We’re now on the precipice of the launch ofLies of P, a Korean-developed Soulslike focused on the storied tale of Pinocchio, seemingly by way of Yharnam. As with all games of the genre, there is an air of mystery around the title. Many questions remain about the game’s setting, story and gameplay, and at Gamescom 2023 we sat down with Lies of P Director Choi Ji-won to answer at least some of them.
With around three weeks until launch, Ji-won tells me he feels like “a student waiting for an exam.” 2023 has been a stellar year for gaming, and shows no sign of slowing down with the likes of Starfield, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC out soon. Asked if he has any trepidations about releasing during such a busy period, Ji-won says he’s in fact relishing the challenge. “Not at all; we released the demo a couple of months ago and figured it all out,” he tells me. “There are a bunch of Soulslike fans out there, and we believe in them.”
Due to the scope and size of modern games, coupled with the impact of COVID still being felt around the gaming industry, things are taking longer and longer to develop, making the four-year development of Pies of P pretty breezy by comparison. “I have a huge passion and a big interest in the Soulslike genre, and so there was no doubt during development,” he says confidently. “I think this interest towards that made everything smoother and faster.”
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With the release of Elden Ring, a game that Ji-won sees as the pinnacle of quality and complexity in the genre, Soulslikes achieved a new level of mainstream notoriety. Despite this, there are still calls from players both in and outside of the accessibility world to include more accessible options, something whichhe fundamentally disagrees with. “We believe Soulslike games shouldn’t have difficulty options,” he tells me without hesitation.
On the other hand, Ji-won says that Lies of P will be relatively easy as Soulslikes go, and doesn’t think that difficulty is the most defining aspect of these games. “In fact, the tightness of the level design is one of the most attractive things about this genre,” he tells me.
In a saturated genre, Ji-won believes Lies of P does more than enough to set itself apart from its predecessors. “First of all, we have a cool Pinocchio as a protagonist,” he tells me.“We have really diverse and colorful combat mechanisms; on top of that, there is the lying mechanism which fits the story of Pinocchio and fits the ending.”
Like Bloodborne before it, Lies of P will feature an array of different endings. Ji-won told us thatthere are three in total, but he “really, really, really recommends playing the ending until the very, very, very, very end.” He refuses to tease anything of the endings (naturally), but he did emphasise that it’s a game designed for repetition. “We planned in advance that you wouldn’t want just to play it once. If you have only played it once, then it’s not complete,” he points out. “We really highly recommend you play it several times.”
“We really, really, really recommend playing the ending until the very, very, very, very end.”
Plenty of planning went into Lies of P and, alongside the multiple endings, Ji-won told me the reasoning behind the choice of Pinocchio as the inspiration. “Since this is the first single-package game we’re releasing, we wanted to approach it as a story that is familiar to many people,” he begins. “We found the adventure of Pinocchio really attractive and fitting to our goal.” Despite the story originating from a childrens' novel, Ji-won stresses that Pinocchio “isn’t a story only for Children. It’s quite dark and brutal, and that is the reason we felt it fitted the Soulslike genre so well.”
With the brutality on display, it’s pretty clear that Lies of P isn’t a 1:1 retelling of the Pinnochio, but Ji-won says that it will feature “many things that function as a homage to the original story.”
One of the more obvious differences between Lies of P and Pinocchio is the setting. Rather than Italy, the game is set in Krat, a fictional steampunk-inspired city that is full of variety. “It’s not only [set in] the streets of Krat, as you play the game you’ll be surprised as to how big and wonderful the city is.” And the city isn’t the only thing in the game that is huge. Ji-won tells me of the “countless builds” you’ll be able to create, balanced in such a way that there isn’t one that the Lies of P team would “call the best build.”
Lies of P is releasing on September 19 for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series S and X.
Next:Why Are Soulslikes Never As Good As Dark Souls (Or Elden Ring)?
