Video Game / Lies of P

Cut the strings.

"You must always lie to others if you hope to become human."

Lies of P is an action Souls-like RPG video game inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio. The game is developed by Neowiz, Round8 Studios, and Rough. It was released on September 19, 2023, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, macOS, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, following a 72-hour early release period. A demo was released on June 8, 2023.

Set in a dark, Belle Époque city called Krat, players control Pinocchio—here a "puppet mechanoid" known simply as 'P'—as he sets off to find his creator, Mr. Geppetto, fighting through countless hostile puppets to do so.

A sequel and a DLC were confirmed to be in the works by the game director.

Previews: Announcement trailer, Gamescon 2022 trailer, Gameplay trailer, IGN Fan Fest Gameplay trailer, Release Window trailer

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Lies of P includes examples of:

• Adaptational Location Change: The original children's novel is set in Tuscany, Italy, in line with author Carlo Collodi's own nationality. Lies of P, on the other hand, takes place in a primarily French Belle Époque-inspired fictional world, although the city of Krat is also inspired by other 19th-century European cities such as London, and everyone has Italian names.
• Adaptational Species Change:
  • Pinocchio is, in the original novel, a wooden puppet brought to life; in the game, he is a puppet automaton.
  • The Fox, the Cat, the Owl Doctor, the undertaker rabbits, and Alidoro were all animals in the original novel. Here they are humans who use animal masks.
  • The game's approximate equivalent of the Gorilla Judge of Catchfools from the novel is Murphy the Scrapped Policeman, a puppet with a human-looking face and only slightly gorilla-like build.
  • Some of the novel's human characters, like the Ringmaster and Mangafuoco, have puppet equivalents in the game.
• Aggressive Play Incentive:
  • The game's stagger mechanic incentivizes the player to be constantly engaging with the enemy to increase their "Groggy Points", either by attacking them or actively parrying their attacks.
  • The game's guard system will allow the player to retrieve some health by attacking an enemy after defending an attack, the amount is signified by a piece of the health bar that is on a clearer tone of red; said bar will start diminishing as long as the player doesn't strike. In counterpart, if an enemy is attacked once and then left alone, it will also get a clearer red bar, but will recover health automatically. In other words, maintaining an aggressive attack style will allow you to regain health while stopping enemies from doing the same; meanwhile, attempting hit and run techniques will just leave you damaged while the enemy recovers the damage you dealt.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • Prior to P waking up, the Puppets of Krat suddenly rose up and turned against their creators, slaughtering most of the city. One of the enduring mysteries of the setting is WHY it happened, as the Puppets were programmed via the "Grand Covenant" such that they should not be able to harm Humans, although examples like P who could do forbidden things like lying implied there are ways to get around them. Subverted after The Reveal that none of the rampaging puppets broke away from the Grand Covenant and were always following the unspoken Law Zero: A puppet must always obey their master, in this case, Giuseppe Geppetto.
  • Potentially played straight with puppets who manage to awaken their own conscience and ego. Late game, Venigni notes such puppets are no longer bound by the Grand Covenant and are capable of acting against any of the Laws, even Law Zero. Among the puppets implied or stated to have achieved this, the puppet Arlecchino — who killed Venigni's parents when he was a child — is one case who becomes dangerously crapshoot to humans. The King of Puppets Romeo himself is also implied to have defied Geppetto at some point after the latter caused the Frenzy, which is why Geppetto sets P up to destroy him.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: The Stalkers serve as a rough analogue to the Hunters, as a group of nimble warriors operating in and around the city of Krat. They even had a Workshop too, though an assault on it by the Puppets put an end to organized resistance by Stalkers, leaving behind only a handful of survivors who are much more likely to just do whatever it takes to keep themselves alive. Unlike the Hunters though, the Stalkers predated the Puppet Frenzy and served either the combat branch of the Alchemist Guild as "Bastards" or muscle for Krat's nobility as "Sweepers" with some degree of friction between both groups.
• Animal Motif:
  • Butterflies are featured in the game's aesthetic. Sophie shows a butterfly brooch on her chest, a blue butterfly wakes Pinocchio, and ethereal butterflies fly around the ergo and the stargazers.
  • All of the Stalkers wear an animal mask as part of their identity. It's explained that the masks are part of an ancient tradition that was adopted by the Stalkers from old Krat. Senior members get to choose their masks first, and impliedly, select masks for the newbies, indicating that the more sought-after masks are likely belonging to the most senior members. These also are used to reflect traits of the Stalkers you meet.
    • The Mad Donkey has the trait of being extremely stubborn, and his decision to chase down Geppetto came from a single-minded drive to discover what happened to the town that killed his friends.
    • The Survivor uses a rat mask. He's mousey, shy, and a coward that fled and left his brothers in arms to be killed by the puppets during the attack.
    • The Atoned uses a dog mask. Fittingly, she acts as a guard dog for the Cathedral, protecting the Path of Misery. She also shows a deep devotion to her job and is distraught after learning that she could not protect the survivors.
    • The Red Fox and the Black Cat are two animals usually associated with sneakiness and thievery. Fittingly, they're a pair of Stalkers who feign friendliness to set P against the Black Rabbit Brotherhood and make away with their money.
    • Alidoro is eventually revealed to be an impostor who killed and replaced the real Alidoro. His true identity (and presumed original animal mask) is Parrot, which he himself comments is rather appropriate for someone who now impersonates someone else.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Players have a limited number of Pulse Cells for healing. But after draining them all, hitting enemies can slowly recharge one Pulse Cell. This gives players a little extra room for error and a chance to survive between Stargazer checkpoints. A P Organ upgrade available in NG+ also slowly but steadily recharges a Pulse Cell whenever all of them are drained.
  • The fast travel menu shows icons next to Stargazers close to where a quest can progress, preventing a lot of needless searching.
  • The Ergo counter on the HUD glows blue whenever you have enough to level up, so you don't have to keep going into the menu to check the Character Info page.
  • You will always have access to important NPCs' gameplay functions regardless of the status of the NPCs themselves: lying to Alidoro about Vegnini Works and Rosa Isabelle Street being safe havens doesn't cause him to get killed, it simply annoys him, and he will eventually find his way to the Hotel anyway. If you actually kill him after his betrayal, he's replaced by Rookie Explorer Hugo in the endgame. The attack on Hotel Krat permanently unlocks the ability to level up at any Stargazer meaning mercy killing Sophia has no gameplay effect. Giangio leaving allows you to trade Gold Coin Fruits at a nearby safe. Even the "Real Boy" ending causes the Hotel Krat residents to be replaced with puppets performing the exact same functions.
  • Picking up an item that you cannot take with you due to inventory limitations will automatically send the item to your storage, rather than need to get back there when you have space. Similarly when using a Stargazer or coming back from death, the player's inventory will have the limited items they used filled up with items from the inventory again.
