Lies of P came as something of a surprise to many when it launched in 2023, immediately garnering critical acclaim and being lauded by many as the spiritual successor to FromSoft’s Bloodborne. While that final claim may be a tiny stretch, I have repeatedly called it the best Soulsike by anyone but Miyazaki, and in a world where Nioh 2, Wukong, and Lords of the Fallen exist, that’s a big statement. Finally making its way to the Switch 2, Lies of P: Complete Edition launches with all the additions from the Overture DLC, and some considerable wizardry behind the scenes.
Right off the bat I’ll say that no, LIes of P Complete Edition does not look as good nor move as well as it does on PS5 or PC. The colours are muted, there’s some dumbing-down of textures and details, and occasionally it does feel a little unresponsive, particularly in handheld mode. When docked it comes pretty close to 60fps most of the time, but the larger screen is less forgiving on its overall appearance.
But Lies of P remains an excellent game and one that Nintendo-exclusive gamers deserve to experience. It tells the tale of the titular P, a lifelike puppet in a story based loosely on Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio. It is set in the city of Krat, where the discovery of Ergo allowed the creation of “living” puppets to act as servants and companions to humanity. It’s a late steampunk setting, that has become dark and deadly after the Puppet Uprising that saw Ergo become a corrupting force.
P enters the ruined, burning Krat searching for meaning, but instead finds a tough-as-nails Soulslike with (mostly) exceptional level design, and flashy, satisfying stamina-based combat. Following an established Soulslike formula, Lies of P sees you carving your way through various biomes, unlocking shortcuts back to Stargazers (bonfires) to level up and spend your Ergo, while interacting with a colourful cast of NPCS who may or may not be allies. There’s an onus on whether P sticks to his Puppet programming and always tells the truth, or breaks free of such control and learns to lie. How characters interact and the overall world state are affected in subtle ways by how you choose to conduct yourself.
Enemy design is superb throughout, with some truly excellent boss encounters and a variety of standard enemies that force you to think and vary your approach. The atmosphere is second only to Bloodborne, with visual storytelling employed to an almost weaponised degree to fully immerse you in the ruin of Krat. Every environment is lovingly detailed, strewn with grizzly sights and signs of turmoil that really hammer home just how wrecked everything is.
The Complete Edition features the two extra difficulty levels, which renders the default difficulty as “Hard” and offers a more accessible experience for those who seek it out and just want to enjoy the world and story. On the default setting, Lies of P does get quite monstrously hard in the latter third, made worse by the fact that the Switch 2 joycons seems to struggle with the immediacy required. Often I felt dodging or parrying were lagging slightly, and this is from someone who finished Lies of P twice on PC, once pre-release and once after.
That said, it’s still manageable if you can adjust to it, and Lies of P still remains one of the most exciting and compelling Soulslikes available. The Overture DLC adds a large chunk of story set before the events of the main game, with outfits and weapons you can then bring forward into your save. In genre fashion, accessing it is a convoluted process, and it might as well be playable from the menu. Overture swaps puppet enemies for mutated beasts, and tells a separate story that never quite hits the heights of the main campaign.
If you’re a Switch 2 owner who has missed Lies of P up until now, I’d recommend the Complete Edition despite the limitations of the hardware. If you’ve played it and finished it before, I’d call it an easy skip as it doesn’t add anything to the experience. Either way, Neowiz has done a solid job porting it over.
