Pre-Release Speculation
Geppetto is secretly villainous.
- Geppetto didn't build Pinocchio for the sake of having a child but as the prototype for his planned robotic army of doom and there's a damn good reason why apparently everyone in the city desperately wants to keep him from being rescued by Pinocchio. Whether Pinocchio realizes any of this optional.
- Somewhat confirmed. He is villainous, but his motivation is more in regards to trying to resurrect his dead child by using Pinocchio to create a strong enough P-Organ rather than trying to take over the world.
The ringmaster/showman character in the top hat and red coat is the game's version of the fox.
- He has a fox's coloring (red, with black trim - note the fur lining on his coat) and sports a "V" pin - the Latin word for fox is "vulpes".
- Jossed. The "V" is the logo of Vegnini Works. The game's fox analogue is Red Fox.
This version of Monstro is an Eldritch Abomination being used as a power-source for the automatons.
- It wouldn't be a proper Souls-like if it didn't have a lovecraftian horror from beyond that destroyed the same civilization it helped indirectly improve in the short-term (the First Flame and the Lord Souls, the Great One's blood, the healing waters, etc). Odds are its blubber is being harvested — like the oil from Dishonored — and used as a power source for Geppetto's machines, and either it corrupted the "puppets" over time or there was some kind of catalyst that made them go manic all at once. It's also likely that it has something to do with the Blue Fairy-character's blue growths
◊.- Jossed. Monstro is in the game, sorta, as a submarine you use to go to the island with the Alchemist base, and the front of the submarine looks kinda like a shark's face (as it was a shark in the original novel, not a whale). However in terms of Monstro's role in the story (forcibly separating Pinocchio from his father), that's taken up by Simon Manus.
The player will choose whether to kill Geppetto or not.
- Geppetto's relationship with his robot creation seems to be the main theme of the game, just like the source material the game is based on. However, revelations will have the player choosing whether to blindly follow Geppetto's orders, or turn against him which will lead to his death, which the player might bring about. It will likely be done in a truth or lie final choice.
- Confirmed. P has the choice of either obeying Geppetto's order to give up his heart to resurrect Carlo or refuse, prompting Geppetto to sic the Nameless Puppet after P and die in the process of protecting P's heart.
Our character isn't just immune to the fourth law, he's immune to all four
- Adding to the idea of us eventually turning on Geppetto, this would definitely require our character to break the first law of the Great Covenant (always obey your creator) as well as the second (never harm a human). Thing is, in the demo we're already capable, and in fact forced, to break the second law, as the Mad Donkey was definitely a human.
- Confirmed. P was never bound by the laws of the Grand Covenant on behalf of Geppetto designing him that way.
The Puppet Frenzy is not some sort of glitch, it's the system working as intended
- If the order of the laws of the Great Covenant means a higher law overrides a lower one (as is the case with Asimov's laws, its obvious inspiration), this means the "never harm a human" law has an obvious built-in flaw in the implicit "unless your creator asks you to, as failing to obey would break the first law". The puppets that went into frenzy seem to all share a creator in the mysterious Venigni. We could easily have some Dr. Wily situation going on here.
- Confirmed, only they are not following Vegnini's orders but Geppetto's.
Our character can lie because he's not a true puppet, but part human
- In the demo, our character is called a "special kind of puppet" by Sophia. The Mad Donkey knows what we are. Antonia, the hotel owner gives us clothes called "Someone's Memory" that has been worn before and fits us perfectly. And last but not least, everyone, including Geppetto calls us his "son". That leads me to think that our character is part human, and is in fact Geppetto's actual son. Something happened that Geppetto had to add machine parts powered by Ergo to keep him alive. It explains why he doesn't resemble any of the other puppets we see, and would also explain why he can lie and why he can break some of the laws of the Great Covenant (such as harming a human). Also, if you look at Geppetto and our character, they greatly resemble each other, Geppetto's hair style is almost the same as our guy, just grey.
- Sorta confirmed. You're basically a replacement for Geppetto's real son and the reason you're becoming more and more human over the course of the game is because you were never bound to the Grand Covenant and thus always possessed your own ego.
