Lies of P Review: Some Strings Attached
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2025
- Lies of P is an incredible Soulslike, arguably the best ever. However, it continues the genres recent trend of pushing the difficulty to the extreme, challenging the most hardcore players, while leaving more casual fans in the dust. For me, Lies of P struggles because it tries to incorporate systems from Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Sekiro without fully going all in on one. At the same time, bosses are overpowered and borderline unfair for a multitude of reasons. Still, Lies of P will endure as a great soulslike in part because of the combat, but also because it's incredible storytelling and strong art direction.
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Link to Borrowed Footage: • Video
Reflecting on this video a bit, and while I stand by most of what I said, I do think I unfairly judged the game/developer intentions after only playing through it once. As a result, I re-titled this video as a review, instead of a critique. Lies of P is a fantastic game that I did really enjoy. As a reviewer, I should take more time with a game before making videos based off a single playthrough, at least when it comes to these sorts of games with tons of depths. Keeping up with new releases makes it tough, but I hope to be better as we move forward.
I've just finished the game today and had a blast with it, playing version 1.5
It seems like you've played version 1.1 and the developers improved it quite a bit with just a few patches, addressing most of the issues that were raised with it which are basically the same ones you point out in the review.
So I think rather than unfair, you've just been early :D
I didn't really find the game that hard at all with a Technique build. I was keeping track of how many times I died and the most times were to Laxasia and that was 20+ times, most other bosses took less than 10. I feel like the game was way more balanced than Elden Ring and DS3 because those games come down to being a spam roll fest, while Lies of P promotes multiple different ways to dodge attacks.
I want to replay the game with a light build.. I felt dodging was punished by so many bosses but maybe it was because I was slightly heavy.
@@nopnapnarp8047 I think positioning is heavily rewarded like in the first phase of Laxasia you can dodge most of the attacks by just being positioned well (like the 10+ hit combo she does), I also wanna replay the game with a different build as well!
Yes! Laxasia first phase is pretty easy, but can take a long time to get through. The second phase then begins with that lightning attack, which you can parry, but I never managed to do so. Lost a lot of runs just by reaching phase 2. Skill issue for sure there. Wish I could have practiced more by shortening up the first phase a bit.
I also felt that the gotcha traps and the two phase bosses were a bit too much, but overall the game is pretty fun.
And I think you made the bosses seem almost impossible to beat with "conventional" tactics, but I disagree. I mainly use that heavy sword from the start of the game (I'm on NG++ rn), and it's super slow.
I think the idea isn't even to perfect block everything. I think the idea is to understand when to dodge, when to block, when to run away and of course, when to attack.
And that's... well, isn't that what Dark Souls is all about?
For most bosses you WILL have to stay super close (for what I remember, maybe the only exception is the rabbit brotherhood or whatever they're called).
I'm rambling.
And I mostly use that sword because of the perfect parry fable art. It helps a LOT.
Also, right at the start of the game, I felt that stamina was going to be a problem for me, so I leveled my stamina up and it worked like a charm.
Yeah I'd like to replay the game with a strength emphasis. I did really enjoy this game, I just felt many bosses had more difficulty than is necessary.
-the "gotcha" traps did not seem overdone to me in my playthrough, and you only showed gameplay from one area
-the stamina recovery is insanely fast if you aren't heavy and I think that makes up for needing to block hits, I personally put about 4 levels into stamina the entire game
-the rally system only working when blocking makes sense imo, because it gives a crutch for learning parries, without outright forcing you into that playstyle
-all of the issues you listed for bosses are skills issues im sorry lmao, ironically the boss that I found to have too much health was scrapped watchman. I dont understand the argument that you want first phases to be worse or skippable, a good or bad first phase can make or break a fight and just because they make the fight harder, I think they overall improve the quality of bosses because they themselves for the most part are good. For example the first phase of the puppet king is one of my favorites just by itself, but having a great second phase just overall improves it.
-being asked a lot in a boss fight is nothing new. Sekiro very often makes it difficult to heal and making 1 mistake often leads to death. Elden Ring bosses can read your flask inputs and require u to run far away before healing. Lies of P has neither input reading to my knowledge or situations where you can die because of a single missed parry.