  • The game has a handful of enemies from which the player can farm Star Fragments used to summon help during boss fights. These also happen to be placed near boss fights, like an Elite Mook right before the Krat City Hall Courtyard, and another one on the way to the Black Rabbit Brotherhood fight. These enemies are tough, so they're also easily avoidable by a player who is trying to just get to the boss fight with minimal damage to their health and Pulse Cells reserves.
    • In general, Star Fragments and the Summon mechanic really are a good way to reduce the really hard difficulty of taking down a boss in this game. Star Fragments are rather plentiful and more can be bought with Gold Coin Fruits, and some of the tougher enemies are almost if not completely sure to drop more. Almost all bosses also allow the player to summon the Specter for help as many times as the player has items to summon him.
  • If the player dies to a boss, their lost Ergo will spawn outside the boss arena, saving the player from having to try and pick it up while also dealing with a challenging boss. This also provides the option to just take the Ergo and retreat, in case the player needs it to prepare for the fight properly.
  • If the player is fighting a boss, and their health gets taken down to zero by an attack, or a status effect, such as Fuoco with Overheat, but the boss is dealt a killing blow, the game keeps P alive long enough for the boss to die so it is counted as a victory. You still have to run all the way back, as P dies immediately afterwards; too quickly to activate the Stargazer, but hey, its better than having to fight the boss again.
  • Many Fury Attacks are exceptionally difficult to safely parry, especially on your first few times of seeing them. The Ghost Walk Amulet allows for P to safely dodge through such attacks and can be obtained roughly two-thirds of the way through the game. Later, the Perfection Grindstone grants a short period of time where all blocks count as parries, and NG++ provides a P Organ upgrade that allows for normal blocking of Perfect Parries.
  • While the Black Rabbit Brotherhood fights both have you fight the gang together, only one member of the gang will be particularly aggressive at any given time, helping to keep you from being overwhelmed.
  • Compared to many Dark Souls-style games, Lies of P is more generous with the placement of its respawn points. Many of these games will place respawn points relatively far away from the nearest boss fight, resulting in a dynamic where a player will discover a challenging boss, get smashed to pieces, respawn far away, then have to traverse a lot of territory and cut through a number of enemies just for the privilege of getting smashed to pieces by the boss again. Lies of P usually places its respawn points very close to the boss arenas, meaning you can take on the boss again almost immediately after being killed.
  • Once you arrive at the Hotel Krat, P receives a pocketwatch that teleports him either to the last Stargazer he's used or the hotel's Stargazer, without losing any of his Ergo, akin to an infinite-use Homeward Bone or Bold Hunter's Mark. Once the destination is chosen, P becomes invincible until the animation ends, allowing the player to "bug out" of any situation short of a full-on boss fight.
• Anti-Grinding: In the demo, P becomes unable to level up after reaching level 20 until he reaches Sophia.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Most of Krat's mechanisms, and especially puppets, run on the mysterious energy or substance called Ergo. It is eventually revealed Ergo is in reality an essence harvested from human souls. The Alchemists discovered a mineral they dubbed Kroud in the ancient site Relic of Trismegistus, which was initially understood as a mineral which consumes Ergo to grow, but in reality it interacts with souls to make them tangible — thus turning the abstract soul into material rocks which consume organic flesh, and the true source of Petrification Disease. Kroud mineral is essential to the extraction of Ergo, and the supposed cure for the Petrification Disease invented by the Alchemists are actually means to allow Kroud to basically distill souls, extracting out the essence of humanity (as in elements of the soul which makes humans, human) as Ergo, and reducing the victim into the barest and most primal aspects of their being to become a Carcass.
• Artificial Stupidity: The Specter that can be summoned for help has a very Attack! Attack! Attack! strategy and will rarely fall back, defend, or dodge attacks from the bosses.
• Baby-Doll Baby: P can come across a grieving mother who has been blinded due to her petrification disease, lamenting that she has been quarantined away from her child. After finding a baby puppet, P can return it to her and lie that it is in fact her child, which she believes and thanks him for. (Alternatively, you can reveal that it is in fact a puppet, although she refuses to believe you, assumes you were told to tell her that by her family in order to discourage her, and rewards you anyway despite your 'lie').
• Back Stab: P is able to do a Fatal Attack on human-sized enemies if he attacks them from the back.
• Become a Real Boy: As expected from an adaptation of Pinocchio. The game plays with the central mechanic of lying as an action only possible by non-puppets, and how P's Ergo reacts in such a way that makes him more human whenever he does tell lies.
  • Ultimately subverted as P never becomes a "real boy" himself in any of the endings. Gepetto created P for the sole purpose of eventually sacrificing him to revive his actual son, Carlo.
• BFS: The game has both player-usable weapons and enemies wielding weapons of the BFS flavor.
  • The Frozen Feast is a giant slab of rock, until you start swinging it around and the crystal blade hidden under the rock gets revealed.
  • The Holy Sword of the Ark. It's already a hefty greatsword, but its handle fable art extends the sword handle letting you wield it like a glaive.
  • The Eldest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood attacks you with a truly massive blade about as tall as he is, which is saying something as he is already much taller than P.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: At the start of the game, the King of Puppets is suspected of being the one behind the Puppet Frenzy, and by extension, takes the place of the target to be defeated after a series of challenges to check on the status of Krat between chapters 2 and 5 (destroying the source of new puppets, liberating the Malus district, and looking for survivors in the Cathedral). Then it turns out the King of Puppets was fending off the threat of carcasses and the alchemists, putting their leader, Simon Manus, at the helm of the Big Bad. However, even before the fight with Simon, P can learn that Geppetto was the one to cause the Puppet Frenzy, and he turns out to be the True Final Boss after Simon in the form of the Nameless Puppet.
• Bleak Level: Chapter VIII's Barren Swamp is, fittingly, a very bleak level. As soon as P makes it to the swamp, you see towering cranes and mountains of disposed puppet corpses. The rest of the chapter is filled with swamps of poison, disfigured puppets, and an overall desolate atmosphere.
  • When P arrives at the Isle of the Alchemists at the end of the game, he arrives by the Pistris submarine which ends up beached. What follows is a walk through an absolutely barren sand area, with flashbacks to Romeo and Carlo's childhoods told through sand sculptures. There are no enemies, at least until the Storming the Castle sequence shortly after.
• Boss-Altering Consequence: Most bosses with a breakable weapon will have their range and damage output severely reduced if broken. In contrast, not only does Laxasia's weapon have far more durability than any other boss weapon in the game, but breaking it instantly makes her transition to her second phase... usually with her shield, something normally broken in the first phase, fully intact and giving what would otherwise be an otherwise squishy second phase into one who can and will actively guard against frontal attacks with impunity.
