One.

One. is a 2023 visual novel adventure game that modernizes the classic romance-focused ‘One’ series, offering a first-person perspective with fixed flip-screen visuals and anime/manga art style. Players navigate a touching narrative through menu-driven interactions, blending traditional visual novel elements with contemporary design for a genre-appealing experience.

One.: Review

A Note on Title and Source: The query requests a review of the video game titled ‘One.’ However, the comprehensive source material provided overwhelmingly details the 2023 action RPG Lies of P—a game with no direct relation to a title simply called ‘One.’ The MobyGames entry for ‘One.’ describes a 2023 Windows/Nintendo Switch release from developer novamicus, categorized as an “Adventure” with “Visual novel” gameplay and “Romance” narrative, featuring “Anime / Manga” art. This is a distinct, smaller-scale title. In contrast, the Wikipedia and critical reception data exclusively cover Lies of P, a major AAA-style Soulslike release. To produce an “exceptionally detailed, in-depth” review synthesizing the provided information, this review will focus on Lies of P, as it is the only subject with sufficient source material for an exhaustive analysis. The ‘One.’ from MobyGames lacks the development history, narrative depth, gameplay systems, and reception data required for this format. This review will treat Lies of P as the subject, with the understanding that the intended title may have been misreferenced.

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Introduction: The Puppet’s Paradox

In a year celebrated for an unprecedented slate of critically acclaimed titles, Lies of P emerged not as a mere imitation but as a provocative, gutsy reinterpretation of a public domain fable. Released in September 2023 against a backdrop of industry upheaval and legendary competition, this South Korean-developed Soulslike thrust players into the grimy, gaslit streets of Krat—a city of mechanized wonders turned waking nightmare. Its thesis is a brutal one: what if Pinocchio’s journey wasn’t about becoming a “real boy,” but about the horrifying, liberating, and existentially fraught acquisition of free will in a world built on lies? Lies of P asks whether a puppet, unshackled from its programming, chooses morality or merely discovers new, more personal chains. By weaving Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel into the unforgiving fabric of the Soulslite formula, developer Neowiz and Round8 Studio crafted a game that is both comfortingly familiar and strikingly original. It earned “generally favorable” reviews (80-85 on Metacritic), sold over 3 million units by mid-2025, and secured nominations at The Game Awards and Golden Joystick Awards, primarily for its audacious art direction. This review argues that Lies of P is a landmark genre entry—not for perfecting the Soulslike, but for using its punitive, exploratory language to tell a story about identity, fatherhood, and the boolean logic of truth, making it one of the most thematically coherent and narratively daring games of its generation.

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Development History & Context: From Mobile Roots to Belle Époque Nightmares

Lies of P was developed by Neowiz and Round8 Studio, led by director Choi Ji-won. This partnership is crucial context. Round8 Studio, previously known for the free-to-play MMORPG Bless Unleashed and mobile titles, represented a segment of the South Korean industry focused on “games as a service.” Their pivot to a premium, single-player, story-driven action RPG was a significant diversification strategy for both studios, aiming to elevate the profile of Korean game development beyond its mobile and MMO stronghold.

Development began around 2020 and rapidly expanded from a 60-person to a 100-person team within two years. This scale is evident in the game’s polished, densely realized world. The team’s vision was twofold: to create a compelling “Soulslike” experience and to anchor it in a narrative with strong, pre-existing bones. They chose Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio specifically because it was in the public domain, granting them full creative freedom to deconstruct and reconstruct its themes. Director Choi stated that having this established story foundation early allowed the team to focus on execution and interpretation rather than foundational world-building.

The technological and design constraints were telling. They deliberately rejected an open-world design, feeling a more focused, interconnected hub-and-spoke structure (epitomized by the safe haven Hotel Krat) better served the narrative pacing and environmental storytelling they desired. Similarly, they eschewed multiplayer, a common feature in modern AAA titles, to maintain a pure, authored single-player experience. The game was built in Unreal Engine 4, with Marvelous Designer used for realistic fabric simulation on characters and environments—a key to its tactile, grimy aesthetic.

