Lies of P demo impressions

[FakeSympathy]

Well after the surprise demo announcement at SGF 2023, I knew I had to try it out.

The game runs really good without any technical issues. It's sad this even needs to be brought up, but given the industry standards lately I thought I should mention.

First off, the atmosphere is an absolute bomber. The ruined city of Krat is almost on-par with Bloodborne. Everything is in ruins due to the puppets (the automatons) going crazy. So Geppetto, the creator of all puppets, creates P, capable of lying and independent thoughts. Sort of sounds like Megaman X premise, but I digress. The mobs and bosses designs are freaking awesome.

The combat is a hit or miss. At first glance, you might think it's a bloodborne-born style where you have to dodge everything. But in reality, it's more or less a Sekiro style, where you have to perfectly block enemy attacks to break their invisible stamina bar to deliver a devastating attack. The problem is, the parry window is really inconsistent. The timing is one of the most weirdest thing I've ever came across. It's also annoying the player has to be aggressive to stagger bigger enemies, but they can stagger you with a single attack. Also, there's a weapon durability bar, and you can repair it in the middle of the field. Why? The repair process is really long for a game filled with quick-attacking enemies, and they made sure you relay on the repair tool. The durability is surprisingly short.

The run back to the boss arena is back. Which really killed the fun.

The item wheel is strangely divided into upper and lower belt. This just makes item selection annoying because you have to switch between upper and lower belt, then go through the items you have equipped, and then using it.

IDK, maybe it's because I was really excited about this game, but this game needs a lot of polish. I don't feel too confident anymore

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

But in reality, it's more or less a Sekiro style, where you have to perfectly block enemy attacks to break their invisible stamina bar to deliver a devastating attack.

Hard pass. I don't have time for games that slap you in the face if you can't be perfect.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Hard pass. I don't have time for games that slap you in the face if you can't be perfect.

Eh, it's not a requirement to use parrying, I'm shit at games and usually forget about parries entirely when not outright failing them. Been making progress by just being a happy stabber and dodger so far. There's other niggles there, but I haven't felt the need to use parry when some good old fashioned dodgy pokes have proven more useful yet.

 

[FakeSympathy]

There's other niggles there, but I haven't felt the need to use parry when some good old fashioned dodgy pokes have proven more useful yet.

For regular enemies, dodging works fine. Then i found out you can roll when not locked in to an enemy, but as soon as you do you can only dodge.

This doesn’t seem too bad at first, until I reached the first boss.The dodges did jack shit. Then I tried beating the boss without lock-on so i can dodge roll, and while that was nice i had to re-position to face its direction to attack.

IDK, just feels like they should either make the game more dodge-focused like bloodborne, or give better parry timing window like sekiro. Not this sort-of middle ground bs

One more nit-pick to mention; There’s a part of the game where you have to exhaust all the dialogue options of a certain NPC, or you can’t level up. But you can still progress through the game. I didn’t realize this and kept going, until i had my first big loss. Why?

 

[meiam]

Hard pass. I don't have time for games that slap you in the face if you can't be perfect.

I did get trough almost all of Sekiro without using parry (couldn't do the last boss though) so its not that bad.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

For regular enemies, dodging works fine. Then i found out you can roll when not locked in to an enemy, but as soon as you do you can only dodge.

This doesn’t seem too bad at first, until I reached the first boss.The dodges did jack shit. Then I tried beating the boss without lock-on so i can dodge roll, and while that was nice i had to re-position to face its direction to attack.

IDK, just feels like they should either make the game more dodge-focused like bloodborne, or give better parry timing window like sekiro. Not this sort-of middle ground bs

One more nit-pick to mention; There’s a part of the game where you have to exhaust all the dialogue options of a certain NPC, or you can’t level up. But you can still progress through the game. I didn’t realize this and kept going, until i had my first big loss. Why?

Nah that boss is dodgable (dodgeable? Are these words even?), but I did go for the finesse build and low weight, not equipping second weapon and such to make dodges and stamina control more manageable. Their more annoying attacks to avoid can be easily tanked too. I dunno, I can see and understand where you're making the sekiro connections, but sekiro still is way more focused on the whole parry thing and why I find it way harder to get in to than this.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Nah that boss is dodgable (dodgeable? Are these words even?), but I did go for the finesse build and low weight, not equipping second weapon and such to make dodges and stamina control more manageable. Their more annoying attacks to avoid can be easily tanked too. I dunno, I can see and understand where you're making the sekiro connections, but sekiro still is way more focused on the whole parry thing and why I find it way harder to get in to than this.

Well, got past that boss, and the second boss. Now I'm at the third boss, and this when I found out the parry timing is tied to the game's framerate. Mine was set at unlimited, so I capped it at 60, and now parrying suddenly becomes more easy? WTF? Dodging feels more easier too, but I found myself parrying more. I mean I'm still struggling with the boss, but at least now it feels more comfortable!

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Well after the surprise demo announcement at SGF 2023, I knew I had to try it out.

The game runs really good without any technical issues. It's sad this even needs to be brought up, but given the industry standards lately I thought I should mention.

First off, the atmosphere is an absolute bomber. The ruined city of Krat is almost on-par with Bloodborne. Everything is in ruins due to the puppets (the automatons) going crazy. So Geppetto, the creator of all puppets, creates P, capable of lying and independent thoughts. Sort of sounds like Megaman X premise, but I digress. The mobs and bosses designs are freaking awesome.

