2023-09-23 00:15:25
September 23, 2023 Today at 02:15
Round 8 Studio’s first game is a successful and effective copy of FromSoftware games. But like all copies, it does not come close to its model.
“Elden Ring”, the FromSoftware box office left a moving and moving memory for those who encountered it, at the beginning of 2022. With this open world, the Japanese studio led by Hidetaka Miyazaki offered the players a sum. The pinnacle of all his previous productions, often grouped under the term “souls-like”.
With “Demon Souls” in 2009, and even more so with “Dark Souls” in 2011, FromSoftware invented a new genre. Souls-likes are demanding, unforgiving games in which game over is the norm. Each enemy has the potential to shorten the game. The most terrifying of all, and the one that must be fought most ardently, is your own stress. The one who makes mistakes.
The considerable and growing success of the “From” productions has aroused a lot of envy and the recipe has often been copied by studios around the world.
By preventing manual saving and making monsters reappear at each checkpoint, this type of game pushes you to take risks constantly and to punish when we take too much. It is as cruel in failure as it is rewarding in success. The sensations provided by the studio’s games are difficult to compare. Especially since over the years and new games, FromSoftware has perfected its formula.
The often copied “From” recipe
Obviously, the considerable and growing success of the “From” productions aroused a lot of desire and the recipe has often been copied by studios around the world. However, no one has managed to match the level of mastery of FromSoftware. The proposals from other studios are, at best, honorable attempts, at worst, pale copies.
Despite this, Round 8 Studio, a Korean studio largely unknown to the battalion, had managed to generate a lot of waiting around “Lies of P”. Beyond the style of the game, a “souls-like” therefore, it is undoubtedly largely thanks to its atmosphere that the title was able to stand out from the game. “Lies of P” allows you toplay Pinocchio, in an – even – darker version and terrifying than Carlo Collodi’s tale and the Disney feature film, in majestic gothic settings.
“Lies of P” Launch Tape
The action takes place in Krat, which recalls the European cities of the Belle Époque. The city has prospered for years thanks to its puppet production. These latter are not simply animated figurines intended to entertain children, but are robotic automatons responsible for carrying out the most thankless tasks.
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Successful combat system and perfect animation…
The game opens “in medias res”, while a mysterious evil has caused these machines which are roaming the city to lose their minds, in order to decimate the population. A task already well underway judging by the number of corpses littering the dark and desolate streets. Only the decorations allow us to imagine the not-so-distant splendor of the city. Pinocchio, the most human of puppets, the work of the brilliant Gepetto, wakes up on a train. Helped by his designer, by the blue fairy and by a handful of survivors, he is responsible for fight mechanical monstrosities.
Of course, behind his appearance as a well-behaved child, Pinocchio turns out to be a killing machine. A mechanical arm can be tinkered with as a flamethrower, grappling hook, or gun, while he can wield a variety of customizable weapons with his right hand. THE combat systemcentered on the parade and counter-attacks are successful and nervous. This owes a lot to the animation of the enemies, crucial for being able to read the movements of the monsters and block their attacks. On this point, the copy rendered by Studio 8 is perfect.
…but the world lacks interactivity
The setting in which the game takes place is intriguing and the richness of the scenery makes you want to explore. Round 8 Studio managed to create interesting twisty levels and which offer their share of surprises. Regularly, however, their relative linearity gives the impression of evolving in a cardboard setting because of its lack of interactivity. This impression is reinforced by the large repetitiveness of enemies that we encounter.
But the game above all sorely lacking in a form of magnitude. Neither failed nor perfectly executed, it finds itself somewhere in between. Hedoesn’t add much to the story of Pinocchio. Nor even the soul-like genre. Reserved for FromSoftware fans in need of a new dose of souls-like since “Elden Ring”. Those who have never looked into FromSoftware productions will undoubtedly prefer the original to the copy.
“Lies of P”, developed by Round 8 Studio, available on PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles, PC and Mac, 60 euros. Available at no extra cost in Gamepass. 3 stars
When the game horrifies the world
Gothic and dark, the video game? Certainly. In any case, we must admit that the industry loves dark and disturbing worlds.
“Gylt”, “Blasphemous 2”, “Elden Ring”, “Steelrising”, examples of games with a sticky and dark atmosphere have not been lacking in recent months, made of worlds ravaged by an apocalypse and populated by terrifying and bloodthirsty creatures. These games evoke the madness into which their cryptic characters sink, without forgetting to depict decadent societies. How to explain the success of the creepy in video games?
For Sébastien Genvo, Professor of information and communication sciences at the University of Lorraine and head of the Expressive gamelab, there are several explanations for this phenomenon: “On the one hand, games must reach an international audience. It is therefore simpler to turn to fantastic imaginations to prevent games from being anchored in a reality that is too culturally marked. On the other hand, when playing, there is a need for action. But certain emotions like horror and fear are easier to mobilize and more easily exportable. These primary, prototypical emotions are part of the springs that push us to act.”
In addition, the more horrific the world of a game, the more monstrous it can offer, which the public loves. “The monster is a symbol present in all cultures. In video games, this figure is central. It represents the enemy, the difference, the one who must be defeated. This also allows us to polarize values very quickly. In addition, it makes it possible to mobilize references to known types of transmedia universes.” Impossible not to think of the ideal antagonists represented by the ghouls, zombies and other vampires, omnipresent in video games.
We should also not neglect the impact of FromSoftware productions – once more them – in recent years. “Their axis of faith remains horror, Lovecraftian and melancholy.”
One of the studio’s great strengths remains its ability to creating beauty in the horrible and terrifying. “These studios manage to create a truly horrific aesthetic,” summarizes François-Xavier Surinx, doctoral student at the University of Liège and member of the ULiège Game Lab. “In the same way that we can appreciate the cinema of Tim Burton who manages to aestheticize the horrific.”
Plus, it’s a real selling point. “Before a game is released, promotional campaigns emphasize its universe. All communication revolves around the world that we will be able to experience in the game. After its release, the game is on the contrary judged more in terms of its mechanics and feeling.” This universe must therefore be strong, catchy to interest its audience. audience.
Public who, precisely, tend to claim to be players of these games because they perceive these dystopian, horrible and gloomy universes as more “adult”. “More colorful, more feel-good games are often considered childish or family experiences. And those who consider themselves ‘gamers’ will turn more readily to these violent worlds.”
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