(This is from the perspective of someone who has never played Bloodborne or Sekiro)

Lies Of P is a game that feels wholely tailored to what I love in stories and video games. From discussions on what it means to be human to weird-ass body horror to a twist on a rallying mechanic to a funny man in a top hat who I thought was going to die who I ended up loving very, very much.

All of the bosses were very well designed both visually and gameplay-wise. From the extravagant King Of Puppets to the scrapped Puppets Of The Future toiling away in a swamp. However, I found the designs became less interesting as the game went on substituting their once helpful now improvised murder machines for more immediately hostile-looking monsters and murderers.

The characters are all memorable and honestly, the only thing that kept me going through a story who's legs fell off by the last third. All of them range from despisable to lovable in their own ways, all of the ones that had multiple parts in their side quests had an instant place in my heart.

Lastly, there is the foundation of the gameplay. The foundation of a souls-like always boils down to a few things exploration through a gritty atmosphere and stamina-based combat. Lies Of P focuses on the second with fast-based souls combat with a focus on reading your enemies for a well-timed parry which when you do multiple of in quick succession will make you feel like a god. Also, I liked how they added to health flasks although it can be forgotten about once your max capacity starts piling up through upgrades. Although if you're good enough that means you could just ignore those upgrades entirely.

The only problem is by the last third, well I'm not going to say the developers had to rush I'm going to say they at least speed-walked to meet a deadline. You get three boss fights in a row that borrow from earlier encounters. However, flaws aside Lies Of P is a very very well-made game that blows most of its competition out of the water standing side by side with the official Souls games.

That post-credit scene had me laughing my ass off though probably still going to be peak.