Lies of P from NEOWIZ and Round8 Studio is a challenging Soulslike that brings us a twist on the story of Pinnochio. Learn more in our Lies of P review!
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Lies of P from NEOWIZ and Round8 Studio is a challenging Soulslike that brings us a twist on the story of Pinnochio. You play as the puppet we all know and love, except that instead of being made of wood, you’re more of an animatronic variety. Sure, you’re still a puppet, but you’re way more human-looking than the other puppets that roam the city of Krat. That is actually the current predicament at hand and why you have been awakened from your slumber.
You see, the city of Krat was to be the city of tomorrow today. Thanks to the many puppets that were put to good use at a variety of different locations to handle many chores, such as controlling traffic, serving as butlers at mansions, or making sure that everyone remained in a peaceful state of mind. Unfortunately, when the puppets start to go a bit cuckoo and attack all humans, that’s when Pinocchio is awakened. You’re summoned to Hotel Krat by a special human who asks that you go searching for Geppetto to be able to fix things before it’s too late.
Your first choice will be to select your combat style. The three options are Path of the Cricket, Path of the Bastard, and Path of the Sweeper. Path of the Cricket is the most balanced of the three, giving you a good compromise between power and speed to get the job done. The Path of the Bastard gives you a good boost in speed, which will allow you to strike at your enemies and get out of the way before they can do some damage. The last option is the Path of the Sweeper, and it favors brute force. It’s best reserved for those of you who want to wield a huge sword as you make short work of any enemy foolish enough to stand in your way.
By pressing the Triangle button, the game will let you know exactly what values Pinocchio will start with for the different stats you’ll have to consider. These include vitality, vigor, capacity, motivity, technique, advance, HP, stamina, guard regain, weight limit, physical attack, and physical defense. The Path of the Cricket balances these values for a standard but solid experience. The Path of the Bastard will boost stamina while having lower HP, physical attack, and physical defense. The Path of the Sweeper will give Pinocchio a massive boost to HP, weight limit, and physical attack, but will end up with less stamina, vigor, and technique.
You’ll be controlling your character with the left analog stick as you use the right one to rotate the camera. The X button will be for interaction. The Circle button will be for dodging and dashing as needed. Regular attacks are mapped to the R1 button, with special attacks set to the R2 button. This button can also be used for charged attacks. The L2 button is for the Legion Arm, which is your character’s mechanical arm. Pressing in on the right analog stick will allow you to lock onto an enemy to make it easier to keep an eye on it as you attack. If you manage to sneak up on an enemy and attack it from the back, you’ll be able to deal a fatal blow for some serious damage.
You can switch its function by pressing left on the D-Pad. You could, for example, simply attack with it as is. You can also switch it to a very special set of tools that can be used to sharpen up your weapons to keep them in the best shape possible. Yes, that does mean that Lies of P has weapon degradation that you need to consider. Attacking with a blunt or damaged weapon is far from ideal, but you’ll sometimes need to do that. You should always switch out a damaged weapon by pressing right on the D-Pad in case you have a better option.
The L1 button will allow you to guard. If you block an incoming attack by guarding, damage can be reduced while consuming some of your stamina. The reduced damage will be transferred to Guard Regain. While Guard Regain will accumulate at a steady pace, it will gradually decrease over time. While you have some Guard Regain, attacking enemies will make Pinocchio regain some of his lost HP. You can also time a guard just right so that it activates as an attack lands, thus giving you a perfect guard. A perfect guard will only consume stamina, and no HP will be lost. A perfect guard can also destroy an enemy’s weapon or put an opponent in a staggered state.
The Triangle button is for activating Fable Arts. Fable Arts are what you could call weapon skills in other games. Fable Arts are attached to either the blade or the handle part of a weapon, and each of those parts will have a special Fable Art for you to consider. To activate them, you’ll need to use some Fable Slots. You’ll be free to work on creating weapons that mix and match handles and blades that provide different Fable Arts to boost your character, be that with defensive skills, powerful attacks, and more.
You can equip items and gestures to your character’s belt. These are then split between slots in the upper belt and lower belt, which you can select from by pressing up or down on the D-Pad. You can then use the selected belt item by pressing the Square button. There’s also the extra bag to consider, which is activated by pressing and holding down the X button. You can equip items and gestures to the extra bag and use them by pressing and holding down the X button and pressing a direction on the D-Pad.
Since this one is a Soulslike, that means there’s probably an item you can use to recover some of your lost health, which will be refilled when you activate a special contraption that also happens to heal your wounds and save your progress. In Lies of P, said healing item is known as a Pulse Cell. The Pulse Cell has a maximum number of times it can be used. Once this maximum is exceeded, the Pulse Cell will be discharged. You can charge it back up by attacking enemies as well.
Oh, and the place where you can save your progress and recover your health is called a Stargazer. Yes, using it will make all enemies respawn, but that’s just part of the Soulslike life. Using each Stargazer that you run into is a must since it will allow you to be revived at that point when you die. The closer you are to the last Stargazer that you activated once you’re defeated, the easier it will be to recover the Ergo you lost upon death.
Ergo acts as the experience points that can be used at a Stargazer to level up Pinocchio in order to boost the values for his different parameters. This is how you could, for example, go with the Path of the Cricket for a more balanced experience and then use the Ergo you collect to level up Pinocchio’s vitality and vigor to boost his HP and stamina so that he can withstand more damage as well as evade more attacks by rolling or moving through an area at a much faster pace by dashing. Boost motivity to increase his physical attack since every point of extra damage can help to make a difference in the long run.
Trophy-wise, this one has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. And since this is a Cross-Buy title, if you own a PlayStation 5, you can download the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game, and each version will have its own trophy list. Each list includes 26 Bronze trophies, 13 Silver trophies, and 3 Gold trophies for you to work on. Some are story-related. Some require you to strengthen your weapons and special arms to the max level. There are some tied to endings, which will depend on your actions. Say nothing but the truth, and you can reach one ending. Tell lies along the way – this is Pinocchio, after all – and you can go on a different journey and get to another ending. Since there are many missable trophies, you might want to check out this Lies of P Trophy Guide.
Lies of P is a challenging Soulslike that brings us a twist on the story of Pinnochio. Things are certainly darker than the story you might remember from your childhood – hence why it’s Rated M for Mature – and all puppets are certainly more violent than you’d expect. If you’re a fan of Soulslike games and want to take on an adventure that feels familiar yet manages to stand on its own, then you should definitely check this one out. Lies of P is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your $59.99 purchase will allow you to download both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This Lies of P review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by NEOWIZ.
