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Lisa: The Painful RPG: The Best Game You Never Played (but should)

C

Cronox

Banned
I've had this game on my wishlist cause I have good taste, but I'm in no hurry right now. Look forward to playing it when I'm ready though, and in the meantime good on you OP.
 
K

Kieli

Member
cityhunter said:
3edgy5me. No thanks.
Click to expand...

Edgy, this game is not.

Edgy implies shock value and absurdity for the sake of it.

The design here is consistent. At times hilarious, at times gross, at times horrifying, and at times moving. It's a great game.

That its themes, design, and humor do not resonate with you or jive with your sensibilities does not make it "edgy".
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Dascu said:
Alright, I think I will get this. What would an estimated playtime length be?
Click to expand...

Not terribly long, actually. Depending on the side stuff and how often you die or get stuck in some areas you're looking at like...let's say 8-12 hours? I think it took me around 10 my first time through.
 
UberTag

UberTag

Member
OniBarubary said:
latest


Jim Motherfucking Sterling
Click to expand...
Thank god for him.
 
T

Tenck

Member
OniBarubary said:
Any of the crows around the world. They're easy to spot.
Click to expand...

Dude thanks for quick reply!

Also can you explain his connection to the
baby next to his room. Is it his sibling that dies?

I see that there's another game but you made me want to play this one right now.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Tenck said:
Dude thanks for quick reply!

Also can you explain his connection to the
baby next to his room. Is it his sibling that dies?

I see that there's another game but you made me want to play this one right now.
Click to expand...

Ha, since I'm nocturnal due to some circumstances I'm sorta just refreshing this page every now and again at 4 in the morning to make sure that people get questions answered and that this thread lasts til when normal human beings are awake. No prob bob.

Since the 1st game does exist and explores the girl Lisa, I guess it's not reeeeally spoilers but
the girl next to his room is his sister who is the girl on the title screen that hung herself.

The first game is okay but I'll be honest and say I'm not one for trippy exploration games like Yume Nikki. This one was WAY more up my alley and the first one isn't entirely necessary to fully "get" the 2nd one.
 
R

Red

Member
Kwixotik said:
Do you
have to kill the girl
Click to expand...
She stars in the sequel, which will be out August 25th.

In reality, the decisions you have to make are even more uncomfortable. The last choice in the game is heartbreaking, no matter which option you go with. What would be the "good" option in most games is filled with such pathos it might make you feel worse than anything else.

LISA is one of my favorite ever games. Did 45 hours my first time through, and am currently doing a second run. Can't wait for the sequel. It's definitely something special. As good a sell as the OP is, if you haven't read it but intend to play the game, it might be good to skip it for now. LISA is full of twists and difficult decisions, but many of them feel inevitable, and I can see someone reading vague descriptions connecting the dots in-game more readily than during a blind play. The game is best experienced without a solid idea of what is coming next.

I recommend pain mode from the start. It's what I did, and I loved nearly every second. Every decision counts. And in a world filled with deadly pits, where one wrong move could mean losing an hour or more of progress, every step counts. The feeling of constant stress is like nothing else I've played, and if that doesn't sound like an endorsement you still haven't figured out what kind of game LISA is.
 
S

StanleyPalmtree

Banned
alright, you sold me, i brought the game despite my increasingly dwindling amount of money.

now i just hope i dont forget about the game before i actually find time to play it.
 
R

Red

Member
One note on the OP (minor non-story related spoilers):

There is one late-game area that is perfect to grind at: the EWC. Battles there are among the game's easiest. Enemies fall quickly, there is a free risk-free inn two short screens away, and each battle rewards 2000 exp. The best part, losing here does not count against you. It is a totally risk-free way to bump up under leveled characters to playable stats, and it arrives at its most useful time.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Sounds cool.
Is it particularly challenging? 'cause i'm no good at turn based RPGs.
Alright, the OP does mention battles are very tough, so i guess it is.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Crunched said:
She stars in the sequel, which will be out August 25th.

In reality, the decisions you have to make are even more uncomfortable. The last choice in the game is heartbreaking, no matter which option you go with. What would be the "good" option in most games is filled with such pathos it might make you feel worse than anything else.

LISA is one of my favorite ever games. Did 45 hours my first time through, and am currently doing a second run. Can't wait for the sequel. It's definitely something special. As good a sell as the OP is, if you haven't read it but intend to play the game, it might be good to skip it for now. LISA is full of twists and difficult decisions, but many of them feel inevitable, and I can see someone reading vague descriptions connecting the dots in-game more readily than during a blind play. The game is best experienced without a solid idea of what is coming next.

I recommend pain mode from the start. It's what I did, and I loved nearly every second. Every decision counts. And in a world filled with deadly pits, where one wrong move could mean losing an hour or more of progress, every step counts. The feeling of constant stress is like nothing else I've played, and if that doesn't sound like an endorsement you still haven't figured out what kind of game LISA is.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I was having trouble trying to say things to convince people to play and not give away too much because I believe the same as you that it's something you just have to experience first-hand to really get hit by. But sometimes these games are a tough sell to people without examples so I tried to make it as vague as I could.

Lord British said:
Hmm, I don't think I want to play this. Depressed as it is.
Click to expand...

I guarantee, as someone who suffers from depression, this will not help. =/

StanleyPalmtree said:
alright, you sold me, i brought the game despite my increasingly dwindling amount of money.

now i just hope i dont forget about the game before i actually find time to play it.
Click to expand...

Viridian6 said:
Ok, bought.
Click to expand...

Gentlemen and scholars you blokes are. I salute you.

