EDIT: After finishing my first playthrough, I finally reached the place where the game is at its peak. The game is stunning towards the end, please give it a chance and bear through the first half of it. Combat is not the game's strongest forte, but the storytelling and artistic design are. Hopefully there will be a sequel.

This is a game with a very interesting idea and beautiful execution. That said, the game misunderstands what made combat systems of similar games work. But lets set this aside and talk about the good.

Art direction is jaw dropping. At times I felt like I am playing melee bioshock then dark souls then bloodborne. All of the scenes are amazing and the enemy visual design is outstanding.

The story telling is interesting. I am not left to reading item descriptions, but I am not spoon fed either. I am not knowledgeable at pinnochio's tale as I am from eastern culture, but the parallels between the game and the real tale are interesting and funny. The plot moves more or less linearly with clear explanation on what is happening if the player bothers to listen and read dialogues and very rarely item descriptions.

The performance and quality of the game's execution at launch was very good. I do use FSR upscaling, but to reach 100+ FPS at 4k. And it does so with great consistency (it does drop lower than 100 FPS at times, but that is usually out of combat).

Very usable controls on PC. I do play with joystick, but the other games don't have such a smooth experience at launch. The only gripe I have with the controls is absence of dedicated "use heal" button and the game becoming dumb for short period after I enter boss arena (I can move around but I cannot activate special grindstone for example).

Now about the bad ... Combat system. I will be comparing it to the three games I am most familiar with: Dark souls, Nioh (1+2) and Sekiro.

The case with Dark Souls is clear - it has much bigger invincibility frame windows. Lies of P does have i frames too, but they are way smaller and the ambiguity of when hitbox appears makes using dodges a lot harder. This becomes way worse due to enemies having multiple attack-capable appendages. I cannot say if it will be one of the hands, legs or tentacles that will attack me next (6 appendages). Century long wind ups don't make it easier.

With sekiro, there was one major difference. Sekiro enemies usually had 1 or 2 appendages (sword or sword + leg) that were attack-capable, that was much easier to track and much easier to tell when hitbox appears and if I am inside it. The only exceptions were glock saint and the demon of hatred. The special attacks were clearly telegraphed and it was very clear what to do when each happens.

Nioh ... Well, although at the start of the player's adventure it is important to dodge/block, but later on the game has nothing to do with either blocking or dodge, it is about overwhelming the enemy with mindboggling combo wombos and keep them stunned. There is sometimes the need to dodge and stay alive between cooldowns or setups of the combo wombos, but the game is mostly about combo wombos. And in comparison to Nioh the combat in Lies of P makes me sad. The enemies have 6+ attack combo wombos while the most I can do is chain normal/strong attack into another normal/strong attack and finish with legion arm.

The enemy is way cooler than protagonist. The player is vulnerable while prone, while enemy is not. Enemy can step into another galaxy while performing special attack, while player's attack range is not further than their nose at max range. Player gets always stuck between stupid collision boxes of indestructible environment while boss just levitates around freely.

Overall, is the game unplayable? No, far from it. It is a gorgeous game that is annoying to play.

EDIT: After finishing my first playthrough, I finally reached the place where the game is at its peak. The game is stunning towards the end, please give it a chance and bear through the first half of it. Combat is not the game's strongest forte, but the storytelling and artistic design are. Hopefully there will be a sequel. This is a game with a very interesting idea and beautiful execution. That said, the game misunderstands what made combat systems of similar games work. But lets set this aside and talk about the good. Art direction is jaw dropping. At times I felt like I am playing melee bioshock then dark souls then bloodborne. All of the scenes are amazing and the enemy visual design is outstanding. The story telling is interesting. I am not left to reading item descriptions, but I am not spoon fed either. I am not knowledgeable at pinnochio's tale as I am from eastern culture, but the parallels between the game and the real tale are interesting and funny. The plot moves more or less linearly with clear explanation on what is happening if the player bothers to listen and read dialogues and very rarely item descriptions. The performance and quality of the game's execution at launch was very good. I do use FSR upscaling, but to reach 100+ FPS at 4k. And it does so with great consistency (it does drop lower than 100 FPS at times, but that is usually out of combat). Very usable controls on PC. I do play with joystick, but the other games don't have such a smooth experience at launch. The only gripe I have with the controls is absence of dedicated "use heal" button and the game becoming dumb for short period after I enter boss arena (I can move around but I cannot activate special grindstone for example). Now about the bad ... Combat system. I will be comparing it to the three games I am most familiar with: Dark souls, Nioh (1+2) and Sekiro. The case with Dark Souls is clear - it has much bigger invincibility frame windows. Lies of P does have i frames too, but they are way smaller and the ambiguity of when hitbox appears makes using dodges a lot harder. This becomes way worse due to enemies having multiple attack-capable appendages. I cannot say if it will be one of the hands, legs or tentacles that will attack me next (6 appendages). Century long wind ups don't make it easier. With sekiro, there was one major difference. Sekiro enemies usually had 1 or 2 appendages (sword or sword + leg) that were attack-capable, that was much easier to track and much easier to tell when hitbox appears and if I am inside it. The only exceptions were glock saint and the demon of hatred. The special attacks were clearly telegraphed and it was very clear what to do when each happens. Nioh ... Well, although at the start of the player's adventure it is important to dodge/block, but later on the game has nothing to do with either blocking or dodge, it is about overwhelming the enemy with mindboggling combo wombos and keep them stunned. There is sometimes the need to dodge and stay alive between cooldowns or setups of the combo wombos, but the game is mostly about combo wombos. And in comparison to Nioh the combat in Lies of P makes me sad. The enemies have 6+ attack combo wombos while the most I can do is chain normal/strong attack into another normal/strong attack and finish with legion arm. The enemy is way cooler than protagonist. The player is vulnerable while prone, while enemy is not. Enemy can step into another galaxy while performing special attack, while player's attack range is not further than their nose at max range. Player gets always stuck between stupid collision boxes of indestructible environment while boss just levitates around freely. Overall, is the game unplayable? No, far from it. It is a gorgeous game that is annoying to play.