Lisa: The Painful - Review (Part 3 of 4)
Lisa: The Painful - Review (Part 3 of 4)
On September the 15th, 2017, at 5:06 I finished Lisa: The Painful. This is the review segment in my 4 part look at the Lisa Series as a whole.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR LISA: THE PAINFUL.
Sound effects are up next:
WOOO
Finding one relevant one was a chore enough, they all sound fine and fit into the game okay, however, near the 3rd area, sound effects start to become reused, or, I just realized they had, luckily the game uses them sparingly so therefore doesn't get annoyingly so.
Voices:
As mentioned before, the game uses banjo-kazooie style voice, with muhs and mehs as speech. This works fine, and i don't think voice acting would have worked well, too much tension and creepiness comes out of not having a voice.
-Cassi
On September the 15th, 2017, at 5:06 I finished Lisa: The Painful. This is the review segment in my 4 part look at the Lisa Series as a whole.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR LISA: THE PAINFUL.
Lisa: The Painful, takes place around 30 or so years after Lisa: The First and follows the protagonist Brad Armstrong, a minor character in Lisa: The First. the game is a turn-based rpg, although has minimal rpg elements. It costs £6.99 on Steam, or £12.99 for Lisa: The Painful, Lisa: The Joyful, OST, and Art Collection. The trailer can be found on Steam or here: Lisa: The Painful Trailer.
Starting with one, and building up to 4 members, your party will engage in turn based combat, either in a few select areas with infinitely spawning creatures, like above. Two of my common complaints in Turn-based games, is that the turn itself doesn't feel satisfying and that the repetition of the same few creatures gets boring after a while. The Painful does an amazing job in satisfying and not getting boring. It prevents this by a few mechanics, firstly the main party memeber you'll always be with (Brad) has 'Armstrong Style' in place of his attack, it brings up a menu which lets you input keys in return for a move, for example A D A W D, which performs differently to D A W D , on top of this if you combo these keys you can perform your skills, which cost SP but do extra damage if done in 'Armstrong Style' rather than the Skills menu, as shown down below:
So far the screenshots i've seen look rather lame, so here are a few to counteract this, in a non-spoiler way:
These enemy varients do a great job of keeping combat fresh and interesting, each having weaknesses and resistance.
You may also use items.They are a centrifugal point around battles, as some items can do high damage to all enemies on the screen, making them extremely powerful, or completely healing or reviving a party member. They can also restore status effects, and SP.
It's now time to talk about the integration of the second part of Lisa's gameplay: exploration. Like the first Lisa, the game takes play on 3 hub-like areas, consisting of 10 or so access points to other sections, and about 5 of the 10 being actually essential to moving to the next area. All of them are worth exploring and will only help you. If you don't mind being terrified. These extra areas can contain puzzles, items or enemies or lore. Along the way, Brad will encounter choices which not only effect the story, but the gameplay. Buzzo, an antagonist, will force Brad to make a several choices. All of Brads items, or his arm, or a party member. Or, his whole party or Buddy's nipple. But who's Buddy? Well...
The atmosphere in this game is always dark, the main 'theme song' of the area being slowed down, as is common in these light RPG games. There are two areas which I feel as if describe the tone perfectly. Firstly is 'Snow Mountain' in Area 3 this expansive area has brad travelling right (as always) and upwards in search of a toolbox. Suicidal football players launch themselves at you, and snowmen start firing guns upon you, you reach the top of the mountain and defeat a mini-boss, gifting you a toolkit and new party member. If you keep going right after this however, you start to notice a few odd things...
These sprites are tiny, but noticable. Something feels off.. Then your leapt on by a mutant, horrific looking humans with twisted bodies, no longer in control, I also refuse to spoil the secret behind mutants. If your able to defeat this mutant your able to keep climbing up. At the top of the mountain is heaps of dead bodies, all being cremated, the 'snow' is the ashes of dead people, the snowmen covered in dead people, Brad trudging through corpses.
The second of which is Wally's. Wally's may be one of the most terrifying experience i've ever had. You enter a village and all is silent, but if you stand still and listen very carefully, you can hear manic laughing in the distance. Entering houses, you will find nobody, except empty wrappers. Once you reach the next screen. There are people playing to small device, and they walk up to it, ordering a number 9 large, a large soda, and a number 7 with extra dip. A bag with these items falls down from the sky and the people take it. Talking to the device, which looks very similar to a speaker in drive-throughs, Brad gets told that Wally's can only provide one 'Miracle' a day. You climb up the mountain to Wally's killing deer and a mascot on the way up, all while laughter echoes down at you. You climb up.
I'm not going to spoil whats inside. Maybe turn down your volume though. And prepare.
Gameplay:
The main Gameplay of Lisa consists of two things, the first of which is the combat. |
| A typical mid-game battle |
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| ADAS = Fire Ball 4 |
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| 'Soups On Baby!' |
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| Horrace |
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| Hair - And yes, it is flipping you off |
These enemy varients do a great job of keeping combat fresh and interesting, each having weaknesses and resistance.
