{"id":13842,"date":"2023-11-27T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=13842"},"modified":"2023-11-23T15:17:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T13:17:39","slug":"great-stuff-no-strings-attached-lies-of-p-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/great-stuff-no-strings-attached-lies-of-p-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Great stuff, no strings attached \u2013 Lies of P review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lies of P is an action roleplaying game developed by two independent South Korean studios, Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio. Inspired by Italian author Carlo Collodi, Lies of P re-tells the story of Pinocchio in the unforgiving spirit of FromSoftware games, such as Dark Souls<\/a>, Bloodborne<\/a>, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"White-shirted<\/a>
Welcome to Krat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game takes place in Krat, a Belle \u00c9poque inspired city plagued by autonomous puppets gone mad and a disease slowly turning citizens into stone and monsters. The player controls Pinocchio, a humanoid puppet, on a quest to find his creator, Geppetto, who has gone missing in the puppet frenzy. With a wide arsenal of weapons and a mechanical arm, Pinocchio explores Krat facing tough enemies, meeting mysterious strangers, and uncovering the city\u2019s dark history. Along the way, Pinocchio must also make meaningful choices to explore his humanity, such as choosing to share one character\u2019s miserable fate with their partner. Which is better: brutal honesty or a comforting lie?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Are you a real boy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lies of P is challenging by design and death is around every corner. The combat loans a lot from its\u2019 role models, namely Bloodborne and Sekiro: it\u2019s fast-paced, aggressive, and packed with precise timings and high risks. Learning to act just in time feels very satisfying but usually means a ton of trial-and-error and repetition. Enemies also slowly recover health if not attacked, which can make bigger fights laborious if you like to play slow. The game allows you to summon an NPC helper, but I often found them even a bit trivializing to the on-brand difficulty. Some of the enemy and boss designs also get recycled and remixed towards the end, which was a bit disenchanting. All in all, Lies of P does not re-invent the wheel of its\u2019 spiritual predecessors but still brings new ideas to the table, such as assembling your own weapon and breaking your opponent\u2019s weapon by blocking well enough, both of which I found engaging.<\/p>\n

\"Sword-wielding<\/a>
What drove the friendly puppets into a frenzy?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to great feeling gameplay, the game also nails its\u2019 presentation. From murky streets and noxious swamps to glamorous opera houses, Lies of P makes great use of moody lighting and weather effects to bring environments to life. Although the game is generally very linear, the environments still feature plenty of clever level design and visual storytelling, both of which I adore to see. Even the main story is presented in a more approachable way than in many Souls(like) games I\u2019ve played. With a length of around 40 hours, I really enjoyed the story and its\u2019 memorable yet enigmatic characters thanks to some great voice acting.<\/p>\n

Like clockwork, the music is typical for the genre: epic, bombastic, and orchestral. But what really stood out to me were its\u2019 more delicate pieces with violin, classical guitar, piano, or even accordion. In the game, the player can find these songs as collectible vinyl records that can be played in the hub area. The songs fit the game\u2019s hopelessly romantic style fantastically, which for me, made them a real treat after a heartfelt story moment or a hard-won battle. I won\u2019t lie, I often spent unnecessarily long times at the hub just to hear them again and again, they are that good!<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A safe haven?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lies of P owes a lot to its\u2019 inspirations, but it also manages to reach incredible heights in terms of quality and feel, especially for an indie studio\u2019s first attempt at a \u2018soulslike\u2019 game.As someone who has tried plenty of kindred games, it\u2019s a very impressive all-rounder. It\u2019s not the sequel for Bloodborne many are yearning for, but for me, it definitely scratches that itch without feeling like copied homework. For those who can\u2019t get enough of these types of games, I highly recommend trying out Lies of P. If you\u2019re new to this genre, Lies of P is not a bad place to start either with its\u2019 high level of polish and a story that you don\u2019t need an hour-long YouTube video explaining later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> NeoWiz Games
\nDeveloper:<\/strong> Round8 Studio,\u00a0 NeoWiz Games
\nPlatforms:<\/strong> PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, macOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X\/S
\nRelease Date:<\/strong> September 19th<\/sup>, 2023
\nGenres:<\/strong> action, role-playing, soulslike
\nPEGI:<\/strong> 16<\/p>\n

Photos: <\/strong>Screenshots from Lies of P (Round8 Studios, NeoWiz Games, 2023), taken by the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lies Of P offers a Soulslike spin on the tale of Pinocchio, combining tough-but-fair combat with grim fairytale atmosphere. For a studio\u2019s debut game, it miraculously feels like a true spiritual successor to FromSoftware\u2019s legendary games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":13847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[247,1863,245,1864],"class_list":["post-13842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-action","tag-pinocchio","tag-rpg","tag-soulslike","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13842"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14116,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions\/14116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}