-Elden ring does a much worse job at unending combos imo, the difference being that in Lies of P u can parry everything, where in elden ring you literally cannot dodge every attack if u are too close
-the bosses not being fair without summoning is completely subjective as you mentioned
-saying you liked door guardian after complaining about stamina is insane lmao
-the only difference with victor is that he has double health in one bar, rather than half in 2, I really dont understand what makes him better aside from him just being an easier fight
-the bosses regening is very minimal and encourages aggression
-I agree that the ergo felt very limited, and if you didnt kill every enemy at least once that issue is probably even worse, but at the same time i felt every stat upgrade was underwhelming except capacity
-The nameless puppet did not seem to have any unfair mechanics to me, and actually seemed similar to gael in that it was not too difficult but still an outstanding fight, but again skill varies
Overall I felt like your critique was fair, but i think you could've focused on other aspects of the game being unfair instead of bosses, such as the arcade and some other areas having way too many strong enemies in row which made the progression feel a bit prolonged, but even that issue was very uncommon. In the end I don't think the game being relatively difficult brings it down for the veterans, and I absolutely loved the challenge, and I can see how it makes it frustrating for new players, but again I found the difficulty very fun and not unfair at all.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! I appreciate the feedback, and my one regret with this video is not having had the chance to play it 3-5 times all the way through. Certainly could have changed my thoughts!
- The gotcha traps are everywhere, not all kill you. I showed footage from multiple areas including Alchemist Isle and Barren Swamp. I wish I had showed the one in Vegnini's Factory.
- I'll concede that my build may have affected game feel. I was slightly heavy throughout. I mention that in the video too.
- Agree to disagree
- Scrapped Watchmen was a boss I didn't comment on much because I used it to test the summoning mechanic early. Skill issue is for sure a factor!! I don't think taking away a few second phases, increasing parry window timing, etc would have made the game a cake walk though.
- I could be wrong, but it for sure felt like Lies of P read my inputs. They also seem to redirect agro from a summon to you as soon as they enter the vulnerable window to stun them with a heavy attack. I think Sekiro is tough, but not being limited by stamina helps a ton.
- Elden Ring...sigh. I don't believe the bosses in that game are anywhere near From's best work...I agree though! Parrying everything in Lies of P is nice, if you're good at it. Some more opportune windows would be appreciated by me.
-- I love Door Guardian! He is slow, so even when you have the shocked status effect, it's still do-able.
- If you have a link to show where each boss's HP total is displayed, I would love to see it. I couldn't find it. Even if that's true, I think keeping it to a single health bar is a lot more player friendly mentally. Emptying a bar only to see it refill is deflating.
- Yes I agree
- Yes I agree. Leveling up felt negligible.
- I like the idea of Puppet more on paper than the actual fight. It's like the game saying, you want the good ending? Well prove it.
I appreciate the feedback and thoughts. These are just my thoughts based on my own experience. I certainly love the game, and may have been a bit harsh on it. Clearly I'm not the most skilled at the game. Despite completing every From Software game, I do feel I'll be weeded out of this genre soon enough, sadly.
Played through the game 4 times now and the bosses are the best part of the game, except maybe the phenomenal soundtrack. Certainly they were wonderful after Elden Ring whose bosses were nearly all hyperaggressive, inconsistent, and had no stamina or spell limitations at all and bosses that felt thrown together. Some of the worst offenders were Malenia, Elden Beast, Godskin duo, Crucible Knight duo, Commander Nyall, and Gideon Ofnir, but there are way more than that. Elden Ring had many beautiful things but by far the crappiest most unfun bosses in the entire Souls like genre. Whereas, with Lies of P, the only bosses i don't look forward to are Swamp Monster (phase 1), the first Rabbit fight, and Door Guardian. Otherwise, the bosses are every bit as good as DS3 or Bloodborne.
Somebody got triggered
@@doomraven0 LoL, considering Lies of P issues have all of these issues, only worse. No stamina issue, constant hyperarmor, constant "gotcha" combos where they'll sneak one more hit in when it looks their attack has ended, very little downtime...you are trolling.
