Still killing it Joseph. I love your videos iv seen every single one at least three times others like the hollow knight video iv seen maybe eight or nine times. I use to fall asleep listening to your longer critique videos. I once had a dream where I had to climb these massive trash mountains using a jet pack and at the top of one was a house where you lived I had a long conversation with you and had dinner with your family. Thank you for your commitment to say pointful and meaningful things about video games.
"Grandpa, who was Joseph Anderson?" "Ahhh, yes my boy, that is a name I have not heard in a lifetime. Where did you hear that name?" "At school." "Well did they tell you why he was famous?" "No Grandpa." "You see, he made long commentary videos for many games, back before you could beam them into your head. You used watch them on the ol' monitor or television screen." "Wooooow Grandpa, that's amazing. When you were a kid you had to browse content with your eyes?" "Indeed my boy, no fancy AI brainchips back then." "What was so special about his videos?" "They were so long, yet so detailed. He used to review the games that all the youngsters used to play. There was your darksouls and your bethesda games..." "What's bethesda?" "Oh some old relic you wouldn't be interested in. BUT his Witcher videos were all the rage!" "Witcher?" "It was a game series we used to play and it was all the rage. It's not much now but back then it was the best kinda game you could get. And Joseph would review them for hours!" "So why was his so famous?" "He did 2 videos on the first 2 Witcher games, but legends say he will one day grace us with the third" "You mean he hasnt released it yet?" "These things take time you see. Long form youtube reviews are an ancient art form." "Will we ever get to see it?" "Not in my lifetime, but maybe when you are my age, you'll get to see it in all it's glory." "Its been so long grandpa, how do you even know if it's real?" "I have faith my boy... I have faith."
Clicking on this video and watching up to the spoiler warning just to say I am very much looking forward to watching this once I finish the game. Congrats on getting a video out this year.
I have returned to say I agree on every point. I did enjoy the straightforwardness of the game, it was relaxing to know that I wasn’t missing out on anything like a optional boss because I didn’t turn a certain corner, but on the other hand the big appeal of these games is finding out about that sort of thing whether in the moment or afterward. The big reason Elden ring was so magical was because everyone had these playground style stories about some crazy shit tucked away in a corner. I’m not saying these devs should strive for open world next, but I’d be interested to see how they might take that sort of inspiration going forward. Looking forward to the Witcher 3 video in a week. Assuming no one else reads the comments section…
Seeing the already lifted elevators post death told me this was such a different game in regards to refining this genre's overall gameplay. Like why do I need to wait for the elevator again? Whos it for down there? Also, i figure its very much probably a Westernism but I was wondering when the "pin the tail on the donkey" achievement was going to appear if you backstab Mad Donkey 😂
Honest to God, throwing in the little Korok "Hahaha!!" near the end when he got the baton was absolutely hilarious and he set it up so early. Joseph vids have such fun visual and audio humor.
Your last point about the animations was one of the first things that really stood out to me, combined with the viceral enjoyment of perfect parrying. I havent beaten the game yet, got stuck on romeo, but EVERY boss that I've fought has an incredibly readable moveset. Dark Souls taught me, as well as many of us, to circle strafe and dodge roll, so learning the perfect parry system took a little bit of practice, but Im glad I put the work in because it causes the boss fights to be so much more immersive, like a dance.
This game has the absolute coolest weapons and weapon system in a souls PERIOD. The boss weapons are so fucking cool. This game demands more than one run.
I bought this game on a whim and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made, you broke down exactly what makes this game so special and honestly so surprised this hasn’t caught on to more people’s radars.
Just want to give a heads up to anyone considering this game. There is an element of RNG to all damage you deal. Your weapons hit in a range of damage, not at a fixed number, like they do in Souls/Bloodborne. I've watched Joseph's video once or twice and don't remember him mentioning it so I'm just putting it here.
? Its completely negligible though, and ofc its based off what attack you are doing and on what enemy no shit, also some weapons do less damage if you have them slashing or piercing via the handle
@@az90azaaaa You lack critical thinking of you think it's negligible. You might be in a situation where you'd usually kill an enemy in 2 hits, but oh look, this time it took 3, because RNG. That could easily be the difference between life and death. Literally a situation you'd never find yourself in in Bloodborne. At best it's superfluous.
@@ResponsibleToTheRealm im confused as to how much the dmg varies, from what i recall i was consistent with what less than 10 dmg difference? If you are saying that its not negligible because that damage is the difference between life and death then fine, i dont get how that matters though since its a soulslike and you are always gonna die 1 hit away or not
In defence of the black rabbit brotherhood pt1: they are an excellent way to showcase how to use the different kind of weapons! I didn't realize that you could use the backstab with the faster weapons when you're in a boss fight, but especially for newcomers to the genre (me) it explains how to move and how to attack with the weapon types, and encourages you to use different weapons!
I actually liked the inclusion of the Crafting system and the Peni...P-organ system the best. That is because the combat is a mix of bloodborne and sekiro and Lies of P did fine tune it, which is, still at essence just improving existing gameplay. But then making additions to the mix is what elevates the devs for me. You usually cannot just add another system into gameplay without destroying the balance and the devs just pulled this off masterfully. Big P-organ energy.
@@DreamlordGaming I wouldn't say it perfected sekiro's combat, as that game already had perfect combat. I would definitely say that its better than bloodborne's and made its mediocre healing system into something special
Well I guess it's tough making a long critique about a nearly perfect game. He even had to go around and praise it for 40 minutes of the video just to get to this unimpressive mark.
@@HowdyYT very very tone deaf joke. I love this guys stuff, or did when he actually made it. He just decided to soft quit but still lie and say he’s working on shit. I don’t fucking care how long your video is. Doesn’t take 4 years. He can do what he wants that’s fine, but it’s scummy to continue uploading here and just brush over the fact that you’ve been PROMISING a video for almost 4 fucking years.
If you want to be impressed by the boss animations and such in Lies of P, watch their feet. The footwork is impressive and it's what is telegraphing that they aren't quite done yet, most of the time. They adjust their stances to prepare for that next attack, etc.
@Kasaaz You're absolutely spot on with that. The mini-boss in the train station a bit before fighting Victor is an enemy that absolutely floored me with not only it's moves but animation fidelity. I have never had as much fun as this game for seeing what the next move from an enemy would be, but that one for in particular was the highlight for me, such a blast.
Now this, this truly is emergent gameplay. In martial arts you can tell a lot about someone you're sparring by where their balance is, and yes that includes how they adjust their feet.
If you break the eldest brother weapon the first time you fight him, then the second time u fight him it'll still be broken. Didnt figure this out till my 4th playthrough and I think its amazing attention to detail.
Whatttt, really. I broke the elder sword in the 1st fight and did not pay attention to this in the 2nd fight. Was wondering why he seem kinda easy compared to the first fight
The system of regaining 1 flask for fighting is so good and creates this loop of "just a few more hits and parries and I can heal", getting it, healing, getting hit, then locking back in to get another
I think you did a great job getting the gushing/criticizing ratio right on this video, based what I think your opinion was during the livestreams. (Obviously I'm ignoring the section where you *explicitly* talk about how your videos sometimes come off as more negative than intended)
Oh thank God that was legitmately one of my main critiques of the game. That legitmately made the early game significantly less fun. The other critique I had was that it heavily incentivizes smaller faster weapons, or a few smaller weapons on heavy handles to mitigate the slow moveset. Smashing an enemy with unbridled aggression with either quick charged heavies or a flurry of light blows feels infintely more substantial in building stagger compared to perfect parries
@@jordannoell4222 I played the game exclusively with heavy weapons (heavy pipe wrench, frozen feast and coil mjolnir) and they are absolutely viable, but you will have to make an appropriate adjustment to your mentality and playstyle, you can't play it like you would Sekiro. The only opponents where it truly felt like they didn't work well were the NPC fights. It's also frustrating when stronger enemies idle point-blank. With a slow weapon you often cannot safely go for an attack, so you're left with no option but to just... wait until they do something.
Not just that, they took all the things soulborne fans have been saying for years into account and acted on it: putting bonfire / stargazer near boss fights is a small yet massive benefit, although, yes it makes the game easier.
