‘Lies of P’: Geppetto Avenged

Before the era of sanitized children’s literature began, it was dark. Look up the original versions of your childhood bedtime stories and you’ll find that they are the stuff of nightmares. Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio is no exception.

There have been numerous adaptations of the little wooden marionette boy who has a penchant for trouble and an aversion to the truth. Nothing comes close to the original story, save for perhaps the stop-motion animation, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022).

A little fun fact about the original — Collodi’s initial ending featured the puppet hung for his crimes (including sending his creator Geppetto to prison). Alas, the children at the time were greatly upset by this, prompting Collodi (with pressure from his editor) to continue pulling at Pinocchio’s strings. The marionette continued to wreak havoc until he was at last turned into a boy.

More fun facts about Pinocchio in no particular order: 

• The Talking Cricket (Jiminy Cricket, is his more familiar Disney name) is squashed by Pinocchio at the very beginning, when he admonishes Pinocchio for his behavior. All successive appearances of the Talking Cricket are of the ghost haunting his murderer.
• Pinocchio actually burns his feet off at one point in the story.
• There is a scene where a snake dies due to a burst artery caused by laughing at Pinocchio.
• There isn’t a cure for Donkey Fever. Pinocchio turned donkey, is thrown into the sea to drown so that his hide can be used to make a drum. The fish eat the donkey’s skin thereby revealing his wooden body underneath, inadvertently saving him. Pinocchio’s friend Candlewick unfortunately is never saved from his asinine fate and dies of exhaustion as a donkey.

At the time of its original serialization, there was a growing need for labor due to the industrialization of Italy. Reading between the lines, certain story arcs like The Land of Toys are social commentary.  Pinocchio’s tale is meant to serve as a warning for children: don’t slack off or lie, work hard, study and be good. There will be dire consequences if you don’t.

The Adventures of Pinocchio really isn’t as lighthearted as it is sinister.

And honestly looking at the bare bones — a talking tree stump carved into a puppet certainly sounds unsettling.

Which makes for a very good foundation for a Soulslike video game.

A quick interjection as to what Soulslike games are: It is a subgenre of video games where the difficulty is cranked up to the max. It is called so due to FromSoftware’s games Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls (and Bloodborne of course) which are its genesis. Players repeatedly die, losing all progress, starting over from the beginning. The motto while playing Soulslike games is always try and try again until you succeed. It is so incredibly rewarding when you finally conquer it.

Soulslike games are grueling.

It is punishing.

What better environment fits this roguish puppet?

Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio’s Lies of P does just that. Plucking little Pinocchio out of Tuscany, and putting him into a Soulslike environment.

Let’s get the gameplay aspect out of the way.  

There’s an incredible amount of polish for an indie game. It’s ambitious. The environment is beautiful. Character designs are especially arresting.

Combat is clunky at times, not as fluid as Bloodborne or Sekiro. It is frustrating but that isn’t exactly a new feeling when it comes to Soulslike. In fact, had I never played a Soulslike game prior to this, I might have had a better time.

Bloodborne is everywhere in Lies of P. You see traces of in the gothic environment, the aggressive enemies, the entire macabre aesthetic. Setting foot in Lies of P’s Krat for the first time feels a lot like seeing Bloodborne’s Yharnam. In both cases, inhabitants of the cities are plagued by a horrible disease that turns them into unrecognizable beasts.

When the Lies of P demo was out, all those wishing for a Bloodborne sequel figured that Lies of P was its spiritual successor.

It is and it isn’t.

Lies of P is so deeply entwined with Pinocchio’s story that you could draw parallels to Bloodborne, but you need to connect it to that errant puppet to truly enjoy the game. Comparing it to Bloodborne is unfair, even if you can’t help it.  

On to the story.

Set in a fictional city known as Krat (along the lines of The Land of Bees in The Adventures of Pinocchio) in the backdrop of the Belle Époque Era, we take control of a puppet named P.

P (short for Pinocchio) wakes up to a Krat under siege by monsters, frenzied puppets and mutated humans. He is moved like a pawn on a chessboard (or rather a puppet on strings) by shadowy figures. Navigating the fallen city, P (and you) try to uncover just what exactly is going on and collect enough of the substance known as Ergo to turn P into a real boy, a human.

