"Lies of P is without doubt one of the best soul likes on the market and is more than able to stand toe-to-toe with the very best titles that the genre has to offer."
There is a fortunately small, but unfortunately very vocal part of the gaming community that recoils at every popular thing, and many of them have put a target on the back of souls-like games, seeming to forget that people who enjoy such games are allowed to have nice things too.
While we do see a lot of Souls-like games released, there is a reason for that, a lot of people like them, and when done well, they can be some of the most challenging and enjoyable games on the market, Lies of P is one such game.
With buttery smooth combat, challenging boss encounters, captivating visuals, a haunting soundtrack, and one of the most unique and interesting narratives I have ever played, Lies of P feels like a fairy-tale for grown ups in all the right ways.
Lies of P can be punishingly difficult at times when played on the original difficulty setting which was recently renamed Legendary Stalker difficulty setting, however feel playing it as it was originally envisioned is still the best way to play it.
While there is no shame playing it at lower difficulty settings, and from time to time I have opted to play games at lower difficulty to enjoy the story, one of the best things about my time with Lies of P was trying different builds and farming experience points and materials, in the run up to defeating the final boss of the original game, which took me around 8 hours and close to 100 failed attempts before I found a build which allowed me to dispatch him in only a few tries.
Even without its excellent voice acting and dialogue, Lies of P tells the story of a world that has gone horribly wrong, and the way that story is told is through some of the best atmospheric story telling that the genre has to offer.
The world makes the player feel uneasy from the get go, as there is something about seeing characters from a beloved children story portrayed in such a dark manner that feels profoundly uncomfortable, which is the vibe you are looking for in any dark fantasy title.
With the concept of telling the truth being core to the story of Pinocchio, players are often given the opportunity to lie or tell the truth, with the outcome of their choices often having far reaching consequences, including deciding which characters live or die, and which of the three separate endings they will receive .
An interesting subplot that runs throughout the entire narrative is that robots do not lie, and humans lie naturally, and honestly this is very true, lying has unfortunately become part of our fallen nature since the fall of Adam and Eve, with Jesus calling Satan the father of all liars.
I personally feel at times the narrative leaned a little to heavily on the idea that lying occasionally was the right thing to do, which is clearly not the case.
While I understand these instances were trying to portray that a kind lie was better than a harsh truth, the concept of innocent white lies is a slippery slope, however I do recognise that the developers meant well, and it is ultimately an understandable misunderstanding of a very complex moral issue, with many people viewing the telling of lies as being “no big deal”.
There is more to humanity than the ability to lie, and I feel the writers could have focused on the concept of becoming human by focusing more heavily on acts of compassion or emotions of others kinds, while portraying the telling of lies as being a wholly bad thing, which is much more in line with the source material.
Due to the dark nature of the narrative, Lies of P is unlikely to be played by children, which I feel goes a long ways towards mitigating any potential ethical of spiritual damage that could be caused by a vulnerable person getting the idea that “telling lies” is anything other than a sin, with most adults being mature enough to discern that just because something appears to be ok in a game or story, it does not mean it is acceptable to do it in real life.
As a fan of fantasy, fictions and to a degree fairy tales, I really enjoyed seeing how Round8 Studio incorporated characters, scenes, and events from the story of Pinocchio into the dark SteamPunk setting of Lies of P, and I am eager to see where the story will go on future in light of the post credit cutscene which featured a young girl wearing a very familiar pair of ruby red slippers.
Lies of P is a action video game developed by Round8 Studio and published by Neowiz, it was released on 18 September 2023 and retails for $59.99.
Lies of P is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Lies of P supports the following peripherals:
Lies of P is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
I fully recommend Lies of P to any fan of the Soul-Like, and since the addition of easier difficulty modes in 2025, I can now also fully recommend it to fans of more traditional single player action games.
While the difficulty was one of the things I liked most about Lies of P, the world, soundtrack, lore and narrative are top notch and those aspects of the game can still be fully enjoyed on lower difficulty settings, ands for that reason I feel that it is still worth playing for those more interested in experiencing story than anything else.
We found Lies of P to be a masterpiece of a game, meaning it is a must-play for almost every gamer, due to its near-perfect gameplay experience.
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