It's a From Software Action RPG (or FSARPG). Not "kind of like Dark Souls", it just is. The controls, the combat, the actions you can do in combat, the inventory system, the leveling system, the way you upgrade weapons, the stamina gauge, the back attacks, the unintuitive jumping; it literally feels like a FSARPG that came from an alternative universe.
Am I complaining? Not at all. Does it do the FSARPG formula well? Pretty much with only a few snags. Is it hard? Not the hardest, but this is coming from someone whose played and beaten all of these games so I'm fairly biased. Does it do anything new? Yes, a lot of things actually.
This game took the most from Bloodborne, but sprinkled in Sekiro's guard and parry system. The aesthetics and environment are a lot like a less bloody, less claustrophobic Yharnam from Bloodborne; though no less in a state of "Shit's Bad!" No less an interesting setting with it being inspired by "The Beautiful Era" of France, doubly so with the use of humanoid, mutated puppets as the primary antagonistic force. Offers something that isn't too common in video games while allowing for some elaborate designs that makes progressing through the game more engaging. Also gives the same subtle humor from other the FSARPGs where they'd include some real goofball enemies. The wheel skeletons from Dark Souls 1, the naked giant man that rolls all over the place in Bloodborne, and who could forget the screaming dive bombing ninjas in Sekiro who scream "WHOOAAA!!" Lies of P has puppets who are maids, baby puppet enemies that cry, giant clown robots, puppets that stab with chimney sweepers, police puppets wielding stop signs, and certain late-game enemies that have some seriously styling mustaches.
I'm going to assume you know the general flow of FSARPGs and how the gameplay works, since I'll only go over what's different. Blocking is far more vital to your survival. You take chip damage, but you can recover that damage by attacking back at the enemy similar to the rally mechanic from Bloodborne. If you get hit before that, then that recoverable health is gone. If you don't want to take any damage at all then you'll need to master parrying. Simply block before getting hit to negate any damage and deal stun damage to the enemy. Build up enough stun from successful parries and charge attacks, then they'll fall over for a fatal strike. They'll be on their knees for a while so you'll also have a opportunity to heal, apply a buff, sharpen your weapon and so forth. This knocked down status applies to every boss and enemy, and it especially becomes a godsend in later fights where bosses hurt like Hell with long combo strings that, sometimes, feel they take too long. I get that it's more opportunities to parry and stagger them, but there have been times where I'm like "Can I have my turn now?" You can dodge through attacks, but that won't work with the red attacks. These ignore I-frames and are unblockable, plus they can only be countered by perfect parrying them (or physically moving out of way, but that's much harder when you can't utilize i-frames). It's always nerve-wracking when you see these attacks coming, as more often then not it's "Do-or-Die" when you see the red glow.
Weapons come in handles and blades, apart from boss weapons which are just a single weapon. These handles and blades can be assembled and disassembled to your liking. This allows you to utilize a weapon's moveset that you like but is otherwise lacking in damage with its current handle, or perhaps the blade has a fable art that synergizes well with your playstyle. Fable arts are this game's weapon arts, only that both the blade and the handle come with their own art. Some are big attacks, others help with blocking and defense, couple are buffs; but either way it's another factor to consider when building your Pinocchio (I wrote that, but I don't think they ever call the protagonist that). Ultimately whether you engage with weapon building is up to you, as your more then capable of playing this game with the weapons as they are when you first obtain them.
Not unlike Sekiro's prosthetics, you also have a cool mechanical arm that can do a variety of things. You got grappling hook, an exploding shield, landmines, a gun, flamethrower, or the default iron fist for quick left hook in the face. A lot of them aren't too exciting till they get upgraded, then they can deal some serious damage. Till then it can be easy to neglect them, but perhaps it's because I wasn't accustomed to using them at first.
A big thing to note is how linear this game is. While the world believable and makes positional sense, it is a straight line to the end. There are a lot of optional quests and smaller areas for loot and treasure, just don't expect to find anything too extravagant. I don't mind too much, I don't like missing bosses in FSARPGs, but if you get majorly stuck on a boss then tackling a different area or boss isn't an option. Most major bosses do have summonable NPCs if you are really struggling. I did used them a few times and they do take a lot of the stress off, plus the item used to summon them are everywhere. Makes me wonder if it was even necessary to put in that toll.
I don't have too much say on the story. I'm glad it's a lot more clearer of a plot then other souls-likes, even has characters that stick around for a while as you get to learn a lot about them. This means a lot to FSARPG fans, trust me. There's still a lot of lore notes and background details, but it's only there to get additional info on events rather then being the entire story. Also this is Pinocchio but the game really wants you lie at all times. I get the message, lies are part of what makes us human and this is a twisted version of the fairy tale. Writing this out, the theme of lying actually goes deeper then I thought as I think back at the ending, but of course that's spoiler territory.
So, do you like FSARPGs (I'm sure this will catch on in a few years)? Then give this game a shot. Maybe it doesn't do enough new and some aspects of it can cross the line of "Oh this is literally the same as Dark Souls", but as a action-RPG fan these kind of games are some of my favorites to play. They have just the right amount of push and pull with fantastic player expression that keeps me coming back over and over again.
