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

Brakke

Banned
One of the early areas of the game has you stumble upon a guy who is raising a bunch of orphan boys. When one of them plays with matches and lights one, he asks Brad to grab him the bucket of water which you can see right next to you. As Brad picks it up and throws it on the match the kids alight in a roaring blaze and the Orphanage owner tells you that was his bucket of gasoline and to go get the bucket of water that is up on top of a cliff. On your way back down with the bucket, the kids have already turned to ash. And when you talk to the poor owner he lets you know that this is the "2nd worst day in his life" I may have had tears from laughing so hard.

Super early on, just got to this part. Saved Hint-buddy even though he's useless 'cuz I like his style.

One major complaint I have so far though is that this game performs like ASS for no good reason. I can't even walk across the screen without the game hitching up. It should be smooth to scroll some sprites with like three levels or depth? Is there something I can do in settings to sort this out?

(also the settings are a disaster; this is an indie-ass indie game.)
 
Please, put the trigger warning in the title of the thread next time. Thank you.
The game can be violent/unsettling at a lot of points, but I'm not seeing that shown-off too much in the OP. Why does the thread need a trigger warning? Other adult games don't have them.
 

fertygo

Member
Is this game ever have reflex based platformer section? or its Earthbound-esque for throughout the game.

I want to buy, but don't want to stuck if there's reflex based section
 
I apologize if I bumped this thread unnecessarily but I had to point out that LISA is currently on sale on Steam.

2.99$ for the base game and 6.79 for the complete edition.

Ooh, what wonderful timing, having just finished Undertale (brilliant, play it if you haven't) you can bet I'm interested in checking out what's sort of like its weird cousin/sibling from what I've heard, both being inspired by Earthbound among other similarities. Guess I was right to wait to buy this, was tempted earlier this month. Thanks!
 
Is this game ever have reflex based platformer section? or its Earthbound-esque for throughout the game.

I want to buy, but don't want to stuck if there's reflex based section
There's a minigame you can absolutely skip where you have to dodge some barrels in the game's limited movement engine, but otherwise it's a Earthbound-style RPG (there are a few areas with random encounters rather than enemies being on screen though) and the sidescroller look doesn't really make it too much of a platformer.

I definitely wouldn't call it 'reflex based' at least.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
Is this game ever have reflex based platformer section? or its Earthbound-esque for throughout the game.

I want to buy, but don't want to stuck if there's reflex based section

lisa: the joyful is almost entirely reflex based, but this game isn't.
 

fertygo

Member
There's a minigame you can absolutely skip where you have to dodge some barrels in the game's limited movement engine, but otherwise it's a Earthbound-style RPG (there are a few areas with random encounters rather than enemies being on screen though) and the sidescroller look doesn't really make it too much of a platformer.

I definitely wouldn't call it 'reflex based' at least.

lisa: the joyful is almost entirely reflex based, but this game isn't.

Nice to hear, kinda eh with the DLC tho.. I play with one hand so dealing with platformer thing gonna be a pain, but I love the comparison with Earthbound
 

Alastor3

Member
Im playing through the game for the first time, IT'S A BLAST!

Why doesn't this game get more praise compared to Undertale, is it just because the theme are darker ?
 

Astarte

Member
Just finished the Joyful and I just want to say that even though it's not as fantastic as the Painful, it's still incredible. I loved it. I love LISA.

BQ910BH.jpg

God bless Big Lincoln.

Im playing through the game for the first time, IT'S A BLAST!

Why doesn't this game get more praise compared to Undertale, is it just because the theme are darker ?

Because it doesn't have enough memes. I'm being serious. LISA isn't as memetic as Undertale is, and its themes are DARK AS FUCK. You can't meme around HEY THESE GROWN ASS MEN WANT TO RAPE A LITTLE GIRL.
 

El Odio

Banned
Having gone through both the Painful and Joyful this past week I was ready to do a LTTP write up but searched and found this thread. Let me say you put my thoughts into words far better than I could. I picked this up back in December after finishing up Undertale cause I heard it was basically the same general idea in regards to being a quirky EB inspired game only taking on the darker aspects instead of the happier ones.

