The story of Pinocchio is one that has been told and retold. The puppet that would become a real boy has been animated 2D and 3D, has been filmed live action and in stop motion. He dove into the mouth of a whale and gone off into space. He dealt with swamp ogres and confronted lobbyists in Washington DC (a fitting place for a liar).
In Lies of P a puppet called P, created by Geppetto, brought to life by a blue fairy, and guided by a cricket named Gemini (pronounced with a hard e sound at the end), will possibly get that chance to become a real boy. Or a liar. Or a murderer. The choice is yours.
There are, of course, liberties taken in the adaptation. In the original story Pinocchio doesn’t wield various weapons to fight off puppets gone mad, in Lies of P no whales are involved (or dogfish, if you’re going straight to the source material). For the most part the story borrows ideas from Pinocchio’s different incarnations, cross blends it with Isaac Asimov’s rules of robotics, and adds in a dash of Dorian Gray for good measure.
The three laws of robotics become the grand covenant, or the four laws to govern all puppets. They state that a puppet must obey, must not harm human beings, must protect and serve the people of Krat, and cannot lie.
The concept of lying is by itself an interesting addition, but there’s also an additional change to one of Asimov’s rules. Instead of a robot being required to protect itself, a puppet must protect the people that it’s serving. These laws, of course, don’t work, and by the time P is brought to life a puppet frenzy has erupted within the city of Krat and most people are dead, or infected by a petrification sickness.
Having to deal with two separate blights makes for an unfocused narrative for most of the journey, at least until the plot manages to tie the two together. It takes a while for the idea to bear fruit, but it does manifest itself nicely into something more meaningful than having to defeat the first bad thing, only for bad thing number two to slot itself into its place. Having two blights to deal with also makes for a decent amount of variety in the combat.
The city of Krat has a lot to offer. There’s plenty to see as you stroll down the remnants of the destroyed technological utopia, though it’s quite often a very linear affair. Sometimes there might be a path that veers off the main road, just a bit, just long enough for you to confront a tougher puppet who’s guarding a chest.
You’ll fight your way through puppets small and large, as well as a plethora of people gone mad due to petrification. Combat can often feel very simple, especially since P doesn’t really have good, consistent ranged attacks beyond a limited selection of consumables. Most fights are entirely determined by the few sets of moves you have for the weapon you’ve committed to upgrading.
Every weapon has a handle and a blade, and while not all weapons can be customized, most can. You can take the blade you like, looking at its speed and damage and whether it fits to the character stats you’ve been building, and swap out your handle. It’s not quite the same as just being able to use any weapon regardless of your stats or its stats, but the assembly process does lead to combat styles that can be wholly redesigned by the assembled pieces.
Lies of P borrows mostly from the Dark Souls (2011) aesthetic, pulling in ideas and mechanics from several of its variations. It has health recovery from Bloodborne (2015), this time tied to its block system (a feature that doesn’t work quite as well), it has the mechanical arm of Sekiro (2019) plus a parry/stagger system that bears a striking resemblance. It’s slower than Bloodborne, faster than Dark Souls, and less refined than Dark Souls 2 (2014).
It makes for an adventure that’s worth experiencing, even if some of its harder fights often make it feel as though a lot of the mechanics seem less useful. Weapons often swing short in comparison to enemies attacks, P has the dodgiest of dodges, made worse by their expenditure of stamina against enemies with never-ending combos where even the smallest of hits interrupts your every attack.
The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) may have been the inspiration for the story, but it was more of a jumping off point, a starting block for the developers to sprint from, carrying the pieces they liked, veering off in a direction that’s less about a puppet determined to be a real boy, and more about questioning what it means to be human. Is it the ability to lie? To cheat? To steal? Or is the thing that makes a person human, separates them from puppets, the capacity to make choices for themselves?
Lies of P is a conceptually interesting and well-meaning game that doesn’t quite have the depth it needs. It isn’t necessarily brought down by its lack of refinements, but they hold the game back from greatness.
Reviewed on Xbox