Agreeing with basically all of your points here and it's hard to speak of this game objectively and in isolation, as it just SO closely imitates the Souls formula that you have deja-vus even if you ever just played 1 or 2 of the original Souls games. Big props for it looking great visually and running well too in today's market as well!
But after beating LoP and going back to Sekiro and Dark Souls 3, I appreciate the FromSoft games even more. LoP is a very good Soulslike, although also very flawed mechanically IMO, as it just tries to combine many elements from the FromSoft games without optimizing the gameplay around those aspects. For me it ended up being challenging for the wrong reasons, often feeling like you fight the game itself, the mechanics, the animations and the camera, not even the enemies within it. I was hoping for Sekiro x Bloodborne, but this was not it unfortunately, closer to a Dark Souls type experience that relies on perfect parries but also doesn't reward it as much. High hopes for the developers' next release in this direction though, just hoping they don't amp up the (BS) difficulty even more and maybe try to also stray away from some of the Souls tropes in favor of creating a fresh experience. Also, how is nobody comparing the lore and atmosphere more to Bioshock? Ruined bleak city after a huge collapse/disaster, mutants, masked characters, the music? Bloodborne has very different architecture and both gothic and cosmic horror inspiration.
Awesome comment that I find myself agreeing with heavily! I just never got into the groove with this game. Never felt like i was getting the hang of things or understanding what the game expected of me. Bloodborne and Sekiro ideas clashing
@@nopnapnarp8047 I think just minor things would help to fix the "hybrid" gameplay tbh. More lenient parry timings, perfect parries not sending you flying backwards, full rally system that lets you recover health when hit even without guarding, etc. It seems that they just took everything that made the games hard without also giving you the mechanics that made the respective elements work. Or maybe both of us are just noobs that refuse to git gud.
Yeah I mean this comment has been refreshing because there's been plenty of people telling me I'm just bad at the game and don't understand it. Which, to be fair, I only played through the game once before making this video which limits my perspective. But I find myself agreeing with a lot of what you're saying. They gave you similar mechanics to Bloodborne and Sekiro but skewed them in the enemies favor by limiting how much they help you (Tough parry windows, not a lot of health gained back by rallying, etc)
You know what, I played Elden Ring as my first souls and souls like title... I naturally sucked, but the game itself was so worth my while that I "soldiered on".
Like you're saying I think people are usually "phased" by the difficulty in this genre, however, one of them at some point will be someone's first, if they want to play one that badly, they'll find a way to stick to it even if it's not "begginner friendly".
Great video! Lies of p is my game of the year so far. Love this game
It's certainly up there for me too!
I am by no means a Souls god, i would call myself a casual gamer but i do have a lot of patience. In NG+2 now and i love Lies of P. It may even be better than the Souls game to me (except Sekiro, i hate Sekiro). I felt like the Perfect Guard window might benefit from an extra few frames but ultimately it works well when i want it to and all the controls feel as responsive as any Fromsoft title and when i died, i almost never felt it was due to poor hitboxes or the like. I vehemently disagree that the rally system and deflective style of Sekiro are even copied, let alone half baked in Lies of P. They didn't just throw them in together, what they do is give you a more complex and viable defensive kit to work with. The combat is quite varied compared to other Souls games so it takes longer to get decent at it. But it also never feels cheap or boring because you have so much you can do to both attack and defend. It is a difficult game but it is also fair. You sound like you just want to bitch about the game being hard and therefore complain about everything in it. Not saying you have to like the game but this game is a technical marvel that never bugs with tight hit boxes and beautiful animations that provide easily readable tells. The bosses in this game are better than anything Fromsoft has made since DS3.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a well thought out comment! You're not the first to air this sentiment, and I'm coming around to agree more and more. Not sure I gave this one a fair shake, basing this video off of only a single playthrough was a mistake and I hope to be better! I think my issue was a personal one with the tool kit you alluded too, felt a bit of choice paralysis on how exactly to play, when it's clear to me now that an adaptive playstyle is required. But, to be fair, I did not "complain about everything in it". I had plenty of good to say about the game throughout this video!
