Let's review Hollow Knight: Silksong, for real this time

 So here's a funny story about today's review. Hollow Knight: Silksong was a game that I and many other nerds on the Internet had waited almost 7 years for. This game's lengthy development cycle and infamous lack of marketing made this game borderline mythical in the eyes of the video game industry. I literally made an April Fool's post where I pretended the game was already out and was so good it brought world peace and solved all problems with society. When I wrote it, I basically gave up hope of seeing Silksong being released before 2030, if at all.

Official box art for Hollow Knight: Silksong, featuring main heroine Hornet front and center. Image found on wikipedia.org

But you'll never guess what got a surprise release on September 4th, 2025! That's right. Silksong is real. I am not joking this time. You CAN play it, on almost any modern system. And for just $20 USD. Which is a very generous price considering that this game can easily take 90-100 hours to complete. What's especially impressive is that the game went from having no marketing at all, to a surprise trailer suddenly announcing the game would be released officially by the end of the week.

 And let me tell you, the indie game industry collectively lost their minds at the surprise release date of Silksong. Some dev teams even delayed their own projects specifically so they wouldn't have to compete with Silksong. And when the game did release, there were so many people trying to buy the game at once that several digital game store websites (such as Steam and Playstation Store) crashed from the initial demand overload. It was a wild time.

For those unfamiliar with this blog or with Hollow Knight, you might wonder why this game was such a big deal. So to recap, Hollow Knight was an extremely popular Souls Like/Metroidvania platformer developed and published by Team Cherry. It took place in a dark fantasy world populated by anthropomorphic bugs who write poetry and fight horrifying monsters. Think A Bug's Life meets Dark Souls and you got the vibe that Hollow Knight for. Thanks to its hauntingly beautiful art and music, challenging boss battles and tragic but intriguing lore, this game is considered a modern classic by anyone with good taste. If you like platformers or Souls Likes, you owe it to yourself to play Hollow Knight. 

Silksong is the long awaited sequel to Hollow Knight, also developed and published by Team Cherry. This game focuses on the adventures of Hornet, a fan-favorite boss who served as a rival to the Knight, who was the protagonist from the first game. I had spent two months playing this game, because of course I would. In fact,  the reason why I didn't do another Halloween horror game review this year was because this game ate up all my free time. And the reason I didn't publish any reviews in November was entirely because of computer problems on my part. So consider this review a sort of late Christmas present.

But do you need to play Hollow Knight to understand Silksong's story? Well, not really, but I would recommend that you play Hollow Knight first anyway. While Silksong is more or less a standalone adventure (save for the occasional callback), its challenging difficulty makes it clear that this game was made for people who already completed Hollow Knight. Thus, the first game helps you build up the skill level necessary for the second game. Also, just as a heads up, I will be comparing Silksong to its predecessor when applicable. It's rather difficult not to compare a sequel to what came before, after all.

To summarize Hollow Knight lore briefly is to do it a disservice. But like I said earlier, Silksong is mostly self-contained with only the occasional callback to the first game. All you really need to know going into this game is that every character you meet is some kind of bug, and that despite her name, Hornet is a spider. She's also the former princess of a kingdom called Hallownest, which was wiped out by a supernatural plague. The reason she's out adventuring is because her homeland is now an inhospitable wasteland.

Silksong begins with a poem, just like the original Hollow Knight. Unlike the first game's poem, which described a great king that built a utopian paradise for his people, this game's poem describes a beautiful yet cruel tyrant who hides their true nature behind a veil of civility. This poem is very obviously describing the main villain of this game, but at this point we do not know who said villain even is.

After the poem, we get a beautifully animated cinematic of Hornet being kidnapped by a mysterious group of veiled bugs. Hornet manages to escape her captors with the help of a mysterious pale butterfly. Unfortunately, she was left in a weakened state by her time in captivity, which means that most of her abilities are initially disabled. This is the in-universe explanation for why Hornet doesn't use any of the fancy weapons or spells she used in her boss fight back in the first game, though she can eventually regain her old abilities as well as several new ones.

Once that intro sequence is over, our journey into Silksong begins. Like the first game, the tutorial is fairly minimalistic, as Hornet's move set is self-explanatory. She can run and jump. She has a blade called the Needle that she can swing either vertically or horizontally. She has a midair dive attack that allows her to bounce off of any enemies or objects hit by said dive. And she can cast magic spells using Silk, which can be gained by hitting enemies with the Needle. Starting out, the only spell Hornet can cast is Bind, which is a simple healing ability. She can learn other spells as the game progresses, but all spells draw power from Silk. A big part of Silksong's combat is figuring out when to use Silk for an extra strong attack and when to use Silk to heal.

Just like literally every single Souls Like in existence, Silksong has a universal currency acquired by slaying regular enemies. This currency, called Rosaries in this game, is dropped if Hornet dies. But you can recollect any lost Rosaries by trekking back to where you died and smashing open a cocoon that marks the place of Hornet's most recent death. Rosaries are used to buy items from various merchants and to unlock benches (which serve as this game's checkpoint system). However, Rosaries are surprisingly rare, as only certain enemy types will drop them. For lore reasons that will make sense later, not all enemies will drop Rosaries when defeated. Only "pious" enemy types will drop Rosaries. 

Non-pious enemies drop a less valuable resource called Shell Shards, which don't seem to serve a purpose at first. However, Hornet will eventually unlock additional weapons called Tools, which consist mostly of projectiles and traps such as boomerangs and caltrops. Tools have limited ammunition, but Hornet can use Shell Shards to craft more ammo as long as she is resting at a bench.

After climbing and fighting her way out of the starting area, Hornet meets a group of peaceful bugs called the Pilgrims. One of the elder Pilgrims, the Chapel Maiden, explains to Hornet that she has been brought to the kingdom of Pharloom. This land is a mountain with a heavenly Citadel crowned upon its peak, and the Pilgrims are all on a spiritual journey to prove their faith by climbing up the mountain. The Pilgrims are the reason why Rosaries (a kind of prayer bead) are the main currency, as they literally "trade in faith." This setting's economy does carry the sinister implication that "rich" Pilgrims are measurably more faithful and "pure" than their poorer counterparts, but I'm *totally* sure that this doesn't foreshadow the Pilgrims' religion being more malicious than it first appears.

The veiled bugs from earlier are also confirmed by the Chapel Maiden to be holy servants from the Citadel. So Hornet decides to climb up Pharloom herself, both because she wants to know why the Citadel bugs kidnapped her in the first place, and because she wants to beat the snot out of whoever is in charge. But standing between her and this goal is a horde of monsters possessed by haunted Silk. From here, Hornet is free to explore Pharloom while gradually making her way to the Citadel itself.

One thing that Silksong does better than Hollow Knight is that it gives you an objective to work towards right away. The early game of Hollow Knight is mostly aimless wandering while you piece together whatever tragedy befell Hallownest prior to your arrival. But Silksong says, "Here's a tall, mountainous kingdom. Climb to the top and kill anything that stands in your way. Have Fun!" 

The biggest difference between the Knight and Hornet is that the latter has an actual personality. I know that sounds like an insult towards the Knight, but its whole deal is that it is both incapable of speech and devoid of any emotion. It was literally designed by the Pale King (Hornet's father and former ruler of Hallownest) to be a silent and emotionless warrior, as the Knight being Hollow (term for emotionless beings) was vital for its mission. Meanwhile, Hornet does have emotions and speaks somewhat frequently, because she is not Hollow. I was initially taken aback by Hornet actually talking to the various bugs she meets on her travels, because I was so used to the Knight's perpetual silence.

Hornet explores a rainy region called Greymoor. Image found on Silksong's Steam page. 

Speaking of her, Hornet is a highly enjoyable protagonist. Her dialogue manages to sound both diplomatic and assertive. You can tell she was raised by royalty just from the way she speaks. She calls everyone she meets "good sir/madam" and she acts respectful until you give her a reason to stop respecting you, at which point she becomes blunt and brutally honest. Despite her stoic demeanor, she also has a soft side, as she grows to genuinely care about Pharloom and its people as her adventure progresses.

The best look into Hornet's personality is in the Hunter's Journal, a bestiary documenting every enemy type and boss that Hornet encounters. In addition to a "professional" description detailing the enemy's behavior, she often adds her personal thoughts on the enemy in question. Most of the game's levity comes from seeing this stoic warrior princess privately confess to wanting to pet all the "fluffy" enemies she encounters, as well as bemoaning the fact that she can't fly like other bug species due to a lack of wings. One of the Journal entries even reveals that Hornet had multiple lovers throughout her life, though she sadly outlived all of her previous partners. As it turns out, being a child of the Pale King (who is literally a god) gave Hornet an extended lifespan, causing her to live much longer than a normal spider should. And that information is just casually put into the Journal. Hornet never mentions her previous lovers or her heritage in conversation, both because she doesn't need to and because that is "private" information.

Hornet is not the only bug travelling through Pharloom, as she can meet new friends and foes who have all come to Pharloom for their own reasons. Such as Sherma, a sweet and idealistic Pilgrim boy who just wants to play music and reach the Citadel. There's also Shakra, a warrior-scout from a foreign tribe who is on a quest to track down her missing mentor. Shakra will also sell maps of recently discovered areas, which makes said areas easier to navigate. Then there's the Flea Caravan, a group of traveling fleas who will reward Hornet if she can rescue any lost fleas hidden throughout the world. And of course, there's Lace, a childish yet maniacal fencer who serves as a rival to Hornet. Which is somewhat ironic, as Hornet herself was meant to be a rival to the Knight.

I really like the new supporting characters. I'm not sure if I like them more than their counterparts from the first game, but I'd say they are about equal in terms of writing quality and character designs. My favorite new character is Shakra, both because her design is really cool, and because the sound of her singing is enchanting. And her singing is important, as it's an indicator that she set up shop somewhere nearby. 

I also like Sherma for his wholesome vibes, even if I spent most of my playthrough worried he was going to get killed off. Not only is he similar in mannerisms to Myla (a character from the first game infamous for her tragic death), but this is a dark fantasy game, and this genre usually isn't kind to wide-eyed idealists. But not only does Sherma survive the journey to the Citadel in one piece, he even survives all the spoiler-filled nonsense that happens in the game's final Act.

A new feature in Silksong are Wishes, which are literally just side quests in all but name. Sometimes you might meet a friendly bug who will give you a rare item in exchange for completing a specific task. These tasks can range from fighting a secret boss, to collecting a certain number of items, or donating Rosaries to one of the three towns in Pharloom (Bone Bottom, Bellhart and Songclave). In case you can't meet the quest-giver in person, each town has a Wish-board where everyone puts their Wish on display publicly. 

