The rally system in Bloodborne does a lot of heavy lifting to get players into more aggressive playstyles, with the upcoming Lies of P offering an evolution of the mechanic in order to push its own unique combat. With the demo that recently launched alongside the latest Lies of P trailer, players have now gotten a chance to see this updated rally system in action.
In the original version of this rally system in Bloodborne, players could heal a portion of the damage they've taken by attacking any of the enemies in the current encounter. However, Lies of P takes this system one step further by not only granting the ability to enemies and the player, but also connecting it directly to the game's block and parry-based combat.
Lies of P's Enemies Can Rally Alongside the Player
The first major change from Bloodborne's rally system to the one that appears in Lies of P is the way that the player isn't the only one who has the opportunity to regain their health. Many of the stronger enemies and bosses in Lies of P also keep a small amount of the damage they've taken as a secondary health bar. In the case of enemies, though, this extra health bar regains over time, rather than requiring them to attack the player back in order to drain that vitality back through aggressive behavior.
This helps to push the player towards a more aggressive playstyle rather than a passive one since it is necessary to keep attacking in order to keep the fight from dragging on. Considering that the player only has a limited number of Pulse Cells in Lies of P to heal with, dragging out any boss fight by allowing it to heal even a little could be the difference between a win and a loss. It manages to accomplish much of the same task that the player-only rally system did in Bloodborne by incentivizing the player to keep up the pressure, rather than taking a more passive approach to bosses.
Rally From Blocks in Lies of P
In addition to the way that enemies heal over time, Lies of P also bleeds the rally system into the Sekiro-like block and parry system that drives most of the combat. This is in the way that the system doesn't give players the extra rally bar unless the damage taken comes from the chip damage that is received while blocking imperfectly. The result is a combination of systems that incentivize players to approach combat through guards and counters, which is likely the way that developers intend for the game to be played.
This means that players have two major ways to mitigate damage while blocking in Lies of P, either by successfully executing a Perfect Guard or by retaliating after a regular guard. The Perfect Guard draws the player to look for the best parry windows against enemies that are more akin to Sekiro's best bosses than Bloodborne's, but the rally system allows aggressive players to get the most out of a mistimed guard by quickly striking back. In this way, the systems are working together to make sure that players don't have to execute every command perfectly, but can still recover well enough to get through a fight.
The combat in Lies of P doesn't want to lean towards Bloodborne's dodge-heavy combat, where avoiding attacks is the best way to get around combat. Instead, the game wants players to face enemies head-on, attacking during the openings provided and blocking whenever possible. So, while Lies of P draws plenty of inspiration from Bloodborne, it uses that information to offer its own unique gameplay experience and not be a carbon copy of the games that came before.
Lies of P is set to release on September 19th, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.