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Lies of P

Penn

A game which has taken more inspiration from Dark Souls than it has from Pinocchio, and it's literally a game about Pinocchio.

https://youtu.be/kXZoKdr-xeo?si=7ebOnGhRz5jZ-awi

https://youtu.be/6yDx7Px6yMU?si=9dsRTiCRFMl6qG-g

As Soulsborne as a game can get without being made by FromSoftware, it'll instantly feel familiar to anyone who has played Soulsborne games. Manages to mix in a few nice ideas of its own and seems to balance some of the best bits from Soulsborne games into one; parrying/deflecting and a prosthetic arm from Sekiro, rallying against enemies after being hit to regain health like Bloodborne, and being able to have different builds like Dark Souls.

The game looks and plays fantastic. Enemy design is terrific and level design is of course very Soulslike with the finding and opening of shortcuts.

I'm still pretty early in the game, but enjoying it a lot so far. It's also on Gamepass so well worth a spin if you like Souls games.

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recyclops

It was fantastic until I got stuck on a mini boss. Now I hate it.

Just kidding it's everything you want from this type of game, tough, rewarding and humbling all in the same hour or so.

Fair play to them for making the most fromsoftware game possible by not fromsoftware. Sometimes when playing games like this on gamepass I feel bad that I didn't buy it straight up as this is well worth full price.

Penn

Came up against my first roadblock of a boss, the Scrapped Watchman. Took a good few tries (maybe 15-20) but eventually got him. Just took a while to get the rhythm of his attacks down to be able to block/avoid.

recyclops

I am full on stuck on a mini boss, been 2 days now 😢

Penn

Fought the Black Rabbits in Malus Village. Didn't take as many tries as Scrapped Watchman, but f*ck me that was a frustrating fight. The little b*tch especially, I may as well have not been pressing the block button at all, she pretty much got me with every attack. The lock-on/targeting wasn't that helpful either. Made it through though.

recyclops

So I final did it and the walker of illusions is down. Say it took me around 4 or so hours worth of attempts all in. I had to completely alter how I fought it was so satisfying why it was done.

Mad it was only a mini boss

recyclops

All done, loved it from start to finish one of my games of the year. Combat etc felt great. My one gripe is one quest is blocked due tk a choice I made hours earlier.

Now time for ng+

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121243834#Comment_121243834

Nice. The quests are definitely a lot easier to follow than Souls games with the icons on the fast travel screen, but it can still be easy to miss some. I thought I'd locked myself out of one of the early ones with the whistle as I thought it'd activate once I returned to the window. Only with googling did I find I had actually play the whistle.

I've made my way past the arcade area and I'm outside the Grand Exhibition. Got stuck on King of Puppets for a while. My main issue at the moment is I was using a trident weapon I got for turning in one of the early boss ergo (went for Technique build), and I'd upgraded it a bit. But now I want to use the weapon you get from King of Puppets and I'm struggling to find enough upgrade moonstones to get it to the same level because I already used a lot on the trident. So they have really emulated SoulsBorne games in that regard. "Here's 14 amazing special weapons! Now pick one and be stuck with it for the rest of the game unless you find absolutely every upgrade material in the game!"

recyclops

I used the trident and flamberge combo for majority of the game, like that I was having a grand time for a while then stuck for a bit.

I had to change it up for the walker of illusions mini boss but as a weapon it's fairly lethal.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121244103#Comment_121244103

My only issue with the trident is range. Even with a perfect block, bosses seem to knock you back just out of range a lot of the time. The King's scythe seems to have that little bit more reach, especially with the R2 attack. Will try it for a while and probably just pick one and stick with it by the time of the next main boss fight.

For my arm I've mostly been using the Falcon Eye. Especially works well when re-entering a boss fight and you have a bit of time to get a shot off before they get over to you. Was also the only reason I beat the Black Rabbits, as I managed to hit the Eldest from a distance while fighting off the others and took the last bit of health off him.

recyclops

Yeah I was using stamina a lot and dodge rolling forward on a lot of fights then quick hit and rolling backwards, alot of boss battles I switched up the amulet so I could roll with limited stamina. once they went on fire off the back of the flamberge I would whack them a fair few times and then repeat.

One thing I really did like outside of levelling up is the P-Organ and how you can build your play style on that.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121244179#Comment_121244179

Yeah they nailed that SoulsBorne feel of having a few different systems where they may seem incremental on their own, but together allow you to tailor everything to your own playstyle; weapon, arm, amulet, P-Organ, grindstones. It's not as advanced as Souls games given there's no magic-type builds or anything, but I'd find it similar enough to Bloodborne.

Unearthly

It’s definitely on my to do list but I’m still going through FromSoftware games. Then I’ll be looking at the likes of this, Lord of the Fallen, Nioh and Wo Long.

Busy times

bugs

The specter seems to trivialize boss fights, I've avoiding using it since that point. Are people using it as I see you get a lot more items related to it later in the game.

