Lies of P

This is the best non From Software souls-like I have played. It really holds up to them very well. If you like the more linear story style like Dark Souls then I can't recommend this enough. If you're coming from only Elden Ring, this game should still be very enjoyable to you, but it's not just open world. The story itself is engaging and the gameplay is fun. If you're a souls fan you should definitely play this one.

My favorite thing about Lies of P is it's potential for player expression. You're allowed to beat the game (mostly) however you want. You can 'Perfect Guard' every encounter, dodge every enemy attack, or do a mixture of both whenever you see fit. Typically, there are better approaches to every fight, but the game will meet you on your own terms and give you the freedom to choose how you tackle it. You're allowed to build any weapon you want by combining different blades with different handles or use any special boss weapon from the various fights throughout the game. If you want to stick a giant wrench to the end of a dagger handle, you can. If you want to put a greatsword blade on a rapier hilt, you can. This simple tweak to a standard weapon selection system adds so much variety between every playthrough and every person's experience with the game.
You'll encounter several boss fights over your 30-hour playthrough of the game. Most of them are good, if not great, while a few of them not so much. Bosses are incredibly aggressive, but readable and reactable, say for a few 'Fury Attacks' which require memorization in timing as opposed to testing of reactions. I was actually surprised to see how many fantastic fights this game offers. There are several bosses I would understand seeing at the top of someone's favorite Lies of P boss list. The game is also a lot harder than I was expecting with several bosses taking over an hour, sometimes up to 3, to beat.
Another thing to note is the game's story. I won't be giving any summary here, but I'm surprised at how invested I actually was in the characters and story surrounding them. It's a refreshing change to see a game in this genre with such a defined and explicit narrative. There were more than a few characters I grew to genuinely really like and feel for. Complementing the story is the great soundtrack through the game. This includes boss themes, as well as the vinyls you can obtain and play in the Hotel hub area. The songs used give the desolate and depressing world so much more life and context. The world of Lies of P is beautiful and feels lived-in and overrun by the puppets and corrupted roaming about. It could have done better with more impurities in the objects around the levels and architecture, but that's more of a nitpick than anything.
The game isn't perfect, however. It falters towards the end and stumbles in it's final act. After Laxasia , you feel like you're closing in on the finale, but then it sort of just continues for a bit too long before the actual end of the game. The reason I take issue with this area is because up until this point the game has done an incredible job at making every location feel fresh with new or remixed enemy types, level design, and area visuals. But this final stretch feels like a retread of the last few areas without enough of a difference to warrant being included. You could argue that this serves as a sort of down-time before the final fight, but the enemies here are just as aggressive as usual and you'll probably end up running past all of them at this point.
All in all, Lies of P is one of the biggest sleeper hits in recent memory and surpassed the expectations I had for it by a long shot. It's one of the best 'Soulslike' games I've had the privilege of playing, and I'm incredibly excited to see the upcoming DLC and whatever next game comes from this series.

Gorgeous art, good graphics, EXCEPTIONAL optimization, good audio and music, interesting and fun characters, good story, QoL throughout for what you SHOULD expect for this sub-genre, rivaling that of the best.
Fantastic! For a newly formed developer this is nothing short of amazing. An absolute gem and a treat to play without any triple AAA interrupitions, just great.

For a "Souls-like" game that is not from From Software, this is a very good game. I'll write down some thoughts after 35h and beating the game. Of course, no spoilers.
Basically, combine Bloodborne + Sekiro with a twist of Pinnochio story, and you have Lies of P.
- Story is nice, but don't expect a big inmersion unless you explore the lore (like in Souls games). The twist of the classical tale with a more dark atmosphere is interesting enough though.
- Gameplay is really good, but it feels clunky and slow in the early hours due to some of the perks being locked behind the skill tree (that unlocks after beating the second boss). Unlike Sekiro, you can decide if you want to go full parry against enemies/bosses, or just dodge in a more Bloodborne fashion, or both.
There are a lot of tools to create unique gameplay, like the weapon assembly, fable arts, different arms with upgrades, etc. Overall, fairly complete to provde a lot of options for a lot of tastes.
- Soundtrack I'd say is generally good/very good, but In my opinion there wasn't any theme that was "amazing" in terms of standing out over the rest like in other souls games. But as I said, overall very good orchestral/choir music for bosses, and some areas have nice ambiental music too.
- Difficulty is, in my opinion higher at almost every part of the game, than any other souls game. There are a lot of 2 phase bosses, even in early hours that will make you struggle quite a bit. I felt that overall there was an unbalanced difficulty curve throughout the game, specially in boss fights, that made me feel it was "unfair".
- Boss fights were overall very well done. Challenging, designs were overall good and their moveset and mechanics were varied enough. I felt though, that some battles were a bit "overloaded" and felt "unfair", like a certain boss in a big bridge. I beat them all without summons (personal choice) so I guess with summons the fights would be significantly easier. 2 phase bosses were very challenging and overall I felt that they were way more difficult than your "typical" souls boss.
- Graphics were nice and optimization very good. I have a high end GPU, but I have some friends with a 2060 for example and the game ran very well for them without fps drops.
Overall a solid 8.5-9 /10. Neowiz really did their homework when creating this game. I hope to see more of this from them in the future.

