They say that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, in some cases, imitation strips a project or piece of art of most of what would give it its own identity. I wanted to like Lies of P since the idea of an action-focused take on the story of Pinocchio was interesting. Since I’ve been trying to dabble in more Souls-like games, it just seemed like a good idea to try.

Sadly, Lies of P is nowhere close to the polished, masterful creation of Elden Ring, or even a fair but challenging game like Blasphemous 2. Instead, NEOWIZ tried in a lot of ways to imitate FromSoftware’s earlier games but fell short by leaning too heavily into hostile game design. They also had a variety of oversights regarding accessibility, but we’ll get into that.

First, let’s start with the basics. You play as Gepetto’s puppet, who awakens via the intervention of a mysterious voice. The voice (named Sophia) is your guide through the city of Krat, as you explore a city of monstrous creatures. The city of Krat has been consumed by calamity, madness, and destruction wrought by the city’s elite. It is up to you to unravel the web of lies and deceit, to uncover the truth of what is going on.

Krat was once a prosperous, lively city known for making automaton puppets. It thrived due to its puppet industry, but at some point, the puppets turned on their masters. This concept might seem familiar because the idea is similar to Steelrising, a game set during the French Revolution about automatons turning on their masters. The difference here is Steelrising suffered from performance issues, while Lies of P suffers from adhering too close to its inspiration and Souls-roots.

For example, the main combat elements are almost pulled directly from FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games. You have a stamina meter that depletes when you attack or dodge. You have a guard that can also turn into a parry if you time it correctly, and weapons either have heavy (slow) speed, balanced speed, or faster speed.

Uniquely to it though, each weapon is two pieces, the weapon and handle. These can be mixed and matched with other pieces to affect and customize stats based on your build. Some weapons also have an elemental affinity to them, or you can put elements on them using various items.

The problem is, having played previous FromSoftware games, several elements of Lies of P’s combat are ridiculously frustrating. The first problem is that attacks don’t feel impactful. Enemies hardly stagger or move when you hit them unless they’re the lowest of fodder enemies. This intersects with the second problem, the parry window for attacks is so small that after going to the internet for research I noticed that even other Souls fans are having problems with it.

Enemies also have a lot of health, but also do a lot of damage. It took me three hours to kill the first boss because after a while I just started grinding fodder enemies to get enough health and boost my attack stat so that I could brute force the boss, rather than take a chance on the ridiculously tight parry window.

This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the dodge mechanic wasn’t useless. The dodge barely moves you all that far, so you’ll often still get hit unless you’re lucky enough to time it perfectly. The controls also feel clunky and sluggish in a lot of situations, which doesn’t help matters.

These elements of hostile game design make Lies of P feel overly punishing and unfair. A good portion of my early deaths weren’t because of a lack of skill, they were because of the sluggish controls and a dodge that didn’t get me out of harm’s way. It’s one thing if the game is hard but can be mitigated through grinding or practice. However, when you grind to level 30 (in the first area) and still feel underpowered, something’s not right.

Some of Lies of P’s gameplay elements are interesting like the Legion Arms, which can be switched out to give you a variety of utility options. For example, the Puppet String Legion Arm allows you to either pull yourself to a distant enemy or yank them toward you.

Another Legion Arm provides a flamethrower, and there are several other options that are interesting. Weapons also have Fable Arts which are similar to Elden Ring’s weapon arts. They’re a cool idea but with the rest of the combat being a slog it just doesn’t help.

Upgrading Pinocchio’s parts, weapons, and stats feels like elements pulled straight out of Dark Souls, and some of the bosses and enemies feel that way too. There are a ton of videos on Twitter and YouTube talking about how similar some of these elements are.

I wish NEOWIZ had taken more time to really give Lies of P its own identity mechanically and polish its control scheme. The concept of choosing to lie or tell the truth to NPCs to get varying results and rewards in quests is interesting, but with the combat being so punishing it is hard to get to a point where I care. That doesn’t even consider the blatant accessibility issues.

Just on a surface level, Lies of P fails the accessibility check due to how small the text is in the game. I played on a huge TV screen, and even at a minimal distance, the text was small. There’s no way to change the size, and similarly to Dark Souls there’s also no way to pause the game. Time still runs even when you’re doing inventory management or reading notes, so you can’t even take your time reading over tutorial text unless you’ve cleared out the enemies in an area.

Additionally, when certain boss enemies are speaking, they use such a stylized font that I couldn’t read it. I have no trouble with dyslexia or my vision, but the font was so incomprehensible that if I wasn’t playing with sound, I’d have no clue what it said. This, combined with the small subtitle size for other characters, causes a variety of issues for disabled people.

Of course, there are also no difficulty options in Lies of P. So, if you’re someone who has problems with arthritis, chronic pain, reflexes, or other issues, Lies of P will likely be completely inaccessible to you. I wanted to like Lies of P, but when a lot of people can’t play a game because the developers didn’t even think to make it accessible, it is hard to overlook that negligence.

The sad part is everything else about Lies of P is interesting. The story is interesting, the environments are dark and yet beautiful in the Belle Époque-style of the 1870s, and the customization options of weapons and even cosmetics are engaging. I find myself disappointed though at how much of a slog it feels to play Lies of P.

If you’re a fan of classic Dark Souls, you may not care about most of what I’ve written here as a complaint. I’m sure the “git-gud” squad is rubbing their hands together in glee at a new masochist simulator to bang their heads on. As for me, I find myself disappointed by the possibility of how good Lies of P could have been for everyone, not just diehard Souls fans.

A PlayStation 5 Review Copy of Lies of P was provided by NEOWIZ for this review.

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Lies of P

$59.99 USD

4

Score

4.0/10

Pros

• Gorgeous Visuals and Atmosphere
• Interesting Storyline
• Interesting Weapon Customization and Legion Arm mechanics

Cons

• Attacks don't feel impactful
• Enemy attacks are difficult to time/parry
• Lack of Common Accessibility Features
• Controls feel sluggish
• Combat feels unfairly difficult