PS5's Lies of P looks like a horrifying take on Pinocchio

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

Round 8 Studio has an RPG for your PS5 on the horizon. The game is called Lies of P and it tells a dark reimagining of the story of Pinocchio. You will have to make your way through the gothic cityscapes to try and find Mr Geppetto and uncover your history.

Pinocchio is pretty popular, right? You know, marionette puppet comes to life, gets a bigger nose every time he lies, and gets swallowed by a whale? Cool, I'm glad you remember. Let's take a hard left turn at the Disney-fied image you've got bumbling through your imagination. Lies of P is not that. Round 8 Studio is doing this by the book... the serialised one by a guy named Carlo Collodi who thought it was a good idea to hang Pinocchio. That is gnarly.

Even gnarlier is the sound of Lies of P's gameplay systems that match its hardcore gothic style. The game will have “Souls-like” action-RPG elements, like a branching narrative, a customisable character, and a crafting system. You are going to be playing as Pinocchio, but when he wakes in the hellscape city of Krat he finds that Mr Geppetto is missing. Finding him unlocks the key to the central mystery of the game: what happened to this city? I hope it also answers a second question: why is there a rat crawling from a man's mouth?! There are remaining survivors to talk to, but lying to them will make you more human.

lies of p announcement trailer and launching on xbox series x s

The game's director of development, Jiwon Choi, gives further background to Lies of P's madcap concept in a press release. “We’ve been toying with the idea of retelling Pinocchio’s tale in our own way for some time. Lies of P is the culmination of our dreams and our nightmares.” Undoubtedly. “To us, Pinocchio has always been a grimly dark tale of the lies we tell to get by in a world that’s not always black and white.” More is on the way from this game and I, for one, am morbidly curious about what might be going on.

Are you excited? Hoping from anything out of the Souls formula that you haven't yet seen? Let us know!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.