We Didn't Deserve Lies of P

for years the soulslike genre has slowly been stepping into the spotlight finding a few dedicated fans with demon souls and dark souls and then growing that audience even further with bloodborne Dark Souls I and then seiro a few years later it's hard to imagine a time where they weren't so popular but that was the reality what really pushed the genre into the mainstream was Elden ring I'm sure just like everyone else you've heard of Elden ring and I'm sure just like everyone else you've probably played it too Elden ring made from software in Unstoppable Juggernaut of game design even though they were doing pretty well for themselves before it was most people's first souls likee and it made a lot of those same people want to explore what else the genre had to offer the sad truth is most of the options outside of from software are to put a lightly not very good at the very least none have really garnered the same wide critical claim as from software's winning formula until round 8 Studio that is a small team of developers based in South Korea with little to no ACC accolades on their very first try round 8 has nearly perfected the intricacies of the soulslike genre on their first attempt they've solved most of the problems that I personally have with from software's own games they've created systems that outmatch the creativity of most Souls likes created bosses that either equal the best of from software or actually outshine them and Forge a world with multifaceted characters and Limitless potential let's talk about exactly what makes Li of PE so [Music] [Applause] [Music] special [Music] I'm before we go all in on lies of P I do want to preface this video with a couple of things I really do believe that this game is special this has quickly rocketed to being one of if not my favorite Souls likes and While others have elements of lies of PE I don't really think there's another one that upholds this level of quality throughout the entire runtime so please if this game looks interesting to you or you enjoy from software's games I highly urge you to stop watching this video and play it yourself as I've seen a couple of other reviewers say if you enjoy these games more for their atmosphere or the experience getting through this game might be a bit tough I don't think it's necessarily the hardest of them but it does require you to really understand the combat and all of its systems to make it through the game without feeling like it's unfair I will avoid talking about major story spoilers but I will probably be showing most of if not all the boss bosses so just be wary of this in this section we're going to discuss the story and characters I'm going to try to stick to the basic story setup and background I'll also go into the environmental storytelling I've already shown some stuff in the background but if you feel like this might be too much for you or you just simply don't care then skip to the time code on the screen to move on to the next chapter Liza p is themed around the story of Pinocchio the base is pretty loose here and the story very much creates its own identity while still paying tribute to The Adventures of Pinocchio the game takes place in the city of crot where there are a couple of major groups the majority of which are just regular people with jobs living their lives then there are the stalkers a well-respected community of humans who wear animal masks and act as mercenaries Vigilantes and the most famous of them being bodyguards to powerful Nobles within crot there are two factions of stalkers which is pretty important within the story but it doesn't matter much within the game so we won't go into that here next up are the Alchemists a well-known but very secretive agency that conducts experiments using science and some say even maybe magic somewhat adjacent to the Alchemists are the workshop Union a guild of skilled Artisans pushing crat deep into its Industrial Revolution using cuttingedge technology that's where our beloved jeppi jepetto comes in a key member of the workshop Union jepetto created the puppets as a means of automating many jobs they mass produced puppets for Service Waste Management entertainment even Warfare one day though the strings of the puppet snapped unleashing their mechanical wrath onto the city of crot the Creations that once lifted the weight off of its people's shoulders and made the city a technological spectacle now filled the streets covered in blood and emanating a hatred that couldn't possibly be there because they aren't truly alive right as the city's walkways quiet down with almost no Humanity left to remove you awake jepetto's puppet you're tasked with bringing an end to this madness and figure out what exactly went wrong there are of course other key players in groups but in the spirit of not spoiling everything I'm going to stop there much like its level design lies of PE has a fairly straightforward story you're not required to read every item description or note you find you'll actually get most of the key information while you're going through the motions characters will discuss story events and talk about what's going on and while the notes are not required to enjoy the story they are there if you want to learn more the story and World in this game was one of my favorite parts and undoubtedly one of the pieces that made this such a compelling experience for me the story has characters that you'll learn more about just by playing through the game and it doesn't require you to go and do your own research to understand what is happening around you its tragic story is full of important themes and has consequences and though they may hit a bit harder if you're more invested and choose to go that extra mile the game gives you enough to pick up on them without doing so if you do want to make that extra effort to learn more however there are a lot of options open to you obviously there's the notes and collectibles that you can check out but it's also worth mentioning how well the environment tells the story of crot I think the very first area of the the game does this really well right after you awake as you're making your way through crot Central Station you'll hear a distant thumping rhythmic violent you'll find a note shortly after that reads if anyone finds this get out of the station and run steer clear of the waiting room I saw a huge puppet smashing people to death