Lies of P - References and Easter Eggs in the Game!

One of the biggest recent releases on the indie game scene was Lies of P, the game started out already famous for being “Pinocchio meets Bloodborne”, but proved to be more than just another attempt to simulate a FromSoftware game.

With its beautiful graphics, Victorian era setting and gothic scenarios, Lies of P captures the fairy tale of Pinocchio and completely deconstructs it. And with all the freedom to build this narrative back up, the developers filled the game with several references and Easter eggs, and the Um Gamer team highlighted the main ones in this article!

Pinocchio

In the game, we control a puppet whose name is never told, but everything indicates that he is Pinocchio from the fairy tale. His personality and appearance are different from his literary version, but the game has some references to the original Pinocchio.

In the library of the Hotel Krat, when we interact with a book, Gemini talks about a story about “a wooden puppet who became a real boy”, which speaks directly to the book “The Adventures of Pinocchio”

The Nose

Our character's nose doesn't grow when lying, at least not in his direct appearance, but whenever we lie as him in the game, if we look in the direction of his shadow, the nose will have gotten bigger.

There is also a painting of the boy who inspired P's image, and every time we lie, a huge golden branch grows where his nose should be. If the player always lies in the game, the branch grows to the point that it can be removed from the painting and becomes a weapon.

Blue Fairy

In the game, P is lying disabled in a train station and is revived by Sophia's spirit, guided by her voice, and we see the character for the first time in Hotel Krat. You don't need to think a lot to understand that she represents the character of the Blue Fairy. In the original novel, she is responsible for saving Pinocchio after he was tricked by the fox and the blind cat.

In the game, Sophia plays the role of being one of P's three mentors, she is primarily responsible for guiding him on his journey.

Jiminy Cricket

During the journey, we carry a small green lantern equipped with artificial intelligence called Gemini, he is responsible for literally lighting our hero's path and occasionally offering advice and his thoughts, since P never speaks, he is responsible for commenting on events and even ends up developing a beautiful relationship with the character.

In the original work, the cricket appears on three occasions offering his advice: the first stating the evils of disobeying one's parents and Pinocchio, in a fit of rage, accidentally kills him by throwing a hammer at him, the second is when his ghost appears in the forest warning him to return home and not walk around that place at night, and the third is alongside three doctors after being rescued by the Fairy following the ambush by the fox and the blind cat.

Mangiafuoco

In Lies of P, we deal with two major catastrophes happening, and one of them is the revolt of the puppets who are attacking all of their masters, the first boss is a Parade Master, a boss found in a place with circus apparatuses lying around, with wooden plaques and cutouts of clowns and other artists and decorations. Parade Master's appearance is that of a huge puppet with long hair, a top hat and a mustache, evoking the likeness of a circus ringmaster.

According to the game director, this part of the game and the boss are inspired by the chapter where Pinocchio is sold to the circus, this means that his appearance represents that of the character Mangiafuoco, the circus owner who makes Pinocchio work for him on his show and threatens to throw him into the fire if he disobeys.

Donkey

One of the bosses in Lies of P is “Mad Donkey”, a hunter who is after Geppetto on a bridge, he wears a donkey mask, and it is not known why the character chose that specific disguise. We can keep his mask for ourselves after defeating him.

In the story, Pinocchio goes to Pleasure Island, and ends up staying there so long that he turns into a donkey.

Geppetto

Geppetto is the great engineer who revolutionized puppetry, after inventing a heart that uses Ergo's energy, a new golden age began in the city of Kratt. He always asks P to be obedient and do everything he says, even if blindly. He is the third mentor for our character in the game, but the most ambiguous one and is always hiding something.

In The Adventures of Pinocchio, Geppetto was just a carpenter who created Pinocchio from a log which was alive, he also asks for obedience from the doll, just like a father with a son, but Pinocchio's antics always get him into some trouble.

The Terrible Dogfish

In one chapter, to get to the Black Seaside, we must travel in a submarine called “The Great Venigni and Pistris The Submarine”, with a shark painting that we catch after defeating the Black Rabbit Brotherhood.