Generally speaking, I like the Wishes. They're easy to keep track of and provide clear instructions on what you need to do to complete them. There are some that can be rather obnoxious because of a difficulty spike, but I never found myself having to look up a guide for any Wish. Well, aside from the Courier's Rasher Wish. This Wish is infamously difficult, as it requires you to carry a delicate food item from Bellhart all the way to a diner in the Citadel within five minutes or less. You cannot use elevators or Hornet's Bell Beast companion to fast travel there, by the way. You have to make the journey on foot. And every time Hornet takes damage, the timer speeds up. It can be done, but just barely. 

Speaking of difficulty, let's address the elephant in the room here. Silksong is a really hard game. I'd say that it's harder on average than Hollow Knight ever was. While it is true that there are specific things in Hollow Knight that are clearly more difficult than anything Silksong has to offer, such as the Path of Pain and the Pantheon battles, those are rather extreme outliers. If we're talking just the average, moment to moment gameplay, Silksong is harder. Like, the average Silksong enemy will take more effort to defeat than the average Hollow Knight enemy. And that is going to either make or break the game for you. You will either bounce off the game because of its high difficulty or tolerate its difficulty as you work your way to the "fun" parts of the game. 

Hornet prepares to fight a giant robot called the Fourth Chorus. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

To give you an example of how janky the difficulty can be, look no further than the boss and enemy design. Enemies in Silksong come in two types, duelists that are similar in size to Hornet herself and giants. Giant-sized enemies deal twice as much damage as "normal" sized enemies. And most of the game's bosses count as giants. And on top of the increased damage, all bosses have contact damage, where simply walking into them will hurt Hornet. Which, when combined with the double damage, means there's some nonsense in the early game that definitely feels unfair. 

The worst example of the boss design is the Savage Beastfly, an optional boss that is without a shadow of a doubt the most annoying boss fight in the entire game. Or rather, the rematch against Savage Beastfly. You see, you can fight this boss twice. The first fight is simple enough, as the boss only has two attacks (a vertical slam and a horizontal charge). The only hard part is that regular enemies will join in to assist the Beastfly, but it can be tricked into squishing its own allies with some clever maneuvering. 

The second Beastfly fight, however, doesn't really let you do that anymore as the minions now fly *just* out of reach. Also, the second fight happens directly above a lava lake, and the minions that the Beastfly summons can spit out a lingering fire that temporarily removes one of the few platforms that Hornet can safely stand on. This rematch, despite its seeming simplicity, was by far the most difficult boss in the game. Not even the final boss took as much effort as the Savage Beastfly rematch. Was it a fun boss to fight? No. Not at all. I found the whole fight frustrating and obnoxious. And the worst part of all this is the fact that the Savage Beastfly is just a bigger version of a regular enemy from the starting area. So it's not even a cool looking or lore-significant boss. 

What's especially crazy is despite being one of the most annoying boss fights in recent memory, Savage Beastfly exists in the same game as the First Sinner, who is by far the best boss not just in this game, but in the entire series. The First Sinner has fast but reasonable attack patterns, as she uses her own version of Silk magic to fight. She can heal herself using her own version of Bind, but she can't attack and heal at the same time, so Hornet is free to strike the First Sinner whenever she tries to heal. And the best part of the First Sinner is that even though she is initially hidden behind a secret room in an already secret area, it takes only a few seconds to challenge her to a rematch because of how close the nearby bench is.

Other bosses I liked include Skarrsinger Karmelita, Shrine Guardian Seth, the Cogwork Dancers and Phantom. I don't like them as much as I like First Sinner, but all of them are fun duelist style bosses with cool designs and intriguing lore.

Believe it or not, I found myself liking the platforming and exploration parts of the game more than the boss battles. Which feels bizarre, as I generally enjoy the boss battles most in games like this. But where Silksong truly shines is in its world. The kingdom of Pharloom is not only beautiful to behold, but is filled to the brim with secret collectibles and a rich history. And Hornet is just really fun to play as. She's graceful and acrobatic, especially once you unlock the Dash and Wall Jump abilities.

Hornet is also a lot more customizable than expected, thanks to the Crest system. Crests are essentially alternative fighting styles that Hornet can learn throughout her adventure. They change the shape and size of her Needle swings, and some Crests can even alter Bind, either by giving it additional effects or by replacing it with an alternative healing method. Crests also determine how many Tools Hornet can bring into battle, if any.

Hornet starts with the Hunter Crest, which is her default move set. It's a generalist style that doesn't specialize in one specific strategy, which makes it good for beginners. There's also the Reaper Crest, which has slow, wide slashes for a more patient fighter. The Wanderer Crest is the Reaper's total opposite, shortened range in exchange for quick stabs. The Beast Crest replaces Bind with a Fury Mode that allows Hornet to steal health with claw swipes. The Witch Crest turns the Needle into a bladed whip, and it replaces Bind with a life-stealing tentacle attack. And the Shaman Crest is greatly improves your Silk spells, and lets Hornet shoot waves of magical energy with each swing of the Needle. 

My favorite Crest is the Architect, which turns the Needle into a drill and allows Hornet to instantly craft ammo for her Tools anywhere at any time. This Crest is so good that it gets its own section in the review. It is laughably strong. Not only do the drill attacks hit multiple times (thus racking up damage and Silk quickly), but the fact that you can craft extra ammo for your Tools mid-battle means you can be a lot more reckless with your Tool usage. In fact, I was able to beat the final boss simply by using the Architect Crest to spam Tools with careless abandon. I tried to do the final boss fight with other Crests, but none were as effective. The only downside of the Architect Crest is that it still needs Shell Shards to craft ammo, so prolonged use of it can get expensive very quickly. That, and the only Silk spell you can use is Bind. The Architect is meant to be an "anti-magic" fighting style.

Hornet fights the warrior bugs of the Citadel. Image found on Silksong's Steam page

So now I want to talk about the lore and story of Silksong. Keep in mind that just like Hollow Knight (and Souls Likes in general), parts of the lore are left vague and up to interpretation. So while there are some objective truths, there are also parts of the story that I will not be able to describe perfectly. Also, spoilers abound from this point on. If you must know my thoughts on the game, I'd give it either a 4 star rating or a 5 star rating, depending on your tolerance for difficult games. The only thing I can say bad about Silksong is that the difficulty can feel borderline sadistic in some parts of the game. But aside from that, this is easily Game of the Year material that was well worth the wait. But without further adieu, let's talk about the lore. 

You know those friendly Pilgrims I mentioned? The ones climbing up Pharloom so they can prove their faith and be allowed to join the heavenly Citadel? Turns out their religion is built upon a lie. Most Pilgrims die long before they reach the Citadel's gates, either killed by beasts or possessed by haunted silk. And the lucky few that survive are immediately enslaved and cast down into the Underworks, a mechanical region that serves both as a prison and as a factory. This facility was designed to keep the Citadel above running for eternity, by any means necessary. In case you haven't realized it, the beautiful yet cruel tyrant that the poem warned us about at the start of the game was referring to the Citadel itself.

In addition to all the usual dangers you might expect, like powerful enemies and tricky platforming, the Underworks does something rather unique. Everything in the Underworks is designed to scam you out of your hard-won Rosaries. The benches and beds are pay-per-use and retract into the walls and floor if you don't have enough money. There is a confession booth where you get to pay for the "privilege" of confessing your sins. And the confession booth only responds with a pre-recorded message that tells you that your only chance for "redemption" is to work an additional 24 hours without resting or eating. And because the Citadel's religiously charged propaganda is so effective, the Pilgrims are too indoctrinated to realize that they're being exploited. And on top of all that, the enemies here only drop 3-4 Rosaries each on death, while every other Citadel enemy drops 30 or more. The implication being that they don't get paid well for their efforts, if at all.

The Underworks is genuinely my favorite area in the game, because the environmental storytelling is immaculate. Everything about the Underworks, from the scarcity of Rosaries to the overpriced pay-per-use services, is meant to force you to see the harsh reality of the Citadel's tyranny. It's not my favorite aesthetically, as I feel that there are other areas that look "prettier" like Greymoor and Shellwood, but the Underworks is the area I enjoy from a narrative perspective the most.

But who exactly rules over the Citadel? The answer is a little complicated, but bear with me. The Kingdom of Pharloom in its current form was established by a spider goddess known as Grand Mother Silk, who is the progenitor of all spiders. Even Hornet is related to her, albeit distantly. Grand Mother Silk (who I will call GMS for short) was a tyrant who destroyed any nation that refused to join Pharloom, and she created the haunted silk that's been possessing all the enemies specifically to make her subjects easier to control. After untold centuries of conquest and warfare, Grand Mother Silk was eventually betrayed by her daughters, the Weavers.

The Weavers created the Citadel to produce a magic song (one might call it a "Silksong"), which would keep Grand Mother Silk asleep for eternity. But after the Weavers left Pharloom and migrated to Hallownest, the remaining Citadel bugs started a cult dedicated to keeping the Citadel running for eternity. That haunted silk I mentioned earlier is the result of GMS's influence slowly leaking out of the Citadel and spreading to the rest of the world. So the Citadel isn't exactly doing a good job containing her. Thus, Hornet decides that the best thing to do is to slay GMS herself, which would destroy the haunted silk and shut down the Citadel for good.

Grand Mother Silk is the final boss of this game's second Act. She's actually a pretty fun boss to fight. She doesn't feel outrageously hard, but she's certainly no push over. She uses similar attack patterns to the Radiance, the final boss of Hollow Knight, with her throwing floating blades around and conjuring spikes from the ground. But this time you have a character with a lot more mobility and combat options, so GMS feels "easier" to fight than the Radiance did. 

But like I said earlier, Act 3 is completely optional and it is entirely possible to beat the game without ever seeing it. And just like Hollow Knight, there are multiple endings based on what preparations you made prior to defeating the final boss. At the time of writing, I've done three out of four of the game's main endings. However, one of those "endings" is just the intro to Act 3, so it feels weird to call it an ending.

The first ending, called Weaver Queen, is what happens if you fight Grand Mother Silk without making any additional preparations. Hornet kills GMS and absorbs her power. This causes Hornet to transform into a goddess herself, but the implication is that she is doomed to be repeat GMS's mistakes and become just as tyrannical as the goddess she just overthrew. Especially since earlier in the game, Hornet herself said that her heritage gives her an instinctual desire to rule over civilizations, even at the expense of others. 

