Lisa: The Painful has been described to me as Undertale before Undertale. Or Earthbound after Earthbound (so, uh, Mother 3?). In other words, Lisa was a bit of a cult classic thanks to its freaky world, absurd humour, and brutal consequences. And when I say brutal consequences, I mean your party members can permanently lose limbs or turn into mounds of saggy flesh. How’s that for a debuff? Its Definitive Edition is out now, though, so maybe its "cult" status will finally blossom into mainstream appeal. Lisa: Definitive Edition bundles in the original game and its expansion, Lisa The Joyful, as well as new enemies, bosses, stories and endings, and an easier “Painless” mode.
Everything else you’d expect from a remaster is here too: revamped graphics and UI, a 120 FPS mode, more language options, and new border art overlays. Oh, and Lisa’s incredible soundtrack is getting beefed up with over 20 new tracks. Speaking of which, the game’s upcoming vinyl has a beautifully freaky cover, too.
Lisa has also launched on consoles - Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch - for the first time, but there have been some content changes in the PlayStation version. “Lisa might be unduly censored in order to comply with the rules… in a way that harms its humour, world, or artistic integrity,” reads a note from developers Dingaling and publishers Serenity Forge. The changes mainly affect references to alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes, which are now the very funky-sounding "cigarette candies."
Our Rachel summed up the game’s setup nicely in a recent Have You Played:
Lisa: Definitive Edition is available now on Steam and consoles for £17/$25. The Steam page might not technically say it's the Definitive Edition, but that's the store page Serenity
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