I also didn't realize that, if SteamSpy is accurate, this game is actually doing really good. For a game that was made by one dude in RPGmaker and funded at around 17,000 bucks it's almost sold/played 100,000 copies which is WAY more than I thought.

That being said, it is not nearly enough for me to not sing it's praises and shove it in people's faces until it is played.
 
J

Jaroof

Member
I bought this game after seeing GiantBomb play it.

Love it. The humor is amazing, as is the soundtrack.

I did drop off a few hours into the game, though. I need to pick it back up.

UrbanRats said:
Sounds cool.
Is it particularly challenging? 'cause i'm no good at turn based RPGs.
Alright, the OP does mention battles are very tough, so i guess it is.
Click to expand...

Hell yes, this game is ridiculously tough. I made the mistake of starting on the hardcore mode my first time. I got like two hours in before I had to restart my whole file. There's no way I would have gone through the whole game on that difficulty.. well, my first time, anyway.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Crunched said:
One note on the OP (minor non-story related spoilers):

There is one late-game area that is perfect to grind at: the EWC. Battles there are among the game's easiest. Enemies fall quickly, there is a free risk-free inn two short screens away, and each battle rewards 2000 exp. The best part, losing here does not count against you. It is a totally risk-free way to bump up under leveled characters to playable stats, and it arrives at its most useful time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the 3rd area of the 3 I mention
(the first 2 being the dark hallways and snake spawn locations) and you're right, it's great for that.

UrbanRats said:
Sounds cool.
Is it particularly challenging? 'cause i'm no good at turn based RPGs.
Alright, the OP does mention battles are very tough, so i guess it is.
Click to expand...

Like Mr. Jaroof says, it's pretty goddam tough. Most normal fights you'll be okay doing but when you reach the end of a branch area's fight you'll feel like you're just strong enough to get by.

Then again, there's a character who you can combo with who pretty much makes the game a cakewalk, so that's always an option. Seriously, him and any character who can use a certain type of ability will destroy any enemy by themselves. Kill the secret boss in like 5 turns.

I won't lie, there's also a huge luck factor to the battles. Sometimes shit just doesn't go your way.
 
M

microfolk

Member
loganclaws said:
Not many people know this is the sequel to LISA: The First. Which is a free game where you play as Bradley's sister; Lisa.
Click to expand...

Fuck the spider section in that game. Fuck it.

But thank you OP for having made this topic, I've just finished Mother 3 and one of the reasons I played it was because I wanted to finish all the Mother games before delving into LISA but then I forgot about it ahaha. I'll start playing it as soon as possible!
 
L

Lord British

Member
Actually, to rephrase, I don't think I want to play this right now. It does sound very interesting and I will pick it up on sale, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.

Thanks for the write-up.
 
E

E_Darkness

Member
I do hope this gets more people to play it. It is one of these small, cheap RPGs that doesn't get enough attention. I just love how it's made in RPGmaker, because this is not the first kind of graphical style I think of for a RPGmaker game.
As soon as I got Terry all I did was oil up and use fire.

I'm really looking forward to The Joyful later this month.
 
L

Loona

Member
As someone who grew up in overly-male environments, the premise intrigues me - added to my Steam wishlist for now.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Brilliant weird game. I need to get back into it, but it pretty much totally has that M rated earthbound vibe though that doesn't sound like it's possible until you play it.

OFF is another brilliant unusual RPG (for free) that goes a lot more surreal and is also an RPG maker game you wouldn't suspect was made in gamemaker (if not for the combat system anyway)
 
D

Dascu

Member
OniBarubary said:
Not terribly long, actually. Depending on the side stuff and how often you die or get stuck in some areas you're looking at like...let's say 8-12 hours? I think it took me around 10 my first time through.
Click to expand...

Sounds short enough. Wish it was on a handheld though.
 
Fuz

Fuz

Banned
HGH said:
What was boring? How far did you get in? What made you give up?
Click to expand...

I'm intrigued by the premises and by what I've read here on GAF in the past.
But...
It's slow. Very slow. It's so slow that I had a game over screen because I fell asleep while playng and fell in a pit and died.
I'm not far, just a bit after
when you have to give up Terry's live or your belongings
, and I'm aware that it will probably get better later on, but I'm not able to force myself to go on anymore.
 
L

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
Fuz said:
I'm intrigued by the premises and by what I've read here on GAF in the past.
But...
It's slow. Very slow. It's so slow that I had a game over screen because I fell asleep while playng and fell in a pit and died.
I'm not far, just a bit after
when you have to give up Terry's live or your belongings
, and I'm aware that it will probably get better later on, but I'm not able to force myself to go on anymore.
Click to expand...

You get a vehicle that dramatically increases your speed very early in the game.
 
E

E_Darkness

Member
Fuz said:
I'm not talking only about move speed. The whole game is slow.
Click to expand...

I think it's a bit unfair to say that when it seems like you only just reached the first area. The game's pace definitely picks up after that. Especially when you get the vehicle. Area 1 only feels slow because you do most of it on foot.
 
A

Andrew J.

Member
Sounds like some kind of fucked-up Earthbound. And that's saying something, because Earthbound is already pretty fucked-up itself.
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
I bought this a while back, played the tutorial, and then forgot about it. I keep saying I'll go back, but I need a push. Maybe this thread will be it.
 
M

megalowho

Member
Thanks for the great writeup. Bought Lisa on the cheap a while back but never got around to it, def inspired to give it a go now.
 
Alboreo

Alboreo

Member
I adore this game. I haven't beaten it yet, and as a fair warning to others, the fights can get pretty damn difficult. It's fun though, and extremely satisfying when you beat a boss who's been destroying you for a while.

Also, the story and the setting are incredible, as OP has so eloquently stated.
 
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