Seeing you use the Holy Sword in actual sword mode is crazy to me, that bad boy was in glaive mode the whole time for me. This game is a triumph and i'm so happy to hear you praise it so highly.
@@mrhattttttt holy shit I never noticed that, now I love this weapon even more. The long mode was still doing plenty of damage and quickly too, and the range was great for attacking without needing to adjust position first. But now switching it up makes more sense, as usual this game is even better designed than it seems at first glance.
You know you made an absolutely incredible game when even Joseph Anderson cannot resist heaping praise on it for 40 minutes. It's like I fell into an alternate universe.
I know right? He sounds so happy, too. He's like "I have so much praise I'm gonna have to flip the order I do these videos and start with the critique" and it works. Good formula.
@@sheezum Personally I don't think that counts as what they're trying to be as games is different. Witcher 3 is a narrative driven open world title whereas Lies Of P is a highly linear action adventure with very well tuned and balanced combat. They're both great but the priorities of the developers are different.
As someone who absolutely LOVES souls games themselves but can't stand most of the "souls-likes", I remember watching the first gameplay video of Lies of P that was released and thinking that this was going to be a very special game. Playing through the demo completely blew me away and the full release genuinely impressed me more than I thought was possible. The developers caught lightning in a bottle here and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait for more.
Yeah I'm a hardcore Souls fan who did all achievements in all of them but every "souls-like" felt like a cheap knockoff to me. This is the first one that actually feels like something From made themselves. Very impressive game
Same here. Dark Souls is my favorite series ever, but I've never played a "soulslike" because they look so stiff and lifeless compared to the main series, as if the jank of Dark Souls 2 was amplified even more. Lies of P is a FromSoft-tier game, and that makes me so happy
HE'S ALIVE Also if you remember PT was developed by a team under the name 7780 studios, which ended up being Kojimas team. So that part of the intro about game development under pseudonyms actually has happened before.
Amazing video! I talk about the animation timing going into principles of animations, such as anticipation and reaction and the squash and stretch principles. I’m a graduate in animation, so my knowledge isn’t great. But in my review video talking about the game, I completely agree. The smoothness from this game is something people aren’t talking about enough. To show the comparison, I showed the animations of Jedi Survivor. It’s night and day. No hate on that game. But P is insane! But seriously amazing video!
I think I have an idea why the dodge might feel off to a lot of people, myself included. This issue has been developing throughout the souls series. A dodge, on the face of it, is supposed to get you out of the way of the attack - you don't get damage cause you don't even get hit. In order to make that actually work in souls gameplay, i-frames were added to mitigate the feeling of "No fair, I should've dodged that!". As the players figured out the i-frames, the function of the dodge has shifted. Instead of getting out of the range of the attack, players have started using the i-frames to phase through the hurtbox and stay in range - this makes perfect gameplay sense, but doesn't match what actually happens on screen, where the character literally dives face-first into the attack, and yet receives no damage. Still, the dodge roll animation gives at least some verisimilitude to the idea that you actually avoided the attack. Getting to Lies of P, the dodge is again presented as the option to 'get out of the way' of the attack. In practice, however, the dodge is very short range, and the animation doesn't feel quite so crisp, so when people try to use the dodge intuitively, they feel like it doesn't create enough distance to avoid the attack, and you often end up getting clipped either by the end of the attack, or by the next one in a combo. So, in people's minds, the dodge doesn't do what it's supposed to do, making it feel bad. If you do think about it as more of a 'phase through the attack with i-frames', dodge starts feeling a lot better, and now the tutorial message about not being able to 'dodge' red attacks makes more sense - indeed, you can't phase through them, but you can still move out of the way.
I think they knew it so they made "link dodge" for these players, so you cover more ground with more I-frames, taxing your stamina more but allowing you breathing room
I think I mostly agree with this. Something that made the dodge feel janky to me is the fact it works different locked and unlocked, and if it's the second dodge with the chain dodge perk. With the perk and being unlocked, the sidestep turns into a roll. The roll either has more forgiving s or the fact that it makes you lower to the ground means you can clear more attack hit boxes. I especially noticed this with Nameless Puppet. He hit me every time regardless of when I dodged until I just unlocked and started rolling around. Then I could seemingly dodge whenever and still miss the attack. It's been funny seeing all the reviews for this game say "I started having more fun when I stopped deflecting/guarding. It's way easier to dodge," when I had the exact opposite experience. I fucking *hated* the dodge. Granted I'm more of a Sekiro guy, but the moment I started just deflecting everything is when I had the easiest and most fun time. So easy to break weapons and build posture damage for heavies that way.
@@Ashanmarili 100% agree with the original comment and i respond to you saying yes i feel like that also in BB, which is by far my least favourite fromsoft game. I know both lies of P and BB are great games but i cannot enjoy them to the fullest. Also i add that some times in life of p i tried to dodge against the enemy and i would get stuck to it. All in all is my fault for not being able to accostume to these two games.
"In lies of P, I just want to fight." really sums up my main engagement with the game and why I didn't mind the linear level design. It even got to a point where the levels felt like obstacles to gameplay more so than avenues, of course that might have been my desire to finish the game before my attention moved to something else, but also Soulslike levels can be fairly tiring to play through, with that constant sense of being worn down and danger. Especially so for P, since the Elites in this game tend to be rather challenging and will kick you back to the checkpoint most times you meet them, and Lies so loves to place them as final tests before the next checkpoint. So near the end I would have liked to have Lies embrace it's linearity a bit more and condense the final gauntlet to let the Boss fights and story shine more than they already do.
It's been like this for a while now, but the stigma around linearity in games baffles me. A large portion of the best games ever made are linear. It also allows for a more "scripted" experience, determining what you face and when. It's a huge reason why Sekiro has much better boss fights than the other From games, it's not just the fact that they built around a single moveset but could handcraft when you fought them. Open worlds are a novelty. Elden Ring will never be as enjoyable as the first playthrough, while things like Lies will be consistently engaging. Just my two cents.
Linear only gets a bad rep because open world has been a dominant genre for a long time. When I started gaming almost everything was linear. Personally as much as I love open world games, I'll take a tightly focused and crafted linear game over a baggy, pretty but boring open world one where you're forever doing nothing but running between checkpoints that are miles apart, or slowly riding a horse there etc. Lies Of P doesn't need horses like Arkham City didn't need a Batmobile, and both games are better for it.
@@mdbattlefrog1913 Thank you. I've thought that since Knight came out, but at the time everyone thought I was wrong. Years later, most people agree. Funny how that works 😁
I was a freshman in college when I first started watching your channel (first video was on Bloodborne) and my own journey has been influenced by your videos, thank you Joe for all you do
You can deflect the White Lady's counterattack if she catches you in the parry :))) I didn't figure that out until my second playthrough, but i still didn't really struggle with it because with any boss fight that involves a sword I would always do nothing but parry them until their sword breaks HAHAHAHA - you can do that with the brotherhood big guy too!
I've literally never even come close to losing that fight, nor did I even know she had a parry. She has what feels like the lowest damaging attacks in the entire game, and a SUPREME weakness to side dodges.
I remember watching someone fight the Nameless Puppet. At a certain distance the boss won't lundge at you, but will run in an arc to set up a swing. There is something about the way it sprints at you that is so lifelike and so god damned creepy. Whoever animated this game needs an award
The Lies of P developers come off as people who have very deeply been intertwined with the genre and have a deep understanding of the mechanics and nuances of both the genre and videogames as a whole, who understand certain frustrations or decisions that dont really add to the fun and proposing solutions for issues that are sometimes forgotten or taken as standard nowadays, for example consumables, an often very neglected aspect of the genre, which most people usually never use due to their underwhelming performance or scarcity, actually end up being a pretty decent tool to use even outside the very first areas of the game. The weapon system was also so insanely clever to me not only because of the immense room for experimentation but also because it partly fixes the issue of getting a new weapon but having to upgrade it to see if its worth your time, sure you may still need to upgrade the handle when you want to try a new moveset, but it really adds to the joy of finding a new weapon when you dont have to immediately discard it because it doesn't fit your build or you cant be bothered to try it because it takes resources you would rather use in upgrading your current weapon. Amulets and the P-Organ's upgrade systems also feel meaningful, you may still stick to a few amulets or gravitate towards some upgrades you feel as more impactful, but you dont end up with 5% chance of poison damage you forget you even got, Joseph perfectly encapsulates the feeling of those in the video so i don't feel like i need to add anything more, so to quote, "Because a 50/50 chance to deal extra lightning damage to burning enemies on Tuesday mornings, is shit game design." (Paraphrased) But my respect for this game and its developers reached its absolute peak when i learned that they added busted silly "for the hell of it" upgrades for NG+, which is something that i feel not enough games do, add extra layers for the player to mess around with the system and simply have fun with it, sure someone could have made a mod of that at some point and it would have been the same thing, but its the acknowledgment of it, and it tells me of people who wished of this on their favorite games and thought to include it because of it, maybe im just projecting but nevertheless this is a game that understands fun, and im all here for it.
