Lisa: The Painful
Lisa is a quirky side-scrolling RPG set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Beneath the charming and funny exterior is a world full of disgust and moral destruction. Players will learn what kind of person they are by being FORCED to make choices. These choices permanently effect the game play. If you want to save a party member from death, you will have to sacrifice the strength of your character. Whether it's taking a beating for them, or chopping off limbs, or some other inhuman way. You will learn that in this world being selfish and heartless is the only way to survive...
What it feels like
A cold hopelessness pervades the world where altruism is punished and survival demands cruelty. A harsh, unflinching darkness refuses to look away from the brutality of forced moral compromise. A pervasive wistful sadness about loss and decline, with dark beauty in a broken world.
What it's about
Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that defines the setting's moral decay and resource scarcity. Surviving a hostile world where moral compromise and selfishness are framed as necessary for endurance. Players discover what kind of person they are through forced choices that redefine their moral character.
How it plays
Weighty ethical decisions that permanently reshape gameplay and party composition are definitional to the experience. Death of party members is permanent, raising the existential weight of each moral choice. Assembling and managing a party whose members can be sacrificed or lost permanently shapes the arc.
How it looks and sounds
A 2D side-scrolling profile view defines the core visual and mechanical presentation. Deliberately low-resolution pixel graphics establish the indie aesthetic, though they contrast with the dark tone.
How it's structured
Designed as a complete solo experience with no multiplayer component, core to the narrative journey. A bounded, authored story arc following a broken man through a post-apocalyptic world with definite narrative progression. Player choices fork the story into meaningfully different paths, affecting party composition and character strength permanently.
Kindred games
Shares Post-Apocalyptic, Survival Against Nature, Moral Choice, Bleak.
Both lean into Post-Apocalyptic, Survival Against Nature, Moral Choice, Bleak.
Shares Moral Choice, Melancholic, Turn-Based Combat, Pixel Art.
Both lean into Campaign, Single-Player, Moral Choice, Melancholic.
Shares Post-Apocalyptic, Survival Against Nature, Side View, Permadeath.
Both lean into Single-Player, Post-Apocalyptic, Survival Against Nature, Side View.
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Closest hidden gems
A lesser-known kindred — Side View, Melancholic, Identity & Self, Pixel Art. 95% positive across 4,847 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Single-Player, Campaign, Side View, Melancholic.
A lesser-known kindred — Side View, Pixel Art, Nonlinear Progression, Survival Against Nature. 86% positive across 4,627 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Side View, Single-Player, Pixel Art, Nonlinear Progression.
A lesser-known kindred — Side View, Permadeath, Grim, Pixel Art. 85% positive across 4,522 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Side View, Permadeath, Single-Player, Grim.