Lies of P - a Pinocchio-Inspired Souls-Like Game

[Multidirectional]

Ok fuck it since Wo Long clearly doesn't want me to play with its retarded performance I've decided to give this a spin. Definitely runs way better, stable 60 FPS with DLSS resolution set to 2176x1224 via custom DLSS Tweaks scaling (0.85) combined with 1440p downsampling. Actually framerate is 75-90 when uncapped. Meanwwhile Wo Long looks way shittier and cannot even maintain stable 60 while going down as low as 800p with DLSS. Masterpiece of optimization that one.

Anyway, very early in game. Just got to first bonfire so cannot say for sure how much I will like it. Fucking Pinocchio already has a nose this big, just look at this lying sonovabitch:

Spoiler

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I also had to go with the dog mask over the twink lol.

 

[Ravielsk]

Finally purchased this now that Denuvo was dropped.

 

[Multidirectional]

Played Team Ninja games too much over last months so it's going to take me a bit to get used to sluggish soulslike combat again. Nice of this game to let me rebind all gamepad buttons so I switched to Nioh-like set up. Don't like using shoulder buttons for attacking anymore. Took 5 tries to kill the Parade Master, the tutorial boss. Started with the Saber by picking balanced set up, then took Greatsword of Fate from merchant before the boss and used that to kill it. Now switched to Electrick Coil Stick. Seems like a natural pick as I'm fighting enemies weak to electricity all the time, for now at least. I am enjoying it enough, seems like at least a 7/10 game from what I've seen so far. I don't get the point of weapon durability though, doesn't look like I can run out of repairs so all it does is make me switch to the tool and hold the button to repair every once in a while.

 

[Multidirectional]

Ah fuck it, perhaps I won't like this after all. Second boss is already irritating me. Can't parry for shit because his attack animations are too weird. That red attack can't either parry or run away in time so it's always guaranteed damage. In general parry feels a lot worse to use in this game than in Sekiro or Wo Long because lots of weird delayed attacks. And it looks like parrying is going to be pretty important here too, it ain't just one of the possible options. And now I'm also starting to suspect there will be bosses where I will have to repair weapon in mid fight, which would be some really faggy shit if true.

 

[Anonona]

In general parry feels a lot worse to use in this game than in Sekiro because lots of weird delayed attacks

The Parry windows are quite strict, more than in Sekiro, even after the devs adjusted it with patches.

And it looks like parrying is going to be pretty important here too, it ain't just one of the possible options.

Yes and no. On your first playtrough it will be the most important defensive technique, but as you progress new skills, weapons and accesories do open new possibilities, sadly they are introduced relatively late.

And now I'm also starting to suspect there will be bosses where I will have to repair weapon in mid fight

Spoiler

Depends on your weapon, some break faster than others. Also certain enemies can inflict corrosion which does makes your weapon break faster

 

[Multidirectional]

The Parry windows are quite strict, more than in Sekiro, even after the devs adjusted it with patches.

Well that fucking annoys me because it means that instead of being able to play intuitively I will have to die over and over until I perfectly memorize the exact timings. And I'm pretty slow to do that shit usually which means some fights can take me 50+ tries. I am too spoiled by Nioh 2 now to have patience for this kind of crap. I'll try this boss some more later, see if I don't have more luck with other weapons. Probably power through it, but if the next boss fight turns out to be as annoying then I'm uninstalling.

 

[cruel]

Played Team Ninja games too much over last months so it's going to take me a bit to get used to sluggish soulslike combat again. Nice of this game to let me rebind all gamepad buttons so I switched to Nioh-like set up. Don't like using shoulder buttons for attacking anymore. Took 5 tries to kill the Parade Master, the tutorial boss. Started with the Saber by picking balanced set up, then took Greatsword of Fate from merchant before the boss and used that to kill it. Now switched to Electrick Coil Stick. Seems like a natural pick as I'm fighting enemies weak to electricity all the time, for now at least. I am enjoying it enough, seems like at least a 7/10 game from what I've seen so far. I don't get the point of weapon durability though, doesn't look like I can run out of repairs so all it does is make me switch to the tool and hold the button to repair every once in a while.

This was actually one of the better things about the game for me - there is no 'best weapon'. I started with a rapier because of the speed, switched to electric coil later due to additional damage against puppets, and later switched to slicing weapons when facing non-puppet enemies. In total, I played with 6+ different weapons probably, and it's still hard to say which one is the best - highly depends on the situation you are in. What also helps is how different / unique each weapon is, keeps everything fresh.

