I don't make a habit of replaying games. If anything, I make a habit of not replaying games. It's hard for me to sit down and do something all over again while fighting the thought that I could be experiencing something all-new instead and whittle away at my backlog. So when I say I've got a serious hankering to play through Lies of P again, I assure you it is no small praise. I'm pretty sure the only other games I replayed this year were Armored Core 6 and Elden Ring – FromSoftware's latest masterclasses.
Lies of P is the best Soulslike ever made. It's the closest anyone has gotten to mastering FromSoftware's now-iconic style of action RPG, and in small but still significant ways, it occasionally surpasses the games it's based on. It's the new peak of this weird little sub-genre and one of the best games of 2023. And to my immense delight, it's not even close to the only great Soulslike we got this year.
