Lies of P is a 2023 action role-playing game developed by Neowiz and Nough (formerly Round8 Studio) and published by Neowiz. The story is loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, to whom it is dedicated. The game is a Soulslike set in the fictional city of Krat, inspired by the Belle Époque. The titular "P" refers to protagonist Pinocchio, whom the player controls from a third-person perspective, and is one of the automaton-like "Puppets" central to life and industry in Krat.
As P, whose freedom of will bypasses Krat's laws of robotics, the player must use melee weapons, a mechanical arm, and "Ergo" energy (serving as both XP and currency) to navigate the enemy-infested city, which is plagued by a "Frenzy" turning other Puppets deadly, using a luxurious hotel as their base of operations. Binary choices by the player affect the outcomes of sub-plots as well as the overall narrative.
Lies of P was released for macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in September 2023. It received favourable reviews, with praise directed at its combat, visuals, sound design, and vocal cast, though opinions on its level design and narrative were mixed. By June 2025, the game had sold over 3 million units and was nominated for several year-end accolades, including The Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards, appearing on numerous lists of the top video games of 2023.
A prequel expansion, Overture, was released in June 2025. A Nintendo Switch 2 version was released on August 6, 2026. A sequel is in development.
Gameplay Lies of P is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls a silent puppet referred to as P, who traverses the fictional city of Krat and fights hostile puppets, factions, and citizens disfigured by the petrification disease. At the game's start, the player chooses one of three combat styles, which determines the character's attributes and initial weapons. The player uses melee weapons and Legion Arms equipped with tools that include a grappling hook. Every weapon, except for boss weapons, consists of a blade and a handle that can be upgraded and combined with other similar components. Upon combining, the weapon gains a unique ability called Fable Arts, activated when the corresponding bar is filled up. Weapon durability decreases during combat and can be increased by grindstones, which also give weapons temporary power-ups. The player can perform light and heavy attacks, as well as parry or block enemy attacks. Parrying inflicts a staggering effect on the enemy and damages their weapon. Blocking causes P to lose a small amount of health, which is partially restored after a successful counterattack.
The player acquires and upgrades weapons at Hotel Krat, which also provides access to other activities as the game progresses. Items are purchased with in-game currency called Ergo, also used to level up P by distributing it among vitality, vigor, and other attributes. The game features a skill tree that gradually unlocks with Quartz obtained after either buying it from a shop or defeating bosses and minibosses. Skills have additional slots for passive bonuses. After reaching a certain point in the story, the player can use Wishstones that grant temporary power-ups, such as increased damage and health regeneration to either P or a spectre. The player can also equip Defense Parts that increase P's defense capabilities. Before a boss fight, which usually has two phases, the player can summon a spectre to provide support. When the boss is defeated, the player receives a Rare Ergo crystal that can be exchanged for boss weapons or amulets with bonuses.
Exploring Krat, the player encounters ringing phones that pose riddles. Correct answers reward the player with Trinity Keys, which unlock locations containing gear and resources. The player can also find Cryptic Vessels, hidden locations with chests that offer various rewards, as well as collectables. Checkpoints called Stargazers are located throughout Krat and can be used to restore P's health and resources. Stargazers also serve as fast travel and respawn points. Upon respawn, P loses Ergo, which is retrievable at the place of death. However, each time P takes damage on the way back, the amount of recoverable Ergo decreases.
Lies of P features a morality system that presents the player with limited-time options: tell the truth or lie. These decisions influence the plot's development, including the ending. The player engages in conversations with non-player characters (NPCs) through a dialogue tree, uncovering additional information about the game world. Certain NPCs offer side quests that reward the player with items like new weapons and resources. P's appearance is customizable with outfits and masks found throughout the game. After completing the main story campaign, New Game Plus becomes available, allowing for replay with gear and upgrades acquired from the previous playthrough. The Overture expansion added new content, including enemies, weapons, side quests, and accessibility options, among other features.
Synopsis Much of Lies of Ps story is given to the player through optional dialogue and flavor text from items; when and if players learn of specific story elements can depend on their progress, although this section summarizes the story in a more linear fashion.
Premise
Lies of P takes place in the fictional city of Krat, made prosperous by "Ergo", a resource which the Order of Alchemists used to power autonomous Puppets designed by Giuseppe Geppetto. Puppets bound by the "Covenant" to never harm humans nor lie were integrated into many aspects of life, allowing Krat to thrive. Later, a mysterious illness known as the "Petrification Disease" swept through the city, slowly blinding people before killing them. As Krat failed to contain the crisis, a sudden phenomenon, the "Puppet Frenzy" turned most Puppets murderous in spite of the Covenant, causing a massacre of the population. It is during this state of chaos that the game begins, following a puppet called "P" who Geppetto considers his son and who, unlike other Puppets, looks exactly like a Human; untouched by the Frenzy, P has free will, unbound by the Covenant and is as free to lie or kill as a Human would be.
