What other fairy tales could appear in the Lies of P world?
For the record, I CANNOT play Souls-like games! For those who don’t know, ‘souls-like’ refers to a subgenre of action role-playing games that are heavily inspired by the ‘Soulsborne’ series. This series includes titles such as Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, all of which were developed by FromSoftware, with creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm. The things that set these games apart from other action-roleplaying games is their intense difficulty, intricate combat systems, and a huge emphasis on environmental storytelling. I fully admire anyone who can complete souls-like games, because of how difficult their enemies are to beat. It’s why I enjoy watching people play these games, even if I could never beat those games myself.
The FromSoft (the abbreviation of FromSoftware) formula for telling their stories through environmental clues and subtle narratives is another main reason why I find games like this so intriguing. They don’t explain the plot through lengthy dialogue; you have to try and piece together the story yourself by exploring the world in the game. So, since these games are known for their unique storytelling, I want to use this as an excuse to gush about my favourite game in the souls-like genre (so far at least). Lies of P! (Especially since the DLC for this game came out last month and was just as excellent as the main game!).
Lies of P was developed in 2023 by Neowiz and Round8 Studio. The game is undoubtedly great in terms of gameplay and challenge, but what really makes this game stand out amongst the sea of souls-like games is the fact it’s based on a well-known fairy tale. Lies of P is based on Pinocchio. Not the animated Disney film mind you, but the original dark tale written by Carlo Collodi in 1883. You play as P (a.k.a Pinocchio), Geppetto’s life-sized, very-human-looking puppet, who has been awoken to try and save the city of Krat from the Puppet Frenzy. Basically, the city of Krat discovered a special mineral called Ergo, that they used to power mechanical puppets to serve and perform various duties around the city. But for some reason, all these obedient, robotic puppets have turned violent, killing anyone in their path. Hence why P, a puppet who seems to have free will for some reason, must discover what happened and stop the frenzy from ever happening again.
Illustration of the original Pinocchio by Enrico Mazzanti, the illustrator of the 1st book edition
I adore stories/films/games etc. that take a really well-known story and turn it into something unique by changing parts of the narrative. You still have to piece together the story of the game by exploring the world, but one thing I admire about Lies of P is it does make its story more obvious. As much as I love them, FromSoft do make you WORK to find out the story behind their games, whereas Lies of P is more forgiving; it’s easier to find the pieces of the story and put them together. For me, it’s so interesting to see how the developers changed parts of the original story to make something so different and yet somehow so familiar.
Now I could simply talk about every aspect of this game’s story, and how cool it is, and the ways it links to the original Pinocchio story. But there’s plenty of articles and video essays that have already explained the story, and much better than I ever could! But something that REALLY caught my attention about Lies of P was something that was revealed right at the end of the game. Without spoiling the ending too much, there’s a quick reveal in a post-credits scene that shows a character from a completely different fairy tale! Which means, the Lies of P world isn’t just centred around Pinocchio, but it also houses other fairy tales!
So, since Lies of P is getting a sequel, and it seems that it will start incorporating other fairy tales into its world, this got me pondering; WHAT other fairy tales could one possibly include in the Lies of P world? And so, that’s what we’re gonna be discussing!
Spoiler warning: I won’t spoil any of the major plot points in Lies of P, but I am obviously going to be talking in detail about certain aspects of the game. So, if you’d rather experience the game for yourself with no spoilers, I suggest playing the game first before you continue to read!
1. Goldilocks/The 3 Little Pigs/Little Red Riding Hood
Goldilocks illustration by Eunji Jung; the 3 little pigs illustration by Nick Sharratt; Little Red Riding Hood illustration by J.W. Smith
So, the reason I’m mashing these 3 fairytales into one section, instead of talking about them individually, is because these tales aren’t really long enough for me to talk at length about. But I wanted to mention them all because I believe the characters from these 3 tales would make for great side characters!
In Lies of P, there’s a faction of people called the Stalkers. These people are the mercenaries and vigilantes of society; they tend to serve the wealthiest as their bodyguards. All the Stalkers wear animal masks that define their rank; the very best fighters get to pick animal masks representing powerful predators, whereas the weaker ones are left with animal masks representing prey animals. This is why I feel like the 3 little pigs, the 3 bears from Goldilocks, and the wolves from both the 3 little pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, could be human characters wearing animal masks.
Mad Donkey, Owl Doctor, and Robber Weasel from Lies of P
Perhaps the 3 bears are Stalkers who were hired to protect Goldilocks, a young, arrogant daughter to a nobleman. Perhaps the 3 little pigs are apprentices to the Big Bad Wolf Stalker, learning how to become stronger Stalkers from them. With Little Red Riding Hood, you could have a similar scenario with Goldilocks, but then again, I can totally imagine Red Riding Hood as a badass woman in a red hood and cape who’s able to fight tremendously well. Maybe she would be a boss you have to fight, because the Wolf Stalker asks for your help in defeating her, as he can’t do it alone.
