Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/Zuldim
Lies of P, Pinocchio Souls, might not look it at a glance, but it is a shockingly loving adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 novel. In this video, I want to not only look at what exactly is going on in the story of the game, but also dive into the many many ways it references and twists its source material, into something surprisingly thoughtful and considered. Settle in, this is going to be a long one.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Why Pinocchio? – 0:00:00
Part One: What is Lies of P? – 0:14:05
Part Two: The Cat, The Fox, and the Gold Coin Fruit – 0:31:53
Part Three: Catchfools, and St. Frangelico Cathedral – 0:46:21
Part Four: The Land of Toys, Rosa Isabelle Street – 1:01:18
Part Five: The Industrial Horrors of Krat – 1:21:00
Part Six: Sophia and the Cure – 1:32:36
Part Seven: The Lies of Lies of P – 1:54:12
Part Eight: Simon Manus, Lies of P’s Monstro – 2:12:52
Part Nine: Becoming a Real Boy – 2:37:52
Outro – 2:53:13
References & Further Reading:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13SKCsFuNcNC2GED1Vvz40vulLdOcIbSxTMRzHgQUxOU/edit?usp=sharing
source
Ok, another thing now that I'm close to the end of the video! Simon actually has another motivation for his world without lies thing. It's been a while so i don't remember where it is said, but he had the ability to read minds. This drove him insane because he couldn't stop seeing every time someone told an untruth around him.
Well. Spoilers, I guess. Stop scrolling, you.
The Nameless Puppet being made from Carlo's dead body had not occurred to me at all. That is some grisly sht. I thought the NP was so wild because it was just the prototype P, and Geppetto hadn't worked out all the kinks just yet, but it's plain as day in hindsight.
Is the uncontrollable nature of NP because Carlo is still in there, mischievous nature turned up to 11? Because Carlo is super pissed at his POS father but can't do anything about it until the strings are cut, and then both P and Geppetto have to go? Is there a madness there, like the madness that touches grasps people when they climb out of the lazarus pit, that comes with being ripped away from the peacefulness of death? All of it? It's probably all of it.
Geez, Zuldim. You have a way of simply understanding games like this in a way I never do, and I'm grateful. You make the experience so much better. I'd go play LoP right now but my NG+ playthrough is at the Puppet Devourer and I dont need that kind of stress so early on a Sunday morning
I love Pinocchio, so much better than Pinocchio, way more different than Pinocchio though, sadly doesn’t hold up to pinocchio, but definitely improves and adapts from Pinocchio
This was great! I learned so much more that no one has covered!
Now this is a video. Your skill in writing is very clear.
I appreciate you providing so much context about the origin story. This allowed me to better understand the story of lies of p, why certain characters do what they do, and even helped me overcome my disdain for Gemini. Also i realized how much I suck because I saw clips of you tearing apart enemies I would have to spend ages on 😅.
1:54:12 While there might be no explicit name for this morality system, Nameless Puppet wields "Proof of Humanity" tho, so the terminology doesn't seem so far fetched 😂Even its description states "The boy made a choice and became human." 😅
I will admit, I originally wrote this game off as just another soulslike with a particularly whacky premise and put it out of my mind. People are generally so starved for games that make them feel the way Bloodborne did that they'll label nearly anything as it's second coming, and it usually puts me off the game in question… but sitting down and actually listening to you work through it like this has absolutely changed my mind. I'll have to a take a dip into Krat myself now, I think.
There are few things on YouTube that i enjoy more than multi hours story analyses of games or movies. This one was incredible all around. Personally i haven't played Lies of P (yet) as i'm currently not really in the mood for pretty difficult Souls like but i've seen multiple people play through it and the story fascinated me from the beginning.
This video should have 1 million views like a vaaty video. Amazing job and storytelling
Watched the video to the end, I appreciate your hardwork and how you make the video accessible to those who do not play the game but didn't 'clutter' it with mechanics and enemies 101. I enjoyed the lore and can say Lies of P have a great lore, but it is not my kind of game because I don't have good reflex nowadays cause age and eyesight to play even normal action or platformer games, so I never touch souls-like games. When you talk about appreciation of pinocchio in the end, my brain commented that I don't like pinocchio in general but when I think twice about it… I don't like the lie mechanic of disney pinocchio as much as the bratty wooden boy.
What a fantastic video. Lies of P best souls game.
I'm a bit confused about a point. Earlier on you say that Ergo is created when a person that has the Petrification disease dies, but later on you theorize that the Petrification disease is triggered by over exposure to ergo. Sounds like circular logic, which to be fair fits with the Oroboros symbolism in the game, but did I misunderstand? Thank you for the great video btw!
I was actually ruminating on a point about Simon ever since i finished the game. Not so much a theory, but a paralel between him and the show Legion, where the protagonist (David) also has the ability to read minds.
In season 2, episode 6, we see versions of David from alternate universes and how his power can be a curse. In one of those versions, he uses the ability to become an uber-powerful corporate billionare, obviously through shady tactics. In the final scene, he has a speech about the Tower of Babel, how it was a story about humans who came together to build a tower to reach back into Heaven and defy God. God did not approve and so he made the people speak different languages, so that they could never unite and work together for a commom goal as ambitious as ascending to Godhood.
