Anyone else disappointed by this game's lack of personality?

[Tim]

It's mean to say, but it's my major takeaway from the demo. The combat's solid enough, but I come away wondering what the hell the android-Pinocchio theme adds.

The two major bosses have little going on relative to their theme. Like, the circus boss lights on fire and sometimes hits you with a cage, but he doesn't have a circusy projectile or use confetti or otherwise embody the idea of an entertainer. The electric bobby felt more like a Sekiro ape with Paarl lightning than a police mascot. No gun? No billy club? Anything under the hat? Both of these characters spoke in the past, right? Shouldn't they have some freaky lines or screeches or something? Some little quirk in their behavior or presentation that makes me sad about their current state?

That goes for wandering enemies, too. No interchanged limbs or extending arms or robotic amalgams or satisfying explosions with cogs and springs flying out when you kill them... They don't say little lines exhibiting their warped sense of reality or malfunctioning personality... They have jerky, robotic animations, but that's the bare minimum!

The few speaking characters have bland dialogue and performances. The donkey boss seemed to assault me out of annoyance more than blind rage or confusion. I need more goofs, crazies, and creeps!

[Wondervice]

I have just been wondering if they removed the actual named namedrops from Pinocchio, would anyone even notice that this is related.
It's incredibly bland, just your standard "robots go crazy and attack" setting which we already had two of recently.

An even bigger problem for me though is the complete lack of environmental storytelling in the level design. Remember the first map of Bloodborne? The guys marching on the street, the big pyre, the crazed big man trying to smash the door, the crippled guy laying in wait to shoot you - it all actually felt like a city where something went very, very wrong.
Lies of P's first map feels like a video game level, where someone made a long corridor and a few rooms from city assets, scattered a few enemies across it then called it a day. The graphics look great, the lights and shadows pristine, the enemy design is okay but they don't evoke anything because there is no story to tell here besides "puppets got mad".

[Tim]

Originally posted by Wondervice:

An even bigger problem for me though is the complete lack of environmental storytelling in the level design.

You can imagine someone on the dev team being like, "Well, I put a pile of corpses surrounded by a big enemy between every other save point. So that's the environmental storytelling down." And everyone cheered.

[GoGoRoth]

None of this has bothered me while I was playing, but now that you mention it: voice lines showing how crazy the robots' logic is, swapped limbs every so often, loose gears. All of that would really bump up the environmental storytelling.

So yeah, the lack of it isn't a negative. Still a cool game. But it's presence would be a positive.

[kyu bey]

I agree. Aside from that very tiny bit for lying to enter hotel, nothing relevant to Pinocchio.

The demo story for me is a simple 'most robots in town gone crazy, destroy them'.

[Julien]

Did you guys even read the notes and other loots you picked up ? If you do, you'll start to understand what's going on, and start noticing the "environement clues" you're talking about....

For the boss, if you talk to the butler, you realize the significance of killing the second boss, and the parts is gonna play in P charatcer arc. I think there's a lot you've missed there.

Don't get me wrong, form a level-design pov, I found it too small and too linear, and a bit boring, but in terms of atmosphere and lore, there's plenty there, imo.

[Tereru Ooensu]

Originally posted by Wondervice:

I have just been wondering if they removed the actual named namedrops from Pinocchio, would anyone even notice that this is related.
It's incredibly bland, just your standard "robots go crazy and attack" setting which we already had two of recently.

This a crazy take for a demo, like you have not even experienced the full game, lore or story. When it comes to release date. I might even agree with you but I don't know why people on steam are like this. We all literally know nothing about the game.

[Tim]

Originally posted by Julien:

Did you guys even read the notes and other loots you picked up ? If you do, you'll start to understand what's going on, and start noticing the "environement clues" you're talking about....

For the boss, if you talk to the butler, you realize the significance of killing the second boss, and the parts is gonna play in P charatcer arc. I think there's a lot you've missed there.

Don't get me wrong, form a level-design pov, I found it too small and too linear, and a bit boring, but in terms of atmosphere and lore, there's plenty there, imo.