This is nicely put, good points. They've decluttered the BS from these kind of progression systems and made genuine mechanic rewards for people who New Game, not just "hey you get to keep all your stuff and oh the enemies are a bit tougher now, bye". So there's some subtle innovation too. In 2023 which has been a bit of a disappointing year for gaming, this and Alan Wake 2 look even more stunning
They definitely understand the most frustrating part of all souls like games ever in the history of human kind are STATUS EFFECTS and decided to DOUBLE DOWN on it. I will spend the rest of my days on this Earth searching for one person who has ever said "Oh yeah, I REALLY love when my game has STATUS EFFECTS in them." They are anti-fun, get them out of the game. It would be really nice if one mob hit me a single time and gave me 30 seconds of drained health and weapon durability. FUCK YES. God I LOVE status effects. "Use your anti fun potion to cure the status effect!" No dude, I don't play these games to shuffle through 10 items and drink a potion after every time an enemy hits me. No one does.
@@dillydallyyyy I love the status effects. Normally they're just an inconvenience that's there seemingly out of tradition more than anything else. But in this game they're more like the basilisks in dark souls where it ends up functioning as an alternative kind of attack that facilitates greater enemy variety.
I’m gonna say it and I don’t care who hears it. I like linear games. I like games that are designed to be played in a specific order of areas/bosses. I don’t like stumbling into an area that I’m vastly underleveled for just to realize I’m not supposed to be here yet, and that I need to go through other areas to level up before returning to try again. But I don’t like lies of P, I love lies of P. Game of the year.
This must've been a very taxing comment to type. It's so incredibly original, analytical and high effort that I'm sure it will greatly influence and emotionally move those who read it.
I really enjoyed these streams, combination of the game actually being good and Joe enjoying it. Can't believe we played this and True (Colours) in the same year
Lies of Peak Sweep, absolutely incredible game. Frankly I was so burned out on soulslikes that I thought I'd never touch the genre again, but this game changed that in a single boss fight. Beyond amazing.
I thought it was really weird how you were throwing shade at Elden Ring’s bosses while Lies of P’s bosses do exactly what you complained about ER’s bosses doing, but WAY worse. The delays on fury attacks are egregious, they turn entire fights into guessing games, far more than in Elden Ring. Some bosses’ fury attacks can’t even be run away from reliably, forcing you to learn these absurdly tight timings with no tells through trial and error. I just thinks it’s strange that you didn’t see this as an issue while you lambasted ER bosses for it.
@@piotr78 it’s the same principle regardless of parrying. Obnoxiously long windup followed by a lightning fast attack that you can’t react to. It’s actually more forgiving in Elden Ring, as you have more I-frames on the dodge than P has on deflect. So your only option with fury attacks is to deflect or run away, but you physically can’t outrun some fury attacks due to their speed or crazy range. Edit: I’m talking about fury attacks, not flurry attacks. Fury attacks are the ones where the boss or enemy turns red and goes into their windup
The Alan Wake footage during the discussion of Stephen King is hilarious lmao... I bet he thought those Alan Wake streams were paying off dividends as he was editing this
I'm really curious about the design and implementation process of movesets in a game like this. Assuming the model artist, character animator, and "combat design lead" are all different people, it seems like it would be remarkably difficult for all three to work together. All three elements are constrained by each other. The animator can only animate what's been modeled. The artist doesn't know how their creation will be animated. The combat director has to communicate a vision for both that suits gameplay needs and needs to find a way to do so with pretty limited language. (Try describing even a simple dance move in enough detail for someone who has never seen it before to recreate it well without an example and you will find out how hard this is.) Then go through the process of playtesting and adjusting things, which requires more nuanced work from all three parties in sync with each other. Coming up with a workflow for something like this is an incredible achievement on its own on the studio's part. Clearly they found something that worked, considering how many unique and well designed weapons + enemies are in the game.
"They had a strong grasp on their P-Organ and what makes it work." I also had a strong grasp on my P-Organ while playing this game. Great video, I loved this game too and I'm so glad you're back to talk about it :)
When I did some of the translations for this studio (and this game) while I was in Korea, I immediately knew that this is a game Joseph Anderson will review and adore the hell out of. Glad to have been proven right ^^
@@fernandofaria2872 Nope, there was a list of predetermined words to use while translating which they likely just did inhouse prior to that. Some employees speak English somewhat of course, just not to the extent and accuracy someone like me does. It's also usually not a single translator doing the full translation, most of the time it gets reviewed by another translator, or projects as big as this one have texts be split up in sections. That can only be the case because I certainly see a couple of sentences and words (especially later on in the game), which I had never seen myself.
@@yanniclord-gg Do you think the translations were done well? I've seen a couple of Korean players asking whether or not the english sometimes sounds cringe (kind of does in some parts, mostly Gemini) but I can't compare it to the original since I can't read Korean.
Based on what I've seen, a lot of 'dodge is weird/bad' argument came from those who primarily relied on 'moving out of the way' as in avoiding the hitbox entirely rather than utilizing i-frame invulnerability to dodge 'through' enemy attacks. Also, from what I've seen and experienced (from playing the game), a lot of big, sweeping attacks from enemies (particularly the elites and bosses) are specifically designed to catch those who try to panic roll out of the way, away from the enemy in most cases. It is kind of interesting that I found out that 'dodging toward the incoming enemy' was often the most effective way to avoid attacks in both Lies of P... and Armored Core 6. (Against difficult, fast bosses)
I can believe that, as someone who's played a lot of souls games, for some reason I played as if i-frames weren't a thing and it only really dawned on me after I was stuck in my ways as mostly parrying things. No idea how it got to that point, maybe I just played sekiro too recently?
I might've squee'd when I saw a new Joseph Anderson video! Waiting ever so patiently for Witcher 3, absolutely thrilled you're still making content while tackling that beast of a project!
@@mejdlocraftci no, he has said that if he doesn't finish/post it by the end of 2023 he will delete his youtube/twitch, but it is unclear if that was genuine.
There is much about the mechanics of combat nobody really discusses and could deserve its own essay. For example, LoP breaks a cardinal From Soft rule: you got boss combos that are rhythm (think Genichiro's 7-hit flurry) where you can't eyeball the tell and react to each individual strike. Then you have boss combos where you watch the tell and can visually time the response. FS has loads of bosses that have both types of attack, especially in Sekiro and Bloodborne. What they do NOT ever do is mix and match within the same combo. For example, Laxasia's 13 hit combos. Part of them you can eyeball and respond to, but the tempo ramps it into a rhythm move that's waaaay too fast to eyeball, then back out again. Granted, it is possible to learn to deal with these... whether this is a design no-no or simply a legit way amp the challenge is a matter for debate.
i love that combo, got to a point where I could close my eyes and parry all of them, I don't think attacks should be able to be eyeballed immediately, dying is natural and in this case you always do learn something new or something to improve on with each death or each hit that you take, which has been a staple for every boss fight (except for last ER dlc boss lol) But ofc that's just my opinion, and you're completely right that I wish this topic was explored and debated more, as far too often I see people just complain that "it had a long windup and a quick attack so I didn't like it" I think it's so much more nuanced than that, you are the first person I've seen to point out the mixing of these kinds of attacks and discern them
Your writing keeps improving every time. Loved the self awareness about positive/negative points in the format. I wish there were more joseph video essays to go around
It took some time but lies of p really grew on me, especially with ng+ runs. Hi-Fi rush is my GOTY because it felt hard to find flaws and it tries to evolve a genre with new ideas and it never felt stretched. But lies of p came in a strong second for me.
the links to other "fairytale" works is done so incredibly well in this game. someone else had to point out to me that Victor is a Victor von Frankenstein reference to me before i figured it out, and then i felt like an idiot for not getting it. even his boss arena reflects it, yet it still felt fresh and original while being inspired by something else
Legit not trying to rain on your parade but I can't help but wonder if standards are this games secret sauce like Hollow Knight. The magic of an above average game punching so far above its budget might put a certain spell on us. I wonder how our opinions would change if this was made by an established name/really was by a 'ghost writer.'
