness alone carries it better than average game on the wind of curiosity and mystery, both fine enough vehicles to lead any Souls-like towards well deserved fame.