• Boss Banter: As is typical in Soulslike games, bosses have lines for battle start, phase transitions, them killing you, you killing them, etc. However, it's played with in that the frenzied puppets are only capable of unintelligible howling and you'll have to look at the subtitles for a translation, which is rendered in very glitchy text. Human bosses are, of course, perfectly understandable in their banter and have regular subtitles. Romeo, being a humanlike puppet, combines both, speaking in English but having glitchy subtitles. Near the end of the game, you'll receive a device that can translate the puppets' language. It's pretty much useless by the time you get it, but it can be carried into New Game Plus, and will translate the previously unintelligible bosses.
• Boss Bonanza: The final chapter of the game has 3 story bosses, 1 Mini-Boss and 2 Optional Bosses. There are also various unique enemies; a second Kid Puppet, a second Jester Puppet, and a second pugilist alchemist.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The Golden Lie is only available to you once you have seen all the game has to offer. The only thing you can use it for is for the two final bosses and New Game Plus.
• Breakable Weapons:
  • Every weapon has a durability meter that's reduced by blocking and attacking. The durability can be recovered by using items or resting in a Stargazer checkpoint. Pinocchio's arm has an infinite-use grinder that allows him to repair damaged weapons, but the blade will shatter if the durability drops completely, rendering the grinder ineffective and forcing the player to retreat to a Stargazer to restore it.
  • Enemies in turn can have their own weapons broken using perfect guards, with anything that can get smashed glowing a bright red when Pinocchio performs a parry. Not even bosses are immune to this, weapons like the the Parade Master's head mace, the Puppet Ripper wielded by Romeo, and the weapons of enemy Stalkers can be snapped in two with some effort.
• Break Meter: Every enemy in the game is susceptible to the "Groggy Status" / "Stagger Effect", meaning the more the player lands hits on an enemy or parries their attacks, the more this invisible bar will grow until the enemy is fully staggered, leaving them open for a fatal attack. When the enemy is near the staggering threshold, their health bar will glow white to signal to players that a charge attack or Fable Art will leave them staggered.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": In the game's setting, puppets are autonomous and usually sentient steampunk robots rather than actual puppets and are basically clockwork animatronics (including P himself), although most of the less realistic humanoid ones are meant to evoke the general look and feel of marionettes. There are some, such as Fuoco and the Puppet of the Future, that lean far more into the "robot" side than the "puppet" one, looking more like colossi made of industrial equipment than puppets as we know them.
• Central Theme: Lies, and how they can harm people or help them. The story makes it clear that sometimes, lying can really help people, and that it isn't always an inherently evil action. The best ending is obtained by constantly lying towards people with the intent to help them, which is seen as a sign of P caring about people enough to try and spare them from information that would only hurt them. This ties into the themes of Become a Real Boy which were codified in the original work- a puppet's ability to lie to others, and themselves, is seen as a form of Grown Beyond Their Programming. This also ties into the motivation of the main antagonist, Simon Manus, who was born with the ability to read minds and thusly could not handle the disconnect between people's outward behavior and their true selves. Due to this, he wishes to become a god using Ergo and create "a world without lies" where people are no longer able to deceive or betray each other.
• Chunky Salsa Rule: Present as an aesthetic element. If you kill non-boss enemies with a sufficiently powerful strike (like a Fatal Attack, most Fable Attacks, or a charged heavy attack), they'll fall apart into chunks rather than just slumping over dead. This is especially spectacular with Carcasses, which you almost literally turn into salsa verde.
• Clock Punk: The puppet's automatons in the game seem to be key-operated, with a heavy emphasis on gears in their design that give them stilted movements.
• Collection Sidequest: The player can gather several Records through sidequests. This allows you to set the background music in Hotel Krat, and for each record P listens to, he gains more humanity.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Elemental damage can be understood by the colors of enemies and weapons, the damage dealt with these also has the font colored to match this. Electrical damage is represented by bright blue, Fire damage is indicated by orange, corruption is indicated by green, and acid/decay is indicated by dark blue. Furthermore, enemies and things that deal disruption to your character are usually marked with bright yellow colors, like the yellow carcass monsters and the yellow crystals in Chapter IX.
• Color Motif: Fitting for the tale it draws from, blue is a prominent color (like the blue fairy that appears in the original tale). Blue is the color of the ergo you collect, it's used to highlight items that can be picked up on the map, the game opens with a blue butterfly touching P's chest to wake him up, and the stargazers are all colored blue.
• Composite Character: Alidoro the dog, in a way, has been combined with the Parrot that mocks Pinocchio in the original novel. Specifically, it is eventually revealed that the game's version of Alidoro was Dead All Along and the man in the dog mask is actually Parrot.
• Contrived Coincidence: The game's world design is linear to the point of absurdity at times. Each area will end in a boss fight that guards a door or passageway directly towards the next area, which sometimes makes sense, like the old slums leading to Malum District, others not so much, like the nest of the Green Monster of the Swamp being a short distance from Krat Central Station.
• Corrupt Church: Before the industrial revolution caused by the discovery of Ergo and the invention of puppets, the church was one of the highest authorities in Krat, with the St. Frangelico Cathedral being one of the oldest buildings in the old Krat, and it was the clergy's greed and corruption that allowed the Alchemist to become involved in Krat in the first place, even though they were aware the Alchemists planned to exploit the region's resources and its citizens.
• Creepy Cathedral: The St. Frangelico Cathedral has become infested with the Carcass monsters, giving the once serene place a sinister and creepy atmosphere.
• Crossover: Received one with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. The player character of Wo Long gets the Puppet Saber and Etiquette as equipable weapons, while P gets a cosmetic armor set and a new weapon, the "Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive".
• Crutch Character: The Advance weapons (and Advance build by extension). Weapons like the Electric Coil Stick and Salamander Dagger are very strong in the early game due to their base damage and the elemental debuffs they inflict on enemies, but the very low scaling of the Advance handles makes it so that their damage falls off significantly as you go further into the game compared to Tecnique or Motivity builds. This funnels players into relying much more on the game's elemental throwable items, which are very powerful but mostly luxuries for other builds, but become much more valuable damage sources with Advance (especially since the throwables themselves scale with the stat).
• Darker and Edgier: Carlo Collodi's original book had its fair share of disturbing moments, but this game is not only much bleaker overall, but in contrast with the original story being mostly a straightforward morality play, this game engages with more adult and complex subject matter. This is most notable with the game's Lying mechanic, which challenges the original idea of lying being a strictly negative thing by showing how there are situations where lying would not only be understandable, but also a more moral and humane choice than telling the truth.
