LISA: The Painful

I was really looking forward to trying out this game after hearing so much praise for it as a classic of the "RPG maker" type games. But after finishing it, I must say I was disappointed, maybe it's my fault for getting my expectations too high, but the majority of this game felt EXTREMELY tedious to the point I was wondering if it was worth finishing at all. I wish there were a mixed review option, because that is how I feel about this game. But sadly, the gameplay downsides for me are too much. To start with the positives, the story is great, it's unique and very dark, this is what I expected, and yeah, it did not disappoint. It was very sad, messed up, and made me feel bad for the characters; some of them deserve better :(.The soundtrack is great, I love the track that plays at the area crossroads. While it's not something I would listen to on my own, the OST is good, apart from one exception I did not vibe with. The dark humor can be SOMETIMES funny too, it gave me a chuckle, if the joke wasn't to waste your time, or to ruin the tone, more on that later. I like the camping events with your party members, and the random events that can happen during rest; those are cool. The art is also pretty good; it's unsettling in a good way, and some of the mutants are really creepy. Sadly, most of the actual "gameplay" in this game did not feel fun at all; the combat system is very basic, and the difficulty of the battles is highly inconsistent. In one room, you can fight an easy generic enemy, but then the next encounter can one-shot you or even perma-kill your party. You easily fall off cliffs, which is an instant game over. You can lose all your gear, lose a party member whom you grind for hours to level up, and the layouts of the cave areas are confusing. It's just tedious and not fun to me personally. The few areas with randomly appearing enemies, like the snakes, are some of the most annoying ones. The combat balance is all over the place. There's this one section where you climb up a snowy hill, and guys disguised as snowmen one-shot you with their guns, but then when you get past them to fight the boss of the area, it's an easy encounter. Then, right next door, is an enemy that snaps your neck and permanently kills your party, that jumps you out of nowhere. While I can see how some of these choices can make the world feel more "painful", personally, it did not feel fun and made me roll my eyes, as I had to reload my save again. Skill issue? Probably, but it felt too unfair sometimes for my taste. That balancing is probably intentional, as wasting your time seems to be a common "joke" played by this game, where a lot of sequences are just built to waste your time, while some of them are optional (like the dojo scrolls). You don't know what is or isn't optional while doing a first playthrough, and personally, I did not find this funny, immersive, or adding anything to the story at all. All of these frustrating moments made me confused about how I should be feeling as a player personally, maybe I just didn't "get it," but this made me upset the most. Should I be laughing? upset? sad? Feels like every second room, the game throws something else at you that completely shifts the mood. There are sequences where the game will ask you to sacrifice your party members or your own limbs, or play russian roulette with them, which is supposed to be dark and make you feel bad for killing someone, but then you also just walk into an orphanage next room, and burn a bunch of kids, which is played off as a joke?? With no way to save them. Then you get dark cutscenes/flashbacks with themes of child abuse, rape, and an abusive father. But then you are back in the next area using a bulldozer to run over civilians with a goofy OST playing off as a joke. These tonal shifts really did not feel good to me, and I feel like they hinder the overall good story of the game. I know one of the tags for this game is dark humor, but man, it felt distasteful a lot of the time. Overall, the story is great, Brad is a very unique and interesting character to follow, and the music is pretty good. But all of this is SEVERELY held back by baffling gameplay decisions and poor taste in humor that hinders the story. Personally, I do not think this is worth 20€ at full price; get this at a discount for around 10€, which is about right.

I've been dead for 35 years. Today is the day I live. Genuinely my favorite game of all time, I don't know what else to say besides its extremely beautiful as it is stupid, and that's what makes it so great.

I played the entirety of this game waiting for it to get good, since I had always heard about it and the positive reception, but it was just super mid and mostly time-wastey. The game sets up this silly, nonsense, ridiculous world but then suddenly the game gets SUPER GRIMDARK and serious in places. Put your serious hat on guys! One moment you'll be fighting random mafia guys inside of snowmen with no explanation and then next the game switches to themes of child ab**e and worse. It's just tonally all over the place and completely inappropriate, and not really even done in an interesting way. The game constantly tries to make you feel bad and guilt trip you with your decisions when it's like... I didn't really have a choice? Oh no me and my party were kidnapped and we have to play Russian roulette and my party died. How exactly is that my fault? The worst are the decisions when it comes to either mutilating your d**ghter or losing a limb. Again, no matter what you pick it's always your fault somehow. I just got so tired of the fake guilt tripping that I was checked out by the end. Loved the soundtrack and the party instakill mechanic that made the game feel dynamic and exciting, but when I got to the final segment, I just didn't care and wanted it to be over. I stopped caring about being lectured to by a game that forced me to make stupid 50/50 choices at every turn, and was surprised that this was all the game had to offer in terms of story. Just play Earthbound and Mother 3 instead of this clone, they have far superior stories and are way more sincere and touching.

this game is so near & dear to my heart. i am so so fond of it and highly recommend it. the story is unique and despite being sort of "rage-gamey" i think the gameplay is fun.

如果你是老m你应该选最难的模式，8块买的cdk，队伍里的角色回血太难了，残血打不过卡关了坏档了，又不爱看攻略懒得重玩，高难度只适合看主播玩，果然看别人受苦比自己受好多了

this game opened pandora's box on player decision-making, and so softened its own consequences by neuturing its gameplay. while the story can be compelling, the abrasive, jarring tone leaves a sour taste that is made worse by its sequel. 4/10

I played the first hour of this at an old friend's house back in 2019 and it hooked me pretty quickly, I ended up buying it for myself during the pandemic and 100%ing the whole thing. LISA The Painful has one of the best ludo-narratives I've seen, the gameplay and how it makes you feel is connected to the game's world and story incredibly well - Olathe is a disgusting, ludicrous, and dangerous place, and all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the game throws at you reflects that in a way that feels genuine somehow. Only negative aspect for me is the Joyful DLC, it feels quite half-baked compared to Painful, both in its gameplay and plot. At the same time, I don't think the game would feel complete without it, so idk.

I was sad often. But in a good way.

Highly recommend to play if you are a fan of any party based RPG. It's unforgiving and wild with an absolute amazing soundtrack. The story deals with a lot of heavy issues so be prepared.