Neowiz have shared a new trailer revealing the launch month for upcoming action game, Lies of P. Lies of P is releasing on August 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
The launch month trailer features an unnamed character giving a sinister monologue. While Neowiz and developer Round 8 still have yet to reveal the names of the characters and the full backstory for the game, we can of course make educated guesses on who these characters are. We already know that Pinocchio and Gepetto are named in the game, and the fairy has already appeared in gameplay videos.
This character is most likely to be the puppet master, the owner of The Great Marionette Theater. In the original 1883 novel, Carlo Collodi gave him the name Mangiafuoco, AKA fire eater.
Mangiafuoco’s characterization is one who appears to be an imposing, rough character, but only at first. He threatens to burn Pinocchio to firewood for ruining his show, but later sets him free and even gives him five gold coins.
That kindness under a gruff exterior did not translate to most media characterizations of the puppet master. In fact, even his name didn’t survive most adaptations of the story.
In the most famous version of Pinocchio, the 1940 Disney feature film, the character is renamed Stromboli. Stromboli initially pretends to be kind-hearted, but later reveals himself to be a cruel and arrogant headmaster.
If you saw Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, you would have seen the character be reworked alongside the Wolf and combined into a new character called Count Volpe, a former artistocrat who runs a circus. Volpe is the main antagonist of this film, a cruel ringmaster to both his human and nonhuman subjects.
Getting back to the video game Lies of P, this apparent puppet master seemingly demonstrates an ability to build his own inhuman creations. His speech reflects a disdain for other people. There’s also a lot of talk about building a new world, that obviously doesn’t match anything in any previous fictional portrayal.
If there is anything identifying this character as possibly the puppet master, it would be his need for acceptance. His last lines in the trailer are “Soon, they’ll praise me”, every bit the kind of thing someone who runs a circus or a puppet show would say about themselves and their act.
As for Ergo? If we go back to the original novel, Mangiafuoco has built many puppets of his own, which would match this character’s apparent ability to build his own machinations. Three of Mangiafuoco’s puppets are Pinocchio’s friends; Harlequin, Punch, and Signora Rosaura.
Ergo could be any of these three characters, or as befitting a Pinocchio adaptation, an amalgamation of several other characters, or none of them at all. Given the crazy twists and changes other authors have made to Collodi’s story, it’s actually very fitting that Round 8 Studios twist their own version of the Pinocchio story to fit their own ends as well.
You can watch the full trailer and decide for yourself what to think below.
