Lies of Pis becoming a strong contender for being among the better Soulslike games not developed by FromSoftware. Although the recently releasedLies of Pdemoshowed it had areas to improve, reception to this dark fantasy re-telling of Pinocchio has so far been incredibly positive.
A chief reason for this is its similarities toBloodborne, a title FromSoftware that makes up the latter half of the Soulsborne moniker given to many of its games. Some are heraldingLies of Pas a spiritual successor to that game given its setting rooted in Gothic horror with the 19th-century aesthetic mixed with fast-paced combat against terrifying foes. While that remains to be seen until its release, there is one trend in FromSoftware’s design that it should absolutely not take inspiration from.
RELATED:Lies Of P’s Weapon Crafting Bodes Well For Build Diversity
Lies of P Should Not Have Double Bosses
One of the most controversial design decisions FromSoftware makes in almost all of its games is to include at least one fight where players are pitted against more than one boss at the same time. Arguably one of the studio’s most iconic fights is a double boss battle in the form ofOrnstein and Smough from the firstDark Souls.
Despite the battle’s difficulty, it’s a fondly remembered fight thanks to being incredibly well-balanced, as players have to form of strategy over which one of the two to beat first. One is swifter while not having much health and the other is slow while being bulky, meaning that coming up with a strategy revolves around determining who is the bigger threat while the other is still attacking. It is also an outlier with double boss encounters in FromSoftware designs, because beyond this duo, needing to fight more than one boss is usually frustrating and unsatisfying.
One recent example of a double boss encounter that is simply grueling to play is theGodskin Duo inElden Ring. Not only is this encounter one of the few inElden Ringthat is mandatory to beat, but it is also one of the most annoying, in part due to the Godskin Noble and Godskin Apostle having several attacks that cannot be blocked and are difficult to dodge. Adding insult to injury is distance not being a factor for them, as they both have melee and ranged attacks that make it all the more difficult to keep track of them.
There are several things thatLies of Pshould not takeas inspiration, and arguably the most important one is leaving behind double boss encounters. Creating boss fights that are fun and challenging is difficult to figure out, and both of these elements only become more arduous to figure out when needing to figure out how to make fighting two bosses at the same time feel satisfying.
Not only do both bosses need to be designed to have their own merits, something that needs to be taken into account is how they are balanced fighting together. What makes Ornstein and Smough work brilliantly together is that they balance out each other’s weaknesses because they were designed to be fought together and thus have those clear weaknesses that players have to figure out how to exploit. Both the Godskin Noble and Godskin Apostle lack this since separate encounters with them individually show that they were designed to be fought in one-on-one encounters.
Lies of Pneeds to find its own identityoutside of FromSoftware’s titles because despite the positive coverage it has been receiving, much of that is in comparison to one of the studio’s most iconic games. One of the ways it can do that is if it makes a clear separation between its own unique philosophy of how boss encounters work, as opposed to mimicking its inspiration right down to its failings.
Lies of Pcomes out September 19 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
