Lies of P Review: A Soulsborne Fairy Tale Done Right

Lies of P reimagines Pinocchio as a Soulsborne action RPG set in a Belle Epoque city overrun by berserk puppets. It borrows heavily from Bloodborne’s aggressive combat philosophy while adding a weapon assembly system and a lying mechanic that affects the story. Among the wave of Souls-likes, it stands out by understanding what makes FromSoftware’s games work rather than just copying the surface.

How We Reviewed: This review draws on tracing the album’s influence on subsequent releases and close reading of lyrics alongside musical structure. Ratings reflect extensive playtime, community consensus, and mechanical depth analysis. No sponsorship or affiliate relationship influenced our selections.

The Weapon Assembly System

Every weapon in Lies of P can be disassembled into a blade and a handle. Blades determine damage type, scaling, and the Fable Art (special ability). Handles determine attack speed, weight class, and moveset. A rapier blade on a greatsword handle creates a heavy thrusting weapon with slow but devastating combos. A greatsword blade on a dagger handle creates a fast but unwieldy hybrid.

This system creates exponentially more build variety than a fixed weapon roster. With 30+ blades and 30+ handles, the combinations number in the hundreds. Finding a blade with fire damage and pairing it with a handle that has an A-scaling in Motivity (strength equivalent) creates optimized builds that the game never explicitly suggests.

Fable Arts are weapon-specific special moves powered by a gauge that fills through combat. The Puppet Ripper blade’s Fable Art is a forward lunge that deals massive stagger damage. The Frozen Feast blade fires an ice projectile. Since Fable Arts are blade-locked, you can keep a favorite special move while completely changing your moveset by swapping handles.

Perfect Guard and Stagger

The perfect guard system is more demanding than Dark Souls parrying. Pressing block at the exact moment an attack lands negates all damage and builds the enemy’s stagger gauge. Consecutive perfect guards chain into rapid staggers. Missing the timing results in guard damage that temporarily reduces your maximum HP (recoverable by attacking, similar to Bloodborne’s rally mechanic).

Boss fights revolve around learning which attacks can be perfect-guarded versus which must be dodged. Red-glow Fury attacks cannot be guarded at all and require precise dodge timing. The interplay between guarding, dodging, and attacking creates a combat rhythm distinct from any single Souls game.

The Lying System

Dialogue choices throughout the game present opportunities to tell the truth or lie. The game tracks your lying frequency, which affects Pinocchio’s humanity and determines which ending you receive. More lies mean more humanity, unlocking emotional responses and additional NPC interactions. Telling the truth keeps P mechanical and cold, locking out certain quests but opening others.

The hotel hub area populates with NPCs who arrive based on your choices. Some NPCs only appear if you lied to specific characters. Others leave if your deception count is too high. The system is subtle enough that most players do not realize the tracking mechanism until their second playthrough.

The Legion Arms

Pinocchio’s mechanical left arm equips interchangeable Legion Arms, each consuming Legion resources in combat. The Flamberge shoots a stream of fire for sustained damage. The Falcon Eyes fires precision projectiles for ranged engagement. The Pandemonium generates an acidic explosion. Swapping between Legion Arms at Stargazers (the game’s bonfires) lets you tailor your ranged option to each boss’s weaknesses, adding another layer of preparation to the pre-fight ritual.

Verdict

Lies of P succeeds by combining Bloodborne’s aggression, Sekiro’s precision-guarding, and a weapon crafting system that neither FromSoftware game attempted. The Belle Epoque setting provides visual identity distinct from the medieval fantasy that dominates the genre. Boss difficulty is tuned high but fair, with every death teaching a specific lesson about timing and positioning.

For more Soulsborne recommendations, see our Souls-Like Games Ranked. For build theory across the genre, check Elden Ring Strength Build Guide.