• Decomposite Character: Mangafuoco from The Adventures of Pinocchio is represented by two different characters in Lies of P. His name and job as a fire-eater are clearly referenced in Fuoco the King's Flame, the furnace puppet that seized control of Vignini's factory works, who also serves as an antagonist early in the story much like Mangafuoco does. However, his status as a puppet-maker, ownership of a puppet named Pulcinella and trait of being surprisingly friendly under his self-serving exterior have all gone instead to Vignini, the works' original owner.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Two Dragon Swords has a special mechanic in which, during its charged attack, it has a small window (telegraphed by a flash of light in the sword's blade) in which it is essentially a stronger version of a perfect guard. If an enemy hits the player while the flash of light is there, the enemy is immediately pushed back and halted and the damage of the charged attack that the enemy is now stuck receiving doubles, and this even works against bosses. That being said, this has a whole different timing to normal parry; the window of time only opens after an animation plays, so instead of pressing to guard at the right rime, now the player has to do so considerably before to the attack hitting them. If they fail to time it, they're stuck in the hitting animation, which cannot be canceled, and therefore will probably take the hit they were trying to parry.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The Electric Coil can be bought from a merchant and holds it's own throughout the entire game. It's a blunt damage weapon that also deals electric damage, both which are effective against puppet enemies. The weapon can also inflict Electric Shock, which debuffs the defensive values of any enemy weak to it and increases their vulnerability to electric damage. Even better, the Fable attack that the blade provides will buff your electric damage output when used. If you apply Electric Shock to your foes and then pop the buff, your damage output rapidly skyrockets, making this weapon very effective against puppet enemies throughout the game.
  • The Salamander Dagger is a fire-based stabbing weapon which you can get at Vengini Works. It attacks incredibly fast, has a Fable attack which buffs your fire damage output, and can also apply the Overheat status effect to enemies. While puppets are mostly resistant to fire and stabbing, monsters are pointedly very weak to it, making it very effective once they start showing up. Essentially it's the fire damage equivalent of the Electric Coil and is similarly effective throughout the entire game.
  • Once you reach the St. Frangelico Cathedral, players can find Alidoro the Hound, the NPC that can trade Boss Ergo for special weapons. One of them that is immediately available is the Holy Sword of the Ark, which requires trading in Fuoco's Ergo. Its default moveset is ok, but its handle fable art actually changes the weapon into a glaive (similar to trick weapons in Bloodborne), with longer reach and a faster moveset, including a very strong thrusting strong attack with excellent range. With the P-Organ upgrade that guarantees you have at least one Fable Art bar every time you die, it is possible to have this moveset at all times. It also has a B scaling in Motivity (that can be turned into an A with cranks), making it easily one of the best Motivity weapons that remains powerful throughout the whole game.
  • Another very powerful boss weapon you can get shortly after meeting Alidoro is the Trident of the Covenant, which requires Archbishop Andreus' ergo. The trident has good base damage, a great moveset, fairly solid fable arts, and on top of all that, it has a devastating 30% crit chance. This means you have roughly a 1 in 3 chance of your attacks dealing a critical hit, which does around 50% more damage, meaning you will frequently get huge burst damage against enemies. It's considered not only one of the best Technique weapons, but one of the best weapons in the game period.
  • The Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty collab introduced in 1.5.0.0 has added the Azure Dragon Crescent Glaive. It is an incredible weapon in itself, with long reach, a great moveset (including a second normal attack that hits twice), and excellent fable arts that deal incredible damage. But what's most egregious is that the weapon is given to you as soon as you start the game, automatically. The one downside is that it is upgraded with Dark Moonstone, the same special upgrade material reserved for boss weapons, meaning that there is a good stretch of the game where you won't be able to upgrade it, but even with that caveat it is widely agreed to be one of the best weapons in the game.
• Door to Before: Shortcuts that lead back to previous Stargazer checkpoints are a common feature of the level design throughout the entire game.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Real Boy: They All Lived Happily Ever After" is the title of the worst ending of the game. The title "Real Boy" doesn't refer to P becoming a real boy, but rather, being used to revive one, Carlo. Meanwhile "They All Lived Happily Ever After" really only refers to Geppetto and Carlo.
• Early Game Hell: The game's early levels can be considered some of the hardest in the game thanks to many features involving the dodge being locked being P-Organ upgrades (such as being able to dodge twice in a roll or doing a dodge roll after being pancaked by an enemy), which only start to become available in Chapter III.
• Enemy Civil War: Interestingly, the frenzied Puppets and the animalistic Carcasses do not get along. Not long after their proper introduction in the Path of Misery, you come upon a long bridge leading to the St. Frangelico Cathedral and find several Puppets and Carcasses tearing each other apart, with the Carcasses emerging victorious; you'll find other scenes of them fighting several more times throughout the game. In one section, you can even make the particularly menacing Jester Puppet miniboss survivable by siccing Carcasses on it from caged fences. And sometimes when the Carcasses get the better of Puppets, the Carcass corruption can infect the Puppet chassis and become some of the nastiest enemies in the entire game. This is eventually revealed much later in the game to be a major story beat, as Romeo/the King of Puppets has actually been commanding the Puppets to attack the Carcasses to protect the city from the Alchemists' invading forces.
• Equipment Upgrade:
  • The player is able to upgrade their weapons using upgrade materials found all over Krat, with special boss weapons requiring their own separate materials.
  • Legion Arms can be upgraded by using Legion Calibers which are also found all over Krat. But instead of just upgrading raw damage numbers, they give Legion Arms new unique perks, such as letting the Falcon Eyes shoot twice, increasing the range of Flamberge's flames, or being able to use Fulminis while moving.
• Establishing Series Moment: Not for the whole game, but for an arc. At the entrance to St. Frangelico Cathedral, the player will see several monsters fighting and dismembering puppets. It will also be the first encounter with an enemy that deals Acid damage at P. This serves to establish that this segment will no longer be about fighting puppets, but rather, organic enemies, and that there will be a lot of acid damage to deal with.
• Evolving Title Screen: The regular title screen shows an golden P-Organ operating on a table on a stormy night. The backdrop changes to the boss arena of Romeo, the King of Puppets, on fire after said boss has been defeated, and to the beach on the Isle of Alchemists on reaching the final chapter.
• Expy: Pretty much all of the characters from Pinocchio are present in the game in differing forms:
  • P and Geppetto are self-explanatory.
  • Sophia is the Blue Fairy since she is the one that awakens P and has a blue color scheme.
  • Red Fox and Black Cat are two unscrupulous ruffians who consistently screw over P, just like the Fox and Cat from the story.
  • P can encounter a crazed doctor wearing an Owl mask, who is a reference an Owl in the story who is also a doctor.
  • The Parade Master is a direct reference to the Ringmaster, who both serve as antagonists to P and Pinocchio respectively.
  • The King's Flame, Fuoco is a reference to Mangiafuoco, whose name translates to "fire eater".
  • The Puppet King's true name is Romeo, a reference to one of Pinocchio's friends in the original story. In the game, the Puppet King attempts to befriend P, only to get angry when P turns him down.
  • The Green Monster of the Swamp is a stand-in for the Green Fisherman.
  • The Horrible Dogfish on the other hand is represented by a giant whale-like submarine that carries P to the Isle of Alchemists. A document reveals that the submarine is called "Pistris": a Latin word that can mean either "sea monster" or "whale".
