Lies of P Is The BEST Souls-Like Game (Critique) 

10/10 game since Geppetto is voice acted by Morgott

the dorothy reference is kinda crazy. hopefully its saved for a sequel, cause a philosophical fairytale souls-like game universe sounds so fucking sick. PLUS there’s a reference to dorian gray, gepetto said he commisioned the portrait of carlo from d.gray. i havent heard a ton of buzz about this game, i really hope its found an audience cause for a first triple A game, neowiz really nailed this out of the park

Not all of our attention spans are the size of a gnat! Thanks for the more longform commentary. I loved this game and appreciated your extended coverage of it!

Really great review! Can't wait for more like that! But Romeo was not a puppet-friend. He was a human who died due to the petrification disease (it's in one of the loading screens) and apparently Gepetto turned him into a puppet (it's partially alluded to by an item description if I remember right).

My favorite game this year and the best thing I've played since Elden Ring. I'm on NG+++ and still loving it. I'm so invested in the world. I actually stop and read every letter, item description and I always look around the rooms and levels to see what else I might pic up visually that adds to the narrative. I haven't done that in a game since Bloodborne.

Lies of P is a masterpiece, plus perfectly optimized day 1. Lords of the fallen should be ashamed.

Personally, I like the first Black Rabbit Brotherhood fight. One of the best fights of the game in my book. It rewards perfect guards immensely by making the main boss much more manageable when his siblings come in by making his attacks do significantly less damage and reducing his actual range making his swings less likely to hit you. His siblings don't actually do much damage, they more do chip damage to you, and they only come in at certain health intervals so you can opt to focus on them really quick and then return to the main boss once they're out of the way. Plus frankly they're just really fun to listen to jabber on and on. It's a nice change of pace from everyone else who takes themselves way too seriously

This game really took me back to what it felt like finally beating bloodborne for the first time, really looking forward to what the devs have up their sleeves in the future.

I came into Lies of P with little to no experience with souls-like. The game hooked me with its presentation and lore. I really like that the game is linear because it keeps the experience focused. I knew I had all the tools to solve the problem in front of me. It also made the difficulty more tolerable. Even when I used cheesy tactics on bosses, defeating them felt so satisfying. My only gripe with the game is the knock back on some boss attacks when you perfect parry. I came out absolutely loving this game and cannot wait for what comes next from Round 8.

Playing the new Lords of the Fallen just makes me realise how much better Lies of P is. Sure I can't be a badass medieval knight, but the game is so polished and knows exactly what it wants to be. Quite a perfect game tbh.

Lies of P is the first ever soulslike I've ever played because I was so drawn to it's story and how it retells Pinocchio. I was surprised I was able to adapt to the difficulty since I have zero experience in 3d soulslikes so I wasn't confident in how well I'll do in this game I love this game dearly and I'm having a blast in NG+

Just finished the whole video. Is this really your first long-form critique? This is super well done, dude. Happy you mentioned wanting to do more like this in the future! I would absolutely watch it This is my first time seeing a video of yours, and I’m a fan for sure. New sub, and again I’m looking forward to you stepping into more long-form stuff!

2 things I think holds this near perfect game back are 1: parry windows are too short, add 2-3 more frames 2. Weapons need better scaling, in ng+3 it feels like im swinging around toothpicks. Throwable in comparison are much much much stronger in almost every aspect, they’re the secret lies of p easy mode.

I platinumed this game after 127 hours and I loved every minute. Bloodborne is my favourite game and I thought I’d always be comparing the 2 but I really didn’t. The game is great in itself. Yes there are some similarities but considering this is the studios first stab at a souls like I think they completely knocked it out of the park. I’m very excited to see what they do next with it

My first soul's game was Elden Ring, but it really didnt click with me... i thought maybe its the genre i have an issue with. Lies of P changed that mind set - god i love this game and i was genuinely sad to finish it the other day. Excited for the next thing they have to offer - don't want to spoil the full ending, BUT SIGN ME UP.

