There are a lot of Marlenas in the world, but Dietrich is the only one. This also applies to Bloodborne, which is where the renowned "borne" element of Soulsborne originates. Numerous others attempted to mimic the enigmatic charm of this masterwork, but almost all were unsuccessful. The most recent instance was the game Thymesia, which we mistakenly dubbed "Budget Bloodborne"—a designation that was arguably too kind.

Someone was sure to come up with a solid interpretation at some time. One of the greatest Soulsborne games in recent memory is Lies of P, a game developed by South Korean company Neowiz Games, which succeeded in perfectly capturing the spirit and formula of the From Software original. They not only succeeded in duplicating the essential elements of the Bloodborne experience, but they also imbued the mold with their own magic, creating something entirely new.

The Headless Figure

In Lies of P, the beloved wooden kid is transformed into a lethal robot designed for close quarters battle in a twist on the classic Pinocchio story. Our P has the appearance of a young Robert Smith from the time before The Cure, and the destroyed paradise around him adds to his gothic vibe. In Western history, the Belle Époque was a prosperous era that spanned from the late 1800s to the start of World War I. According to P's falsehoods, the happy days came to an end when the puppets rebelled violently.

Unlike From software narrative, which has complicated multi-valence storytelling, Lies of P's mythology is fairly simple. There's not much room for interpretation here, which is a welcome change after playing a dozen convoluted Souls. The main factor in the fictitious French city of Krat's prosperity was those puppets. The discovery of Ergo, the glittering animus that gave the clockwork proto-robots their false life, allowed for the development of the useful clockwork robots. Soldiers, police officers, dockworkers, maids, and other automatons provided the labor and services, and the populace lived in peace and harmony. After that, puppets rose up and killed almost everyone, and the unfortunate city was also befallen by an enigmatic sickness. Naturally, you must investigate this catastrophe and determine what or who is responsible.

Following on Sekiro's footsteps

A gloomy atmosphere, Victorian/Edwardian attire, and dimly lighted cobblestone streets. Lies of P seems to be a Bloodborne clone at first appearance, at least in terms of the ominous mood. The second indicator of familiarity is the combat's rapid tempo. You'll need to assault with the tenacity of a hornet if you want to prosper in your fake existence. In Lies of P, avoidance must always be in practice since there are no shields. The game requires you to make flawless parries and avoid rolling, much as in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This is made more challenging by the fact that I-frames have less of an impact than in previous Soulsborne games.

Any veteran will immediately be acquainted with the general rules of gear and stats. Similar to how Sen, Souls of Blood Echoes function, gaining Ergo from defeated foes advances your fighting style by allowing you to allocate it to essential metrics like your preferred weapon. Fighting is really about the simple contradiction between weapons that are characterized by agility and those that are sluggish and strength-oriented. Although spellcasting is not an option in the game, it is available to some degree via your modular left hand. That's the second item taken directly from Sekiro, and it functions just as you would think, if a little more simply. Although you cannot use it to leap over rooftops, you may use it to lay mines, shock or electrocute foes, drag them in a Scorpion-like manner, and more depending on the current module.

Magic tools for the twenty-first century

The majority of the game's components, with the exception of the unique weapons acquired from the boss Ergos, are made up of two interchangeable sections. You may customize the preset attacks and change their attribute scaling by mixing and matching different blades, heads, and hilts thanks to its modularity. The system as a whole is well-designed and allows for many experiments. Different cranks may be applied to weapons to fine-tune them more, enhancing the scaling of certain attributes while weakening others. Trying to win by whatever means.

You'll want such adaptability since Lies of P poses a significant obstacle. At first, it may not seem such. The task will gradually increase until you become acutely aware of it, slow-boiling you like a frog. The turning point for me was reached at the conclusion of the sixth of the book's eleven chapters. I almost lost my temper at the two-phased King of Puppets leader. After that experience, the task became less daunting, but it made me more conscious of my vulnerability. The power fantasies are kept at the very top of a very tall skill pole by Lies of P, which keeps you alert.

The ability to call upon human assistance during battle simplifies the majority of contemporary Soulsbornes. Since Lies of P is only a single-player game, the summonable specter represents that alternative. The bot is a poor stand-in; it's only really helpful for briefly delaying the boss' aggro. But you will be appreciative of it in the tough battles, like the one I just mentioned.

The game pass has it!

Storytelling progresses at an increasingly slower rate as the difficulty increases. The first twelve hours or so will be largely dark for you. There are three possible outcomes for Lies of P, based on the level of humanity attained by lying. You really are a puppet with the ability to lie. As you make decisions throughout the binary choices, the invisible meter moves in the direction of one of the endings. With the exception of a few well-known characters like Geppetto, the most of the characters from the fabled Italian tale have undergone extreme transformations. This is "Pinocchio" in the same sense that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is adapted in Bridget Jones's Diary.

The availability of the XBOX/PC game pass from the day of debut is a major benefit for Lies of P. This is a fantastic method to play this lovely game without having to pay sixty dollars. True Soulsborne fans may want to go ahead and do it just to let the developers know how much you value their work—after all, they've succeeded where others have failed, and that's something we should all be proud of.