When Yume Nikki came out, it created the floodgates for myriads of inspired RPG-Maker titles, such popular ones are Undertale, Omori, OneShot, and LISA. Yes, this game, just what in god's name is it about? Judging by the grotesque look, and cartoonish settings, it's full of unadulterated violence.
A new definitive edition came out, including both the original and sequel DLC. LISA just takes the absurdity into the macabre. I mean, like mutant wasteland, completely emasculatingly scary journey of a guy who is looking for his foster daughter, to make amends for his traumatizing past. But it's also freaking weird man, I mean, off-kilter most of the time.
Few other top-down RPG games added a lot of unique spin to both exploration and combat, and LISA does offer good brawling and meat smashing action, but other games did it things better. What this title is a great contender for is the bleak atmosphere, premise, and wacky shenanigans it brings.
In a land where the existence of women have been removed entirely, a small part of the world called Olathe, there's a man named Brad with his old childhood friends. All of them surviving the vast emptiness till someone finds a baby.
Said baby also slipped and dropped, but Brad was remorseful, and so comforted her before deciding that he and his friends will be taking care of her, thus naming her Buddy. But if the secret gets out, there will be hell. You're guessing at this point where the story goes later on, and you'd be right.
It is shown in the prologue that the upbringing was strict, but that Brad was also a compassionate father figure, enough to even let her do make-up on him. A stark contrast from the trauma about Brad's abusive family life before the apocalyptic event. And constant, visceral flashbacks of his memories of someone he regrets not saving.
So yeah, stuff happens. Real intense loss that sets Brad off to wondering the brutal, hedonistic, oppressive world in order to find his surrogate daughter after a band of marauders attacked his camp, he must get there before the whole world does.
Alright, prologue story over, time for the part that messes with my head, and fighting a constant stream of threats that wants to curve stomp on me or worse. Because this wasteland isn't just a dog-eat-dog world, it's also where evolution has taken itself to the macabre, with little remnants of humanity left.
Even in a bleak atmosphere such as this, with the whole reverse Y: The Last Man premise going on, I'll meet the occasional nutjob that does all kinds of things. There are myriads of personalities here, different environment situation that has to keep me up on my feet.
In the beginning of the game, I meet a friendly dude who sees the sadness in my MC. He joins my party, but he's pretty useless till later in the game. There was a moment where a gang ambush made me choose between my belongings or him. I chose him. I was being nice. There's no in-game karma system that rewards me, only an inhibited sense of faith.
I still haven't forgotten about Buddy, because all her posters are plastered all over the place, with sentences like "she's our last hope". The need to save civilization isn't exactly subtle there, either. But the game has no concept of time, so I took luxury into venturing in all kinds of places. Let's say, pretty effed up places. Even ones I've revisited gets stranger.
The first hole I went into lead me to a bar, I didn't have magazines before coming back after I did, and recruited a dude with a poncho. Turns out, he can shoot bomb arrows for some massive burn on hitboxes. I avoided that guy who sold me the fake manual, before stumbling a guy I found snoozing last time, now a mutant because he OD'd on Joy.
I got my first taste of purgatory fighting that thing, and holy mother of Earth; it screams, this induces fear which leaves my teammates paralyzed, licking anyone would negate hit chance and damage, and oh man, this big boy can bite hitboxes off us. I reloaded again, before doing my business and heading inside the second hole past the first. There I met the Rando thugs, they kicked the ever living crap out of us.
So what could I do really? I keep getting myself pummeled and ending up reloading saves. Out of frustration, I took a detour, ended up finding a Joy factory with a gang remembering a familiar face. And then I remember that Brad himself is also a Joy user. That does have benefits, but significant withdrawals. In RPG terms, only good when you really need it.
But then, Brad meets a master, and he teaches him a new move right after the task of dropping 15–20 times. I forgot to mention there's no invincible walls, so I walk past the edge, it is game over. I did that to myself, I have forsaken the training wheels for something authentic.
That paid off, we was back baby! I crossed a grassland, fought mutant snakes, and kept grinding till we got stronger, and then once I found some firebombs needed for my next fight, I fought another mutant and won. Also, my guy this time got kidnapped during rest, maybe I should have given him up instead of my stuff. Kind of annoying, NGL.
Brad, during his early adult life before the flash, was a martial arts master. Choosing how to attack meant I could mash random buttons or specific combos, inputting skill based ones. Others can give support by cheering or supplying Technique/Skill points.
I fought a Beastmaster and progressing through each battle, we unlocked new moves, our stats increased, farmed mags, we were busting nuts. Then finally going back and forth, saving the game, refueling, found a bike, and with that bike, we were able to cross the gap by jumping through it, and progressed a little further to saving Buddy.
And somewhere, Brad gets a flashback to his old life, where he visits his close friend's house, having dinner with his wife, and then his kid shows up not looking, well, chipper. I can't comment on the rest, holy heck, man this game is emasculating enough.
I got stuck again, and what do you know, a trapping point where even with the strongest fighters I found, a gang of five ambushed and kicked our teeth in easily, while stealing the mags. And that's where I called it quits. To put it this way, this game is relentlessly hopeless, brutal, insane, manic, absurd, and badass all wrapped up in one grizzly package.
But it's also a haunting tale about one living with regrets while trying to make right by helping the other that is in his current life. Battling his demons and his troubling past, making tough choices, and trying to survive a world that doesn't care about humanity anymore. It's also about the power of love.
And then there's this guy. He. Just. Won't. Shut. Up. Why, god why? Every time he monologues, there's a choir going on the BGM, and I have clicked the skip button on my controller more times than I did the same button during battle. That's how infuriating he is. I take it back, I need to rescue THAT guy, and hopefully exchange with him instead.
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I'm saving this for when I live with my gf, I don't dare to play it all alone
Many years ago I heard about this game and how hard it can be. Although I never got to play it, it stuck in my mind how they described the overwhelming/painful experience of the protagonist searching for a little girl in such a dark world. You can tell it's one of those little indie gems.
It truly is one, you should check it out