Lies of P Preview

Over the Steam Next Fest, we got to take a look at the upcoming soulslike based on the Pinnochio tale, Lies Of P. The puppets have turned violent and are running amok, and it is up to you — Geppeto's best puppet — to save everyone from the vicious foes. But how much will you be able to do without breaking the four rules of the puppets?

In Lies of P, you take control of Pinnochio as you embark on a quest to defeat the puppets that have gone awry. In the beginning, you will pick from three different weapon styles that dictate your starting stats and fighting style. And — for the hardcore DARK SOULS fans — no, there isn't a Pinnochio equivalent of the Wretch.

I went through the tutorial to try each of the combat styles —the Path of the Cricket: Balance, the Path of the Bastard: Dexterity, and the Path of the Sweeper: Strength. With all of them, I fought up to the first area's boss to get a better feel for all of the different starting combat styles.

Throughout my first run of the demo, I didn't understand one of the most crucial aspects of Lies of P's combat — parrying. As a soulslike title, the puppets deal a lot of damage, and you will have various ways of avoiding this: dodging, which is similar to the one in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (by which I mean it's useless); blocking, which makes you take a portion of the damage; and parrying, which completely negates damage... there’s just one problem: at first, I didn't know that there was a parry.

 

A common problem in the demo — and likely my biggest complaint — is the way that the game gives you information. Or rather, doesn't at all. A simple issue to fix, but throughout your adventure, you will find that instructions are relatively scarce — what to do, where to go, how to do things, etcetera. Due to this, throughout my first completion of the demo, I found that the most accessible and enjoyable class was the Path of the Bastard: Dexterity.

Unlike the other two, this one gives you far more accessibility in terms of dodging in the form of a heavy attack that makes Pinnochio jump back. This fencing-esque fighting style gives you more opportunities to avoid damage, and since I didn't know I was supposed to be parrying, I was forced to dodge or stun-lock my enemies, a strategy that wasn't really viable against bosses. It wasn't until the final area that I learned I could parry, as one of the enemies very rudely does this and deals tons of damage if you attack at the wrong time.

With this bit of information, I revisited the tutorial with the other two classes I had found less-than-viable, and the combat suddenly became very enjoyable. Once I learned that I could parry, the other two weren't only more viable, they were actually fun, as the system works pretty similarly to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, wherein you can break the enemy's postures and hit them with a heavy attack to deal lethal blows.

Lies of P is a strange amalgamation of both the DARK SOULS franchise and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and I'm in. This is a natural next step with the existence of the aforementioned series, in which you'll need to use a combination of both parrying and blocking with heavier fighting akin to DARK SOULS and ELDEN RING. Though I am freely comparing Lies of P to these, it's worth noting that the difficulty and expertise of FromSoftware is still missing in the earlier sections of the demo, where the challenge wasn't as steep against some of the foes, but that might be because of the difficulty of the early areas, and should not be taken as a complaint, as accessibility isn't a bad thing. It’s also worth noting that I’m a soulslike veteran, so my expertise with the titles may be causing a bias that is otherwise not present for newcomers to the genre.

In combat, you will also be able to use Pinnochio's metallic left arm. Though I didn't find many uses, you can modify this to have various attachments, two of which we got to see in the demo — a punch and a rope that pulls in enemies and allows you to get the first hit in. I'm excited to see how this will evolve, but I wasn't much of a fan of the Shinobi Tools in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, so we'll see if a different approach is taken by NEOWIZ on this.

I got to experience three areas, each with a respective boss (or, in the tutorial's section, a common mini-boss you'll face throughout the run). Every new place offers new enemies and mechanics to get accustomed to, offering a changing level of depth in terms of difficulty. While at first I was able to get away with stun-locking enemies, stronger foes and larger quantities of them start coming in, forcing you to take a more cautious approach. As a good soulslike, Lies of P takes the opportunity to teach you the mechanics imperative for defeating your next boss with weaker enemies, allowing you to practise important mechanics and manoeuvres before you face the big boss of the area (which is how I learned to parry... eventually). I liked that some of the stronger foes also became recurring, such as the first puppet guard you face in the tutorial, as they give you a quick rundown on older tricks and ensure you are staying sharp at defeating them, seeing your expertise shine through with each new defeat of a previously seen foe.

The combat is a nice mixture between fast-paced and strategic, especially with various mechanics in place that encourage you to focus on moment-to-moment battles, including an ability bar that lets you use a strong and powerful attack and the quintessential flask (Pulse Cell). Truth be told, the approach with the Pulse Cell is one of my favourite additions in the Lies of P demo, as once you run out, you are encouraged to use aggression to refill it because every new hit gives you a bit of recharge so you can heal again. This means that with proper strategies, you can win, even with low amounts of flasks.

Finally, you'll get to experiment with Pinnochio's weapons. I didn't get to see too much of this system, but you can grab the handle and blade of any weapon and fuse them to create a new one with different abilities to use. This is an interesting new mechanic, as you can take your favourite hilt and blade and fuse them into one, but I didn't get much use out of it because Pinnochio's fencing blade in the Path of the Bastard: Dexterity was all-too fun.

Overall, I leave Lies of P's demo cautiously excited. This new and unique amalgamation of DARK SOULS and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice could prove to be a great addition to the soulslike lineup that desperately lacks great non-FromSoftware-related entries. That said, my main worry is the lack of informative tutorials (because, seriously, how did I not learn how to parry?!) and power scaling. The combat is difficult without delving into unfairness, but only time will tell how late-game areas will handle this.

Lies of P releases on the 19th of September for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam!