Around three years ago, Lies of P launched on multiple platforms with an unusual premise. It reimagined the original story of Pinocchio, changing both its setting and time period while twisting the familiar tale into something far removed from the classic fairy tale. The story was also reshaped to fit the framework of a Souls-like game. On paper, the concept sounds like it exists purely for shock value, but the result is a game that treats its narrative with care while delivering an experience that demonstrates the developers' deep understanding of the genre. As we've seen over the past year, the Switch 2 has become a capable home for major multiplatform games that the original Switch couldn't handle, and Lies of P is the latest to make that transition.

Players take on the role of Pinocchio, a puppet created by the artisan Gepetto. Pinocchio awakens in an abandoned train car by a blue butterfly. Stepping into the city of Krat, you find a place where puppets once handled nearly every kind of labor before they revolted and slaughtered as many humans as they could. Guided by the butterfly's voice and Gemini, a cricket puppet housed inside a lamp, you make your way to a hotel in hopes of finding your creator, uncovering the cause of the uprising, and ultimately putting an end to it.

Like the games that inspired it, Lies of P tells its story in a fragmented way, so it's easy to lose track of what's happening. The introductory recap explaining the events before Pinocchio's awakening doesn't appear until after you defeat the first major boss, roughly an hour into the game. Important names are mentioned long before you meet the characters or understand their significance, and major plot points, such as the spread of the Petrification Disease, are introduced with little context. Even so, there are enjoyable reinterpretations of familiar characters, such as the Fox and Cat being reimagined as mercenaries. For the most part, the story is easy to overlook unless you're the kind of player who enjoys piecing together lore from scattered clues.

Lies of P sticks closely to the established Souls-like formula. Stamina governs both offense and defense, making it important to act deliberately since every action drains a noticeable amount, and enemies can quickly tear through your health if you're careless. Stargazers serve as this game's version of bonfires, letting you save, level up, fully restore your health, and replenish your healing vials. The trade-off is that every non-boss enemy in the area respawns, but that's also an opportunity for players who want to grind for resources before tackling tougher encounters. Your starting weapon depends on the combat style you choose at the beginning, so you'll have a foil, saber, or longsword. You'll eventually discover a wide variety of other options, including daggers, axes, and scythes. Death is an inevitable part of the experience, and while dying causes you to drop all of your carried currency and consumables, you have one chance to return to the spot where you fell and recover everything.

Upon its original release, Lies of P drew frequent comparisons to Bloodborne, largely because of its gothic setting, but several gameplay elements also justify the comparison. The most obvious is its approach to firearms, but you never actually carry a gun. Instead, Pinocchio's mechanical arm begins as a powerful punch before eventually gaining upgrades that let it function like a shotgun, among other abilities. The stronger connection to FromSoftware's PS4 exclusive is the game's emphasis on aggression. Landing attacks can restore spent healing opportunities, while following up a successful block with an immediate counterattack lets you recover some lost health. Although Lies of P still rewards careful, deliberate play, it also encourages you to stay on the offensive whenever possible, giving combat a faster pace than most Souls-likes while still feeling true to the genre.

If there's one feature that helps Lies of P stand out, it's the weapon assembly system. Instead of simply collecting new gear, you can dismantle many of the weapons you find and mix their blades and handles to create entirely new combinations. For example, taking apart a cleaver and a polearm fitted with a circular saw blade lets you build either a long-handled cleaver or a handheld circular saw. Many of these creations can also inherit elemental attributes from their original components, making combinations like a flaming circular saw entirely possible.

Even three years after its original release, Lies of P still holds up remarkably well. Combat feels fluid, enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed, and parrying strikes a satisfying balance despite its demanding timing window. Movement is responsive, while the variety of weapons, Legion Arms, and other abilities gives players plenty of ways to tailor the experience to their preferred play style. The well-spaced environments also help keep exploration enjoyable, and with no significant camera issues to get in the way, there are few gameplay complaints. Better still, the adventure never overstays its welcome, maintaining a steady pace from beginning to end.

The Switch 2 version doesn't include any exclusive features beyond the obvious benefit of being able to play Lies of P on the go without additional hardware. However, it is the Complete Edition, so it includes all of the game's post-launch DLC alongside the base game. While that has become the standard for many Switch 2 ports, some older titles still sell their expansions separately, making the all-in-one package worth highlighting. The additional content is also integrated smoothly. The three difficulty options introduced in a post-launch update are available from the start, allowing newcomers to ease into the Souls-like formula without hitting early roadblocks. Meanwhile, the Overture expansion becomes accessible in chapter nine, where it functions as a challenging side-quest that fits naturally into the main campaign.

Graphically, Lies of P remains an impressive-looking game. The ruined city setting may not stand out at first, but its Belle Époque-inspired architecture gives it a distinct identity, especially since action games of this type rarely move away from medieval-inspired fantasy. Human character animations are well done, particularly during the intricate sword techniques used by many enemies, but the lip-syncing is noticeably lacking during conversations. The bosses are especially striking due to their imposing scale and blend of grotesque designs with classic toy-inspired aesthetics. Most standard enemies are little more than robotic mannequins, but their stiff, erratic movements make them unsettling. They prepare players for the even more horrifying foes that appear later in the adventure.

The Switch 2 version offers three graphical presets while playing in docked mode, and Performance is easily the best choice. It maintains a mostly stable 60fps, which is especially important in a game that demands precise timing and quick reactions. The trade-off is slightly heavier light bloom, occasional flickering on distant objects, and some noticeable pop-in, but those compromises are easy to accept for the smoother gameplay. Quality mode improves the visuals slightly, but the differences are subtle enough that they're difficult to notice outside of direct comparisons. With the frame rate frequently dropping below 30fps, there's little reason to use it. Balanced mode aims for a steadier 30fps while preserving some of Quality mode's visual enhancements, but those gains are still too minor to outweigh the responsiveness of Performance mode, making it the clear recommendation.

Portable mode handles the graphical settings slightly differently. Instead of three options, there are only two presets available, with Balanced mode removed entirely. Performance mode currently does not reach a consistent 60fps, but a day-one patch is expected to address that issue. Quality mode provides a more consistent experience than it does in docked mode, as it maintains a locked 30fps while still feeling responsive during gameplay. Performance will likely remain the preferred option once the 60fps update arrives, but until then, Quality mode remains a perfectly viable way to play.

The audio design does an excellent job of enhancing the overall atmosphere of Lies of P. Most of the experience is carried by the sound effects, as the soundtrack is largely absent during normal gameplay, but those effects are impressively clear and detailed. This is especially noticeable when playing through a surround sound setup or a quality pair of headphones. When music does appear, particularly during boss encounters, it delivers haunting tracks that make each battle feel more intense and unsettling. The voice acting is also solid overall, but the restrained delivery stands out. Many characters remain surprisingly calm despite the chaos unfolding around them, which only adds to the game's unsettling tone.

Three years later, Lies of P remains a brilliant Souls-like experience. Its take on the Bloodborne formula is still captivating, especially since so few games have attempted to capture that same style. The abundance of secrets, excellent combat, and seamless integration of the previously released DLC all help make the package feel complete, as if the additional content had always intended to be part of the base game. The real highlight is the quality of the Switch 2 port, which performs so well in both docked and portable modes that players choosing this version won't feel like they're settling for an inferior experience. For Nintendo-only players, the wait for Lies of P was ultimately worthwhile.

Score: 8.5/10