st227

GAMING FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

Art director ChangKyu Noh used his father-in-law as a reference when designing Geppetto, while the character of Polendina was based on a member of Round8 Studio’s publishing department. ART IMITATING LIFE

The classic fairy tale of the puppet Pinocchio receives a whole new, dark spin in Soulslike The Lies of P .The game’s director, Jiwon Choi, and art director ChangKyu Noh, at Round8 Studio tell us more. Words Bec Summer PUPPET MASTER

appear. We call it Belle Époque punk. When designing, we focused on the idea of what it would have been like to have artificial humans in the 19th century. So, why specifically the Belle Époque era? CN: The Belle Époque era was one of the most fruitful, ravishing, and beautiful times of history. If you look through the historical sources of that time, you can get a glimpse of how rich and composed their designs were, which is why many people still look back on that era. It was a very daring endeavour, as even in the most beautiful of times, the Belle Époque era wasn’t always glamorous. I wanted to utilise this sharp contrast as I wanted the game to seem as dark as possible, as I thought this would complement it well. What’s been the most important factor to you in developing Lies of P ? JC: Our priorities lie in combat, hit satisfaction, a well-rounded level design, a solid storyline and, most importantly, optimisation. Who is Lies of P for? JC: Players familiar with the Soulslike genre will surely have a lot of fun. So will players who are relatively new to the genre, because there are various options and choices you can make. As long as you choose according to your playstyle, the sense of growth throughout the game should be enough to mitigate the difficulty. Also, if you’re looking forward to maps and stages with beautiful backdrops, our game will be able to give you that satisfaction.

• Lies of P is out Sep 19

night every time there’s a new release. That said, the challenge to create a Soulslike game myself was a very exciting and joyful journey.

What inspired you to turn the classic Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio into a game? JC: In order to leave a striking impression on our players, we believed we must deliver an equally striking story that grabs their attention. It occurred to me that we should utilise a well-known story and turn that on its head. So, I decided to choose The Adventures of Pinocchio , because it’s full of compelling characters and events. But in order to make our game unique, we completely recreated the story into a dark and mysterious one, a story based on Krat, a fictional city, plagued with a petrification disease. We’ve also taken a different approach to the characters from the original fairy tale. Geppetto’s friend Antonio, for instance, has been recreated as Antonia, a middle-aged woman, and the four black rabbits carrying a coffin in the original story have been reintroduced as a group of blood-curdling assassins. Why did you specifically choose to create a Soulslike game? JC: Soulslikes have now risen as one of the most popular video game genres. I myself am a gamer and a huge fan of the Soulslike genre, to the extent of playing Soulslike games all

What do you believe is the essence of the Soulslike genre? JC: Truthfully, a Soulslike game requires a lot of player experience and judgement to determine the ending. So, we focused on creating a realistic and detailed action system as well as the level design and the artistic aspects of the background. Why did you choose such a dark visual style for Lies of P ? CN: When Jiwon Choi first came up with the idea of Pinocchio, I knew at once that it would require some

sort of horror element. That’s how we first developed the general concept and key art – I knew that doing so would result in a more interesting outcome. Like a light shining in the darkness, that’s how I hoped for our game to

The Adventures of Pinocchio was first published in Italy in the 1880s. DYK?

10 SEPTEMBER 2023

jbhifi.com.au