It's all about the mood.

Animal Well, to me, really distinguished itself with its atmosphere. The almost total absence of music, replaced by a myriad of sounds and wobbles. The sparkling colors and dancing smoke effects moving across the scan-line post process. The weird animal designs and encounters where random otters can jump on screen to mess with your plans.

It also has very interesting power-ups which are all thematically consistent as a toolkit and really creative in how they shape your relationship to the environment.

It's a bit of a bummer that the game offers almost no tools to hunt down all the remaining secrets once the game is over. I would have loved to get to the true ending, but there's no way I'm scouring every inch of a gigantic map (where it's tough to fast-travel) with no pointers to get to that point.

It still is a fantastic little game for what it is and I'll mostly remember it for it's unique art direction and thick ambiance.

The Painful journey to Oblivion

Lisa: The Painful is the sequel to Lisa: The First which I also made a review, you can find it here if interested.

Let me start with a question: Is it painful to enjoy something that hurts? In Lisa, what doesn't hurt you makes you stronger and what does hurt you drags you deep into the abyss. It's a paradoxical pleasure between finding the right spot of comfort and experience. Not deliberately hurtful at least to us, nor "enjoyable" for someone that doesn't just get it. It's the same feeling as watching a sad movie, why would you ever want to cry all by yourself? It makes us think beyond what we're used to, get us outside our comfort zone for a while and experience a tale that can sit with us or leave as it came.

The Painful tell us the story of Brad Armstrong, a lone drug addict dealing with his troublesome past that suddenly finds the cure under the apocalypse: A girl in a world without women. Brad sees this girl not as a way to re-populate the world, but as a opportunity to protect her from the cruel world outside the comfort of home. During Brad's many blackouts due to his drug addiction, finds out his girl was gone. With nothing to lose, Brad sets up on an adventure to save his "child" which he called: Buddy. One of The Painful many strenghts is the setting or the place where these events occur: Olathe. A rural town, well not anymore since it has become a desolated desert in the middle of nowhwere, ruled by anarchy and the survival of the fittest. Little to no civilizated people exist, and the ones that do are under a group meant to survive among themselves. It's common for any apocalypse setting to enphatize on the sense of survival, a basic instinct among humans and animals but with The Painful there is a catch: It's a land were women doesn't exist, thus dooming humanity to extinction. A treat that doesn't differentiate from good nor evil. But it can be cured, this is where Buddy comes into play.

During Brad's journey he'll encounter a colorful cast of characters that will either help him, for self-fullfiling purposes or lunatics which will attack at sight. Most RPGs tend to rely on mythical or unexplainable creatures; your gods, your slimes, your demons, your monsters, etc. But The Painful keeps itself grounded and personal when it needs to, doesn't it? I'm lying! Fish Lawyer, Furry Artist, Bear-Man, Tiger-Man, Duck-Man and Queen (Man) can all be in your party. You get the idea. The Painful doesn't take itself serious all the time, as it finds the right moment to have jokes and moments were it knows it can't get playful with you. All characters have something meaningful to say, specially with the Definitive Edition which expands on this aspect in particular. Now it's not just about the journey itself, it's also about the little moments you share with your party; see them grow and fight alongside you but keep it mind these are total strangers that you've never met before. Everything culminates in a wacky, varied yet believable cast of characters that I personally grew up to love even if Brad can only exchange a conversation or two with each of them.

Compared this to The First, The Painful includes a new combat system which let's you slay everyone in your way with your fists. It follows the typical JRPG combat system; Stats, characters and attacks. The Painful adds an interesting system of combos only made for Brad which unlike the main attack, they deal extra damage. For example: "A, B, B" is the command where you throw a fireball, but if you feel confident it is possible to extend it as I said before to: "X, X, A, B, B" or "Y, A, A, B, B" always respecting the right command to the activate set attack. It's not as deep as I thought it would be at the start but extra damage is extra damage; the classic risk/reward balance. Outside combat, the exploration is set in a 2D plane all the time, unlike most top-down RPGs. This sets right for The Painful in particular, as the map is as linear as it gets with some secrets in between. That isn't bad per-se, not at all as verticality also help the maps feel bigger in a sort of weird match between a limited in movement platformer and a RPG. With Lisa there's always a catch, the little devil in the details is that mix between platformer and RPG is both a blessing and a curse, why? It is possible to die if you are not careful, from falling in a bottomless pit. Instant "Game Over", goodbye 1 hour and a half of process. Pain Mode it's the so-called "hard mode" in The Painful but it is not hard, is terrifying. It will only let you save once per "Save Point". So be extra careful while exploring Olathe if you chose Pain Mode. In case you skipped the text box to which warns you about Pain Mode, don't worry as save points are unlimited so you can save as much as you want. I started with Pain Mode, and even if the game is fairly short, some stupid deaths made me question if going forward without a guide was a good idea.

Pain comes in many forms, so does the decisions you'd have to make moving forward. You don't win, and at some point you'll lose someone or something you value precious beyond battle. It is as easy as letting it go, but hard as is to accepting that it is no longer with you. That is Pain. One of The Painful most devastating features is that your never feel safe. From anything, fron anyone. Everything here is meant to hurt you one way or another, because Brad isn't the chosen one in this story he is but a mere puppet driven by his mere instincts. Don't expect a hero which wants to save the world, he's just human hopelessly needing something to cling on. He's not instrinsically evil either, as it is easy to empathize with him.

The Painful for me is interesting to analyze from an outsider perspective, as someone that never played the original on PC back when it come out. So my feelings are quite fresh, and as a game as old as 2014 it holds up incredibly well to this day. It is a must for any RPG fan looking for something different. You like Fallout? Here. Earthbound? It might interest you. Omori? Absolutely.