LISA: The Painful is an experience. As hokey as it sounds, rarely is there a role-playing game that firmly immerses you in the role of a character so broken, trapped in a world shattered beyond immeasurable repair, that you can’t help but feel a little empty inside once everything is all said and done. LISA: The Painful is, indeed, a painful experience in more ways than you could possibly imagine.
Originally developed by Austin Jorgensen — aka, “Dingaling” — LISA: The Painful was a self-published game funded via Kickstarter and released exclusively on Steam in 2014. Almost a decade later, the game has since seen a definitive re-release via Serenity Forge in 2023. Coinciding with this re-release, there’s no better time to revisit one of the most harrowing indie games of the past decade.
The land of Olathe is in peril. What was once a picturesque view of American suburbia changed for the worse when the “White Flash” happened. The ensuing apocalypse led to the sudden death of most, if not all, women in Olathe, with society completely collapsing in their absence. Bustling communities are now nothing more than cesspools of debauchery: murder, perversion, and weirdness are all that’s left, and you can’t wade more than a few feet before stumbling into something upsetting. Brad Armstrong, former martial-art instructor and current drug addict, lives out the rest of his days with his childhood friends, biding their time before Olathe finally bites the dust. That is until they make a horrifying discovery. The distant wails of a child prompt Brad to investigate, leading him to make a discovery that’ll change his life forever.
Brad and his friends are now the caregivers of the last girl in Olathe. At least, they were before others found out.
The “Pain” in LISA: The Painful
LISA: The Painful is not for everyone. It’s worth establishing this right away, as it may be a bit extreme for some tastes. Frankly, it’s almost baffling that it got released on consoles. Traditional currency is eschewed for smut magazines; just about everyone is either drugged out of their minds or reeling from the effects of withdrawal. And let’s just say that a certain “urge” in a world made exclusively of men is more than just implicated. Combine that with abuse in multiple forms, a pervading sense of misery throughout, and a morbid sense of humor that never really lightens up, and you have a game that’ll provoke some visceral reaction out of you.
But it’s this sense of misery that, arguably, makes LISA: The Painful stick out as both a game and an experience. “Pain,” as a concept, is found in just about every facet of LISA: The Painful, from the world Brad Armstrong inhabits to how he plays as a character.
RELATED: ‘Dredge’ Game Review: A Near-Perfect Lovecraftian Horror Game
Taking direct inspiration from Earthbound, LISA: The Painful is a 2D party-based role-playing game. You’ll play as Brad Armstrong and up to three unique party members while adventuring through the ruins of Olathe. The game is split into three hubs, each one denoting a separate act in the game’s story, though you’re free to travel between these hubs as you so please. Across these hubs, you’ll be exploring, fighting enemies with a turn-based combat system, gathering items, playing minigames, and occasionally engaging in simple platforming challenges. The game is heavily story-based, focusing primarily on Brad exclusively.
Brad hasn’t had an easy life. Without delving too much into his backstory, a childhood riddled with abuse in varying forms led to his current addiction to a magical blue pill. Named “Joy,” it’s a drug that “makes you feel nothing” both mentally and physically — the perfect escape from both Brad’s own inner turmoil and the surrounding troubles of Olathe. Brad’s addiction is more than just set-dressing, however. His addiction comes up during gameplay as he can periodically suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Going into withdrawal significantly weakens any party member’s effectiveness, whereas taking Joy during a battle practically turns them into a demigod. Due to the scarcity of Joy and its implications in the story, you’re encouraged to make scant use of it.
Welcome to the Party
You’ll rely on your party throughout most of the game’s battles. While most role-playing games operate with a small motley crew, you’ll have up to 30 separate party members at your disposal, with each one offering something unique in terms of gameplay. Some are meant to deal straightforward damage, while others are better at fighting bosses. Some have abilities to support the party, whereas others are even addicted to Joy themselves. If you fulfill certain conditions at the game’s few rest areas, you’ll even get a brief interlude wherein the party finally takes a breather and confides in one another. This wasn’t originally a feature of LISA: The Painful — which we’ll get into later — but it’s certainly welcomed. Every party member has a bit more depth beyond their initial meetings with Brad, and some genuinely heart-wrenching moments are interlaced with a few jokes here and there.
Finding a balance between the positives and negatives of each party member is key to surviving and thriving in LISA: The Painful, as the typical shortcuts you can take in a role-playing game just aren’t feasible. Grinding for experience points is practically nonexistent. Almost every enemy encounter is completely static, meaning you’ll fight them once and never again. It’s an unconventional approach to enemy encounters that allows them to be inherently more interesting as a result, though it makes the actual act of fighting them tremendously more difficult. Some act as the payoff for humorous gags, while others are a direct punishment for venturing too far off the beaten path. Combine this with some excruciating difficulty, and you have a game that makes every battle feel like an actual struggle.
You’re forced to think a bit more critically instead of mindlessly spamming attacks and healing items. The game’s extensive list of around forty status effects means you’ll focus on controlling a fight rather than outright winning it. Stuns, damage-over-time effects, and general debuffs that make targets less effective will be your biggest ally and worst enemy, with something as simple as being knocked down drastically altering how you trade blows. Stuns are often the only way to prevent a boss from prematurely taking out party members, for instance, with effects like burning and bleeding existing to whittle away health as you progress through each turn slowly. Fights can either be over instantly or last for more than a dozen turns, all based on how you manage your party and your approach to battling.