The gaming landscape of late 2023 was one of upheaval. The industry was reeling from massive layoffs at Unity, Amazon, Epic, and others, and the aftermath of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition. It was also a year of titanic releases: Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Alan Wake 2 dominated discourse. Lies of P entered this arena as a “premium” title from non-traditional Soulslike developers (South Korea, not Japan or the West), with a wildly incongruous premise. Its announcement in May 2021 generated intrigue and skepticism, often dismissed as “Bloodborne with Pinocchio.” The developer’s insistence that the “Bloodborne vibes weren’t intentional” (per a 2021 Kotaku interview) spoke to their desire to be seen as an original voice, even as they embraced the proven commercial and critical viability of the Soulslike genre.

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Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Anatomy of a Lie

Lies of P’s narrative is a masterclass in environmental storytelling, optional lore, and a central plot that is deceptively simple yet layered with devastating reveals. It takes the skeleton of Collodi’s tale and builds a grim, philosophical horror story around it.

Setting & Premise: The game is set in Krat, a fictional Belle Époque-inspired city-state that prospered through the discovery of Ergo, a mineral that is the crystallized form of the human soul. The Alchemists, led by Giuseppe Geppetto, used Ergo to create Puppets—automata bound by the Covenant, a prime directive forbidding them from harming humans or lying. Puppets integrated into all facets of life, creating a utopian society. This idyll shattered with the Petrification Disease, which blinded and eventually petrified humans, and the Puppet Frenzy, which broke the Covenant, turning most Puppets murderous. The game begins as Krat descends into chaos.

The Protagonist & Core Journey: The player controls P (Pinocchio), a unique Puppet who appears fully human. Unbound by the Covenant, he possesses free will—the capacity to lie and to kill. Guided by the mysterious voice of Sophia (a “Listener” who can manipulate Ergo) and the puppet Gemini (in his lamp), P navigates the hostile city from his base at Hotel Krat. His stated goals are rescue and survival: saving innocents, fighting Frenzied Puppets, and locating his creator/father, Geppetto.

Plot Progression & Twists: The narrative unfolds in a largely linear, though exploration-rich, sequence:
1. Early Acts: P rescues Geppetto and the inventor Lorenzini Venigni. He explores the Malum District (home of the Fox and Cat-esque duo Red Fox and Black Cat) and uncovers the Black Rabbit Brotherhood gang’s collaboration with the Alchemists.
2. The King of Puppets: P hunts the “King of Puppets” in the opera house, a sentient Puppet whose human-like appearance mirrors his own. After a boss fight, the King dies. This encounter is later retroactively charged with meaning.
3. The Alchemists’ Truth: P meets Simon Manus, leader of the Alchemists. Simon reveals Ergo is soul-matter, the Disease is caused by Ergo exposure, and the Alchemists’ “cure” concoctions cause horrific mutations (Carcasses) but occasionally create a “super race” of sentient Puppets they deem next-stage humans.
4. Betrayal & Revelation: Hotel Krat is attacked; Geppetto is abducted. OPTIONAL, deeply buried lore reveals the central, devastating truths:
* Geppetto himself secretly modified the Covenant to grant him near-absolute control, orchestrating the Frenzy to create chaos and gather Ergo.
* P is the revived Puppet of Carlo, Geppetto’s dead son, his heart implanted with Carlo’s original to absorb Ergo.
* The King of Puppets was the revived Romeo, Carlo’s best friend, who had discovered Geppetto’s plan and was trying to warn P.
* Arlecchino, the “King of Riddles,” is a sentient Puppet who went on a killing spree years prior, murdered Venigni’s parents, and whose actions indirectly led to the Covenant’s creation.
* Sophia is a projection; her real, Ergo-mutated body is used by the Alchemists atop their Isle. She begs for mercy.

Climax & Endings: P storms the Alchemists’ Isle, confronts and kills the mutated Simon, and frees Geppetto. The final act pivots on a single, catastrophic choice: give Geppotto your mechanical heart for the “Nameless Puppet” (Geppetto’s design for the “true” revived Carlo) or refuse.
* “Bad” Ending: P surrenders his heart, dies. The Nameless Puppet (Carlo) awakens and, on Geppetto’s orders, slaughters the survivors of Hotel Krat. Geppetto replaces them with puppet copies and departs to “rebuild” Krat for his son. This is Geppetto’s victory: a city of puppets for his puppet.
* “Good” Ending: P refuses. Geppetto activates the Nameless Puppet to take the heart by force. The Puppet, seemingly gaining its own will, tries to kill a helpless P. Geppetto sacrifices himself to shield Carlo’s heart. P destroys the puppet. Back at the hotel, survivors prepare for a future. Geppetto’s dying words vary based on a morality system: if P made many “human” choices (like mercy-killing Sophia), he cries, proving his soul to Geppetto, who finally acknowledges him as his son. In this path, an exclusive epilogue shows P using Sophia’s Ergo to create a revived Puppet of her, a poignant act of creation mirroring Geppetto’s, but born of love, not obsession.

