LISA: The Painful is an indie role-playing game known for its dark and emotionally intense storytelling. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world called Olathe, where women have vanished, leaving only men to survive in a harsh and desolate landscape.
Throughout the game, players must make morally challenging decisions that shape the story and the fate of the characters. LISA: The Painful delves into dark themes of addiction, abuse, and the consequences of one’s actions, creating a thought-provoking and emotionally charged gaming experience. While playing as the game’s protagonist, Brad Armstrong, multiple references to his tragic past are teased. If you’re curious as to what’s going on with Brad and the world of Olathe as a whole, then just keep reading!
LISA: The Painfully Depressing Franchise- Story and Lore Explained
We can’t explore the lore of LISA: The Painful without first looking into its counterparts. If LISA: The Painful is your first foray into the franchise, then you may be surprised to discover that it’s actually the second installment in a 3-part game series.
LISA is actually a trilogy, starting with LISA: The First all the way back in 2012 and ending with LISA: The Painful in 2014 and LISA: The Joyful in 2015.
The definitive editions of the latter games came out earlier this year, which launched the LISA franchise back into the spotlight. If you’re only just now getting onboard the LISA train, however, then you may be a bit confused as far as its story and lore go.
Here are the stories and lore behind each of the LISA games, in order:
LISA: The First
LISA: The First is just as painfully depressing as its sequels. Developed using RPG Maker 2003, the game was launched on October 9th, 2012, and serves as the precursor to LISA: The Painful.
The game delves into the psyche of Lisa Armstrong, Brad Armstrong’s little sister, who grapples with the emotional weight of the enduring abuse inflicted upon her by her father, Marty Armstrong. Players embark on a journey to uncover the depths of Lisa’s mind, navigating through her struggles with attempting to cope with the unbearable burden that she carries.
LISA: The First opens with the player assuming control of the main character, Lisa Armstrong. As the story unfolds, players witness Lisa’s tragic descent into madness, a consequence of the ruthlessly relentless physical and sexual abuse inflicted upon her by Marty Armstrong.
The players’ primary objective is to collect various VHS tapes containing Lisa’s memories, all the while navigating through diverse and dangerous zones in the game. Worth noting is that Brad Armstrong does not actually make an appearance in this particular game, despite the fact that he is Lisa’s older brother.
In fact, there is no mention of his presence in the game at all, and there are no indications of his room even being present in this version of Marty Armstrong’s house. This could be a representation of Lisa’s feelings of isolation, abandonment, and even betrayal for her only other living family member, who was unable to protect her from their father.
At the end of this depressing adventure, Lisa tragically commits suicide, unable to bear the burden of her father’s abuse any longer. This devastating event haunts Lisa’s older brother, Brad Armstrong, for the rest of his life, and is inevitably what sets the story of LISA: The Painful into motion.
If you’d like to experience this horrifying game for yourself, then you can download and play it for free here: LISA: The First.
LISA: The Painful
LISA: The Painful is the direct sequel to LISA: The First, though it takes place many years after his little sister’s tragic death. In this game, Brad Armstrong is a grown adult, attempting to survive in the post-apocalyptic world of Olathe. Sometime between LISA: The First and LISA: The Painful, a catastrophic event took place, known only as “The Flash” or the “White Flash”.
This cataclysmic event somehow rid the world of every last human female and plunged the entire world into post-apocalyptic chaos. Despite this, however, many men still remain alive, including Brad. Amidst his acute depression, PTSD, and severe drug addiction to a futuristic drug called “Joy”, Brad accidentally stumbles across a baby, who’s been abandoned in the middle of the desert.
As you can imagine, babies are hard to come by in a world without any women, so Brad is shocked by this discovery. Just as Brad is getting over his surprise at his discovery of the child, he realizes that the baby is a female, presumably the only female left in the entire world. He decides to keep and raise the child in secret and keep her hidden from the prying eyes of the rest of Olathe’s savage residents.
Unfortunately, however, Buddy (the child) is eventually found and kidnapped, which sets the game in motion. In LISA: The Painful, players embark on a heart-wrenchingly painful journey alongside Brad Armstrong as he strives to rescue his adopted daughter, Buddy, from her unknown kidnappers.