The second ending is called Twisted Child and this is the only one I have not done. Nor do I expect to do it any time soon, as the requirements are a little... extreme. Additionally, this is generally agreed to be the game's "bad" ending, so outside of 100% completion there's not much reason to go for it. So back in Act 1 Hornet can meet a witch named Greyroot, who says some cryptic nonsense about the "time of rebirth." If you give her an item called the Twisted Bud, Greyroot will forcibly infect Hornet with a parasite which prevents her from being able to use Silk spells (including Bind!). 

Normally, this side story would end with Hornet visiting a surgeon named Yarnaby, who would remove the parasite and give Hornet the Witch Crest for her trouble. But if you carry the parasite with you all the way to the final boss, you get the Twisted Child ending. In this ending, the parasite within Hornet is "birthed" into an eldritch tree monster that absorbs both Hornet and Grand Mother Silk into itself. This tree monster is a newborn god, but given how shady Greyroot is and how violent its creation was, the chances of the newborn god being nice are pretty slim.

Then there is the Snared Silk ending, which is the aforementioned Act 3 intro. To get this ending, Hornet needs to grant at least 17 Wishes and rescue enough Fleas to get the Flea Caravan to move from the starting area all the way to the Citadel. Because she's helped so many bugs this time, she has grown to care about the citizens of Pharloom and can resist her instinctual desire to become a goddess. This leads to Hornet researching alternative methods to defeat Grand Mother Silk. And conveniently enough, a family of magicians called the Snail Shamans claim to know of a ritual that can banish the gods from Pharloom. One of the Snail Shamans is actually the Chapel Maiden from the start of the game. The ritual would in theory defeat GMS, shut down the Citadel and allow Hornet to continue life as a "regular" spider. So it's a win-win for everyone. At least it would be, except that the Snail Shamans neglected to mention where exactly GMS would be banished to.

Hornet uses her dive attack during a duel with Lace, her main rival. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

As it turns out, the banishment ritual sent Grand Mother Silk to the Void, a realm of darkness that consumes the souls any bug exposed to it. GMS tried to drag Hornet down with her, but the latter is saved by Lace. Not because Lace likes Hornet or anything, but because she she hates GMS and is acting entirely out of petty spite. Why does Lace hate GMS? To make a long story short, Lace is GMS's magnum opus; an artificial bug made of enchanted silk. Lace resents her creator, for her body is flawed and fragile, and has decided to interfere with GMS's plans for no other reason than petty revenge. In fact, that pale butterfly from the intro is implied to have been sent by Lace. But GMS still has access to her haunted silk, which is made with the souls of her enslaved subjects. And the ritual opened a portal to realm that literally eats souls. So it doesn't turn out well. 

Act 3 begins with the haunted silk combining with the Void, which transforms the entire game world. Shortcuts get blocked off and have to be reopened, enemies get replaced with Void-Touched variants that are twice as strong as before, and multiple friendly bugs get either killed off or corrupted by the Void. No one is having a good time now. 

Hornet manages to fight her way out of the Citadel and back down to Bone Bottom, the town at the start of the game. There, she confronts the Snail Shamans for lying about their usage of Void magic. This scene is one of the few times where Hornet loses her temper, which should give you an idea of how dire the situation is. The Snail Shamans make up for their blunder by revealing the existence of a special flower that can counter the Void; the Everbloom. But there are no such flowers in Pharloom, as it only grew in Hallownest, which is currently a dead kingdom with no life in it at all. 

All hope to save Pharloom seems lost. But the Snail Shamans have one last ritual they can try, one that does not draw power from the Void. This second ritual could send someone into the memories of the past, and pull a physical object out of that memory and into the real world. It's not quite time travel (as the past is always set in stone), as it's more like a magical copy-paste feature. Anyway, the Snail Shamans teach Hornet a song that can be played to enter the memories of other bugs, which Hornet must use to collect the hearts of three monarchs. 

You see, Grand Mother Silk was not the first ruler of Pharloom, she was just the most recent one. There were four monarchs before her, those being Crust King Khann, Nyleth, Skarrsinger Karmelita and the Green Prince. Hornet only needs to collect three out of four hearts, so you could choose to skip one of these monarchs for your playthrough. None of the monarchs will give up their hearts willingly, so Hornet has to fight them in extra tough boss battles. 

Side note, but Crust King Khann is my second least favorite boss in the game. The first is the Savage Beastfly, for reasons I already explained. But the reason I dislike Khann is not because he's hard or annoying to fight. The reason I don't like him is because you have to fight through the longest gauntlet of regular enemies in the entire game. It's an arduous and tiresome process that involves fighting through 30 waves of enemies, with each wave consisting of 2-4 enemies each. On top of that, coral starts growing out of the walls and floor to restrict Hornet's movement. If you die at any point during the gauntlet, you have to do the whole thing all over again. So if you're going to skip one of the monarchs, let it be Crust King Khann. The other monarchs are much more fun to fight because you don't have to go through a small army every time you want to fight the boss. 

Funnily enough, Skarrsinger Karmelita also has a gauntlet battle beforehand, but it's nowhere near as long as the Khann gauntlet, so it doesn't feel as bad to fight through. Karmelita is my favorite of the four Monarchs, both because I enjoy her character concept and I enjoy her boss fight. She's an ant queen salsa dancer with boomerangs, and that right there is peak Hollow Knight character design.

Once Hornet has enough hearts, the Snail Shamans can perform the ritual to send Hornet into her own memories and retrieve the Everbloom flower. And this is the best look at Hornet's backstory we get, at least for anyone who hasn't played the first game. It's kind of weird that almost all of the references to Hollow Knight are in Act 3, which is the tail end of the adventure, but here we are. That being said, I do like this scene. The music and artwork here is hauntingly nostalgic, and seeing all the old Hallownest rulers again did make me smile. 

Anyway, Hornet gets the Everbloom and dives into the Void to confront Lace and Grand Mother Silk one last time. The only way to stop the Void from devouring all of Pharloom is to dive into its core and beat it into submission. And Hornet is absolutely determined to save Pharloom by this point. Her homeland is a dead kingdom, and she cannot live with the guilt of seeing another civilization fall to ruin. So we get the true final boss of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Lost Lace. 

While I like the idea of Lost Lace's concept, as its a Void-touched rematch against Hornet's main rival, I didn't really care that strongly for the battle itself. You see, the main problem with Lost Lace is not that she's hard (though she is), the problem is that it's difficult to see what's going on because of the coloring of this area. Lost Lace's body is oily black, the background is oily black, and her Void magic spells are oily black. This fight would be so much better if it was easier to see what Lost Lace is doing.

Upon defeating Lost Lace, we get Silksong's best possible ending, Sister of the Void. In this ending, Hornet literally beats the Void corruption out of Lace and saves her life. Grand Mother Silk bestows the last of her power to give Hornet enough strength to literally super jump out of the Void with Lace in tow. Does this redeem GMS? Not really. But I understand why she did this. Because Lace is still her magnum opus, her perfect "daughter." Ensuring that Lace survives means that GMS's legacy is secure. Unfortunately, the Everbloom flower's protection wears off mid-jump, leaving Hornet and Lace vulnerable to the Void. 

But before they can be consumed by the Void, Hornet and Lace are saved by a surprise appearance from the Knight. Yes, the same Knight from the original Hollow Knight. Since the events of the first game, the Knight has become a god of the Void itself, but it couldn't interfere with Hornet's adventure because the haunted silk prevented it from entering Pharloom. And with no more haunted silk holding it back, the Knight is able to carry Hornet and Lace back to the living world. Despite supposedly being a Hollow being, the Knight does care to some extent about Hornet. After all, the Knight is technically a child of the Pale King, which would make Hornet its sister. In fact, that's why this ending is called "Sister" of the Void. The game ends there, with Hornet and Lace thankful to be alive and with the promise to rebuild Pharloom into a better nation.

For obvious reasons, the Sister of the Void ending is my favorite of the bunch. It's the ending that is most narratively satisfying, and getting to see the Knight again is absolute cinema. I can see this ending being confusing for anyone who hasn't played the original Hollow Knight, as the game introduces a new character seemingly out of nowhere specifically to save Hornet from the Void. But despite that, this ending is still beautiful.

After getting any of the endings I just described, you unlock Steel Soul Mode, which is this game's equivalent to hard mode. Yeah, a game already infamous for its high difficulty has a secret hard mode that is unlocked after beating it for the first time. But the only change between regular mode and Steel Soul is that in the latter mode, your save file is deleted upon death. Which means that you have to beat the entire game in one try. I already know that I do not have the skill level necessary to attempt this, but I have nothing but respect for anyone brave enough to try this challenge. Hollow Knight also had a Steel Soul Mode. 

Hornet fights three enemies at once in the Coral Tower. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Okay. We're done talking about the lore. Now let's talk presentation. Silksong is, much like Hollow Knight, an absolutely gorgeous game. I mean, have you seen the screenshots on this very review? It's literal art. This game's aesthetic has quite a lot going on, but simply put, it's using cel-shaded art on three separate layers (the foreground, the background, and the actual levels). Silksong moves away somewhat from the medieval gothic vibes of the original game for something more akin to a fusion of steampunk and vaguely Catholic imagery, especially once you reach the Citadel. And once again, all the characters are supposed to be different kinds of bugs, but the game heavily anthropomorphizes its insects to make them "cuter" and more aesthetically pleasing.

The music and sound design is also just as incredible as the original. Silksong does not have traditional voice acting, as all the voice actors speak in a fictional nonsense language. The text boxes are supposed to be an in-universe "translation" of what the characters are actually saying. I personally like the made up nonsense language, as I consider it a part of the Hollow Knight charm. But if you want full voice acting for every line of dialogue, you will not find it here. 

The official soundtrack (composed once again by Christopher Larkin) is so good that it sounds like a gift from the Heavens. One of my favorite songs from this game is Red Maiden, which is a triumphant reprise of Hornet's theme from the first game. It only plays once in the entire game, which is during a completely optional side-story in which Hornet is kidnapped and stripped "naked" of all her gear, and must sneak around a prison called the Slab to get her stuff back. Once she has done so, she massacres the prison guards while Red Maiden blares heroically in the background. The whole scene is a great sequence, but it can be missed entirely if you don't die to a specific enemy encountered once in the entire game. 

Other standout songs include Skarrsinger Karmelita's theme, which has an almost angelic vocal performance that in-universe is performed by Karmelita herself. The First Sinner and Widow share a boss theme, and the little violin strings during the second phase make the battle sound like an intense, life-or-death struggle. 