Simon's obsession with creating a world of truth, spurred by his power to read minds reminds so much of that speech and the potential plans that he had for humanity.
Not sure if this is interesting to other people, but i had to share it with someone
Gemini’s dialogue feels like it’s from a game where he’s constantly talking, like it’s so casual but goofy it seems weird when it just came out of no where after not hearing him for 10 hours at a time. I think that was my only gripe, the pacing of when he would talk, you’d forget he even does it before it happened a subsequent time, the sudden banter (rather than it just being banter you hear all the time) was always surprising, like tone-wise it sounds like someone who was always encouraging you and trash talking and hanging out etc except it just happens once in a blue moon apropos of nothing. For most of the game he’s just a silent light on your butt.
Note on the fox and cat, if you fight the cat the fox will attack you without letting you offer a coin, so she doesn’t seem to want them for her own sake once he’s gone. I think that lends credence to it being for the cat’s healing and not just a ploy for money or whatever
My god, never imagined I'd listen to 3 hours video, but I couldn't stop watching it to the end.
Your depth of analyzing the story is another level, quite few of them I'd never thought of.
10/10
I didn't give Antonia the medicine because I was worried it'd turn her into a carcass and i didn't trust the Alchemist kid. Funny that I didn't, but not for the reasons I would have thought by the end.
I think this might be the lies of p video ive been waiting for
Brief side-tangent here, more in line with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen adaptation/Penny Dreadful then the Adventures of Pinocchio, about the portrait/Golden Lie: D. Gray, a ‘double-up’ moment of demonstrating humanity through lying over the span of your ‘life.’
I would also say that Rosa Isabelle st. is another of the representations of mortality within the game, and how those privileged enough can distract themselves-constantly and at will-until the inevitable occurs: lying to and deluding themselves in a vein attempt at ignoring ‘The Human Condition,’ only for that delusion to become the staging ground of the King of Puppets to try and show P his fate and the nature of humanity and how they view mortality and attempts to cheat it.
God I hate when any type of entertainment does a nudge wink hey this is ridiculous and stupid bs. It just shows you that they're not committed to this world and they feel ashamed of what they made in a way. I'm glad this game doesn't do that.
How they handled elements in Lies of P makes me excited for how they will handle their next game which seems to be using Wizard of Oz and how they will incorporate those themes into game mechanics as well as story.
This is my first exposure to your channel and I LOVED this video. I learnt so much about this game and the story of Pinocchio and your creativity and writing is so engaging 😤
I wonder how many people find Simon's confession, find out this middle name has the word piss in it and then just call him The Lord of Piss from then on.
Finally got through this monster of a vid, but it was well worth the three hours. I originally bought Lies of P because I was sold on a Pinocchio Souls game. As you said, the game was incredible even if the story was just a gimmick, as the gameplay was tight. Turns out, however, that the narrative was clearly not a mere gimmick, and was actually one of the most beautiful parts of the game. Even the music chosen for the credits, especially the golden version of Proposal, Flower, Wolf Part 1, hit me in the feels, especially after getting the best endung. Also liked the fact some of the music like the aforementioned Proposal, Flower, Wolf Part 1 were remakes of previous Neowiz games.
I am not familiar with the original story if Pinocchio, but in playing the game and seeing the way the story unfolds, I FELT the love and respect for the original source material, that Neowiz wanted to be a more faithful adaptation while putting their own spin in it. I am glad to see you prove me right, as I saw elements of the game strike me as something that would've required a much deeper dive into the original. Even the lying aspect in narrative terms felt more reasonable compared to how adaptations and games traditionally present it. I also forgot about the notes indicating Andreus was the one who stole the Arm of God, as I only remembered it being in possession of Geppetto.
Also, thanks to your breakdowns of events, and attention to detail be it from notes or events, I feel like all this time I interpreted the reason for Geppetto starting the Puppet Frenzy wrong, namely because I never had a full understanding about Kroud and the Petrification Disease itself. By pointing out people straight up getting murdered does not produce ergo really shifts my perspective of how I view the game's version of Geppetto is like. And I already had a suspicious view before.
Also your deep dive into the story helped show who the 'Trinity' really is, as all I cared about the keys and the room was get my humanity, get the keys, find the rooms, and grab all the goodies in the safe. I didn't put two and two together that stinger in the end was a glimpse into that immortal Trinity group. All the more I want to see where Neowiz takes this fairytale universe to, starting with Oz.
The narrative is fairly straightforward, and generally not cryptic to the level of a Soulsborne game, but I am surprised at how specific elements can easily be misinterpreted or overlooked if you don't really pay attention to those notes and writings. So it was nice hearing your view on the story and how you put the pieces together.
Does the game ever state that it is actually set in France France and not just in a vaguely French-like fantasy land?
I don't think killing Alidoro is framed as "the right choice" by giving you more humanity, but showing that P has the freedom to kill a wicked person as a human rather than the restrictions of a puppet.
Did you skip over the Grand Exhibition?
Seriously underrated for vaatividya level content subbed
i just killed king of the puppets as the transmission in the video played and how they are friends…im uninstalling i cant continue 😭😭