Lies of P was absolutely fantastic and is so true to the souls style that I’d even say it should be considered among the ranks as an actual souls game.
First I’ll go over the gameplay and combat, for the standard gameplay loop it’s very similar to souls games. Standard light and heavy’s, dodges, guarding, parry’s when you perfectly guard and a stagger system that allows you to get a riposte for big damage. These all work how you’d think and they don’t feel clunky at all, I think I’d only complain about the dodge distance sometimes feeling too short but that’s alleviated later on.
The main core parts of the gameplay for me are the weapons themselves and the other small gameplay mechanics that add its own flair to the game. To start, the boss weapons and even the standard weapons felt different in some way. Most standard weapons share move sets which isn’t a problem due to being able to detach and combine blades and handles allowed for complete customisation of these weapons to fit your exact needs. In my case, I needed the damage of a strength weapon that was a higher attack speed than normal. So I combined the wrench head to a curved sword handle and it worked perfectly.
The boss weapons I used at least all had varying moves and unique characteristics behind them. One weapon I had was able to detach its blade like a whip for AOE and range, another had a built in parry mechanic to its charged attacks and another fires out a flying disc. All of these weapons felt very different and fun to use and I haven’t even see half of them yet. The inclusion of the grindstone buff system was also really cool. Being able to change the type of buff or effect my weapon can do was extremely helpful and I found myself swapping them around often.
The legion arm was also another fun spin to the gameplay that allows you to have more of a utility tool for a specific niche. Need to close the gap on an enemy, launch projectiles from afar, do a certain damage type or have a whole new defensive option it managed to do them all. These abilities as well as many other weapons made the combat feel fun and engaging to play and come up with different strategies.
Now despite most of the areas feeling kinda the same in their designs, I could excuse this as most of the game took place within the same city. Although none of the areas were super amazing and none were really utterly terrible, the interconnectivity in these areas was extremely impressive with the amount of shortcuts every section had shows how much thought they put into these areas looping back and not just feeling like a liner through line.
The boss fights in this game are some of the highlights for me. Romeo and Laxasia were by far for me the best fights in the game but there was plenty of other good to very good fights throughout the game also. Some fights could be a bit of a pain at times but none of them felt super egregious and it was all about learning ways around the bosses movement patterns and attacks that made some fights like the green monster of the swamp (real) more enjoyable.
The music in this game despite tracks being played few and far between (hotel music and boss music, no area music) was all very nice as well. I think the soundtrack mainly gets its highs from the records you could collect throughout the game. Some of these tracks were wonderful and really nice pieces of music you could listen to that made me want to find more of them.
Unlike souls games, this game did have more of a story going on. I thought the story was very good and the world surrounding you was so rich in lore and details that you could tell they really cared about making the setting feel real and immersive. The way they incorporated telling the truth or lying was extremely interesting with how they were usually related to moral choices. Little things like you losing the mechanical sound effects when rolling as you lie more or the reaction the cat has as you become more human were very nice touches.
The characters were a huge point of this game for me that i thought were done exceptionally well. The voice casting and directing really sold these characters personalities such as Venigni, Geppetto, Arlecchino and many others all had very interesting character arcs and dynamics that made you care about what they were saying. Having the Hotel characters each have a continuous quest line through to the end of the game made these characters feel like they had development throughout the game rather than all at once
Overall I think the game was extremely well crafted and hit the souls formula right on the mark while having its own unique deviations made this game feel like it’s own game rather than a carbon copy of another.
Judging by certain information a sequel or at the very least a DLC seems likely and I’m excited to see what they have in store.
8/10
First I’ll go over the gameplay and combat, for the standard gameplay loop it’s very similar to souls games. Standard light and heavy’s, dodges, guarding, parry’s when you perfectly guard and a stagger system that allows you to get a riposte for big damage. These all work how you’d think and they don’t feel clunky at all, I think I’d only complain about the dodge distance sometimes feeling too short but that’s alleviated later on.
The main core parts of the gameplay for me are the weapons themselves and the other small gameplay mechanics that add its own flair to the game. To start, the boss weapons and even the standard weapons felt different in some way. Most standard weapons share move sets which isn’t a problem due to being able to detach and combine blades and handles allowed for complete customisation of these weapons to fit your exact needs. In my case, I needed the damage of a strength weapon that was a higher attack speed than normal. So I combined the wrench head to a curved sword handle and it worked perfectly.
The boss weapons I used at least all had varying moves and unique characteristics behind them. One weapon I had was able to detach its blade like a whip for AOE and range, another had a built in parry mechanic to its charged attacks and another fires out a flying disc. All of these weapons felt very different and fun to use and I haven’t even see half of them yet. The inclusion of the grindstone buff system was also really cool. Being able to change the type of buff or effect my weapon can do was extremely helpful and I found myself swapping them around often.
The legion arm was also another fun spin to the gameplay that allows you to have more of a utility tool for a specific niche. Need to close the gap on an enemy, launch projectiles from afar, do a certain damage type or have a whole new defensive option it managed to do them all. These abilities as well as many other weapons made the combat feel fun and engaging to play and come up with different strategies.
Now despite most of the areas feeling kinda the same in their designs, I could excuse this as most of the game took place within the same city. Although none of the areas were super amazing and none were really utterly terrible, the interconnectivity in these areas was extremely impressive with the amount of shortcuts every section had shows how much thought they put into these areas looping back and not just feeling like a liner through line.
The boss fights in this game are some of the highlights for me. Romeo and Laxasia were by far for me the best fights in the game but there was plenty of other good to very good fights throughout the game also. Some fights could be a bit of a pain at times but none of them felt super egregious and it was all about learning ways around the bosses movement patterns and attacks that made some fights like the green monster of the swamp (real) more enjoyable.
The music in this game despite tracks being played few and far between (hotel music and boss music, no area music) was all very nice as well. I think the soundtrack mainly gets its highs from the records you could collect throughout the game. Some of these tracks were wonderful and really nice pieces of music you could listen to that made me want to find more of them.
Unlike souls games, this game did have more of a story going on. I thought the story was very good and the world surrounding you was so rich in lore and details that you could tell they really cared about making the setting feel real and immersive. The way they incorporated telling the truth or lying was extremely interesting with how they were usually related to moral choices. Little things like you losing the mechanical sound effects when rolling as you lie more or the reaction the cat has as you become more human were very nice touches.
The characters were a huge point of this game for me that i thought were done exceptionally well. The voice casting and directing really sold these characters personalities such as Venigni, Geppetto, Arlecchino and many others all had very interesting character arcs and dynamics that made you care about what they were saying. Having the Hotel characters each have a continuous quest line through to the end of the game made these characters feel like they had development throughout the game rather than all at once
Overall I think the game was extremely well crafted and hit the souls formula right on the mark while having its own unique deviations made this game feel like it’s own game rather than a carbon copy of another.
Judging by certain information a sequel or at the very least a DLC seems likely and I’m excited to see what they have in store.
8/10