And of course, there's Shrine Guardian Seth's theme. It's oddly sad and melancholic for an otherwise fast-paced duel, but it makes sense when you learn the real life story of why this particular boss was created. To make a long story short, Shrine Guardian Seth was originally a fan-made boss created by Seth Goldman, a fairly prominent Hollow Knight fan who contracted a terminal illness. As a last request, he was allowed to visit Team Cherry's headquarters and design one boss, which he chose to name after himself. Goldman passed away before Silksong released, but now his legacy is forever immortalized as the Shrine Guardian Seth.

Hornet rests on a bench while visiting Bellhart, one of the three towns in the game. She is surrounded by various peaceful villagers. Image found on Silksong's Steam page.

Overall, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a fantastic, but intimidatingly difficult game. I personally consider it my Game of the Year, mostly because I haven't played the other Game of the Year candidates enough to form a definitive opinion on them. And despite loving deltarune's new Chapters (which came out this year as well), it feels wrong to give what is essentially an unfinished game any kind of award. Like I said earlier, depending on your tolerance for difficulty, this is either a 4 star game or a 5 star game. If you liked Hollow Knight, you'll probably like Silksong.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the property of Team Cherry. None of the images used were created by me. Please support the original creators.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, it's a Souls Like IN SPACE. A very Forced review

Star Wars is an absolute monolith of a franchise. Everyone has either heard of it, saw at least one of the nine main movies or played one of the literal 100+ video games. Back in 2020 I reviewed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a surprisingly competent game that combines the "Space Western Samurai Movie" aesthetic of the franchise with Souls Like combat and Metroidvania style exploration and upgrades. All things considered, this combination worked shockingly well. So naturally, a sequel to Fallen Order was released in 2023, titled Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. I knew I wanted to review it, because not only do I like Star Wars, I am a big fan of Souls Like games. That being said, I came away with mixed feelings on this game, for reasons I will explain more thoroughly later.  Before we begin, I have a few disclaimers. Firstly, I played the game on Playstation 5, and thus can only speak to its performance on that system. Secondly, I have already explained terms like Souls Like in greater detail in other reviews, and will assume you know the basics of the genre. I will also offer (brief) explanations of common Souls Like terminology as needed.

The official box art of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, featuring Cal Kestis and BD-1. Image found on Wikipedia.org

In the event you somehow don't know what Star Wars is, here's an attempt to summarize over 40 years of lore. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was a Galactic Republic. The Republic was the de facto main government of the entire galaxy, with senators and representatives from literal thousands of different planets. One day, the Republic went to war with a group called the Confederacy of Independent Systems, called the Separatists for short. The Separatists didn't want to live under Republic rule, and unleashed an army of robotic minions called Battle Droids to terrorize the Galaxy. The Republic responded by creating an army of super soldier clones, and tasked an ancient order of psychic warrior-monks called Jedi Knights to lead said clones into battle. The Republic came very close to winning the war, thanks to the clones' tenacity and the Jedi's otherworldly Force powers giving them a distinct advantage. However, the clones were actually a trap devised by Chancellor Palpatine, who was manipulating both sides of the war for his own benefit. When Palpatine told the clones to "Execute Order 66" all the clones turned on their Jedi masters, killing 90% of them in a violent coup. To add insult to injury, Palpatine corrupted the strongest Jedi of them all, Anakin Skywalker, and turned him into an evil cyborg samurai called Darth Vader. With no one left to oppose him, Palpatine rebuilt the Republic into the first Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor and Darth Vader as his personal enforcer..

In both Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor, you play as a Jedi Knight named Cal Kestis, who as previously mentioned is a survivor of Order 66. Back in Fallen Order, he and his friends found and destroyed an artifact showing the location of every Force user in the galaxy. This was important, because the Empire is still hunting down and executing the few survivors of Order 66, and converting the few "neutral" Force Users into Sith Inquisitors. Also, Cal attempted to fight Darth Vader. Emphasis on the word "attempted." Cal is meant to be a fairly average Jedi. He's a good swordsman, his Force powers are strong enough to compete with most other Force Users, and he has a knack for improvising and adapting to his opponents mid-battle. But Darth Vader is the strongest Force User in the galaxy. Darth Vader's entire purpose, narratively speaking, is to be an absolute menace that puts the fear of death in the heroes. You see Darth Vader approaching, you run. Don't fight him. You will not win. 

Jedi Survivor takes place five years after the first game. Cal is now working with Saw Gerrera, leader of a rebel group trying to overthrow the Emperor. Meanwhile, his old friends Cere, Greez and Merrin have all gone their separate ways. The game starts with a tutorial mission in which Cal and a crew of Saw's rebels kidnap an Imperial Senator and steal confidential information, right in the middle of Coruscant (the Imperial capital). This mission shows off all the main mechanics of the game, from combat to puzzle solving to climbing sections. One thing I like about the game is that Cal starts off with all the movement upgrades from the previous game already unlocked, such as double jumping and running on walls. The tutorial ends with a boss fight against a Sith Inquisitor known as the Ninth Sister, who was actually a major villain from the first game. In this game she gets bodied, because Cal has spent the five year time skip training and perfecting his abilities, and the Ninth Sister did no such training in the meantime. And that's actually a good way to show both narratively and mechanically how much stronger Cal has grown in the transition between games.

The mission ends in a bust, as four out of the five rebels assisting Cal are killed in action and the senator is killed as collateral damage. Cal and the last surviving rebel, a gunslinger named Bode, barely escape from Coruscant. Unfortunately, Cal's ship, the Mantis, is damaged in the escape. Before he crash lands, Cal redirects the Mantis onto an Outer Rim planet called Koboh. This wasn't a random landing spot, for Cal knows that one of his old friends lives on Koboh. So he's hoping that said friend will help him repair the Mantis. The Outer Rim is essentially the Wild West in space. While it's technically a part of the Empire, it's so far removed from "civilized society" that criminal organizations and bounty hunters are allowed to do whatever they want with very little consequence. In the case of Koboh, the locals are routinely bullied and harassed by a bandit gang called the Bedlam Raiders. What makes the Raiders dangerous is that they got their hands on Separatist technology, and thus have access to Battle Droids. And the higher ranking Raiders have figured out how to make their own Lightsabers. But anyway, the game starts for real here.

Jedi Survivor has open-world exploration across five different planets. Though truth be told, it is very obvious Respawn put most of their effort into Koboh. It is by far the biggest planet you can explore, has by far the most number of collectible items and is one of two planets that allow Cal to ride on the back of an animal to cover greater distances. But back on subject, Cal can check his map via a helper droid called BD-1, and said map will highlight the location of the next story objective in gold. But there is nothing stopping you from ignoring the main story and exploring the wilderness. Even during high-stakes missions that seem like they would be time-sensitive, there is nothing stopping Cal from taking a lengthy detour to grab a new outfit or fight a secret boss. 

Cal clashes Lightsaber blades with a Bedlam Raider. Image found on starwars.com 

Speaking of fighting bosses, the single best thing about both Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor is the combat. Cal is armed with a Lightsaber, obviously. He can use it both as a melee weapon and to deflect laser blasts from enemies back at them. Additionally, he can use the Force to grab enemies and objects and throw them around, or throw his own saber like a boomerang. He can even use the Jedi Mind Trick to manipulate enemies into fighting each other. Cal feels powerful when you mow down hordes of Stormtroopers or Raiders, which feels appropriate. Cal may be only an "average" Jedi in terms of raw power, but even the weakest Jedi will be leaps and bounds more powerful than a regular soldier. The only people who can give Cal a challenge are either other Force Users, armored mechs or giant monsters. So naturally, almost every boss encountered in this game belong to one of those three categories. The only exception to this rule is an Imperial Stormtrooper named Rick the Door Technician, who is a joke boss clearly meant to be a pushover that goes down in exactly one attack. All things considered, Rick is an excellent example of how to do a "joke boss." Like, you find him at the end of a grueling gauntlet in which you fight through an army's worth of Imperial forces, and by the time you reach him you should be low on healing items. So when a boss health bar appears at the top of the screen, you get filled with a brief sense of dread until you realize that the boss is literally just a dime-a-dozen Stormtrooper that's no different from the ones you've been slicing through the whole game. And they gave him the most normal sounding name in the history of Star Wars.

While it is true that this is a Souls Like, and thus has a stamina-based combat system, Jedi Survivor is meant as a "baby's first" Souls Like experience. For example, the way this game handles stamina is very forgiving. The stamina equivalent of this game, the Force, only drains when using either a strong attack or when using a Force Technique. Basic attacks actually charge up Force instead of draining it. Additionally, blocking is given its own dedicated meter that does not affect the Force meter in any way. As long as the block meter isn't completely empty, Cal can keep blocking attacks. Speaking of blocking, tapping the block button right before an attack hits will parry it, which does not drain the block meter and has a chance to knock the attacking enemy off balance. How strict the timing is varies based on the difficulty you are currently playing on. Speaking of which, the fact that Jedi Survivor even has multiple difficulty settings further reinforces the idea that it's a baby's first Souls Like. Most games in this genre don't even have adjustable difficulty, since a lot of these games advertise themselves as a deliberately challenging experience meant to push your skills to their limit. But there's absolutely no shame in playing on a lower difficulty setting. In fact, as long as you are not in battle, you can change the difficulty whenever you want. I started the game on Jedi Master mode (the equivalent of hard mode), but brought the difficulty down to Jedi Knight (the equivalent of medium difficulty) and found the game more enjoyable from then onwards.

New to Jedi Survivor are the Stances. Stances change Cal's fighting style and modifies the shape of his Lightsaber's blade. Also, with the sole exception of Single Blade Stance, all of the Stances are based on the fighting styles of fan-favorite characters from throughout the franchise (Darth Maul, Ahsoka Tano, Kylo Ren, etc.). Cal can only equip two Stances at a time, though he can swap them out at Meditation Points (the main checkpoint of this game). Each Stance comes with its own set of attacks, defenses and combos. Keep in mind you don't start with all five Stances available. You start with two and unlock the other three throughout the main story. That being said, none of these Stances are spoilers, since they are all over the marketing and serve as the main "sales pitch" of the game. While Jedi Survivor doesn't use stats like a normal Souls Like, the Stances all play like classic Souls Like archetypes. Just to give a few examples, Cross Guard Stance is your big heavy Strength Build with slow but powerful swings, Dual Wielding is like a Dex Build with high speed and mobility but poor defenses and Blaster Stance is your long range "archer" build.  Returning from the first game are Single Blade stance and Double Blade stance. The former is literally just Cal's move set from Fallen Order, while the latter is a Darth Maul inspired fighting style that can clear out crowds of enemies with wide reaching spin attacks.