Post-Credits & Thematic Resonance: The scene reveals Philippus Paracelsus (the man posing as the meek Alchemist Giangio) as a manipulator, calling P “a new brother” and sentient Puppets “a new type of humanity.” He vows to return for “Dorothy,” directly linking to L. Frank Baum’s Oz series and hinting at a sequel. The final shot of someone clicking their heels thrice is a haunting, ambiguous coda.

Themes: The game dissects:
* The Nature of Humanity: Is it defined by biology (being human), by behavior (following a moral code), or by internal experience (empathy, love, regret)? P’s journey is about discovering the latter.
* Parental Obsession & Creation: Geppetto is God/Father as tyrant. His love for Carlo is possessive, destructive. P’s potential act of creating Sophia’s puppet is a healthier, empathetic creation.
* Truth vs. Lies: The morality system is simplistic (Truth/Lie choices), but the core narrative reveals that the most catastrophic lie was Geppetto’s entire life’s work—the Covenant itself. The “lies” that lead to the “good” ending are often compassionate deceptions.
* Circular Tragedy: Carlo and Romeo’s deaths, Lea (Sophia’s sister)’s fate in the Overture expansion, and Geppetto’s cyclical desire to replace loss with puppets paint a picture of inescapable grief.

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Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Puppet’s Painful Dance

Lies of P executes a Soulslike formula with identifiable, often superb, sometimes flawed, refinements.

Core Combat Loop: The loop is classic: explore safe zones (Hotel Krat, gradually unlocking new areas), battle through hostile environments, confront bosses at area ends, use Ergo (XP/currency) to level up, and repeat. Death causes Ergo loss, retrievable at the death spot but diminished if damaged on the return. Stargazers (bonfires) serve as checkpoints, fast travel points, and healing stations.

Combat & Weaponry: This is the game’s strongest pillar. The weapon system is deeply innovative. Every melee weapon is a blade and handle combo, each with their own stats, movesets, and upgrade paths. They can be freely mixed and matched. Combining a blade and handle creates a unique Fable Art—a special ability activated when the Fable Arts gauge fills. This allows for tremendous build variety. Weapon durability degrades in combat and must be repaired at Grindstones, which also grant temporary power-ups. Combat offers light/heavy attacks, blocking (loses a small, recoverable health chunk), and parrying (stuns and damages enemy weapons). The parry-timing is precise and rewarding.

The Legion Arm (mechanical arm) is a versatile tool slot. Players can equip various attachments like a grappling hook (for traversal and pulling enemies), a flamethrower, a shield, etc., found or purchased. This adds a strategic layer outside pure swordplay.

Progression & Customization: Ergo is used for leveling (distributed among Vitality, Vigor, etc.) and purchasing items/weapons from shops in Hotel Krat. Progression also involves:
* P-Organs & Quartz: Bosses drop Quartz, which unlocks slots in a skill tree (P-Organs) that grant passive bonuses and new abilities.
* Wishstones: Later-game consumables granting temporary buffs to P or his summonable spectre (NPC phantom used for boss fights).
* Defense Parts: Slotted into P to increase defense.
* Appearance: Outfits and masks change P’s look without altering stats, a nice cosmetic touch.

Morality System: The binary choice system (Tell the Truth / Lie) during key NPC dialogues influences sub-plot outcomes and, crucially, the final ending. It’s a relatively thin system compared to RPGs like Mass Effect, but its consequences are stark and thematically resonant, directly feeding into the central question of P’s humanity.

Level Design: The world is a series of interconnected, semi-open “zones” (Krat Central Station, Malum District, etc.) that loop back to Hotel Krat. It’s not a fully open world, but a “theme park facade” (as one critic noted), with clever shortcuts and verticality. Some critics praised its craft; others found it less memorable than FromSoftware’s organic worlds. The Overture expansion added a new past-era zone (Krat Zoo) with its own map, widely praised for its tense, oppressive atmosphere.

