4.5/5 ★ – PigParty's review of Lies of P.

Beaten: 5/27/2024 Playtime: 48 hours First and foremost I want to start out by saying this is my first souls-like game ever. I decided to give this a try because the world appealed to me and looked like it had a decent story to it. I had no idea if I would stick through it enough to finish the game, and there were a few times in which I took a long break (weeks or even a month+) and doubted I would ever go back. Yet I found myself yearning to come back to the game time and again no matter how long I had been away from it. The game was brutal for me at the beginning. The learning curve of this genre is staggering. But I kept pushing through and while some fights were certainly rage inducing, it felt rewarding to beat every boss. The late game has some additional disappointing gimmicks to the boss fights that I wasn't too fond of but overall each fight felt unique and beatable. For my first time playing this genre, I have many issues with it - some may be specific to Lies of P while some may be more generalized to the souls-like genre. A rapid fire of these include: gimmick bosses, status weaknesses/resistances that I have to look up and switch weapons out depending on boss fights, lack of info (I don't enjoy having to google something to figure out what it does), hidden RNG, the camera not following my character which forced me to play claw on the controller, getting stuck in corners during fights, hitting walls, the walk of shame, parkouring, difficulty level inconsistencies. Despite all the issues I may have, I can't help but put my focus on the good. Lies of P is an endearing game. The story had me invested and wanting to push through the gameplay. It was a reason to persist through the challenge, rather than doing it for the sake of the challenge. The boss fights were cool and unique, and the world was beautiful and alive (as much as it can be). And last but certainly not least! In fact, this may have one of the best of any games, and that's its soundtrack. What a beautiful soundtrack they made for Lies of P. I have spent so much time simply sitting in the hotel and listening to the vinyls. Hell, even the song Feel was so good I had to add it to my playlist. Lies of P is an incredible experience that was well worth all the frustration and challenge it took to beat it. The story deserves its own deep dive as well. They are going PLACES with this story. This is much more than a uniquely creative take on Pinocchio and the ending cut scene opens this up into an incredibly cool series I am ecstatic for. Also the more I discover externally about the lore of this game and see people connecting dots that I never realized existed, the more mind-blown I am. This could shape up to be one of the best franchises in gaming. Truly this is an incredible game with so much love and care put into it.