Overture’s DLC is Easier to Access Now, But There’s an Asterisk Attached

Lies of P: Overture has had time to marinate and simmer since its shadow-drop launch. Having just celebrated 3 million copies sold, Lies of P is closing its book on quite a high note if there truly is nothing more planned for the Adventures of Pinocchio adaptation specifically. Details are still nonexistent about what its sequel will look like, though, and whether it plants roots in Krat or moves onto the Emerald City is yet to be seen. Either way, Lies of P: Overture is a complete package on its own and is a terrific standalone entry as a Soulslike action-RPG.

It’s been known for a while that Neowiz would be tweaking Lies of P: Overture somewhat with an upcoming patch, which was announced in a Director’s Letter video from Ji Won Choi. Here, the tease of “various adjustments, including damage reduction” was an interesting proposition since Lies of P: Overture’s difficulty is made plain in a NG playthrough, let alone NG+1 and so on, yet there are already many ways to mitigate difficulty in the DLC’s accompanying update. This new patch, however, has arrived and grants players a far better quality-of-life improvement by pulling back on its elaborate DLC access point requirement.

Lies of P Overture Bloodborne Old Hunters Difficulty

How Lies of P: Overture’s Difficulty Compares to Bloodborne: The Old Hunters

Lies of P: Overture and Bloodborne: The Old Hunters are not only alike regarding art style and atmosphere, but their intense difficulty, too.

Lies of P: Overture’s DLC Access was Originally a Long and Taxing Effort

If anyone who enjoyed the base game and was looking forward to the DLC hasn’t played it yet, that’s more than likely because Lies of P: Overture was shadow-dropped. It’s fantastic that players received it sooner rather than later, but shadow-dropping a Soulslike DLC was debatably a questionable decision, particularly with how long it took to actually reach the DLC’s access point.

Indeed, when the DLC shadow-dropped, players were tasked to reach the end of Chapter 9 to repair the Hotel Krat stargazer, retrieve a key item, and then make their way to the broken stargazer near Chapter 5’s ‘Path of the Pilgrim’ stargazer, as prompted. This was enforced no matter what NG playthrough players were on, meaning that each new and subsequent playthrough would require players to trek through nearly all of Lies of P’s base game before being able to access Overture content.

Lies of P: Overture’s DLC Has Lessened the Strain on NG+ Playthroughs

Thankfully, reaching Lies of P: Overture’s DLC access point is no longer as exhausting. As the Major Changes patch notes for Version 1.9.0.0 read:

Starting from your second playthrough, you can access the Lies of P: Overture DLC from Chapter 5 at the “Path of the Pilgrim.” Please read any on-screen prompts carefully.

This is followed by equally immense changes, such as “reduced monster difficulty in repeat playthroughs” and “adjusted stats for certain field monsters in the first playthrough of Lies of P: Overture,” but not needing to forever get to Chapter 9 before entering the DLC is a wonderful quality-of-life update on its own. This will surely incentivize NG+ playthroughs for the sake of accessing the DLC at Chapter 5 instead of Chapter 9, with the suggested asterisk in this change being that fresh NG playthroughs will still require players to make that journey, presumably to collect the necessary key item in the first place.

If the patch notes are suggesting that any ordinary second playthrough will suffice, be it a NG or NG+ playthrough, then that would be even more agreeable, though the distinction is unclear.

Regardless, there’s no doubt that this is a terrific change and that NG+ playthroughs have been heavily affected by this patch. Considering the overtuned difficulty in Lies of P: Overture’s NG+ playthroughs, this seems like it was the most favorable plan of action.

It’ll be interesting to see if future patches include any other meaningful changes to Lies of P: Overture. For now, the base game and DLC seem to accommodate however tough players may want them to be, and also allow a much quicker entry to Overture’s new content.