EDIT 5/5/2024: I actually completed the game a good while ago. Lunacid was really good. It's a really compelling world with a lot of interesting mechanics, but I legitimately feel that it under-stays it's welcome. 22 hours for essentially 1 and 3/4 playthroughs. Some of the areas might be large, but you're going through them incredibly quickly. Combat is chunky in a respectable way, there's a plethora of secrets to be found.

But really, it is missing meat on it's bones. I do hope KIRA adds more to the game over time like they did with Lost in Vivo, but only time will tell.

Solid 8/10


Original Review 4/23/2023
I haven't completed what has been finished so far, which I know isn't nearly as much as the developer wants to make, but at the same time I feel as if I've only scratched the surface.

As stated by the dev team, it's inspired by old classic dungeon crawlers and it shows rather immediately, both in terms of gameplay, immediate look, and feel. However, as someone who isn't too interested in that sort of genre, with the closest adjacent being action and/or turn-based RPGs such as the Soulsborne series, Nier, Final Fantasy, etc., I have been having an absolutely blast with the game in the short amount of time I've played.

The only thing I'm disappointed in, is that I know there's going to be some sort of meta twist. If you've played Lost In Vivo made by the same dev team (I highly recommend, it's a fantastic Silent Hill-esque game), and noticed the inconsistent time-period technology right away, it becomes very apparent that it will happen eventually. I'm all for those sorts of twists anyways since I adore fourth-wall breaks, it's just the magic is lost when you become all too familiar with the obvious signs. This isn't unique to KIRA specifically, and it's not a critique on their style of game. Daniel Mullins, Davey Wreden, Toby Fox, Stress Level Zero, and many others do the same things. It's just something that's hard not to notice when they follow similar setups.

Rant aside, game is fantastic, go buy it and support the devs. Very excited to see future content as it arrives.

TL;DR: Game is linear, there's a bunch of baffling game design issues, environments are okay at best, enemies are awful to fight against, bosses even more so. Think Sekiro mixed with Dark Souls 2 without any of the good parts with the above issues.


EDIT 10/11/23:
I have beat the game. I wish I never bought this, like can you make a more uninspired game? There's nothing wrong with wanting to borrow mechanics, but how about playtesting your game in the first place? How about not straight up stealing locations from Fromsoft games? How about making heavy weapons actually useable? How about toning down absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fury attacks that have no windup or little tell to when they go off? How about writing a linear game with a focus on story actually have a good story? How about not sequel baiting in your post-credits cutscene?

I finished the game out of spite. I have found an overwhelming amount of stupid decisions in this game, from bad and uninteresting level design, lazy enemy placement that matches Dark Souls 2 in every form and function, all the way to pointless items and weapons. I wouldn't play this again even if I was fully refunded and handed a heavy bag full of money.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 9/19/23:
There's so many design decisions that I don't understand in Lies of P that I'm not really sure how to write them all down. From extremely linear level design and bosses with awful tells for attacks, all the way to a mixture of combat philosophy that has the consistency of oil on water. This is not the Bloodborne you're looking for.

While environments are flashy at first, they merge into the form of a theme park ride as there's no real way to tread off the beaten path from where I played up to. There's a nook and cranny here, sometimes the game might have you heading back to areas you've been to for collectibles and sometimes hidden weapons, otherwise, it's relatively straight-forward. If you play any SoulsBorne game, the clear inspiration gameplay wise, you'd notice how much freedom you have in where to go, and how there's branching or alternate paths, reasons for coming back later, either for quests, or because you have the mulligan to progress. In Lies of P, your path is forward, there's nowhere else to go really other than there.

Speaking of forward, very often you'll find your path blocked by elite enemies, which might as well be un-fun enemies with health pools the size of a zone boss, and they're littered all over the place. The closest equivalent is black knights in DS1, however, the black knights are fun to fight, because they were designed well. A lot of the enemies are not great to fight against. Either they have poise to rival the very gods, or they stagger on the smallest hit, there is no in-between. This revelation is actually extremely important, because some elite enemies don't really stagger, and a fair few of them can get you stuck in stun-loops, which might as well be an instant kill if it knocks you onto the ground. There's one specific elite enemy you run into a handful of times in the game's second zone in the Venigni's factory. They have an attack that can only be perfect blocked, if mis-timed, will knock you flat into an attack loop that will stun you to death, because... You can't roll out of a knockdown.

In combination with not great enemies, you're missing what seems like basic abilities that should be available from the beginning. I didn't unlock the ability to roll out of a knockdown until 6 hours in. The items you need in order to unlock that ability are locked behind bosses and certain elites. It's a system that makes less and less sense the more you look at it. In my own opinion, the whole game in it's entirety makes less and less sense the more you play.

When I play a "soulslike", and I'm saying that specifically, because it's also in the trailer of the game here on it's own steam page, I expect an atmospheric game with solidly challenging and engaging gameplay, minimal up-front storytelling, and an environment to run around in where I can visually see how far I've come since the beginning. People complain about how the SoulsBorne games are hard, they're not (with the exception of Sekiro). It's a skill barrier, and the better you become overall with understanding the tools the game gives you, the easier the rest of the game becomes. In Lies of P, you become better when the game starts allowing you to use your tools in the first place. This is no Sekiro rhythm-deflecting game, this is no atmospheric wonderland that lets you wander freely, this is no soulslike. This is a game pretending to be something that it's not. And that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disappointing, because I was really looking forward to this. I'm still going to make an attempt to complete it and I'll update my review afterwards as well, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I keep trying to like this and am kept on receiving more reasons to continue hating it.

This is the equivalent of a game wearing the flesh-suit of Dark Souls 2 where you can clearly see it's some sort of flesh-suit but it keeps insisting it's Dark Souls 2. Speaking of, I would recommend Dark Souls 2 over this. I had more fun in that than this ball-twisting excuse for a soulslike.