Lies of P is an upcoming Soulslike game that set the internet alight when fans identified how similar it looks to Bloodborne. That similarity was entirely unintentional, says the game’s lead producer… after which his nose grew three inches.
Lies of P looks a helluva lot like FromSoftware’s classic Souls game Bloodborne. From the familiar gothic architecture to the similar character models and animations, it doesn’t take a super fan to see where the South Korean developer Round8 took the bulk of their inspiration.
In fact, the only thing that doesn’t appear to have been lifted from unused Bloodborne assets is the story, which is rather bizarrely a dark reimagining of the Pinocchio fairy tale (hence my little joke in the above title). Still, while I’m not exactly on board, the idea of a giant whale boss that you fight from the inside out has serious legs.
Anyways, as Lies of P lead producer Ji-won Choi told Kotaku:
“Though we’re greatly honoured that many players felt the ‘Bloodborne vibe’ through our trailer release, it definitely wasn’t intentional… Still, Bloodborne and other Souls-like titles are certainly inspirational, and almost everyone in our team is a hardcore Souls-like fan.”
Which, as I suggested before, is almost completely unbelievable. In the brief three minute Lies of P announcement trailer alone there are enough references/similarities for VaatiVidya to craft a 20-minute Bloodborne lore video.
And sure I get it, it’s embarrassing to be called out for how derivative your creation appears, but when you’ve lent in this hard there isn’t really any respectable alternative to just owning it. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of Bloodborne fans looking forward to playing Lies of P, as it might well be the closest we’ll ever get to a Bloodborne 2.
But what of Pinocchio fans? Is Lies of P as faithful to its other source of inspiration as it is to Bloodborne?
“We decided against allowing Pinocchio’s nose to grow because we wanted to make him look cool (as opposed to silly)“, said Choi.
At which point you really have to wonder why they went with Pinocchio in the first place.
