Lies of P

A classic cautionary tale for disobedient tykes is retold as a hard-as-nails Soulslike. But does it move the genre forward, or is this just another wooden imitation?

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Pinocchio always had a dark side. Even Disney’s 1940 animation got a little intense for younger viewers. Lies of P might have reimagined the titular puppet as a young man with the foppish good looks of Timbo Chalamet, but otherwise it goes darker than ever.

Italy has been swapped for the fictional gothic city of Krat, whose human residents are afflicted by some kind of mind-altering disease and are being terrorised by Geppetto’s out-of-control automatons. The dark deserted streets have dangers prowling around every corner, and combat is brutal and unforgiving.

The influence of FromSoftware’s gothic masterpiece Bloodborne is hard to ignore. Your fighting style is a riff on that game’s trick weapons, letting you swap out your mechanical arm for different effects, such as electrical bursts or a wall of fire.