Well, I feel a need to put an asterisk on this, despite the fact that I'd never before considered beating a game on the lowest difficulty to be in any way "illegitimate." Still, it was on my Guiding Butterfly Advance build character that I defeated the final boss of Lies of P Overture.
The thing I feel stupid about is that I progressed the main game past meeting Arlecchino at Arche Abbey, meaning that, having not defeated him in the past already, I didn't get any special dialogue.
The Arlecchino fight is pretty serious - even on this low difficulty and helping Lea up so that she aided me in combat (while I haven't summoned specters for other fights, I feel like the story demands that we get Alidoro to help with the Two-Faced Overseer and Lea to help with Arlecchino) it took me three or possibly four attempts.
Granted, I'm sure that on Legendary Stalker mode, even with Lea's help, it's probably take me far more than that.
I realized I had gotten some details wrong in my previous post speculating on the death of Carlo.
First off, it seems quite explicit on a second visit to the Rose Estate that Carlo had Petrification Disease. Whether that is what actually killed him or not remains more ambiguous, but I'm inclined to think that it didn't, based on some notes from the Alchemists - someone confessed to figuring out the "Devil's Path" or something along those lines that talks about how they need to collect a person's Ergo before they die and transfer it into a vessel that resembles that person - which seems to be precisely what was done to Carlo/Pinocchio.
The other thing I had misunderstood is that Valentinus Monad was not, evidently, the leader of the Alchemists, as he winds up getting excommunicated from them for handing over the "ancient one's hand" to outsiders, in the name of stopping the ethically-catastrophic actions of his fellow alchemists.
Who, actually, is Valentinus' superior? That I'm less clear on, because it's clearly not Simon Manus. Is it actually Gepetto?
I think I was right to think that Lea and Sophia are sisters - there's a portrait that appears to depict the two of them and their parents. (I'm not entirely clear what relationship Lea has to Markiona, though it might be that they were just friends once, given that her father and Markiona were both alchemists.)
I do think that Carlo might have been a kind of patient-zero for an outbreak of the Petrification Disease at the Monad Charity House (sorry for being inconsistent - the Rose Estate and the MCH are the same place). Valentinus, in his excommunication, is apparently given a cure for the disease, but as we know, the Alchemists have a tendency to give faulty cures that turn people into carcasses if they don't like the people. We see this happen to Lumacchio, and to the refugees at the Cathedral.
Anyway, the boss fight:
There are some pretty insane combos that go on for a long time, which is how I died the first couple times. Phase one is actually pretty quick, and his attacks are relatively easy to perfect block. But the second phase is much more relentless, and actually bears some similarities to Maria of the Atral Clocktower in Bloodborne's Old Hunters DLC, in that his attacks sometimes come with a follow-up attack in the form of a spray of blood.
I am actually really glad that they include a Boss Rematch option with the DLC patch - one of the most frustrating things about these games is that you need to start a whole other playthrough to fight a boss a second time. I suspect that beating them on a high difficulty (maybe the highest) unlocks their music for the hotel record player (which will for sure change to tone of Hotel Krat). I can't figure out what else would account for the uncollected records in the menu.
I'm also now trying to figure out if there are actually enough Ancient Disks in the DLC to buy everything from Klaus. There are still several items I have yet to pick up from him, but I've been very thorough (and even consulted walkthroughs in the twistier areas of the game to ensure I was getting everything). If not, and if I do a NG+ on this character (probably bumping it up to the medium difficulty) I'll probably prioritize the cosmetic items. Without any new Legion Arms to construct, for example, I doubt that I'll really need the Legion Calibers. Also, for an Advance build, I've already got most of the weapons that scale with it maxed out to +10 (insane to me that none of the boss/covenant weapons work for Advance).
Anyway, I still need to go fight the Nameless Puppet on this character, and then the question becomes whether to go into NG+. I know that the P-Organ enhancements expand into multiple new game cycles, and I'd be curious to see if they get any cool new functions.
Overall, I really have to say that this is a fantastic DLC - it feels substantial and complete, with memorable bosses and areas. Between this and Shadow of the Erdtree last year, Souls-likes fans have had some really great DLC content to chew on.
Also, true to Lies of P's MO, the game really hits you right in the heart with a lot of emotional damage. Not only do we have the tragedy of the collapse of Carlo's found family, but the conclusion to the Rosaura quest line, which takes place in "modern day," almost made me cry.
I'm super-curious to see whether the folks at Studio 8 make good on the post-credits promise (/threat?) to make a similar souls-like game with Dorothy from Wizard of Oz as the protagonist. First off, it'd be really cool to have a female protagonist to one of these games (admittedly most of them let you design your own character, but the few I've heard of with set main characters have all been male) but also I think there are some interesting and quite different visual motifs and themes you could explore, plus a lot of deep lore to pull from.
While perhaps lacking the design variety of the FromSoft games, the actual visual fidelity of Lies of P is excellent, and I'm hoping the game's success gives them the resources to really do some amazing things (if nothing else, the way that snow works in Overture is really stunning, between the way it slowly collects on Pinocchio's hair or hat, or how he leaves trails in it). I'll be keeping an eye out for "Wishes of D" or whatever they call the next game.
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