I think what the game means by “you can’t dodge furious attacks” is : you can’t dodge through it but of course you can dodge by not being in the hitbox

I am sure that Romeo was a friend of Carlos. They both lived and studied at the Monad Rose House boarding school. There is a report of an outbreak of the Petrification Disease at the Rose House. It killed everyone including the alchemist Valentinus Monad the leader of the Alchemists before Manus. I assume that after the outbreak Geppetto pickup the ergo of his son and his friend and installed it in these more advanced puppets. Also, my baseless speculation is that Manus was unleashed the PD on the Rose House to kill Valentinus to gain control of the Alchemists and more importantly Sofia Monad. In the Opera house some puppets are buffed by golden puppet strings that look like the strings that Geppetto uses to control the Nameless Puppet and you weirdly meet Geppetto outside the back of the Opera house after defeating the King of Puppets. I think this all means at least at that point in the story Geppetto was doing everything he could to kill you. He doesn't want you to destroy the general of his puppet army. The original Alidoro's story is really interesting. He is actually Eugenie's lost brother. He stayed away from her to protect her. He was for a time an Alchemist but not agreeing with what they were doing he left the org and blew the whistle to the reporter Medoro. That report was stopped by the powers controlling Krat. Then he went into hiding taking on the alias of Alidoro treasure hunter. He probably didn't mind losing a finger to save his sister. He was eventually killed by his greedy partner and replaced.

I absolutely love this game! It’s so much more fun and replayable than I ever hoped it would be

This game is a fucking masterpiece. Period.

Something that really stood out to me the more I thought about it, was that Pinocchio was a parable about how children should never be naughty and always obey their parents. But what about parents that don't have their children's best interests at heart? What about parents who don't want a child, but an obedient puppet? A lot of Carlo and Romeo's interactions seem to be them getting up to general kid mischief, while in the original Pinocchio, Romeo's mischief of eating candy and staying up late earned him an awful death. I really appreciate the way Lies of P addresses this idea, that children shouldn't be submissive and obedient to their parents - sure, there are bad and cruel people in this world, but a parent's job is to meet their child halfway and accept them as they are. Geppetto's unwillingness to accept either of his sons as they were was ultimately what caused the failure in both those relationships.

I hadn't considered the nameless puppet possibly trying to destroy the heart to end it all. I only thought of it as a killing mschine. I like that posibility. Good theory!

I'm around 1/3 of the way through Lies of P and I am in LOVE with this game.

I had more fun with P than any From's games. The attention to detail and combat are fantastic. But the best part is P gave me a story. Also: i played BB for the first time this year, right before P came out. Sorry, but P is better in about every way. I think BB has been severely overhyped over the last 8 years and isn't quite what people are rememberig. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

I need to make a correction: You can feel free to recommend this game to anyone who is NOT a fan of souls-like games. This was the first souls-like game I played in my life, and it made me fall in love with the genre. Obviously I had difficulty, and it is for those people that it is not appropriate to recommend: for people who don't like difficulty and get sick of games in which they get stuck in a difficult part. It might not be interesting to recommend it to anyone who hates high difficulty in video games and/or staying in the same game for a long time. I was already used to having a repertoire of being a fan of Arcade and Shoot 'em Up games (two genres considered difficult) and at the same time liking RPGs. The game is difficult, but it's not an unfair or annoying difficulty, it's a difficulty that feels extremely natural, the difficulty curve is friendly, and every defeat always leaves you with the feeling that it's all your fault, and that getting better will solve it, but it is not an extremely demanding "get better" like Sekiro, but rather a "get better" that follows your speed of evolution in the game.

17:40 it is possible to get away from range of attack, but you can't dodge it - you can't go through the attack with i-frames. Dodging attack in souls game means ysing i framea of dodge.

My favorite part of this game - enemy variety. If you’ve played Wo long or the new LotF, you will appreciate this game having so many different enemy types.

