Content Warning: The following contains
discussions of child abuse, rape, and suicide.
Pain is a very good word to describe
the LISA series. Not in a ludic sense that it is challenging, but that its
narrative is hard to take. It’s a very harsh, but honest story, a story of
abuse.
LISA The Painful is definitely the
“core” of the series. It’s not only by far the longest of three, but it’s also
where the game’s narrative conceits all come together to express what the
series has to say not only about abuse, but fatherhood and masculinity.
LISA The Painful is probably best
known as the post-apocalyptic side-scrolling RPG that was backed on
Kickstarter. A sacrifice system where you must sacrifice party members or your
own limbs was a big attraction to the game. The game is also well known for its
cameos from people like The Dismal Jesters. “A game about survival, sacrifice,
and perverts…” was the big marketing tagline for LISA The Painful on its
Kickstarter page which I wouldn’t say is wrong, but the Kickstarter paints a
much different picture than I what I feel I’ve experienced playing the game.
Maybe focus shifted into this darker narrative later down the line, but
considering it has always shared the title LISA, I’d doubt it. Possibly
advertising your game as a narrative about child abuse and toxic masculinity
just doesn’t sell sadly. I’m not really throwing shade towards Dingaling. The
game does deliver on its promise of a very charming Earthbound mixed with Fist of
the North Star vibe it’s selling itself on when it’s not knee deep in the
despair of its narrative, but it’s just so surreal to see the Kickstarter page
after playing the game. Oh and if you are curious, no I did not back the game.
There was a great white flash and
suddenly the world was a barren wasteland. We leave the mind of Lisa and enter
the post-apocalyptic world of Olathe. Decades have passed. The world is a ruin
full of gangs, drugs, violence, but completely bereft of women. However, our
protagonist for this game Brad Armstrong, son of Marty and brother to Lisa,
finds an orphaned infant girl. He decides to keep her for himself to raise as
his daughter. He names her Buddy.
The game opens on its main menu.
Before you on the right of the frame is a familiar sprite, Lisa, hanged. Before
the apocalypse Brad and Lisa lived with Marty in their seemingly normal home.
Though we know from LISA The First that is clearly not the case. Lisa and Brad
were abused by their alcoholic father, Lisa we know was frequently raped by
Marty. The very first sight we see even before starting the game tells us
exactly where LISA The First led. Brad then looks to his new adopted daughter
Buddy, and thinks of her as his second chance to make up for not being able to
save Lisa.
Immediately we already see the
game’s narrative and messaging coming together. A land of men in chaos that has
wiped out all of women except for one infant girl, the game doesn’t say exactly
why, but considering the game’s theme of men’s abuse on women it’s not too much
to infer that the unchecked toxic masculinity was taken to its extreme in the
wasteland and they abused women into near extinction. That’s already just the
setting and theme sending a potent message about what it thinks of the horrors
of masculinity.
Also extremely important to our
setting is the drug Joy. Joy is an extremely addictive drug that a lot of men
of Olathe have taken to cope with the end of the world. Joy often has the side
effect of forcing people to act on their inner most desires. It also has some
other extreme side effects. For now what is important about Joy is that Brad is
an addict. It’s implied that Brad took to Joy to escape from the ghosts of
Marty’s abuse and Lisa’s death. Brad’s Joy addiction is also a strong
reflection of his father’s alcoholism which may have been partly responsible
for his abuse. If that wasn’t enough Joy addiction is an important gameplay
mechanic where Brad can suffer from Withdrawals which affects his performance
in battle. Joy is also an extremely powerful consumable that both replenishes
health, but also buffs damage done. The gameplay functions of Joy are not quite
as important other than the game constantly trying to tempt you into using Joy.
