It should come as no surprise to any fan of Souls-styled games that Neowiz’s action RPG Lies of P has drawn comparison from fans with FromSoftware’s Bloodborne. In an interview with VGC, game director Jiwon Choi said that the studio felt honoured by the comparison between the two titles.
“Firstly, it is an honour, because we have a lot of respect for those games,” said Choi about comparing Lies of P with Bloodborne. “And second, it motivates us because we respect those games and those comparisons lead to an expectation from our fans.”
Comparisons between Lies of P and Bloodborne largely came about because of the similarities in some gameplay elements, as well as how close the visual aesthetics of both games are. However, it is worth noting that while Bloodborne’s world focuses more on elements of gothic and cosmic horror where werewolves can often be seen besides Lovecraftian horrors, Lies of P instead focuses more on a sense of dread created by the uncanny valley effect by all of the non-human enemies in its world.
Speaking of the respect Choi feels for the works of FromSoftware, he had previously spoken about the upcoming Elden Ring: Nightreign, and how Neowiz as a studio doesn’t want to try and predict how the Soulslike genre will evolve going forward. However, Choi did say that “In terms of our future endeavours, we are definitely open to any sort of consideration in the future.”
“I’ve tried [Nightreign] and it was very refreshing and new,” said Choi. “So that obviously gave me the impression that they’re good developers, they always push their boundaries, their imagination and vision, and it shows. In turn, that for some reason motivated me to deliver the Overture experience as good as it could be.”
Neowiz is currently working on an expansion to Lies of P. Dubbed Overture, the expansion will bring with it a host of new content, including new enemies to fight. Speaking about Overture, Choi said that the expansion serves as a completion of the studio’s goals to create a high-quality single-player experience.
“Our primary focus from the concept of this game was to deliver a high quality, premium action game that is single-player,” he said. “There were a lot of learnings for us [from the base game] and we did our best to reflect those improvements. The expansion is the completion of that.”
While it is just an expansion to the base game, according to Choi, Lies of P: Overture will take players around 15 to 20 hours to finish. He said that this play time is for “experienced players,” which likely means that those newer to the genre might end up needing much more time to finish the expansion. He did mention that Neowiz is trying to ensure that the Overture expansion is welcoming to both veterans of the genre as well as newer players.
“We wanted to really make the content accessible and enjoyable to the veterans of the game, as well as new users,” said Choi. “So we made a game that satisfies both segments of customers. Our prioritisation is more focused on the overall game experience.”
For more details about Lies of P, check out our review. In the meantime, also check out details about the new difficulty options coming with the Overture DLC when it comes out this Summer. Lies of P is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. A sequel to Lies of P is also currently in the works.
