A Souls-like is a game that is like Souls. I’ll elaborate. After the immense popularity of FromSoftware’s Demon/Dark Souls games (and additionally in this case Bloodborne), it was generally agreed upon that the formula used for the said games was, let’s just say very good, as I don’t want to say perfect. People enjoyed the unforgiving nature of a lot of core souls mechanics, hyper-difficult bosses, losing all currency when you die, and the gauntlet-like areas that populate a detailed, dreary environment. A souls-like is heavily reliant on these aspects, so much so that they’re sometimes referred to as Souls Clones, but just like any good Metroidvania (a game that uses formulas from early Metroid and Castlevania titles), a truly good souls-like uses these parameters as a foundation rather than simply recreating a Fromsoft title. How much each game in this subgenre wears the Souls-like title on its sleeve varies, and games like Lies of P do not hide their influences at all, instead embracing them. If someone put this game in front of me and said it was made by the original Souls developers, I’d believe them, as the level of quality here is pretty much on par. This is why it’s even more impressive that Lies of P manages to also feel wholly original at the same time.

As you’ve probably heard, Lies of P takes the classic story of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio and flips it on its head in a brutal video game reimagining. With iconic characters like Geppeto and Jiminy Cricket, now known as Gemini (which took me way too long to realise) being reimagined and repurposed, Neowiz subvert all expectations that I and a lot of others may have had, by using the Pinocchio story in a brand new and creative way. The term “loosely based” can not be stated enough, the main character is never even referred to as the titular Pinocchio, and for good, story-based reasons. This is not Collodi’s story, it’s actually a post-apocalyptic journey, based around a robot uprising. I cannot praise the developers enough for how they use the source material so creatively. I could list so many elements of the game that are direct connections to the classic, but it’s really how these preconceptions enhance this game’s original story, which unravels and reveals itself through its characters, settings and sidequests, that leaves a lasting impression.

Now a lot of what I just mentioned, you’ll have to wait to see, as the game’s beginning doesn’t feel much more than what you’d expect from the average “Souls clone”. If you played the demo and felt a bit underwhelmed, then yeah, I get that, as the first area in the game isn’t anything to write home about, but in the case of Lies of P, the further in you get, the more rewarding it becomes to play. The game shines once it’s given room to breathe, and introduces further ideas than FromSoftware’s titles. What hits it out of the park though is the take on Souls-like storytelling, which is usually a background feature to further explore, if you’re so inclined. While it is still somewhat understated, it takes a more prominent role in progressing the game and is integrated into the gameplay via the concept of Lying.

The main two concepts of Pinocchio as a character are that obviously, he wants to be a real boy, and if he lies, as a punishment his nose grows longer (I can’t believe I just explained the concept of Pinocchio in a game review). Other than the loading bar being a nose growing, which is fucking amazing, and a specific late-game weapon referencing it, the protagonist’s nose doesn’t grow. However, as a robot or “puppet”, you’ll go against your initial programming and be given the option at countless points in the game to lie. The more you lie, the more human you become, as the very concept of deception is an innate human trait. The choice to lie results in branching quest paths, optional fights, items and even different endings to the game, giving a completely new reason to play through again, the second time perhaps being a good little truth-telling puppet or a rebellious hybrid of both robot and human. As if I needed another reason to replay on top of its immensely satisfying combat system.

Your typical Souls combat is present in this game, with various weapons found throughout the game having different weights, attack types and elemental damage. Enemies like rogue puppets are weaker to electrical damage, whereas the carcasses (corrupted humans) take fire damage, simple enough but also add an extra consideration in how I would go about upgrading weapons. You’ll need typical upgrade items used in any Souls-like as always but what I tend to do in most others is stick with one and enhance it fully, in this game however, I was constantly improving and switching between a weapon for robots and one for the fleshier variety, which was quite satisfying, and reminded me of Geralt’s swords in The Witcher games.

