Pinocchio! In a video game? And it’s a souls-like! This sounds like a weird combination and prior to playing Lies of P I wouldn’t have known what to imagine. However, Lies of P has managed to have such a strong vision and rendition of this classic tale, that it is now my definitive interpretation of Pinocchio.
The game is a quintessential souls-like. It has all the classic tropes: punishing enemies and bosses, limited number of heals and the classic sprint to get your ergo (souls/runes) after you got ganked by a bunch of mutant dogs. It’s more like Dark Souls than Elden Ring in that it is constrainly linear. It’s unfortunately even more linear than Dark Souls. There is only ever one path forward with a stronger reliance on transporting between different levels rather than one big integrated world that is continually traversed and learnt.
The setting is the standout part of the game. Pinocchio awakens in the collapsing town of Krat filled with a servant class of puppets who have seemingly gone insane and in the process of massacring all the inhabitants. As you progress you discover more nefarious aspects to the town such as the petrification disease turning everyone into carcasses (blue zombies). The details as you progress through the different districts are well-realised and make the levels continually interesting to traverse, despite their linear nature. Puppets banging on doors trying to get in surrounded by the bodies of their former masters they have ripped apart never gets old.
Combat is classic souls-like, except you can only do a melee build and there is much more of a focus on blocking. There is a very simple elemental system, but it doesn’t have any real depth. Use electricity against puppets, fire against carcasses, rinse and repeat. Different weapons feel distinct enough to be interesting, but I probably relied on 5 weapons throughout the whole game. That being said, combat is competently executed. The perfect guard mechanic turns a lot of the combat into something resembling a rhythm game. This has the benefit of feeding back into the player becoming better, not just their equipment. It is satisfying when you finally nail the timing of a boss and are effortless blocking all of their attacks like Neo against Agent Smith at the end of the Matrix.
Unfortunately the game fell off in the last third. The locations started to increasingly lack character towards the end. In particular, the last few hours are in an incredibly generic temple filled with meaningless wooden structures that you endlessly traverse. There is the classic trope of putting old bosses in as regular enemies and it starts to be a bit of a grind. At this point as well the plot has gone off the deep end. The shadowy alchemists have been revealed to be running the whole thing behind the show. It’s a shame they are so boring though and feel completely disconnected from the much more interesting puppet class war going on. This is fittingly physically manifested by their level being on its own completely isolated area.
Music was pretty good. You can unlock records as you explore and listen to in the main Hotel area. These are exciting to listen to and filled with feeling. These general background music is solid as well and has a lot of character.
A tender voice singing to make you feel your humanity: https://open.spotify.com/track/1ZI607lJxi4P8RKtSHiYyd?si=MXixmECLRJqMs7dmpRS8bA
A jaunty tune embodying Krat’s entertainment district in its heyday: https://open.spotify.com/track/29fFZWyttO2ibVOCtsWSmh?si=jgsAUNvxTQy9Q9m65WTYqw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5gJEFiXI4rIXC2TWIx65ZQ
Overall, this is my first non-Miyazaki souls-like and I like what it did. The setting was intriguing and for a solid two thirds had me engaged. The combat was solid and rewarding. There were even bullshit bosses I hated and now can comment on forums to strangers how easy they were. It’s definitely bridged the gap between Miyazaki’s masterpieces, but shouldn’t really be shown in the same gallery. It didn’t hold me the same as Elden Ring and was a lot more constrained in style and scope. However, it told its own little story well and did something interesting with it and deserved to be respected for that.
Rating: 5/7 porky pies told to the puppet servants in my house.
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