Lisa: The First put the thumbscrews on, and Lisa: The Painful twisted them. Rarely are cutesy 2D RPGs this haunting or hilarious. It’s easy to go too far with dark humor, creating art that’s too unrelenting and hopeless to be fun. Lisa, somehow, does the opposite. Brad and Lisa’s story is bold in its themes and gruesome in its aesthetic, but it never stops being funny. With an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam and over 1,000,000 sales across the franchise, Lisa‘s success is indisputable. Now Serenity Forge and Dingaling Productions are celebrating the cult classic’s anniversary with new physical editions.
Lisa: The Painful Is Coming to PS5 and Switch
Olathe might be a post-apocalyptic wasteland ripped from your wildest nightmares, but it’s not all bad news. Lisa: The Painful is coming to the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. The brand-new physical editions will arrive in the Spring of 2025. It’s always exciting to see a beloved franchise return with greater availability than ever. If the Definitive Edition Standard isn’t enough for you though, there’s the Decade of Joy Collection. Between the Brad & Buddy diorama, trading cards, cloth painting, and Terry Hintz print, there’s no better way to commemorate Dingaling’s groundbreaking RPG.
Lisa didn’t forge its enduring legacy in the RPG community by accident. Its pitiless sacrifice mechanics encourage players to strip away everything, even Brad’s limbs, to save your party. Few games this side of Fear & Hunger build such a powerful reputation for their esoteric worldbuilding, in-jokes, and abject cruelty. While heartlessness might be the key to Brad’s survival, empathy was the key to Dingaling’s story. Whether you’ve memorized every line in the trilogy or you’ve never set foot in Olathe before, there’s no better time to see what all the fuss (and amputation) is about.
