LISA is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ brutal.

Yeah it's got its funny moments, which end up getting clipped and are usually the only exposure people have to these games, but at its heart the themes of this game are terrible, and completely unavoidable. It's not subtle, there's no mistaking what's going on here, and it's ugly.

The game isn't fair, and you'll be put in some very uncomfortable situations and forced to answer questions with no good answer. You'll lose members of your party and you'll actually hurt, not because the dialogue tells you how sad the protagonist is being, but because you just lost an extremely important asset from a gameplay perspective. So much of the story of this game isn't told through dialogue but directly through gameplay.

Try to weasel your way out of these tough calls, find a way around them, that perfect solution other games usually reward attentive players with, and the game will only hurt you worse. Did you really think that would work? Why should it?

As a result everything you do gets lent a certain weight that I usually never feel in single player games. You learn to accept the harshness of the game and adapt. You'll make tougher, meaner calls to earn a few more firebombs, and as a result you'll have an easier job surviving.

This is not a game you can recommend to everyone, but if you have the stomach for dark themes and unfair gameplay, please pick these games up, especially when they go on sale.

LISA is fucking brutal. Yeah it's got its funny moments, which end up getting clipped and are usually the only exposure people have to these games, but at its heart the themes of this game are terrible, and completely unavoidable. It's not subtle, there's no mistaking what's going on here, and it's ugly. The game isn't fair, and you'll be put in some very uncomfortable situations and forced to answer questions with no good answer. You'll lose members of your party and you'll actually hurt, not because the dialogue tells you how sad the protagonist is being, but because you just lost an extremely important asset from a gameplay perspective. So much of the story of this game isn't told through dialogue but directly through gameplay. Try to weasel your way out of these tough calls, find a way around them, that perfect solution other games usually reward attentive players with, and the game will only hurt you worse. Did you really think that would work? Why should it? As a result everything you do gets lent a certain weight that I usually never feel in single player games. You learn to accept the harshness of the game and adapt. You'll make tougher, meaner calls to earn a few more firebombs, and as a result you'll have an easier job surviving. This is not a game you can recommend to everyone, but if you have the stomach for dark themes and unfair gameplay, please pick these games up, especially when they go on sale.