Lies of P: Overture is making big changes to the Soulslike genre

Almost two years after its release, and with a sequel on the way, Lies of P is back with a prequel expansion that gives players the chance to explore more of Krat.

The Neowiz and Round8 developed Soulslike, which drew inspiration from The Adventures of Pinocchio and other fairytales, is a firm favourite with Soulslike fans. The game is due to receive a follow-up in the coming years, and Lies of P: Overture sets the stage.

The expansion begins in Krat Zoo, a location that was teased in the main game and serves as the first major location of Overture. The zoo, which is themed after mid-1900s European zoos, is opulent to look at, but it contains some of the grimmest horror found in the Lies of P series so far. While most of the zoo’s exhibits have died off, the ones that hadn’t have become mutated monsters, which are extremely tough to take on.

Watch our exclusive Lies of P: Overture video…

While Lies of P’s human enemies are fairly easy to dispose of, the unpredictability of the creature enemies in Overture had us rethinking our playstyle and strategy. Despite having played through the original and gotten used to the combat rhythm of the main game, Overture wants the player to be far more cautious.

One enemy I encountered early in the game was a mutated kangaroo, which reared back on its legs before attempting to kick me five times in a row. The animation was such that every time I assumed the kicking was over, another would hit, landing me with significant damage.

Krat Zoo is a fun location for the expansion, and continues the main game’s streak of having highly detailed architecture for the player to explore. The zoo is full of working exhibits left behind, abandoned after the zoo fell. These are plastic animals with small blurbs about each of them.

While this could easily be window dressing, when you encounter the mutated version of said animal stalking the halls, those aforementioned blurbs often tie in to how they’ve since mutated. I love this type of world-building, and it’s something that’s hard to pull off subtly.

Overture doesn’t skimp on the bombastic, however. One mini-boss that gave us constant trouble began life as a rhino. This thing was slow, but it hit very hard. If you’re adept at dodging, it wasn’t too much trouble, and in fact, there’s a smaller version of it earlier in the level. With this false sense of security, I strode into this fight, assuming it would be an easy win on the road to the real boss.

When this creature was at half health, its head exploded into a chimera made up of the heads of other unfortunate former zoo attractions. With its rhino body and giraffe neck, this thing proceeded to pummel me into the ground, the first real roadblock on my first playthrough of this area.

“Krat Zoo is a fun location for the expansion, and continues the main game’s streak of having highly detailed architecture for the player to explore.”

Many Soulslike players have experienced the feeling where you think you’re absolutely mastering the game, and then suddenly there’s a steep difficulty spike, and you find yourself running down the same corridors endlessly trying to beat a boss.

Since Overture is a compressed experience, these ramps are much faster, and make the sense of accomplishment feels much greater. I felt like I was encountering a challenging fight every few minutes, be it standard enemies, pseudo bosses, or the level’s final boss.

Overture also introduces a new mode in which players can replay bosses on one of five difficulty levels. The first three levels are unlocked from the start, with level three serving as the default in-game difficulty. Level four and five, which are unlocked after defeating the boss at the previous level, are a masochist’s dream, and are designed to offer the most hardcore Lies of P experience to date.

All base game bosses can be refought this way, as well as the bosses from Lies of P: Overture. The argument over whether or not Soulslike games should have these difficulty settings is as old as the genre at this point, so it’s interesting to see one of the brightest sparks in said genre try it out.

I do wonder if this will be the catalyst for others to follow suit. The argument has always been that if someone were to complete Elden Ring on “easy,” they wouldn’t be getting the intended experience, but the alternative to that is that players simply can’t have the experience at all, because they aren’t skilled enough at the game.

With Lies of P’s new approach, of not only offering easier, but even harder levels of difficulty, a new audience will be drawn to the game, one that, perhaps, will learn the ropes on the easier mode, and get to see more of the world and the story, and then enjoy it so much they want to progress through the difficulty ranks. Personally, I’ve never understood how letting as many people enjoy a game as possible can be a bad thing.

A sequel to Lies of P is currently in development, and Lies of P: Overture serves as a great intermission between the two acts. The zoo is a great location for an expansion, and extremely well designed, and the new additions to the enemy roster will give players dozens of new patterns to learn and attacks to dodge.

Lies of P’s new difficulty system is perhaps the most interesting addition of the whole package, and one that has the potential to bring a new audience to a beloved genre. At the same time, the harder difficulty levels of the new Battle Memories mode will give players a chance to sharpen their skills before the full sequel to the game arrives.