in there lo and behold if you look over the balcony you'll see that huge puppet bashing something on the ground over and over and over again this was a really cool moment and it set the tone of the game moving forward there was a ton of examples like this in every single level so much as newspaper clippings referencing weird individuals that you may have a brief encounter with later in the game each environment is so well detailed that you can almost visualize exactly what went down there what attacked who how blood ended up on that wall where the attack came from it's just clear that a lot of work was put in here even within the main story each minute area has its own to tell what may or may not be clear right off the bat is the sheer variety present from start to finish on the enemy side and the players enemy pools are split up into three factions puppets carcasses and humans the first two are the most interesting and also the ones that you'll be fighting throughout most of the game puppets tend to be fairly calculated moving in a way that's very mechanical and predetermined carcasses on the other hand are rather erratic with violent and Rapid attacks humans if anything sort of mirror how you fight in each subsequent area the game introduces new enemies from each faction by the end of the game there is a frankly ridiculous pool of enemies you're encountering from each faction and even in the final area it's still giving us several new ones there's a basic layer of enemies that are used in many areas but then on top of that there are rarer ones and then on top of that there are enemies that literally show up like one or two times throughout the entire game like for example the jester robot or the bear carcass it gets even more interesting later in the game when the factions start mering merging to create both harder and more interesting enemies the first time you see a carcass merge with one of the puppets is only a little after the halfway point through one of the Bosses moving forward you'll see basic enemies take on traits of both factions combining the precise windup attacks of the puppets with the bloodborne esque flailing that the carcasses bring the soul series is often praised for its enemy variety and lies of PE is no exception once these enemies start to combine it doesn't cheapen the old enemies either they still have their thing and they get the job done these amalgamations just expand on them they change up some of their moves making them more difficult but also allowing more options for you to break their posture with a couple of well-timed perfect guards Li of P also excels in the options that it gives to the player in progression for example you're given several options the most notable being the P organ yes the the P organ the P Jesus Christ the P organ is a skill tree system that provides meaningful upgrades in exchange for a rare item called quarts there are these keystones which you'll unlock more of the more of them you get these can be anything from more heal charges to a Dodge enhancement to even more posture damage when parrying to unlock a full Keystone though you'll have to use quartz to get these smaller upgrades and once you get enough it'll give you the big perk this is sort of similar to SEO skill tree in the sense that it's not just filler enhancements it's actual improvements to your kit that you're excited to get in a similar fashion the legion arm also gives you something to look forward to Legion arms are variants of your robot arm with a pretty big selection as well you can upgrade these to make them stronger or just outright do something different by tinkering around with all these options you'll be able to craft a build that works around your strengths sort of like the weapon system when you receive a weapon in this game it's composed of two pieces The Head and the handle the only exception of this rule being boss weapons you can combine any head and any handle to create whatever combination that you can dream up some will be more effective than others and most of them will look ridiculous but the point point is that whatever you create is your very own weapon around just about every corner is going to be a new one so you'll constantly be getting new pieces to play around with and fit on top of other pieces the boss weapons are all unique and very fun to use but playing through the game and taking down bosses with a weapon that you forged yourself makes each win that much more impactful not only is the player provided with a ton of options when acting on an enemy but you're also given several choices when reacting the one players will probably be most comfortable with is dodging mainly because that's what Souls game center around they usually offer blocking or parrying but is typically less effective than dodging the window to dodge through attacks is tighter in Li of PE than most Souls games so the timing may take some getting used to another thing to note is that you cannot Dodge through Fury attacks with eye frames you can Dodge out of the way but if you try to dodge through them like other attacks it will hit you every single time alternatively the game allows you to block if you get hit while blocking you'll take a certain amount of Chip damage which you can regain by attacking the enemy sort of like the rally system in bloodborne similarly to dodging you are not able to block Fury attacks however you are able to perfect guard Fury attacks perfect guards are this game's fancy way of saying parrying it is also one of the major sources of criticism for the game which I'll Circle back to in a minute if you hit the block button just before an attack lands it will result in you pairing the attack which won't deal any chip damage to you and also hurt the enemy's hidden posture bar when you've dealt enough damage to the enemy's posture their health bar will start to Glow which is when you can land a charge heavy to stagger them for an opening to hit a very powerful attack the idea is that you want to vary your response to enemy attacks between these three options if you're anything like me you might decide towards the start of the game that you want to exclusively learn to Parry bosses unfortunately if you're anything like me you'll have a very hard time doing that while I did get pretty good at parrying almost every attack over the course of my four playthroughs of this game you will occasionally just have to