  • Simon Manus is essentially a Composite Character of the Coachman and the Horrible Dogfish. Like the Coachman, he deceives people into undergoing horrific transformations under the guise of indulging their desires (such as a cure for the Petrification Disease, restoring Victor's fading strength, etc) and has his base of operations on an island. On the other hand, he also separates P from Geppetto forcing him into an Abyss to get him back. For bonus points, Manus' middle name is also "Pistris", like the submarine.
• Exact Words: It turns out that a nasty loophole exists in the Grand Covenant; the first law states that "a puppet must always obey its Creator's commands". The capital C is important, here - "Creator" doesn't mean "whoever made that particular puppet," it refers to a specific, designated individual. Namely, Geppetto, the man who created the puppet technology in the first place. Under his orders, the puppets all turn on the people of Krat and wipe out almost everyone in the city.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Krat is based on 19th century Europe, with Elysion Boulevard and Rosa Isabelle Street in particular strongly resembling London and Paris respectively.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Your three offensive stats, Motivity, Technique, and Advance, fall into these categories:
  • Motivity is strength and works best with Mighty Glacier weapons that rely on blocking and counterattacking.
  • Technique is dexterity, improving your performance with Fragile Speedster weapons that reward sustained aggression, mobility, and precise dodges and parries.
  • Advance is magic, improving weapons that deliver elemental damage and status effects while also enhancing the power and ammunition capacity of the long-ranged gadgets built into your Legion Arm. Elemental damage weapons, like the Salamander Dagger, also usually have Advance modifier handles.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The term "Arm of God" can be seen in notes and in things the Archbishop says during his boss fight. This will only become more relevant much later in the game, however.
  • As a smaller detail, when exploring the cathedral, one note makes mention of how the archbishop's benevolent nature makes even murderers repent. If you do Cecile's sidequest and return after the archbishop's defeated, you'll find a letter where she confesses that she is one herself.
  • One of the first things the player sees in the Central Station as soon as the game begins is a giant statue of a woman holding a sign for the Grand Exhibition, welcoming guests. Documents found in the station also mention the exhibition, and the implication is that the Puppet Frenzy started about the same time the event was happening. The player finally gets to see it for themselves at Chapter VII.
  • The player can find a collectible talking about a wine called La Bleiwes in the Malum District. The following area, Rosa Isabella Street, has an old lady who asks P for one bottle of said wine. In the area after that, in Chapter VII, a wine cellar has been flooded with the wine, and you can find the bottle there.
  • A sharp-eyed player making liberal use of Star Fragments may notice that Romeo and the Specters look quite similar, especially when the Specter wields his own Puppet Ripper if summoned against the King of Puppets. Considering Star Fragments are meant to call "Someone who wants to save this world," it's a subtle clue about Romeo's true nature.
  • In the Estella Opera House, an optional collectible document, Notes from an Experiment, will describe someone performing a mysterious experiment with Ergo and a person that seems unethical. It's implied that this is Geppetto deciding to go through with transforming Romeo into the King of Puppets, something that will only be revealed later.
  • The body of a Carcass monster can be found down a back alley in Krat City Hall, a full 2 chapters before they start showing up in force.
  • A seemingly innocuous detail that appears whenever P dies (specifically, the smashed clock that appears behind the "Lie or Die" message that ticks forward before beginning to rewind, seemingly repairing itself as the screen fades) becomes more significant at the end of the game when Sophia and Simon reveal the former has been reversing time to save P from death.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The Black Rabbit Brotherhood are the only bosses to not drop Rare Ergo upon defeat. Ergo is used to power the puppets, or a side effect of the mutations that occurred with the monster bosses. In counterpart, the Brotherhood is entirely composed of normal people, and therefore it makes sense that they won't have any rare Ergo. When they are fought to the death later on, the Eldest's body has been experimented on with Ergo by the Alchemists, which causes him to drop a piece of Quartz upon dying again. This is entirely due to his experimentation turning him into a reanimated Ergo monster, but his human siblings still do not drop any Rare Ergo.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: When you ask Geppetto about Krat Central Station, he mentions that the puppets have mostly retreated from the station, but warns you to be careful if you ever return to the station, because it's been taken over by horrifying monsters. This isn't true at the time he says it — if you travel back to Krat Central Station, it's completely unchanged from the beginning of the game. The puppet enemies are still there, and there are no monsters to be seen. Geppetto's comments are premature — they reflect what will happen to the station after a plot development later in the game.
• Genre Shift: Not in terms of gameplay but story themes. The first act of the game is pure steampunk horror, with the player fighting exclusively mechanical monstrosities. Then the player explores the city outskirts and encounters twisted organic abominations, shifting the story to supernatural horror.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Heavily implied with the Puppet Frenzy, but the full truth is more complicated than that. Because Ergo is physical manifestation of human thoughts and will, initially any puppet could do this given enough time and the right mental stimulus. Heartwarming in the case of a maid puppet tending to a newborn child due to her past life, terrifying in the case of a puppet deciding to take up its prior hobby of being a serial killer. The Grand Covenant was put in place to be a safeguard against such a disaster happening again, and on paper it did succeed... it's just it also grants full control of all puppets programmed to adhere to it to Geppetto.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Getting the Red Fox's Hunting Apparel outfit for P, which is a multi-step process that can be failed early on in the game. This is due to the Wandering Merchant that grants the Hunting Apparel requiring you show him the Frozen Feast weapon (by equipping it then speaking with him)... which means you can't spend the Reborn Champion's Ergo or use it to get the associated Amulet, then finding the Mechanical Cryptic Vessel in a late-game area, then finding the Merchant in another late-game area to get the outfit. No other item in the game requires you to have a specific weapon on hand, let alone a special weapon earned from a boss Ergo.
  • Many of the game’s sidequests are extremely easy to fail, whether by beating a boss encountered not long after meeting the quest giver, or even by talking to characters in the wrong order.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Lies are not inherently a bad thing, especially when it's done to protect the feelings of someone already unstable or in need of hope, and honestly lying to cheer up others is one of the most human reactions you can have - and the ability to lie also includes the ability to recognize when something is true or not, let alone right or not.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: In the final stretch of the game, Hotel Krat gets attacked and Geppetto is kidnapped, under order of Simon Manus and his Alchemists. In order to track them down, Lady Antonia then reveals that a passageway to their base existed right behind her portrait in the Hotel, accessed by playing a specific chord on the piano in the same room. It's possible to have interacted with this piano multiple times before this point without a clue that this is the method to open said secret door.
• Hub Level: Hotel Krat is the home to a larger-than-normal Stargazer and a small number of P's allies. From the Hotel, P can travel into the city outside.