The player character isn't Pinocchio and the latter will be fought as a boss
- Notice how at no point in the demo nor in the Steam description is the player character referred to as "Pinocchio". He's only referred to as "Geppetto's puppet" and the Steam description says the game is "inspired by the story of Pinocchio". Pinocchio is in the public domain so it makes no sense for them to be Writing Around Trademarks. They are likely going for a misdirection along the lines of Hollow Knight.
- To elaborate on this, since the main character is also named "P", it's possible he is some early prototype of Pinocchio.
- Somewhat Jossed. It's never outright confirmed if you're Pinocchio but everything points to it, and you never fight Pinocchio as a boss. Some have theorized the reason the game is called Lies of P and not Lies of Pinocchio is simply because the latter would get buried in the algorithm when trying to look the game up in search engines.
General WMG
The Petrification Disease isn't actually a disease.
- Spoilers for the game's end but it turns out the entire reason the Puppet Frenzy happened was because something went wrong with Carlo's heart and he needs a new one. He isn't actually dead, he just needs a replacement. Geppetto told all the puppets to go berserk so that P would kill them all, absorb their ergo, and thus power up his P-Organ enough that it'd be a suitable replacement heart for Carlo. How does this tie into the Petrification Disease? Well the PD is actually a very recent phenomenon in the world, and yet when you see Carlo in the bad end he has a perfectly preserved body aside from his left arm, which makes him look just like P. Bodies don't really perserve well without blood being pumped through them, so what would keep his body in such good shape? How about the original, unmutated strain of the Petrification Disease, which might not even be a disease at all but some form of magic? That it was only designed for Carlo's body and when it accidentally spread to other people, it started mutating out of control and killing or deforming everyone?
Sequels and The Second Key (End Game Spoilers)
If there's a sequel, it will be called Wants of D.
While Pinocchio is famous for lying, Dorothy and her friends are famous for wanting.- Alternatively, it's Wants of Gale, since Wants of D sounds like a Double Entendre.
- And lies of P doesn't?
If there's a sequel and Pinocchio is in it, he'll take the role of the tin man.
Instead of looking for a heart, his current P-Organ will be irreparably damaged at some point between the games, forcing him to use an inferior replacement made by Venigni. He'll team up with Dorothy to follow her on her quest in hopes of getting a replacement from the equivalent to the Wizard of Oz as, with Geppetto dead, noone knows how to make them the way his was made anymore. This could also be used to explain him not being as strong as he used to be anymore.The setting of the game (and sequels) is the same as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Pretty self explanatory really - tying into the above WMG - Dorothy would serve as the leader of a new league, with P as the Tin Man. The Scarecrow and Lion would be represented by characters from other public domain literature.- Possible Scarecrow:
- Possible Lion:
- Beauty and/or the Beast from Beauty and the Beast
- The Big Bad Wolf from a lot of things
- Dr. Jekyll or Dr. Victor Von Frankenstein.
- Goldilocks or one of the Three Bears
If Dorothy really is playable, instead of the Legion Arm, she will have a summon for Toto
P having a mechanic arm made a lot of sense, considering the origin of the character, but it would made much less sense with Dorothy. So instead of a Legion Arm, maybe she could use Toto as a summon with a variety of attacks, mechanically functioning the same way as the arm.- Instead of being a little black dog, Toto is a larger wolf or wolf-like creature.
- Could also possibly be Stalker allies representing the original Dorothy's travelling companions.
Philippus Paracelsus is this setting's version of Peter Pan
He has the same initials, even signing a letter with them to make it clear, and his discovery of the secret of immortality at an apparently fairly young age could symbolically represent him never growing up. Who knows, considering his apparent tendency to operate under assumed names, maybe he could show up in the future under the name Peter Pan and make it overt?Paracelsus's search for new humanity forms is based on him trying to create a homunculus
In real life, Paracelsus did write about creating homunculi and even wrote down a method for it.The woman Paracelsus is talking to on a phone is the main villain, and she's either Wicked Witch of the West, Queen of Hearts or Alice
The sequel's central character is Dorothy, so the Witch would make sense. However, if the whole franchise will be based on characters from various fables, we would very probably get Alice or Queen of Hearts, as they're some of the most famous characters from children literature. Additionaly, given Gepetto's Adaptational Villainy, Alice being the villain would not be so surprising.