The following contains major spoilers regarding the final boss in Lies of P: Overture.
Lies of P: Overture has a scorching-hot start with Krat Zoo encompassing a large opening chapter with distinct ‘zones’ players descend into. The first enemies players come across as they travel to the past are some of the most aggressive and terrifying between dog and monkey Carcasses, for example, with bear, kangaroo, and elephant Carcasses taking the cake as some of the most challenging regular enemies in all of Lies of P. It can be jarring, then, when players face their first boss fight against the Tyrannical Predator, a gigantic crocodile Carcass, which isn’t nearly as challenging as players may suspect.
Every boss fight in Lies of P: Overture is difficult to some degree; for instance, Markiona, Puppeteer of Death and her Queen’s Arche Puppet can be tremendously overwhelming until players learn how to dodge and counter the puppet out of the corner of their eye while fully focusing and locking onto Markiona. However, the perspective of difficulty in Lies of P shifts dramatically when players finally make their way through the Rose Estate and meet Arlecchino, the Blood Artist—for the second time, technically, depending on how far in the base game players progress before entering the DLC.
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Lies of P: Overture Turns an Already Disturbing Arlecchino into a Horrifying Villain
Lies of P: Overture begins its prequel adventure with P and Gemini aimlessly exploring Krat Zoo before their journey has them tailing Lea Florence Monad and eventually assisting her in attempting to rescue Romeo and defeat Arlecchino. Because of this newfound purpose, stakes and suspense are much higher when players meet an ailing and distraught Lea, the so-called “Legendary Stalker,” which, in turn, makes Arlecchino far scarier due to the severity of his artistic, macabre revenge.
It also helps if players have prior familiarity with Arlecchino after answering his phone calls and answering his riddles with a lie or a truth, let alone encountering a demolished puppet body of his. Either way, at the time of this writing—before the ambiguous “damage reduction” changes reportedly coming to the game—Arlecchino, the Blood Artist undoubtedly takes the cake as the hardest boss in all of Lies of P.
The perspective of difficulty in Lies of P shifts dramatically when players finally make their way through the Rose Estate and meet Arlecchino, the Blood Artist.
Arlecchino is Both Lies of P: Overture’s Easiest and Hardest Boss
Arlecchino is highly reminiscent of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Promised Consort Radahn, in that he is a tremendously challenging boss who easily eclipses all others who came before him. That said, while Sir Ansbach and Thiollier can be summoned as NPCs to no greater avail than if players attempt Radahn solo, Lies of P: Overture’s Arlecchino is as hard or as easy as players want him to be as long as they interact with Lea Florence Monad.
Without Lea, Arlecchino’s first phase, represented as a whole health bar, is demanding yet telegraphable. However, Arlecchino becomes a genuine nightmare in his second phase, beginning with a stream of blood skull projectiles that are followed by bloody wave AoEs and a 10-hit combo string and another blood AoE, for good measure. Arlecchino’s blood AoEs are remarkably quick and tough to react to, and there are countless attacks to learn and adapt to between the boss’ arm blades and saw blades. Plus, Arlecchino will eventually repeat the blisteringly long opening combo.
With Lea, Arlecchino is quite trivial, if not cinematic. Even if Lea isn’t fully tanking Arlecchino’s aggro, the amount of damage she’ll deal to him is substantial during the time it takes for players to Perfect Guard—Lies of P’s iteration on parries—a handful of strikes.
If Lea is fighting alongside P, the two will band together for a team-up Fatal attack when Arlecchino is staggered in his second phase.
If nothing else, it would seem as though Arlecchino, the Blood Artist is designed with Lea’s cooperation in consideration, whereas playing solo is a choice players can make if they wish for the boss fight to be incredibly grueling. The latter approach could be seen as deflating with Lea being so overpowered, yet the boss fight is arguably hers to conquer, and can be purely cinematic and enriching for the story in that way, especially with how well-integrated she is in the fight. Therefore, regardless of whether players want to engage with it by themselves or not, Arlecchino’s boss fight is the best of both worlds.