• Immortality Seeker: The Alchemists. Once they learn that Ergo is crystallized human souls that retain the conscience of the people they belong to (albeit in a dormant state), they become convinced that they can use it, somehow, to achieve immortality and focus all their efforts into it.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Want a nice weapon for New Game Plus and don't feel like putting the work for the Golden Lie (see below)? The Proof of Humanity is comparable or better on every aspect except for the fable art, and you only need to beat the True Final Boss for it (it's no small feat, mind)
• Infinity +1 Sword: Gaining full humanity (a convoluted process which is almost impossible without following a walkthrough) rewards you with the Golden Lie, a special staff, near the end of the game. It has high stats all over and it's serviceable for most builds - what sets it apart though is its brutal fable art.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence:
  • It makes sense in the early game, where P doesn't have a good reason to go down the blocked-off streets, but gets ridiculous in Chapter IX, where P is unable to go through the door from the train station platform to the lobby, despite knowing this is the way to go due to passing this way in Chapter I, because there are a handful of boxes in the doorway.
  • It's established early on that P's Legion arm is strong enough to rip the door off a heavy safe or punch open a locked gate. But if said locked gate isn't part of the route you're supposed to go, there is nothing you can do to get through it.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: The game has a perfect guard system. Defending will reduce the damage taken, but by defending right before the attack hits, the player takes no damage at all, and can even damage the weapon of their opponent. This is indicated by a notable audio cue and a glow in the enemy's weapon. Fury Attacks (recognized by the enemy turning red) can only be blocked with a perfect guard.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The Two Dragons Sword is a hwando, a Korean type of sword closely related to (and in some historical cases, directly converted from) a katana. Compared to katanas, hwandos can be identified by their shorter hand-and-a-half hilts and a long, tasseled cord that allows one to quickly draw them from a sheath. It's also the most powerful pure-Technique weapon in the game, with a wide range of offensive and defensive perks (such as invincibility frames between its standard light attacks, and a special parrying animation in its strong attack that will guarantee a stagger on enemies that are blocked by it) in addition to its formidable slicing power.
• Karma Meter: The game features a unique version of one in the form of "Lie" and "Truth". Aside from a few rewards here and there over the course of the game, its primary purpose is to determine which ending you get and how human you become.
• Kill It with Fire: One of the possible Legion Arm weapons is a flamethrower, and there are bosses who are specifically weak to fire.
• Late to the Tragedy: The game takes place a short amount of time after the Puppet Frenzy, an event that destroyed the city of Krat as puppets went berserk and started attacking their former human master, which has mostly destroyed the city. The player goes through the city amid the destruction and corpses on the ground and can find newspapers and letters about what was happening during it. Sophia indicates that this is at least partly because she had a hard time finding P to wake him up and get the story started.
• Leitmotif: Various characters have a theme record associated with them:
  • Why - Belle
  • Quixotic - Red Fox and Black Cat
  • Fascination - The Cordlay sisters
  • Far East Princess - Eugenie
  • Proposal, Flower, Wolf Part 1 - Real Alidoro the Hound
  • Memory of Beach - Antonia and Polendina
  • Someday - Romeo, owing to the record's location being in an area of the Mallum District where he and Carlo frequented as youths.
  • Shadow Flower - Sophia
• Local Reference: Studio Round8 is a Korea-based studio, which leads to a handful of references to Korea in the story, despite it being set mostly in a mish-mash of 19th/18th Century European countries.
  • Eugénie states that she comes from the "Land of the Morning Sun", or the "Country of the Morning" - a possible reference to a historical nickname for Korea, "The Land of the Morning Calm". We later learn that the real Alidoro was also from said country.
  • The Gold Coin Fruits' distinct shape with a square hole in the middle is based on the historical currency issued by the Joseon dynasty in Korea, the Yeopjeon.
  • The Seven-Coil Spring Sword, a special weapon obtained by trading the Parade Leader's Ergo, is a steampunk-ish version of the Seven-Branched Sword, an ancient ceremonial sword believed to have been a gift from the Baekje Kingdom (a kingdom in Korea that existed between 18 BC and 660AD) to a Japanese ruler.
  • The Two Dragons Sword is a reference to the hwando allegedly owned by the Korean hero Admiral Yi Sun-sin, which is now considered a lost artifact. It's considered a Legendary Weapon In-universe as well, having been planned to be put on display at the Grand Exhibition before it was stolen by a thief who then fell into the nest of the Green Monster of the Swamp.
  • The Noblesse Oblige, a large club obtained from the Fallen One's Ergo, is a reference to a Korean version of the folk tale, Kobutori Jiisan. Specifically, one version of the folk tale has the elderly man with a tumor exchanging his tumor to obtain a magical club with dokkaebi, mythical creatures in Korean legend. The in-game weapon is modelled after a common depiction of the magical dokkaebi club, and the weapon's description of a "contract with a devil who liked music" is a direct reference to said folk tale.
• Malevolent Masked Man: The Stalkers and Bastards all wear animal masks, usually in reference to an animal from the original novel.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Weapons consist of two components, the blade/head and the handle, and can be disassembled and reassembled however you wish. The blade/head dictates the weapon's base damage and damage type and is the part that gets upgraded for more damage. The handle dictates the weapon's moveset and stat scaling and can have said stat scaling changed with an item. Each blade/head and handle also come with their own weapon arts.
• Money Is Experience Points: Ergo functions as the main currency in this game and is used to level up P in addition to buying items and equipment.
• Multiple Endings:
  • Real Boy: They All Lived Happily Ever After: Requires P to accept having his heart removed to resurrect Carlo. Geppetto embraces P and rips out his heart, killing P. Geppetto is then shown leaving Hotel Krat with the resurrected Carlo, who has apparently killed everyone else in the Hotel at Geppetto's orders. If P has extremely low Humanity when confronting Geppetto at the end of the game, his only option will be to give up his heart and get this ending.
  • Free From The Puppet String: Requires P to refuse to give his heart with low/moderate Humanity and/or after letting Sophia live when entering her room. An enraged Geppetto sics the Nameless Puppet on P to remove his heart by force. After the battle, just as the Nameless Puppet prepares to pierce through P's heart, Geppetto shields it with his body so "Carlo's heart" isn't destroyed, giving P an opening to rip out the Nameless Puppet's P-Organ. Geppetto then curses P as "just another worthless puppet" as he dies in P's arms.
  • Rise of P: Requires P to refuse to give his heart, have high Humanity, and have Mercy Killed Sophia. Same as Free From The Puppet String, only P cries at Geppetto's death, and he sincerely tells P "I'm sorry, son" instead of cursing him in response. P then transfers Sofia's Ergo onto a puppet body and collapses in her arms.
• Menacing Museum: Around half of Chapter VII takes place in the Grand Exhibition, which was meant to be a place for showcasing new puppets and other inventions by Venigni. In the Exhibition proper, many puppets are found on display and often come online to attack P as he walks past.
• Mythology Gag: The Mischevous Puppet Set is a costume that served as a pre-order bonus and is based on the outfit Pinocchio uses in the original novel.
• Naked on Revival: In the "Rise of P" ending, when Sofia is reborn, her new puppet body is naked save for her turquoise coat that is draped on her, with her hair falling down to cover up her breasts. Given the implication P has built that body for her from scratch, there's no reason she's not wearing more clothes other than to invoke the symbolism of nudity and rebirth.
