Everything Is Dark Souls Now, Even Pinocchio In This New Action Game

Though the running joke is every game seemingly has some Dark Souls element, developer Round8 Studio's Lies of P takes that sentiment literally by adapting Carlo Collodi's children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio into a macabre third-person hack-and-slash action-adventure game.

In Lies of P (spotted by PC Gamer), you play as the puppet mechanoid Pinocchio who must fight through the sprawling, plague-ridden European city of Krat to locate the famed Geppetto. But that's not you're only objective: Pinocchio must also uncover the secret of Geppetto's disappearance.

It seems the game is more inspired by Pinocchio's story than a direct adaptation of it. Collodi's plot is a familiar one, especially to families with young kids. Geppetto wants to become a famous puppeteer, so he carves a marionette out of enchanted wood. The doll comes to life and finds himself in a twisting narrative to become a real boy whose nose grows when he lies. There's a bit more to it, but it's a metaphor for the human condition--a tale about honesty and consequences.

You can check out Lies of P's official story trailer above.

Lies of P flips most of that on its head while keep the core story's trappings. For example, Pinocchio is a machine instead of a puppet, meaning you can swap pieces out like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

And per the Steam store page, Lies of P is "an action souls-like game" in which you craft weapons and employ skills to defeat enemies. This wouldn't be a Pinocchio narrative without the lies, though, and it seems the game incorporates that into a humanity mechanic similar to Dontnod's Vampyr; the more you lie, the more human you become. It's unclear exactly how lying will impact the game. However, the story trailer's description confirms becoming human comes with some perks.

Lies of P doesn't have a release date yet, but it's confirmed to have been "built from the ground up" for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.