When was the Lies of P release date? Lies of P is a third-person action game from Neowiz Games based on the famous tale of the living puppet named Pinocchio. This is a gritty reboot of the classic Pinocchio story, so if you’re familiar with the classic Disney movie, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with some of the reoccurring themes, too.
Lies of P is set in a gloomy steampunk environment filled with extremely dangerous fiends, promising to be a true Dark Souls-like experience featuring RPG game elements. If this action game has piqued your interest, here’s some details from the Lies of P release date, gameplay, story, and its scary coffin-carrying bunnies of doom.
Lies of P release date
Announced during Summer Game Fest 2023, the Lies of P release date came on Tuesday, September 19, 2023. The soulslike released on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S and X.
Lies of P was met by a mixed reception, but is review scores actually came out better than many expected following the reception of its earlier Steam demo. At the time of writing, Lies of P PC sits at 82 on Metacritic, while, in our own Lies of P review, we give it a more humbling score. But you’ll have to go and read it to find out what that score is.
Lies of P trailers
The first Lies of P trailer dates back to November 2021. It hardly shows the famous puppet protagonist himself, but it does introduce us to Geppetto, Pinocchio’s creator. We can see him walking through the abandoned streets of a snowy city called Krat, passing a victim of a plague that has seemingly wiped everyone out, before entering a cathedral that houses the remains of an angry-looking robot.
The Lies of P gameplay reveal trailer from August 2022 teases the game’s core dilemma: to tell the truth, or lie. As the voice-over says, only you can save Krat from chaos, madness, and death, but it all depends on your choices. For a taste of what you’re up against, the story trailer from February 2023 features a man named Simon Manus, one of the game’s bosses.
Lies of P gameplay
Lies of P is a single-player action-adventure game that presents itself as a soulslike. Taking on the role of P, or Pinocchio, you have to fight countless opponents including many daunting Lies of P bosses. The key to victory is to learn your opponents’ behaviors and attack patterns, carefully time your attacks, and parry incoming blows at the right time to negate damage.
To further increase your chances of survival, you have a selection of charged Fable Arts attacks at your disposal, as well as a mechanical Legion Arm. You can equip one of several Legion Arms, ranging from harpoons to flamethrowers. Lies of P features dozens of weapons that can be personalized by combining their blades and handles. Matching a blade to a different handle changes its performance, attack pattern, speed, and more. Check out our dedicated guide for some of the best Lies of P legion arms to equip.
The Lies of P skill point system is used to further fine tune your personal play style. At the start of the game, you have to choose between three ‘combat memories’ presets:
- Path of Crickets: Balance. Combining strength with speed, this class offers medium HP, stamina, and attack power. You get a saber as a starting weapon.
- Path of the Bastards: Agility. A much faster but more vulnerable option with the lowest HP and the highest stamina. The starting weapon is a rapier.
- Path of Sweepers: Tenacity. The burly option grants high HP and high strength at the cost of agility. You receive a clockwork smasher as a starting weapon.
Like Dark Souls, defeating enemies rewards Lies of P’s most important resource: Ergo. Similar to souls, Lies of P Ergo is used to level up skills and abilities. Upon defeat, the Ergo is left in the place where you met your demise. If you don’t pick it up before getting killed again, it’ll be lost forever.
Also similar to previous Souls games; Pinocchio needs to unlock respawn points called Stargazers. These are very important as you can use them to respawn, teleport, regenerate health, upgrade your weapons, and level up your skills.
Lies of P story
With a steampunk atmosphere that’s more akin to the original dark fantasy novel than the upbeat Disney adaptation, Lies of P reimagines the story of Pinocchio against the backdrop of a 19th-century “Belle Époque” city. Sure, the city may look absolutely gorgeous at a glance – too bad it’s been overtaken by crazed mechanical puppets. We’re not entirely sure whether it’s the murderous puppet-robot horde or the plague that’s responsible for the demise of humankind in Krat, but it makes for a fascinating and highly dangerous setting regardless.
The Lies of P story starts in an abandoned train station, where P needs to fight his way through the local killer robots in an attempt to find his father and creator, Geppetto. The brilliant Geppetto is the mastermind behind Krat’s puppets, which probably means that he bears some degree of responsibility for the disaster. This explains why he needs P to make things right.
Of course, Geppetto isn’t the only non-puppet who plays a role in the Lies of P story. Here’s an overview of every Lies of P character we’ve seen so far:
- Sophia – a blue-haired woman who acts as a guide to P. Her character is undoubtedly a nod to the fairy in the original Pinocchio.
- Eugenie – a young technician who helps P to upgrade his weapons.
- Antonia – an elderly woman who is suffering from an illness. She’s the proprietor of the Krat Hotel. Her character is based on Antonio, the person who gifted Geppetto the magical log to make his living puppet in the original Pinocchio.
- Venigni – a brilliant inventor.
- Simon Manus – a boos who appears twice, once as the Arm of God, and in a second phase as the Awakened God.
Lies of P lies and truth system
Puppets in Lies of P are unable to lie, except for P. When speaking to NPCs, you’ll often be given a choice between lying or speaking the truth. Beware that lying will not only affect the outcome of the story, but also invoke the wrath of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood – four not-so-cuddly rabbits who carry a wooden coffin with the word ‘liar’ written on it.
That leaves the question: is it better for P to lie or tell the truth? Although you might be forgiven for not wanting to meet up with the creepy bunnies, there is an advantage to lying; it makes P more human. As the developers mentioned during the Taiwan Justdan Game Festival 2023, lying is a human trait, so it affects the balance between P’s human and puppet sides.
We’re not sure Lies of P will go down in history as one of the best PC games of all time, but it certainly provides some light entertainment and some series questions about humanity. If you were hoping the Pinocchio story would feature a little more Jiminy Cricket and a little less terrifying bunny people, maybe you should take a look at our list of the best Disney games instead.