You may also use items.They are a centrifugal point around battles, as some items can do high damage to all enemies on the screen, making them extremely powerful, or completely healing or reviving a party member. They can also restore status effects, and SP.
It's now time to talk about the integration of the second part of Lisa's gameplay: exploration. Like the first Lisa, the game takes play on 3 hub-like areas, consisting of 10 or so access points to other sections, and about 5 of the 10 being actually essential to moving to the next area. All of them are worth exploring and will only help you. If you don't mind being terrified. These extra areas can contain puzzles, items or enemies or lore. Along the way, Brad will encounter choices which not only effect the story, but the gameplay. Buzzo, an antagonist, will force Brad to make a several choices. All of Brads items, or his arm, or a party member. Or, his whole party or Buddy's nipple. But who's Buddy? Well...
The Plot:
Lisa continues around 30 or so years after the first Lisa. The world has ended. An event described as the 'White Flash' has taken all women from the world. Brad has become a 'Joy' addict, a drug described as making you 'feel nothing.' In game he suffers from an addiction, lowering his defense and attack insanely low if he becomes withdrawn. Joy makes him able to suffer the hallucinations of Marty and the dead Lisa, the once proud wrestler has become a broken shell of a man. Whilst out picking up the remains of Joy he previously abandoned, he finds a baby, and names her 'Buddy' he takes it home to him and his friends house, where years pass again. One day, the child is taken away from Brad, with buddy being the only girl left in this new world many men are after her for less than desirable acts, be it the concept of rebuilding the human race, or just pleasure. Brad knows this and see's it as a second chance, he couldn't save Lisa. But now the emotional and untouchable reasons why he couldn't save Lisa have manifested into physical objects, things he has spent his whole life training for, mentally and physically. He sets off to save Buddy, and himself. I refuse to spoil the plot any further, of course, my explanation makes the plot sound generic, but in a way, it is. What is so engaging is the relationships between characters, and the characters themselves. The plot does what it needs to, but serves as a segway into the meat of the plot.The atmosphere in this game is always dark, the main 'theme song' of the area being slowed down, as is common in these light RPG games. There are two areas which I feel as if describe the tone perfectly. Firstly is 'Snow Mountain' in Area 3 this expansive area has brad travelling right (as always) and upwards in search of a toolbox. Suicidal football players launch themselves at you, and snowmen start firing guns upon you, you reach the top of the mountain and defeat a mini-boss, gifting you a toolkit and new party member. If you keep going right after this however, you start to notice a few odd things...
These sprites are tiny, but noticable. Something feels off.. Then your leapt on by a mutant, horrific looking humans with twisted bodies, no longer in control, I also refuse to spoil the secret behind mutants. If your able to defeat this mutant your able to keep climbing up. At the top of the mountain is heaps of dead bodies, all being cremated, the 'snow' is the ashes of dead people, the snowmen covered in dead people, Brad trudging through corpses.
The second of which is Wally's. Wally's may be one of the most terrifying experience i've ever had. You enter a village and all is silent, but if you stand still and listen very carefully, you can hear manic laughing in the distance. Entering houses, you will find nobody, except empty wrappers. Once you reach the next screen. There are people playing to small device, and they walk up to it, ordering a number 9 large, a large soda, and a number 7 with extra dip. A bag with these items falls down from the sky and the people take it. Talking to the device, which looks very similar to a speaker in drive-throughs, Brad gets told that Wally's can only provide one 'Miracle' a day. You climb up the mountain to Wally's killing deer and a mascot on the way up, all while laughter echoes down at you. You climb up.
 |
| Welcome to Wally's! |
Sound Design:
I can't really comment on music choice, as music is subjective. However, I feel as if all the music feels the game perfectly:
These music tracks contain 2 battle themes, 2 more chilled tracks.. and... an added extra....
Sound effects are up next:
WOOO
Finding one relevant one was a chore enough, they all sound fine and fit into the game okay, however, near the 3rd area, sound effects start to become reused, or, I just realized they had, luckily the game uses them sparingly so therefore doesn't get annoyingly so.
Voices:
As mentioned before, the game uses banjo-kazooie style voice, with muhs and mehs as speech. This works fine, and i don't think voice acting would have worked well, too much tension and creepiness comes out of not having a voice.
Fun Factor/Experience and Difficulty:
Now then, I don't always rate games on having 'fun' I disagree with the statement, 'games need to be fun to play.' This game is both fun to play, with turn based combat being satisfying, and the games dark humor being very funny, this and the desire to see Brad just be happy and find Buddy was what pushed me to the end. This game is both fun, and an expereience. Knowing the plot and themes and Lisa: The first, really make you think during this game, especialy near the end. About how the effects of pain scar, be it emotional or physical.
This game may break you, and yet you don't want it to be over. Lisa is a masterpiece.
9/10
Close enough to be considered the best game of 2014, and an experience to always remember.-Cassi
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