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Everything we know about Lies Of P: Expected release date, gameplay, and more

Everything we know about the upcoming Pinocchio Soulslike

Want to know more about Lies Of P? The upcoming 2023 action game from Neowiz can be handily summarised with the phrase, "Pinocchio Soulslike" - and we have to admit, it's a pretty great pitch. It certainly has us excited after looking at the snippets of gameplay and storytelling that the devs have released in the leadup to the game's release.

Lies Of P tells a dark Pinocchio story, one which involves a gruelling trek through a horror-tinted fallen city filled with various hostile automata. If that sounds like your kind of game, then read on to find out everything we know about Lies Of P, from its expected release date to gameplay details, trailers, story, and more.

Lies Of P expected release date

Lies Of P is expected to release sometime in 2023. Currently, however, there is no firm release date in place. When Lies Of P does release, it'll be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. We'll update this page with more information as it arrives, so keep checking back!


Will Lies Of P be on Game Pass?

Lies Of P will arrive on Game Pass from day one of its release, so players subscribed to Game Pass will be able to dive into the game immediately. This is not new information, as the game was first advertised on a Game Pass banner way back in August 2022.


Lies Of P trailer

Several trailers have released for Lies Of P since its announcement back in mid-2021. Above is the latest trailer, which showcases several snippets of very soulslike in-game fighting - and a boss fight with a big hulking electricity-wielding automaton at the end.

Below you can watch some other trailers for Lies Of P. The first is the gameplay trailer released for The Game Awards 2022, while the second is the story trailer released by Neowiz shortly after the game's announcement.

Lies Of P gameplay

Lies Of P is very clearly a Soulslike game. The bulk of the game is spent wandering about the dark streets of the city of Krat, dealing with the various dangerous automata that patrol the streets.

The gameplay seems to be most akin to Sekiro, in the sense that you can make use of Pinocchio's doll-form to swap out his left arm for new arm types to gain new skills, in a similar manner to switching out Sekiro's prostheses. At one point in the gameplay trailer we see Pinocchio transforming his arm into a giant cannon-like shotgun to allow for ranged combat. Another moment sees Pinocchio using his evidently super-strong arm to blast open a gate.

There will also be a weapon-making system, where you can combine blades and handles that you find throughout the story to create new weapons with unique properties and playstyles. Rapiers, canes, axes, sabres, greatswords, and Bloodborne-esque wheel hammers have all been spotted throughout the various trailers, but this is just scratching the surface, with the devs confirming in a tweet that there are 30 basic weapon types and over 100 possible combinations.

The Lies Of P inventory screen, with Pinocchio standing in the centre, his weapons and equipment on the left, and his stats on the right.
Source: IGN Gamescom trailer

A glimpse of the inventory screen gives us some more details: for example, there is a slot for Pinocchio's outfit, which may act like armour or otherwise bestow special traits and attribute bonuses. There is also a very Souls-esque letter grading system for Pinocchio's attack attributes (Motivity, Technique, Advance), which indicates that each weapon works best with specific attributes. And there are slots for "Frame" items. We don't know for sure what the function of these items are, but they may allow you to customise Pinocchio's body with passive effects.

Beyond combat, the Steam page goes into a small amount of detail regarding the main campaign:

Experience interconnected procedural quests that play out depending on how you lie. These choices will then affect how the story ends.

So it seems there will be a fair bit of emphasis on player choice as you encounter different characters during the story, and the choices you make will have an effect on the path you take and end on by the time the game ends. Lying is a big part of Pinocchio's story, and in the game each lie you tell will accrue so-called "Humanity Points". The number of Humanity Points you have determines your interactions with NPCs, the kinds of enemies you'll face, and more.


Lies Of P story and setting

Greyscale concept art of Geppetto's face in Lies Of P.

Not too much is known about the story of Lies Of P so far, except that it is a dark reimagining of the tale of Pinocchio as told by Carlo Collodi back in the late 1800s. The game takes place in a similar era (with extra Steampunk), in the fictional European city of Krat, once wealthy and beautiful but now dilapidated and overrun by plague.

Pinocchio, an automaton-esque living doll, is attempting to become human once more. To do that, he must first find Mr Geppetto - who in the original source material is Pinocchio's maker. In true Soulslike fashion, it seems that when Pinocchio "awakens" at the beginning of the game, he (and the player) has very little information about what is going on. The story and lore will be introduced gradually as the player explores the now very dark and dangerous city of Krat.


How long is Lies Of P?

Game director Choi Ji-Won revealed in an interview with Prankster101 back in October that it will take roughly 30 hours to play through the entire story of Lies Of P. That time is expected to double to 60 hours if you stay to complete all the non-essential content of the game as well.

The story of Lies Of P is divided into stages or chapters, and according to Ji-Won, each of these stages is likely to take around 10 hours to complete. So it sounds like the game's story is divided into three "acts" of roughly equal length.

That's everything we know so far about Neowiz's upcoming Lies Of P, the two-parts Bloodborne, one-part Sekiro Soulslike reimagining of Pinocchio. If you're as excited as we are, be sure to check back on this page every so often for all the latest details!

About the Author
Ollie Toms avatar

Ollie Toms

Guides Editor

Ollie is sheriff of Guidestown at RPS, and since joining the team in 2018, he's written over 1,000 guides for the site. He loves playing dangerously competitive games and factory sims, injuring himself playing badminton, and burying his face in the warm fur of his two cats.

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