Lies of P

TL;DR: Excellent soulslike with satisfying combat, great atmosphere, and strong presentation, but the level design is very linear, the first half is too easy, and the story/NPCs/antagonists don’t fully live up to the potential the world sets up.
I finished Lies of P in about ~50 hours with 100% completion, without DLC, and overall I recommend it especially if you’re a fan of soulslikes. It’s one of the strongest non-FromSoftware entries in the genre: polished, consistent, and genuinely fun to master.
That said, while the game nails the feel (combat, mood, visuals), it left me wanting more when it comes to character depth, villain writing, and dynamic NPC interactions.
It’s also impossible not to mention that the game is heavily inspired by Bloodborne. Sometimes that works in its favor, sometimes it feels a bit too safe like it’s standing very close to the original instead of pushing harder into its own identity.
Pros
✅ Story / overall narrative
For a soulslike, the story is surprisingly coherent and easier to follow. The dark reinterpretation of Pinocchio works well, and the game gives you enough structure to stay invested rather than relying purely on cryptic lore. There’s a clear sense of direction, and the worldbuilding is strong enough to make you want to keep going.
✅ Combat / gameplay
This is the biggest strength. Combat feels responsive, precise, and rewarding once you learn timings and enemy patterns. The perfect guard system is satisfying when you commit to it, and the game supports different playstyles (guarding/parrying, dodging, spacing).
The weapon system is also a highlight: mixing blades + handles encourages experimentation and lets you shape a build that feels personal instead of just upgrading “the next bigger weapon.”
✅ World / atmosphere / presentation
Krat looks fantastic. Lighting, architecture, and small environmental details create a consistent grim tone. Even when the areas are linear, they remain visually interesting and memorable. The game has a strong identity visually, and it’s a big part of why it stays engaging.
Cons
❌ Atmosphere is strong, but it’s rarely truly scary
Even with the dark mood, the game rarely created real anxiety or dread for me. It’s atmospheric and stylish, but more “moody” than genuinely unsettling. This is personal, of course, but if you expect horror-level tension, you might not get it often.
❌ Villains feel one-dimensional (and Manus feels underused)
Many antagonists come off as simple: greed, madness, cruelty almost cartoonishly straightforward. They lack tragedy or complexity, which makes it harder to understand their perspective or feel the weight of the conflict.
The biggest disappointment here is Manus. He often ends up as a monologuing antagonist whose philosophy could’ve hit much harder if the game had explored his past and motivations more deeply. The potential is there, but it doesn’t fully land.
❌ NPCs have great setups… but limited, static presence
Characters like Antonia and Eugénie have genuinely intriguing backstories, but most of the time they just stand in the hotel and deliver occasional dialogue after missions.
Even though the game has a lying system that affects endings, relationships with NPCs feel not very dynamic. They rarely react in meaningful ways to how the world changes, so it often feels like they don’t have lives outside the hub.
❌ Some storylines end too quickly (Red Fox & Black Cat)
This arc is a great example of wasted potential. They appear episodically, motivations are only lightly sketched, and encounters often end abruptly. In the end, your influence on that relationship boils down to a simple “fight or let go” type choice, which feels too limited for such interesting characters.
❌ Very linear level design
This is probably my biggest gameplay-related issue. Areas look great, but they often play like corridors with fewer meaningful branches. There are secrets and exploration, but not enough of that classic souls feeling of interconnected spaces, clever shortcuts, and “wow, it loops back here.”
❌ Difficulty pacing: first half is too easy
The early game felt noticeably easier, which hurts balance and progression pacing. If you learn the mechanics quickly, a big chunk can feel low-pressure and then the game ramps up later in a less smooth way.
❌ Bloodborne influence can feel too strong
Inspiration is fine (and expected), but at times it feels extremely close to FromSoftware’s formula - to the point where it risks losing some uniqueness. I would’ve loved a bit more boldness in carving out its own identity beyond the obvious blueprint.
Recommended
Lies of P delivers excellent combat, strong atmosphere, and a polished soulslike experience that’s very satisfying to master (especially if you aim for 100%). But the linear level design, uneven difficulty pacing, and underdeveloped villains/NPC dynamics keep it from reaching its full narrative potential. Still, if you enjoy the genre, it’s absolutely worth playing.

I cant play many Souls-Likes due to my disability, I would love to play them all, but the fact is I cant...But Lies of P has a setting for me! Most call it easy mode but for someone like me who cant play for long its perfectly difficult and balanced. Not only is this game accessible but the story, setting, weapon options and boss designs are incredible and varied! The move sets of each boss has been so much fun to work out, and walking down the (more or less) abandoned streets in between the bosses is somehow awe inspiring and spooky simultaneously. Well worth a play!

Lies of P deserves so much more praise and attention than it got. I truly can't believe this game is as good as it is. Coming from a developer with no experience in the genre and minimal history as a studio this is truly a remarkable accomplishment. The music, the atmosphere, the astonishingly appropriate adaptation of Pinocchio lore. THE COMBAT. Handle-head assembly, grindstones, legion arms, the bosses. This is insanely impressive. The only real Souls-like developer outside of FromSoftware.

