LISA: The Painful – Definitive Edition (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.4 Update

LISA: The Painful – Definitive Edition is a 2014 post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed and published by American indie studio Dingaling Productions. The game was written, designed, and composed by Austin Jorgensen, and was released for Windows, OS X, and Linux on December 15, 2014.  Lisa: The Painful is the second installment in the Lisa trilogy, preceded by Lisa: The First (2012), and followed by Lisa: The Joyful (2015), a standalone DLC that concludes the series. In Lisa: The Painful, the player controls Brad Armstrong, a balding, middle-aged man with a troubled past who journeys through the wasteland of Olathe in search of Buddy, his adoptive daughter. Along the way, he is forced to make choices that permanently affect both his well-being and that of his party members. The game received generally favorable reviews, with praise for its darkly comedic writing and soundtrack. Expanded versions of Lisa: The Painful and Lisa: The Joyful, bundled under the title of Lisa: Definitive Edition, were released on July 18, 2023.

GAMEPLAY

Lisa features a combination of traditional turn-based RPG combat in a 2D side-scrolling overworld. Several of the game’s characters, including the protagonist, Brad, are addicted to a drug named Joy. It is claimed in the game that Joy causes its users to “feel nothing”, but drastically increases the power of attacking moves of the player’s party members, though gives them serious withdrawals when unused. The overworld features an assortment of settlements with shops and bars, where potential party members can often be found.

The game includes thirty different possible companions (most of whom have little to no relevance to the game’s main plot), though all, except for Brad are susceptible to permanent death through either scripted events such as Russian Roulette or against certain enemies, who will occasionally use permanent-kill moves. In battle, Brad and some of his companions can use combination attacks using the “Dial Combo” system, allowing the player to press a sequence of keys to use powerful attacks like fireballs.

Other party members use a variety of techniques for both offense and defense and apply status effects such as stunning or paralysis. Each party member has a different playstyle; for example, the anti-Joy crusader Ajeet’s standard attacks are various Pokes that do no damage but provide guaranteed status effects on the enemy, and as such his only method of direct damage is through his special moves. Throughout the game, Brad is forced to make choices that affect the core mechanics of gameplay. Depending on the player’s choices, Brad can lose one or both of his arms or some of his party members.

The loss of Brad’s arms drastically lowers his stats and increases his Joy withdrawal frequency. Without any arms, Brad cannot use his Armstrong Style at all and can only bite at his opponent (though certain skills can still be selected). In Lisa: The Joyful, Buddy, the last female on earth, becomes the new protagonist (although the warlord Rando, the final boss of The Painful and Brad’s adoptive son, assists her temporarily). While the gameplay is otherwise similar to its predecessor, Buddy has more traversal options and is generally more powerful than Brad, using timing-based attacks in battle.

SETTING AND STORY

Both The Painful and The Joyful take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland called Olathe. Once a normal town, following an unseen cataclysm known as “The Flash”, all women have perished, and humanity was left with no way to reproduce. Many have resorted to Joy, a highly addictive drug spread by a gang leader named Buzzo, that makes people “feel nothing”, to numb the pain. However, unbeknownst to its users, it eventually causes them to become deformed, mindless creatures known as Joy Mutants. The strongest group in the wasteland is the army of Rando, a powerful martial artist and warlord who always wears a skull-shaped mask.

The game starts during a flashback, in which the player controls a child named Bradley Armstrong. The departure of his mother leads Bradley and his younger sister, Lisa, to be abused and neglected by their father, Marty Armstrong. The game then skips forward to the post-apocalyptic future, where Brad, now a middle-aged ex-martial arts instructor, lives with his friends. One day, he discovers a baby girl lying in the wasteland. While his friends plead for him to give the child to Rando, Brad refuses, instead raising the young girl he christens “Buddy” in secret. She is eventually found and seemingly kidnapped, leading Brad to embark on a journey across Olathe to rescue her.

During his quest, Brad meets many different characters, some of whom may be recruited as party members by the player to be used in combat. Throughout the game, flashback scenes depict a pre-apocalyptic Olathe, shedding light on Brad’s early life, including his upbringing alongside his younger sister Lisa and their relationship with Marty. Brad also repeatedly encounters Buzzo, who forces him to make serious choices with permanent gameplay consequences. Brad and Buddy are later reunited, and Brad realizes that Buddy left on her own due to Brad’s controlling nature.

Brad still decides to take Buddy back to their home, but he is cornered by Buzzo and his gang, who knock him out and force-feed him Joy in front of his daughter. Brad has a Joy-induced blackout, and when he wakes up he finds that Buzzo, his group, and Buddy are gone. Despite realizing Buddy’s distaste towards him, Brad pushes forward, his past trauma causing him to desperately fear that harm will befall Buddy. After hearing that Buddy stole a boat and presumably went out to sea, Brad makes one of his own, and while his party members are asleep, sets off alone. He finds Buddy on a desolate island, being cared for by an aged Marty, whom Brad promptly kills in a Joy-fueled rage. When Buddy escapes yet again, he uses a corpse as a flotation device to follow her.

When he reaches land, Brad encounters Rando, who finds Buddy and takes her under his care. Unexpectedly, Brad’s party members arrive to confront him (though in the case that the player does not have a complete party, three shadows called “Illusion of Friends” will appear) and reveal their true thoughts about Brad, which range wildly between characters: for example the shopping cart racer Frank Minetti reveals he has always hated Brad and intended to backstab him from the beginning, while the professional wrestler Shocklord is reluctant to fight and begs his cohorts not to harm Brad.

Brad, obsessed with reuniting with his adoptive daughter slaughters them proceeds to massacre Rando’s forces, and severely injures Rando. Brad finally reaches Buddy, and she blames him for ruining her chances at freedom. The player’s final decision in the game is whether or not Buddy hugs a dying Brad (though this has no impact on the game), who asks if he did the right thing. Brad then falls over, apparently dead. The ending the player receives depends on whether they elected to play in Pain Mode or use the drug Joy, though Brad will always transform into a Joy Mutant. Depending on the player’s choices, different flashback sequences will play showcasing Brad’s life before the Flash: shedding light on the titular Lisa’s suicide.

KEY FEATURES

• 100+ distinct character battles.
• Visible character sacrifices affecting stats and attacks (limb removal, eye gouging, and more).
• Recruit up to 30 party members in towns and camps.
• Ruthless choices permanently alter towns, characters, and destinies.
• Engage in heart-pounding shopping cart races, intense weight lifting, and various minigames.
• Wager party members in Russian Roulette for hefty gains, but lose them forever if they fall.
• Relish your beloved tunes in the music player, including music from LISA: The First.
• Unearth countless secrets concealed throughout Olathe.
• Confront the challenge of Painful mode with unique foes or opt for a story-driven journey in Painless mode.
• An experience that will shatter your life, forever etched by this harrowing gaming ordeal.