• New Game Plus: After beating the game, the player is sent back to the hub and has the option to begin a new playthrough while carrying over their level, weapons, legion arm modifications, P-Organ upgrades, and most items in the game save for collectibles (except for the records) and Key Items associated with plot progression. Enemies and bosses will have more health, drop more Ergo, and deal more damage and the Boss Banter of the puppets that were gibberish in the first playthrough will now be properly translated via subtitles. Many amulets will have +1 versions available only in NG+, additional phases for the P-Organ will be unlocked and several records can also only be acquired in a NG+.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Averted. P will always be wielding whatever weapon he is equipped with in cutscenes. Unfortunately, this aversion ends up providing evidence for why the trope should have been played straight, since there is one cutscene where P slices off the top of the Nameless Puppet's head with a single clean cut, which can look very silly if he is wielding a blunt weapon.
• Not Brainwashed: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Frenzied Puppets; they are simply acting on a hidden precept of the Covenant from Geppetto to kill as many humans as possible to deprive the Alchemists of test subjects; the ones who show restraint or refuse to frenzy are the Rogue Drones.
• Not Using the "Z" Word:
  • Curiously, the game never actually uses the name "Pinocchio". The main character is always referred to as "Geppetto's Puppet" and the Steam page refers to him as "P". The actual story of Pinocchio also apparently exists in this universe, but characters simply call it the tale of the "mischievous puppet".
  • In a more direct example, the mutated plague infectees that the player encounters throughout St. Frangelico's Cathedral and elsewhere are known as "Carcasses" - or often simply "monsters".
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Thanks to the Mix-and-Match Weapon system, it's perfectly possible to put the blade of a greatsword on the handle of a rapier, and wield it one-handed with all the finesse and dexterity of the latter. Or you could go the other way and put the rapier blade on the greatsword handle, and be treated to the amusing sight of Pinocchio needing to use both hands to swing around a surprisingly weighty toothpick.
• Parasol of Pain: One of the earliest boss weapons you can get is Etiquette, a reinforced, spike-tipped umbrella. It's a light-and-fast Technique weapon that mostly behaves like the Wintry Rapier with better all-around stats and scaling, but also has the useful feature that a few of its moves will cause the canopy of the umbrella to spring open, temporarily blocking incoming attacks and/or adding extra area-of-effect damage.
• Perverse Puppet: The main enemy roster consists of the puppet automatons that became berserk in the event called "Puppet Frenzy", with many of the early puppets not even being designed with combat in mind. They look somewhat human at a glance, but move in incredibly stiff and erratic ways that belie their artificial nature.
• Pietà Plagiarism:
  • The Saintess of Mercy statue is essentially the Pietà statue, except that it cradles a puppet instead of an image of Jesus.
  • In the "Rise of P" ending, the game ends on a scene of Sophia, now reborn as a puppet, cradling a passed out P in a bench on the Arche Abbey.
• Real Time: Somewhat unexpectedly for a singleplayer game with no online component, the game has a real time 10 minute timer before a gold coin fruit becomes ripe for picking from a special tree located near Hotel Krat. These gold coin fruits can be exchanged for various Wishstones or used to respec the P-organ, Legion arms or P's levels. It's suggested that you come back to the tree every so often before the amount of fruits on the tree reaches the Cap, and the game aids you by displaying the gold coin fruit timer when P uses any stargazer.
• Remixed Level: Chapter IX sees the player revisiting the Krat Central Station and the subsequent areas they've first explored, however, they are now overrun with carcasses, and new doors and passageways are open.
• Robosexual: You may find a newspaper article about a "town eccentric" who fell in love with and married his puppet maid, insisting that she had a soul and loved him back. A bit later on in the game, you actually meet the guy, who has sadly become recently widowed and tasks you with retrieving his wife's wedding ring from her body in the middle of a hostile area for him to have as a Tragic Keepsake. After defeating the Puppet King, Polendina will ask to meet with you privately, where he confesses that he's secretly been sentient this whole time and that he's in love with Antonia. If you never gave the ring back to the man, or lied and told him his wife left a note saying she loved him (after which he lets you keep the ring), you can present it to Polendina as proof that human-puppet romance can work.
• Robot Me: After finishing the game, if you got the the "Real Boy" ending, every merchant in Hotel Krat is replaced with a puppet version. They all have little to no personality and only very basic dialogue.
• The Plague: On top of the Puppet Frenzy which finished it off, an incurable Petrification Disease swept through the city of Krat. Those afflicted became blind, and would either die by turning into immobile unmoving statues, or mutate into madden monsters which added to the chaos.
• Sarcastic Title: The worst ending, in which Gepetto kills P and everyone else at Hotel Krat, is called They All Lived Happily Ever After.
• Schmuck Bait: 99% of the time, Staggering an enemy or boss means you can Fatal Attack it right away. Late in the game, however, some bosses and elite enemies will actually attack after being Staggered, then become open to a Fatal Attack. Players who assumed they could run in for the Fatal right away like they've done with everything else up to this point will be in for a nasty surprise.
• Secret Level: The Hermit's Cave. It's an entirely optional area, and the rewards for it aren't things necessary for achieving anything in particular in the game, though the "Misty E'ra" record there can be used to gather more humanity, the rewards are a handful of usable items, ergo, and a fight with a particularly tough Elite Mook which guards the Black Cat's Hunting Apparel and a quartz. The area can also only be accessed by getting the Rusty Cryptic Vessel, available with Polendina only after you've gathered all 3 Supply Boxes.
• Sequel Hook: The Stinger shows Giangio, referred to as Paracelsus, leaving Krat via train while informing a colleague about a "new brother" and "a new form of humanity", referring to P, promising further observation. He also promises to find "another key of ours"... Dorothy. Cut to a young woman in ruby slippers merrily strolling through Krat before stopping to click her heels together three times...
• Shout-Out:
  • After a certain point in the story you find a portrait of yourself. The more you lie, the more wood will grow out of the nose placement on the painting while yours doesn't grow at all. When asked about it, you'll be told that the portrait was painted by a Mr D. Gray.
  • Over the course of the game you keep having phone conversations with Arlecchino, the self-proclaimed King of Riddles and the first puppet to ever kill a human, namely Venigni's parents. When you finally meet him face to face he's a broken mess on the ground with tubing coming out of him and a spear embedded in his chest, curiously similar to Brau-1589 who has the same backstory.
  • Bizarrely, Venigni himself seems to be a shoutout to Bruce Wayne of all people. Not, to be clear, Batman, but Bruce Wayne. He has the same backstory of losing his parents at an early age, inheriting everything, having their death remain unsolved despite his own best efforts, being regarded as the 'Prince of Krat' for being its richest and most eligible bachelor, and owning a company that brought Krat wealth by inventing and selling hi-tech products (puppets). Our interactions with his parents killer, Arlecchino, as well as his title, make him a strong expy of the Riddler, despite them not normally being a Batman villain linked to the death of the Waynes.