But that's not flavor or personality—those are explanations. I picked up the notes, but I felt that the bosses themselves didn't follow through on the exciting concepts presented.

[Julien]

Originally posted by Tim:

But that's not flavor or personality—those are explanations. I picked up the notes, but I felt that the bosses themselves didn't follow through on the exciting concepts presented.

Alright, I can understand that. More thematique "fluff" for the bosses would have been better indeed.

At least, you realize that Mad Donkey is a guy, you're halfway there !

[Tim]

Originally posted by Tereru Ooensu:

Originally posted by Wondervice:

I have just been wondering if they removed the actual named namedrops from Pinocchio, would anyone even notice that this is related.
It's incredibly bland, just your standard "robots go crazy and attack" setting which we already had two of recently.

This a crazy take for a demo, like you have not even experienced the full game, lore or story. When it comes to release date. I might even agree with you but I don't know why people on steam are like this. We all literally know nothing about the game.

I would be surprised if the mid and late game suddenly becomes very flavorful and creative with deeply thematic boss design. If it does, feel free to necro this thread and gloat with some screenshots of some truly crazy, creative stuff done with the Pinocchio premise.

So far, we've got a Pinocchio without a personality or growing nose, a blue fairy that is literally just a Fire Keeper, a donkey that's just an angry guy with a cleaver, and Gemini, who, instead of embodying or twisting the characterization of the talking cricket (Jiminy) is indistinguishable from every other boring radio guy in a game. And I mentioned above how the robot stuff is half baked.

I've been intrigued and enchanted by the setting/characters/story in a demo before. I wasn't here. The demo should represent the game I'm gonna play. If the first three levels are boring but the fourth and fifth and so on are amazing, they shoulda started the demo there. It's possible; other games have done it.

[Cloud]

Originally posted by Tim:

It's mean to say, but it's my major takeaway from the demo. The combat's solid enough, but I come away wondering what the hell the android-Pinocchio theme adds.

The two major bosses have little going on relative to their theme. Like, the circus boss lights on fire and sometimes hits you with a cage, but he doesn't have a circusy projectile or use confetti or otherwise embody the idea of an entertainer. The electric bobby felt more like a Sekiro ape with Paarl lightning than a police mascot. No gun? No billy club? Anything under the hat? Both of these characters spoke in the past, right? Shouldn't they have some freaky lines or screeches or something? Some little quirk in their behavior or presentation that makes me sad about their current state?

That goes for wandering enemies, too. No interchanged limbs or extending arms or robotic amalgams or satisfying explosions with cogs and springs flying out when you kill them... They don't say little lines exhibiting their warped sense of reality or malfunctioning personality... They have jerky, robotic animations, but that's the bare minimum!

The few speaking characters have bland dialogue and performances. The donkey boss seemed to assault me out of annoyance more than blind rage or confusion. I need more goofs, crazies, and creeps!

It was a fun experience but I agree with you on this topic because after playing it for an hour and 20. I found myself bored because the characters and story wasn't compelling enough. Hopefully they improve it but theirs not much hope if there's already a demo for it. So the story will probably stay bland. But hey maybe were wrong and it picks up speed.

[Kan3da.]

Originally posted by Tim:

It's mean to say, but it's my major takeaway from the demo. The combat's solid enough, but I come away wondering what the hell the android-Pinocchio theme adds.

The two major bosses have little going on relative to their theme. Like, the circus boss lights on fire and sometimes hits you with a cage, but he doesn't have a circusy projectile or use confetti or otherwise embody the idea of an entertainer. The electric bobby felt more like a Sekiro ape with Paarl lightning than a police mascot. No gun? No billy club? Anything under the hat? Both of these characters spoke in the past, right? Shouldn't they have some freaky lines or screeches or something? Some little quirk in their behavior or presentation that makes me sad about their current state?

That goes for wandering enemies, too. No interchanged limbs or extending arms or robotic amalgams or satisfying explosions with cogs and springs flying out when you kill them... They don't say little lines exhibiting their warped sense of reality or malfunctioning personality... They have jerky, robotic animations, but that's the bare minimum!

