Lies of P is an incredibly polished Soulslike that even rivals some of From Software's early offerings in the genre they pioneered. It draws inspiration from the structure of Demon's Souls, the combat of Sekiro, and the tone and art direction of Bloodborne. While it doesn't really do any of these better than From Soft, the package as a whole is still incredibly enjoyable regardless. There were times in the game where you could have told me I was playing a From Soft game and I might have believed you. The combat is the only area where Lies of P really shines, and even then I have exceptions to that claim.
Specifically player side combat feels awesome. There are a wealth of interesting weapons that each have their own flair, and to add to that most weapons can be disassembled into two components and recombined into completely new weapons. I can't understate how cool this is, I must have experimented more with different playstyles in a single run of Lies of P than I have with any other From Soft game, with the exception of maybe Elden Ring. The Legion Arm and Fable Arts also provided me with a lot of tools to mix up how I approached encounters.
Now where the combat isn't as exciting is the enemies. A lot of the rank and file in Lies of P are very similar humanoid puppets and monsters. When I did come across a unique, strong enemy, they were usually well designed and super fun to fight. The giant toddler puppet for example was a very memorable encounter.
I would similarly say that the bosses have some... problems. Some of them are really interesting and fun to fight, some of them feel incredibly poorly designed, maybe even intentionally all in the pursuit of that "brutal" difficulty of the genre. It has felt like a trend in a lot of recent Soulslikes, both from other devs and From Soft themselves, where you don't fight bosses, the bosses fight you. You are constantly put on the defensive, spending most of your time during the fight deflecting attacks rather than being on the offensive. I get that that's the name of the game with a parry based loop like Lies and Sekiro have, but it sometimes feels like you're never given a moment to breath and reposition. Bosses in Lies all have insane gap closers that track you the entire way through their animations, no amount of good positioning will spare you from being hit. You must either dodge or parry on the right frame of the animation itself, or you will be taking damage. This limits the kinds of playstyles that can be viable in these games.
A really egregious example of this I had in Lies was against the true final boss, where I usually lead the fight with applying shock grindstone to my weapon. Before I even finished my "walking through the fog gate" animation, the boss had already rolled and dashed within 10 feet of me and begun an attack. This only happened once during all of my attempts during this boss, but it really shocked me. I didn't even react, I did nothing, I let the boss kill me so I could retry with my elemental buff.
This is not a satisfying way to play the game.
When I did finally beat the boss, the fight itself was exciting, but the sense of accomplishment that I've had in overcoming a tough Souls boss in the past was not there. I was just frustrated and glad to be done with the game.
Despite all of its shortcomings, the game as a whole was really enjoyable and if this is their Demon's Souls, I can't wait to see what is next.
Specifically player side combat feels awesome. There are a wealth of interesting weapons that each have their own flair, and to add to that most weapons can be disassembled into two components and recombined into completely new weapons. I can't understate how cool this is, I must have experimented more with different playstyles in a single run of Lies of P than I have with any other From Soft game, with the exception of maybe Elden Ring. The Legion Arm and Fable Arts also provided me with a lot of tools to mix up how I approached encounters.
Now where the combat isn't as exciting is the enemies. A lot of the rank and file in Lies of P are very similar humanoid puppets and monsters. When I did come across a unique, strong enemy, they were usually well designed and super fun to fight. The giant toddler puppet for example was a very memorable encounter.
I would similarly say that the bosses have some... problems. Some of them are really interesting and fun to fight, some of them feel incredibly poorly designed, maybe even intentionally all in the pursuit of that "brutal" difficulty of the genre. It has felt like a trend in a lot of recent Soulslikes, both from other devs and From Soft themselves, where you don't fight bosses, the bosses fight you. You are constantly put on the defensive, spending most of your time during the fight deflecting attacks rather than being on the offensive. I get that that's the name of the game with a parry based loop like Lies and Sekiro have, but it sometimes feels like you're never given a moment to breath and reposition. Bosses in Lies all have insane gap closers that track you the entire way through their animations, no amount of good positioning will spare you from being hit. You must either dodge or parry on the right frame of the animation itself, or you will be taking damage. This limits the kinds of playstyles that can be viable in these games.
A really egregious example of this I had in Lies was against the true final boss, where I usually lead the fight with applying shock grindstone to my weapon. Before I even finished my "walking through the fog gate" animation, the boss had already rolled and dashed within 10 feet of me and begun an attack. This only happened once during all of my attempts during this boss, but it really shocked me. I didn't even react, I did nothing, I let the boss kill me so I could retry with my elemental buff.
This is not a satisfying way to play the game.
When I did finally beat the boss, the fight itself was exciting, but the sense of accomplishment that I've had in overcoming a tough Souls boss in the past was not there. I was just frustrated and glad to be done with the game.
Despite all of its shortcomings, the game as a whole was really enjoyable and if this is their Demon's Souls, I can't wait to see what is next.