The second best thing about Jedi Survivor is the customization. You can change Cal's hairstyle, what kind of facial hair he has (if any), his outfit and his Lightsaber's appearance. In fact, finding new customization options for Cal's appearance is the main collectible in the game. The Lightsaber customization is especially thorough. Not only can you change the color of the blade, you can swap out each individual part of the hilt. Those being the blade emitter, the switch, the grip and the pommel. You can even change the materials used the Lightsaber's construction, which changes both the color and the textures on the hilt. You can make it look wooden, metallic, plastic or any combination of the above. Some materials like Beskar Steel even have unique patterns on them. The pistol used in Blaster Stance can also be customized with similar options to the saber itself. The only restriction on the saber customization is that you cannot make your Lightsaber have a red blade during your first playthrough. This is mostly for lore reasons, seeing as how only Force Users who have been corrupted by the Dark Side have red blades on their Lightsabers. And Cal hasn't been corrupted (yet), so no red blade for him.

One odd design choice is how this game handles currency. Because unlike every Souls Like game ever, Jedi Survivor doesn't have a universal currency. Each merchant has a special collectible item associated with them exclusively, and the only reward for defeating enemies are Skill Points. Skill Points are used to unlock new abilities and techniques for Cal, or to improve the powers he already has. Almost all of the merchants only sell cosmetic items for either Cal himself, his Lightsaber or for BD-1. The only merchant who does sell items with actual impact on gameplay is a retired bounty hunter named Caij, and even then she only sells ammo types for Blaster Stance. Personally, I don't really like how every merchant gets their own unique currency that only they will accept. If they really wanted Skill Points and "merchant money" to be separate resources, they could have just called the latter Credits and have that work as a semi-universal currency. Especially because Credits already exist as a universal currency in the Star Wars universe. 

Back on the subject of the actual story, Cal and Bode meet up with one of Cal's old friends, Greez the four-armed alien gambler. During the 5 year time skip, Greez settled down on Koboh and opened up a bar called Pyloon's Saloon. This saloon serves as the main base of operations for Cal and his friends, at least while they are on Koboh. Greez agrees to repair Cal's ship and even shows Cal his private stash of ship parts for just the occasion. This event leads to Cal accidentally discovering an abandoned Jedi temple, whose caretaker droid is somehow still active. This droid is Zee, and she reveals that her old master was an ancient Jedi named Santari Khri. Santari, along with her best friend Dagan Gerra, discovered a mythical planet called Tanalorr. Tanalorr is hidden inside a nebula, and cannot be accessed without a special compass.

Cal and Night Sister Merrin. Image found on starwars.com

So Zee tells Cal and Greez about Tanalorr, and our plucky protagonists see an opportunity. Greez is interested in Tanalorr because Tanalorr is said to be filled with riches. Cal is interested because he's losing faith in his ability to fight the Empire. After all, he has been working with Saw Gerrera for over 5 years and despite their best efforts, the Empire isn't slowing down. But a hidden planet that the Empire can't access is the perfect place to raise a new generation of Jedi, or at least develop a new rebel base. So Cal investigates the key to finding Tanalorr. During his travels he wakes up Dagan Gerra, who was stored in stasis this whole time. Dagan is an accidentally funny antagonist. This man woke up after a 200+ year long coma, learns about the destruction of the Jedi Order, and immediately falls to the Dark Side. Like, Dagan literally modifies his Lightsaber to produce a red blade mere seconds after being released, while in the middle of a conversation with Cal. Now granted, some later flashbacks reveal he was corrupted long before being put in stasis. But still, bleeding out your Lightsaber to produce a red blade is one heck of a first impression. Anyway, Dagan is the main antagonist for this game, as most of the plot is spent racing against Dagan to get to Tanalorr first. Cal and his friends want to use Tanalorr as a sanctuary, Dagan wants to use it as the birthplace of an Empire of his own. Letting Dagan get there first would be replacing one tyrant with another. And because I don't have a better place to mention it, be prepared to hear the word "Tanalorr" a lot. Everyone (Mostly Dagan) brings it up in conversation so often that if you were to make a drinking game out of it, you would get hospitalized.

Cal's journey brings him to Jedha, a desert world where Merrin, Cordova and Cere have been running a sanctuary for persecuted Force Users called the Hidden Path. Cere and Cordova are two of the last surviving Jedi Masters (and act as mentor figures to everyone else), while Merrin is a Night Sister. The Night Sisters are technically Force Users, but the way they use the Force is completely different from everyone else. Think of it like this. Jedi and Sith are samurai IN SPACE, and they use the Force to do better samurai stuff. Night Sisters are witches IN SPACE, and they use the Force to do better witchcraft. Anyway, Merrin will assist Cal in battle while he's on Jedha, immobilizing enemies with her witchcraft and opening up portals that he can jump through to quickly travel across greater distances. Also there's a romantic subplot between Cal and Merrin, as the two clearly have feelings for each other despite coming from very different cultures. It's an alright romance, nothing too annoying, gross or problematic about it. But this is coming from a guy who generally dislikes romance in media, so take anything I say about romance in general with a grain of salt.

The bulk of the game's first two acts consist of Cal, Bode, Greez and Merrin traveling from one planet to another. They try to track down the compass leading to Tanalorr before Dagan Gerra can, while fighting off both the Empire and the Bedlam Raiders. Truth be told, this part of the story is kind of weak in my opinion. Throughout this part of the game I felt like I was just going through the motions instead of getting properly invested in the story. The most interesting thing that happens in this part of the plot is Cal fighting this dude called Rayvis, who is the leader of the Bedlam Raiders and Dagan's right hand man. There are two reasons why I like Rayvis. The first is that he is a Gen'Dai, a species of alien that was declared non-canon back when Disney bought the legal rights to the Star Wars franchise. But obviously, the Gen'Dai were made canon again for this game. Which is good, because the Gen'Dai are a cool idea for a Star Wars creature. The Gen'Dai are essentially a mass of rapidly growing nerves and flesh who live inside suits of armor. The armor they wear gives them a humanoid shape, but without it they become an eldritch blob of fleshy tentacles. Anyway, these guys are one of the few aliens that can survive being cut by a Lightsaber because their rapid growth allows them to heal even the most severe injuries. Which means that the Gen'Dai as a species work well as boss monsters. The second reason I like Rayvis is because he's voiced by D.C. Douglas, who also does the voice of Albert Wesker from Resident Evil. And I think that's kind of funny, because Rayvis' villainous monologue that he says at the start of his boss battle feels like something that a Resident Evil villain would say before transforming into a horrifying meat monster. Which fits oddly well, since the Gen'Dai are an entire species of meat monsters.

So I'm going to fast forward to the most interesting thing that happens in the story, which unfortunately requires me to put up a spoiler warning. You have been warned. So Cal manages to defeat Dagan Gerra and find the compass leading to Tanalorr, so he heads back to Jedha. Cal and friends had agreed to expand the Hidden Path to Tanalorr because of how well-hidden the planet is. But then the game hits you with a plot twist. Bode, the gunslinging rebel that's been helping Cal on his adventure was not only an Imperial Spy this whole time, he was also a fallen Jedi turned Sith Inquisitor. So Bode steals the compass and assassinates Cordova, because he's the only person smart enough to reverse engineer the compass. He also exposes the Hidden Path on Jedha to the Empire, and uses the ensuing chaos to flee the scene. Cal gives chase and gets into a boss battle against Bode, but no matter how good the player fights, the duel is scripted so that Cal always gets knocked unconscious while Bode escapes.

The game does something really cool once Cal is defeated here. It takes you to the Game Over menu and asks you to hit the respawn button like it does when the player dies under "normal" circumstances, but when you do, you're not playing as Cal anymore. You're now playing as Cere, who has a completely different move set from Cal. She only has one Stance (Single Blade), but Cere's version is both faster and stronger than Cal ever could be. Her Force Powers are also a lot more powerful. If Cal is meant to be an example of an "average" Jedi, Cere is an example of an "exceptionally strong" Jedi. She isn't as powerful as someone like Starkiller, Darth Revan or Darth Vader, but she is pretty close to them. Which is impressive, since two of those characters are from Star Wars Legends, a sadly no longer canon spin off series where everything in the Star Wars universe is cranked up to eleven. But speaking of Darth Vader, guess who shows up to shut down the Hidden Path?

We get a boss battle against Darth Vader himself, and he is by far the hardest fight in the game. And the funny thing is, Darth Vader doesn't even know about Tanalorr nor does he care to know. Once again, Darth Vader is an outside-context problem that puts the fear of death in everyone involved. Case in point, while Cere is fighting for her life, Vader is lazily deflecting her blows with only one hand, and only takes the battle seriously when Cere manages to wound him halfway through their duel. It's an almost perfect fight, except for one little thing. If you die to Vader through normal gameplay, you have to do the fight again. But if you empty out Darth Vader's health bar completely, instead of dying like a normal boss, Vader stops holding back and finishes Cere with a one hit kill move. I feel like they should have done the Sekiro thing where if you manage to "beat" the unbeatable boss you get an extra cutscene, but still allow the story to progress if you die through normal gameplay. Especially because the Bode fight I literally just described does exactly that. I prefer the way Fallen Order handled the concept of a "lore-accurate" Vader fight better, because in the first game, Vader was straight up invincible. Nothing you could do in the first game could hurt Vader, so the only way to "defeat" him was to run away while he stalked you like a horror movie monster. Because as far as the Star Wars galaxy is concerned, that's what Darth Vader is. That being said, I still enjoyed Jedi Survivor's Vader fight, and it's tied with the Rayvis fight for my favorite boss battle in the game.

Cal prepares to fight a squad of Stormtroopers using Double Blade Stance. Image found on steamdb.info

So Cere and Cordova are dead, and Cal swears to get vengeance on Bode for ratting them all out. And Cal is so outraged by Bode's betrayal that he starts using the Dark Side of the Force, which anyone with even a basic knowledge of Star Wars lore knows is very much a bad thing. But I do like how the Dark Side is used in gameplay as a kind of super mode for Cal. While "Embracing the Dark" Cal automatically switches to Cere's move set and his damage output goes through the roof. Basic enemies like Stormtroopers die in one hit on even the highest difficulty, and the much stronger Purge Troopers and Security Droids go down in two or three hits. His Force powers get upgraded as well, letting him Force Choke enemies and crush droids and mechs with ease. Additionally, Cal can use the Force to slow down time itself while embracing the Dark Side, which allows him to either heal with no consequences or get some free hits in on his hapless victims. Cal could actually freeze time before this point, but the ability felt lackluster prior to the Dark Side upgrade. Also, you remember when I said that you couldn't make Cal's Lightsaber red for lore reasons? The real reason is that while "Dark Side Mode" is active, Cal's Lightsaber changes from its usual color to red, and it returns to its original color once the effects wear off.