accept the fact that you can't win them all when you choose to Parry certain attacks and then Dodge ones you're unsure of the game gets a lot easier it allows you to slip into a flow state where you're perfectly responding to every action an enemy takes at you sort of like SEO creating a really thrilling game loop with everything else unfortunately now is the part where I talk about Dark Souls more specifically we'll be discussing Securo Shadows die twice to help me diffuse some of the criticism around lies of P one of the main critiques of the game is that parrying is different from Ziro this is correct this is a 100% correct statement given that it's a different game it is not the same as SEO not only is this a stupid criticism it's an unfair one the per timing in lies of p is much much tighter than it is in SEO which a lot of people think is unreasonable SEO is a hard game I think it's probably the hardest that from software has made the hardest intentionally at least and I think it's probably also their best prior to playing lies of P I had played most of demon souls most of Dark Souls 3 and I have finished bloodborne and Elden ring I am not that great at these games but lies of PE seemed interesting and lo and behold it took me by surprise what shocked me was how many people complained about the Parry timing in comparison to Securo especially because I didn't really think it was that bad so after I finished lies of P twice I willed myself to beat seiro pretty much exclusively for this video and I ended up loving it however the allegations are true seo's timing is much more generous than lies of PE I think it is a significantly more difficult game but that's because it's built around its larger Parry window and the fact that the entire main game will be centered around it for those unfamiliar fighting in Seco is very untraditional compared to most Souls games it's not impossible to kill bosses without parrying but it is very difficult ult and very tedious and it's quite simply just not what you're supposed to be doing they are made to be pared so that you can break their posture and hit them with a single death blow that will instantly reduce their health to zero each enemy will be launching about a billion attacks at you in very quick succession which is what makes the game actually hard they have different kinds of attacks with different responses like thrusts sweeps grabs and lightning attacks all of which require you to pay very close attention to what the enemy is actually doing the point is the Parry window being larger doesn't make SEO an easier game it just means that they understood its combat system if Liza P had the same window as SEO you could beat the game in an hour because bosses and the game as a whole aren't built to have a window that's probably double the length that it already is I had a really really difficult time during seo's early game because I was playing it like lies of P I was trying to mix Dodges with blocks and that's just not how you're supposed to play the game as soon as I decided to take everything head on and play it like SEO I started to enjoy it a lot more in the same way the hardest thing to learn in lies of PE is how to play it like lies of PE if you play the game like it's dark souls and you exclusively try to dodge everything it's going to be very difficult if you play it like Securo and you choose to try and Parry everything it's probably going to be even harder the thing is parrying is there for Mastery not as your main and pretty much only option ultimately you know do whatever you find fun but I'm pretty sick of people using the comparison against as a way to complain about the game next up I'd like to discuss the world design I think this is really important in most games but level design and environmental storytelling are both huge Staples of other Souls games I feel like a broken record bringing it up over and over again but I expect that most people who came here want to hear how does this compare to from software so I apologize if you get tired of hearing it anyways it's a bit different compared to what you might be used to typically the level design is fairly open with a decent helping of Exploration with side areas and hidden Dungeons and whatnot lies of p is somewhat unique in that it's a more linear game for most of its runtime it's a level with a designated path and a couple of unlockable shortcuts along the way topped off by a boss then a visit back to the hub then on to the next level aside from a few very small optional areas that's pretty much the pattern for the entire game depending on what type of person you are this could be both a positive or A negative for you while I generally enjoy games that are very exploration heavy I was fine with lies of PE linearity since most of the games that I end up playing usually have a lot of lengthy sections and optional areas it was nice to play something that required a little less mental mapping I was able to just sort of go with the flow and keep playing without getting lost or having to redirect myself that's not to say though that the game is lacking in content my first playthrough took me around 24 25 hours which is pretty long long for a Souls game in general but for a linear one at that with such a well-defined order and relatively straight path from start to finish it's very impressive with that being said the level of quality that upheld in each and every one of those hours is staggering almost every game that I've ever played even ones that I've absolutely adored have some section or sometimes sections that are an absolute miserable slog to get through lies of P does not have one like that even my least favorite boss I found to be fun and Eng enging my second third and even fourth time through despite having sections that I like less than others Liza P doesn't have a that part every level and every boss has a place in the game and there's a reason they were included which I grew to recognize even for the ones I really really did not enjoy at first either way the level structure does eventually all link together in a way that makes sense and allows you to connect the geographical dots as you play despite feeling sort of strangely laid out at first this part might not be important to some people but I think anyone can appreciate it lies of P commits 100% to every single thing that they set out to do something that most games don't really do