From the very first few minutes of the demo that I played a few months back, I knew this game was something special, I knew that I wanted to play it, and I knew I was going to love it, I knew there would be a lot of suffering, pain, and sadness as it is usually with those games but what I didn't know was the scale of it all.
Let me start by saying this is the first Souls game I have played since Dark Souls 1 (I haven't played DS3 yet ) that managed to capture some of the magic of what the maps and the worlds are like in Souls games, how sprawling they are, the constant imagining and visualizing of the map in your head and the constant work towards finding the next shortcut, the next door that will open to you, P.
There's a real artistry touch in this game, you hear it in the music. You feel it in the world. In the people, you see it in their faces, in how they talk, in what they wear. You touch it in the objects, in the streets, in the walls, in paintings. You breathe it in the air, in the cloudy night, and in the foggy morning.
I will never get tired of seeing the stargazer -which I always called bonfire- animate and come to life, I never get tired of parrying and breaking enemies' weapons AND bodies.
The number of tools you have can be overwhelming at first, weapons, amulets, consumables, other pieces of equipment, mechanical arm, parry system, stamina, guard regain, etc., but once you give it some time, it all falls together, there are items I never used even, the freedom you have in this game is quite vast. You can dismantle most weapons, craft new ones, mix and match, and find what suits you, the weapon system is absolutely genius.
From the start of the game you choose your playstyle, but to the very end, you are in command of how to play and what to play.
I remember when I played DOOM Eternal how every weapon you had had its use case for specific enemy types. Lies of P here does the same thing but with your metal arm and pieces of equipment, different types of damage versus different types of enemies and bosses, different effects, attributes, and resistances. You can completely ignore this or use it, again freedom and variety.
Throughout your playthrough you find weapons of all sorts, costumes, and masks, not that I would ever cover P's face but the choice is yours.
I wish the game had a message system, but I understand wanting to be different or that system not fitting the game, and now after I have finished, maybe it was for the better. I also wish the game had more facial animations (However the voice acting does a very good job), but I also understand that those can be expensive and if it comes down to having proper facial animations or having a polished game in all other aspects then I take the latter, which is what Lies of P is.
There are so many fascinating things about this game, that I don't know where to begin to talk about them.
Are you a good boy? Do you always tell the truth? Or are you a liar? What are you, P?
Krat! Once a primitive village is now a booming city of industry, machinery, and puppets, well, till the unthinkable happened and then there was us.
As you play, you slowly start to see everyone for who they are and it's amazing how this game crafts a character, bit by bit, with only a few lines of dialogue here and there.
You start to see Krat for what it really is. Changes start to happen, you see changes in yourself and in your enemies and friends. The changes are consequences of your choices. Remember, always remember that you did this, not me, not anyone else, you did this... whatever 'this' might be.
There's so much emotional baggage to unpack. You want to be a good boy, but look around you, look at Krat, the city that is to be where no one lies, a perfect city, Kallipolis... or Krat, as we know it. But in reality, everyone lies, all hearts are broken and all lives end.
It's how the world functions, really. Sweets lies and dreams are what keep me- no, it's what keep everyone going.
As with other Souls games (FS games), I felt super sad, empty, and disheartened towards the end, I wish it was different, I wish I didn't have to go through this every time but maybe this is why I play those games. To feel something. Or to be stripped of my feelings.
For the first time in a very... very long time, I wanted to forget everything that happened, I wanted my memory erased just so I could do it all over again. To go back to that chair, where it all began, and forget all my memories, for I am, then, once again P, a good boy, a real boy.

Absolutely incredible game. It clearly wears its inspirations on its sleeves, but still manages to be its own wholly unique experience. Despite its steep difficulty curve throughout, I still managed to enjoy my time overcoming these challenges. Highly recommended to any one looking for an incredibly solid souls-like, and doesn't mind the difficulty.

Just for perspective, I have over 1000 hours in the dark souls trilogy, and I am a huge fromsoft fan. I usually avoid most souls-likes because they can feel like cheap copies, but this game was special. I thoroughly enjoyed my three playthroughs of it, and for me, it had captured that magic feeling that so far, only fromsoft could. Special shout-out to the boss fights. Attacks are telegraphed well, no delayed attacks, and fights can be learnt and executed to perfection with enough tries. The OST is quite enjoyable too, which just adds to the souls experience since usually only fromsoft has nailed good music so far. Highly recommended to souls-fans, especially if you like the games for their fair challenge and the satisfaction that comes from overcoming them. Eagerly looking forward to more from this dev