Pinocchio (Lies of P)

When most people hear the name Pinocchio, they picture a cheerful wooden puppet eager to learn right from wrong. Lies of P shatters that innocent image entirely, thrusting you into a blood-soaked, Belle Époque nightmare. Here, Pinocchio is not a whimsical toy but a lethal, mechanical masterpiece created to butcher his way through a city driven mad by a mysterious plague.

As the protagonist of this dark soulslike adventure, your journey is defined by brutal combat, complex moral dilemmas, and a deep, tragic lore that connects you directly to the fallen city of Krat. You are a puppet unaffected by the violent Frenzy that turned your mechanical brethren into monsters. However, your most dangerous weapon isn’t the blade in your hand—it is your ability to lie. In a world where machines are bound by absolute truth, your capacity for deception is the only thing that might just make you human.

Character Overview

Meet P. The game rarely calls him Pinocchio outright, but he is unmistakably the mechanical marvel wandering the bloodstained streets of Krat. Unlike standard automatons bound by strict rules of obedience, this protagonist possesses an unprecedented level of autonomy. He is not just another disposable machine fighting in the streets.

Trait	Details
Creator	Geppetto
Core Mechanism	The P-Organ
Primary Companions	Gemini, Sophia
Unique Ability	Capable of lying and accumulating Humanity
Main Objective	End the Puppet Frenzy and discover his true nature

History & Lore

The story of the game runs much deeper than a simple fairy tale retelling. Every twisted alleyway in the city holds a piece of a tragic puzzle.

Background & Carlo’s Connection

The protagonist is tied to a deeply personal tragedy. Geppetto did not just build a puppet for the sake of innovation. He was a devastated father mourning the death of his actual son named Carlo. Desperate to reverse his painful loss, Geppetto invented the P-Organ to absorb and process magical energy. He then transferred Carlo’s own Ergo into this mechanical heart. This effectively makes the player character a surrogate son forced to fill a void left by the original boy.

The Puppet Frenzy in Krat

Krat was once a thriving metropolis powered by the miraculous energy source known as Ergo. Everything collapsed when the city’s mechanical servants suddenly rebelled and began slaughtering the human population. This catastrophic event is called the Puppet Frenzy. You wake up in an abandoned train car right in the middle of this absolute devastation. Your immediate objective is simple but brutal. You must navigate through the ruined city, locate your creator, and uncover why the machines turned against their masters.

Key Relationships

Your journey through the decaying city is never truly a solo endeavor. Geppetto acts as your primary guiding force by offering upgrades and paternal advice throughout the campaign. Sophia serves as a mystical guide who helps channel magical energy to increase your raw power. Meanwhile, the tiny automaton companion Gemini hangs from your belt to provide crucial lore insights and illuminate dark corridors. These interactions slowly shape your understanding of the ruined world and your place within it.

The Humanity System: Lying vs. Truth

In a world where ordinary machines must obey absolute commands, your ability to deceive is your greatest anomaly. The Grand Covenant strictly forbids regular automatons from lying, making your defiance a direct catalyst for gaining human emotions. Your nose does not physically grow when you tell a falsehood, but a hidden internal counter tracks every deceptive choice you make.

• Telling comforting lies to survivors increases your internal warmth and empathy.
• Accumulating enough humanity fundamentally alters your physical reactions, such as the ability to pet animals or express grief.
• Your ultimate moral alignment directly dictates which narrative finale you unlock at the end of the campaign.

Gameplay & Abilities

The P-Organ Upgrades

Your mechanical heart serves as the central hub for your combat progression. Geppetto designed the P-Organ specifically to process Ergo, allowing you to unlock latent combat abilities and essential passive buffs. You must collect rare Quartz materials hidden throughout Krat to activate these vital skill nodes. This complex system lets players tailor their combat approach by focusing on aggressive dodge maneuvers, increased health recovery, or enhanced blocking mechanics.

Legion Arms

Your left arm is not just a standard prosthetic piece. The Legion Arm system serves as your primary tactical tool for crowd control and elemental damage when regular blade swings simply are not cutting it. You can swap out these specialized mechanical appendages at any Stargazer checkpoint to completely adapt to the enemies ahead.

Legion Arm	Primary Function	Best Used For
Puppet String	Fires a wire to pull enemies or launch yourself toward them.	Closing the gap on fast, evasive targets.
Fulminis	Discharges a powerful blast of electricity.	Stunning and destroying mechanical puppets.
Aegis	Deploys a frontal explosive shield.	Blocking devastating boss combos safely.

Combat Style & Weapon Mechanics

The combat flow heavily rewards aggressive play and precise timing. You cannot just hide behind a shield; you need to master the Perfect Guard mechanic to shatter enemy weapons and open them up for fatal strikes. However, the absolute standout feature of the game is its deep Weapon Assembly system.