Unlikely, he's trying to release the witcher 3 video before the end of the year (gave himself an ultimatum that if he hasn't he'll delete everything, twitch, youtube, the lot of it) and seems to be really having a crack at it. He made this one to get back into the rhythm of video making.
I actually like the linear level design with fewer branching paths. The easier navigation and shorter run time, fits better the fact that im getting older and my patience with games is slowly waning
Add to the fact that people doesn't have the amount of free time to explore every bit of crevices just for some garbage. I would rather get stuck and bash my head into a boss rather than spend most of my precious time wandering around for literally nothing. If I want some cool spectacle, just give it to me straight like walking into Anor Londo or Majula. That DS1 place under the tree was cool but I died multiple times just to see some cool decrepit place, I felt like I wasted a ton of my game time trying to get to that place thinking that it was part of the main path
Same here. As I get older and my attention span for video games get shorter I appreciate linear, hand crafted experiences as opposed to huge open world build your own adventure style games.
How can you have problems with Elden Ring's bosses but not have the same problems here. Despite your controversial ER video I still find myself agreeing with your overall opinion there so im suprised you dont have a similar one here.
The difference I think is the parry system that enables you to progress the fight even while evading hits, unlike elden rings dogde that doesn't affect the boss negatively at all. I'm probably about 2/3 through Lies Of P so maybe this gets worse near the end, but as of what I've seen, the long combo strings bossess do are like a risk reward system: 1. You can dodge out of the way and let the boss hit the air a bit, but can't counter attack. 2. You can dodge every attack on strict timing and counter attack, even between certain hits 3. You can parry every hit, which lets you counter attack and deal stagger damage. Usually I could stagger the boss after parrying a big combo and maybe a 3 disparate hits. The big combos become a reward of you're good at parrying them, very similar to sekiro.
Hey "Joe" I think this is probably your best critique, or at least near the top. I'm not really a fan of some of your critique where you take most of the runtime describing each scene or level of the game, so this one feels really nice. It's very concise and to the point on all your arguments. Good job!
The Witcher 3 video will be released one week after the most recent person finishes reading this comment. Right now that means you.
I’m glad to do my part
Oh my god..
Nice
Hype!
Whatever you say 'Joseph'
Still killing it Joseph. I love your videos iv seen every single one at least three times others like the hollow knight video iv seen maybe eight or nine times. I use to fall asleep listening to your longer critique videos. I once had a dream where I had to climb these massive trash mountains using a jet pack and at the top of one was a house where you lived I had a long conversation with you and had dinner with your family. Thank you for your commitment to say pointful and meaningful things about video games.
This might be the most adorable fanboying I ever saw. I mean that as a compliment.
Did he mention the Witcher 3 video?
I'm with you, brother.
"Grandpa, who was Joseph Anderson?"
"Ahhh, yes my boy, that is a name I have not heard in a lifetime. Where did you hear that name?"
"At school."
"Well did they tell you why he was famous?"
"No Grandpa."
"You see, he made long commentary videos for many games, back before you could beam them into your head. You used watch them on the ol' monitor or television screen."
"Wooooow Grandpa, that's amazing. When you were a kid you had to browse content with your eyes?"
"Indeed my boy, no fancy AI brainchips back then."
"What was so special about his videos?"
"They were so long, yet so detailed. He used to review the games that all the youngsters used to play. There was your darksouls and your bethesda games..."
"What's bethesda?"
"Oh some old relic you wouldn't be interested in. BUT his Witcher videos were all the rage!"
"Witcher?"
"It was a game series we used to play and it was all the rage. It's not much now but back then it was the best kinda game you could get. And Joseph would review them for hours!"
"So why was his so famous?"
"He did 2 videos on the first 2 Witcher games, but legends say he will one day grace us with the third"
"You mean he hasnt released it yet?"
"These things take time you see. Long form youtube reviews are an ancient art form."
"Will we ever get to see it?"
"Not in my lifetime, but maybe when you are my age, you'll get to see it in all it's glory."
"Its been so long grandpa, how do you even know if it's real?"
"I have faith my boy... I have faith."
RIP Channel, you will be missed
Clicking on this video and watching up to the spoiler warning just to say I am very much looking forward to watching this once I finish the game. Congrats on getting a video out this year.
I have returned to say I agree on every point. I did enjoy the straightforwardness of the game, it was relaxing to know that I wasn’t missing out on anything like a optional boss because I didn’t turn a certain corner, but on the other hand the big appeal of these games is finding out about that sort of thing whether in the moment or afterward. The big reason Elden ring was so magical was because everyone had these playground style stories about some crazy shit tucked away in a corner. I’m not saying these devs should strive for open world next, but I’d be interested to see how they might take that sort of inspiration going forward.
Looking forward to the Witcher 3 video in a week. Assuming no one else reads the comments section…
Seeing the already lifted elevators post death told me this was such a different game in regards to refining this genre's overall gameplay. Like why do I need to wait for the elevator again? Whos it for down there?
Also, i figure its very much probably a Westernism but I was wondering when the "pin the tail on the donkey" achievement was going to appear if you backstab Mad Donkey 😂
Honest to God, throwing in the little Korok "Hahaha!!" near the end when he got the baton was absolutely hilarious and he set it up so early. Joseph vids have such fun visual and audio humor.
Your last point about the animations was one of the first things that really stood out to me, combined with the viceral enjoyment of perfect parrying. I havent beaten the game yet, got stuck on romeo, but EVERY boss that I've fought has an incredibly readable moveset. Dark Souls taught me, as well as many of us, to circle strafe and dodge roll, so learning the perfect parry system took a little bit of practice, but Im glad I put the work in because it causes the boss fights to be so much more immersive, like a dance.
22:29 Beacoi jumpscare warning
I'm very glad to have come back to this video after beating it... It truly is a special game
This game has the absolute coolest weapons and weapon system in a souls PERIOD. The boss weapons are so fucking cool. This game demands more than one run.
Love hearing unscripted Joe chime in every now and then
Maybe the real Witcher 3 review was the friends we made along the way
Great news guys, the ultimatum worked!
The contrast between Joe's essay and stream personalities is so hilarious
19:06 perfect subtle matching of footage with diction
Best soulslike I've ever played. I was shocked by how polished the gameplay is.
I bought this game on a whim and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made, you broke down exactly what makes this game so special and honestly so surprised this hasn’t caught on to more people’s radars.
Speculatively relevant fact: real world Stephen King was, "plowed over by a minivan" on June 19, 1999.
Lies of P would benefit massively from a boss rush mode that unlocks in NG+.
29:44 what a smooth transition well done
Hey great video man. See you in two years
It seems like only yesterday I was watching a review of The Witness. Thanks, friend.
Just want to give a heads up to anyone considering this game. There is an element of RNG to all damage you deal. Your weapons hit in a range of damage, not at a fixed number, like they do in Souls/Bloodborne. I've watched Joseph's video once or twice and don't remember him mentioning it so I'm just putting it here.
? Its completely negligible though, and ofc its based off what attack you are doing and on what enemy no shit, also some weapons do less damage if you have them slashing or piercing via the handle
@@az90azaaaa You lack critical thinking of you think it's negligible. You might be in a situation where you'd usually kill an enemy in 2 hits, but oh look, this time it took 3, because RNG. That could easily be the difference between life and death. Literally a situation you'd never find yourself in in Bloodborne. At best it's superfluous.
