Lies of P was already one of my favourite non-FromSoftware soulslikes—partially because I'm a big Sekiro freak, but also because it was just very well put together. Then its DLC released and it blew my freaking socks off.
It's done good by developer Neowiz, too—not only selling well, but also pulling in an award for Best Game Expansion during the Golden Joystick Awards. Speaking to GamesRadar via interpreter, director Choi Ji-won is honoured to receive the accolade:
"I'm so happy that I'm lost for words right now … we didn't just view it as just pure expansion, but almost as a sequel and a brand new project." As for the actual Lies of P sequel that's in the works, Choi Ji-Won asks fans to "please stay tuned for it; we are working really hard, and I will not disappoint you at all."
And you know what, I fully believe him.
Overture is, in my humble opinion, one of the best DLCs released for a soulslike game period—it's imaginative and well-designed, sure, but it also marks Neowiz finally finding its legs after a game that initially struck critics (including us, I'm sorry to say) as a Bloodborne carbon copy.
It achieves this through pure narrative and stylistic flare. While the base game uses Bloodborne's template (like sidequests delivered via coughing-silhouettes-in-windows) so closely you'd think it copied FromSoftware's homework peeking over its shoulder, Overture leans hard into the cinema of it all.
We're talking flashback sequences, team-up gauntlets, and a thematic use of the Bloodborne/Sekiro-style stance break feature so completely and utterly hype I'm shocked it's not been done before.
Overture also takes a somewhat-wonky but competent story and elaborates on it so directly that it had me tearing up—and look, god bless FromSoftware, but I'm not likely to get misty-eyed unravelling a yarn I need a video essay to follow properly. The tragic tale of Lea, Romeo, and Carlo is some damned fine work, and has me hopeful that Neowiz's sequel will continue to set the studio apart from its contemporaries.
And hey, even if it doesn't, we're still going to get some shockingly heartwrenching covers of 20-year-old rhythm game songs that, despite their origins, slot right into the gothic horror of P's world. Which'll be worth the price of admission alone, honestly.