When it says you can't dodge furry attacks it just means you can't get s on them. There is a skill in the p organ near the end that adds s to it too

Tbh ever since beating Lies of P, I went back and played Elden Ring and Sekiro and the Combat Feels so Slow but more Fluid and the most recent experience I have from playing Lords of the Fallen feels like a breeze going through the walls they offer, and I think it's because of Lies of P setting the difficulty level Higher for the Recent Souls-like titles

Lies of P is my first souls and i f'in love it!

If you want to improve your videos, don’t stipulate how you’re new at this, just get to the point. Otherwise, great video

A lot of Souls game has great lore...but in my opinion story and lore in Lies of P is on another level..the deep desings etc for example the Tower of Alchemist literally is the Tower of Babel etc..love devs who take their time to set up their universe...is just so sweat! A little bit side note- Romeo is Carlos's friend, not a puppet when they grow up. He made a deal with Geppetto to become a puppet, because he was dying to petrification disses

I really liked the black rabbit brotherhood. A great ensemble fight, the likes of ornstein and smough I think.

This game is so good and it's so easy for them to make more games like this based on other folktales which could add cool new mechanics

I am blown away by this game. The team that built this work of art really understand what it is that makes a good souls game. It’s a love letter to fromsoftware and the rest of us.

So fun fact. You state you can't recommend this for new soulslike players. However this is the first soulslike game I've ever beaten, having tried Souls 1 and 3 and Wo long previously and quit out of frustration. 😂

I could be horribly wrong and prejudice here but I feel like those who are calling it derivative or a copycat are newer fans to the genre, specifically Elden Ring's influx of new consumers to the genre. Now I'm sure that doesn't apply to all but as a long-time fan I couldn't be happier to see such high quality work and competition in a genre that is easily my favourite.

Lies of P was mh first entry into playing any "souls" or "souls-like" games. I remember sitting back after a rough patch in the game, knowing that the reason wasn't bad design, but I had not gotten better as a player. Sadly, I never finished the game, since I don't have a console, and it was at a house sitting job and the owners came home way earlier than expected. Even after that, I loved the game and I cannot wait to see what Round 8 does next and to finally finish this masterpiece.

The fact you got this at one hour perfectly gives my ocd an orgasm.

I'll stay subbed if you keep doing FANTASTIC critiques like this! Love this form of content

After a hour, this is awesome to see! You’re a good storyteller/some one to listen too!

Disagree with lies of p not a good introduction to non souls like players. I’m not a souls like player and I just had to play lies of p and got over my apprehension toward souls likes. Finished the game several times on Xbox and PlayStation in fact. Did it convert me to a souls player? No I’m a lies of p player 😂

Really love this game. Makes me excited for what they will do next and the DLC. Though, as much as I like the linearity of this game in how streamlined each level is, I kind of want to see them take a crack at doing something a bit more open, like Fromsoftware's games. They were able to outdo From in many ways so I'd be interested in how they would fare in that kind of level design too.

this game is truly something special

This masterpiece is what got me into the souls games. It was my first game and even after playing all Fromsoft games its still my favorite... I've finished it nine times and I still enjoy it every time... it's been made much easier but still it presents challenges. The key is the sweet perfect guard... oh my oh my the sound of perfect guarding deserves an award!

Good if belated news: the devs have announced that the Rising Dodge skill is going to be made available by default.

Gank fight aside, I really loved the black rabbit brotherhood. Kinda felt bad killing them. Wouldnt hate to see more of them, like a prequel comic or something. Overall a very good game. The advice i'd have for anyone struggling is use the tools at your disposal, don't just focus solely on guarding, one thing i liked about this game, that i think started in Bloodborne was throwables scaling with your stats, use those if you need to!

10/10 but unfortunately didn’t get the deserved praises from the main stream media! Absolutely phenomenal game! Better than souls games cuz you can also perfect parry and all

Great video! From an average dad gamer perspective, I kind of disagree about using throwables though. Unless you're already a Souls/parry/dodge God, the reality is that you need to be able to beat the enemy (i.e. already know all their moves, patterns) before it's worth using throwables. Otherwise they will still beat you and you will have lost all your throwables. Just my opinion though.

