Lies of P vs Sekiro: Which Soulslike Should You Play?

Combat: Sekiro Is a Sword Duel, Lies of P Gives You Options

Sekiro is built around one idea. Instead of whittling down an enemy’s health, you attack and deflect to break their posture, then land a single killing blow called a deathblow. You use the same katana from start to finish, backed by tools on Wolf’s prosthetic arm, and the game pushes you to stay aggressive and trade blows rather than roll away.

Lies of P plays more like a traditional soulslike with Sekiro’s ideas mixed in. You can block, dodge or parry. Blocking costs a little health that you win back by hitting the enemy right away, and a well-timed parry staggers the enemy and damages their weapon. On top of your main weapon, P’s mechanical Legion Arm swaps between gadgets like a grappling hook, a flamethrower and a hand cannon, a clear nod to Sekiro’s prosthetic tools.

The result is two very different feels. Sekiro’s fights flow like a rhythm game once deflecting clicks, and its combat is still one of the best in the genre. Lies of P is slower and more deliberate, with more room to fall back on dodging or blocking when parrying isn’t working.

Play videoSekiro: Shadows Die Twice – Gameplay Overview | PS4

Parry Window: Sekiro Is More Forgiving

This is the most common question about the two games, and the answer surprises people. Sekiro has a reputation for being brutal, but its deflect is a timed block with a generous window, and a slightly early or late press still blocks the hit instead of leaving you open. Its riskiest defensive move is the Mikiri Counter, which answers specific thrust attacks.

Lies of P’s perfect guard is much stricter. Its parry window feels narrow, especially coming from Sekiro, and many enemies use delayed wind-ups that snap into fast attacks, so mistimed parries get punished. The upside is that you don’t have to parry to win. You can finish Lies of P leaning on dodging and blocking, while Sekiro all but requires you to learn deflects.

Difficulty: Sekiro Has No Shortcuts, Lies of P Has Settings

Which game is harder depends on how you play, but for most people who finish both, Sekiro is the harder game. The bigger difference is how much help each game offers.

Sekiro has no character stats to grind, no multiplayer summons and no difficulty settings, so the only way past a tough boss is to get better at fighting it. Lies of P gives you more ways out. You can level up P’s attributes with Ergo, summon an AI-controlled spectre before boss fights, and change the difficulty, thanks to adjustable difficulty and the accessibility options added with the Overture update.

If you’ve bounced off FromSoftware games before, Lies of P is the easier one to stick with. If you want a challenge that only you can solve, Sekiro is the purer trial of skill.

Builds and Progression: Lies of P Wins on Variety

Lies of P is the clear winner if you like experimenting. Most weapons are made of a blade and a handle that you can split and recombine, so you can put a heavy blade on a fast handle, and each combination brings a special move called a Fable Art. Add stat leveling, a skill tree powered by Quartz, boss weapons, amulets and Legion Arms, and you can build very different versions of P.

Play videoLies of P – Official Gameplay Trailer | IGN Fan Fest 2023

Sekiro has far fewer RPG elements. There’s no character creation and no stat leveling, and you keep one katana for the whole game. Progress comes from skill trees, upgraded prosthetic tools and, most of all, your own improvement. That focus is exactly why its fans love it, but players who enjoy theorycrafting builds in Elden Ring may find it limiting.

Exploration and Stealth: Sekiro Moves Better

Sekiro’s grappling hook lets Wolf zip onto rooftops and tree branches, which opens up its levels vertically and feeds into stealth. Sneak up on most enemies undetected and you can kill them instantly or badly hurt them, so scouting an area before a fight is a big part of the game.

Lies of P plays like a classic soulslike on the ground. Its grappling Legion Arm is a combat tool for closing the gap with enemies, not a way to reach rooftops. It makes up for that with secrets: ringing phones pose riddles that reward Trinity Keys, which open locked areas, and hidden Cryptic Vessels lead to extra loot.

Story and Setting: Pinocchio’s Krat vs Sengoku Japan

Lies of P is a dark retelling of Pinocchio set in Krat, a city inspired by the Belle Époque, where puppets have turned on the people they served. Its standout feature is a lie-or-truth choice system. Key conversations let you tell the truth or lie, and those decisions shape side stories and the ending you get.

Sekiro is set in a fictionalized Sengoku-period Japan steeped in Buddhist mythology. You play Wolf, a shinobi trying to rescue his young lord, and your loyalty decisions lead to four different endings. Neither setting is objectively better, so pick the world you’d rather spend your time in.

Content and DLC: Lies of P Has More to Play

Lies of P has a paid expansion. Overture, released in June 2025, is a prequel set in Krat before its collapse, with new enemies, weapons and side quests, and the game also has New Game Plus. A Nintendo Switch 2 version followed in August 2026.

Sekiro never got a story expansion. Its free October 2020 update added new cosmetics for Wolf and a boss rush mode, which is a great way to replay its fights. If you want the most content for your time, Lies of P plus Overture offers more.

Player Reviews and Player Counts: Sekiro Still Leads

Both games are loved, but Sekiro is in a different league in reputation. It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2019 and had sold more than 10 million copies by September 2023. Lies of P was nominated at The Game Awards and passed 3 million copies by June 2025, a huge success for a non-FromSoftware soulslike.

Steam’s numbers back that up. Here’s how they compared when we checked on October 11, 2026:

Player counts change throughout the day, but at the time we checked, Sekiro had nearly four times as many people playing, despite being four years older.

Price, Platforms and PC Requirements: Sekiro Is Cheaper and Lighter

On Steam, Sekiro’s Game of the Year Edition lists for about half of Lies of P’s base price, and both get discounted during Steam sales. Lies of P is on more platforms, with native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Switch 2. Sekiro came out on PS4, Xbox One and PC only, with no native current-gen console version.

Sekiro is also far easier to run on an older PC. Its minimum spec is a GeForce GTX 760 with 4 GB of RAM and 25 GB of storage, while Lies of P asks for a GTX 960 with 4 GB of video memory, 8 GB of RAM and 50 GB of space. Both play best on a gamepad, and Steam lists full controller support for each. If you need one, see our picks for the best PC controllers.

Lies of P vs Sekiro: Full Specs

And the Winner Is…

WinnerSekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Lies of P is one of the best soulslikes not made by FromSoftware, and it beats Sekiro on several fronts. It gives you weapon crafting, real builds, difficulty settings and a paid expansion, and it’s the gentler of the two if parrying isn’t your strength. Still, Sekiro is the one we’d hand to most players. Its deflect-and-posture combat is more forgiving than its reputation, more satisfying than any parry system Lies of P offers, and it turns every boss into a duel you’ll remember. It costs less on Steam, runs on older PCs and still had far more players online than Lies of P when we checked. In the Lies of P vs Sekiro matchup, pick Lies of P if you want an Elden Ring-style build game or need difficulty options. Everyone else should start with Sekiro.