Enjoyed this for a while but soured on it pretty hard past a certain point, quite simply because I just could not get over the perfect guard mechanic feeling about as inscrutable as it was punishing. Souls-like games tend to get a free pass for mechanical obtuseness that, in a game dressed differently, would be considered simply bad game design, and Lies of P, for me, is no different. This felt unfair in a way From Software games, even the ones I've not really clicked with, never did. Importantly as well the combat felt unsure of what it wanted to be (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro), making combat encounters often confusing: am I meant to be dodging, normal guarding and using health regain, or perfect guarding? There was no clear way to tell what the developers were expecting you to do, only tedious trial and error, and, frankly, I felt I had better things to do with my time.

And on the setting: it's a thin veneer over a knock-off Bloodborne, and a far less interesting world in itself. Stylistically pleasant, but utterly derivative and devoid of any new or interesting ideas (which summarises the game pretty well overall).