Lies of P and the Road of Excess

I accidentally started playing my favourite game of 2023 on January 1, 2024.
review
puppets
Published

February 29, 2024

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

I remember first learning about Lies of P. A couple friends and I tend to watch any major games press conferences together in a group chat. I think we were watching an Xbox Summer Games Fest conference—or something effectively indistinguishable from it—and we watched as a fancy lad beat up steampunk automata in a game that was clearly trying to resemble Bloodborne. We, like everyone else, had a good laugh at its name: Lies of P, what seemed like one of the worst game names of all time.1 We were all at least curious though, if sceptical; the game made a very serious promise: a true successor to Bloodborne, a game that had been effectively ignored by Sony, FromSoft,2 and anyone posed to make a worthwhile clone of it. All this, in spite of what seemed like a truly ridiculous premise: a loose adaptation of Pinocchio in which you play the eponymous real boy and fight other puppets. We kept our eyes on it in the years to come, entertained and beguiled by it in equal measure.

Finally, the game comes out, and I become only more intrigued: coverage of it is generally positive, True Souls Murder Heads are praising it as the first spectacular soulslike to be made by someone other than FromSoft, and some online schizo-sleuths even assert that the game was shadow-developed by FromSoft themselves. Despite this hype, I don’t bite the bullet on buying it quite yet (as is my wont). In fact, I don’t end up buying the game at all—instead, it was gifted to me at Christmas by the friend who first got me into souls games.3 He and I both started playing it within a few days and were both instantly convinced we were playing something special. Lies of P just felt right, a feat that seemingly eludes most 3D soulslike games that aren’t made by FromSoft. When you swing a weapon, you feel its heft and impact; when an enemy attacks you, you feel its rhythm, allowing you to intuitively dodge, strafe, and punish; when you fight a boss, you feel its threat and imposition and logic. It feels like a proper souls game, a game that has earned the right to frustrate and confound you, a game that was designed carefully and deliberately enough to warrant you attempting a boss 12 times before succeeding. Somehow, the Pinocchio game with the silly name had become one of the only 3D soulslikes worthy of the genre.

There is much to say about Lies of P. I played the game for about 50 hours, completing two separate playthroughs. Most of the things that I have to say about the game are positive, which makes critiquing the game a bit of a delicate matter. My complaints about the game are fairly subtle and the main one I have is simultaneously something of a compliment. It will be discussed in brief here and then in greater detail in a future post dedicated to the topic at large. As I played the game, I had several ideas that I thought might eventually make for an interesting analysis of the game,4 but may of them ended up orbiting the same central theme: the generosity and richesse of Lies of P.

Dark Souls is an incredibly austere game. It is spartan and cold. It is brilliant but it is cruel. It loves you, perhaps, but in the way of the strict schoolmaster who more wants you to learn than he wants you to like him. It has a sense of humour, but its laugh is dry and sick and bitter. Most of its gear is unusable,5 many of its weapons are unplayably-bad, and to a certain extent, even its R2 Heavy Attack is a trap for the player itself.6 It has character stats that are secretly useless, item stats that are effectively incomprehensible without external aids, and it never lets you respec (i.e., undo) your finite stat or weapon upgrade investments. Its tools are the whip, the crop, and the stick. This is not to denigrate Dark Souls, of course—I adore Dark Souls. As an academic, a (raised-)Catholic, and a glutton for suffering, I crave the whip, the crop, and the stick. For better and for worse, these are the implements of my growth. The austerity of Dark Souls taught me how valuable a little can be, how sometimes a little is more than a lot. It taught me the value of Enough.

Lies of P is not austere.

Lies of P is rich and lavish and gregarious. It showers the player in gifts and sweets and luxuries. Its love is that of a convivial father—a little overbearing, at times, but warm and nurturing and munificent. Its sense of humour is goofy, a little too silly, not always terribly funny—but warm, always warm! Lies of P offers the player countless viable weapons, each more playable and (ostensibly) powerful than the last. It fills the player’s inventory with amulets, most of which feel like they are “overpowered” in some small way. Most generously of all, it blesses the player with no fewer than three elaborate, interesting, and elegant role-playing systems,7 each of which can be used to customize one’s playstyle, diversify gameplay, and encourage replayability. Its tools are the carrot, the treat, and the embrace. None of this would be notable, were it not for the fact that Lies of P is (as has been intimated) still an excellent soulslike game, with satisfying and varied combat, interesting encounter and boss designs, and a big, fascinating world. It teaches us the value of More Than Enough.

