It really is; Lies of Peak.

I started my soulsbourne journey with DS3 and this linear level design really speaks to me.

I whole heartedly recommend this game, and that's a rare thing for me as I usually find myself needing to explain several caveats because the reviews I write are always from the position of a self admitted filthy casual.

One complaint I've always had about the Soulslike genre is it felt like most developers (FromSoft included) weren't all that interested in innovating or improving upon what came before. They looked at the Souls formula and simply tried to copy it, then called it a day. I feel like Neowiz actually tried something new here, and for the most part did a good job for their first attempt.

I did 3 back to back playthroughs with the first being on the easiest difficulty because for those that don't know or forgot, the developer patched in *actual* difficulty options that aren't based around specific playstyles or abusing specific mechanics. And for awhile the game was still kind of difficult because difficulty is subjective and it took some time to get used to the mechanics and figuring out how to play the game the way it needs to be played. When I finished that first playthrough, do you know what I did? I started I immediately started a brand new run on the hardest difficulty because by that point the game had given me enough breathing room that I was able to figure things out without feeling like I was bashing my head against a steel wall. The craziest thing happened on that second run. I wasn't getting as frustrated as I normally do when I keep failing because the hardest thing about these kinds of games isn't the encounters but the unfamiliarity. It's almost like instantly killing someone before they're given a chance to figure things out while simultaneously telling them to get good is bad game design? Naaah.

I digress. I finished my second run on Legendary Stalker and then started a NG+ run. Few games have ever grabbed me the way this game has. Normally when the credits roll on a game, I need to give it a few months before I'm ready to play it a second time. Let alone a 3rd time. I appreciate that this isn't a super long game, my first run took me 28 hours, my second 26 and my third 16 (give or take an hour-ish).

That's not to say I still didn't have my gripes with the game. I felt too many of the bosses expect you to chase them around the arena. The lack of a poise stat means P is practically knocked over by a gentle fart. Which is a problem in said boss fights that expect you to chase them around because blocking their undodgeable attacks pushes you back a significant distance. At a certain point every single enemy has delayed attacks or comes at you with super long combos which again, the lack of poise means getting hit by any one of those attacks means you're taking ALL the attacks. The game does love its enemies hidden near instant death drops, so you gotta watch out for that. But honestly, the biggest disappointment was the lack of quality items to find in NG+. All the defensive gear you find at the start of a NG+ run is still going to be worse than the gear you ended the previous run on, your weapons don't get to be upgraded past +10 and the aggressive diminishing returns for stat increases means you don't get a feeling of continuing to get stronger as you work your way through NG+. But these are all minor things and probably exclusive to me.

So yes, this game is incredibly fun even for my fellow filthy casuals that like the idea of these games and the gameplay but at hate how it seems like all the fun ideas are locked behind difficulty walls.

Unfortuantely I had enough to say that I exceeded Steam's character limit by 1805 characters, so here's my review, viewable externally on Infinite Backlog[infinitebacklog.net]


I might still beat this game, because I’m stubborn and have unhealthy urges to finish and complete things all the time, but I cannot recommend it. Lies of P is not a good game, neither is any other pure Soulslike, but this game’s existence and its steps in the right direction inspire me to think, that maybe, just maybe, one day someone will make an actually fair, fun and well-designed one of these, that will borrow a few central elements from the lackluster games that spawned this genre and remodel them and combine them with a lot of better titles’ difficulty design and mechanics to create something that’s actually challenging but always fair and fun. As it stands, if you like Elden Ring for whatever reason, you’ll probably like this. If you think Silksong’s Bilewater is a good and well-designed area, you’ll also probably like this. For anyone who isn’t just a masochist and cares about the challenges they face being fair and well-designed and not just difficult for difficulty’s sake, pass on this, as you should with most other pure Soulslikes (expect for maybe Sekiro).