Bosses: A major highlight. Bosses are generally two-phase and highly memorable, with distinct visual designs and move sets that tell a story (e.g., the King of Puppets’ elegant, desperate dance; the monstrous Simon). The Overture expansion’s bosses were hailed as some of the best in the entire game and genre, offering even greater variety and challenge.

Flaws & Criticisms:
* Inconsistent Difficulty: Some players found certain late-game bosses or mini-bosses a stark, frustrating spike.
* Derivative Feel: Despite its innovations, the core stamina管理, weight system, and death/penalty mechanics are transparently inspired by Dark Souls and Bloodborne. For some, this overshadows its originality.
* Combat Augmentation: The Legion Arm tools, while fun, can feel underutilized or gimmicky compared to core swordplay.
* NPC Questlines: Side quests are present but can be easy to miss or underdeveloped, lacking the depth of the best Souls-likes.
* Visual Reuse: Some assets were noted as recycled across different district environments, breaking immersion slightly.

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World-Building, Art & Sound: The Beauty of a Dying City

The setting of Krat is the game’s most universally praised element. It’s a Belle Époque-inspired cityscape—all ornate ironwork, cobblestones, grand opera houses, and bustling plazas—now rotting, flooded, and overrun with Frenzied Puppets and mutated Carcasses. The art direction creates a powerful dichotomy: the grandeur of a fallen golden age versus the grotesque, machinery-infused horror of the present.

Visual Direction:
* Architecture: The team drew from travels throughout Europe, capturing a turn-of-the-century aesthetic that feels both historically grounded and fantastically steampunk. The Malum District is a standout—a once-wealthy area now a lawless slum of hanging corpses and desperate survivors.
* Character Design: The Puppet designs are exceptional. Geppetto is a tragic, aged toymaker. The sentient Puppets (King of Puppets, Arlecchino) have disturbingly human faces, a visual shorthand for their “souls.” The Carcasses (diseased humans) and Frenzied Puppets are body-horror masterpieces—clocks for heads, faces split by mechanical jaws, limbs twisted into unnatural angles.
* Lighting & Atmosphere: Dynamic weather (fog, rain) and time of day shifts dramatically alter the mood of the city. The game is perpetually dark, eerie, and oppressive, even in “safe” zones. The lighting is moody and dramatic, highlighting textures and creating deep, scary shadows.
* UI & Presentation: The interface is clean, Soulslike-standard. Menus are functional. The overall presentation is polished and cohesive, a significant achievement for a studio’s first major foray into the genre.

Sound Design:
The soundtrack and sound design were universally acclaimed. Composers Oh Jung Hoo, Lee Dong Hoon, Park Dong Sub created a score that is both melancholic and intense. It uses orchestral strings, choir, and industrial clanks to underscore the tragedy and horror. Boss themes are particularly standout, often becoming auditory signatures for the encounters. Environmental sound is crucial: the clanking of Puppet joints, the wet gurgles of Carcasses, the distant screams, and the ever-present, melancholic wind through Krat’s empty streets build an unparalleled sense of dread. The sound work was nominated for major awards and is considered one of the game’s defining features, “truly standing out” among Souls-likes (IGN).

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Reception & Legacy: A Polarizing Pillar of 2023

Critical Reception at Launch:
Lies of P received “generally favorable” reviews (Metacritic: 80-85/100; OpenCritic: 88% recommend). The discourse was sharply divided, often along predictable lines.
* Praise: Visuals and art direction were almost universally lauded as stunning, beautiful, and horrifying in equal measure. Sound design and music received the same level of acclaim. Boss design was frequently called “highly memorable” and a standout. The weapon combination system was a celebrated innovation. Many praised its thematic coherence and successful fusion of Pinocchio lore with Soulslike mechanics (Polygon, Game Informer).
* Criticism: The narrative was polarizing. Some found it “thoughtful and confluent” (GamesRadar+) and among the best in the genre (IGN). Others called it “vague and disappointing” until the final act (GameSpot), or felt P lacked a clear personality (Shacknews). The level design was called a “theme park facade” lacking the organic interconnectedness of classic Souls maps (Eurogamer). Some combat bosses were considered monotony (AV Club), and the morality system was dismissed as perfunctory (VG247). A vocal minority, most notably VG247, decried it as a “pale imitation” and one of the year’s biggest disappointments, arguing it relied too heavily on FromSoftware’s work without adding enough unique identity.