• Weapon Assembly: You can detach almost any blade from its original hilt and combine it with a completely different handle. This lets you attach a heavy, high-damage greatsword blade to a fast-swinging rapier hilt to perfectly tweak your attack speed and stat scaling.
• Durability Management: Every time you block a hit or strike armor, your weapon loses sharpness. You must actively use your Grinder mid-fight to restore durability, otherwise your damage output plummets.
• Fable Arts: Each weapon component comes with unique combat skills powered by a dedicated energy meter, allowing for flashy and devastating special attacks.

Lies of P Endings (How Choices Affect the Finale)

The climax of your brutal journey heavily depends on the humanity you managed to accumulate and a single, critical final choice. Let’s break down the narrative conclusions you can unlock.

“Real Boy: They All Lived Happily” (Bad Ending)

Do not let the cheerful name fool you—this is widely considered the absolute bleakest conclusion to the story. When you finally reach the end of the campaign, Geppetto asks you to willingly surrender your mechanical heart. If you comply and hand over the P-Organ, he immediately uses it to fully resurrect his biological son, Carlo. The player character effectively dies on the spot to serve as a vessel, and Geppetto replaces you with a cold, ruthless version of Carlo who leaves the city of Krat in a terrifying state.

“Free from the Puppet String” (Neutral Ending)

If you refuse to surrender your heart to Geppetto, he unleashes the monstrous Nameless Puppet to take it by sheer force. Defeating this grueling secret final boss while possessing low Humanity triggers the neutral conclusion of the game. You survive the ordeal and completely break free from your creator’s manipulative control, but you remain fundamentally a cold machine. It is a deeply bittersweet victory where you successfully gain your independence but fail to fully grasp the true human experience.

“Rise of P” (True / Good Ending)

This is the ultimate, canonical conclusion for players who fully embraced the game’s complex moral mechanics. To achieve this finale, you must consistently tell lies throughout your journey, grant Sophia peace when you finally discover her true physical state, and flatly refuse Geppetto’s demand. After dismantling the Nameless Puppet, your accumulated empathy, warmth, and grief finally trigger a profound transformation. You shed your rigid mechanical limitations and effectively become a real boy, honoring Sophia’s sacrifice by saving Krat on your own terms.destructoid+1

Trivia & Easter Eggs

The developers at Round8 Studio brilliantly adapted Carlo Collodi’s classic 1883 fairy tale into this brutal, dark fantasy setting. While the game swaps wooden toys for clockwork horrors, several characters serve as direct, clever nods to the original source material.

• Gemini: Your glowing, cricket-like lantern companion is a direct reference to Jiminy Cricket, serving as a somewhat anxious guiding voice of reason.
• Sophia: With her distinctive blue attire, pale hair, and mystical abilities, she perfectly represents the iconic Fairy with Turquoise Hair (widely known as the Blue Fairy).
• The Fox and the Cat: These two opportunistic, animal-masked stalkers you encounter in Krat perfectly mirror the original novel’s con artists who constantly trick the naive puppet.

Conclusion

Lies of P proves that the soulslike formula still has plenty of room for genuine innovation and deep storytelling. By blending a highly customizable weapon assembly system with a narrative entirely driven by moral choices, the developers crafted an unforgettable experience. Pinocchio’s journey from a cold automaton to a feeling, breathing hero—or a tragic pawn—depends entirely on the weight of your decisions. Whether you are dismantling terrifying mechanical bosses, exploring the atmospheric streets of Krat, or uncovering the dark secrets of your own creation, this brutal retelling of a childhood classic remains an absolute must-play for fans of the action RPG genre.

FAQ

Does Pinocchio’s nose physically grow in the game?

Your character’s actual face does not change when you tell a lie during dialogue sequences. However, there is a special painting hidden in Geppetto’s study at Hotel Krat that physically grows a long wooden nose as you accumulate more Humanity throughout the campaign.

Who exactly is Carlo to the protagonist?

Carlo was the original, biological son of Geppetto who tragically passed away before the main events of the game. The player character was built specifically as a surrogate to house Carlo’s memories and his unique Ergo energy.

Which narrative conclusion is the True Ending?

The “Rise of P” finale is widely regarded as the canonical and true ending of the story. You achieve this emotional conclusion by consistently lying to gain humanity, giving Sophia peace when you find her, and successfully defeating the secret final boss.

Can you beat the game by always telling the truth?

Yes, you can complete the entire campaign while remaining completely honest and obedient. However, playing strictly by the mechanical rules prevents you from gaining Humanity, completely locking you out of the True Ending and forcing you into a much bleaker narrative conclusion.

What happens to Sophia at the end of the story?

Her final fate rests entirely in your hands when you discover her true physical body. You can choose to leave her in agonizing pain, or you can grant her peace by absorbing her Ergo. If you achieve the True Ending, you eventually manage to transfer her life force into a brand-new puppet body, saving her life.

What is the best starting Legion Arm for beginners?

While the Puppet String is fantastic for early mobility and closing gaps, new players should highly prioritize unlocking the Aegis shield. It allows you to safely block devastating, hard-to-read boss combos while giving you the opportunity to safely poke enemies from behind your guard.