“Difficulty” is a word you’ll often see paired with LISA: The Painful. Just as Olathe is painted as an unforgiving world in the game’s lore, so too is the actual experience of exploring it. Wandering off the edge of a cliff means certain death for you and all your party members. Boss fights can permanently kill off your favorite companions for good, with save points being so spaced out from each other that you’re encouraged to press on without them. Even something as simple as resting at a campfire comes with the risk of having all kinds of horrible stuff happen, from party members being kidnapped in the middle of the night to everyone being afflicted by a poisonous insect to flat-out having people leave after losing their trust in Brad. Even saving up your resources for later is actively discouraged, as you can end up bloodied and penniless just by going through the wrong doorway.
RELATED: ‘Postal’: Looking Back at the Controversially Raunchy Game Franchise
Many role-playing games boast about choice, that your actions in the game itself will directly affect the ensuing narrative. Well, LISA: The Painful takes this a step further by having your choices directly impact not just the story but how you approach the game afterward. You’re frequently tasked with making sacrifices, with no real good answer for how to proceed with them. For example, what would be a better choice: giving up a party member or giving up one of Brad’s arms, permanently affecting his ability to fight for the rest of the game? Is it worth paying a ransom for a not-so-favorable party member when you may find someone better in the future? This idea of “choice” even applies to its most controversial set-piece, wherein Brad and his party are kidnapped for a horrible game of Russian Roulette. There’s no avoiding it, no blowing through it. You’re simply stuck having to force in who you think is most expendable to play this terrifying game. It makes Olathe feel all the more unforgiving and purposefully twists Brad’s character into something morally grey as the story goes on.
Things aren’t all miserable, though. LISA: The Painful carefully balances its darker drama and some absolute laugh-out-loud moments. Nern, for instance, remains a fan-favorite party member for his nonsense ramblings and frequent admiration of his deceased wife, accompanied by a bluntly offensive description of her followed by a “God rest her soul.” Oftentimes, enemy encounters are laced with crass insults and bizarre non-sequiturs. Some areas in each hub are devoted solely to delivering a joke, occasionally rewarding you with permanent upgrades for partaking in them. The humor helps make the darker moments feel more impactful, as you’ll genuinely grow to love some of the eccentric faces you assemble into your party.
LISA: The Painful Shines
Speaking of faces, the game’s graphics are serviceable. It’s by no means a technical powerhouse, but there’s clearly a good amount of effort put into every sprite on screen. Character designs are deliberately simple, owing to their Earthbound influence, but there’s a definite sense of style found throughout. Brad, in particular, is a prime example of this, carrying a dead-faced expression made more prominent by a furrowed brow that never moves for the entirety of a game. The game’s enemies, whether regular humans or horribly twisted monsters, bear hilariously exaggerated features or terrifying visages.
The mutants you’ll periodically encounter are horrifying in their own ways, with distended limbs, swollen flesh, and lifeless eyes sparking an immediate sense of distress whenever they come into view. The surrounding background assets are simpler in comparison, but the sparse visuals don’t necessarily detract from the character art. Explicit posters of women line the interiors of dilapidated buildings, empty bottles of alcohol litter the floors of peaceful villages, and caves are often decorated with spatters of blood and bedraggled features.
RELATED: ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’: Revisiting the Urban Horror Game 18 Years Later
But where LISA: The Painful truly shines aesthetics-wise is its soundtrack. It is an absolute behemoth of a score that encompasses just about every genre imaginable: nightmarish ambiance and horrible groaning in “Last Call Before Hell” and “Blood for Sex;” rhythmic tribal war drums in “War Season;” incredibly catchy melodies in “Horse S***,” “Beam Brain,” “Brawlin’,” and “Men’s Hair Club;” and what is one of the most irritatingly lovable compositions ever made, “Work Harder.” All music can be bought separately as DLC or freely revisited from the game’s title screen via a dedicated music player. It’s a soundscape that encapsulates the horrifyingly hilarious world of Olathe, making the game’s relatively short length feel gargantuan instead.
LISA: The Painful is by no means an arduous experience. If you’re rushing through, you can easily complete the main story in as little as a few hours, with more than four times that if you opt to complete the game’s lengthy side content. Should you have trouble with the base difficulty, you can also make things easier via a usable item at any point, with the caveat being that the decision cannot be reversed. Likewise, if you want even more of a challenge, you can take on “Pain Mode,” an optional difficulty setting added post-release. The game’s various save points are limited to a single use, additional combat encounters are present, and an exclusive ending makes for an even more intense experience compared to the base difficulty. Although, you’ll be more inclined to rip your own hair out whenever you perish.
The Definitive Edition
The definitive edition of LISA: The Painful also makes numerous additions and fixes to the base experience that is, for the most part, welcomed. A new boss battle can be discovered towards the end of the game, with multiple bug fixes, convenient additions, and the aforementioned campfire dialogs being overall positive changes. Similar improvements can also be found in the game’s DLC chapter, ”LISA: The Joyful.” That being said, a handful of graphical bugs introduced with the definitive edition have been noted and promptly addressed by Serenity Forge.
If there’s anything negative to say about LISA: The Painful overall, it’s a very pointed experience. If you can’t get with how it approaches its gameplay or darker themes, it may not be an experience for you. Likewise, if you go into LISA: The Painful expecting something similar to Undertale, you will be wholly disappointed. But, if you’re aching for a role-playing experience driven less by its setting and scope and more by its personal journey, LISA: The Painful is an easy recommendation as one of the best indie role-playing games of the year.
LISA: The Painful is available on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, and the Nintendo Switch. The Steam release comes bundled with the original legacy version of the game, with additional support for MacOS and Linux.
We’re hardworking geeks that love to geek out, but we can’t do it without you! If you enjoyed this article and want to see more like it, please consider tipping our writers.