By the way, I agree with your other comment that Elden Ring bosses were a major let down, but I do think Sekiro bosses are better than those found here, at least some.
@@nopnapnarp8047 I completely understand not liking the game as much when you feel consistently frustrated by the difficulty. Hence why i hate Sekiro. That game just felt hard for difficulty's sake and the gameplay felt off. Although i will say, i did like boss fights while despising the mini bosses. As far as Lies of P though, if you didn't really like it, that is totally a valid opinion. Not every game is for everybody and Souls likes in particular are very difficult to appeal to a broad audience. I still liked and subscribed to the channel because you put a lot of work into the video. Thanks for the watch.
Commentors like you are the best my friend, constructive and honest feedback that goes along way in making future videos. I appreciate ya, and thanks for the sub and like. I did like Lies of P, it's still one of my favorite games on the year, but I did feel frustrated a lot, although sometimes that can be a good thing, a drive to improve.
You like Dark Souls 3 I take it? Lowkey, thats one of my favorite games they've ever made. So underrated.
I'm also in ng+2 now and yeah, LoP kinda ruined Dark Souls for me, the combat is just better and more versatile
@@nopnapnarp8047 Yes, i do love a lot of DS3. Farron Keep and the entire Ashes of Ariendel DLC aside, i have played through and enjoyed DS3 several times. Though not as much as DS1 or DS2(the original, not the god awful SotFS edition). The bosses in DS3 are generally tied with BB for the best in the series, imo.
This was my first souls game and I loved it. I think people overestimate just how hard these games are to newcomers.
Probably a good point!
For real, my man. Go tell 'em, Brother
Damn, Joe Anderson is really a beast at games.
Excellent review the opening portion was especially my favorite. I've been stuck on brb second fight for days now and when u said u have to fix your weapon, perfect parry and won't have stamina to fight. ECT.. Omg that is so true. Amazing video
Thanks! It's nice to have someone agree with me on this game lol. I love Lies of P but it's a bit too much at times
@@nopnapnarp8047 yes it can get overwhelming at times but I still do love this game. I watch alot of lies of videos and yours is truly the best thought out and well presented. Thanks for uploading.. also yes the gotcha traps are the worse😂
Overall I agreed with a lot of your points. I think this dev is going to be very promising in the future if they listen to feedback and try to improve on their formula in coming releases.
Thank you and I agree!
Enjoyed the video. I agree that there are a lot of bs mechanics with the boss fights, but I still love everything about this game. It's my personal game of the year.
I'm looking forward to more of your reviews.
Glad you enjoyed the video! I'd put it in my top 3 games of the year personally. I loved a lot of it
Good video, but I feel the combat is very solid in this game. Sekiro is a more frantic pace of attacking and deflecting while LoP is more deliberate. It is definitely the case that second phases of bosses are death traps for at least a few tries which can be frustrating since some moves won’t be parried effectively until you have seen them a few times (kind of like a rhythm you have to learn). However, the combat systems work well together and use of status effects, perfect parries, charged heavies, Fable arts, weapon customization, throwable, and dodging combine with aggressive play to slap bosses around pretty good (again, after the mandatory ass kicking they deliver while you figure them out). It’s a game that allows for a level of mastery of its systems leading to surprisingly fast runs.
LoP has a bit of the DS1 status with me since I started with it and I love the aesthetic. I have finished the game five or six times now and know which weapons to build and upgrade and how to use the right handle for a free perfect parry of difficult moves. Romeo was steamrolling me a few days ago (despite me having previously beaten the game 4 times) until I learned to dodge a certain way during his flame attack wambo combo. My favorite game in the genre even as I’m going for a second run of Elden Ring. ER is a bit overwhelming size-wise and I don’t have as much fun with the bosses as I do in LoP. Sometimes I don’t want to dig deep just to get some idea of the story either. Not a perfect game, but it’s a tight, focused experience that is immensely frustrating on the first playthrough but that can be mastered.
A very thoughtful comment full of great arguments and feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts. I think you're right, this isn't a game that can be mastered in one run; and appreciation for the title grows as you continue to play.