  • A clown puppet mini-boss has features that bear a strong resemblance to Pennywise the Clown.
  • Lorenzini Venigni is named after Carlo Lorenzini, the real name of Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio. Also, Venigni could be a nod to Roberto Benigni, the actor who famously played both Pinocchio and Geppetto during his career.
• Simple, yet Awesome: The Puppet String legion arm is a Harpoon Gun that lets you grab standard humanoid sized and small enemies and pull them towards you while also doing a bit of damage. While not as unique or flashy as some of the other Legion arms, it still feels satisfying to use and proves to be an extremely useful tool in a Soulslike where the best strategy for dealing with packs of enemies is to separate them and take them on one at a time. It's also the first Legion arm you get after the tutorial and is given to you for free. Upgrading it allows you to do more things like pull yourself towards the target or follow up with a special attack, but even without upgrades it remains an incredibly versatile choice for the entire game.
• Skill Point Reset: After the player finds the Saintess of Mercy Statue at the Grand Exhibition, they're able to individually respec their levels, Legion Arm modifications, and P-Organs upgrades. But they have to trade Gold Coin Fruits to do so, and the price increases every time they do it. The first major patch to the game added the ability to respec at the Gold Coin Tree itself, allowing the player to respec much earlier into the game than before.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: The prologue gives off this vibe. By the time Sophia awakens P, Krat is nigh a ghost town overrun with homicidal puppets. There are few humans left who have not been killed, stricken with plague or fled.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Downplayed due to the weapon mixing mechanic. A weapon's fighting style is based on its handle, which makes it perfectly possible to make a rapier with a slashing moveset or a wrench with a stabbing moveset. The game plays this realistically by giving each blade "Slash" and "Stab" multipliers, with most blades having one neutral modifier and one negative modifer. If a "Slash" blade is put on a "Stab" handle or vise versa, the weapon receives a damage penalty.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: The Sweeper versus Bastard factional conflict within the Stalker puppet-hunters plays out like this, but with a twist. The grungy, lower-class Sweepers are bankrolled by the old aristocracy of Krat, who fell out of influence with the city's changing economy and culture and want to get back on top. Meanwhile, the posh, stylish Bastards are (as the name implies) surplus sons and daughters of the aristocracy who threw their lot in with Krat's Nouveau Riche merchants and industrialists to seize opportunities that had been denied them by their families.
• Source Music:
  • Chapter IV's St. Frangelico Cathedral has fitting religious music being played on a pipe organ, although the poor state of the cathedral and its infestation by carcass monsters also invokes a more ominous feeling.
  • P can collect and play records on the record player in Hotel Krat, which will then replace the area's usual soundtrack. Listening to each record for the first time also amounts to P becoming more human.
  • Chapter VI has one such record, named In-Universe as "Facination", playing in an ampitheater where the optional boss, the White Lady, can be fought. The song also plays in a room in Estella Opera House where its singer Adelina Corday can be found, where you can ultimately find the record.
  • The Estella Opera House itself has a slow and somber choral song playing constantly in the background, accompanied by a One-Woman Wail.
• Three Laws-Compliant: "The Grand Covenant," four laws that all puppets have installed, is similar to the Three Laws of Robotics; with the big caveat that the highest law is obeying its creator, with never harming a human coming second. The Puppet Frenzy that resulted in all puppets going berserk at once is implied to be related to a flaw. Unlike all other puppets, Pinocchio was created with the ability to break one of the laws: He can lie. It turns out P is immune to all four of the laws on behalf of Geppetto never bounding him to the Grand Covenant.
• True Final Boss: The Nameless Puppet, acessible only by choosing the routes that avoid the bad ending. However, whether you get the good ending or the actual True Ending, you will fight it nonetheless.
• Turned Against Their Masters: One of the inciting incidents of the plot is the "Puppet Frenzy", an event that had most of the automated puppets in the city of Krat to go berserk and attack the humans that they were supposed to serve. By the time the game takes place, most of the human population in the city has already been killed by the hands of their former puppet servants.
• Wham Episode:
  • The game takes a bit of a turn after leaving the Venigni Works; after having spent the first act of the game fighting only puppets (and the occasional Stalker) in the Belle Époque city of Krat, the player ventures down into the run-down and ramshackle city outskirts, where they quickly begin to encounter former humans and animals turned into feral monsters - apparently victims of the Petrification Disease. After wading through a horde of the things, the player faces off against the utterly grotesque Fallen Archbishop, Andreus, who has been transformed into a twin-headed monster that barely even resembles a human anymore. Returning to the hotel and speaking with the characters there has them all invariably act shocked and confused at these revelations - indicating that the disease isn't supposed to turn people into monsters. The Genre Shift from steampunk to supernatural horror is now complete.
  • As the story approaches its conclusion in Chapter IX, a severe earthquake occurs as P makes it back to the Krat Central Station, which has become fully overrun by the carcass corruption. Previous puppet enemies have also become corrupted, including the first boss fought, the Parade Master. This version of Krat is also called "Collapsing Krat", with massive crystal spires and bottomless pits ravaging the terrain. Soon after, Sophia contacts you to tell you that Hotel Krat is attacked and ransacked by the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, alongside the stalkers Black Cat and Red Fox. It turns out that Alidoro disabled the security system and allowed the invasion to occur, and Geppetto has been kidnapped. The rest of the game is P's attempt to track him back down by making it to the Isle of the Alchemists.
• Wham Line: After the attack on Hotel Krat and kidnapping of Geppetto, talking to Venigni reveals he's obtained a decoded message from the now-deceased King of Puppets, Romeo, which answers one of the game's major mysteries at long last. The reveal is even subtitled in red text to emphasise the bombshell even more:
  Romeo: Law One: All puppets must obey their Creator's commands. Law Zero: The Creator's name is...Geppetto. Giuseppe Geppetto.
• Where It All Began: A variation can be found regarding one of the levels. P wakes up in a train carriage before entering the first level in the game, Krat Central Station. After defeating Chapter VIII's boss, the Puppet-Devouring Green Monster, P travels through a series of tunnels leading back to Krat Central Station... except it's now overrun with Carcasses and puppets that have also become corrupted, similarly to how the Green Monster controlled the Scrapped Watchman's remains. P can even find the carriage where he woke up and explore it a bit. The chapter's boss is one such example: a Moveset Clone of the first boss, the Parade Master, whose remains are now being puppeted around by the carcass infection. After this, however, the game continues on and the finale takes place on a completely new locale.
• You Will Not Evade Me: The Puppet String Legion Arm allows P to pull smaller enemies to his location, and the Battle Maniac of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood has his own version he can use against P. Upgrades to the Arm allow P to pull himself to the enemy's location or follow up with a quick punch after the pull.

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