Highlights
- Lies of P features linear gameplay through 11 distinct regions/chapters, providing players with a journey full of intricacies and secrets to explore on multiple playthroughs.
- The NPC-related quests in Lies of P are relatively straightforward, primarily consisting of fetch quests that are easy to complete once the items are found.
- The game's quality-of-life feature ensures that players do not get lost or forget important quest details, as most NPCs and key items are marked with portrait icons when teleporting to different locations, preventing players from missing out on favorable loot and storylines.
Lies of P has been out for a little over a week in its full release and even longer through its brief early access period, but it’s likely that there are still many players surviving against puppets, carcasses, and humans alike due to how long this indie Soulslike is. Lies of P is incredibly linear with a lot of the player’s narrative-driven progression being to simply make their way forward through an area past bosses, and that trek alone takes players on a journey through 11 distinct regions or chapters that all have their own intricacies and secrets to explore on New Game and New Game Plus playthroughs alike.
Like many other Soulslike games and certainly like FromSoftware’s, Lies of P also features quests that are instigated when talking to an NPC. That said, quests that NPCs give the player in Lies of P are never as convoluted or misguided as a quest that an NPC will provide players within a FromSoftware game. Instead, almost every NPC-related quest that isn’t vital for story progression is an item fetch quest, even when acquiring cryptic vessels for Lorenzini Venigni or ware caches for puppet butlers Polendina and Pulcinella at Hotel Krat. However, once such items are found, Lies of P makes finishing these fetch quests easy.
Lies of P’s Quality of Life for Certain Items and Quests is a Thankless Service
Because Lies of P is a relatively long game with myriad sprawling regions, it would’ve been quite easy to lose one’s way or forget where they had encountered a particular someone or something. Someone asks for something, for example, and without any lingering document or reminder of what they were looking for, players are otherwise left to hopefully recollect what that person wanted, let alone where it could be found.
Then, suppose players manage to find it and remember that it was something that someone wanted. In that case, the challenge becomes trying to remember who asked for it and where they were located—that is if they have not already relocated elsewhere without notice.
This is the struggle that most side quests offer in Soulslikes, and while many are not foundational to the player’s experience they will likely miss out on favorable loot if they are unable to see them through. Thankfully, it’s almost impossible not to finish a side quest in Lies of P because when players interact with a Stargazer to teleport to another, any persons of interest who have something to say or key items that can be given to someone appear as a portrait icon on the specific location that they can be found or delivered in.
This means that even if Lies of P’s Gemini doesn’t remark on players looting a key item and reminding them about a side quest himself, players will be reminded when they’re back on the menu that lets them teleport to another location or region. This is truly revelatory because it encourages players to complete side quests rather than having them get pointlessly lost in details that can be forgotten or obscured 10 or 20 hours later.
That said, most side quests in Lies of P have players find something for someone within the same region, so they’ll likely be fresh in the player’s mind as they explore. Not every quest or key item is represented with a portrait icon, though, so it’s not a completely reliable system on its own, but it’s nevertheless a fantastic inclusion that future Soulslike games should consider as well.
Lies of P is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