I also enjoyed LoP a lot, but the difficulty was way above my paygrade. In most of the boss battles, I resorted to cheese, exploits, and echo summon. I do think the overall difficulty was overtuned a lot. LoP may not be as soul-crushing as Sekiro, but it's definitely above Dark Souls (at least 1 and 2) and like a billion times harder than Bloodborne. I had particular trouble with the Green Monster. Also, the fat fucks on planks in Catchedra were just an asshole design.
I agree with a lot of this!
deflect is not parry
parry is the DS parry system where you really need to time it,
Sekiro is just deflect
You need good timing with both parrying and deflect. Really good timing if it’s Lies of P’s parries.
Literally the same thing genius. I guess you think a car and an automobile are two totally different things lmfao
Hollow Knight is hardly a soulslike, but I'm always looking forward to hearing your thoughts about interesting new games :D
are you planning to critique the new Lords of the Fallen as well?
True, while inspired by Souls mechanics and ideas, many folks wouldn't call it a Soulslike. I'm a little loose with the terminology.
Hope you enjoy the video! I'm mostly happy with how it turned out. In a perfect world, I could play through this game 3-4 times to really form a well rounded opinion, but time factors into it heavily for me.
That one isn't on my radar, but I haven't heard anything that great about it.
I'm neither a skilled player nor did I play this game right at start (additionally I'm pretty old), but for new players I can guarantee that this game is not unfair at all, I would even say it is very very fair, except for one fight (Black Rabbit Brotherhood)
so don't be mislead too much by the video, afaiheard patches made some fights easier and they fixed a dodging issue
for me LoP is GOTY 😊
I tend to agree, I was a bit overly harsh in this video!
No offense, but your build is just rather terrible, and every complaint you had about the bosses and Stamina would have been resolved if you didn't have such a subpar build. If you're going for Technique you absolutely do NOT want to play with a 'Slightly Heavy' loadout. You want to keep your carry weight below 60% or if you can below 30% (it's doable, trust me). You also went overboard in Vitality and Technique in my opinion, both give severely diminishing returns after you reach 27 in each. Had you kept both at 27 and put most of those points in Capacity instead, you would have easily kept your carry weight below 60% or even 30%, and you'd have a much better time playing the game. You constantly run out of Stamina BECAUSE you have a 'Slightly Heavy' loadout. All your Stamina complaints would have vanished if you kept your loadout below 60%.
What was it that Soulsborne fans say? Oh right: Skill issue.
I think you make a lot of good points Saucy Jack. The truth is, sometimes reviewers miss. I'm not saying I disown this video, or that I now disagree with every criticism I raised, but my opinion on the combat design has improved in the months since making this. I understand that some of my complaints are founded in a misunderstanding of how the game works and I can own up that. Thank you for taking the time to offer advice and share thoughts!
(git
..
..
gud. XD)
It's really my only option
Did he just said "the best souls-like since hollow knight?"... there is no respect nowadays...
I sure did!
I'm sure there's other good ones, but I may have missed them. Hollow Knight isn't a strict soulslike, but it's certainly heavily inspired by Souls. Souls + Metroidvania and it's so good!
@nopnapnarp8047 How is it inspired?...
Long ruined world where you uncover lore through item descriptions + challenging bosses that require precise timing and learning animations + losing currency upon death + lack of hand-holding with emphasis on player driven exploration
just some reasons I think it is
I will concede it is not a traditional souls-like game. It borrows souls-like elements, but it is not a soulslike in the strictest use of the word
@@nopnapnarp8047 hades fit all of those as well... and it is a rogue-like or metroid as you mentioned. So those are three games from three different genres. All difficult and with cool storytelling, for sure, but losing your money upon death, spooky world and hard bosses does not define its genre. You are missing the level up system, the weapon variety with specialized moveset each, weapon damage scaling, the ability of personalize the build of your character as you level up (mage, warrior, cleric, etc), PvP (also community messages), emotes, 3D...
In the end, its your channel bro. You distracted me for a bit with your video. Thanks for making content. Just take this as it is, a game nerd pointing out a mistake for you to consider.
Yoooo
Just sounds like you are bad at it honestly. "Not a good combo"? Really? Good think 90% of souls fans disagree with that statement