@@ResponsibleToTheRealm im confused as to how much the dmg varies, from what i recall i was consistent with what less than 10 dmg difference? If you are saying that its not negligible because that damage is the difference between life and death then fine, i dont get how that matters though since its a soulslike and you are always gonna die 1 hit away or not
@@az90azaaaa damn dude you talk too much 😭
good one, this is different though @@joshuatealeaves
In defence of the black rabbit brotherhood pt1: they are an excellent way to showcase how to use the different kind of weapons! I didn't realize that you could use the backstab with the faster weapons when you're in a boss fight, but especially for newcomers to the genre (me) it explains how to move and how to attack with the weapon types, and encourages you to use different weapons!
I can’t believe Joseph Anderson killed Richard Bachman 😔
watching this video is just pure vindication, this game IS the very rare and special souls-like
Loved your video too!
I actually liked the inclusion of the Crafting system and the Peni...P-organ system the best. That is because the combat is a mix of bloodborne and sekiro and Lies of P did fine tune it, which is, still at essence just improving existing gameplay. But then making additions to the mix is what elevates the devs for me. You usually cannot just add another system into gameplay without destroying the balance and the devs just pulled this off masterfully. Big P-organ energy.
@@DreamlordGaming I wouldn't say it perfected sekiro's combat, as that game already had perfect combat. I would definitely say that its better than bloodborne's and made its mediocre healing system into something special
Hell yeah. IronPineapple approved.
The visuals of sekiros parry are unmatched though. He has two or three deflect animation that look smooth as water.
I’ve had a frozen turkey dinner waiting for that Witcher 3 video. I hope I survive
Hey Jabo
I gave up waiting
@@alexpims7150I don’t think it’s ever coming
Idk mate, a lot can happen in 20 years
It is a good year when a Joseph Anderson video drops.
See you in 2025
@@TheSergio1021 Quite hopeful, aren't we ?
Good decade when one drops
@@Eogard I'm an optimist
Hbomb and Joe within a few days of each other? It really is Christmas time
Cool to see Joseph experimenting with shorter, more bite sized videos ☺️
Someone said this on the newest hbomberguy video that was almost 4 hours long
Can’t wait to see this exact comment on his Witcher 3 vid lol
@@void2772 hey alright I'm gonna go make myself some toast and do the dishes now
@@jacobhackman8861bro gave a life update
@@trii0dide I'm gonna keep it real with you I got distracted and the dishes remain undished 😿
By Joseph Anderson standards a video of this length is basically a TH-cam Short.
Well I guess it's tough making a long critique about a nearly perfect game. He even had to go around and praise it for 40 minutes of the video just to get to this unimpressive mark.
Kinda cool to see you starting to make video essays alongside your full time streaming career
?????? I love that everyone here is either new or just forgot that this guy has been stringing us along for a godamn Witcher 3 video for like 4 years.
@@column3005it’s clearly a joke
@@HowdyYT very very tone deaf joke. I love this guys stuff, or did when he actually made it. He just decided to soft quit but still lie and say he’s working on shit. I don’t fucking care how long your video is. Doesn’t take 4 years. He can do what he wants that’s fine, but it’s scummy to continue uploading here and just brush over the fact that you’ve been PROMISING a video for almost 4 fucking years.
@@column3005 Ohohohoho did you fall for the bait?
nice to see my fave weeb streamer is branching out ot actually good games!
If you want to be impressed by the boss animations and such in Lies of P, watch their feet. The footwork is impressive and it's what is telegraphing that they aren't quite done yet, most of the time. They adjust their stances to prepare for that next attack, etc.
It’s def the best animated souls game. Including fromsoft
@Kasaaz You're absolutely spot on with that. The mini-boss in the train station a bit before fighting Victor is an enemy that absolutely floored me with not only it's moves but animation fidelity. I have never had as much fun as this game for seeing what the next move from an enemy would be, but that one for in particular was the highlight for me, such a blast.
Now this, this truly is emergent gameplay. In martial arts you can tell a lot about someone you're sparring by where their balance is, and yes that includes how they adjust their feet.
Why you looking at their toes
@@InsertBuffSoundingNameHere Isn't this just good game design and art direction? How is this emergent gameplay?
If you break the eldest brother weapon the first time you fight him, then the second time u fight him it'll still be broken. Didnt figure this out till my 4th playthrough and I think its amazing attention to detail.
mf couldn't find some duct tape
Whatttt, really. I broke the elder sword in the 1st fight and did not pay attention to this in the 2nd fight. Was wondering why he seem kinda easy compared to the first fight
Yeah it's even broken in the cutscene where the younger brother picks it up after the first fight, which I thought was a nice touch.
@@MathewWithOne_T i mean he WAS dead
The system of regaining 1 flask for fighting is so good and creates this loop of "just a few more hits and parries and I can heal", getting it, healing, getting hit, then locking back in to get another
It enables the player to "clutch" a fight which always feels great
Hollow knight did it first
@ross2858 yeah but this game has good combat
@@ross2858 thank you for your input
@@ross2858 Pretty sure it didn't, it was just the popular one.
i got my bachelors degree and two beautiful twins between this and his last video. life is good
LOL
congrats
nice
Slept with twins or had children that are twins? Both are exciting and congrats worthy.
@@martymcfly88mph35you people only ever think about s*x and it's pathetic
I think you did a great job getting the gushing/criticizing ratio right on this video, based what I think your opinion was during the livestreams. (Obviously I'm ignoring the section where you *explicitly* talk about how your videos sometimes come off as more negative than intended)
I usually stop watching after a couple of minutes because of it. It goes into rants and nitpicking too much too fast.
hi marik
What a stupid video
the fact that the devs listened and put rising dodge in the base dodge set in a patch is great. i love that they're listening.
Oh thank God that was legitmately one of my main critiques of the game. That legitmately made the early game significantly less fun.
The other critique I had was that it heavily incentivizes smaller faster weapons, or a few smaller weapons on heavy handles to mitigate the slow moveset. Smashing an enemy with unbridled aggression with either quick charged heavies or a flurry of light blows feels infintely more substantial in building stagger compared to perfect parries
@@jordannoell4222 The high block% and HP rally rate of heavy weapons more than make up for their slower speed.
@@jordannoell4222 The high block% and HP rally rate of heavy weapons more than make up for their slower speed.
@@jordannoell4222 I played the game exclusively with heavy weapons (heavy pipe wrench, frozen feast and coil mjolnir) and they are absolutely viable, but you will have to make an appropriate adjustment to your mentality and playstyle, you can't play it like you would Sekiro.
The only opponents where it truly felt like they didn't work well were the NPC fights. It's also frustrating when stronger enemies idle point-blank. With a slow weapon you often cannot safely go for an attack, so you're left with no option but to just... wait until they do something.
Not just that, they took all the things soulborne fans have been saying for years into account and acted on it: putting bonfire / stargazer near boss fights is a small yet massive benefit, although, yes it makes the game easier.
Thank you to Tommy Tallarico for making this 48 minute video about Lies of P, the adaptation of Pinocchio by James Somerton!
His mother must be very proud
help my subscriptions are leaking into each other
Reading this made me think I was in the twilight zone for a second. I literally just watched that video.
Based on "Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi
@@riccardomazzaro1901+2 holy shit +2
Seeing you use the Holy Sword in actual sword mode is crazy to me, that bad boy was in glaive mode the whole time for me. This game is a triumph and i'm so happy to hear you praise it so highly.
I love that sword but once I realised glaive mode gives a 20-30% damage debuff I never touched it again
@@mrhattttttt holy shit I never noticed that, now I love this weapon even more. The long mode was still doing plenty of damage and quickly too, and the range was great for attacking without needing to adjust position first. But now switching it up makes more sense, as usual this game is even better designed than it seems at first glance.
You know you made an absolutely incredible game when even Joseph Anderson cannot resist heaping praise on it for 40 minutes. It's like I fell into an alternate universe.
I know right? He sounds so happy, too. He's like "I have so much praise I'm gonna have to flip the order I do these videos and start with the critique" and it works. Good formula.
I think this may also a change that is based on people criticizing that Joseph is overly negative when reviewing, even when he likes the game 🤔
Lies of P is a better game than TW3 using this logic, and I have to seriously hard-disagree.
@@sheezum Personally I don't think that counts as what they're trying to be as games is different. Witcher 3 is a narrative driven open world title whereas Lies Of P is a highly linear action adventure with very well tuned and balanced combat. They're both great but the priorities of the developers are different.