I think you only found it too difficult because you didn't use all the tools the game offers you, if you only try to defeat bosses and elite enemies using parrying/block/dodge and ignore everything else then yeah it's super difficult, but that's not how the game is meant to be played, it's not Dark Souls, it's not Sekiro and it's not Bloodborne, it takes elements from all of them but remixes them in its own ways and adds its own twist to the formula and its own new systems as well. If you watch the gameplay by the devs you will clearly see they use all the tools in the game to win fights, they use the legion arms, the throwables (which are OP), and also the fable arts many of which are also OP in both defense and offense (and can be buffed by P-organ upgrades and amulets), and that's not even touching on the hidden mechanics in some of the weapons that you need to experiment a lot with the weapon assembly system to discover. So I'll disagree with you about the difficulty, i'd recommend it to anybody who is familiar or interested in action games even if they never played any souls games before, and judging by the overwhelmingly positive reception the game got It's obvious that most people figured out how to use the tools presented to overcome the challenges of the game specially the bosses.

For me lies of p was the game I did the most with souls games and souls like, I played sekiro just a bit and Elden ring and watched a good amount of souls videos but I was very bad at both games could barely beat a enemy and then I tried lies of p it was hard but for some reason I got the hang of it and it felt better when I did it way easier and crisp and after I got half way I went back on sekiro and Elden ring I was clearing everything way faster then I use to and lies of p somehow helped a more newer player like me which I think was cool about lies of p and I like how the game is similar to a mix of souls games like sekiro and also bloodbourne which I finally got

Haha I love the black rabbit brotherhood fights. Probably my favorites in the game for some reason. Breaking the big guy’s weapon is incredibly satisfying.

This is a Souls game done right. Especially the narrative and, lore keeping you engaged. Hidetaka Miyazaki has competition that's a good thing.

I feel like this game has had the most heart and soul poured into it of any game this year. The world, the boss fights, gameplay, characters and especially the music just have so much love and care put into them. I know its bordering on slander but I think I might love it more than Elden Ring now.. Except the dual wield jester puppets, scariest enemy in any game ive played.

I'm almost done with it. I'm at the Door Guardian. I don't want it to end. Best game I've played since Eden Ring.

Arlecchino is hands down the best character in the game also since there is the lying System i thought and would have liked if Pinocchio would actually talk like in sekiro

This is the best souls like I’ve played to date. Hope they stick to this genre 9/10 for me

Although it was funny watching the shovel man pounding compilations...i do agree with the roll back up thing

I love souls games but i can't be waiting 4-6 years for my fix so any studio that brings a fresh twist but keeps the core mechanics is a win.

I got lucky with the brotherhood because I used the scythe and that things heavy attack swings 360 so with the summon tanking I just cleared them and staggered them hahahah. My worst fight was door guardian until I figured out to just run to the left around him hahaha

I'm glad all these people are loving this game. It's fantastic.

I disagree with your caveat at the beginning.... I hated soulslike games, specifically anything FromSoftware. On a whim, after playing the Enotria demo, I decided to try Lies of P. I just beat the game (good ending) and it's now one of my favorite games of all time. No exaggeration. I'm now in the act of trying to find my next soulslike in the FromSoft library because of how near perfect and great Lies of P is, and am starting NG+ in LoP lol. This game can absolutely get someone into the soulslike genre who may not be. That being said, if you're also wanting to find something that plays like LoP, DO NOT let ppl/reddit threads/RU-vid videos convince you Sekiro is like LoP. It doesn't play the same at all lol. I'm confused as to why ppl make the comparison....

My critique of lies of p: It's amazing. Best non from software soulslike by a mile. The end.

The BRB fights are amazing. Perfectly well done gank fight. They always take turns where only 1 of them would truly aggro you, which is the best way to do it. They are still all hostile but there is always more of a passive touch to the ones in the background. I especially loved the first fight. It was really hard, but awesome. I dont use summons, but i heard that if you do it actually makes it harder because your summon will stir shit up with everyone during the second fight and get them all to be way more aggressive and in turn making the fight harder. Maybe that was your experience?