By way of demonstration, let me quote from the notes that I took directly after completing the game:

Cool to look at, amazing to play, really compelling pace, great RPG systems. It’s honestly quite shocking. The weapons and combat styles felt tight and varied. The bosses and most of the mobs were cool and compelling. The upgrades and collectibles were exciting and rewarding. I loved upgrading my legion arm, adding quartz to my “P-Organ”, upgrading my weapons and my stats, and customizing my puppet’s appearance. All of the carrots felt very compelling. I loved the look of the game, especially my little twink when I gave him long silver hair and a fetching black-and-green suit. The enemies, bosses, and levels were usually quite cool looking (if a little repetitive or unimaginative on occasion). The pacing was excellent the whole way through, keeping my attention and enthusiasm, neither overstaying its welcome nor departing too early. Its final three bosses were some of the best in the game and the narrative, while a bit garbled and silly, definitely has enough going for it to keep you interested until the very end. A really promising game with great systems, a cool world, and a pleasant difficulty curve. It has a handful of notable flaws but, generally speaking, I loved this game.

Bear in mind that these notes were written only for mine own eyes, so they’re brief and a bit crude, but I present them in an unedited state because I think they capture just how enthusiastic I was after finishing Lies of P. This is clearly the voice of someone who has been spoiled, someone who is very much not used to being spoiled: Orphan Annie on her first day with Daddy Warbucks. I think that this is a subtle but important distinction, however: I am not used to be spoiled. If I were, if More Than Enough were the default state of soulslikes, then this game would be all the less remarkable. The unique contribution of Lies of P—one that its developers may have made only unconsciously—is how it teaches us the value of More Than Enough, which is itself a reminder of the value of Enough. It is not better than Dark Souls8—it makes Dark Souls better, which, in turn, makes Lies of P better: an Abundance Dialectic. In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

I really was quite fond of this fit.

I could elaborate on these points more, explaining precisely how and why I enjoyed each of these systems so much. I could explain, for example, how the P-Organ had more RPG value in its singular system than did the entirety of Final Fantasy XVI. I could explain how the combination of its simple armour system and its orthogonal (non-stat-affecting) cosmetics made for a more fluent roleplaying experience than nearly any FromSoft game.9 I could tell you the various delights and surprises I experienced on my second playthrough when I learned the full and true nature of the characters in the game and their relationships. Instead, I will simply state again how deliciously luxurious an experience this game provided me, how rewarding I found that experience, and how I found that it even retroactively enhanced my experiences with other, less-giving games. If you too have found yourself with only Enough, perhaps it is time that you indulge in More Than Enough. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.

The game is not without its flaws, of course, and there is value in discussing those flaws. That said, they are not aptly- or pithily-captured by my heretofore-extended metaphor, and so those interested only in a narratively-complete critical assessment of Lies of P may safely duck out here without disturbing the performers or their fellow audience members. If you are still reading, I can only assume that you are a True Sicko and Fellow Traveler, someone who fears not for Their Own Time, and isn’t afraid of reading at least one paragraph10 dedicated exclusively to parrying.

The most significant problem with Lies of P is, oddly, one of its strengths: its parrying.11 Lies of P teaches you very early on that if you wish to survive the city of Krat and its deranged inhabitants, you must learn to parry. It teaches you this with very explicit and direct tooltips, but it also conditions the player in this implicitly. Any souls veteran who hasn’t blocked or parried an attack in years, favouring instead the dodge roll and the frames of invincibility (aka “i-frames”) it provides, will quickly learn that no such luxury is available here. If you try to dodge through an attack in Lies of P, you will usually be punished—mercilessly. Instead, you should learn to anticipate the rhythm of an enemy’s attack, and press the block precisely when (or, “when”) the strike would land. Doing so will negate all damage, use less stamina than would a block, and hasten the enemy toward a vulnerable and imminently-killable state. The game takes pains to remind you of how important this mechanic is, but it’s.. a little off. The timing for this parry never quite feels right. It never feels natural, always seeming to require the player to actually hit the block button milliseconds before or milliseconds after the attack would land, varying unsystematically based on type of enemy and type of attack. The windows for a successful parry are razor-thin, seemingly-thinner than any FromSoft game or other similar parry-centric 3D action game. The longer one engages with this system, the more one gets used to it, but it never quite reaches the highs games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which have effectively perfected the feel of parrying. It also cannot match the flawed-but-effective parrying of Bloodborne. This, combined with the janky feel of the dodge, makes combat artifically difficult for the first several hours of Lies of P.12 These are not especially profound problems on their own, but feel a bit more pressing because of how other games have perfected parrying (i.e., Sekiro, Metal Gear Rising) and dodging (i.e., all of the FromSoft soulslikes).

However, I promised that this criticism would also be a compliment, and so let us consummate that promise: the parrying is better than in most of the soulslikes released by From Somftware. Dark Souls and most of its sisters have terrible parry systems, and Lies of P certainly improves upon those. Once one has spent enough time with its idiosyncrasies and peccadilloes, one does grow accustomed to them, and can generally feel the flow and fluency of other, superior parrying games. It just never quite reaches the rhythmic heights of games like Sekiro and Bloodborne; no fight is ever quite as elegant and graceful as those against Lady Maria or O’Rin of the Water, for example. I have much more to say on this topic and have outlined a much longer dedicated post on parrying to be published in the future, should no one take me out of my misery before then.13