@@sheezumDamn right bro. Lies of PEAK > TW3
Don't lie. If Lies of P had a cart that you could carry to the end of the game, it would be your GOTY.
But it is his goty
It already is???
What is this in reference to?
@@JackRaiden12 Thwarted again by acting as if I've watched the full video. When will I learn?
@@realkingofantarcticaits crazy for u to say that when he said it was his goty within the first 3 minutes lmao
As someone who absolutely LOVES souls games themselves but can't stand most of the "souls-likes", I remember watching the first gameplay video of Lies of P that was released and thinking that this was going to be a very special game. Playing through the demo completely blew me away and the full release genuinely impressed me more than I thought was possible. The developers caught lightning in a bottle here and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait for more.
Yeah I'm a hardcore Souls fan who did all achievements in all of them but every "souls-like" felt like a cheap knockoff to me. This is the first one that actually feels like something From made themselves. Very impressive game
Same here. Dark Souls is my favorite series ever, but I've never played a "soulslike" because they look so stiff and lifeless compared to the main series, as if the jank of Dark Souls 2 was amplified even more.
Lies of P is a FromSoft-tier game, and that makes me so happy
HE'S ALIVE
Also if you remember PT was developed by a team under the name 7780 studios, which ended up being Kojimas team. So that part of the intro about game development under pseudonyms actually has happened before.
I 100% recommend checking out his streams if you miss the videos! They’re some of the most fun experiences I’ve seen on twitch!
@@Evanz111ok but where???? He let the second channel die with 99% of his streams not getting uploaded
@@xscaralienx9398other channels are out there. Highlights. Full Vods of the streams..
@@xscaralienx9398 he has a twitch channel.andersonjph . Same dragon pic lul.
@@xscaralienx9398 Twitch as some of the most recent VODs and the TH-cam channel "Falco" has most of his streams from the last few years with chat.
Amazing video! I talk about the animation timing going into principles of animations, such as anticipation and reaction and the squash and stretch principles. I’m a graduate in animation, so my knowledge isn’t great. But in my review video talking about the game, I completely agree. The smoothness from this game is something people aren’t talking about enough. To show the comparison, I showed the animations of Jedi Survivor. It’s night and day. No hate on that game. But P is insane! But seriously amazing video!
Just watched it. Good vid, man. Loved the boss play-by-play.
@@JosephAndersonChannel Thank you so much!
Wow! I really liked the video. There are some surprisingly similar points!
Exactly! Lies of P has some of the best animations I've ever seen in a video game. It's on a whole other level.
Just subbed to you. I hope you grow well.
I think I have an idea why the dodge might feel off to a lot of people, myself included. This issue has been developing throughout the souls series. A dodge, on the face of it, is supposed to get you out of the way of the attack - you don't get damage cause you don't even get hit. In order to make that actually work in souls gameplay, i-frames were added to mitigate the feeling of "No fair, I should've dodged that!". As the players figured out the i-frames, the function of the dodge has shifted. Instead of getting out of the range of the attack, players have started using the i-frames to phase through the hurtbox and stay in range - this makes perfect gameplay sense, but doesn't match what actually happens on screen, where the character literally dives face-first into the attack, and yet receives no damage. Still, the dodge roll animation gives at least some verisimilitude to the idea that you actually avoided the attack.
Getting to Lies of P, the dodge is again presented as the option to 'get out of the way' of the attack. In practice, however, the dodge is very short range, and the animation doesn't feel quite so crisp, so when people try to use the dodge intuitively, they feel like it doesn't create enough distance to avoid the attack, and you often end up getting clipped either by the end of the attack, or by the next one in a combo. So, in people's minds, the dodge doesn't do what it's supposed to do, making it feel bad. If you do think about it as more of a 'phase through the attack with i-frames', dodge starts feeling a lot better, and now the tutorial message about not being able to 'dodge' red attacks makes more sense - indeed, you can't phase through them, but you can still move out of the way.
I think they knew it so they made "link dodge" for these players, so you cover more ground with more I-frames, taxing your stamina more but allowing you breathing room
This game has some janky korean bullshit in it.
Did you have that issue with Bloodborne? To me it doesn't really feel any different than that. That is to say, fine.
I think I mostly agree with this. Something that made the dodge feel janky to me is the fact it works different locked and unlocked, and if it's the second dodge with the chain dodge perk. With the perk and being unlocked, the sidestep turns into a roll. The roll either has more forgiving s or the fact that it makes you lower to the ground means you can clear more attack hit boxes. I especially noticed this with Nameless Puppet. He hit me every time regardless of when I dodged until I just unlocked and started rolling around. Then I could seemingly dodge whenever and still miss the attack.
It's been funny seeing all the reviews for this game say "I started having more fun when I stopped deflecting/guarding. It's way easier to dodge," when I had the exact opposite experience. I fucking *hated* the dodge. Granted I'm more of a Sekiro guy, but the moment I started just deflecting everything is when I had the easiest and most fun time. So easy to break weapons and build posture damage for heavies that way.
@@Ashanmarili 100% agree with the original comment and i respond to you saying yes i feel like that also in BB, which is by far my least favourite fromsoft game. I know both lies of P and BB are great games but i cannot enjoy them to the fullest. Also i add that some times in life of p i tried to dodge against the enemy and i would get stuck to it. All in all is my fault for not being able to accostume to these two games.
"In lies of P, I just want to fight." really sums up my main engagement with the game and why I didn't mind the linear level design. It even got to a point where the levels felt like obstacles to gameplay more so than avenues, of course that might have been my desire to finish the game before my attention moved to something else, but also Soulslike levels can be fairly tiring to play through, with that constant sense of being worn down and danger. Especially so for P, since the Elites in this game tend to be rather challenging and will kick you back to the checkpoint most times you meet them, and Lies so loves to place them as final tests before the next checkpoint. So near the end I would have liked to have Lies embrace it's linearity a bit more and condense the final gauntlet to let the Boss fights and story shine more than they already do.
It's been like this for a while now, but the stigma around linearity in games baffles me. A large portion of the best games ever made are linear. It also allows for a more "scripted" experience, determining what you face and when. It's a huge reason why Sekiro has much better boss fights than the other From games, it's not just the fact that they built around a single moveset but could handcraft when you fought them.
Open worlds are a novelty. Elden Ring will never be as enjoyable as the first playthrough, while things like Lies will be consistently engaging. Just my two cents.
@@mdbattlefrog1913i think middle ground is best. I MUCH prefer linear to open world but a balance is best imo like dark souls 1 or 2.
Linear only gets a bad rep because open world has been a dominant genre for a long time. When I started gaming almost everything was linear. Personally as much as I love open world games, I'll take a tightly focused and crafted linear game over a baggy, pretty but boring open world one where you're forever doing nothing but running between checkpoints that are miles apart, or slowly riding a horse there etc. Lies Of P doesn't need horses like Arkham City didn't need a Batmobile, and both games are better for it.
@@InsertBuffSoundingNameHere the batmobile point lmao that's honestly a great take.
@@mdbattlefrog1913 Thank you. I've thought that since Knight came out, but at the time everyone thought I was wrong. Years later, most people agree. Funny how that works 😁
I was a freshman in college when I first started watching your channel (first video was on Bloodborne) and my own journey has been influenced by your videos, thank you Joe for all you do
and people by you! thanks for YOUR vids as well man
its the destiny guy!
yo
You can deflect the White Lady's counterattack if she catches you in the parry :))) I didn't figure that out until my second playthrough, but i still didn't really struggle with it because with any boss fight that involves a sword I would always do nothing but parry them until their sword breaks HAHAHAHA - you can do that with the brotherhood big guy too!
I've literally never even come close to losing that fight, nor did I even know she had a parry. She has what feels like the lowest damaging attacks in the entire game, and a SUPREME weakness to side dodges.
@@thepowerfulpaet4937she is an absolute bitch at punishing backwards dodges. she's not difficult if you don't have the habit of doing that
I remember watching someone fight the Nameless Puppet. At a certain distance the boss won't lundge at you, but will run in an arc to set up a swing. There is something about the way it sprints at you that is so lifelike and so god damned creepy. Whoever animated this game needs an award
The Lies of P developers come off as people who have very deeply been intertwined with the genre and have a deep understanding of the mechanics and nuances of both the genre and videogames as a whole, who understand certain frustrations or decisions that dont really add to the fun and proposing solutions for issues that are sometimes forgotten or taken as standard nowadays, for example consumables, an often very neglected aspect of the genre, which most people usually never use due to their underwhelming performance or scarcity, actually end up being a pretty decent tool to use even outside the very first areas of the game.
