The LISA series began its life as an indie title back in 2012 where the game known as LISA: The First would see subsequent sequels in LISA: The Painful and LISA: The Joyful. At the time these titles were only available on PC, but now we have a definitive edition ripe and ready for many more players to experience a series like no other on all available platforms. It’s worth noting that this Definitive Edition only includes The Painful and The Joyful, with the devs having mentioned that The First will be available in another way some point in the future. Before we get too far into this review we would like to mention that LISA deals with heavy themes of abuse, self-harm and depicts gratuitous amounts of violence that even in its simple sprite form can be a lot to stomach for sensitive players. We would not recommend it to those who may be concerned about it affecting them and this is not a title for younger players as even the title screen itself features gruesome and depressing imagery. With that said, however, let’s dive into these titles and their brand new playable platforms.
The tale of LISA: The Painful follows the story of a man by the name of Brad. It opens with his young life protecting his friends from bullied and getting harmed himself in the midst of it. After his long walk home we discover that Brad himself lived in an abusive household before it flashes forward in time to the more current day. The world has fallen apart and been thrown into chaos in a deserted post-apocalyptic environment filled solely with just men. Between his days of drug abuse and simply trying to get by, Brad discovers an abandoned child and decides to take it in as his own. He brings it home to the friends he lives with and explains that the baby is in fact a girl, perhaps the last left alive in the area. While his friends are quick to be ready to sell her away Brad refuses and insists on raising and keeping her safe from those who might cause her any harm. While it takes convincing, his friends eventually concede and their interesting life raising a child begins. Brad still struggles daily as he tries his best to keep everyone safe including his new adopted daughter. As she gets older she begins to crave the freedom of the outside world, but Brad knows it’s not safe out there. While he tries his best eventually his worst fears come to fruition when he’s gone for a brief while and he comes home to discover his friends murdered and his daughter kidnapped. With nothing left to live for in life but her, Brad sets out to get his daughter back safe and sound before anything horrible can happen to her. This definitive edition does also contain LISA: The Joyful, but we won’t cover its story in detail here due to the fact it does contain spoilers for The Painful.
The combat in LISA features quite the mix of different systems at play. With around or over thirty available playable characters that each come with unique skills, there’s a ton of ways to mix and match. Recruiting these characters is the first task and they can be found in nearly every corner of the world. How to recruit them is different as sometimes it’s as simple as talking to them, but other times they require a quest or task to be completed before they join up. These party members can also temporarily leave depending on the situation, but there’s never a reason to strictly stick to one party as there’s slews of ways to mix and match that make it fun. The combat tends to have two main styles characters can use. The first is the style Brad uses in which his attacks are done via button combos. Up to five buttons can be hit and certain combinations produce skills for extra damage. Then there’s the more traditional character who has a standard attack and uses SP or TP for specials. SP is much like mana that slowly drains using skills while TP starts in short supply, but increases through using normal attacks. Enemies come in an absurdly wide variety that makes almost every fight more unique than the last. There’s quite a bit of difficulty in LISA, but those who just want to coast through the story can enjoy the brand new easier mode exclusive to the Definitive Edition, although once turned on it cannot be turned back off.
A big part of LISA is its exploration. While not as wild and crazy as something like a metroidvania, it offers various routes that players must venture down in order to progress. Some might be more difficult, but all of them offer a unique new path filled with interesting mechanics along the way. There’s platforming along the way, along with perhaps the funniest things that any player is likely to experience which is why saving frequently is recommended. If Brad falls down a pit that’s it, it’s game over. He returns to the last save made. Why this might seem unfair, there’s a level of realism to it that makes it humorous that very true to life if someone falls down a deep pit, there’s likely no coming back. There’s also fall damage from certain heights which can be mitigated somewhat with vehicles obtained further in, but it’s always good to be cautious and attempt to fall as little as possible. One of the biggest dangers, and sometimes benefits, of LISA is its ailments. These are most commonly gotten in battles where both enemies and allies can debuff one another to get an advantage. Some are simple such as decreasing evasion or attack, while others can cause temporary stun or even make someone stronger by being drunk. The biggest negative status effect is one that’s impossible to avoid and occurs frequently throughout the journey. This is known as Withdrawal and hits Brad everyone once in a while in addition to having a chance to also be inflicted on allies. Withdrawal is when Brad is suffering from his lack of Joy, a type of drug he’s struggled with an addiction of for years. Withdrawal is wildly detrimental as it lowers every single one of his stats and lasts for an extremely long time. It can be cured by using another hit of Joy, which in turn offers a slew of buffs, but it’s not a wildly common item so deciding to take it is always a risky decision knowing Withdrawal will still occur again.
The visuals of LISA are absolutely charming. Although it’s filled with a lot of violent imagery, the character design is stand-out in particular and makes even the most benign enemy or character memorable. While music isn’t a constant in LISA while freely exploring, when it does show up it’s quite the enjoyable listen while going through new areas. It’s got a sense of adventure while capturing this depressed world filled with anguish. If there’s one downside to LISA it’s that it can feel brutally unfair at times, and although that’s very much the theme here, it’s not uncommon to feel like the better choice in some situations is just loading another save to have things go differently. It’s why saving frequently is heavily recommended in order to go back and try things differently than before. There’s an interesting balance to the difficulty that makes it feel almost too brutal at times, but all the more rewarding to overcome the challenge set before Brad and his newfound allies.
Closing Comments:
In truth the hardest thing about LISA is talking about it because it’s just one of those titles that’s really better experienced. It’s dark and depressing, but has an amusing sense of humor that makes it easy to smile through the suffering. It’s a title that benefits wildly from making frequent saves, so when Brad gets to an unskippable segment where he has to watch his entire party die through a chance of luck, it’s easy to go back and try again with a hopefully better outcome the next time around. There’s slews of ways to approach a lot of scenarios which makes for unique outcomes as well and LISA is a title that really sells itself on replaying multiple times for those that want to get the absolute most out of it. For those willing to take on the dark tone, visuals and story, LISA: Definitive Edition is well worth picking up for those who haven’t experienced it before.
LISA: Definitive Edition