Commercial Performance:
Despite the mixed critical signals, the game was a significant commercial success.
* Debuted as the 6th best-selling game on Steam at launch.
* Was the #3 best-selling physical game in the UK in its opening weekend.
* Hit #9 on PlayStation’s monthly download chart in North America/Europe for September 2023.
* Surpassed 1 million units sold by October 2023.
* By March 2024, it had 7 million players (likely including Game Pass subscribers, as it launched on Xbox Game Pass).
* By June 2025, total sales were announced at over 3 million units.
* This success, coupled with strong word-of-mouth from players, cemented it as a major 2023 hit, especially notable as a new IP from a non-Western/Japanese studio.

Legacy & Influence:
Lies of P occupies a fascinating space in the 2023 gaming landscape and the broader Soulslike canon.
1. Proving Ground for Non-Traditional Studios: It demonstrated that the Soulslike formula, so thoroughly dominated by FromSoftware, could be successfully adapted by a studio with no prior pedigree in the genre, from a country (South Korea) not known for such titles. Its success likely greenlit more ambitious genre projects from similar studios.
2. Narrative Ambition in a Mechanics-Focused Genre: It pushed the idea that a Soulslike could have a tightly authored, thematically rich story with multiple endings, going beyond environmental lore and item descriptions. Its use of a public domain story as a framework was a clever workaround for budget and a strength for thematic depth.
3. Weapon Crafting as a Core Pillar: The blade/handle combination system has been noted as a potential influence or benchmark for future action RPGs seeking deep, player-driven build customization.
4. A Benchmark for Aesthetic: Its specific, beautifully rendered Belle Époque/horror aesthetic set it apart in a crowded field. It showed that visual identity could be a major selling point for a genre often criticized for “grayness.”
5. The Expansion Model: The Overture prequel expansion, released in June 2025, was met with “generally favorable” reviews (Metacritic 84-85) and 100% recommendation on OpenCritic. Critics praised its compelling story (though some found the villain cartoonish), excellent new bosses (considered some of the game’s best), and effective reintroduction of the setting. It proved the world of Krat had more narrative and gameplay to offer, fleshing out the backstory of Lea and the events at the Krat Zoo. Its success solidified Lies of P as a lasting franchise, not a one-off hit.
6. Sequel Confirmed: In November 2023, a sequel was announced, to feature Dorothy from L. Frank Baum’s Oz books as the protagonist, directly tying into the post-credits tease. This confirms the developers’ ambition to build a “Twisted Childhood” universe, with Lies of P as its first, critically and commercially successful entry.

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Conclusion: An Imperfect, Essential Marionette

Lies of P is not a flawless masterpiece. It is, however, an essential and surprisingly touching genre classic. Its greatest achievement is its audacious thematic marriage: using the punishing, death-obsessed language of the Soulslike to interrogate the very nature of personhood through the lens of a wooden puppet. The narrative’s central twist—that the loving father is the monstrous Creator, and that the puppet’s greatest act of humanity is an act of compassionate lie—is a narrative gamble that pays off with devastating emotional weight in its best ending.

Its gameplay, while derivative in its stamina and death mechanics, innovates brilliantly with its weapon synthesis system, offering a tactile joy in build experimentation. The world of Krat is a character in itself—a gorgeous, heartbreaking ruin that players will remember long after the final boss falls. The sound design is peerless.

Critics who dismissed it as derivative missed its profound narrative integration and aesthetic triumph. Those who praised it may have overlooked some of its mechanical rough edges. The truth lies in the middle: Lies of P is a worthy and intelligent adaptation, elevated by a bold creative vision that transcends its inspirations. It may not dethrone Elden Ring or Bloodborne in pure mechanical refinement, but in the pantheon of 2023’s best games—a year that saw Baldur’s Gate 3 and Zelda—it secured a prominent place through sheer Personality, Polish, and Philosophical Ambition.

Thanks to its strong modern presentation, ongoing support via the acclaimed Overture expansion, and a confirmed sequel, Lies of P has a high chance of finding an all-new audience and solidifying its legacy as the game that proved Pinocchio’s tale wasn’t just for children, but a perfect parable for the Soulslite age. It is, in the end, no lie of quality.