Lies of P is often hailed as one of the best Soulslikes outside of FromSoftware's titles, but its brutal difficulty even affected its own creators. In a new documentary about the game's development, Neowiz revealed that the decision to add more accessible difficulty modes in an update accompanying the DLC Lies of P: Overture was made because the majority of the development team couldn't even make it halfway through the game.
This Korean studio has a tradition called "Game Day," where all developers put down their development tools, pick up controllers, and attempt to clear the game from start to finish like ordinary players. The idea is simple: to understand their project from the consumer's perspective. And the results for Lies of P were far more candid than expected.
The Combat System Director explained in the documentary: "Initially, we required everyone to beat the game on a fixed difficulty. For combat designers and our most experienced players, clearing it wasn't too hard. But for those with weaker mechanical skills, most couldn't even finish half of it before the deadline. So we introduced lower difficulty levels to ensure everyone could complete the entire game."
The real turning point came after adding the easy difficulty. When developers began experimenting with lower difficulties, the studio noticed a significant improvement in the quality of internal reviews. The team received much more positive feedback, which ultimately convinced them that adding difficulty tiers would indeed benefit players.
However, this decision was also met with controversy. Fans of Soulslike games generally consider "no difficulty adjustment" a defining feature of the genre, and the update introducing two modes easier than the standard difficulty sparked considerable debate within the community. Furthermore, the Game Director had previously stated publicly that he believed Soulslike games should not have difficulty adjustments, which further escalated the controversy surrounding this decision.