Summary
The Souls-like genre often struggles with finding significant ways to ensure that progress is accessible to players of different skill levels, withLies of Pbeing the latest to join this trend. In this newest attempt, this accessibility comes in the form of the Specters that can be summoned to help with the fight against some of the more difficultmajor bosses like Fallen Archbishop, Andreusin St. Frangelico’s Cathedral.
Although summoned companions have been attempted in Souls-like titles before,Lies of Pmanages to hit an impressive balance of giving players an optional advantage while still asking them to master these fights. This is especially the case for anyone looking to take on New Game Plus for the additional challenge that comes with fighting the stronger versions of the already-difficult bosses.
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Wish for Progress in Lies of P
The first step towards this balance of theSpecter inLies of Pcomes from how useful they actually are in combat against the majority of bosses from beginning to end. To put it simply, Specters are best used to get boss aggression away from the player for the limited amount of time their relatively small health bar will hold out. These NPC helpers won’t often deal big damage to the boss, nor will they be able to keep the boss' full attention throughout an entire fight without dying.
However, the low baseline for the Specter can be offset thanks to the Cube and Wishes that can be acquired from Giangio usingLies of P’s Golden Coin Fruit currency. This is because more than half of the Wishstones are specifically built around either buffing or healing the Specter, with additional Golden Coin Fruit also being used to buy the Star Fragments that summon the NPCs in the first place. The result then becomes a setup where players are able to put together a build that can allow them to keep the Specter alive for as long as they want, or make them stronger to add more to the fight.
This strikes a balance between what has been seen in older Souls-likes before, from Bandai Namco’sCode Veinto FromSoftware’s ownDark Souls. WhereCode Veingives players immediate access to overpowered companions that can essentially carry through the game,Dark Soulsonly offers help on a limited amount of bosses with the NPC helpers that doesn’t rely on the online content. So, having the Specter be available in most of the major boss fights, but not being strong enough to carry on its own, means that players get to choose where on the sliding scale of difficulty they need to be to beatLies of P’s toughest boss fights.
Players Still Have to Master the Game by the End
By the end ofLies of P, the Specter’s limitations continue to dwindle as more and more bosses get multiple phases with separate health bars and are able to kill the helper faster and faster. This comes to a head as several of the smaller bosses don’t have a Specter available to be summoned to help with, as well as an encounter that unlocks access to some ofLies of P’s endings. So, while the Specter can be incredibly helpful throughout the game, seeing the credits still requires a certain mastery of mechanics likeLies of P’s perfect guardsthat are the key to surviving against bosses and staggering them for heavy damage.
The Specter’s utility curve also doesn’t stop at the end of the first playthrough, but continues through to New Game Plus, which borrows heavily from the rest of the Souls-like genre. As is common for this style of games, a second playthrough allows players to bring all of their levels and equipment back to the start of the game with all bosses and enemies having gained a major health and damage boost. This essentially means that in New Game Plus, the difficulty heavily spikes as players start to reachLies of P’s soft level capsand the Specter is quickly phased out.
Lies of Pis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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