At the end of LISA: The Painful, it is discovered that Buddy is alive and well, though she refuses to rejoin Brad and runs away; she expresses her belief that she should be able to live her own life outside of his rule and make her own mistakes as she sees fit. Despite her surprising ability to hold her own against Olathe’s depraved residents and mutant creatures, Brad refuses to let her go and follows her when she runs.
In the end, Brad goes into a rage-induced killing spree, where he murders everyone who gets in his way without hesitation. When he finally catches up to Buddy, he’s on his last legs, and dies as soon as he finally reaches her. Buddy then retreats to a seemingly empty house and rests, but unbeknownst to her, Brad turns into a Joy Mutant after dying. This sets the stage for LISA: The Joyful.
LISA: The Joyful
LISA: The Joyful is the final game in the LISA trilogy. Thankfully, it’s slightly less brutal than the previous two games, but it’s still not for the faint of heart. LISA: The Joyful follows the story of Buddy after the events of the previous game, LISA: The Painful. LISA: The Joyful is a much shorter experience than LISA: The Painful, but it provides some much-needed closure to those who played the previous two games.
LISA: The Joyful begins with a flashback to a time when Buddy is still under Brad’s care. Brad captures an unknown man, incapacitating and restraining him before bringing him back to their home. He then compels Buddy to confront and kill the stranger, intending to teach her how to defend herself against Olathe’s depraved residents.
Buddy is understandably upset and at first, refuses, but after much urging from Brad, she ends up doing as he says. Brad then alludes to more instances like this being in store for her in the future, when the flashback ends. This flashback explains why Buddy is such a capable fighter, despite her isolated upbringing.
The game then shifts to the aftermath of LISA: The Painful, where a Joy-Mutated Brad is painstakingly making his way to Buddy, though it’s unclear what his intentions are. He seems to still be in relative control of his faculties, despite his mutated state; he’s capable of speech and even recognizes Buddy.
Some players have theorized that Brad, due to his mutated state, is attempting to hurt or kill Buddy, but the most popular theory is that he’s actually attempting to get Buddy to kill him. Buddy is forced to confront and attack her former adopted father, who allows her to stab him and even begins to weep, until Buzzo intervenes and takes Brad away.
Left on her own, Buddy ventures towards Eastern Olathe, and eventually teams up with Rando, the former leader of the Rando Army. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that she must take down all of Olathe’s power-hungry warlords and become the ruler of Olathe so that she can finally live freely without worry of being kept in a cage. Rando expresses his worry for her and her plans, but Buddy remains insistent on her goals.
In the end, all of the warlords end up dead and Buddy is the one responsible. Once players beat the game, they can get one of either two endings, one being the “good” ending and one being the “bad” ending (but we’re talking about the LISA franchise here, so it’s really more like a “bad” ending and a “less bad” ending).
If players manage to get the “good” ending, their cutscene will go something like this: Buddy accepts the doctor’s vaccine and successfully avoids transforming into a Joy Mutant. She then uses Yado’s horn to destroy the Joy Mutant hordes, bringing a semblance of peace back to Olathe. Following her triumphs, Buddy pays her respects to Rando by burying him.
Later on, she manages to conceive a baby boy, though the identity of the father of the child remains a mystery. Amidst these shocking developments, Brad appears in the picture, still a Joy Mutant but otherwise still alive. Another grave is eventually presented, presumably belonging to Buzzo. The cutscene then ends.
Related: Review: LISA: The Painful is a Painfully Addictive Nightmare
LISA – The Entire Story Explained
There’s a lot more to this trilogy’s story that’s left unsaid, though a lot of information can be gleaned from the game’s many cutscenes, endings, and secret epilogues. Here is the entire LISA story explained:
Brad and Lisa were siblings who were abandoned by their mother and left in the care of their abusive father, Marty Armstrong. Marty severely neglected and physically abused both of his children, but exclusively abused his daughter, Lisa, sexually. Brad was unable to protect his sister from his deranged father’s sadistic abuse, and Lisa, unable to cope with her horrible reality, committed suicide.
