Lies of P: Overture Wears its Bloodborne Inspiration Proudly on its Sleeve

In 2021, Round 8 and NEOWIZ announced Lies of P, a moody soulslike that answered the question that nary 1 had thought to ask: What if Bloodborne was really a Victorian reimagining of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio? When it launched successful 2023, it amazed skeptics and over-delivered successful some however large its acheronian phantasy mounting was and however incredibly amusive its assertive combat was. Two years later, I got to walk immoderate prime clip with Overture, the ironically-named encore of an enlargement to the deed enactment game. And adjacent though I didn’t get to spot overmuch much than astir an hr of the archetypal signifier and the caller Boss Memories mode, it was evident precise rapidly that the South Korean squad is poised to overachieve yet again.

Overture is simply a prequel to the events of Lies of P, close earlier the puppet frenzy starts and robotic thralls massacre everyone successful the metropolis of Krat. But arsenic it turns out, galore of its ideas for settings, weapons, etc. were really meant for the basal game, but got chopped to support the archetypal merchandise from being excessively bloated. Round 8 workplace Game Director Jiwon Choi told IGN successful an interrogation that helium and his squad weren’t contented with letting these ideas spell undeveloped and unrealized. Through a translator, helium described Lies of P arsenic yet “complete” with the summation of Overture.

Lies of P has ever been associated with Bloodborne, mostly due to the fact that of however it looks but besides due to the fact that combat successful some games adheres to soulslike traditions but forgo cardinal behaviors similar blocking. Even releasing a large DLC good aft motorboat to enactment a bow connected the archetypal task has go a FromSoftware signature astatine this point. But Choi’s squad embraces the comparison. “It is our grant [to beryllium compared to FromSoftware].” He added that it motivates them to marque thing that tin wide that precocious barroom of anticipation and they tin lone anticipation that they did with Lies of P, and volition proceed to bash truthful successful Overture.

The archetypal steps you instrumentality backmost successful the boots of the titular character, P, is into the snow-packed portion astir the Krat Zoo, a gathering your disembodied guide, Gemini, seems precise confused to spot lasting and not a heap of embers. Story details are light, and the developers are staying choky lipped astir thing we haven't seen truthful far. After immoderate preamble from your lantern cricket, it was precise hard not to walk a mates of seconds swinging astir 1 of the marque caller weapons successful Overture: a gunblade that looks precisely similar the benignant Squall Leonheart would get commissioned for himself. This was 1 of a fewer caller limb types I chopped my mode done this frozen menagerie with, connected apical of caller weapons from existing types, and a brace of new, precise cool, legion arms that did precise different, yet precise effectual kinds of asskicking.

The Pale Knight, arsenic the gunblade’s called, was my main limb against the ergo-poisoned monsters some connected the outskirts of the zoo and wrong its walls. It has the value and onslaught signifier akin to a greatsword, but its dense onslaught pulls the trigger and the treble tube firearm attached sends pb screaming astatine foes. The recoil of these shots propulsion P around, truthful it tin beryllium utile erstwhile mixed into onslaught strings to stay evasive. A instrumentality I learned acold excessively precocious successful my demo is that you tin really occurrence the limb again to rocket yourself backmost towards the atrocious guys for a large follow-up attack. So basically, it's the coolest limb ever made.

Another caller limb benignant I dabbled with is the bow, the archetypal wholly ranged limb successful the series. It felt cleanable for poking smaller enemies from afar but beauteous incapable of making a tenable people connected larger foes. I deliberation with clip there’s astir apt a mode to exploit its cleanable gully mechanic to menace each sorts of baddies from down range, but I couldn’t negociate it successful the hr I had. Another caller limb benignant I privation I spent much clip with were a brace of agelong claws that shredded enemies with the benignant of fury that is usually reserved for Best There Is At What He Does. This didn’t scratch the aboveground of weapons I glossed implicit that were intelligibly caller additions to existing limb types, but it was abundantly wide to maine that radical who truly emotion the limb customization facet of the basal crippled volition person a batch of caller toys to mash unneurotic successful Overture.

The caller legion arms I tried retired besides made large additions to P’s kit. My favourite was yet different gun: double-barrelled and chargeable to mean the benignant of force, spread, and interaction connected the atrocious guys. It’s a much close-ranged option, but adjacent astatine fractional complaint it made abbreviated enactment of the fodder that roamed astir the snowy grounds oregon dilapidated halls of the zoo itself. At afloat charge, it was a reliable instrumentality to stun bigger foes oregon astatine slightest interrupt their bevy of attacks for a second. I came to the 2nd limb precocious successful the demo, but it was surely a beardown violative enactment successful its ain right. It launched blades that would swirl astir enemies for a abbreviated time, akin to the throwable saw leaf item, with 2 differences. One, it tin occurrence aggregate blades astatine erstwhile to bash immoderate important harm implicit clip connected 1 target, and two, with a speedy property of a fastener earlier releasing the flying blade, you tin alteration the onslaught wholly to a acceptable of blades that creation astir P instead, large for doing coagulated AOE damage.

Speaking of targets, the formed of enemies successful this conception was beauteous unremarkable extracurricular successful the opening of the level, but got precise absorbing arsenic we got deeper into the zone. Some bitey wolves and grabby zombies were tally of the mill, but standouts similar immoderate precise aggravated kangaroos and an ergo-plagued elephant with a Resident Evil-style astonishment truly wowed me. I spent truthful overmuch clip against the second that I lone conscionable made it to the extremity of the level to spot the boss: an tremendous crocodile twisted by ergo.

On that note, bosses volition get a caller absorption successful the spot for the basal crippled that volition travel Overture with 2 caller crippled modes: Battle Memories and Death March. Death March is simply a consecutive up brag rush, allowing you to marque a playlist of astatine slightest 3 bosses and effort to instrumentality them down each successful 1 go. Battle Memories, meanwhile, allows you to instrumentality to aged brag fights and effort to bushed them again, present successful up to 5 antithetic tiers of difficulty, with each tier expanding immoderate unsocial stats that these bosses summation successful this mode. Rewards for conquering these tiers person been hinted at, but not elaborated on. I went backmost to 1 of the aged bosses, the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, to spot however antithetic it was connected tier 3 than my representation of them successful the basal game. The mode they bushed maine and my rusty fingers to decease didn’t constituent retired immoderate existent differences, but arsenic with the remainder of Lies of P, I'm definite teasing retired the enigma comes with tons of experimentation.

Lies of P was 1 of the standout games of 2023, and among the champion games successful its enactment RPG subgenre not made by FromSoftware. Overture doesn’t play with the look excessively much, but I recovered that the caller ingredients it added, similar the large caller limb types and fabulously freaky monsters, proved that there's ne'er truly excessively overmuch of a bully thing, adjacent if it is mostly the aforesaid thing.