Ah fuck it, perhaps I won't like this after all. Second boss is already irritating me. Can't parry for shit because his attack animations are too weird. That red attack can't either parry or run away in time so it's always guaranteed damage. In general parry feels a lot worse to use in this game than in Sekiro or Wo Long because lots of weird delayed attacks. And it looks like parrying is going to be pretty important here too, it ain't just one of the possible options. And now I'm also starting to suspect there will be bosses where I will have to repair weapon in mid fight, which would be some really faggy shit if true.

Scrapped Watchman? He was a pretty hard boss for me, you need to minimize your mistakes, and limited healing doesn't help. One of the few bosses that has a red attack that can't be dodged easily, forcing you to go for a parry, which is a very high risk. But, at the same time, very good 'skill check' during early game. Without spoiling anything, it's worth to 'get gud' and get familiarized with his moveset.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yes Scrapped Watchman. First phase is manageable but the second phase feels like bullshit. Also his grab is hard to read and I never avoided it once so far. It just looks like another attack when it starts out and then more than half my health is gone. I am not sure what they were thinking making parries harder to do than in Sekiro and at the same time not giving us full blocks. Well maybe it will click for me later yet but this fucking boss is putting me off right now.

 

[cvv]

Yea a lot of reviewers and Tubers complained about the retarded parry system. Game wants you to parry like in Sekiro but gives you Nioh-grade parry windows.

 

[cruel]

Yes Scrapped Watchman. First phase is manageable but the second phase feels like bullshit. Also his grab is hard to read and I never avoided it once so far. It just looks like another attack when it starts out and then more than half my health is gone. I am not sure what they were thinking making parries harder to do than in Sekiro and at the same time not giving us full blocks. Well maybe it will click for me later yet but this fucking boss is putting me off right now.

If it helps with anything - the game will get much easier after you beat him, up until a certain point. He took me more than 15 times if I remember correctly, only two bosses were worse than that. Upgraded shock mace helps with this fight, plus avoiding his electric AoE in second phase. Sometimes luck factor plays a role as well, mostly with regard to frequency of his unblockable attacks.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yea a lot of reviewers and Tubers complained about the retarded parry system. Game wants you to parry like in Sekiro but gives you Nioh-grade parry windows.

Yeah and I never bothered to learn parrying in Nioh as there's plenty of other options to deal with shit. I didn't know much about about this game before trying, didn't watch any reviews. I just read somewhere that it has Sekiro-like parrying system. I fucking wish lol.

If it helps with anything - the game will get much easier after you beat him, up until a certain point. He took me more than 15 times if I remember correctly, only two bosses were worse than that.

I already died about 20 times to that fuck and I don't feel like I'm even close to learning his second phase crap. It's a skill check boss alright, except I have no skill so there's nothing to check.

 

[cvv]

So Multi inspired me to finally check this game out.

Very early impressions, just beat the first boss, got into the hotel. Very mixed feelings so far. Game makes a spectacular first impression with how polished and smooth it is. Probably part of its success. If there are still devs wondering "should we go with buggy but blingy UE5 or an older but tested engine" here's your answer. Real world experience says people don't really mind 10yo visuals but they very much mind even the slightest bugs or glitches.

Further impressions not so good tho. I get it, enemies are robots/clockwork puppets so some jerkiness is expected but often it seems a bit too much. Compared to the overall smoothness of the game the combat is startlingly janky. The way mobs move and attack is just too weird. There are barely any swings that are reasonably parryable. The first boss is the prime example - he has maybe two swings you can expect to parry semi-reliably. He was quite easy, I beat him on my 2nd try but I suspect it's only because I didn't even try to parry him, just dodged around him.

Dodging is another weirdness. It seems you don't have any iframes while dodging backwards/forwards but there are some when dodging left/right? Very strange. Plus the movement is kindda janky too, especially the roll while unlocked.

I played and finished two soulslikes recently - Steelrising and Thymesia - and while both were 6 or 7/10 for me overall and their budget was probably one tenth of LoP, their movement and combat felt much better and smoother than this. Pretty startling considering how lauded and hyped this game was.

