Review | Lies Of P - Sweet Little Lies
A puppet has four laws ingrained into them when they’re built. They must obey their human creators, they cannot harm these creators, they must protect and serve humans and the city of Krat, and they are forbidden from lying. So… why is everybody dead and what exactly happened here?
If they do not have bread. Let them eat my sword!
Lies of P is a dark take on the classic tale of Pinocchio - something that people may initially scoff at when you explain it. In fact we balked at the idea upon its announcement in 2021 when we heard the pitch of Bloodborne with puppets. However, first impressions aren’t everything and Lies of P goes far beyond this striking set up.
Puppets have seemingly started to disobey the laws they were created to uphold and have taken to slaughtering humans in the pseudo-parisian city. Krat has fallen into chaos and is overrun with the bloodthirsty mechanical beings. You awaken as a special kind of puppet, one with the ability to (surprise, surprise) lie. Tasked by a mysterious voice asking for help, you’re led to the last known safe haven in the city, Hotel Krat. You’ll fight your way through the first area, learning the ropes of what at first appears as to be a fairly familiar-playing Souls-like.
As you make your way to Hotel Krat, you’ll feel right at home if you’ve ever played a recent Fromsoft game, especially if you have played the studio’s 2014 PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne. The game has almost the exact UI layout and control scheme as Elden Ring (including a pouch that you hold down a button to open, then tap the D-pad to use). Enemies drop a currency called Ergo, which stands in as the souls or runes in this world. And as you fight, and die, and fight and die, you’ll be check pointed by stumbling upon a few Stargazers on your way through Krat - the equivalent of bonfires.
“Yeah, the hotels know when the puppets are going to start murdering people and increase the prices of rooms right before. It’s a racket.”
Once you reach the doors to the hotel, you’re greeted with the game’s first dialogue choice. Puppets are not allowed into the hotel and you’re asked a simple question - are you a puppet? They may be exterminating the human race, but puppets cannot lie. Except you. These dialogue choices and lies are an important part of the game’s systems, and where you first start to see that this isn’t just another Souls clone. Once you lie, the huge doors will swing open and grant you access to Hotel Krat.
The hotel is an integral part of Lies of P. This is the ever-expanding hub that will grow as you meet new characters and open new pathways. You’ll have access to leveling up here, as well as the weaponsmith, training grounds, a small skill tree, puppet arm crafting, and more as you progress. This adds even more to allow Lies of P to stand on its own. The weapon crafting is simple but interesting. You can remove the handle and blade from almost every weapon to mix and match to your liking. You can also upgrade them separately from each other to modify the stats, or to change how the weapon scales.
Ok, but can this rapier transform into a cane?
The mechanic tied to your puppet arm is one of the highlights of this game. It’s a fresh idea that leverages the classic story’s source material to its advantage. By default you have a melee attack, but you’re quickly able to swap it out for upgrades like a grapple arm, explosive shield, or an electric melee arm. There’s a multitude of new arms you’ll be able to craft and upgrade as you gather materials. Your small skill tree (which is separate from your stats that you level) can be explored with materials you’ve gathered to upgrade yourself further. It’s rather simple and is used to upgrade specific stats on your character. These fairly straightforward systems all come together to give a large amount of build freedom from multiple directions.
“Whatcha buyin’?”
One of the few places Lies of P falters is in the voice acting. The voice performances aren’t bad by any means, but they don’t feel as polished as the rest of the game. Your obligatory companion, Gemini, tosses a comic relief character into a world that really shouldn’t have any. It feels unnecessarily quippy and completely out of place when every other character is gruff, depressed, or just plain creepy. It would be like if The Doll in Bloodborne, joked about not being a real girl. The rest of the cast is generally better depicted however, some falter in a way that makes much more sense when you remember that the South Korean developers were likely trying to direct voice actors across a language barrier. Despite that, Neowiz has crafted an incredible world with deep lore, so it's extra disappointing that sometimes the immersion is broken when you speak to these characters.
I can’t believe this puppet has better drip than me…
In true Soulsian fashion, lots of lore is given through collectibles and item descriptions such as documents you find strewn about the world. It might not be a revolutionary storytelling technique but it still builds out the world and makes it feel (previously) lived in. Collectibles of note are the vinyl records scattered through the wreckage of Krat. You can play these records at the hotel, and doing so adds to your humanity. Humanity is determined by a few other factors, going back to your ability to lie and choosing to help the survivors with their side quests. These beautiful songs also add to the atmosphere and the world, and an already haunting soundtrack.
Damn, starting to think that this industry revolution thing wasn’t great for the workers…
Lies of P is one of the most interesting, polished, and just plain fun souls-likes to release in a long time. There’s much more depth than meets the eye, thanks to its easily digestible but highly customizable systems. It’s a mysterious and dark twist on a classic story that’s surprisingly engaging throughout. The humanity and lying system adds a unique layer of roleplaying in dialogue rarely seen in this genre but it all still shows a reverence to the source material. Even in a packed year, it's hard not to urge anyone that has been missing Fromsoft’s souls-like formula to check out Lies of P.