The big finale of Jedi Survivor is a three-phase, 2vs1 boss battle with Bode, right inside the heart of Tanalorr. Merrin will help Cal during the first two phases of the battle, but the final phase is a 1vs1 duel. This fight is nowhere near as dramatic or as difficult as the Vader fight, but to be fair, any battle with Vader is going to be both more dramatic and more difficult than anything else in the game. Bode starts the fight with his own version of Blaster Stance, though he later switches to a Dark Side-boosted version of Single Blade Stance for the final phase. It's an okay fight. Not too easy, not too hard. That being said, I find it amusing just how easily Bode goes down when you use Dark Side Mode, and the transition between second and third phase is scripted so you have no choice but to embrace the Dark Side. Like, from Bode's perspective, he isn't the final boss. Cal is, and Embracing the Dark Side is Cal's version of a second phase. Bode's like a Souls Borne character without the resurrection ability, fighting an unwinnable battle. The only thing I will overtly criticize here is that Tanalorr itself is a disappointingly boring planet to explore. It consists of a shoreline leading up to a temple, and the temple's interior serves as the final boss arena. That's it. There's no collectibles or hidden super bosses or anything like that. 

But why did Bode betray them all in the first place? The reason is because he has a daughter named Kata, and he made a deal with the Empire. Bode would work as a spy and in exchange the Empire would spare Kata's life. However, after learning about Tanalorr, Bode decides to betray both the rebels and the Empire so he can raise his daughter in peaceful solitude. Which doesn't strike me as particularly smart. Like, Tanalorr is a whole planet. You don't need an entire planet to raise one child. He could easily just raise his family on one side of the planet and let the rebels/Empire do their thing on the other. But then again, Bode's entire characterization post-betrayal is a real-time reenactment of Yoda's warning to Anakin back in The Phantom Menace. "Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. And Hate leads to Suffering." Bode is so scared of losing Kata that he betrays everyone who has ever helped him. When his former friends confront him, he lashes out in anger. His anger turns to murderous hatred because he now views literally everyone in the galaxy as a threat to Kata, and any threat to his daughter must be destroyed. And in his hatred, he frightens and almost kills Kata while fighting both Cal and Merrin at the same time. In the end, Bode is killed by Cal and Kata is shockingly okay with that. Even before this point, Kata agreed with Cal and Merrin that what Bode did was morally despicable. Imagine being such a bad father that your only child not only agrees with your killers that you were a terrible person, but said killers adopt your kid and turn out to be better parents than you ever were. Massive L on Bode's part. 

The game ends with Cal, Greez and Merrin hosting a funeral for all their fallen friends (and Bode). They decide to build a new home on Tanalorr and adopt Kata into their found family. The Empire still doesn't know about Tanalorr, and the Bedlam Raiders are scattered and leaderless due to the deaths of both Dagan Gerra and Rayvis. It's a bittersweet ending, all things considered. And overall, I found the game to be okay and almost good. There is just one problem I neglected to mention, in addition to my smaller critiques. This problem is so great that it needs its own section in the review.

Jedi Survivor is not a well optimized game by any stretch of the imagination. I ran into a plethora of technical problems that dragged the whole experience down. The game crashed on me twice, the first time being during the tutorial. I also experienced a glitch on two separate occasions where Jedi Mind Tricks stopped working, forcing me to restart the game until they did. Some character models didn't load in correctly, causing random body parts to become invisible. Enemies would sometimes get stuck inside walls and if it wasn't for Cal's ability to grab enemies with the Force, I would not have been able to get those enemies unstuck. That last one is especially bad because a battle isn't considered "finished" until all enemies involved are dead. The framerate would also frequently dip during the more intense cutscenes or when traveling between areas. On top of all of this, the game has a 150+ gigabyte download size, meaning this game by itself took up almost a whole third of my PS5's active memory. If the game ran perfectly and didn't have such glaring tech issues, I would have given this game an easy 4 out of 5 stars. But the tech problems are so great that the game fluctuated between a 3 star rating and even a 2 star rating. And you want to know the real kicker? From what I've heard other reviewers say, apparently the PC version has even worse technical issues than the PS5 version. I can't say for certain but if that's that's true, that's a real shame. 

As for presentation, I consider Jedi Survivor to be fairly average. The whole game is fully voice acted and sports motion capture animation for all the main cinematics. But the graphical quality isn't particularly impressive by itself. It's a nice looking Star Wars game for sure, but it does that thing that a lot of Triple-A games do where they try really hard to look photo-realistic but lack either the technology or the budget to pull it off properly. This game looks like your stereotypical Triple-A game. This isn't a compliment nor is an insult. I just wish the game had more of a visual identity of its own. All the games using Capcom's RE Engine do a better job at the "realistic" art style, just to give a comparison. One thing I like is that the camera work in the cinematics. It does the thing that the modern God of War games do where the camera shows everything in a long take format (meaning no sudden changes in the camera angle). Additionally, the camera is slightly shaky, creating the illusion that they were recorded by an onset cameraman. It makes the cinematics feel, well, cinematic. If there was a new theatrical Star Wars movie with this kind of camerawork, I would actually really enjoy it.

The sound design is good. Not only do we have all the classic Lightsaber/Blaster sound effects that we all know and love, there's also a fun little quirk with changing the Lightsaber's color. Each color changes the sound of the "hum" the blade makes when the saber is activated. The voice acting is also generally pretty good. I especially like Merrin's voice, because she speaks in a Slavic accent. I don't know exactly if it's supposed to be Russian or some other variant of Eastern European, but either way it makes her sound like she came from a completely different culture from everyone else. It also makes her sassy remarks even funnier. But I do want give my compliments to Scott Lawrence, who does the voice of Darth Vader in this game. He does such a good job sound-a-liking the iconic Vader Voice used by the late James Earl Jones that at first I thought that it actually was James Earl Jones himself doing the voice. It's not, unfortunately, but like I said, Scott Lawrence does the character justice. Speaking of voice actors, there's a side character named Turgle. Turgle has no plot relevance whatsoever besides handing out the occasional side quest. And you know who they got to voice this goofy frog-looking alien man? Richard Steven Horvitz, a legendary voice actor well known for roles such as Zim from Invader Zim, Billy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Dag from Angry Beavers. I was not expecting to see Richard Steven Horvitz in a Star Wars game, but it's cool that he's here.

Cal and BD-1 looking at the sunset on Koboh. Image found on starwars.com

So would I recommend Star Wars Jedi Survivor? No, or at least not at full price. I bought my copy of this game during a sale that brought the price down from $70 to $20 USD. And I feel like $15-$20 is the ideal price range for a game of this quality. Paying $70 for an otherwise average video game based on a preestablished franchise with glaring performance issues is too much money. Then again, asking for $70 for any video game is quite the demand, and I feel like the game needs to be as close to perfect as possible to justify that kind of price. Especially when other Souls Likes are typically priced between $40-$50. But honestly speaking, even if the game ran perfectly, I don't think I was in the right head space to enjoy it properly. I've been feeling burnt out on Star Wars content for a while now. So let me ask you a question. What exactly is a Star Wars fan exactly? The biggest problem with Star Wars as a franchise is that there is so much "stuff" with the Star Wars brand on it that you cannot possibly be a fan of EVERYTHING Star Wars related. Especially since each "thing" in the franchise has wildly inconsistent quality. For everything as good as say, Star Wars: Andor there is something as bad as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Jedi Survivor feels like it's the middle of those two extremes. Like it's not even close to the best Star Wars video game, but if it's also nowhere near the worst. It's a perfectly average, some would say mediocre experience. One might even call this game "mid." I give Jedi Survivor 3 stars out of 5. 

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is the property of Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment. Star Wars (the franchise) is the property of Disney. None of the images used here were created by me. Please support the original creators.

Lies of P is Peak Pinocchio Fiction. A very "honest" review.

 If you told me five years ago that the closest thing we would ever get to a Bloodborne sequel is a weird Pinocchio game, I would have called you mad. But here we are, with a review of Lies of P. Developed by Round8 Studio and published by Neowiz back in 2023, Lies of P is a Souls Like, but it is not a Souls Borne. What's the difference you ask? Well, Souls Borne refers to the dark fantasy/gothic horror action roleplaying games made by From Software. A Souls Like is a game not made by From Software but still inspired by From Software's signature style. There are many Souls Likes out there, some being of better quality than others. But out of all the Souls Likes I've seen, Lies of P comes the closest to recreating the "From Software Magic." Which feels like a weird thing to say, because this game's sales pitch is "What if Pinocchio was in a Gothic Horror setting?" and the game takes that premise 100% seriously. A quick disclaimer before we begin. I played Lies of P on a Playstation 5, and thus can't speak for its performance on an Xbox system nor on PC. Lies of P is also rated M for Mature by the ESRB because of violence and mild profanity. Reader discretion is advised.

Lies of P official box art. Image found on Wikipedia.org

In case you (somehow) don't know what Pinocchio is, it's an Italian fairy tale originally written by Carlo Collodi back in 1883. The original story was about a wooden puppet that came to life and had to learn basic life lessons like "stay in school" or "don't tell lies." It was later adapted into a Disney movie that wounded up becoming the most famous version of the story, because 1940's era Disney movies had a habit of being more popular than their inspirations. And in case you don't know what Bloodborne is, it's a Gothic Horror action game about a monster hunter tasked with exploring a Victorian city overrun by a variety of nightmarish monsters, ranging from werewolves to cultists to literal aliens. It's regarded as one of the greatest Playstation Exclusive games ever made, and depending on who you ask, it's one of the greatest games in general. I bring all of this up because Lies of P pulls heavy inspiration from the original fairy tale as well as from Bloodborne.

Just so everyone is caught up on what a Souls Like is, it's a subgenre of action/roleplaying games that is characterized by five main characteristics. Firstly, Souls Like games use a stamina based combat system. What this means is that every action, from swinging your sword to casting a magic spell, spends stamina or some equivalent thereof. Stamina recharges automatically as long as you aren't doing anything strenuous. Secondly, these games have you collecting a universal currency that is used both to buy items from merchants as well as to unlock upgrades for your character. This currency is collected by defeating enemies, but if the player's character dies for any reason, they drop all unspent currency that they were carrying on their person. This is not the end however, for if the player returns to where they died, they can recover the lost currency and add it to whatever they got in the time since their previous death.