Hi, I'm a souls/ac vet. I like difficult games, but i also want to feel that I'm getting stronger as i progress. Does this game have a level up system or something? Or is it more like sekiro where everyone is forced on that same difficulty level?

For the tutorial saying that you can't dodge fury attacks, pretty sure what they actually mean is that red attacks ignore player's inv frames. Meaning it will hit you even if you are in your inv frame.

legitimately holds its own to the souls series, i would say its on par with fromsoft titles if not better than.

Funny enough I played and beat the before getting into the souls games

Lies of P is an absolute masterpiece. Hands down 10/10.

The game is fantastic. My game of the year. I am dreading another patch for Lies. Really hope they do not nerf the difficulty further. Imo I actually think throwables and the aegis shield need a nerf. Raise the challenge a bit. Fantastic combat. Only real negative foe me in lies was the overall linearity. It was just too linear imo. Late game areas were notably more dull than early and midgame areas too. Bring on that DLC.

Fantastic video - just finished my NG+ playthrough and this is my GOTY for 2023. Great review! One note: Romeo was not Carlo's puppet. He grew up in the Monad Charity House, and was Carlo's human best friend. Geppetto turned him into a puppet when Carlo died.

Jake really teaching econ 101 to justify the concept of artistic inspiration

Never heard of this channel before this video. Earned a sub brother. I’m loving this game and it’s easily up there with actual souls games in terms of quality. The weapon customization is insanely fun and even the static boss weapons are all cool as hell. I would say more but this review covers everything I’d say anyways! Great video man hopefully you do more

The resist but not all lies ending is a good ending all things considered. Its just not the best. Honestly im happy that the “true” ending was good enough to motivate me to continue playing, much better than a certain other recent souls like.

24:15 after the first patch of the game statue is not needed, you can respec after unlocking gold coin fruit.

It is a much more accessable but just as challenging souls game

26:06 thank god the devs actually listened, 100% agree on this

I like how in the game you can listen to music to get humanity. Like they say music comes from the soul or at least most of it does

My only experience being as an avid viewer of souls lore videos, I'd say this was really well done. A lot of thought and emotion. Artistically telling a story and an opinion of the story at the same time. Subscribed after this.

Romeo was a human not puppet before the events of the game

This game has been so much fun, so far, thank you for your breakdown. The game is challenging but so far I’ve found it fair, I’m getting better at blocking and find it a learning curve that I am slowly adjusting to.

New Patch addresses quite a bit of your critiques

Good summary overall. Love this game! One point of clarity, there was a minor inaccuracy in the summary of status effects. The game groups them into two categories Attribute Status Ailments and Special Status Ailments. The attribute ailments include over heat, electric blitz and decay. These three don't proc at all until your entire resistance bar for the respective element is full, so you can take a few hits/sprint through a cloud etc without any negative consequences as long as you disengage with the source of the status build up prior to your resistance being overcome. Electric blitz does increases the damage you recieve on being hit however, it does not impact stamina, (see Shock under special ailments for that) On the flip side, Special Status ailments include Shock (stamina regen debuff), Break (healing debuff), and Disruption (basically deathblight curse). The first two effect you immediately and remain in effect until the orange bar wears off, so unlike the Attribute ailments, even a single hit will immediately apply the respective debuff. Disruption has no effect upon initial hit but, if the bar fills entirely, you automatically die, regardless of your HP.

