The following contains major spoilers forLies of P: Overture.
IfLies of Pwas already a special and distinguished Soulslike,Lies of P: Overturemerely cements that and demonstrates further that the inspired subgenre is in highly competent hands at Neowiz. It’s not nonsensical why there’d be a bit of hesitation when it comes toLies of Pbecause, at face value, a Soulslike action-RPG that draws fromPinocchiofor its source material can be quite an odd premise. That said, the quality and polish exuded fromLies of Pand its DLC expansion,Lies of P: Overture, allow it to go toe-to-toe with FromSoftware’s best work on any day of the week.
Likewise,Lies of P: Overturedoesn’t shrink away from the challenge of one-upping the base game regarding difficulty.Lies of Pitself is brutally difficult, too, requiring that players gain a learned mastery of Perfect Guards and spec ergo levels toward a weapon’s attribute scaling, whether their preferred weapon can be disassembled into blade and handle components or not. That said,Lies of P: Overturealso provides players with as many means of making the game easier as they could wish for, and this balance of crushing laboriousness and generous accessibility is why Neowiz deserves to wield the illustrious Soulslike torch proudly.
Lies of P: Overture is Every Bit as Hard as Soulslike Purists May Demand for It to Be
Lies of P: Overtureshadow-droppedand had every right to be as challenging as it was on a NG playthrough, much less NG+1 and beyond. Soulslike DLCs are known for their inherent and dramatic increase in difficulty, typically in the form of nightmarish enemies and bosses, and developers are completely free to use such expansions as a way to truly wring a Soulslike’s mechanics dry and throw the kitchen sink at players who’ve beaten the base game and are expecting more. Krat Zoo is the perfect example of this as it suddenly dumps players into a snow-drenched region with some of the most aggressive and fearsome Carcass enemies in all ofLies of P.
Lies of P: Overture’s Battle Memories and Death March boss rush modeis also a terrific way for players to enjoy boss fight encores at escalating difficulty tiers.
The quality and polish exuded fromLies of Pand its DLC expansion,Lies of P: Overture, allow it to go toe-to-toe with FromSoftware’s best work on any day of the week.
Lies of P: Overture’s Accessibility Strides are Not Unheard of, and Continue to Set an Example
Of course, not unlike many Soulslikes of the same nature and nurture, much ofLies of P: Overture’s difficulty is self-imposed. This could mean that players simply don’t know what overpowered weapons, P-Organ skills, throwables, Fable Arts, Wishstone Cubes, Specter summons, or other in-game tools and strategies are available to them and when, but it’s also true that many die-hard Soulslike enthusiasts afflict themselves with the optional and unprovoked obligation to tackle a Soulslike with as many impediments as possible so that they feel as though they conquered what they perceived to be a suitable challenge and did not ‘cheese’ anything.
Lies of P: Overture’s difficulty optionsare a wonderful way to ensure that anyone can dip their toes in Soulslike waters before deciding if they want to dive into the deep end with a harder difficulty, though, and that doesn’t or shouldn’t impact anyone else and their preferred method of playing it. Indeed, evenElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreehas bountiful quality-of-life improvements and ‘cheese’ baked into its mundane features.
And, even if FromSoftware doesn’t begin implementing its own difficulty options, a greater breadth of accessibility is probably an illuminating glimpse at what Soulslikes will look like for the foreseeable future.
There will always be ways to make a Soulslike easier or harder, andLies of P: Overtureseems to have found a healthy balance after its latest patch lightened the strain on subsequent playthroughs.Neowiz is reportedly also working on a sci-fi survival horror game, andLies of P: Overturenow does well to provide it, as well as any Soulslike it develops henceforth, a ton of goodwill.