Plot P awakens in an abandoned train at the Krat Central Station and hears the voice of a woman named Sophia, who directs him to Hotel Krat, a safe building he subsequently uses as his base of operations as he navigates Krat, rescuing innocents whom he brings back to its safety, fighting hostile Puppets who attack him on sight, and encountering various members of the "Stalkers", the Human armed forces of Krat whose allegiances and goals largely differ from individual to individual. He is guided by Sophia, who can communicate with him remotely, and a puppet named Gemini inside a lamp carried by P.
P rescues Geppetto, and later the inventor Lorenzini Venigni, leader of Krat's mechanical industry, before reaching the cathedral to which refugees fled from the Frenzy. However, most Humans in the area are either dead or have become "Carcasses", the Disease somehow mutating them into murderous abominations instead of killing them. He later explores the Malum District, but although he encounters two friendly Stalkers, Red Fox and Black Cat, he must fight the four members of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood gang, killing the eldest and finding evidence that they collaborate with the Alchemists. P travels to Krat's opera house, as Geppetto claims that the rumored "King of Puppets" who made it their lair must be responsible for the Frenzy. The King's true appearance, like P's, is strikingly similar to a Human's. The King tries to communicate, but as P cannot understand, the two fight to the death in a duel from which P emerges as victor. He later meets Simon Manus, the leader of the Alchemists, who reveals that exposure to Ergo causes the Disease, and that the mutations are a side-effect of concoctions the Alchemists offered to the afflicted as a cure, and which, although causing most to turn into Carcasses, turn a small percentage of subjects into a super race that the Alchemists consider the next stage of Human evolution. Before leaving, Simon also explains that Ergo is the crystallized form of the human soul that forms after death. During P's further travels, Hotel Krat is attacked by the Brotherhood, the Red Fox and the Black Cat, who abduct Geppetto under the Alchemists' orders.
Key optional plot points include: The discovery that Geppetto is behind the Frenzy, having added a secret directive into the Covenant allowing him nearly-unlimited control of most Puppets; "Sentient" Puppets whose "Ego" awakened, making them able to bypass the Covenants' restrictions, and who can be nearly-identical "revived Puppet" versions of the dead Humans who turned into the Ergo powering them; That P is the revived Puppet of Carlo, Geppetto's son, while the King of Puppets was the revived Puppet of Romeo, Carlo's best friend; That up until his death, the King had been trying to avoid further death and warn P of Geppetto's deception; That the man posing as the rightful treasure hunter Alidoro is an impostor who killed the original and was complicit in the attack on the hotel; And that the "King of Riddles" who has been contacting P by phone is Arlecchino, one of the first Sentient Puppets who went on a long-hidden killing spree where he murdered the parents of Venigni, who would design the Covenant to avoid similar incidents.
P kills the rest of the Brotherhood, and uses a submarine made by Lorenzini to reach the Isle of the Alchemists where Geppetto is held. On the shore, he encounters Sophia, who confesses to having only appeared thus far as a projection, with her real body, disfigured by Ergo, lying atop the Isle, and used by the Alchemists to control Ergo and spread the Petrification Disease. Sophia requests that P ends her suffering, and while fighting his way up the Isle, he faces the choice of either leaving her alive or mercy killing her. Later, he encounters Red Fox and Black Cat, who depending on the player's actions either let him pass or fight him to the death. Eventually, P frees Geppetto, who tells him that Simon has gathered enough Ergo to activate a powerful relic called the Arm of God and achieve divine power. P climbs to the top of the tower and kills the mutated Simon.
Beneath the Alchemists' tower, P finds Geppetto, who asks P gives him his mechanical heart to put into a "Nameless Puppet", leading to one of two endings: If P agrees, he dies, and Geppetto uses his heart to revive the Nameless Puppet, whom Geppetto designed as the true revived Carlo. On Geppetto's orders, the new Carlo slaughters the survivors in Hotel Krat, and Geppetto, having replaced them with puppet copies, leaves the hotel to "rebuild" the city for Carlo. If P refuses, Geppetto activates the Nameless Puppet to take his heart by force. Eventually, the Nameless Puppet, who has seemingly become sentient and wishes to avoid having their heart replaced with Carlo's, attempts to stab the heart of a defenseless P; Geppetto rushes in between the two, sacrificing himself to shield Carlo's heart, after which P destroys the puppet. Back in Hotel Krat, the survivors prepare for a Krat past its recent crisis. Depending on previous choices throughout the game, Geppetto's dying words differ. If most choices befit a Puppet, Geppetto bitterly labels P "Just a Puppet", but if the player mercy killed Sophia and made enough "Human"-like choices, P will, impossibly, cry as he holds his father, leading Geppetto to acknowledge that he is truly his son; in the latter case, an exclusive additional scene follows Geppetto's death, in which P uses Sophia's Ergo to create a revived Puppet of her, for which she is thankful.