Lisa Trilogy

Lisa the First

First of a trilogy, What instantly came to mind is the similar gameplay to Yume Nikki. You play as Lisa, a girl who walks around in her mind and is constantly reminded of Marty, the guy with sunglasses who seems to be his abusive husband.

Walking around you will notice that the various zones represent different moods of Marty, and the gross sound and visual effects give away that this setting is kind of fucked up. The gameplay is simply figuring out what items to find and where to use them.

It has two endings, I got the true one, and it’s kind of disturbing, because not only is it revealed that you are Marty’s daughter instead of wife, implying incest, but the memory of your mother’s face turns out to be Marty’s as well, as if Lisa is either drugged, or mentally insane, or both. 

It is also implied that she wants to commit suicide. Kind of heavy stuff for a very simple RPG game, but Yume Nikki did it first, is better, longer, more original and more effective.

Rating: 6.3

 

Lisa the Painful

Now this is a game with it’s own charm and mood for sure. Quite reminiscent of looking like Earthbound only with a darker setting and perhaps even weirder scenarios, it also has a plot similar to Children of Men in a post-apocalyptic environment.

You can get lost very easily as navigation is pretty much nonexistent, but there are fast travel options available. It maintains the disturbing aspect of Lisa the First and adds in more gory, gross and just plain weird moments, plus sometimes you must choose between awful choices with negative consequences.

There are many party members recruit able, each with their own skill sets. Our protagonist Bradley leads a pretty shitty life and sacrifices much(potentially he can lose both his arms), but in the end he does care for Buddy his adopted daughter, making him interesting.

In overall Lisa the Painful is very different from the first title in the sense that it’s a traditional RPG gameplay wise, but like I said, it’s dark, it’s void of ethics, it’s disturbing and so on, and yet, I felt bad for Brad and Buddy in the end. Thumbs up towards the single creator for developing this, inspiring and motivating me to perhaps develop a video game on my own some day.

Rating: 7.7

Lisa the Joyful

It’s DLC for the previous game technically, but can also be considered the final part of the trilogy, so I created this review as a stand alone. Lisa the Joyful continues where Painful tragically ended. You control Buddy, the sole remaining woman in this world, and you decide to slaughter the remaining warlords of the country and basically become fearful and peaceful on your own.

Gameplay, length and presentation are all more minimized in order to bring closure towards this trilogy by providing answers towards plot holes.

This means it’s in overall a lesser “sequel”, but there is enough for fans to consider, including emotional scenes and themes about abuse and addiction which we have seen previously as well. A lot of tragedy to be found indeed. 

Rating: 7.0