Lies of P - Deluxe Edition

Lies of P drops you into Krat, a gaslit city of broken automatons and rotting grandeur, and asks you to play Pinocchio reimagined as a hollow warrior crawling toward humanity. It is a Souls-like in the FromSoftware tradition - stamina management, precise parries, bonfire-equivalent rest points, and bosses that will repeatedly dismantle your confidence - but NEOWIZ brings enough original ideas to make it feel like a genuine creative statement rather than a copycat exercise. The combat is the first thing worth talking about because it is genuinely excellent. The weapon assembly system lets you combine the blade of one weapon with the handle of another, each carrying distinct stats and movesets. That single mechanic opens up real build variety: a quick rapier blade on a heavy grip changes your timing and scaling completely. Legion Arms - mechanical prosthetics slotted onto your left arm - add offensive and utility options ranging from a flamethrower to a grappling wire. The parry window is tight, intentionally so, and landing a perfect block that staggers a boss into a charged riposte never stops being satisfying. If you bounced off Sekiro because the rhythm felt too strict, Lies of P sits slightly more forgiving while still demanding precision. The narrative layer is where Lies of P separates itself from the Souls pack. The lie system is sparse but meaningful: at key dialogue moments you choose between speaking the truth and telling a lie, and those choices accumulate toward one of multiple endings. It is not a massive branching CRPG - do not expect Baldur's Gate dialogue trees - but the writing rewards attention. NPCs in the hotel hub have arcs that resolve based on your decisions, and the game's central question, whether artificial beings can acquire a soul through suffering and deception, lands with real thematic weight by the final act. The voice acting is confident, and the environmental storytelling scattered through Krat's opera houses and ransacked mansions does heavy lifting for lore junkies willing to read item descriptions. The Deluxe Edition bundles 72 hours of early access alongside cosmetic items tied to the merchant character Venigni - his signature coat, glasses, and a festival mask. The coat and glasses are charming aesthetic additions if you care about your puppet's wardrobe, but they carry no mechanical advantage. The early access window is essentially irrelevant at this point since the game has been fully available for a while. Where Lies of P stumbles is in its mid-game pacing. A stretch of chapters around the back half leans on reused enemy types and corridors that feel like connective tissue rather than intentional design. A few bosses are genuinely memorable encounters; a few others feel like HP sponges dressed in gothic aesthetics. The RPG stat system, while functional, lacks the depth or weird build-enabling interactions you get from Elden Ring's equipment ecosystem - past hour 40 the character customization options start to feel thinner than the combat system deserves. Still, for a first-time Souls-adjacent release from a developer previously unknown in this genre, the ambition is real and mostly earned. If you want a Souls-like with a legitimate story, a world that rewards curiosity, and combat that respects your intelligence without the FromSoftware name on the box, Krat is worth visiting. Monika, Scout Team