I would also like to mention that the guide I was following put the clearly bad ending as the "Real" ending and now I am doing New Game plus to get the actually nice ending and it's been a few days but I'm still malding at this and... (EDIT: I got the good ending now. Still a good game)
Am I complaining? Not at all. Does it do the FSARPG formula well? Pretty much with only a few snags. Is it hard? Not the hardest, but this is coming from someone whose played and beaten all of these games so I'm fairly biased. Does it do anything new? Yes, a lot of things actually.
This game took the most from Bloodborne, but sprinkled in Sekiro's guard and parry system. The aesthetics and environment are a lot like a less bloody, less claustrophobic Yharnam from Bloodborne; though no less in a state of "Shit's Bad!" No less an interesting setting with it being inspired by "The Beautiful Era" of France, doubly so with the use of humanoid, mutated puppets as the primary antagonistic force. Offers something that isn't too common in video games while allowing for some elaborate designs that makes progressing through the game more engaging. Also gives the same subtle humor from other the FSARPGs where they'd include some real goofball enemies. The wheel skeletons from Dark Souls 1, the naked giant man that rolls all over the place in Bloodborne, and who could forget the screaming dive bombing ninjas in Sekiro who scream "WHOOAAA!!" Lies of P has puppets who are maids, baby puppet enemies that cry, giant clown robots, puppets that stab with chimney sweepers, police puppets wielding stop signs, and certain late-game enemies that have some seriously styling mustaches.
I'm going to assume you know the general flow of FSARPGs and how the gameplay works, since I'll only go over what's different. Blocking is far more vital to your survival. You take chip damage, but you can recover that damage by attacking back at the enemy similar to the rally mechanic from Bloodborne. If you get hit before that, then that recoverable health is gone. If you don't want to take any damage at all then you'll need to master parrying. Simply block before getting hit to negate any damage and deal stun damage to the enemy. Build up enough stun from successful parries and charge attacks, then they'll fall over for a fatal strike. They'll be on their knees for a while so you'll also have a opportunity to heal, apply a buff, sharpen your weapon and so forth. This knocked down status applies to every boss and enemy, and it especially becomes a godsend in later fights where bosses hurt like Hell with long combo strings that, sometimes, feel they take too long. I get that it's more opportunities to parry and stagger them, but there have been times where I'm like "Can I have my turn now?" You can dodge through attacks, but that won't work with the red attacks. These ignore I-frames and are unblockable, plus they can only be countered by perfect parrying them (or physically moving out of way, but that's much harder when you can't utilize i-frames). It's always nerve-wracking when you see these attacks coming, as more often then not it's "Do-or-Die" when you see the red glow.
Weapons come in handles and blades, apart from boss weapons which are just a single weapon. These handles and blades can be assembled and disassembled to your liking. This allows you to utilize a weapon's moveset that you like but is otherwise lacking in damage with its current handle, or perhaps the blade has a fable art that synergizes well with your playstyle. Fable arts are this game's weapon arts, only that both the blade and the handle come with their own art. Some are big attacks, others help with blocking and defense, couple are buffs; but either way it's another factor to consider when building your Pinocchio (I wrote that, but I don't think they ever call the protagonist that). Ultimately whether you engage with weapon building is up to you, as your more then capable of playing this game with the weapons as they are when you first obtain them.
Not unlike Sekiro's prosthetics, you also have a cool mechanical arm that can do a variety of things. You got grappling hook, an exploding shield, landmines, a gun, flamethrower, or the default iron fist for quick left hook in the face. A lot of them aren't too exciting till they get upgraded, then they can deal some serious damage. Till then it can be easy to neglect them, but perhaps it's because I wasn't accustomed to using them at first.
A big thing to note is how linear this game is. While the world believable and makes positional sense, it is a straight line to the end. There are a lot of optional quests and smaller areas for loot and treasure, just don't expect to find anything too extravagant. I don't mind too much, I don't like missing bosses in FSARPGs, but if you get majorly stuck on a boss then tackling a different area or boss isn't an option. Most major bosses do have summonable NPCs if you are really struggling. I did used them a few times and they do take a lot of the stress off, plus the item used to summon them are everywhere. Makes me wonder if it was even necessary to put in that toll.
I don't have too much say on the story. I'm glad it's a lot more clearer of a plot then other souls-likes, even has characters that stick around for a while as you get to learn a lot about them. This means a lot to FSARPG fans, trust me. There's still a lot of lore notes and background details, but it's only there to get additional info on events rather then being the entire story. Also this is Pinocchio but the game really wants you lie at all times. I get the message, lies are part of what makes us human and this is a twisted version of the fairy tale. Writing this out, the theme of lying actually goes deeper then I thought as I think back at the ending, but of course that's spoiler territory.
So, do you like FSARPGs (I'm sure this will catch on in a few years)? Then give this game a shot. Maybe it doesn't do enough new and some aspects of it can cross the line of "Oh this is literally the same as Dark Souls", but as a action-RPG fan these kind of games are some of my favorites to play. They have just the right amount of push and pull with fantastic player expression that keeps me coming back over and over again.
I would also like to mention that the guide I was following put the clearly bad ending as the "Real" ending and now I am doing New Game plus to get the actually nice ending and it's been a few days but I'm still malding at this and... (EDIT: I got the good ending now. Still a good game)