When most of us mortals think of pinocchiothe adorable puppet who wanted to be a child in the Disney movie released in 1940 comes to mind. But when the Korean studio Round8 think of Pinocchio, what comes to mind are bloodthirsty puppets, a dark world ravaged by disease and gender soulslike.
Lies of P promises to reinvent the story originally conceived by Carlo Collodi, keeping some of its most remembered characters and elements such as Geppetto, Pepito Grillo or Pinocchio himself, giving it a dark and twisted twist inspired by the works of FromSoftware.
This has earned it many comparisons to that forgotten masterpiece (by Sony, not us) called Bloodborne. And after having played a few hours already, we can say that Lies of P is exactly that: a souls-like Pinocchio that by setting and playable mechanics reminds of bloodborne.
The million dollar question is… Will it measure up? Or will he fall into the pit where the forgotten corpses of soulslikes who have failed to succeed rest? We tell you what we think about these Lies of P impressions.
A puppet is a puppet, even in a dream
We have played a demo that was made up of the first two chapters of the gameso we’ve figured out how the story starts, but we’ve also explored the streets of Krat town and fought many enemies (bosses included), so we have a pretty good idea of what Lies of P has to offer.
Right at the start of the demo, we had to choose between three different playstyles (balanced, fast, and heavy), but it’s not a rigid decision; we can shape the parameters of P -the name by which they refer to our character- when leveling up.
If you have played any soulslike game, surely this already sounds familiar to you. And for the first few minutes (and even hours) of Lies of P, the feeling of familiarity is constant.
The combat is governed by an energy bar that decreases when we attack, roll or block, when we die we must return to the corpse to recover the lost Ergo (souls), there are stargazers (bonfires), there is a hotel where new characters are arriving , there is a woman who allows us to level up, the menus and their explanations can be very confusing, etc.
So we can safely say that Lies of P es un soulslike de manual. Now, as we progressed in the demo, small details and new mechanics emerged that give it some personality within the sea of soulslikes that is the current industry.
One of the most striking decisions is the operation of the “rally” or recovery mechanics, which you surely know well if you have played Bloodborne. In Lies of P. when we block an attack, a part of the damage is represented as a translucent segment on the health bar. And if we hit the enemy several times, we can recover that lost segment.
In other words: when we block an attack, the game invites us to immediately adopt an offensive approach.
Another interesting detail is that weapons wear out quite easily, but we have an unlimited tool to replenish their use at any time. This leads to some pretty tense situations, especially in boss fights where we are forced to sharpen our weapons while we dodge the attacks of the enemy.
In addition to various melee weapons, P also features a mechanical arm known as a legion arm., which serves as a secondary tool. The grace is that we can equip arms with different properties, in the purest Nero style in Devil May Cry 5.
For example, right at the beginning of the demo we had a steel arm that was used to deal powerful blows, but as we progressed we got new arms, such as one that launched a cable that brought enemies closer to our position and another that caused electric shocks.
Weapons also have their crumb, well in Lies of P each weapon consists of a handle and a blade. And, as you can imagine, each part has different properties but also different fables, which is the name given to special attacks.
At a certain point in the demo we unlock the possibility of disassembling the parts to combine them however we want, being able, for example, to take the blade of a greatsword and combine it with the hilt of a saber to obtain a fast and powerful weapon. We really liked this feature and we think it has a lot of potential.
We also liked that during these first hours they did not stop adding new mechanics. Because the end of the demo awaited us another surprise: the P organ. Broadly speaking, it is a skill tree in which we can invest quartz to obtain passive improvements that in turn unlock other very useful ones, such as an extension of the dodge.
But there are also some aspects of Lies of P that have not convinced us so much. Defensive gear differentiates between stat-affecting parts and outfits, so we can wear whatever we want without fear of it hurting us. But in both cases It has given us the feeling that everything was very simple and there were not many options.
The level design is fine, but we also found it very simple; the route to follow was always very obvious and there were no branches beyond the ones we created by opening shortcuts (because of course there are shortcuts too).
And we have noticed true imbalance in difficulty, particularly against specific enemies who barely had a window to hit them and they have unhinged us a bit. The second boss of the demo has also been a curious case: alone it seemed impossible to us, but when we summoned a specter to help us, he fell without much trouble.
Nor are we very clear about the use of lying, because since we control Pinocchio, In certain situations we must give an answer and one of them will always be a lie. In this demo there were two opportunities and both times we lied, but we didn’t notice any effect or change. Although there sure is.
In any case, do not take into account these “buts” that we comment, because we can understand that they are a thing of the first hours. Instead, stick with that This demonstration of Lies of P has left us very good impressions and we want to continue playingwhich in the end is what is important.
And finally we have two very good news. The first is the release date: Lies of P will arrive on September 19, 2023 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC.
Y this same demo that we have played will be available very soon (if it isn’t already) coinciding with the Summer Games Fest. And don’t worry, this is not a lie. If you missed anything from the event, we’ll tell you all about the big announcements that were made tonight:
With the event over, what do you think of Summer Game Fest 2023? Have you missed any announcement?
