
Lies of P Vs Bloodborne: Differences and Similarities
| Tags: Features
| Author Diana D'Estefano

Lies of P is about to be released for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S on September 19, 2023. This Neowiz soulslike puts us in the shoes of Pinocchio (a revisited version, of course), a puppet who in the city of Krat, where a strange disease and the rebellion of mechanical beings are ruining the city.
In the game, as we have been able to see over the months, we can expect several points of contact between the elements of FromSoftware's soulslike classics, including the soul system and melee combat. Furthermore, the similarity between the world of Lies of P and that of Bloodborne immediately catches the eye, so much so that many have begun to find similarities between the two titles.
For this reason, in this article, we have decided to offer you a comparison between the two titles, underlining three differences and three similarities that we have managed to identify thanks to the release of the substantial demo in recent months. Before leaving you to the actual article, we also recommend that you take a look at this article where we talk about some games similar to Bloodborne to play if you miss the streets of Yharman.
Lies of P and Bloodborne differences
Let's start by listing first of all all the three major differences we found between Lies of P and Bloodborne.
A “defensive” playstyle
The first difference that immediately catches our eye between Lies of P and Bloodborne is defense. The FromSoftware game focused its gameplay entirely on attacking and dodging, without taking into consideration parries; in Lies of P, on the other hand, this aspect is also added to this equation to take into consideration. For this reason, if you approach the game the same way you did for Bloodborne, you won't have a very easy life.
The defense linked to the weapon itself, in fact, turns out to be a very important game mechanic for the economy of the game itself. First of all, in Lies of P you have to take into account the transportable weight: the more weight you carry, the more movement capabilities and stamina will be reduced. Despite this aspect, we must also consider that, at least as seen in the demo, dodging does not seem to be our best defense on certain occasions, even if we travel light.
Furthermore, some enemy attacks (the ones in red) cannot be avoided in any way with dodging, unless you are right out of reach, and it is, therefore, necessary to incur the perfect parry (which is not easy to do, we know but practice makes better). Another important thing about the parry, then, is the fact that it allows you to recover health (or all if you use the right equipment) if successful. Bottom line, then, parrying is probably our best friend so we don't perish at the hands of stronger enemies.
Skill tree
In FromSoftware's classic soulslikes, the focus was on two macro-elements with regard to character enhancement: equipment and statistics. Statistics, as any player who has played at least one of Miyazaki's titles will know by now, are of little use if you don't use the right weapons, but at the same time, the equipment cannot be used if you don't reach a certain level. This “dog chasing its tail” mechanism, therefore, made farming a necessary action in order to enhance the character. In Lies of P, it will be the same thing, but Neowiz wanted to dare a little more and add a skill tree.
In FromSoftware's soulslike this peculiarity was not present, with the exception of Sekiro which, however, cannot properly be considered a soulslike. On the other hand, however, in Lies of P, the skills will be used to have additional boosts and treatments. It is certainly a different way to make our character progress, certainly in a more guided way, since it will be necessary to find specific objects to unlock these bonuses. The fact is, however, that this addition could prove to be very interesting and above all useful for defeating more powerful enemies.
Coop and PvP
Among the strangest and most discussed features of FromSoftware games, there has always been the management of the multiplayer part of the games. Although almost all of Miyazaki's games had a cooperative mode to be able to face dangers together with your friends, the systems that the development team has developed for this aspect have always been complex and difficult to understand at first glance. For this reason, in fact, many players have been forced to resort to online guides to understand all the steps to be taken before being able to play with a friend of theirs.
However, players who are about to explore the city of Krat will not have this problem: Lies of P, in fact, does not have any cooperative mode. Some clashes will allow you to summon allies who will be managed by the AI using some specific objects, but this is only an aid in case you find yourself in extreme difficulty with certain enemies. In conclusion, therefore, it will not be possible to explore the game areas in company and it will not even be possible to challenge each other in PvP mode.
Lies of P and Bloodborne similarities
After talking about the main differences between Lies of P and Bloodborne, the time has finally come to talk about the things that unite the two titles.
Setting and narrative
Lies of P and Bloodborne are set in similar times. Bloodborne points to the English Victorian era, while Lies of P references the French Belle Époque. The latter is set in the final period of the Victorian era and, although they have different artistic and cultural movements, they are close both geographically and temporally. Consequently, the Lies of P Krat seems to recall the atmospheres and settings of Bloodborne's Yharnam, above all due to the fact that it is set at night and has a general sense of decadence.
If the similarities regarding the settings are a bit stretched, what you can actually compare is the narrative. Although we do not yet have a complete view of the game since it is not yet available, with the demo, the trailers, and what the developers themselves have told us, we have managed to get an idea of what the plot of Lies of P is, at least in large lines.
We know, in fact, that a strange disease turns citizens into monsters if it doesn't kill them, in a very similar way to what happens in Bloodborne. Furthermore, our character will be helped during his adventure by an elderly man who knows many details about this disease, in addition to the fact that we will be guided by a female figure. Consequently, as you may have guessed, there is a strong parallelism between Gehrman and Geppetto, as well as between the automaton and Sophia, or rather a reinterpretation of the Blue Fairy.
Attack to heal
In addition to the similarities in terms of narrative, there are also some in terms of gameplay. One of the mechanics that made Bloodborne innovative was the ability to heal yourself by attacking. In Bloodborne, in fact, the damage was temporary and if you managed to hit enemies without being hit again, you were able to regenerate some of your health. The purpose of this mechanic was to make the player more aggressive, preferring attack gameplay rather than defense.
In Lies of P, there is a similar mechanic, even if it has some differences. When parrying, our character will suffer most of the temporary damage that he will be able to restore if he lands an attack against an opponent. Although defense is very important in Lies of P, especially on some occasions, as we have already explained above, this mechanic ensures that players do not opt too much for defensive gameplay, but rather dare a little and try to be aggressive too. at least when they get the chance. Also, in case you run out of heals, you can get an additional heal if you deal a certain amount of damage, which just reinforces the idea that you shouldn't play too defensively.
Weapon transformation
Finally, the last similarity we're talking about is that of weapon transformations. In Bloodborne, FromSoftware had added the ability to transform weapons, in order to give players a greater variety of attacks. For example, some weapons could transform into two distinct weapons, such as the sword-hammer, while others simply allowed you to switch from a closed form to an open one that was still able to provide a greater number of attacks.
Lies of P doesn't have this system as we saw it in Bloodborne, but it still gives you the ability to transform and customize your weapons. Since it is not a peculiarity present in other soulslikes, it is easy to think that the Lies of P development team was inspired by Bloodborne for this game mechanic. To be precise, Pinocchio will be able to break the weapons and then be able to combine them. This means that we will be able to give a blade a different set of moves using a different hilt. Furthermore, another thing to say is that each weapon has its own ability and it is therefore possible to create a weapon also according to the moves that suit us best.