they updated their link doge ability now

Easily one of the top souls like games

Really appreciate the in-depth review! This has actually been my first souls/like game (I have Elden Ring/Bloodborne but keep pushing back when I start them lmfao). So as a "normie" to a souls/like who could only play between my full time job hours, It was a challenge but definitely doable and felt not only fair but very smooth. Because I have zero souls experience, I just played things like Lies of P demanded: mixing and matching the myriad of options to help tackle a challenge. And big agree that my major personal gripe was the camera during boss fights. Otherwise, I had an absolute blast and this has become one of my favorite games ever and can't wait for more from Round8. I think someone might've mentioned this, but Romeo/King of Puppets was not originally a puppet, but was another child in the Monad Charity House (that eventually became a boarding school, hence why Carlo was there) who became best friends with Carlo. According to some loading screen lore, he developed the Petrification Disease and "struck a deal with the devil to save more lives." It can be assumed that's Gepetto who clearly implanted his ergo into the King's puppet (as another bit of lore on an item says "he woke up on a throne he never asked for"), and even Sophia sorta confirms this in dialogue just before the hair change, that "or could it be... the King's ergo is really...". Which makes sense since it's hinted on the beach that she introduced Carlo/Romeo when they were young. At least, it sounds like her voice, and it makes sense since she's the Monad daughter. It's not clear why Gepetto did this, and it seems more like he used Romeo without telling him the truth of what he would do to him. I kinda think it was to help awaken Carlo's memories, which it actually did in a small way (when Sophia mentions he has a reaction to seeing the necklace before changing shape). Or maybe it was just to experiment with transplanting/awakening ergo in a puppet body before he committed to Carlo's revival, since Romeo is seemingly awakened (yet bound to the Grand Covenant) as stated in the King of Puppets message. But that's just speculation lol. I think I'm most curious about what happened during the Rose Estate incident. In another loading screen lore, it was stated that "Gepetto's son died from the Petrification Disease" and the red memory on the beach implies it was less of a slow death and more of a sudden accident. Carlo's death likely happened along with Valentinus and others during the Rose Estate incident, and I can only assume it was sparked by Simon and the other Alchemists. The details though are still such a mystery I'd love to get more insight onto that. Again, great video! Looking forward to some more in the future. :)

This is my first soul-like game (or soul game in general) ever and I LOVE it! At the beginning I just wondered if I‘m simply to bad in this game but after I found out this is a soul-like and you will lose all the time, I was totally fine with it and it’s sooo satisfying if you defeat a boss under 4 tries!! 😁 And I love the lore sooo much. It’s such a masterpiece!

Very good story telling! + I loved this game too, waiting for a potential dlc

Have been waiting on this! Can’t wait to sit down and watch this!

This is my favorite game ever. It really surprised me

I never touched a souls game in my life but I loved Lies of P. it had its bs moments, but regardless, 20/10 masterpiece imo. Got me wanting to try a different souls game. Should I try DS 1 remastered or 3?

Loving this game so far, just got rid of the damn green beast lol

The roll after you get knocked down is actually a waste of an upgrade, there’s not one attack that can’t be avoided without it.

i definitely prefer longer, more in-depth videos where everything is explored as best as possible.

What a great video and an interpretation of the story

If I go for this game, it will be my first souls like game. Is there a difficulty setting or does it remain hard from the get go? What fascinates me about this game is the world and lore....but if it's too difficult, being stuck with a high difficulty might turn me away from it.

This is exactly the kind of content that made me love your content. One hour of Jake greatness!!!!!! Lets gOOOOOoooOooOOOOo!!!!!! Also would it be ok to ask for some music to play while you talk?

I think the Black Rabbit Brotherhood is the best gank boss to date.

when I first fought the black rabbit brotherhood I was very confused and didn't know what to do but after I figured it out both fights became a pretty neat novelty I wouldn't say they're the best I've ever fought in a souls like but they are far from an uneciceraly hard difficulty spike

Fantastic video, great breakdown of the entire game! Just a small note though, if you're playing on the latest patch you'll unlock the ability to respec after the Malum District once you defeat the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, as they added the ability to respec at the Gold Coin Fruit Tree. You basically get respec an area earlier which is nice, but sadly makes the Saintess of Mercy Statue a bit pointless, outside of some cool lore bits.

I’d anecdotally push back on the idea that Lies of P isn’t a good entry point into souls-likes. I’ve never played any souls-like before now and just finished the game yesterday in under 40 hours. I really enjoyed my time, thanks for your analysis of the game!