I got 100% achievements and can do no damage on few bosses included the final boss, i can write long review but won't since Lies of P can summed like this:
It's the best non-from software souls-like game and expansion in terms of Story, Side Quest and Characters + Gameplay + Graphics and Art Directions + OSTs so far

This game is made with love and passion, and you can clearly feel it while playing. Lies of P is easily the best soulslike to date. Everything is top notch whether it's the boss fights, areas, characters, story, or music. I've completed this game countless times and never got bored even once.
The DLC was absolutely god tier too, especially the final boss fight. I genuinely wish I could experience a game like Lies of P for the first time again. This is soulslike perfection, and easily one of my favourite games of all time.korean developers are killing it lately for me it's obviously a 10/10

Alright. Lies of P is done and dusted. From my perspective, this game does a great job of focusing more on the Bloodborne side of Soulsborne games, with NEOWIZ's own spin on things of course. And actually, the pacing is a bit faster than your typical Soulsborne game.
Not to bag on Lords of the Fallen too much here, but playing Lies of P drove home some of the pacing and boss design issues I had with LotF, because where I felt like boss fights were often trolling the player and exploration got tedious in LotF, in Lies of P, it really encourages you to move forward, and while careful exploration is still the order of the day, most of the levels feel less laborious to traverse. And the boss fights all seemed both fair and fun. Which made Lies of P a significantly more enjoyable experience. There is still the linearity to the levels, with some side stuff for the careful explorer, and clever ways of tying things together. Shortcuts feel both sensible and meaningful, and the level designs in general also carry that feel.
I thought the boss designs in Lies of P really spruced up the game. Even though there was some repetition in how bosses telegraph certain moves. And I'd say that while there was definitely a decent amount of variety in their move sets, similar enemies fight similar to their contemporaries. For example, if you remove the elemental attacks and the general appearance from the equation, both Laxasia and Simon had very similar attacks and patterns. Including how they did the multistage battles for each. It is notable that once you get a few different variations down, no boss is really going to give you too much trouble. That said, at no point was I bummed out by how a boss fight went. I had a good time with each.
Especially if you stay on top of upgrading your gear. Which is paramount. Your different Legion arms are all useful, but the maxed out shield one in particular was always useful. Similarly, choosing your favorite weapons and focusing on upgrading those is ideal. I rocked the Seven-Coil Spring Sword for most of my playthrough, which suited how I prefer to play Soulsborne games quite well, but the Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive was also a ton of fun to use, and the Wrench was a beast. In fact, the Wrench seems to be the strongest weapon in the game. The only reason I didn't stick with it is because I was having a great time with the Seven-Coil Spring Sword. Mjolnir was also a beast fully upgraded.
Which brings me to another of the game's mechanics. You can disassemble and mix and match blades/handles from any normal weapon, allowing you to really create the weapon that best suits you. Upgrades affect the blade, so plan that accordingly. Boss weapons OTOH, while already massively powerful, can't be disassembled. Typically, your weapon decision will also be impacted by Fable Arts, which are this game's special moves for each weapon. Each blade has two arts. The Seven-Coil Spring Sword, for example, has a low-cost parry/riposte that is beefy, and a high cost Seven Explosions Attack, which was often enough to stagger an enemy you'd already been beating up. Plus, each weapon also has a couple light and heavy attacks to utilize as well.
Much like Bloodborne (and Sekiro), the combination of dodging, parrying, and blocking reigns supreme in battle. You will need to get used to that if it's not something you are already good at. All three work in unison and create some nice opportunities including staggering foes to get in a fatal attack (backstab). It's definitely a core battle mechanic, so focus on getting your timing down early on in the game.
Story wise, it's a dark take on Pinocchio and Geppetto. But it goes deeper than that, and pretty much every named character has some sort of interesting story. Not to mention the books and notes you will find throughout the game which enhance the story and world-building. I would say there isn't a clear-cut 'good-guy' path through this game. Not everything is as it seems in Krat. P will be also given opportunities to be truthful or lie throughout the game, which will impact some things. P does get (Jiminy) Gemini Cricket as a companion throughout the game. He mostly just points stuff out and gives his thoughts on some of the situations you find yourself in. The ending I got definitely lets you know what the devs were thinking would be a good sequel should the opportunity arise. We'll see if they go with that or not.
The graphics were very nice. Actually, this is another way in which there can be found similarities between Lies of P and Bloodborne. This world is not quite as gothic as that one, but there is still much commonality. It's often a stunner, and screen archers will find much to appreciate while playing the game. The audio is also spot on. The songs are great, and the voice acting doesn't miss either. Plus, the general sounds of traversal and combat really bring an air of believability to this fantasy world. The cutscenes are spectacular, btw. Well worth watching.
As I find myself running close to the character limit in this review and realizing how much of the game I didn't even get to in this review, I can't help but reflect on the impressive overall depth and quality this game offers. I think it's excellent value and Soulsborne fans are going to want to give this a try at some point. Worth a look.
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---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☑ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☑ 10