The adventure begins as word about
Buddy being the sole surviving woman in the apocalypse spreads and she
kidnapped. Brad must go on a journey to get Buddy back. It sounds like a pretty
boring standard hero’s journey but don’t worry, the game does a great job at
subverting this to express its ideas about Brad and his quest to save Buddy. On
your journey you’ll meet many strange characters including childhood friends,
childhood bullies, party members who you can enlist into your party, and two
very important antagonists to Brad, the masked warlord Rando and a man obsessed
with causing Brad pain Buzzo.
The party members are honestly pretty boring and literally
expendable characters. Party members can leave your party or be Perma-Killed
either through events or special boss moves. The characters are mostly just
one-note characters with a variety of abilities. They’re one of the many flaws
in my opinion of the game and while I have recruited (almost) all of them I
haven’t felt particularly attached to any of them. They can be kidnapped while
you sleep at a campfire and held for ransom by gangs as well. There is a
particularly interesting segment in which you are forced into a few games of
Russian Roulette that is completely random and can permanently kill off party
members. It is an interesting situation but the random element makes it pretty
frustrating and probably one of the few instances where I’d say the game is
excessively cruel only to fit an aesthetic.
Buzzo is interesting in that he’s part of one of the game’s
main selling points “Sacrifice”. Buzzo will stop you on your journey and force
you into ultimatums that include sacrificing party members, giving up your
items, or sacrificing your arms. Like I’ve described above though the issue is
that there are so many party members and they are all pretty boring characters
so it’s not a difficult choice to just sacrifice them unless they are integral
to your battle strategy. These mostly came off to me as more calculated
decisions than heartfelt dilemmas. The only time this ever felt like a tough
choice is when Buzzo holds Buddy captive and gives you an option to cut off one
of her nipples. Yeah, that’s probably another situation where the game goes a
bit too far to be more edgy than it even needs to be, especially since you are
rewarded with her nipple as an equipable item. Buzzo is a pretty important
antagonist of the series, but sadly he doesn't offer much to the text of LISA and is almost completely redundant when we dive into his backstory later in LISA The Joyful.
And about Rando…. we’ll get to Rando later. (Spoilers, of
course the masked warlord is the final boss)
Anyway you are probably wondering if the game tries to be way
more excessively cruel for aesthetics, and sadly it does, but mostly outside of
the main narrative. There’s a lot of side stuff that leads into “wacky dark
humor” stuff that of course is there. There’s a lot of ultimately pointless
violence that doesn’t exactly serve any purpose than to be there, suicides that
more come off as jokes thus somewhat undermining the series narrative conceits
about suicide, and a lot of npcs yelling about wanting to rape Buddy, which
makes sense considering the setting, but it does at times seem a bit much and
once again considering the narrative being about the rape and abuse of a young
girl and its effects on a large amount of people, seems a bit out of place. I
guess Olathe really is a land of “Perverts” as advertised. Speaking of
“Perverts” the way the Dismal Jesters cameo in the game is really fucking
strange, but not really in a good way in my opinion. “Slave Lord Jim” basically
forces you into playing the role of Jonathan Holmes in his famous “Sexy Boy
Jonathon” bit, but it just comes off as really creepy when it involves the
player as an ultimately non-consenting member. Though fun fact, I crit the
Jonathan Holmes boss for 10K damage!
Alright, so those of you in know are probably wondering what
I think about the “Queen Bees” as a queer trans woman who also happens to be
pro-sex work. First off, how dare you be so presumptuous that because I am a
queer trans woman I must have a special opinion on this part of the game, but
in all seriousness… I’m a bit mixed on it. The Queen Bees are a group of drag
queen sex workers who run a brothel in the swamp area of the game, and yes
their appearance is probably… exactly what you are thinking of. However,
despite their real sad stereotypical appearances the Queen Bees are actually
pretty cool. The game is largely pretty sex-worker positive and you can even
become one yourself. It is odd that the game systemizes sex-work as combat
which could be problematic for a variety of reasons, but what it does great is
that it makes sex-work appear just like your regular grind, it is WORK. I find
the Queen Bees interesting but definitely could probably be greatly improved in
a lot of ways.