The original tale is more brutal, causing Pinocchio, along with Geppetto, to be swallowed by a giant sea monster.

Black Rabbits

The Black Rabbit Brotherhood is a group of four hunters who are also after Geppetto, in the game. In one of the fights against P, they take a coffin with them into battle.

They refer to a moment when Pinocchio is recovering in the Blue Fairy's house, she tells him that he must take his medicine, or he will die, and the wooden doll says that he does not fear death and hence, will not take his medicine. Then four Black Rabbits enter, carrying a coffin, and the fairy says they came to get him. In that same moment, Pinocchio takes all the medicine, saying that there’s no need for them to be there, and they leave, annoyed.

Frankenstein’s Monster

The second major outbreak in Lies of P is the Petrification Disease that is affecting the game's humans. At one point, we follow through posters and documents the story of “Victor, the champion”, a wrestler who passed away due to illness - the alchemists resurrect him, but with no memories and a monstrous appearance.

The character's name is an allusion to Victor Frankenstein, the scientist and alchemist who created “Frankenstein's monster”, also resurrected from the dead.

Batman and The Riddler

In many places, we can find telephones which, when picked up, ask us some riddles we must answer. As we progress, we see that this quest is part of the story of Venigni, the richest character in the city of Krat and owner of the puppet factory.

As the story progresses, Venigni comments on Arlecchino, a puppet who killed his parents, and later we discover that the King of Riddles is Arlecchino, and he claims that it was thanks to him that the factory owner reached his full potential because his parents were going to limit him.

It doesn't take much to make correlations between the characters from Lies of P and those from DC, Venigni being a reference to Bruce Wayne, both due to the story of losing his parents and due to the personalities they both have. It’s also easy to make the correlation of The puppet King of Riddles with the villain Edward Nygma, also known as the Riddler, and in the game he is constantly testing P's reasoning with his riddles.

221B

In Lies of P we can find an item called Crafted Cryptic Vessel. After a quests session and being able to decipher them, a transcribed letter tells us to make a list of things around the city, and at the end go to the address “Elysion Boulevard 221B”.

The address 221B became famous in literature and pop culture for being the same number as the house of Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective in fiction, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Carlo

As the plot progresses, we discover that Pinocchio was created in the image of Geppetto's son, Carlo, the painting we found of the boy identical to the puppet was him. Several characters comment on their physical similarity.

The name Carlo is a direct reference to Carlo Collodi, the Italian author of the short story “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. Originally, the story of Pinocchio was published via separate chapters in a newspaper and, after the story chapters ended, it was compiled and turned into a book.

Dorothy

Apparently, the world of Lies of P is not limited to using the Pinocchio fairy tale universe: after finishing the game and beating all the adversities imposed on us in the hostile city of Krat, Pinocchio can finally rest. But in a post-credit scene, we see a character on a train named Paracelsus, talking on the phone about “A New Kind of Humanity.”

The phrase refers to the end of the game where the puppet became human, and he completes the sentence by saying that, upon returning to the city, he will meet Dorothy, and then a scene is shown where we only see the legs of a girl with red shoes going to the front of the Hotel, and clicking her heels three times.

Dorothy is the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz, from 1939, and the story elements of the ruby-colored shoes are elements that became striking symbolism thanks to the movie. Originally, Dorothy wore silver shoes, but this was changed for the film version.

The film is a classic and solidified the idea of ​​Dorothy wearing red shoes, which explains why they chose to have the character wear the same color at the end of Lies of P.

Lies of P is a game full of hidden content, and it would be difficult to write down all the references and Easter eggs that exist in it.

Lies of P was one of the biggest surprises of 2023 and was nominated twice for the 2023 Game of The Year, namely Best art direction and Best RPG game. A DLC for 2024 has also been confirmed, but we don't have a lot of information about it, apart from some concept images of Pinocchio boarding a ship.

A sequel for the game has also been confirmed, which does not have an expected release date, but which should address the post-credits scene and Dorothy's connection with the game's world!