Bloodborne is no doubt a game that every soulslike fan should play at least once in their lifetime. It’s so good that many people have been asking for a more refined version of this game and its sequel for nine years now. But everyone also knows that Bloodborne is not a game for a person who does not like a challenge. It is often considered to be one of the hardest games in FromSoftware’s soulslike series.
While fans kept on asking FromSoftware to start working on a sequel, developers by the names of Round 8 Studio and NEOWIZ decided to give them something else. A very beautiful-looking soulslike game called Lies of P. This game is Bloodborne to the tee. It has a Victorian setting, and features a dark, horror-like environment. But the developers made sure it’s different in one crucial way: it’s not as hard as Bloodborne.
Here’s how Lies of P developers assured it’s not as punishing as Bloodborne
Soulslike games have a very simple and easy-to-understand core gameplay mechanic. Players start at a checkpoint, defeat enemies that come their way, and eventually reach a boss arena where they fight the boss. If they defeat it, it’s all good; if they die, they restart from the checkpoint, but without the souls they collected.
Usually, the souls that players had on them drop where they die, but in Bloodborne, their Blood Echoes (Bloodborne’s version of souls) are actually picked by the enemy that killed them or any other enemy nearby. Players have to attack them at least once to get them back.
Lies of P works similarly; it’s as challenging as any other soulslike game out there. However, the developers suggested that they have put a lot of effort into making sure that players actually complete their game. They suggest that they decided to make a game that actually made players believe they could complete it.
The game’s director, Choi Ji-Won, recently revealed that they balanced the game in such a way that it felt impossible to complete. He also suggested that they wanted this game to be an entry-level soulslike game.
To do so, besides balancing the game’s difficulty, they added a bunch of items to the game that made it a bit easier for players to get through it. And once the game reached the fans, they found out that they were actually completing the game.
there was actually some very interesting feedback we received from the public demo. Players who did multiple playthroughs questioned whether we ever patched the difficulty of the game because they found that it became much easier after their initial run. However, we never applied a patch to the demo and it was just that they improved their skills without realizing, instead assuming the game had been nerfed.
It is said that players usually find soulslike games harder on their initial run. But it becomes easier as they continue playing through it as they learn the rules of the game. But Lies of P was fun and easy to go through from the very start.
In the same interview, he suggested that they were contemplating adding difficulty options to it but ultimately decided against it.
Now there’s a DLC and a sequel in development
Lies of P fans would be excited to know that developers have already announced a DLC for this successful soulslike game. On the other hand, they also announced that they would be releasing a sequel to it sometime in the future, which is currently in early development.
What a weird thing! Bloodborne’s sequel, or even a sequel, is nowhere to be seen, but fans are getting a sequel to a game that is heavily inspired by it.
