During GeoffCon, there were several new IPs being showcased. One of them was Lies of P by Round8 Studio. I had never heard of them before. They are a Korean studio. The publisher is Neowiz Games (apparently, also in on development), which is also Korean. I have another game (based on Korean folktales) published by them in my library, but I have not played it. My pile of shame is so huge! It had been announced at last year’s GeoffCon, so there was buzz aplenty. This year, there was a gameplay trailer and the announcement that there was a demo available RIGHT NOW.
The shorthand way of talking about it is Timothee Chalamet times Pinocchio times Bloodborne. Oh, did I not mention that it was a soulslike? Well, it is. That’s the reason I aws interested in it in the first place. Puppet Bloodborne, it’s been called. It looked stylish and was dripping with vibe. I really dug the atmosphere and was eager to try it out. Oh, the Timothee Chalomet part is that the main character looks like Timothee Chalamet with very puffy hair.
I downloaded the demo on Steam and fired it up. I have to say I love, love, love the look of the game. It looks Victorian, but feels more like France than England to me. That’s just my impression, though. It’s just so gorgeous and makes it feel proper old-timey.
The basic gist is that you are Pinocchio, which means you are not all puppet or all human. In this world, the puppets serve at the pleasure of the humans and are second-class citizens. They can’t lie, but Pinocchio can because he’s part human. In fact, he looks very human. he can pass, in other words. That’s part of the demo–him lying to get into a hotel that only admits humans.
You have to answer the question whether you are a human or puppet, and ifg you say human, you get in. I don’t know what happens if you say puppet. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. That’s a good two hours into the demo (or two hours when it’s me playing. I’ll get to that in a bit).
The mood is very Bloodborne-y. I have to say that a few people in the RKG Discord were not happy with just HOW close to Bloodborne this game hewed. Apparently the text in some places is almost verbatim. I will say that I didn’t realize that, but my short-term memory ain’t what it used to be.
You get the choice of three weapons. basically, greatsword, rapier, and saber. I wanted to use the saber because I use one in real life, but it’s the quality weapon–meaning the balanced weapon. Not dex nor strength, but mid. The rapier is the dex weapon, of course. The greatsword is the strength weapon, obviously. I chose the last and we’re off to the races. The tutorial sucks, but that’s par the course for these games. From games in and of themselves aren’t that great for explaining, and this game is holding to that standard as well.
It’s not dififcult, though. The basics, I mean. RB for basic attack. RT for heavy attacks. One weird difference is Y for a special eletrical attack. You build up, ah, electric stuf, by killing enemies, of course. These are called the Fable Arts, according to Google. You can use Fable Catalcysts to get one bar of jjuice. I currently have three bars. The Y for the greatsword takes two, I think.
I don’t exactly understand, but I try to save Y for big moments. That’s the problem. It takes a long time to build up, so my brain says I need to save it. But it would make more sense to use it as soon as I get it so that I can build up more.