The combat is a hit or miss. At first glance, you might think it's a bloodborne-born style where you have to dodge everything. But in reality, it's more or less a Sekiro style, where you have to perfectly block enemy attacks to break their invisible stamina bar to deliver a devastating attack. The problem is, the parry window is really inconsistent. The timing is one of the most weirdest thing I've ever came across. It's also annoying the player has to be aggressive to stagger bigger enemies, but they can stagger you with a single attack. Also, there's a weapon durability bar, and you can repair it in the middle of the field. Why? The repair process is really long for a game filled with quick-attacking enemies,

The run back to the boss arena is back. Which really killed the fun.

The item wheel is strangely divided into upper and lower belt. This just makes item selection annoying because you have to switch between upper and lower belt, then go through the items you have equipped, and then using it.

IDK, maybe it's because I was really excited about this game, but this game needs a lot of polish. I don't feel too confident anymore

Sounds like most of the complaints are about shit they should just take out, like weapon durability and repairing. Parrying sounds even worse than in Souls in terms of timing requirements and effectiveness.

I did get trough almost all of Sekiro without using parry (couldn't do the last boss though) so its not that bad.

The funny thing I found is, once you get used to it the parrying in Sekiro is more forgiving than dodging in Soulsborne. You can really get away as easily with spamming dodges or mistiming one. Parries in Soulsborne are a different story though, and why I rarely bothered with them. The time it takes to Larry you could’ve hit an enemy two or three extra times for significantly more damage. I think parries would only have been worth it if they led to death blows on normal enemies or led to a phase change in bosses if you do two or three in a row and follow up with a special riposte.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Well, got past that boss, and the second boss. Now I'm at the third boss, and this when I found out the parry timing is tied to the game's framerate. Mine was set at unlimited, so I capped it at 60, and now parrying suddenly becomes more easy? WTF? Dodging feels more easier too, but I found myself parrying more. I mean I'm still struggling with the boss, but at least now it feels more comfortable!

Ah crap, my peasant console credentials may have been outed here! 🫣

 

[CriticalGaming]

I gotta be honest. I hate it.

Like the moment to moment gameplay is alright when you first start. You're weapon feels good and has decent range, the setting is cool, it's very promising. But things start to break down when you encounter bigger foes. And this is due to the dodge having zero range, making getting out of the way of the big slow swings neigh impossible because their range is so long that even a couple of dodges will still get you hit. Block also is unreliable as the hits will break that quickly and even a successful block wont let you reposition or counter attack before another wind up is coming.

The boss of the area is where I was bowed out. 5 tries and I could not reliably avoid any of the attacks and it just doesn't seem worth my time tbh. The attacks themselves are pretty slow, but their range is so wide that again the dodge doesn't move you enough out of the way, and the bigger attacks can't be blocked. So what the hell is the point? The defensive options have to be responsive and viable to make a game like this fun without being overly frustrating. And frankly the dodge and block both feel bad to use which puts me off to the point where i know i would never finish this game if I bought it.

 

[Chimpzy]

Well, got past that boss, and the second boss. Now I'm at the third boss, and this when I found out the parry timing is tied to the game's framerate. Mine was set at unlimited, so I capped it at 60, and now parrying suddenly becomes more easy? WTF? Dodging feels more easier too, but I found myself parrying more. I mean I'm still struggling with the boss, but at least now it feels more comfortable!

Tying game logic to framerate? I know that's actually still fairly common, but it feels so 00s.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Tying game logic to framerate? I know that's actually still fairly common, but it feels so 00s.

It's really hard to explain. I may have been a bit over my heard from feeling so frustrated with the game. The only advice I can give is to try the demo yourself, and if possible on your platform, change the framerate limit.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[FakeSympathy]

I tried the demo again, and I think the problem is the game doesn't tell you whether to prioritize dodge or block.

If you read the tutorial and in-game explanation, you might think the devs want you to perfect block/parry, but as myself and many have pointed out, the window or the timing for it is really inconsistent. I still think the timing is tied to the frame rate somehow

Some people on the steam page and the subreddit are claiming they are doing better by dodging, and I can see what the devs are trying to do here; they want us to time the dodges unlike souls games where it can be spammed. This is probably why you can't dodge roll when locked-on, just side step. The problem is once again the timing feels off, and the angle or the hitboxes of the attack and which direction you are supposed to dodge to is unclear.

This was my issue with Thymesia, at least at launch; If you are gonna be a Bloodborne-Sekiro hybrid, at least make the combat work. Otherwise, just stick with either system!

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Pinocchio is a really odd property to make a steampunk action game out of.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Sounds like most of the complaints are about shit they should just take out, like weapon durability and repairing.

God, weapon durability with or without repairing should just plain go die in a fire already. It has NEVER been beneficial in any video game it has ever appeared in and has only resulted in tedium and frustration.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

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*in Captain Kirk voice* Max you…can’t be serious!

 

[BrawlMan]

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*in Captain Kirk voice* Max you…can’t be serious!

I have not seen the entire video yet, but he is serious. Max seems to have little problem with this game. As far as he and Simmons are concerned, this might as well be Bloodborne 2.

 

[BrawlMan]

Pinocchio is a really odd property to make a steampunk action game out of.

Makes sense to me, and I've seen weider ideas in games or shows at this point. Look at RWBY, that show takes plenty from fairy tales and put them in either weird directions, characters, or themes with some unique twists. As for a game example, look no further than El Shaddai. That example is more Bible related than fairy tale related, but that was even weirder direction to go in.

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[The Rogue Wolf]

From what I've seen, yeah, this game doesn't do a very good job of telling the player what they're expected to do. This is something that can be fixed, but will it?

Pinocchio is a really odd property to make a steampunk action game out of.

I mean, I thought that about Alice in Wonderland, but American McGee did some interesting stuff with the franchise.