Thirdly, games of this nature give you a limited number of healing items  which refill automatically when you rest at a checkpoint. Fourthly, the main method of progression involves exploring labyrinthine levels in search of boss monsters to fight, either because they block the way to the next level or because they have an item you need for something. The boss monsters will more often than not be the highlight of the game, and most Souls Likes live and die by the quality of their boss battles. And finally, Souls Like games like to be cryptic and mysterious in their story-telling, often hiding story-relevant information in the descriptions of collectibles, hidden details in the environment or easily missed conversations with the occasional friendly bystander. There are other things that most Souls Likes have in common, such as a poison swamp level or a "level up lady" but the five points are the most common characteristics. Additionally, a Souls Like doesn't need to do all five of these things to "count" as one, though it does need to do at least three of them. All of this is important because Souls Likes sadly cannot be judged in a vacuum. Any time a new Souls Like releases, the question on everyone's mind is always "Is it as good as From Software's stuff?" After all, From Software's style is so specific and niche that anything imitating it will have no choice but to compete against its inspiration. So expect me to make comparisons frequently in this review. 

Lies of P takes place in the City of Krat, a bustling metropolis that discovered a borderline magical source of energy called Ergo. An inventor by the name of Geppetto used the Ergo to create puppets so advanced that not only can they move around without the aid of strings, they can even develop minds of their own. In other words, the puppets are basically robots in all but name. So naturally, the citizens of Krat use the Puppets for manual labor. Construction work, law enforcement, house cleaning, things along those lines. There was just one problem. An incident known as the Puppet Frenzy led to the overwhelming majority of puppets going rogue and killing their masters. There is only one thing that can stop the puppets, which is ironically, another puppet. So a mysterious fairy named Sophia awakens Geppetto's magnum opus, a concerningly lifelike puppet boy named Pinocchio, and orders him to destroy all the other puppets and save Krat from total annihilation. The game starts here.

Like almost every Souls Like, Lies of P starts with the player choosing a class. There's only three to choose from, and the decision admittedly is not that important. The classes determine what weapon Pinocchio starts the game with and what his starting stats are, though he can acquire the other weapons later. And unlike every other Souls Like in existence, Lies of P has no minimal stat requirements. As soon as you pick up a weapon, you can start using it. It may not do that much damage if your stats aren't leveled up properly, but the fact that every weapon is at least usable the moment you pick it up is a nice quality of life feature. Speaking of stats, one minor critique I have is that the stats are oddly named and not exactly intuitive at first glance. Let me give you an idea of what I mean. In most Souls Likes, there's a stat that improves your character's skill with heavyweight weapons like war hammers and great swords, a stat that improves lightweight weapons like bows and daggers, and a stat that improves magic. These stats are usually named Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence, or at least some synonym for those three terms. Lies of P calls these stats Motivity, Technique and Advance. These stat names don't exactly roll off the tongue that well. Again, this is a minor nitpick.

Pinocchio running towards a monster called a Carcass. Image found on SteamDB.info

Lies of P has the aforementioned stamina-based combat system alongside a few quirks. Firstly and most obviously, you can mix and match different weapon parts to make new weapons entirely. Almost every weapon you can find has two parts, a blade and a handle. The handle changes what attacks and combos you can perform with the weapon while the blade changes the range and type of damage. This is honestly a brilliant system. If you like the move set on one weapon but need to change your damage type to counter a particularly challenging enemy or boss, all you have to do is swap out the blade for something else. Heck, there are some weapons with really good blades but really lame handles, almost begging you to try switching the blades onto something else. For example, the Salamander Dagger is a superheated knife. It's one of the first weapons you get that can deal fire damage, but the Dagger suffers from lack of range. But say you put the blade of the Dagger on the Handle of something like a spear, and suddenly the dagger's blade is now a superheated spearhead. Another example, the Great Sword of Fate has one of the longest and damaging blades in the game, but normally is very slow. But if you put that blade on a rapier's handle, your attacks will become a lot faster without sacrificing power or reach.

The second quirk of Lies of P's combat is its parry and stagger system. There are three ways of preventing damage; blocking, parrying and dodging. Blocking is the easiest to do. Just hold down the appropriate button and Pinocchio will use his current weapon as a makeshift shield. If he gets hit while in this stance, he'll lose some health (but not as much as he would if the hit was unblocked). Parrying is much better than blocking but is more challenging to do consistently. Basically, tap (don't hold) the block button right before the attack hits Pinocchio and he will deflect it perfectly. This does no damage to him at all, builds up Stagger (which stuns the enemy when maxed out) and even has a chance to break the enemy's weapon. Dodging is simply running or jumping out of the way. This also doesn't hurt Pinocchio in any way. In fact, from the start of the animation to the end of it, Pinocchio is invincible. Which means that if you time it right, you can dodge through enemy attacks and follow up with a counterattack of your own. Mastering this game's combat relies on being able to tell which attacks are safe to block, which ones are easy to parry, and which ones can be dodged through. Most enemies and bosses have what are called Fury Attacks, where their body glows bright red right before delivering their most dangerous attack. Fury Attacks cannot be blocked, but they can be parried and dodged.

The third quirk of Lies of P's combat is how it handles healing. At first glance, Pulse Cells (this game's main healing item) works like any other Souls Like heal. It's limited in use but recharges when resting at a checkpoint. What makes Lies of P unique is that if you run completely out of Pulse Cells, you can recharge one of them if you land/block/parry enough hits while fighting enemies and bosses. This is a perfect compromise between the limited healing of the subgenre's standards and the more forgiving healing items of Bloodborne. It also allows you to be more frivolous with your healing, because if you're good enough at the game you can just recharge your Pulse Cell mid-battle.

The final quirk of the combat is the Legion Arm. Pinocchio's left arm is the only part of him that is truly mechanical, and as such it can be customized with various gadgets, Sekiro style. The Legion Arm gadgets are the game's equivalent of magic spells, being either long range projectiles or utility powers meant to compliment specific fighting styles. These gadgets can range from a grappling hook that can pull enemies towards you (or vice versa), a shield that greatly enhances blocking, or a literal handgun. Legion Arms have limited energy, however, so they should be used sparingly. Additionally, only one Legion Arm can be equipped at a time, unless you unlock an upgrade that removes this restriction. Speaking of upgrades, in addition to Ergo as the main currency, there's a second currency called Quartz. Quartz can be used to unlock more specialized upgrades like extra Pulse Cells and a higher chance to stun enemies. Quartz can be found in treasure chests or as a reward for completing side quests.

Pinocchio being given the choice to lie or tell the truth about an aging woman's appearance. Image found on IGN.com

The main thing setting Lies of P apart from other Souls Likes is the way it handles dialogue and morality. Arguably the most well-known thing about Pinocchio is that his nose grows whenever he tells a lie. This game's Pinocchio technically doesn't do that, though his shadow does get longer with each lie. Multiple times throughout the game, the player needs to choose whether or not to tell the truth. To make sure the player can't cheat and look up the consequences for lying or speaking honestly, the game puts a 10 second time limit to pick a truth or lie. You would think that telling the truth would be the "morally good" option every time, considering this game is supposed to be a Pinocchio adaptation. But Lies of P has a hidden stat called Humanity, which not only determines how close Pinocchio gets to becoming a real boy, it also determines which ending you get. You gain Humanity in one of four ways; telling lies, solving riddles, listening to music records and helping your friends with their problems. Telling lies is the easiest way to gain Humanity, and the game's best possible ending requires you to be 90% Human or better. You don't need to tell a lie EVERY time if you want this ending, though doing so is the easiest way to get that much Humanity in the first place. 

That being said, the lies in this game aren't particularly malicious. Most of the time, when Lies of P's Pinocchio lies, he does so to avoid hurting someone's feelings or to protect someone else. I think the best moment that showcases how lying can be a "good" thing in the right context is a side quest involving a sickly grandmother. She is dying of an illness called the Petrification Disease and wants to see her baby grandson one last time before she passes. The real grandson is dead, murdered by rogue puppets. However, Pinocchio can find a defunct, baby-shaped puppet and pretend that it's her real grandson. The grandmother is going blind because of her illness and can't tell the difference. But in this instance, Pinocchio lies to give this poor woman some much needed closure in her dying moments. 

Another example of how lying can be a "good" thing is when first meeting a shady merchant named Alidoro. Alidoro is this game's version of Honest John, a talking fox that deceived the original story's Pinocchio with delusions of fame and stardom. Here, Alidoro is a merchant wearing a canine mask who asks you where Hotel Krat is. Hotel Krat is the main hub world of Lies of P, and all of Pinocchio's friends take shelter there as it's the only real safe zone. Lady Antonia, the owner of the hotel, explicitly told Pinocchio not to let any strangers find the hotel. So in this case, Pinocchio lies about the hotel's location to protect his friends from a dangerous-looking stranger. Alidoro still finds the hotel no matter what, it just takes him longer to do so if you lie to him. 

One thing I need to mention about Lies of P is that has a few quality of life features that made the experience much more manageable. You see, Souls Likes have a reputation for being really hard. And some nerds online get real mad if you suggest ideas to make the experience more enjoyable out of a misguided fear that such features would "ruin the challenge." Lies of P is a hard game, but its quality of life features don't ruin the challenge. They make getting back to the fun parts after a Game Over less stressful. Here's an example. This game's currency is called Ergo. You get Ergo every time you destroy a puppet or kill a living creature. You lose Ergo if Pinocchio dies. But say you die to a boss. In most Souls Likes, you would need to scramble to the exact spot in the boss arena you died previously to get your currency back. In Lies of P,  lost Ergo is placed just before the entrance of the boss arena, completely removing the added hassle of getting your stuff back while a boss tries to squish you like a bug. Like most Souls Likes, there are optional side quests where you help the few friendly characters with a problem. Unlike most Souls Likes, Lies of P puts special icons on the level select menu to remind you of those side quest objectives. Now this isn't perfect, because if you never meet the character face-to-face and progress the story too far, they might leave before you can even talk to them. But once you actually find the side characters and talk to them, you don't have to worry about forgetting where they are or what they want. If you really struggle with a specific boss, you can summon an entity called the Specter to assist you. The only time you can't summon the Specter is during the first boss (the Parade Master) and the final boss, as you are expected to deal with that on your own.

