Dark, puppet-based Soulslike Lies of P has scared up plenty of player interest, with its publisher reporting that its demo has been downloaded over a million times since launch.
What happens if you re-imagine the much-loved story Pinocchio as a dark action-RPG inspired by Bloodborne? Then what would happen if you were to cast Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet as a particularly fetching version of the puppet, right down to a full head of tousled hair?
You’d get Lies of P, of course (though we may have been kidding about the Timothée Chalamet bit). In development at South Korean studio/publisher NEOWIZ, the Soulslike was originally announced in 2021. Since then, it’s quietly built up interest with a steady drip of gameplay trailers and the like.
What really seems to have captured players’ imaginations, though, is NEOWIZ’s decision to surprise-launch a playable demo as part of Summer Game Fest. That demo has now been downloaded over a million times according to the developer itself, and has also garnered similar buzz on Twitch.
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It’s proven to be a canny marketing decision, then, since it’s resulted in players and writers sharing their experiences and thoughts regarding the game. Comparisons with Bloodborne have been common: PC Gamer, for one, describes Lies of P as a “damn good” but “shameless reproduction” of FromSoftware’s classic. Others have argued that Lies of P isn’t quite as polished in the dodging department as its inspiration. Some FromSoft fans, meanwhile, have gone to the trouble of modding Lies of P so that it looks almost identical to Bloodborne.
The surge of interest generated by the demo has also allowed NEOWIZ to put out a press release announcing how popular the demo is, which then gets picked up by outlets like VG247 or this one, resulting in yet more player interest, demo downloads and pre-orders. In marketing terms, it might be described as a positive feedback loop; if it were a gaming achievement, you could even call it a Streak of P.
Lies of P is out on 19 September for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. That demo is still available at the time of writing – including on Steam.