CastorTroy

I played the demo of this on PS5. Was my first game like this, having not played the From games or similar.

I wasn't very good and after 4 hours play of the demo had only got to the donkey guy.

But since it's on gamepass on PC I plan on checking it out.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121244603#Comment_121244603

I was going to summon one for the early boss fights until I saw you need a consumable item to summon them (star fragment if I remember right), so I figured I best save them for if I get really stuck on a later boss fight. Only realised last night that I now have almost 60 star fragments and they're more plentiful than I thought they'd be. Still going to try to not use them though, which kinda makes the entire wishcube system redundant for me. I just figured using a spectre would do the usual Souls thing of increasing the boss HP and could throw off the timing/direction of their attacks, so felt it's probably safer going solo.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121244603#Comment_121244603

recyclops

There are wish cubes that single players if you don't want to use spectres, that's my plan for NG+ to try get through every boss without the spectre, I dont think I could have managed on my first playthrough.

bugs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121245124#Comment_121245124

I used it on the scrapped watchman where it is first offered. Made for a very easy fight.

Penn

Stuck for over an hour on the main boss of the swamp area. I'm getting the first part down, but the second part, he's like me on the dancefloor..... No rhythm. Will have to come back to him tomorrow.

recyclops

I am really struggling with King Fuoco on NG+, had him last night but got too impatient so had to turn it off, seems to be suing overheat way more than he was the first time I fought him

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121248506#Comment_121248506

Aye, fights where you have to deal with status effects throw a difficult spanner into the works, especially as the items menu isn't always that great to deal with in the heat of battle. I usually just keep my heals as Up and my grinder, status potion and maybe a throwable on my Down belt, but trying to switch from Heal to a status potion in the midst of battle can really throw you, as I keep thinking I've to hit down and then right to switch between items on that belt rather than down repeatedly.

recyclops

Yeah I tend to have my potions, fable needles and legion bullets in my extra bag so hold A and then up, down etc. super handy for fights

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121248779#Comment_121248779

I honestly use so few consumables. I don't think I've used a single fable needle or legion magazine in my entire playthrough.

For me it's that Soulsborne mentality of consumables being sparse enough that I know I'm going to die to the boss a lot and if I used consumables too freely I'd likely run out, so I save them for only if I really need them. And then I end up learning and beating the boss without using them at all. And then it usually turns out the consumables weren't really that sparse and I end up with dozens of them.

Penn

Beat the swamp monster after about another half hour. Not too bad in the end, still wasn't great with the second phase but got lucky enough that he repeated most of the attacks I was okay with. Got through the train station as well so back in the Krat area. Getting to the stage where the game is just throwing some of the biggest and nastiest beasts into most areas, so struggling as much with the actual levels as with the bosses.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121240474#Comment_121240474

Not going to lie, you had me extremely scared for Walker of Illusions, but I actually managed it in 4 tries (well, 5 if you include the time I ran in, grabbed my 15k ergo and ran back out again). Probably more luck than skill, especially when he spawned the illusion I had them pinned in a corner and used my fable art to kill the illusion and take a good chunk of health off the main in one go. Definitely a tough fight though, I don't know if I ever would have got in the rhythm to block some of those attack chains.

Also got through the Black Rabbits a lot quicker than I thought I would, think 5th try.

The King of Puppets scythe is a beast of a weapon, really glad I picked it over the trident. The whiparound for the charge and fable art attacks is amazing. Just need one more full moonstone to have it fully upgraded.

Onto the last chapter now.

recyclops

Still stuck on king fuoco on NG+ I've tried tonnes of variants to no avail. If I could buy throwing cells he'd be long dead

Penn

Finally had to use a spectre to get past a boss. Araxasia just repeatedly demolished me in second phase.

Have to say, haven't really enjoyed the last chapter. It's not bad, but just felt like "SURPRISE MOTHERF*CKER!" every ten seconds to the point of exhaustion.

Penn

And done. Final boss was a real pain in the jacksy, but got there in the end after several, several tries.

Overall it's a fantastic game. As Soulsborne-like as it gets, but also manages to carve out its own identity and balance between different Soulsbornkiro elements. Last chapter definitely went on too long though.

Won't be doing a NG+ any time soon (think there might be another game out today i want to play). But definitely might playthrough it again in the future.

FeatherySoup

I just finished NG+ last night and I gotta say, nameless puppet second time round is no joke. The damage he outputs is insane, I was level 221 going into the fight and it was not a fun time. Didn't take as many attempts as the first time once I finally accepted blocking is a valid option 😂 Up until that point for the entire game I was more focused on dodging.

I need to do a truth run to get the last few achievements tied into dialogue options but I'm tempted to hold off until the DLC comes out.

I've loved every second with this game, Bloodborne will continue to stay my favourite souls game but P is definitely up there for me now.

MadYaker

I'm enjoying this. I love the art style, only 2 hours in but I think I've just reached the first boss. I'm not doing much damage so I might need to level up once or twice more.