P looks nothing like the wooden marionette we know. The best way to describe P’s aesthetic is Sad Victorian Child^TM. He has a mechanical left arm that can be switched for another that can burn through enemies, install landmines, release a harpoon wire and more. It’s very handy for dispatching foes. P is also very skilled with weapons, (his skill depends, of course, on the player’s skill). P can fuse handles and blades and create weapons that suit the player’s preferred playstyle.

P is a rather special puppet. In his world, puppets are governed by the Grand Covenant, in a manner extremely similar to Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. The Grand Covenant states that puppets cannot harm or lie to humans. P however can. Unfortunately, his nose does not grow when he does. Only the loading screen has a side profile silhouette of Pinocchio with his nose functioning as the bar saying ’Now Lying’. 

From here, things get interesting in terms of the character of Pinocchio.

The Pinocchio we know, is characterized by his affinity for lying. Now you have a scenario where you pull his strings and he tells the truth. Lies of P has three endings, which are dependent on P’s actions throughout the course of the game and most importantly, whether or not he’s lied. We are considering two of them.

Fair warning for spoilers because there’s no way to avoid them from this point on.

The major antagonist for the game, responsible for the chaos that has befallen Krat is none other than Geppetto.

Geppetto needs P’s heart in order to bring his son Carlo (taken from Carlo Collodi) back to life.

If P has lied his way through the game, Geppeto apologizes, he sacrifices himself and embraces P, stating that Pinocchio is truly his son.

However, if you practice what Carlo Collodi originally preached — be good, be honest, work hard — there’s a different ending for P.

A truthful P, a good Pinocchio hands over his heart to Geppetto. Trading his life for Carlo’s. A Carlo who proceeds to massacre the remaining survivors and allies P has made throughout the game.

In Lies of P, Geppetto has been the one pulling the strings all along. Geppetto has been the one lying to P this entire time.

How the tables have turned.

A twist in the tale, this poor marionette’s strings are held taut.

A game’s good ending and bad ending are easy to judge, most of the time. Lies of P’s endings are as murky and dark as the depths of Krat.

Is P to follow the virtuous path as Collodi outlined in his story? It’s a path in which P inevitably dies. Arguably, the real Pinocchio should have died way back when at the end of Chapter 15. But shouldn’t P be rewarded for his efforts of being good? Isn’t that the happy ending this puppet deserves? Is the happy ending the one where he fulfills his creator’s greatest wish, even at the cost of everyone else’s death?

Is P to go back to his old ways, go against Collodi? Lie as he breathes? A path that lets him live, a path that lets the residents of Krat, those who are left, survive? Is this the good ending where you play bad? Geppetto dies of course, but P is free. His strings are cut and his creator tells him that P is his son. Isn’t that rewarding? Once again, Geppetto takes the hit meant for Pinocchio, as he always does.

Taking Lies of P by itself, unconnected to The Adventures of Pinocchio, it certainly seems as though the road through deception is the good ending. P lives and his friends live.

But when you connect it to The Adventures of Pinocchio it certainly feels as though telling the truth is the way to go. Sure, it means the death of your comrades, but does Pinocchio not deserve comeuppance for his past crimes?

It’s certainly something to mull over and that is what stays with you when you finish the game.

Pinocchio can live if he lies, die if he doesn’t. Self-sacrifice is after all the highest form of redemption.

Geppetto in The Adventures of Pinocchio sacrifices so much for his wooden puppet. Geppetto forgives Pinocchio no matter what dastardly deed he commits.

But not here. In Lies of P, Geppetto’s had enough. P may be good, honest and hardworking, but Geppetto doesn’t care.

You begin to think playing the game by following Callodi’s principles is actually, Lies of P: Geppetto Avenged.   

The post-credits scene is also intriguing, hinting at a sequel. Apparently, Pinocchio may hold the key to eternal life, something some sinister figures are interested in. They speak of another key, like Pinocchio, this time in the hands of a girl.

She’s a familiar name, one who strayed far from her home in Kansas. A girl with red shoes who we see standing in Krat at the end of the game.

A girl called Dorothy.

Will Lies of P’s sequel be set in Oz? Will P take the place of Tin Man? Perhaps.

Either way, I doubt it is the last we’ll see of P.