LIES OF P - Greatly inspired by Bloodborne in a unique way

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Lies of P (Reviewed)

Developer: NEOWIZ

Publisher: NEOWIZ

Released: September 18th, 2023

Price: $60 USD

Lies of P is an unusual single-player dark fantasy souls-like, incorporating things you wouldn't have thought of namely the story of Pinocchio and his creator Geppetto.

When it comes to tough and complex souls-like games, there have been a lot of clones and poor entries throughout the years that don't stand out or offer new things to the genre. Lies of P gets a lot of things right while still being a little difficult at times due to the game's controls and the overwhelming Bloodborne inspiration.

Despite certain similarities to its source, it manages to be distinctive in its own right without becoming overbearing or lacking in any of it's own unique features applied.

FEATURES

Lying It wouldn't be a true narrative for Pinocchio if the fundamental theme of his character was missing. He can never tell a lie without his nose giving him away.

Unlike this story, the game uses this to mould him as a character. You're given the opportunity to lie or reveal the truth on occasion through side-quests. This will form and build your personality while also rewarding you with differing items and secrets. I am pleased that they were able to squeeze this into such a bizarre mixtures of storytelling, gameplay and genres while also making it a mechanic.

Builds Instead of being limited to a single weapon that does a certain thing, such as a Great Sword having great reach and sluggish/heavy damage. You can freely mix and match the blades, handles and blunt objects to fit your preferred playstyle experience.

Perhaps you like the freedom of mobility, but hate the slow movement surrounding a large weapon. You can switch out the handle for something lighter and more agile, while keeping the blade, but altering it's speed, damage and handling completely.

This game has a lot of versatility, and it feels like you can design some very intriguing combinations of abilities, powers, and effects to make it either more difficult or much easier to cope with the ever challenging bosses and trash in the world.

I spent a lot of time theory crafting what weapons and effects work well together, and of course, every monster has a specific weakness, so while you can stick to one weapon and build throughout the game, knowing your opponent and building / switching builds on the fly can drastically increase your chance of survival.

PRESENTATION

Despite a few minor flaws, it's excellent The aesthetics surrounding the Belle Époque era are quite wonderful. Instead of the story being centered around death and the undead and how humanity has all but turned against each other, I really do like the idea of humanity turning against Puppets and vice versa, owing to the theme, rather than trying to divert the story away, they embrace it and make it their own without making it feel out of place.

I did have issues with the audio as the game can be rather silent at times, with little in the way of ambience to keep you engaged outside of boss fights. While this may not be an issue for the majority of players. It helps some to get more interested and feel greater suspense in high-risk scenarios, but I never felt like dying had that big of an impact, as opposed to other games in the genre, which felt heartbreaking when you died knowing you couldn't return to the location you died at because it was

GAMEPLAY

Challenging In these types of games, I prefer to level up my characters to make it simpler to cope with bosses and creatures. But in this case, it seemed like no matter what level and weapons I got and used, specific enemies and mini-bosses would scale to my level and damage, making it extremely difficult due to how even we were in power.

This could have been because I wasn't properly building around them or switching out my weapons to deal with specific mechanics that are more susceptible to blunt or slash, even going so far as to have mechanics that allow you to shatter your opponent's weapon if you deal enough damage to break its durability.

Parry / Dodge focused The cause of the difficulty was most likely the very precise timing required for a parry and the slightly janky dodge mechanics, all of which would sometimes work properly or just be impossible to land without memorizing the patterns of the current creature you were fighting for an hour, which I don't believe is all that interesting, when the challenge is less important and it's more about waiting till you understand the pattern to progress, or just playing it very safe for an unnecessarily long time.

While I did find it difficult, if not a little aggravating most times. It does give you a genuine sense of accomplishment once you finally nail the mechanics perfectly.

CONCLUSION

A bizarrely good story of Pinocchio While I don't have a strong distaste for Souls-like. Many could agree that most would despise games that replicate and rehash the same concepts, and mechanics over and over again, rather than attempting to weave something of their own unique creation into the universe they are trying to create, be it story or gameplay. 

Lies of P feels like a solid concept, even if it may sound strange at first. The elements are all present, and the plot moves forward by doing everything it can to keep faithful to the aspects supplied. While somethings could be tweaked like dodging and parry mechanics. It's a solid game that does everything well.

Depending on your skill as a player, this game could take 40 hours to complete if you chose to take on all of the secrets and unlock all of the weapons, gear/upgrades.

It's less Dark Souls and more BloodBorne, which is considerably more attractive owing to the enormous variety you have access to without feeling overly restricted.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt