Is Lies of P Based on Pinocchio?

Lies of P casts you as sentient puppet Pinocchio, charged with bringing down the puppet army that’s slaughtered most of a city’s populace. But while that name and the name of your creator may be familiar, is Lies of P really based on Pinocchio? I’ve got the answer, but it will involve several spoilers.

Here’s What You Need to Know About Lies of P’s Pinocchio Connection

If you’ve only ever seen Disney’s Pinocchio, you could be forgiven for thinking that the story began there. But the original tale, The Adventures of Pinocchio, was written by Italian author Carlo Collodi back in the late 19th century. There have been a whole host of adaptions, including a poorly-received remake of Disney’s own cartoon version, and Guillermo del Toro made his own stop-motion interpretation in 2022.

So there’s a history of people taking the story and putting their own spin on it or, as in del Toro’s case, transplanting it to a new setting. You could argue that Star Trek: The Next Generation draws upon the tale, with its android crewman Data. The tale itself is in the public domain (you can read it here)

Developers Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio describe the game as “inspired by the story of Pinocchio”. It’s also been labelled a ‘reimagining’, which is a fair description of this soulslike. It takes elements of the original story and transplants them into a new setting. In comparing the game with the original tale, it’s easier to break it down into similarities and differences.

Here’s How Lies of P is Similar to The Adventures of Pinocchio

First of all, there’s Pinocchio himself who, as in the story, is a puppet, rhough Krat’s “puppets” are somewhere between automaton and robot. And he does, sort of, get the chance to become a real human boy. His, “father,” Geppetto, is a talented craftsman, as he is in the original story. And a lot of Lies of P’s other characters, bosses and situations are based (sometimes loosely) on those from the original story. Here are some of them.

• Sophia — The woman who wakes Pinocchio, is based on the Fairy from the original story.
• Gemini — Your lamp-dwelling helper is based on The Talking Cricket, though the character was only called Jiminy Cricket in the Disney movie.
• Red Fox and Black Cat — The two Stalkers you meet are references to Fox and Cat, the tricksters Pinocchio meets in the story.
  
• King’s Flame, Fuoco, — A boss who gets his name from theatre director Mangiafuoco.
• The Black Rabbit Brotherhood — Based on the book’s rabbit undertakers, who come to take Pinocchio’s body away. The brotherhood even brings their own coffin with them.
  
• The Puppet-Devouring Green Monster — A boss is a version of the book’s The Green Fisherman, who tries to eat Pinocchio.
• The Parade Master Boss — Inspired by the story’s Ringmaster.
• Romeo, the King of All Puppets — It has the same first name as Pinocchio’s friend, who leads him astray.
• The Gold Coin Fruit Tree — It references the part of the book where Pinocchio is tricked into planting his coins, believing they’ll grow.
• Carlo — Geppetto’s late son is named after the story’s author Carlo Collodi.

There are plenty of other references, too. The exploding harlequin puppets can be linked to a character named Harlequin and the Mad Donkey boss could also be a nod to Romeo being turned into a donkey. The Adventures of Pinocchio has him being eaten by a whale, here he climbs into a whale-shaped submarine. As in the book, Pinocchio lies, though in case it’s a portrait of him (or rather, Carlo) that has a growing nose. Both stories take place during roughly the same time period, possibly in the same country. But there are plenty of differences too.

Here’s How Lies of P is Different from The Adventures of Pinocchio

Aside from the change in setting, there’s also no puppet uprising in the original story. That element of Lies of P’s story is a little sci-fi, tapping into the fear that, one day, robots will replace us. The Grand Covenant, the set of rules each puppet is imprinted with, is basically Isaac Asimov’s the Three Laws of Robotics.

As for Geppetto? Without giving away too much, the original story is basically Pinocchio’s solo adventure. Here, he’s following Geppetto’s instructions. Geppetto has no son in the book, though Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation does also give him a son named Carlo. As you’ll discover, the loss of his son is instrumental in his decision to create Pinocchio, as well as his other… enterprises.

So the answer to is Lies of P based on Pinocchio is yes, but it’s a loose interpretation. It shares some themes and characters but also draws from science-fiction, horror and other genres. And if you need help with Pinocchio’s quest, check out our guides and coverage here.