Prior to her death, Lisa had been “romantically” involved with another child referred to as “Buzzo”. Although he was no saint, he was, seemingly, her only reprieve from her father’s madness. She eventually convinced him to physically mutilate her with a saw, thinking it would put an end to her father’s attraction to her. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and in the end, Buzzo was left traumatized by his actions and her death, and ultimately blamed Brad for Lisa’s suicide (hence his continued harassment of Brad throughout the second game).
As Brad grew into a young adult, he became the head of a successful karate studio and adopted a young boy, Rando. Their relationship wasn’t as strong as one would hope, but it was obvious that Rando respected Brad and thought of him as a father figure. At some point during Brad’s adulthood, the “White Flash” happened, and all of the women in the world were wiped out, causing the apocalypse.
Dr. Yado, an insane, power-hungry individual set upon world domination, is loosely credited for most of the world’s post-apocalyptic status. He created a drug called Joy, which is highly addictive and causes people to become Joy Mutants when they die. He intended for the drug to take over the entire population so he could control them with his horn and rule the world. Shortly after his invention of the drug, he had a baby with his wife, who was still alive.
Rather than keep the baby, Dr. Yado placed the child in an area where Brad would find it, knowing he would adopt her. Dr. Yado believed that once people realized there was a female living in secret among them, it would result in a war, making world domination easier for him. Shortly after the child was strategically abandoned, Dr. Yado murdered his wife, believing he no longer had any use of her now that Buddy had been born. Brad later found Buddy and began raising her in secret, just as Dr. Yado had anticipated.
At some point during his raising of Buddy, Brad relapsed and began using Joy again, despite the fact that he had previously quit for Buddy’s sake. While he was high on Joy one day, Buddy was kidnapped. Brad essentially went to hell and back to find her, but when he finally found her, she was alive and well, but wanted nothing to do with him anymore. She wanted freedom, rather than be kept safe in his basement for the rest of her life. Brad disapproved and chased after her when she ran away.
Once Brad finally caught up to Buddy, he had fought and murdered several men and was barely alive. He embraced Buddy one last time and died. After his death, Buddy retreated to a seemingly empty abode to rest, not knowing that Brad would turn into a Joy Mutant. Mutant Brad then approached Buddy and called her name, causing her to begin stabbing him while the both of them wept. Buzzo then intervened and took Brad away to an unknown location. Buddy temporarily teamed up with Rando and took down all of Olathe’s warlords, before naming herself the new ruler.
While Buddy had been on her warpath, Rando had abandoned her shortly after teaming up, due to his dissatisfaction with her murderous, political rampage. Once Buddy found out that Rando had been the one who had orchestrated her kidnapping in an effort to keep her “safe”, however, Buddy murdered Rando. After killing him and defeating all of the warlords, Buddy confronted Dr. Yado and defeated him with the help of Buzzo, who later turned into a Joy Mutant and committed suicide.
According to LISA: The Joyful’s “good” ending, Buddy then took a vaccine created by Dr. Yado to prevent herself from turning into a Joy Mutant. She then used his horn to eradicate the rest of the Joy Mutant population and return Olathe to a relatively peaceful, yet still post-apocalyptic place. Mutant Brad lived on and Buddy later conceived a son, though it’s unknown who the father was. The End.
Overall, the LISA trilogy tells a truly f*cked-up story about the consequences of child abuse, the manifestation of generational trauma, the seemingly limitless depths of human resilience, and one misled man’s quest for unachievable redemption.
The LISA trilogy is known for its incredibly dark and mature storytelling, emotional depth, and challenging gameplay. It has garnered a dedicated fanbase and critical acclaim for its thought-provoking and heart-wrenching narrative. Each game in the trilogy offers a unique perspective on human morality, ethical ambiguity, and the human condition, providing players with a profoundly haunting gaming experience.
If you love playing RPGs that give you nightmares and make you cry, then you’d love playing The Binding of Isaac and Undertale! Both of these games share an astonishing number of similarities with the LISA trilogy, so if you’re a fan of LISA, then there’s no way you won’t love playing Undertale and The Binding of Isaac. Check out Gamer Journalist’s guides for both of these games for more information!