2. Puss in Boots
Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots
In the original story of Puss in Boots, the cat, Puss, uses trickery and deceit to help his master gain a royal title and marry a princess. Again, a Puss in Boots in the game could easily be a Stalker character. There’s two Stalker characters in Lies of P called the Red Fox and the Black Cat (based on the fox and the cat from the original Pinocchio). They also spend most of the game weaving lies and being tricksy, so perhaps Puss would make a good replacement for this duo in the next game.
Red Fox and Black cat from Lies of P
There are two dividing factions between the Stalkers: The Bastards and the Sweepers. The Bastards are members who came from noble, upper-class families, whereas the Sweepers come from the lower classes. In the original Puss in Boots tale, Puss is left as a gift to his master from his master’s father, after he dies. Since his master is poor and unhappy, Puss sets out to help him achieve royalty. So, maybe Puss in Lies of P could be a Sweeper Stalker who is trying to help his master become recognised amongst the upper classes, so he can achieve the wealth he yearns for. Perhaps we can help him. After all, Lies of P centres around P telling lies, so we could end up helping Puss and his master by spreading lies to the upper classes on their behalf.
The big climax of the original Puss in Boots story is when he tricks and kills an ogre. There are quite a few disturbing monsters in the Lies of P world, so I could imagine the ogre being this giant, grotesque boss that Puss asks for your help in defeating. Perhaps Puss’s master has been kidnapped by the creature, and that’s why he needs help killing it. Perhaps, when we’ve killed it, we lie with Puss and tell everyone that Puss’s master slayed the ogre, and that’s how he gains his reputation amongst the upper-class.
Lies of P screenshot from ‘Lies of P Bosses Guide and How to Defeat Them’ article by Michelle Pereira on GamingBolt
3. Peter Pan
Walt Disney’s Peter Pan
In Lies of P, the game takes place in the city of Krat. It would, therefore, be interesting if the next game took place somewhere completely different. Say…. Neverland? Although Neverland is supposed to be this magical, mystical place, it could easily just be an island where Native Americans, pirates and lost boys just happen to live.
Lies of P has a lot of steampunk vibes about it, so it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine that a boy named Peter could fly using a steampunk flying contraption of sorts. Perhaps Peter crash landed his contraption on the island, and that’s why he’s stuck there now. Maybe the lost boys where a group of boys who escaped a horrible orphanage on the mainland and rowed out to the island together to escape. There is an orphanage in Lies of P called the Monad Charity House, so clearly this is a world where other similar orphanages would exist. Maybe the lost boys decide to help Peter repair his flying contraption, as long as he promises to take them with him when he goes to explore the world. And what if…. Peter’s flying contraption is actually a flying ship! After all, Peter makes Captain Hook’s ship fly at the end of the story to take everyone back to London (this might just be in the Disney movie though, it’s hard to tell). If this was the case, maybe that’s why Captain Hook starts tormenting Peter and the boys, because he’s a pirate and he’d LOVE to have a flying pirate ship!
Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook in the film ‘Hook’ (1991)
In Lies of P, you also have Gemini as a companion (their version of Jiminy Cricket). The game…doesn’t ever 100% explain what Gemini is. He appears to be some sort of tiny puppet or machine inside a glowing lantern that you attach to your belt. Or he might be the glowing lantern itself…it’s never explained. But whatever type of creature or invention he’s supposed to be, perhaps Peter has a similar companion in the form of Tinkerbell. I bet the two of them would really hit it off!
Finally though, there’s one thing from the original Peter Pan story that I would love to see in Lies of P: the Big Crocodile! Like I said before, Lies of P is full of disgusting, nightmare-fuel creatures. So, perhaps the croc is one of those giant, terrifying creatures that you have to battle in a boss fight. Then again, we have now had a giant crocodile boss thanks to the DLC, and from what I can tell, most players found it a b*tch to beat! Soooo maybe another crocodile boss isn’t such a good idea!
Meme by P33BIRD on r/LiesofP Reddit page
4. The Nutcracker
The Twiddlers Large Christmas Nutcracker Soldier Ornament
Now this suggestion seems the most obvious considering there are mechanical life-sized puppets in Lies of P, and the Nutcracker is basically one himself! In the Nutcracker ballet, the Nutcracker turns into a real-life prince once he and Clara, the protagonist, defeat the King of Mice. Considering the whole Pinocchio and Lies of P game is about a puppet becoming human, you can see why I figured the Nutcracker should be a character in the Lies of P universe!
Perhaps the Nutcracker is a similar puppet to P, one made to look more life-like and seems to have more free will than some other puppets. Maybe Clara was the Nutcracker’s inventor, just like Geppetto was for P. Perhaps P helps the Nutcracker figure out how to be more human. There is a character called the Broken Puppet in Lies of P, who wants to learn human emotions. So, throughout the game, P can go back and talk to the puppet to teach him different emotions when P learns these emotions himself. Therefore, the Nutcracker could play a similar role in the next game.