Holy shit do I regret only finding out about this game now.

The intro segment definitely captured my interest but it wasn't until I came across Nern of all people that I was definitely hooked. The humor is top notch, the game is difficult and only rarely unfair (Basically the Russian roulette game that should have honestly taken place much later when you have more party members if it had to be included) and the story is just devastatingly well written.

I appreciate the choices have real weight to them and at all those crossroads I found myself staring at the screen in serious debate for minutes, even early on with Terry. Ultimately I went for a selflless, joyless run on normal and despite my intentions to keep Brad as good of a guy as possibly it just wasn't meant to end that way.

I absolutely loved how the game gave me a certain set of expectations for how the story would go before completely stomping on them, leaving me both satisfied yet disappointed in myself.
With how the intro begins with Brad seeming to genuinely care for Buddy and setting out to rescue her, ultimately I expected some happiness to come out of the ending. I expected that despite all the negativity and depressing points throughout the game that if I continuously made Brad out to be a good guy by sacrificing himself for his teammates and helping everyone out it'd end with him as a good guy. Just like him though I was ONLY thinking about him and not at all how his choice to try to overprotect Buddy from the world affected him.

I felt like an absolutely monster during the entire finale once Marty reappeared and just like in the OP wasted countless turns trying to do anything but attack to no avail. Even when facing down the Rando army and even Rando himself I kept thinking/hoping that this will be the fight that finally kills me and ends Brads rampage, giving the game a somewhat more happier ending than Brad left wondering if he did the right thing before dying a failure. It was clearly never meant to have a happy ending though, and I am completely fine with that, and even enjoy it.

The Joyful, while much shorter and different than the original, was still pretty good. The action attacks took much getting used to but since there was no downside to using joy to boost your damage and heal it made things quite easy for the most part.

Storywise it wasn't a deep or subtle as the painful but at least managed to provide some conclusions to the questions left unanswered from the original.
Buzzo as a character was an interesting insight into how someone's death can affect someone completely unrelated to them and how people cope with things differently, even if it did make him a total psychopath for the most part. Yado's question for world domination is kind of out of nowhwere though and unexplained but at least it came from the Painful and not something thrown together to try and tie everything up.

The fight against Brad killed me though, especially when he transitioned into his Dad phase. Attacking him for high damage while all he can manage to do is miss you or heal you just broke my heart.

I don't know if the series manages to break into my favorite's listings as a whole but I will say that the games are incredibly top notch and an experience that I don't think I'll ever forget. I hope Dingaling manages to create something just as fantastic in the future.
 

Kuksune

Member
Having it in my backlog for a long while now i decided to start playing it today and i have come pretty far i think.
I am in the town with the creeps and the doctor who took joy.
This game is pretty damn scary at certain points with its monster designs and
jump scares.
Can't wait until i have finished this game so i can check all the spoiler tagged text in this thread, i'm so curious!

My current team is:
birdie, nern and jack.
 

epmode

Member
we should really have a thread about this games soundtrack. i've been listening to it for 2 years now.

I haven't played the game more than an hour but what I've heard of the soundtrack is amazing. One of the most striking soundtracks I've ever heard. I want to finish the game before I listen to the rest so I hear it in the proper context!
 

Ionic

Member
I haven't played the game more than an hour but what I've heard of the soundtrack is amazing. One of the most striking soundtracks I've ever heard. I want to finish the game before I listen to the rest so I hear it in the proper context!

If you only played an hour you just scratched the surface. Then you have the DLC expansion which adds more amazing songs including a few absolutely incredible boss tracks. No other game soundtracks like what LISA has.

Edit: doot
 

El Odio

Banned
War Season and All American Badass are some of my favorite songs to pull up while I'm working out. The battle themes in this game were something else. Summer Love is just sublime as well. Just feels like the perfect song to think about days gone by.
 

zombieshavebrains

I have not used cocaine
I preordered this game because it looked so cool. Played about 10 min and couldn't figure out what to do next because i was probably drinking beer. Will need to try this one again.
 
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