The few speaking characters have bland dialogue and performances. The donkey boss seemed to assault me out of annoyance more than blind rage or confusion. I need more goofs, crazies, and creeps!

Its really flat. Im fine with the extreme DS/BB copy down to fonts and animations. The enemies look nice, the jerky walking adds flavor. But the environments are really assetville and as promising the whole pinocchio theme is, there just isnt "enough" of it it feels.

Its like a thin coat of paint that doesnt cover everything if that makes any sense?

Will def give it a shot when its out but i think thats gonna be the case throughout.

[SANESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS]

It seems like you played Nier Automata and want that kind of theme here which would be great, fr bosses were looking interesting but they were not and I think is the reason for that is they really try to make everything identical to souls games, and if you didn't play Nier automata you must play it it's for you

[Julien]

Originally posted by Tim:

So far, we've got a Pinocchio without a personality or growing nose (...)

Come on, have you seen the look on his face after realizing what he has done killing the second boss?

I think there is a good premise there, that will be expanded in the full game. or at least, I'm hoping it will !

[Martina Complex Grassknoll]

Originally posted by Julien:

Come on, have you seen the look on his face after realizing what he has done killing the second boss?

That's interesting, because I did talk to the butler and did notice the weirdly intense & slow shot at the end of the Donkey fight, but it's only right now because of your comment that I've realized what it meant.

The rest of the game is so blunt and verbose, it's surprising that this was so understated. I like it! Sadly the moment doesn't have a lot of weight for me because:

1) He attacked me, so uh... why should I feel bad about defending myself? He also wanted to kill my "father" so I was also defending my family. That's almost a situation that I'd be ok with killing someone in REAL LIFE (note: almost, not actually), let alone in a video game.

2) We've already established that the main character is Not Like Other Puppets - even if you don't lie to get into the hotel, you are told outright that you can and that that makes you different. Clearly Asimov's 4 Laws don't mean anything, especially since they never meant anything even in Asimov's Robot novels, let alone to all the other puppets in the city. Speaking of which...

3) Literally every other puppet has murdered literally almost every human in the city, so why is this one suddenly such a tragedy? Especially since...

4) He was clearly insane, not just because he was called "Mad" but also because um, he's wearing a donkey helmet, and more seriously because he is implied to have caught the disease that made lots of other people go mad.

I actually really liked this demo but to me the writing was by far the weakest part, this was a fun exercise to step out one example of why.

[Kan3da.]

Originally posted by Martina Complex Grassknoll:

Originally posted by Julien:

Come on, have you seen the look on his face after realizing what he has done killing the second boss?

That's interesting, because I did talk to the butler and did notice the weirdly intense & slow shot at the end of the Donkey fight, but it's only right now because of your comment that I've realized what it meant.

The rest of the game is so blunt and verbose, it's surprising that this was so understated. I like it! Sadly the moment doesn't have a lot of weight for me because:

1) He attacked me, so uh... why should I feel bad about defending myself? He also wanted to kill my "father" so I was also defending my family. That's almost a situation that I'd be ok with killing someone in REAL LIFE (note: almost, not actually), let alone in a video game.

2) We've already established that the main character is Not Like Other Puppets - even if you don't lie to get into the hotel, you are told outright that you can and that that makes you different. Clearly Asimov's 4 Laws don't mean anything, especially since they never meant anything even in Asimov's Robot novels, let alone to all the other puppets in the city. Speaking of which...

3) Literally every other puppet has murdered literally almost every human in the city, so why is this one suddenly such a tragedy? Especially since...

4) He was clearly insane, not just because he was called "Mad" but also because um, he's wearing a donkey helmet, and more seriously because he is implied to have caught the disease that made lots of other people go mad.

I actually really liked this demo but to me the writing was by far the weakest part, this was a fun exercise to step out one example of why.

Your reasoning with your reason, thatll make it harder for you to enjoy stories.

P had a reaction because he not only hurt, but also killed a human being. The ones they were made to serve and adore and never to not obey. Right after lying for the first time. There is a lot to love here in this Korean interpretation of a classic Italian tale.