As for other frequent complaints I'd read so far, yes it's a very obvious BB ripoff but I don't really care about that. Soulslike is a genre by now. When Unreal came out ages ago people also complained it was a blatant Quake ripoff but nobody gives a fuck today, FPS is a genre. LoP is a competent soulslike, nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, I always try to fully finish and fairly judge all soulslikes - unless it's an unbearable disaster like Bleak Faith - so I'm gonna continue, obviously. More later.

 

[Multidirectional]

I just gave it a bunch more tries and I give up on this boss for today. Too annoyed. Maybe tomorrow I will beat him. Or uninstall. The first boss is a joke compared to this one.

 

[Remain Nameless]

The Sekiro comparisons and the focus the tutorial gives to parries are traps. A typical player shouldn't be trying to parry all bosses attacks, evading is more reliable. The game gets easier if you only try to parry the slower or more telegraphed attacks, and instead rely on movement and aggression most of the time.

 

[Anonona]

rely on movement and aggression most of the time.

Agree. Special attacks and the posture system rewards keeping pressure and dodging becomes a much better tool once you learn the double dodge skill and adjust to its timing. In my case, a certain mid-game boss' second phase the Puppet King became much easier when I focused on dodging behind it, being able to avoid its combos and punish, and you can cancel its "super attack" by using an offensive skill, which makes him flinch every time and cancels his actions.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I just gave it a bunch more tries and I give up on this boss for today. Too annoyed. Maybe tomorrow I will beat him. Or uninstall. The first boss is a joke compared to this one.

I don't think I'd had as much of an issue with him as you seem to be having, but I do remember that it was probably the hardest part of the game as far as I ended up playing it. Overall, I found the game pretty easy and generally successful just using Souls dodge fu. Again, as I recall, because I played the game quite awhile ago and didn't find it overly interesting or memorable.

Glancing at the XBox app, it looks like after the Watchman I also got an achievement for beating some later boss and bounced off of it sometime after that, about 9.5 hours played, including restarting different start builds a few times.

 

[cvv]

The Sekiro comparisons and the focus the tutorial gives to parries are traps. A typical player shouldn't be trying to parry all bosses attacks, evading is more reliable. The game gets easier if you only try to parry the slower or more telegraphed attacks, and instead rely on movement and aggression most of the time.

Game gives you a shitty afterthought of a dodge and then there's this whole rich, complex parry/stagger/charge attack/deathblow mechanics so it's totally reasonable to assume game wants you to primarily parry everything.

And then it gives you hilariously unpredictable, erratic enemy swings. Almost all enemies attack like a drunk trying to drive away a pack of rabid dogs.

This is not a very good design. Souls fans love to pick apart and hair split every single little thing of their games but nobody was bothered by this massive flaw?

 

[v1rus]

good gaem

I'm enjoying the level design. Lots of of intersecting shit, navigating the maps becomes a headache halfway into the game - and just to be clear, I mean headaches in a good way

Very linear; idgaf about that tbh

Trying parrying the bosses for the first time evah (not counting Sekiro, I guess), and I'm enjoying it - just seems a bit too easy tho tbh. I just beat Victor, on my secondnd or third try - and I'm not that good with parrying at all. I get that the bosses prolly become good and challenging on NG+, but Ill skip NG+ for now, since I plan on playing the DLC vanilla. OTOH, when the dlc does come out, I'm gonna forget all those darn quartz locations so I prolly wont play NG+ then either.

Solid 8/10 for me, with a 9 incoming if the end-game bosses provide some actual fucking soulslike challenge. Think the game doesnt have optional boss fights (As in, Malenia/TNK/Etc) tho? That would make me

 

[cvv]

good gaem

I'm enjoying the level design. Lots of of intersecting shit, navigating the maps becomes a headache halfway into the game

parrying the bosses ..... seems a bit too easy

to both of these.

Have you ever played a soulslike with an actual great level design? I'm only two levels in but so far it reminds me of Steelrising the most, just streets and alleys, right angles everywhere, two or three vertical layers at the most, everything very simple and straightforward. And it's always the progression path + one side way with a chest at the end. Great level design this is not.

Also parrying bosses is easy? Either you're a 16 yo Korean kid or your nose touching your monitor rn.

 

[cruel]

And then it gives you hilariously unpredictable, erratic enemy swings. Almost all enemies attack like a drunk trying to drive away a pack of rabid dogs.

This is not a very good design. Souls fans love to pick apart and hair split every single little thing of their games but nobody was bothered by this massive flaw?

