Lies of P: Overtureshadow-dropped during Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest 2025 and, unsurprisingly drawing more inspiration from FromSoftware in its design ethos, the DLC is nestled deep within the base game. This wasn’t at all out of the realm of possibility, though, as theentry point forLies of P: Overturewas all but spelled out to players when they initially came across it as one of the few unsolved mysteries that the base game left dangling. Moreover, it was revealed long ago now thatLies of P: Overturewould be a story-driven prequel DLC, in that it sees P and Gemini travel back in time, and features a boss rush mode.
This was all greatly anticipated asLies of Pis debatably one of the best non-FromSoftware Soulslike games to date and, naturally, a DLC that expands on it further while potentially concluding Neowiz’s loose and grislyAdventures of Pinocchioadaptation meant there was a ton to look forward to. However, despite players having an awareness ofLies of P: Overtureindeed launching sometime this summer, the suddenness of its launch is as negatively alarming as it is positively celebratory.
Soulslike DLCs Have a Tendency of Being Locked Behind Progression
Unlike other DLCs that are accessed indiscriminately and separately from a base game’s content, Soulslike DLCs often take a lot more effort to get to unless players have preemptively readied a save file.FromSoftware’s Soulslikesalone relish in this methodology among all of its applicable games:
ForLies of P: Overture, players are explicitly told via text prompts to return to the golden, broken stargazer found near Chapter 5’s ‘Path of the Pilgrim’ stargazer. This means players aren’t tasked to do anything beyond progressing the base game’s story, though that’s easier said than done when progression up to the end of Chapter 9 (restoring the Hotel Krat stargazer, specifically) is required and the likes of the Eldest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, Romeo, King of Puppets, and Walker of Illusions stand in their way.
Plus, like withBloodborne’s Old Hunters DLC, players will want to be well-equipped and sufficiently leveled beforehand as Overture’s regular enemies and mini-bosses can be more terrifying and grueling than some base game bosses.
Lies of P: Overture’s Shadow Drop Pulls a Rug Out from Under Players
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtreeshadow-dropping would have been quite disastrous due to how long it can take to finally reach Mohg inElden Ring’s base game, let alone how longElden Ringis in general with hundreds of hours and a lot of level, build, and spec choices to make along the way. These DLCs usually expect players to be tackling them after all base game content has been beaten, to be fair, but that only exacerbates the inherent problem ofshadow-droppingLies of P.
Lies of Pis a linear Soulslike action-RPG, but anyone who had been meaning to begin a new playthrough instead of hopping into the DLC in one of infinite New Game Plus playthroughs may be disappointed that they have no time between a release date reveal and launch to make the necessary preparations. Overture is also scaled fairly high and is thus incredibly demanding and challenging on a New Game save file, regardless of which brand-newLies of Pdifficulty setting players have selected.
Thankfully, respeccing is a quality-of-life feature thatLies of Pgrants relatively freely.
This won’t be a gripe for anyone who doesn’t mind waiting a while and preparing a new character with whatever amount of time they deem appropriate before indulging in the DLC. But, with the obvious excitement an imminentLies of PDLCrelease would have, it can be disappointing that no time at all was afforded beforehand to anyone who was eager to enter it immediately. Either way,Lies of P: Overtureis a sublime extension of what made the base game astonishing and the wait for it was decently lengthy to begin with, but even a week’s worth of notice would’ve been ideal—of course, it wouldn’t have had the pleasure of shadow-dropping during an event as momentous as Summer Game Fest otherwise.
Lies of P: Overture
WHERE TO PLAY
Lies of P: Overture is a dramatic prequel to the acclaimed soulslike action RPG, Lies of P. It transports you to the city of Krat in its final days of haunting, late-19th-century Belle Époque beauty. On the brink of the Puppet Frenzy massacre, you follow a legendary Stalker—a mysterious guide—through untold stories and chilling secrets. As Geppetto’s deadly puppet, you’ll journey through Krat and its surroundings, uncover hidden backstories, and face epic battles that shape the past and future of Lies of P.