The weapon system was also so insanely clever to me not only because of the immense room for experimentation but also because it partly fixes the issue of getting a new weapon but having to upgrade it to see if its worth your time, sure you may still need to upgrade the handle when you want to try a new moveset, but it really adds to the joy of finding a new weapon when you dont have to immediately discard it because it doesn't fit your build or you cant be bothered to try it because it takes resources you would rather use in upgrading your current weapon.
Amulets and the P-Organ's upgrade systems also feel meaningful, you may still stick to a few amulets or gravitate towards some upgrades you feel as more impactful, but you dont end up with 5% chance of poison damage you forget you even got, Joseph perfectly encapsulates the feeling of those in the video so i don't feel like i need to add anything more, so to quote, "Because a 50/50 chance to deal extra lightning damage to burning enemies on Tuesday mornings, is shit game design." (Paraphrased)
But my respect for this game and its developers reached its absolute peak when i learned that they added busted silly "for the hell of it" upgrades for NG+, which is something that i feel not enough games do, add extra layers for the player to mess around with the system and simply have fun with it, sure someone could have made a mod of that at some point and it would have been the same thing, but its the acknowledgment of it, and it tells me of people who wished of this on their favorite games and thought to include it because of it, maybe im just projecting but nevertheless this is a game that understands fun, and im all here for it.
This is nicely put, good points. They've decluttered the BS from these kind of progression systems and made genuine mechanic rewards for people who New Game, not just "hey you get to keep all your stuff and oh the enemies are a bit tougher now, bye". So there's some subtle innovation too. In 2023 which has been a bit of a disappointing year for gaming, this and Alan Wake 2 look even more stunning
They definitely understand the most frustrating part of all souls like games ever in the history of human kind are STATUS EFFECTS and decided to DOUBLE DOWN on it. I will spend the rest of my days on this Earth searching for one person who has ever said "Oh yeah, I REALLY love when my game has STATUS EFFECTS in them." They are anti-fun, get them out of the game. It would be really nice if one mob hit me a single time and gave me 30 seconds of drained health and weapon durability. FUCK YES. God I LOVE status effects. "Use your anti fun potion to cure the status effect!" No dude, I don't play these games to shuffle through 10 items and drink a potion after every time an enemy hits me. No one does.
yes in fact, but they failed copying dark souls, they cannot make elden ring yet, lies of p has alot bugs .
@@dillydallyyyy I love the status effects. Normally they're just an inconvenience that's there seemingly out of tradition more than anything else. But in this game they're more like the basilisks in dark souls where it ends up functioning as an alternative kind of attack that facilitates greater enemy variety.
Holy shit he never lies
Lies of J
@@nanashi7779not this time 🥳
We are so back
He's a puppet!
@@Pyreatehe's not even a dragon
@@gdttdeggegdh5471don’t break my immersion
I’m gonna say it and I don’t care who hears it. I like linear games. I like games that are designed to be played in a specific order of areas/bosses. I don’t like stumbling into an area that I’m vastly underleveled for just to realize I’m not supposed to be here yet, and that I need to go through other areas to level up before returning to try again. But I don’t like lies of P, I love lies of P. Game of the year.
When the world needed him most, he returned
This must've been a very taxing comment to type. It's so incredibly original, analytical and high effort that I'm sure it will greatly influence and emotionally move those who read it.
@@yuanwang9324 Thanks for typing exactly what I was thinking. Also, I hope your day and mood gets better, if it's as sour as mine is.
@@yuanwang9324 what can I say, I'm just that good at coming up with banger comments (It took all of my brain power to think of it)
@@ThatOneGuyNamedLemon I can't wait to see what you come up with next. You're going places, buddy! Take care.
@@ThatOneGuyNamedLemonthe clap back is real, you a real one OP we were all thinking this comment.😂
I really enjoyed these streams, combination of the game actually being good and Joe enjoying it. Can't believe we played this and True (Colours) in the same year
CAN WE GET SOME TRUE COLORS IN THE CHAAT?!
Yeah these were cream streams imo, it was fun watching Joe really enjoy himself with this awesome game
Lies of Peak Sweep, absolutely incredible game. Frankly I was so burned out on soulslikes that I thought I'd never touch the genre again, but this game changed that in a single boss fight. Beyond amazing.
Which boss?
@@MrGandymanjr It was the Watchman, it's such a fun interactive fight. Immediately recharged me on soulslikes.
I thought it was really weird how you were throwing shade at Elden Ring’s bosses while Lies of P’s bosses do exactly what you complained about ER’s bosses doing, but WAY worse. The delays on fury attacks are egregious, they turn entire fights into guessing games, far more than in Elden Ring. Some bosses’ fury attacks can’t even be run away from reliably, forcing you to learn these absurdly tight timings with no tells through trial and error.
I just thinks it’s strange that you didn’t see this as an issue while you lambasted ER bosses for it.
But you cant parry in ER like you can in this game. A direct comparison on hard to dogde flurries cant be made imo
@@piotr78 it’s the same principle regardless of parrying.
Obnoxiously long windup followed by a lightning fast attack that you can’t react to. It’s actually more forgiving in Elden Ring, as you have more I-frames on the dodge than P has on deflect. So your only option with fury attacks is to deflect or run away, but you physically can’t outrun some fury attacks due to their speed or crazy range.
Edit: I’m talking about fury attacks, not flurry attacks. Fury attacks are the ones where the boss or enemy turns red and goes into their windup
Can you believe it guys? Only one more day until channel deletion!!! Channel deletion only one day away!!
Only a few hours left🙏
Hahahahha
The Alan Wake footage during the discussion of Stephen King is hilarious lmao... I bet he thought those Alan Wake streams were paying off dividends as he was editing this
Guys, he meant the Chinese new year.
Joe, we don't want the video, we want you back
I second that. It's been painful :(
I'm really curious about the design and implementation process of movesets in a game like this. Assuming the model artist, character animator, and "combat design lead" are all different people, it seems like it would be remarkably difficult for all three to work together. All three elements are constrained by each other. The animator can only animate what's been modeled. The artist doesn't know how their creation will be animated. The combat director has to communicate a vision for both that suits gameplay needs and needs to find a way to do so with pretty limited language. (Try describing even a simple dance move in enough detail for someone who has never seen it before to recreate it well without an example and you will find out how hard this is.) Then go through the process of playtesting and adjusting things, which requires more nuanced work from all three parties in sync with each other.
Coming up with a workflow for something like this is an incredible achievement on its own on the studio's part. Clearly they found something that worked, considering how many unique and well designed weapons + enemies are in the game.
I was just thinking this myself. I wonder how they do it.
Witcher 3 Video is gonna be like waiting for Half Life 3
"They had a strong grasp on their P-Organ and what makes it work." I also had a strong grasp on my P-Organ while playing this game. Great video, I loved this game too and I'm so glad you're back to talk about it :)
They are so confident with their skill tree mechanic that they aren't even afraid to name it the P-Organ!
Cringe
When I did some of the translations for this studio (and this game) while I was in Korea, I immediately knew that this is a game Joseph Anderson will review and adore the hell out of. Glad to have been proven right ^^
So you're the one responsible for "p-organ"? 🧐
@@fernandofaria2872 Nope, there was a list of predetermined words to use while translating which they likely just did inhouse prior to that. Some employees speak English somewhat of course, just not to the extent and accuracy someone like me does. It's also usually not a single translator doing the full translation, most of the time it gets reviewed by another translator, or projects as big as this one have texts be split up in sections. That can only be the case because I certainly see a couple of sentences and words (especially later on in the game), which I had never seen myself.
@@yanniclord-gg Do you think the translations were done well? I've seen a couple of Korean players asking whether or not the english sometimes sounds cringe (kind of does in some parts, mostly Gemini) but I can't compare it to the original since I can't read Korean.
