Lies of P Director Explains U-Turn on Difficulty: 'We Wanted to Make Sure a Wider Audience Could Play the Game'

Lies of P's upcoming DLC, Overture, will introduce difficulty options for the very first time.

As a "Soulslike" game, Lies of P can be punishingly difficult, especially for inexperienced players perhaps attracted by Lies of P's dark story and setting. Director Jiwon Choi said at the time, however, the team didn't think Soulslike games should have difficulty options and it shipped without any.

Now it seems Neowitz has changed its mind, and confirmed the change was informed after the studio listened carefully to feedback from players.

“We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players could play the game,” Choi told VGC. "We have a lot of feedback from customers, and from our developers. So by making development adjustments and introducing these difficulty options, we can offer the experience to different types of players. This broadens the base.”

Players are now debating why the game's director "change[d] his mind," with one writing: "I would imagine it's a lot easier to say that you don't want to change the difficulty than to be inundated with negative reviews over it and have it constantly be brought up during discussions of your game and not have any urge to change it so a broader audience can enjoy what you made."

"I got into gaming around the age of 24. I'm using the easier difficulty settings because, as much as I love Lies of P, I have a major skill issue, and that's okay," explained another. "I just thought it would be nice hearing why someone would reasonably want the difficulty settings. I never got to own any systems when I was a kid, so now I can as a working adult who doesn't have 10+ years of skills."

"Souls elitists don't want difficulty because they like bragging about their video game achievements. I'm glad Lies of P is not servicing them," added this player.

Not everyone's impressed, though, as the Steam discussion forums and social media attests.

"Was interested in playing, but after all the nerfs and adding difficulty levels, I lost interest. Game devs, please stop catering to babies," wrote this player on the discussion forums, although almost of the replies to that thread support the developer's new position.

Another wrote: "You had a masterpiece on your hands Neowitz, and you turned it into laughing stock. For shame." A different thread entitled "Difficulty settings = Not playing" is directly above another from someone who's actually tried the game and wrote: "difficulty is just ridiculous."

Lies of P is a unique, darker twist on the classic story of Pinocchio, offering a challenging action game with a unique "lie" system where what you do and say dynamically affects gameplay. The upcoming new DLC — which features new locations, new enemies and bosses, new characters, and new weapons — also introduces Death March, a new mode that enables you to face off against the game's myriad of bosses all over again. In all, the DLC will take experienced players roughly 15-20 hours to complete, and will unlock once they’ve passed a “certain” chapter of the game. Neowiz has also already announced a full-blown sequel to Lies of P.

We had a good time with Lies of P, awarding it 8/10, writing: "Lies of P might not branch out particularly far from its soulslike inspiration, but it plays the part extremely well."

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.