The final thing that we should discuss about Lies of P is its narrative: its world, its plot, its characters. They’re.. well, they’re all a bit silly, aren’t they? Far from being a successor to Bloodborne, the game hardly even flirts with Haunting Uncertainty, let alone reaching for Cosmic Dread. Tonally, Lies of P is very different from any FromSoft game, in fact—which is not a problem, of course. If anything, I’m glad that the developers are trying to distinguish themselves from their most obvious points of comparison. The issue is that I don’t think that the devs knew exactly what tone they did want. Lies of P gestures towards those themes—uncertainty, dread, hopelessness, anguish—without ever really committing to them; the suicide of a famous singer might be followed moments later by an extremely annoying quip from your automaton-cricket, Gemini. A satisfying, if somewhat clichéd, narrative reveal will feel distinctly childish (or more precisely, shonen-esque), before another incredibly-dark narrative turn is taken.14 This sort of tonal whiplash fails to ever cohere into a satisfying tonal experience, even if it comprises plot points that are enjoyable in isolation.

Furthermore, this mixed tone also fails to cohere with the world or the plot and its themes. The game presents a bizarre morality that consists of several related dichotomies (i.e., truth–lies/good–bad/freedom–enslavement), that I could never quite follow. Telling lies makes your character more human, as puppets cannot lie (or so says the lore of the game, anyway). Sometimes these lies are cruel and sometimes they are merciful. Sometimes, telling the truth makes you more human by virtue of it being more merciful, even though it is technically true and not a lie. Sometimes, acting on your own makes you more human (even though it is neither true nor a lie), regardless of whether it is moral or immoral. I do not require moral didactism from the game, of course, but I do want it to have something to say—or at least something coherent on which for me to chew. It doesn’t really ever get there though. [Minor spoilers and further illustrative examples follow in this footnote.15] The game wants very badly to play in the Vague Narrative Space that FromSoft has established so effectively, but its plot was a little too concrete, its tone was a little too mixed, its dialogue was a little too awkward and uninteresting (and ill-translated). Still, I liked the characters, I enjoyed the world, and I wasn’t ever annoyed by the story, per se. And I did find the character trajectories to be very compelling, even if the plot around them was a bit lacklustre. I am confident and hopeful that the follow-up to Lies of P will establish a unique and compelling narrative all of its own, making it a Real Boy, and not just an imitation of one.16

Some final errant thoughts:

Footnotes

  1. I stand by this assessment, though I also have to admit that its terrible name may have actually benefitted the game by making it more memorable.↩︎

  2. For the uninitiated, From Software are the lauded developers of such beloved games as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. These games are the progenitor of the “soulslike” genre, which tends to emphasize deliberate and precise combat, risk-and-reward gambits, and (to varying extents) difficulty.↩︎

  3. He did so using a similar tactic: buying me a copy of Sekiro, thereby effectively forcing me to play it. I will always be grateful to him for it.↩︎

  4. One such idea: Lies of P is narratively more of a successor to Bioshock than it is to Bloodborne.↩︎

  5. For nearly all players, anyway. It is simply too heavy to be viable.↩︎

  6. At least, the R2→R2 chained Heavy Attacks are.↩︎

  7. In short, these are the (1) weapon customization system, which allows players to combine weapon handles and blades, changing their attack animation and stats scaling; (2) the legion arms, which allow the player to use his offhand to shoot flames, fire projectiles, or (my personal favourite) fire a grappling hook to maneuver towards an enemy or bring them towards you; and (3) the unforgettably-named P-Organ, which allows players to invest a rare resource into neat extra abilities or specializations.↩︎

  8. Or its sisters and cousins.↩︎

  9. I will again note here explicitly that I am not saying that Lies of P is better than any particular FromSoft game. I am merely comparing the games on this particular dimension.↩︎

  10. And later, perhaps, about 5000 words.↩︎

  11. Annoyingly, Lies of P does not use the word “parrying” to refer to what we typically think of as parrying (the perfectly timed deflection of an attack), and instead uses it to refer to an unrefined parry-adjacent mechanic specific to a particular legion arm and a handful of weapons. Instead, Lies of P uses the term “true guard” to refer to (what we would normally call) parrying. Given that the game’s community uses “parry” instead of the term “true guard”, and given that ostensibly no one uses the mechanic labeled “parrying”, I will instead use the standard nomenclature. Thank you.↩︎

  12. It should be noted here that I am by no means the first person to make this observation. One of the most common criticisms of the game, especially from souls fans, was that the parrying was a bit off and needlessly strict.↩︎

  13. Clock’s ticking.↩︎

  14. I am being intentionally vague here so as not to spoil would-be players, but for those already familiar with the story: I speak of the origins and fates of Romeo and Sophia here, respectively.↩︎

  15. What are Simon Manus’s goals? Why do I care whether he gives some humans diseases? Why does he want to do that? Why doesn’t Gepetto want him to do that? Why don’t I want Gepetto to turn me into a real boy? What is the harm in that? How does Sophia play into this? Do I support her just because she helped me and for no other reason?↩︎

  16. Oh thank god, I found an extended metaphor to capture this section as well. And without a second to spare.↩︎

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