Lies of P Getting Easy Difficulty Modes, Director Explains Why

Lies of P is often held up as one of the truly great soulslikes from a team that’s not Elden Ring developer FromSoftware. But it wasn’t just quality that garnered praise for Lies of P, but also its steep challenge with a single difficulty mode for players to beat their heads against. However, that’s about to change, since Round8 Studio is patching in a Lies of P easy mode to coincide with its latest expansion.

This upcoming update, dropping at some unknown pointin the summer, will add two easier modes called “Butterfly’s Guidance” and “Awakened,” and are for “players who want a more story-focused experience with varying degrees of intensity.” These can be swapped to at any time and can act as a way to get newer players past any tough sections in the early parts of the game or a particularly grueling boss fight. The default difficulty setting that used to be the only setting is now going to be called “Legendary Stalker” going forward.

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While some are likely to think this ruins the sanctity of the game, director Jiwon Choi explained why the studio added the mode in a roundtable interview at a preview event for Lies of P: Overture.

“We wanted to make sure a wider audience of gamers with different traits and characteristics could enjoy the game,” said Choi through a translator. “That’s the whole purpose: so we can serve many gamers.”

When prompted if the team came to this decision after external requests or internal desires, Choi said that both were factors.

“We get that feedback from the customers, as we have been observing and hearing and getting the feedback throughout since the game’s launch,” he said. “But also, we do internal testing all the time, and we have many different types of developers with different types of feedback. This just broadens the base.”

This isn’t the first time Round8 has made the game easier. Lies of P has received multiple patches, a few of which have decreased enemy (including the bosses) health and buffed certain player attributes. These have turned an extremely challenging game into something slightly more manageable, something the more codified difficulty modes will also help achieve.

Overture and the update coming with it will have something for hardcore players, too, as these easy modes are coming out alongside two boss rush modes that will test each player’s skill and endurance.