So that’s a lot of ugly negatives, but what the game is truly
brilliant at is its narrative, so I’ll get back to that. Where the game story finally shows its hand is
when Brad is finally reunited with Buddy. However, Buddy refuses Brad. Buddy
expresses her hatred of Brad. Brad is a terrible, obsessive, and abusive
father. He’s not quite obviously abusive in the sense that his father is,
however Brad is still terrible. He spent his time raising Buddy high on Joy and
locking Buddy in a basement. Once again, more reflections between Brad and his
father Marty. Brad has also gone on a quest to retrieve Buddy by murdering
people who are ultimately trying to help Buddy. Buddy has accepted her fate as
the new mother of mankind, but Brad still tries to take her back. Buddy
ultimately gets away but Brad still continues his journey to chase her down.
Where does Lisa fit into all this? Well, part of Brad’s
obsession over raising Buddy is that he feels he needs to redeem himself for
not saving his sister. Brad is merely using Buddy as a replacement for Lisa,
thus robbing Buddy of her individuality along with her consent over her fate.
Brad not letting go of his sister’s death and placing the blame all on himself.
This is a fascinating exploration through the mind of an abuser. How Brad sees
the world, himself, and Buddy in extremely unhealthy ways. And do not be
mistaken, the narrative clearly does not paint Brad in a negative light. The
game may try to persuade you to think that way making him the “hero” but the
game subverts this to show you how awful the hero father really is in this
story.
Speaking of Lisa, there is a really interesting part towards
the end where Brad finds Buddy living with Marty Armstrong. You get to beat
Marty to death, which is very cathartic! It also serves the narrative purpose
of having Brad ultimately lowering Brad to Marty’s level. You do get the choice
to spare Marty, but ultimately your player consent is denied as the effect of
Joy forces Brad to give into his desires.
At last you make it to Rando Land… well there’s a sidequest
where you join a wrestling company and break the Death Queen’s streak and a
superboss named Satan (who’s sadly not actually Satan), but I could really gush
on forever let’s get to Rando Land, the end of the game.
At last you make it to Rando Land where Buddy is with Rando
and his army. Sadly we don’t get a lot of backstory on Rando quite yet, but
he’s probably the least villainous final boss ever. The first time you meet
him, he has tears falling from his mask. When you ultimately meet him and his
army at Rando Land he finally speaks… but with a stutter as if he’s actually
emotionally weak, though he is super buff and a master of the martial arts like
Brad so he’s no pushover. Honestly, Rando would probably be considered the true
hero of the LISA series as he’s a real nice guy and wants to help Buddy realize
her destiny of the matriarch of mankind. While I'd disagree with that statement for reasons specific to LISA The Joyful, I will agree that he is certainly a foil to Brad, though as I’ve mentioned, this isn’t a
story of heroes.
Before Brad faces off the entire Rando Army by himself,
Brad’s former party members (or at least the ones in your immediate active
party) return and immediately turn on Brad. In case you had any doubt, either
this or Buddy literally spelling out to you should hammer in the idea that
“[BRAD] IS A MONSTER”. Brad kills his
party members, Brad kills the Rando Army, and Brad faces Rando himself.
In the end Brad is left severely wounded, bleeding out,
arrows sticking out of him like a pincushion. He walks over to Buddy who is now
alone amidst the corpses. Brad and Buddy talk. Buddy expresses her hatred for
Brad and all that he has done to hurt her. Tears fall from Brad’s eyes. He asks
Buddy to hug him. The game offers you a final choice. Interestingly enough you
control Buddy in this last instance. Finally Buddy can have a choice in the narrative! The ending to LISA The Painful is probably one of the most strongest endings to any game I feel I've played. Its a brilliant subversion of the "heroic final stand" and an extremely tragic end for our characters. I feel like I'd put this up there for one of the most impactful, emotional endings up there with the likes of MOTHER 3, which is certainly a big inspiration of Dingaling.
Brad
collapses. Credits roll.
“Lisa…”
