Lies of P review: More like Lies of PEAK
If you have played any amount of games you'll probably be familiar with the term "Souls-like." Games with this description usually focus around Combat and exploration in a well-designed and mostly linear level, With the combat being rather challenging, focusing on enemies with telegraphed and patterned attacks that you must learn the timing of to block or dodge. If you enjoy any amount of challenge in your game, I'd strongly recommend this genre.
However, the vast majority of every even remotely decent soulslike game has been made by Fromsoftware (They did coin the phrase.) Dark souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden ring, are all games that are widely considered 9 or 10/10 scores by most (Including me.) Therefor most of the soulslikes out there, mainly imitate one of these, but fail to make it unique enough to end in the same weight class.
However, Lies of P is such an absurdly polished game in that genre it manages to establish itself among the best with EASE. I would personally rank it #2 among all the soulslike games i've played, right below elden ring and above Sekiro. I'll explain why.
LOP Does a few things much better than its cousins in the genre. 1) Combat and 2) Thematics. The game is loosely adapted on the story of Pinocchio, but with some twists. Instead of being a puppet who must not lie to become a real boy, we've flipped it around; All other puppets must tell the truth, but they've gone crazy and are destroying, well, everything. You must save Krat (A loosely industrial era setting with lots of charm) and use your unique ability TO lie to become a real boy instead. Lying is a uniquely human trait, after all.
The story plays it mostly straight, with all the original characters like Gepetto, Gemini, and Carlo being placed in strategic locations. Without going into spoiler territory, the twists and turns make the story really come to life, and the other characters are unique enough that I was invested in them all. I particularly liked Arlechinno and Venigni. Also, the voice acting is a solid 10. They clearly understand how it's supposed to feel.
On to the combat, the game basically gives every single option to you as viable so no matter what type of game background you came from you won't feel out of place or like your strategy isn't viable. Dodging gives you I-frames, but you can also block or perfect block if you've got the timing. Even normally blocking won't kill you, as the chip damage you take is recoverable if you attack an enemy again. If you combine that with your healing flask-equivalent charging up when empty as you attack an enemy, a comeback is always possible from any angle.
In addition, the movesets of your weapons are all very unique, and the damage types can be swapped out. So if you like the moveset of a fire dagger but want to have longer reach, or electric damage instead, or you've already got an upgraded weapon, you can swap the blades and handles around. So I was always excited to see another weapon, as it meant a potentially better moveset with potentially no damage decrease. Not to mention the additional option of special moves.
In terms of bosses, I effectively never felt like it was a cheap death, or that I had no chance, which is something I can't even say about elden ring. Also, some of the boss fights (Laxasia, Nameless puppet, and King of puppets) are without a doubt some of the best fights ever (at least that I've seen.)
There is absolutely some jank, as no game is perfect But what some people forget is that ALL (yes ALL) of the original souls games are filled to the brim with jank and crap as well, it's just overshadowed by the good. The Arche abbey of LOP is the Mountaintops of the giants from elden ring, so don't think that it's a worse game. And at the end of the day it's subjective anyhow.
Lies of P is a unbelievably well polished game that I feel is pareto optimal. If they had increased the length, it would have felt drawn out with the story they picked, but they've announced dlc and probable sequels, so mark my words when I say the next game they drop is going to top the charts. It's a 60 dollar price tag, but it gave me a solid 30 hours of playtime, and i'd have even paid 80 gladly.
It's got amazing music, stunning visuals, well-written and acted characters, and enticing game mechanics to bind it all together, that you put to use on some of the most enjoyable fights I've had since sword saint isshin. I give this game a 9.5/10 since nothing can be perfect. Games of this quality are VERY rare, and I give it my Maximum praise.
Just going to put some various minor design details that really push this game over the edge.
The heavy and light attacks of each weapon combo into each other, so combat feels a lot smoother, and I often found myself using every part of my weapon moveset.
When you die and drop your money, if it was in a boss fight, it'll be placed at the start of the arena instead of randomly inside it so you can always retrieve it.
There's a cat in the main hub base that will slowly warm up to you over time, and you can pet it.
The sound design for the attacks and blocks are very satisfying.
The game gives you throwable items and optional NPC summons for fights that you feel are too hard.
I never found myself in a fight where i basically got killed by the camera moving inside a wall (this happened tens of times in elden ring.)
Using a gesture removes the HUD, which is great for taking cinematic screenshots.
The voice acting for some characters is so good I'll add this section twice.
The skilltree it gives you is very detailed so you can adjust it to almost any playstyle.
Respecing your characters stats is not only easy, it's near-infinite resource when you unlock it, so you can try as many builds as you want.
The boss weapons are not only great, but you can also choose an equippable talisman if you didn't like the weapon instead for a huge and unique bonus. Like, extra damage after a perfect block, Or a chance to not consume a healing cell on use.
