Lies of P: “Bloodborne never ever,” maybe, but at least we can play this on the PC. If you've played Sekiro and Bloodborne and are sick of bouncing between the two to cover whatever itch those scratch, consider Lies of P. People have actually made Pinocchio cool in 2023 which is no easy feat, they deserve some attention.
The titular lying is what drives the story: are you going to be a good boy or a naughty lad? If you ask me, it's barely a choice as the game clearly wants you to lie at every possible chance; lying will literally tell you something is changing inside of you and Pinocchio physically reacts while telling the truth will just give you a big, fat goose egg. It's also in the title. Kind of a no-brainer.
Lies of P really shines in its gameplay. It is clearly trying to mimic the previously mentioned FromSoftware games and that is totally fine with me because it does a great job: combat is fast, feels tense, and is as punishing as it is rewarding. The game has a parrying mechanic that is pretty tough to master as the window for a perfect parry is extremely narrow. Miss it, and you'll merely block the hit, reducing damage by about half and letting you catch some of it back by hitting them (just like in Bloodborne). Again, if you're looking for something that'll have you parrying like a one-armed Wolf, this game is worth trying out. It's on Game Pass if you got it and feel like getting good.
So it's just a copycat, then? For the most part, yeah, and the few things unique to this game definitely aren't its strongest aspects. You can create your own weapons as every weapon (aside from unique boss weapons) can be broken down into its head and handle and early on you'll be able to swap them around as you see fit. This basically lets you change the move set for any weapon. I never really experimented with this and while I may have “missed out”, I was able to beat the game perfectly fine without it. At a certain point, the number of options is so overwhelming that just sitting there and trying out loads of combinations seemed like too burdensome a task. I used four weapons, two of which were boss weapons and therefore uncustomizable. I'm sure there're cool combo options out there, but I didn't care to find them because the Two Dragons Sword kicks too much ass.
There's a weapon durability system that will have your weapon get destroyed and repaired in real time, requiring you to fix it in a boss battle where you're parrying a lot. I guess this is unique, too, but I don't think it's a strong feature. It's cool that it eventually doubles as a way for you to throw fire, lightning, or some similar ability on your weapon once per Stargazer (bonfire) visit. The customizable Wishing Stone offers you lots of choices of buffs, but half of them are worthless and they're pretty expensive to replace, making you less likely to even use the good ones for fear of “wasting” them.
The world of Krat is a pretty one, even if the amount of texture pop-in in this game is wild. Pinocchio's story is somewhat compelling and interesting, offering a more clear plot than something like Dark Souls and even does a great kindness to players by showing them the characters who have something new to say and where they are. The enemy variety is pretty good, with infected humans and crazed puppets at least having enough visual changes to keep new areas feeling fresh.
Overall, I had a really good time with Lies of P. It took me about 30 hours to beat it, and I'll admit I think the last couple hours were probably the worst stretch of it. By that point, I was simply ready for it to be over and the last area you're in is the least visually interesting and its looping, operatic background song is pretty grating. Still, it's only “bad” comparatively, I don't think it's horribly offensive or anything.
If this is the first entry in a series, as the last cutscene implies, I think it is a very strong start and I hope things only get better.
I recommend Lies of P.
The titular lying is what drives the story: are you going to be a good boy or a naughty lad? If you ask me, it's barely a choice as the game clearly wants you to lie at every possible chance; lying will literally tell you something is changing inside of you and Pinocchio physically reacts while telling the truth will just give you a big, fat goose egg. It's also in the title. Kind of a no-brainer.
Lies of P really shines in its gameplay. It is clearly trying to mimic the previously mentioned FromSoftware games and that is totally fine with me because it does a great job: combat is fast, feels tense, and is as punishing as it is rewarding. The game has a parrying mechanic that is pretty tough to master as the window for a perfect parry is extremely narrow. Miss it, and you'll merely block the hit, reducing damage by about half and letting you catch some of it back by hitting them (just like in Bloodborne). Again, if you're looking for something that'll have you parrying like a one-armed Wolf, this game is worth trying out. It's on Game Pass if you got it and feel like getting good.
So it's just a copycat, then? For the most part, yeah, and the few things unique to this game definitely aren't its strongest aspects. You can create your own weapons as every weapon (aside from unique boss weapons) can be broken down into its head and handle and early on you'll be able to swap them around as you see fit. This basically lets you change the move set for any weapon. I never really experimented with this and while I may have “missed out”, I was able to beat the game perfectly fine without it. At a certain point, the number of options is so overwhelming that just sitting there and trying out loads of combinations seemed like too burdensome a task. I used four weapons, two of which were boss weapons and therefore uncustomizable. I'm sure there're cool combo options out there, but I didn't care to find them because the Two Dragons Sword kicks too much ass.
There's a weapon durability system that will have your weapon get destroyed and repaired in real time, requiring you to fix it in a boss battle where you're parrying a lot. I guess this is unique, too, but I don't think it's a strong feature. It's cool that it eventually doubles as a way for you to throw fire, lightning, or some similar ability on your weapon once per Stargazer (bonfire) visit. The customizable Wishing Stone offers you lots of choices of buffs, but half of them are worthless and they're pretty expensive to replace, making you less likely to even use the good ones for fear of “wasting” them.
The world of Krat is a pretty one, even if the amount of texture pop-in in this game is wild. Pinocchio's story is somewhat compelling and interesting, offering a more clear plot than something like Dark Souls and even does a great kindness to players by showing them the characters who have something new to say and where they are. The enemy variety is pretty good, with infected humans and crazed puppets at least having enough visual changes to keep new areas feeling fresh.
Overall, I had a really good time with Lies of P. It took me about 30 hours to beat it, and I'll admit I think the last couple hours were probably the worst stretch of it. By that point, I was simply ready for it to be over and the last area you're in is the least visually interesting and its looping, operatic background song is pretty grating. Still, it's only “bad” comparatively, I don't think it's horribly offensive or anything.
If this is the first entry in a series, as the last cutscene implies, I think it is a very strong start and I hope things only get better.
I recommend Lies of P.
3 Comments
@AlphaOne2 Don't worry, I realize I played it "wrong" and that I should have been more willing to try something new and creative. I agree it's good the game catered to my stubborn attitude, though, that was generous.
Just want to add that for my second playthrough, though I wanted to use the Two Dragons Sword some more, I ended up having to use that weapon crafting mechanic after all. I used the Mjolnir Hammer head with the Fire Axe handle, it made for a great heavy-hitting, fast weapon that could break poise pretty easily. I'm glad I experimented with it!
AlphaOne2
7 months ago