Carlo Collodi’s beloved novel is about to get its own video game adaptation, though it’s not quite what you might expect. Instead of a touching story centered around a wooden puppet wishing he was a real boy, the core narrative has been contorted into a twisted Souls-like, titled Lies of P, where ol’ Pinocchio has to overcome a murderous dictatorship.
Developed by South Korean outfit Round8, Lies of P will be the studio’s follow-up to 2019’s open-world free-to-play online RPG, Bless Unleashed, and is set to launch on Sept. 19, 2023. If you’re in pursuit of something cut from the same Souls-like cloth, then here are ten games like Lies of P if you’re looking for something similar. Let’s get straight into it!
Ashen
We’re not talking about that rubbish FPS on the N-Gage. (Extra points if you remember that game!) Nope, instead we’re setting our crosshairs on A44’s bleak and gloomy lo-fi action-RPG that plonks players in the middle of a desolate world jam-packed with shadowy monsters that are hellbent on plunging the land into an everlasting, sunless world.
While the title features no traditional dialogue per se, the fantasy lore is incredibly deep and evokes poetic and wordless online experiences like ThatGameCompany’s Journey. On your adventure, not only will you bump into other online players, but you’ll also be able to work together with them, and develop camaraderie with your companions. Combine this with familiar Soulsborne systems, like an evolving hub area, open world exploration, grinding and leveling, and you have an underrated Souls experience that feels a lot like Lies of P that may’ve flown under your radar.
Mortal Shell
Speaking of Souls-like games that may’ve flown under your radar, a low-budget title from Washington-based outfit Cold Symmetry wants to introduce itself and get in on the Lies of P action. Indeed, this offering is so tonally in keeping with its inspiration that if you glanced at a Dark Souls and Mortal Shell screenshot side by side, you’d likely be hard-pressed trying to distinguish one from the other.
Still, while it cribs liberally from FromSoftware’s signature brand of risk-and-reward gameplay, it does bring a few neat ideas to the blood-splattered table. Namely, from the off, all players are given a handy manoeuver known as Hardening. This turns your playable character to stone mid-swing, enabling you to tank a hit from an opponent and give you a cheeky opening for a free strike. Talk about two birds, one stone, amirite?
Lords of the Fallen
Whether it’s the 2014 original or its upcoming 2023 successor, frankly, either works for us as both are mechanically in tune with Lies of P. Naturally, while the OG title is a known quantity, we’ve got a hunch that its fast-approaching follow-up will be even better. Despite some naysayers who weren’t too taken with Deck 13’s first offering, I just want to go on record and admit, well… I was quite enamored with it.
Personally, I always considered Lords of the Fallen to be a fun — albeit slightly shallow — take on the Soulsborne formula. Granted, it doesn’t really try anything particularly new, as opposed to, say, the aforementioned Mortal Shell. But it’s a solid and capably crafted action-RPG that’ll undoubtedly satiate that Lies of P itch.
The Surge
Another offering from the talented folks over at Deck 13. Indeed, The Surge — and its 2019 sequel — eschews the fantasy backdrop of Lords of the Fallen and swaps it out for more of a newfangled sci-fi setting. In a dystopian future which sees the population of earth reduced by 95% due to self aware robots and tech gone awry, the new hip and cool thing to do is to lop off your own limbs and weld high-powered buzz saws on as a replacement. I mean, why the heck not, huh?