I hate souls-like games. I’ve tried Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but neither stuck with me. I found the concept intriguing, but without an overarching plot, I was unmotivated to continue playing. Then came Lies of P. It has been equated more to Bloodborne more than Souls games, which I have never played (maybe I should). It has a streamlined storytelling structure with open areas rather than an open world. This choice was one of the main draws to me as a play as well as the aesthetic. It immediately drew my attention as the cobblestone streets filled with automaton monstrosities were a stark contrast that made the entire experience look unique. Each abandoned area has a specific feel and different enemy types to keep the player on their toes.

The draw of the main story is simple at first as you are a special puppet tasked with finding out the reason for a puppet uprising and putting a stop to it. As it continues however, you are coming to terms with your own humanity and discovering the secrets of the mysterious essence called Ergo. There are some really strong moments here that felt weighty in their presentation. Throughout the story you also must choose to either lie or tell the truth, and depending on those moments the narrative shifts. I completed a mostly truth based run, but I did not see the impact of those choices that much. What exactly changes based on these is not clear to me. The weight of these options did give me a sense that my actions had a substantial impact, however I think more immediate representations of that would have only benefited this framework.

The characters in the narrative are also quite intriguing. Each of them has their own personalities and issues that are just enough to make you want to keep them safe. The weapons vendor was the only one I personally did not care for as her story beats had little impact in the way I viewed her or on the overall plot. Meanwhile the hotel owner is sick and the game gives you the option to find her a cure. She is affected by the Petrification Disease, which is a unique illness to the game that seems linked to Ergo in some way. There is no known cure, but as you progress you hear about something that could work and then you get to choose whether or not to give it to her. After spending so much time with her, and the other residents of the hotel, you cannot help but choose to aid them in their needs. There are side quests with moderate rewards for each of these characters, so it incentivizes the player to do them if they come across them. Finding out the backstory of each is interesting in its own right and the rewards, in tandem, are motivating enough to seek them out.

As you play, the game introduces different types of weaponry and more systems at a steady rate. If they were to have dumped this all on you at the beginning, I would have dropped the game, but because of the incremental increases it never feels like too much. Each weapon has different tradeoffs which you can adjust by mixing and matching the handle and blade. Creating your own weapons adds a custom feeling to the experience, however I found myself only using a couple of the weapons I crafted. I made a few, but I had gotten used to the default rapier style so much that I barely used anything else. There are also special weapons that you can get from a vendor after beating chapter bosses. These feel quite powerful and have their own special attacks to utilize. Admittedly I used a couple of these on and off for specific scenarios, but I always came back to the rapier. You can upgrade any weapon, so you can utilize whatever you want throughout the game. Because of this I never felt punished for sticking with the tried and true.

Combat feels really rewarding. I spent an embarrassing amount of time fighting the first miniboss in the tutorial area, but once I got used to the flow I felt like a boss. It is very satisfying to fell a difficult enemy after struggling for some time. I never saw the appeal before, but it provides a sense of accomplishment like no other. The parry system is a big contributor to this feeling. This mechanic alone is why I had so much fun with this game. It sounds ridiculous but timing is one of my strong suits as a player and because it relies on parrying and dodging, I succeeded more than I failed. When you parry it prevents you from taking any guard damage, while also opening up the enemy to a stagger if performed enough times. You can also break enemy weaponry by parrying consistently, which leads to them helplessly flinging around a destroyed blade that does relatively little damage. Learning an enemy’s attack pattern, parrying or dodging their blows and causing a stagger leads to a simple on the surface, yet rewarding combat system that is really fun to play.

Lies of P has a ton of great boss fights. The first one has a small set of attacks so you can learn the system, but once you get to the swamp boss is when there is a first big difficulty spike. This boss has two phases and if you are not ready, you can get demolished. I spoke with many friends who played this game, and they had issues with some different bosses than I, but all of us agreed that this one was especially difficult. There is another boss that created clones of itself in a small arena which was a hell of a fight as well. For the main fights you can summon a spectre to assist you. The game incentivises this by giving you an entire system to buff said ally with more damage or healing them. Utilizing this system in the major boss fights did make me feel like I was cheating a little, however playing without them is a grueling experience and given my inexperience with the genre, I felt it was necessary for my sanity to utilize them whenever possible. It did not make the fights trivial, just bearable enough for me to squeak by. The sense of accomplishment was still there and I thoroughly enjoyed each fight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. Lies of P has a story to tell and a rewarding combat system that gives the player many different ways to play resulting in a unique experience for each person. The characterization, environmental designs and boss mechanics are all really well thought out which contribute to a substantial experience. Lies of P is a really fun game with awesome moments and deserves a playthrough, even if you’re not a fan of the genre.