Lies of P

Lies of P is a soulslike action role-playing video game developed by Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio, and published by Neowiz Games. The game was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, macOS, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 19, 2023. It is loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Lies of P received generally positive reviews from critics and had sold one million units by October 2023. A story content DLC and sequel has been announced for Lies of P.
Gameplay
Lies of P is played from a third-person perspective. The player controls the humanoid Pinocchio and travels on foot through the city of Krat, exploring the environment and fighting various biomechanical enemies. Pinocchio uses an arsenal of weapons such as swords and axes against his enemies and can dodge and block their blows. Pinocchio has a mechanical arm that can be equipped with gadgets, such as a grappling hook to lure enemies or a flamethrower. The weapon and crafting system offers 30 different weapon types with 100 combinations. The game features a "Lying System", where the decisions the player makes during certain passages affect the course of events, leading to three different endings.
The gameplay of Lies of P has been called "soulslike" and compared to that of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.
Plot
Setting
Inspired by Carlo Collodi's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, Lies of P tells the story of Pinocchio, a robotic puppet who differs from other puppets in his ability to lie, which plays a role during important story decisions.
Puppets were invented in the city of Krat thanks to the discovery of a revolutionary power source called Ergo underneath it. Puppets soon became ubiquitous throughout the city, performing menial labour for the populace. Foremost among puppet inventors is both Lorenzini Venigni and the legendary Geppetto, who created Pinocchio. In order to ensure that puppets would not be a threat, they were bound to the Grand Covenant, which forbids them from lying or attacking humans. However, despite this, one day they revolt and slaughter most of Krat's human population. Puppets have their own language, which consists of blurred English text that becomes visible during boss fights against enemy puppets.
Krat also suffers from the mysterious and incurable Petrification Disease, which blinds its victims before petrifying and killing them. It can also mutate them into hideous monsters.
Synopsis
Pinocchio awakens in an abandoned train and finds himself in the city of Krat, where its population of puppets has rebelled against the Grand Covenant and slaughtered most of the human population. Pinocchio eventually makes his way to Hotel Krat, where some survivors have taken shelter, including a mysterious woman named Sophia. Sophia informs Pinocchio that he must find and rescue his creator, Geppetto, who is the only person who knows how to stop the puppet revolt. She then gives Pinocchio a lantern containing a cricket named Gemini to guide him on his quest.
As Pinocchio explores Krat, he battles both the puppets and a group known as Stalkers: animal masked humans who went insane and will kill any puppet on sight. Two of their members are the Red Fox and Black Cat, who watch over Pinocchio. He also fights citizens who were mutated by the Petrification Disease into inhuman monsters. Eventually, he manages to find Geppetto, who informs him that the puppets are being driven mad by the Puppet King, who is controlling them through the Ergo powering them. Pinocchio hunts down the Puppet King and destroys it, greatly weakening the rogue puppets since they no longer have a leadership. Geppetto then instructs Pinocchio to find the Alchemists, who have allegedly created a cure for the Petrification Disease. However, when Pinocchio heads out to meet the Alchemists, he is instead attacked by more mutated humans who became cyborgs. The Alchemists' leader, Simon Manus, then arrives and boasts that the Alchemists have managed to exploit the Petrification Disease for their own ends, using it to accelerate human evolution and create the monsters spreading throughout Krat. He also reveals that Ergo is created from humans and is the physical embodiment of their memories and life force.
Pinocchio makes his way back to Hotel Krat, only to find that Simon attacked the hotel with the Black Rabbit Brotherhood and kidnapped Geppetto. He commandeers a submarine to reach Simon's base on the Isle of Alchemists. He fights his way into Simon's castle, where he finds Sophia's real body heavily mutated from exposure to Ergo, with the Sophia he encountered before being an illusion created by her disembodied soul. Sophia pleads for Pinocchio to end her suffering, and he has a choice of whether to let her live or give her peace. Pinocchio continues to fight his way through the castle and against Simon's minions before confronting Simon himself, who has infused himself with Ergo and become a godlike being. Pinocchio defeats Simon and reunites with Geppetto, who promises to use the Ergo Simon collected to turn Pinocchio into a human. However, he must hand over his heart to complete the process.
If Pinocchio gives Geppetto his heart, Pinocchio dies as Geppetto uses the heart to revive his deceased son Carlo. Geppetto then has Carlo murder all of the survivors in Hotel Krat before leaving the city with him. This unlocks a post game secret where Geppetto has turned the survivors into puppets that repeat the phrase: "Your wish is my command Sir Carlo, what would you like to do?". A letter he left behind reveals he wants to "stabilize" Krat by converting citizens into puppets to prevent the spread of the Petrification Disease and make the city safe for Carlo.
If Pinocchio gained enough humanity from telling lies and performing several other actions throughout the game, he may have the option to refuse to give his heart instead. If he refuses, Geppetto angrily activates the Nameless Puppet to take his heart by force. However, when the Nameless Puppet aims for Pinocchio's heart, Geppetto sacrifices himself to protect it, allowing Pinocchio to rip out the puppet's core. Depending on Pinocchio's choice after finding Sophia, one of two different endings can occur. If he let Sophia live, Geppetto bitterly calls him a useless puppet before dying. If he gave Sophia peace, he sheds a tear for Geppetto, who upon seeing this apologizes to Pinocchio as his son before dying; later that day, Pinocchio transfers Sophia's Ergo into a puppet replica of her to revive her and collapses in her arms, where she smiles upon seeing him again.
In a post credits scene, a man named Philippus Paracelsus, posing as a merchant called Giangio, reports the results of the "Krat experiment" to his superior. He explains that Pinocchio may hold one of the keys to eternal life, and that he will continue the search for another key, Dorothy. Back in Krat, a girl wearing red shoes is seen on the rooftops, and clicks her heels three times.
Development and release
Lies of P was announced on May 19, 2021, by South Korean publisher NeoWiz. During Gamescom 2022, a gameplay trailer was shown and it was announced that it would be released on Xbox Game Pass at launch. 11 minutes of 4K gameplay footage premiered at the Game Developers Conference in March 2023.
Director Choi Ji-Won states the game has been in development for about three years. The studio chose to theme the game around Pinocchio to appeal to a wider fanbase. Choi Ji-Won notes that the original story has a "dark" tone and "diverse backgrounds" that the staff could use. They chose to set the game in a Belle Époque-like environment to "encapsulate a city's transformation from opulence to ruin" and convey "a period of unparalleled cultural and artistic prosperity, yet severe darkness and negativity".
On June 19, 2023, a collaboration with Team Ninja's Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was announced, which will allow Wo Long players to use Lies of P weapons as part of a DLC package on September 27, 2023.
Reception
Lies of P received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.
The game won the "Best Action Adventure Game", "Most Wanted Sony PlayStation", and "Best Role Playing Game" at the Gamescom 2022 Awards.
Famitsu reviewers praised the game, noting its difficulty. Ashida from Famitsu commented that the game is similar to the original Dark Souls. He also noted his frustration with how short the player character's attacks are compared to those of the enemies. Meanwhile, Honma and Uchisawa mentioned that the game pays homage to Bloodborne. They praised the humorous enemy puppets and the customizability of the player's weapons.
Sales
Lies of P sold one million units by October 2023.
References
External links
2023 video games
Action role-playing video games
Neowiz games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 5 games
Round8 Studio games
Single-player video games
Soulslike video games
Steampunk video games
Unreal Engine games
Video games about cyborgs
Video games about robots
Video games developed in South Korea
Windows games
Works based on The Adventures of Pinocchio
Xbox One games
Xbox Series X and Series S games