+7 days
Kinda cool to see you starting to make video essays alongside your full time the witcher 3 video is coming soon career
where witcher
so the new video coming out by the new year was a total lie huh
No shit lol. He lies, it's what he does dude
@@PeachShortcake_ ok DUDE. sure BRO. do a flip when you go PAL
I remember when he tweeted that witcher 3 will be uploaded soon .... in 2022
No Witcher 3 vid, channel still here. Lies of J
He's nothing but a liar now, it's actually really sad
@@PeachShortcake_ Yeah like I could get if he just outright said he isn't working on it but this is pretty egregious
Based on what I've seen, a lot of 'dodge is weird/bad' argument came from those who primarily relied on 'moving out of the way' as in avoiding the hitbox entirely rather than utilizing i-frame invulnerability to dodge 'through' enemy attacks.
Also, from what I've seen and experienced (from playing the game), a lot of big, sweeping attacks from enemies (particularly the elites and bosses) are specifically designed to catch those who try to panic roll out of the way, away from the enemy in most cases.
It is kind of interesting that I found out that 'dodging toward the incoming enemy' was often the most effective way to avoid attacks in both Lies of P... and Armored Core 6. (Against difficult, fast bosses)
I can believe that, as someone who's played a lot of souls games, for some reason I played as if i-frames weren't a thing and it only really dawned on me after I was stuck in my ways as mostly parrying things. No idea how it got to that point, maybe I just played sekiro too recently?
This is very odd to me, as I basically instantly learned to dodge towards things the moment I learned how i-frames worked in souls games.
If there's one thing I take seriously, it's him saying "play it yourself and then come back" whenever he really enjoyed a title
I might've squee'd when I saw a new Joseph Anderson video! Waiting ever so patiently for Witcher 3, absolutely thrilled you're still making content while tackling that beast of a project!
Ha! Gayyyyyyyy
Brother you know he gave up on that like 2 years ago
@@fatboyvladimir1555 he did?
@@mejdlocraftci no, he has said that if he doesn't finish/post it by the end of 2023 he will delete his youtube/twitch, but it is unclear if that was genuine.
@@meep1342He usually trolls around with this topic
There is much about the mechanics of combat nobody really discusses and could deserve its own essay. For example, LoP breaks a cardinal From Soft rule: you got boss combos that are rhythm (think Genichiro's 7-hit flurry) where you can't eyeball the tell and react to each individual strike. Then you have boss combos where you watch the tell and can visually time the response. FS has loads of bosses that have both types of attack, especially in Sekiro and Bloodborne. What they do NOT ever do is mix and match within the same combo. For example, Laxasia's 13 hit combos. Part of them you can eyeball and respond to, but the tempo ramps it into a rhythm move that's waaaay too fast to eyeball, then back out again.
Granted, it is possible to learn to deal with these... whether this is a design no-no or simply a legit way amp the challenge is a matter for debate.
i love that combo, got to a point where I could close my eyes and parry all of them, I don't think attacks should be able to be eyeballed immediately, dying is natural and in this case you always do learn something new or something to improve on with each death or each hit that you take, which has been a staple for every boss fight (except for last ER dlc boss lol)
But ofc that's just my opinion, and you're completely right that I wish this topic was explored and debated more, as far too often I see people just complain that "it had a long windup and a quick attack so I didn't like it" I think it's so much more nuanced than that, you are the first person I've seen to point out the mixing of these kinds of attacks and discern them
starting out with a small p organ and then making it bigger over time sounds like great gameplay
Looks like he'd rather delete his channel then release the Witcher 3 vid...
George R.R. Martin is going to finish all of the A Song of Ice and Fire books by the time the witcher 3 video releases.
Your writing keeps improving every time. Loved the self awareness about positive/negative points in the format. I wish there were more joseph video essays to go around
Nice treat to find in my feed. Just finished watching your playthrough too. Glad you made this. This game is such a gem.
Crazy to know that when I see a 45+ minute video all I can think is, “guess it’s a short one”. 😭
It took some time but lies of p really grew on me, especially with ng+ runs. Hi-Fi rush is my GOTY because it felt hard to find flaws and it tries to evolve a genre with new ideas and it never felt stretched. But lies of p came in a strong second for me.
damn that transition at 29:45 is gorgeous
Imagine if Joe didnt release the witcher video to just rebrand himself, with his real name like "Tony brown" or something
I'm not gonna lie, I shed a tear. Welcome back man, hope you are all good.
He's been streaming on twitch in the meantime
@@depalodorwho cares? I watch him for the scripted videos, not his bumbling streaming.
@@ghostoflazlo???? The original commenter probably does?
@@ghostoflazlohis streaming is peak
This ain't about you@@ghostoflazlo
the links to other "fairytale" works is done so incredibly well in this game. someone else had to point out to me that Victor is a Victor von Frankenstein reference to me before i figured it out, and then i felt like an idiot for not getting it. even his boss arena reflects it, yet it still felt fresh and original while being inspired by something else
Joseph Anderson is posting shorts now?!?!
Really hope you’re ok. At this point I mostly want the Witcher 3 video to come out so you can put that saga behind you lol.
Legit not trying to rain on your parade but I can't help but wonder if standards are this games secret sauce like Hollow Knight. The magic of an above average game punching so far above its budget might put a certain spell on us. I wonder how our opinions would change if this was made by an established name/really was by a 'ghost writer.'
I know you pinned the comment but I'm still gonna say it.
Bruh.. where's witcher 3 video 😂😂
That's true, but I will need two more reviews to convince me on giving this videogame a try.
And while we're at it, let's ask the magic orb
And now were going to have to wait another year for a video, that, strangely enough, wont be the witcher 3, cause why not.
Btw, great video
Unlikely, he's trying to release the witcher 3 video before the end of the year (gave himself an ultimatum that if he hasn't he'll delete everything, twitch, youtube, the lot of it) and seems to be really having a crack at it. He made this one to get back into the rhythm of video making.
@@rex_yaldabaothso about that lol
surely tomorrow (day 2)
wtf you can hold left click on a video to go 2x speed?
Waiting patiently for you to delete all your channels
I actually like the linear level design with fewer branching paths. The easier navigation and shorter run time, fits better the fact that im getting older and my patience with games is slowly waning
Add to the fact that people doesn't have the amount of free time to explore every bit of crevices just for some garbage. I would rather get stuck and bash my head into a boss rather than spend most of my precious time wandering around for literally nothing. If I want some cool spectacle, just give it to me straight like walking into Anor Londo or Majula. That DS1 place under the tree was cool but I died multiple times just to see some cool decrepit place, I felt like I wasted a ton of my game time trying to get to that place thinking that it was part of the main path
Same here. As I get older and my attention span for video games get shorter I appreciate linear, hand crafted experiences as opposed to huge open world build your own adventure style games.
How can you have problems with Elden Ring's bosses but not have the same problems here. Despite your controversial ER video I still find myself agreeing with your overall opinion there so im suprised you dont have a similar one here.
yeah i wonder if maybe guarding and parrying for some reason helped him ignore that problem somehow
Because the combat is different enough
@@thebuddah1253 Fair enough. I disagree though. It's just as, if not more annoying here.
The difference I think is the parry system that enables you to progress the fight even while evading hits, unlike elden rings dogde that doesn't affect the boss negatively at all. I'm probably about 2/3 through Lies Of P so maybe this gets worse near the end, but as of what I've seen, the long combo strings bossess do are like a risk reward system:
1. You can dodge out of the way and let the boss hit the air a bit, but can't counter attack. 2. You can dodge every attack on strict timing and counter attack, even between certain hits
3. You can parry every hit, which lets you counter attack and deal stagger damage. Usually I could stagger the boss after parrying a big combo and maybe a 3 disparate hits. The big combos become a reward of you're good at parrying them, very similar to sekiro.
I can't wait for the sequel Lies of Q, which will focus on the 2020 Us election
“Richard Bachman was killed in 1985 the same year I was born. I didn’t kill him”
Yeah sure and you aren’t a weeb Joe
i dont actually think this guy is THAT smart
He clearly has an ego problem
Hey "Joe" I think this is probably your best critique, or at least near the top. I'm not really a fan of some of your critique where you take most of the runtime describing each scene or level of the game, so this one feels really nice. It's very concise and to the point on all your arguments.
Good job!