The Broken Puppet from Lies of P
The King of Mice could easily become another abhorrent creature to boss battle with. In fact, since he’s a ‘king’ of mice, I can easily imagine this creature being a ‘rat king’ sort of monster. For those who don’t know, a ‘rat king’ is a rare phenomenon where a group of rats end up getting their tails entangled together, meaning they become a mass of intertwined rats. This phenomenon has inspired many people to create their own characters and creatures based on the ‘rat king’, usually depicted as this mass of rats or other creatures that work together as a hive mind of sorts. Some examples I know of are from the Last of Us 2, and the Hilda animated series. In fact, in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original tale, his Mouse King had seven heads! So, it would be very fitting!
Artwork by Cidaq (Svenja Muche) on DeviantArt
Also, in the Nutcracker ballet, Clara and the Nutcracker travel to the Kingdom of Sweets and meet the queen, the Sugar Plum fairy, inside her grand palace. She welcomes Clara and the Nutcracker with a banquet and a dance performance from some of her subjects. Obviously, this is a delightful, whimsical event in the ballet. But I can imagine that for the Lies of P world, the grand palace would be a game level to traverse, defeating her subjects, to then battle the queen at the end. There are some puppets in Lies of P that are supposed to be dancers and performers, so I could imagine those sorts of puppets being her subjects. Maybe the Sugar Plum Fairy herself was also built to be a puppet performer and was so skilled that she became a famous puppet performer.
And lastly, throughout the game, you can collect outfits and costumes from other characters to dress P in, and I think a Nutcracker outfit would be perfect for P! There are already outfits in the game very similar to the classic Nutcracker outfit, so it would definitely suit the vibe.
Lies of P image from ‘All 14 Lies Of P Costumes, Ranked Worst To Best’ article by Luke Horwitz on Screen Rant
5. Alice in Wonderland
I wanted to save my best for last! Alice in Wonderland would be perfect for the Lies of P world. Pretty much every character in Lies of P is either a mechanical puppet, a horrible monster, or a human that’s gone insane from all the chaos. So, pretty much every character from Alice in Wonderland would fit into this universe!
This wouldn’t be the first time Alice in Wonderland has been adapted into a dark, disturbing video game format either! ‘American McGee’s Alice’ and ‘Alice: Madness Returns’ are the 2 games in a video game series that centres around Alice facing her trauma after a fire kills her family. In those games, Wonderland is not a happy, magical land, but it is in fact part of Alice’s nightmarish hallucinations, fuelled by her childhood trauma. So, everything and everyone in that version of Wonderland is dark, disturbing and twisted. Lies of P could easily look to these two games as inspiration for adapting the original characters to their own universe.
Alice from ‘Alice: Madness Returns’
Alice could very easily be a human character who’s gone a bit mad in Lies of P and needs our help. Maybe she’s being pursued by these horrific creatures, such as the Mock Turtle, the Caterpillar and the Jabberwocky (oh my god, those three would look TERRIFYING if they got given the Lies of P treatment!). The White Rabbit could be a Stalker trying to help her. Perhaps the Cheshire Cat is another Stalker working for the Queen of Hearts, trying to lure Alice back to his queen. Maybe Alice is a runaway princess; her kingdom, Wonderland, was taken over by the Queen of Hearts, and now the Queen relentlessly pursues her to behead her so she can’t take back her throne.
In Lies of P, most of the terrible creatures we face are actually the results of awful experiments conducted on animals and humans by a group of people called the Alchemists. Maybe the Queen of Hearts is an Alchemist herself, and so these creatures that now pursue Alice are her own creations. Perhaps the whole of the Wonderland kingdom is now running rampant with her abominable creatures. You could have a similar situation to what happens in the city of Krat with the Puppet Frenzy, except everyone is being killed by these nightmarish beings instead of puppets. Maybe it’s up to P to help rid Wonderland of these monsters, just like how he tries to stop the puppet frenzy.
Fallen Archbishop Andreus from Lies of P
The Mad Hatter could be another person of nobility who tries to help Alice hide from the Queen, and the March Hare and Dormouse are his personal Stalker bodyguards. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee could be servants who worked for Alice and her family before the Queen of Hearts took over, and now they’ve run away too with Alice. Interestingly, I didn’t realise this, but apparently Dum and Dee are from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ novel, not his original ‘Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland’. I just thought I’d mention that since I had no idea!
And so, those are some of my ideas for fairy tales that could be included in the world of Lies of P. Let me know if you can think of any others that would suit the game! Thanks for reading and hopefully see you next time!
Sources
https://lies-of-p.fandom.com/wiki/Ergo
https://lies-of-p.fandom.com/wiki/Stalkers
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/tale-of-puss-in-boots
https://gamerant.com/lies-p-belle-epoque-setting-explained-duality-good-bad/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Nutcracker
https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Nutcracker
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RatKing
https://alice.fandom.com/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Alice
https://store.steampowered.com/app/19680/Alice_Madness_Returns/