I think it's part of the design - you are fighting puppets with 'puppet frenzy' disease, after all. I found it pretty refreshing to be honest, it forces you to re-train your muscle memory used to dodge all those sword / axe wielding humanoid enemies and makes regular encounters more challenging this way. Just wait until you experience a certain clown

Solid 8/10 for me, with a 9 incoming if the end-game bosses provide some actual fucking soulslike challenge. Think the game doesnt have optional boss fights (As in, Malenia/TNK/Etc) tho? That would make me

You're in for a treat then, with regard to end game bosses. Just make sure to create a copy of your save when it gets serious, or just remember to say 'no' when a certain person wants something important from you at the end of the game (optional boss is related to that).

 

[Puukko]

Scrapped watchman is the filter boss, there to make sure you're up to snuff with parrying. I thought he was a highlight and it was fun to learn the timings. And this is the first game where I decided to git gud at parrying right at the start.

 

[cvv]

And then it gives you hilariously unpredictable, erratic enemy swings. Almost all enemies attack like a drunk trying to drive away a pack of rabid dogs.

This is not a very good design. Souls fans love to pick apart and hair split every single little thing of their games but nobody was bothered by this massive flaw?

I think it's part of the design - you are fighting puppets with 'puppet frenzy' disease, after all. I found it pretty refreshing to be honest

Seems if you truly love something you can rationalize away a lot.

 

[cvv]

Just beat the Watchman, needed about 5 runs.

Finally had some fun, for the first time in the game. If only the parry windows were a bit wider, maybe 20%, that's all this combat needs to be better than just average.

Another problem I can already sense here - bosses tend to be large and imposing, so obviously half of the time you can't see what they're doing. Which is especially bad since you have to really watch your parry windows, which, as is the tradition in these games, usually start with the downswing.

 

[v1rus]

good gaem

I'm enjoying the level design. Lots of of intersecting shit, navigating the maps becomes a headache halfway into the game

parrying the bosses ..... seems a bit too easy

to both of these.

Have you ever played a soulslike with an actual great level design? I'm only two levels in but so far it reminds me of Steelrising the most, just streets and alleys, right angles everywhere, two or three vertical layers at the most, everything very simple and straightforward. And it's always the progression path + one side way with a chest at the end. Great level design this is not.

Also parrying bosses is easy? Either you're a 16 yo Korean kid or your nose touching your monitor rn.

Havent beat many "souls" games besides actual From games - I like calling Fallen Order a soulslike, people seem to disagree, so, eh, whatever. Tried Nioh and Surge for couple of hours, but I aint counting that. Of the actual From games - fully beat everything, except Demon Souls and Bloodborne.

My impression is that the beginning is extremely simple, yes, and that it starts picking up around the cathedral, at least level design wise. Mind you - the game really is extremely linear, and the basic scheme does remain "correct path" and "optional chests", but it does get mind numbingly entwined and harder to follow as the game progresses. I hope you stick with the game, as I'd love to hear if your opinion changes as you make further into the game. I'm sorely missing actual, real verticality tho, Elden Ring legacy dungeons and Sekiro did spoil me a bit.

Boss wise - another thing that changes as the game progress. I suck at parrying, I never parry actual mobs, only bosses. And the first boss (and perhaps the flame one?) are only ones I feel like i actually learned the movesets and parry timings. Later bosses are... Way more complex, way more combos, chains and delayed attacks but I feel like there are just too many ways to abuse them. Perhaps I'm overleveled, perhaps my P-Organ build just works well, but I beat every single one of them without much trouble - just trying to parry when it feels like I should, with some light dodging, and heavy Fable + Fatal Attack abuse. This just downs them before I bother actually learning their chains - which I dislike, since I feel like I just bruteforced through them with a heavy stagger + max estus build.

Mind you, I did some reading on "perfect-blocking" when I started the game, and people say you should "hold" your parry instead of just tapping it (contrary to what you do in Sekiro basically) - turns out if you just tap in this game, you only use half the frames you could or something. Havent really tested it - since I started the game, I've been parrying with actually holding the button, which works extremely well - most of the time, If i didnt fail at reading the atack, I parry, and If i dont, I just block it. And recoverable HP matters, a lot, because both parries and attacks restore it.

EDIT - Just reread my original post, and it could be misunderstood that I said "parrying EZ, lul, gitgud". I meant most of later bosses come across as not too difficult or requiring, regardless of are you parrying well.