With a hole left inBloodborne’s absence throughout modern media remakes and remasters, Neowiz’sLies of Pwas an instant balm when it was revealed as a Belle Epoque-style Soulslike. Indeed, the game did look fantastic and polished in the amount of early gameplay shown for its cobblestone-laden streets and eerie automaton enemies, but it was arguably hoisted to heightened levels of anticipation due tohow muchLies of PresemblesBloodbornein its aesthetic. These comparisons are tenable a year afterLies of P’s launch, too, but the Soulslike has also proven it is mechanically and narratively rich in surprisingly substantial ways.
A loose reimagining ofThe Adventures of Pinocchiois likely the last avenue anyone would predict a Soulslike to take. However, while whimsical or wholesome fairy tales spun into grisly nightmares—or vice versa—are hardly novel, it is a genius premise for a Soulslike since it meant Neowiz could have endless freedom when it came to level, character, and boss designs. The wait continues now forLies of P’s upcoming content and, until then, looking back on what Neowiz achieved a year ago should hopefully be a standard for future Soulslikes to closely and intently follow.
Lies of P’s Weapon Handle and Blade Customization is Inspired
Each new Soulslike can’t simply imitate what’s come before it and hope to make a splash; it needs to iterate on Soulslikes’ tried and true formulas brilliantly, of course, but it also needs to introduce something to it that can grant it a badge of authorship and authenticity in the space. FromSoftware games do this, too, and even though its games would likely be widely beloved regardless it is fantastic to seeBloodborne,Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, andElden Ringall have features that distinguish them aside from how radically unique their settings, genres, and aesthetics are.
In this case,Lies of Pholds its own by debuting a weapon customization systemthat gives players the opportunity to craft numerous armaments with creative combination qualities and move sets to appease their playstyles. It’s a simple yet astonishingly effective feature that appeals to anyone who may have preferences in action-RPGs such as a bonk or parry build and pushes the envelope on what Soulslikes can look like when studios get creative with how weapons are doled out.
Lies of Pfeatures a ton of weapons and some cannot be disassembled, but those that can extend the game’s weapon catalog further depending on how many permutations players experiment with.
The only feature that comes close to this in FromSoftware’s works isBloodborne’s trick weapons, which also enlarges its armament pool by adding secondary functions as weapon transformations, and yetLies of Plets players craft their own weapon functions. That’s all before P-Organ abilities or Legion Arms are considered, too, and the impact of those features also has profound potential.
Unfortunately,Lies of P’s intricate combat was soon overshadowed byhow effective and exploitable consumables and throwables areand they have predominated all conversations about gameplay since consumables and throwables became optimal for speedrun routing.
Lies of P’s Genius Adaptation of Pinocchio Should Provoke Future Soulslike Narratives to Pull Their Weight
A year after release, it’s easy to see how inventive of an adaptationLies of Pis and how creatively Neowiz was able to iterate onThe Adventures of Pinocchio’s themes and characters. It’s interesting seeingGeppetto as a primary antagonist inLies of P, for example, as well as an entire system dedicated to dialogue options where players can either lie or tell the truth with severe ramifications.
Lying is woven directly and fundamentally into the narrative with some answers to questions being clearer than others and affects the protagonist’s capacity for humanity with physical transformations reflecting it—not to mention a cat warming up to P gradually as they become more human-like, which is a fantastic barometer. Endeavoring to become more human-like is a wonderful, extracurricular pursuit, especially as it gives players an even greater incentive tolisten toLies of P’s solemn and beautiful record player tracks.
Beyond Hotel Krat, there are countless horrors awaiting players and some preposterously astonishing boss designs, such as the infamous Black Rabbit Brotherhood, Laxasia the Complete, Nameless Puppet, or Romeo, King of Puppets, even ifa couple of boss fights inLies of Pare visually or structurally derivative ofBloodbornebosses.
Soulslikes can get away with having a generic fantasy setting nowadays as long as they somewhat echo the more popular FromSoftware entries. Still,Lies of Phas bolstered Soulslikes in a way that no other will soon compare to unless they can find a way to embed gameplay and narrative beats as significantly and boldly with a story or setting that is indisputably original.
Lies of P’s DLC and Confirmed Sequel Ensure the Fairy Tale is Far from Over
BecauseLies of Pis scheduled to receive DLC and a fully-fledged sequelalready, the condition of the fairy tale Soulslike today, a year from launch, might be far different whenever the story continues. In the meantime, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if future Soulslikes with scopes closer to that ofDark SoulsorBloodbornelean more heavily onLies of Pas an inspired template since it is highly original in gameplay and its overarchingAdventures of PinocchioIP gives it a wealth of opportunities not only as a great Soulslike game but also a budding franchise.
Indeed,Lies of Phas its arm deep in the public domain cookie jar and has teased that it’ll beadaptingThe Wizard of Ozinto its Soulslike tapestry, cementing Neowiz as a developer to keep an eye on. What it can achieve in that space has the potential to be tremendously exciting with entry after entry of Soulslikes adapting iconic fairy tales in darkly grisly reimaginings, and few other Soulslikes in the future have an opportunity to capitalize on a similarly niche gold mine.