A concept very similar to my favourite FromSoftware game (which isn’t even a Souls title), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is the Legion Arm. The protagonist gets a prosthetic limb which can be swapped out and levelled up throughout the game. While the concept is almost the exact same as it is in Sekiro, even utilising both shield and flamethrower, the inclusion allows for some great variation in approaching combat. I found that using the Puppet String arm, which can pull enemies towards you, allowed me to control crowds with ease, while the shield helped secure some boss fight victories. Another similar feature to Sekiro is the Perfect Guard mechanic, which works a lot like the parry feature in the aforementioned game. While not as heavily relied upon as Sekiro, you’ll want to get good at timing these as they become imperative in completing later fights. There is still classic dodge-rolling as well, which I found myself doing when I wasn’t confident enough in my guarding ability.

Moving away from comparisons, the game features an additional upgrade system in the P-Organ. By using items to literally improve the protagonist’s heart, you get to choose from a variety of smaller upgrades that, once combined, award abilities that greatly help you out along your journey. From more standard upgrades to your flasks, to the ability to roll out of being knocked down, these substantially increase your chance of survival and add yet another layer of depth atop the pre-established Souls-like mechanics.

Before I talk about the bosses, I wanna mention the game’s unique style. It’d be obvious to say the game looks great, Krat itself is a beautifully dystopian setting that changes even more throughout the game, with locations and themes that have a lot of people dubbing this “Bloodbourne for PC”, which is both understandable and also a slight detriment to the game’s identity, but alas. Two things really ooze style for me in the game and those are both the outfits and soundtrack. The fits in this game are drippy as hell, with individual outfits and even masks looking both elegant and badass. I constantly found myself swapping out my clothing, not because of any stat increase, as they’re purely cosmetic, but just because they all look so good on that dashingly handsome puppet protagonist. The music, specifically for boss fights and the records you can play in the game’s hotel hub, are bold and beautiful,  respectively matching the intense nature of engaging combat or the beautiful silence of a broken world.

I don’t know if it’s because the last Souls-like I played was Elden Ring over a year ago, and I’m just a bit rusty, but the bosses in this game do not fuck around. Save for one boss (Parade Master round 2 can be cheesed real easily), the big boys that cap off each area of the game can be pretty nuts, with incredible design and animation to top ’em off. The cutscenes for each never fail to amp up the fight and seeing as most of them have two phases, there are a lot of memorable moments to enjoy. To pick a favourite is very hard, looking back I’m actually in awe at how beautifully designed and aptly difficult each is, but if I had to pick some, The Scrapped Watchman, King of Puppets, and Nameless Puppet all hit the nail on the head, among several others.

Even the Mini-bosses and, to a lesser extent, regular enemies put up a solid fight as you’d expect. I’ll give out some free advice for new players. If you see any form of clown puppet, prepare for a bad time. Two specific clowns that remind me of underrated Nintendo Gem ARMS come to mind and appear twice individually throughout the game. I can’t tell if I loved or hated the sense of dread I got seeing them each for the second time, but thankfully, by the return of both of them, I’d gained some strategies to counter their unforgiving onslaughts (plus the Mad Clown Puppet now had less health, thank god). Some enemy placements are a bit much, but that’s par the course for this type of game, and I’ll admit that conquering the more annoying enemies was immensely satisfying.

I briefly mentioned it earlier when talking about the approach to story but one of my favourite elements of the game is how accessible the sidequests are. When travelling to each Stargazer (bonfire), you’ll see icons next to locations that relate to fetch quests, interactions with characters, and additional content that is separate from the main storyline. A problem I felt persisted in core Souls titles was the feeling that I was missing out on certain NPC plotlines just because I couldn’t be asked to search the whole map for them. While Elden Ring worked to improve this with character names being visible on the map, Lies of P clearly lets you know when certain characters have something important to say, providing readily available threads to be followed, which I really appreciated.

It takes a bit to get going, but by the end of Lies of P, I had to start considering this game as a Game Of The Year contender. The gradual building of the game’s world and original story, based around the classic work of fiction is a stroke of genius and allows for exciting developments in its plot that raise the game that much higher. The final boss fights feel climactic and difficult, while not being overtly annoying like some final Souls-like fights and the absolutely bonkers ending cliffhanger/tease would have been a laughable moment if it wasn’t in such a well-put-together game. I’m not lying when I say, Lies of P is well worth buying and playing through multiple times.