But this brings me to my biggest criticism of Lies of P and the primary reason I cannot justify giving it a 5 star rating. This game doesn't have a pause button. I can forgive Bloodborne, Elden Ring and the Dark Souls trilogy for not having a pause button. But I cannot forgive Lies of P for not having the ability to pause the game. Why, you ask? Contrary to what sweaty edge lords on the Internet will tell you, the Souls Borne series not having a normal pause button is NOT a deliberate design choice on From Software's part. It was a necessary sacrifice because of the unpredictable nature of Souls Borne multiplayer. In From Software's games, another player can summon you into their world (or vice versa) either to help out with a boss battle or to challenge you to a duel. This can happen at any time, thus every player's game needs to be compatible with an "always-online" server, and thus the game can't be paused reliably. After all, how can you get hundreds of thousands of players across the world to pause the game as a community? The answer is you can't. Thus, the pause feature was axed from the Souls Borne series. Lies of P doesn't have ANY multiplayer components to speak of whatsoever. Which means that Neowiz and/or Round8 either forgot to include a pause feature or they excluded it deliberately in a misguided attempt to make the game harder. The former scenario would be outrageously amateurish for what is otherwise an extremely well polished game. The latter scenario tells me that Neowiz values the opinion of the aforementioned sweaty edge lords too much. It's especially bizarre because the previously mentioned quality of life features prove that the devs not only like Souls Likes, but took the time to find ways to make the experience smoother. You would not believe the number of times I had to forfeit a boss battle because something in real life needed my attention, something that could have been solved with a pause feature.

Speaking of bosses, Lies of P has about 27 bosses in total. And overall, I'd say it's a fairly good lineup. Generally speaking, all enemies in this game are divided into three categories. Humans, Puppets and Carcasses. What's a Carcass, you ask? Mild spoilers here, but the Puppets aren't the only creatures powered by Ergo. If a human who was infected with the Petrification Disease consumes Ergo, they are cured of the disease, but start mutating into a hideous monster called a Carcass. Basically, Carcasses are magical zombies. These categories are important to remember because certain weapons and items do more damage to one category than the others. Puppets take extra damage from electrical weapons, while Humans and Carcasses take more damage from fiery and acidic weapons, respectively. But anyway, I generally prefer the Puppets and Humans as far aesthetics go. The Puppet enemies are all wonderfully designed and are wholly unique to Lies of P, being robotic abominations whose limbs and bend and rotate in ways no human can. Human enemies are the rarest of the bunch, and almost all of them are based on characters from the original Pinocchio story. But Carcasses feel the least "unique" of the bunch, as most of them look like fairly stereotypical From Software monsters. Which is to say, lots of body horror and grotesque monstrosities.

Unfortunately, there are bosses I think are annoying and could benefit from a rework. For example, one boss that I didn't really care for is Laxasia the Complete. This warrior woman is a two phase battle. In fact, most bosses in this game have two phases. The problem is that First Phase Laxasia and Second Phase Laxasia feel like two completely different bosses that were crudely combined together. In her first phase, Laxasia is an armored knight who swings a big heavy great sword around. She occasionally supercharges her sword swings with lightning and her armor leaves her invincible from behind (forcing you to fight her head on), but is otherwise inoffensive with easy to learn attack patterns and no annoying gimmicks. She's not too easy, not too difficult. 

But in her second phase, Laxasia removes her armor, equips a shield and starts moving around with the speed of an anime character. The rhythm of the fight completely changes, and not for the better. She moves around so fast she might as well be teleporting, and she can now fly so high up in the air that the camera struggles to keep her in view. Honestly, you could split these two phases into separate bosses, with Second Phase Laxasia being some kind of optional super boss placed at the end of a hidden level, and the whole game would have a better boss roster. I mean, Laxasia is already doing the whole "beautiful warrior woman who is much harder to defeat than any other boss in the game" thing that From Software likes doing in their own games. The difference is that From Software makes their "beautiful warrior women" bosses optional and puts them at the end of a hidden level. Laxasia meanwhile is absolutely mandatory, with no way to skip over her fight if you want to progress the story.

The introduction to the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, one of the main bosses of the game. Image found SteamDB.info

But you know who doesn't need a rework? The Black Rabbit Brotherhood. This is easily my favorite boss in the game, both because of their design and because of the battle itself. First a little bit of context. In Krat, there is a group of elite warriors called the Stalkers. The Stalkers were formed to be an anti-puppet militia force in the event the puppets turned hostile. The Black Rabbit Brotherhood were a group of Stalkers that went rogue, and now they antagonize human and puppet alike in the name of causing mischief. The battle itself is a what's called a gank fight, where you must face multiple opponents simultaneously. Unlike most gank fights in the Souls Like subgenre, the Black Rabbit Brotherhood is actually fun. A problem with a lot of gank fights in other Souls Likes is that it is difficult to learn attack patterns when there are three or more attacks coming at you at the same time, all from different directions. The Black Rabbit Brotherhood circumvents this problem by doing two things. First, only the Eldest Brother has a health bar, meaning that you have to concentrate on him specifically in order to defeat the whole Brotherhood. Secondly, the younger Brothers (of which there are three) drop in one at a time and leave after a short while, ensuring that you only have to fight an absolute maximum of two Brothers at a time.

Also, the Black Rabbit Brotherhood is one of the few bosses that gets a rematch. The rematch plays out in the reverse order of the first battle, with the younger Brothers attacking first and the Eldest only joining the fray once the younger Brothers have been defeated. But even in the rematch, the younger Brothers take turns fighting you and are generally passive when it's not their turn yet. I think the devs knew deep down that the Black Rabbit Brotherhood was the best fight in the game, as not only do they get a rematch in the first place, but these guys were all over the pre-release marketing. They even have what is by far the coolest intro cinematic in not just the game, but possibly out of all Souls Likes. These goofy mad hatter-looking rabbit boys start their fight in the rain, carrying a literal open coffin with the word "LIAR" spray painted on the inside, and they invite Pinocchio into it as a morbid taunt. The Black Rabbit Brotherhood manages to be the perfect blend of stylish and intimidating.

On the subject of level design, Lies of P is oddly linear. Most levels are a narrow set of paths with the occasional shortcut to an earlier part of the level. That being said, I like how the levels make enough sense geographically that you can see previous or upcoming levels in the distance if you can get to a high enough vantage point. Speaking of presentation, let's get the most obvious thing about this game out of the way. This version of Pinocchio looks like an anime pretty boy. In fact, this is by far the least puppet-like interpretation of the character. I know that Humanity is supposed to represent the process of becoming a real boy, but Pinocchio looks like he's 3/4ths of the way there already. Literally the only thing robotic or mechanical about his appearance is his left arm. This isn't exactly a criticism, it's just an observation. Neowiz legally cannot make their version of Pinocchio look like the Disney version nor can they use something similar to Guillermo del Toro's design. While the concept of Pinocchio is public domain, specific designs of the character are not. Essentially, you can make your own version of a living Italian puppet, as long as your living Italian puppet doesn't look like Disney's version. Or Guillermo del Toro's version. Thus, we got anime pretty boy Pinocchio. 

In terms of music and sound design, Lies of P has what might just be the best soundtrack in Souls Like history. Not because of the regular boss battle music, which is about you expect for a game of this nature (intense orchestra with vaguely Latin sounding choirs). But because of the music records. I previously mentioned that listening to music records gives you Humanity. Speaking as a firm believer that making art (both visual and audible) is one of the most important aspects of the human experience, I approve of the implication that listening to music makes your more human. Jokes aside, the record songs are all brilliantly performed classical symphonies. Not all the songs have lyrics, but some of them do. Some of the songs are even sung in French. The main highlight of the soundtrack is a song called Feel. It's one of the first records you can find, and it leaves quite the first impression. Feel is a somber melody performed mostly by piano with some jazz instruments to back up the pianist and the lead singer. Feel is the closest thing Lies of P has to a theme song, and whenever I heard the song I felt the need to stop what I was doing and just enjoy the tranquility of the music.

Pinocchio being grabbed by the Scrapped Watchmen, one of the first bosses encountered. Image found on SteamDB.info

The actual sound effects are also quite good. Just to give a few examples, the parry sound effect is a crisp and clear *clang* and walking on different surfaces (wood, stone, metal et cetera) produces different footstep sounds. One sound effect that I particularly like is Pinocchio's various noises. Pinocchio is pretty much a mute protagonist, only speaking when the player is given the option to pick a truth or lie. But when he's fighting, you can hear different grunts as he uses his weapons and dodges enemy attacks. These grunts sound mechanical when Pinocchio is low on Humanity and gradually sound more organic and "natural" as his Humanity increases. The voice acting is also surprisingly competent. The main highlight of voice acting has to go to Arlecchino, the King of Riddles. He sounds a little goofy when you first encounter him as he speaks almost entirely in rhyme. But after you learn that he's (technically) responsible for every bad thing that happened in Krat, he becomes a lot more sinister. I also like Venigni the Inventor, who speaks with an over-the-top Italian accent and is the only character who speaks with said accent.

There's one last thing I want to say about the game before I share my final thoughts. Lies of P has a New Game Plus mode, letting you replay the entire game with a fully upgraded Pinocchio. To make sure that the game is still a challenge, every boss receives a boost to their health and damage output. There are also special Golden Records that can only be collected in New Game Plus mode, and these songs are remixes of preexisting songs. The other big change in New Game Plus is that the captions are changed slightly. You see, in a first playthrough, whenever any of the Puppet bosses speak, it sounds like robotic gibberish and the subtitles get distorted into an incomprehensible mess. In New Game Plus, the captions are fixed, you can now understand what the Puppet bosses are saying as they fight you. The actual plot of the game won't change, but it is a neat idea.

Overall, Lies of P is a great Souls Like. It does a lot of things right, both in terms of innovating on the Souls Like formula, and in terms of being a new adaptation of a classic fairy tale. But the inability to pause the game (and with no multiplayer functions to justify its absence) does drag down the game's overall quality. Despite that glaring issue, the rest of the game is polished enough to be a worthwhile experience. Ignoring the game's status as a Souls Like for a second here, it's the best Pinocchio game I've ever played. Granted, it's the ONLY Pinocchio game I've played. And truth be told, the sales pitch being so absurd yet taken so seriously is what drew me to the game in the first place. But either way, I give Lies of P 4 stars out of 5. I'd love to see what Neowiz does next, especially since the devs have expressed interest in doing Souls Like adaptations of other fairy tales. Mild spoilers here, but after the credits roll Lies of P ends with a teaser for a Wizard of Oz themed Souls Like starring Dorothy. And personally, taking classic fairy tale characters and filtering them through the lens of dark fantasy and gothic horror is an idea I approve of.

Lies of P is the property of Round8 Studio and Neowiz. None of the images used were created by me. Please support the original creators.