most games put more effort into certain pieces and sort of cautiously invest in others which to be clear is perfectly fine some ideas work out and some don't so picking your battles is important as a game developer or as any job for that matter I suspect that the developers of this game trimmed down whatever they didn't want to fully commit to this left them with a couple of core ideas that they could really hone in on and build off of it if they needed to this is true for every single part of the game and I really mean that but it's most obvious in the game's presentation I read the original story of Pinocchio by Carlo Kodi specifically for this and let me just say that what they managed to do with that Source material is astounding like many old fairy tales the story is is strangely dark and pretty blunt even as a cautionary tale for children it's shockingly different but round 8 took a couple of basic concepts and turned it into this tragic tale through a gorgeous steampunk World developed by hatred and regret taking place at a time most closely attributed to the Bell AO era of Europe Li of P presents its music and art Direction in a way that draws you into this period one of the game's best uses are with the records records are a collectible in lies of PE that are also sort of a form of progression which I am not going to spoil you'll get these from many different things occasionally as a quest reward or talking to an NPC and sometimes you can just buy them these records are so so good they perfectly encapsulate the feeling of this era played over the gramophone with their grainy background noise some of these are sung in French some in English some are purely instrumental and there are even alternate versions of certain tracks that you can get in New Game Plus they can all be listened to in the hub area at any time providing you've actually acquired them they are completely separate from the game's already fantastic soundtrack and they add so much to the atmosphere of the game a couple of them even have some lore being created in Universe by certain characters or whatever the records add a lot but I don't really know enough about music to talk about them anymore so we're going to move on but they are very very good the game feels very Grand yet somber at the same time with all of the rubble and Carnage everywhere you look every single is constructed in a way that makes sense as a world that people once lived in and walked around rather than you know just a level in a video game supported by the world's Dynamic lighting varied weather and insanely detailed views of past areas this feels like a real world that's been laid out with actual life in mind it almost feels like somewhere you could actually go and visit despite having a distinct fairy tale dream like quality pretty much the final thing that I want to talk about is the generally high standard of everything in this game putting aside my bias for all of the systems and mechanics in this game it all just has a quite rare level of Polish even compared to fromsoft namely the animations in this game are outstanding like music this is something else that I don't really feel I can speak on too much because again I'm not a Game Dev I'm not a musician and I'm certainly not an animator however the animations in Liza P are some of the finest animation work in any Souls game that I've personally seen at least I think I'm not even going to add my tried andrue in my opinion at the end of the statement because I really don't think there's even an argument here while I haven't played all the souls born games I have played the ones that most people say are the best and the fluidity of enemy movements in this game are like no other there's so many minor factors in the way enemies move that make every attack reactable in a fair way in the short time that Li of P has been out there's been balance patches bug fixes content updates all stuff that we don't usually get with these games lies of PE feels like an impossible game the level of quality it upholds from start to finish is something we rarely see in video games and it's truly a shame that it didn't really get a chance in 2023 is Awards Spotlight in closing this video out I'd like to ask a couple of questions one does lies of p hold up to from software's legendary series is it better worse and more importantly is lies of PE worth your time as far as I'm concerned I can't answer that first one for you whether or not the game Compares is going to depend greatly on your own experience I can tell you one thing for sure though lies of p is certainly deserving of your time attention and money even in a great year like 2023 with games like Allen wake 2 balers Gate 3 tears of the kingdom and more I still think lies of P was overlooked I'm not even saying that any one of those games deserve the prestigious Game of the Year award over another but I am saying that lies of Peace certainly deserve the same love and barrage of Praise that the others got because yes it does deserve that attention and it is undoubtedly unequivocally worth your [Music] time thank you guys so much for watching this is yet another video that ended up just being a bit longer than I initially anticipated so hopefully that was okay and I'm also sorry for uh all the radio silence since the last video I know it's it's been a minute for people who have played the game I know there's also a couple of things that I left out um this was because I either decided that people who haven't played the game should figure them out on their own or I simply forgot so sorry I I kind of can't can't wait to see the hate comments on this one um probably cuz I said sakir was my favorite from anyways um I'm I'm done running my mouth uh thank you for watching so much if you enjoyed it please let me know in the comments below um you know tell me who your favorite boss was I'm very curious on everyone's take on that um and your least favorite boss especially Jesus I'd also appreciate if you liked or subscribed as both would greatly help me out uh more than you know regardless have a great night and I'll catch you in the next [Music] one [Music]

Channel: CNRMRY

Views: 32,299

Keywords: Gaming, Video Games, Funny moments, Review, Lies of P, Soulslike, Souls like, Elden Ring, Lies of P review, Lies of P Gameplay, Gameplay

Id: aTmjNDfX698

Length: 24min 36sec (1476 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2024