itch.io

Well, I played as much as I can, and aside from the length of shit mentioned below, these are my final thoughts on the rest of the new update:
• In the waterfall area I kinda feel like that one Crow on a cliff that's out of reach to the left of the destroyed playground should be off screen. If people are playin this new update for the first time and they pick normal mode they're going to be really confused when they see a crow that's impossible to reach and they've explored everywhere else in the area (since the charges only exist in Pain Mode).
• What in the hell are with these bat enemies past the Lovely camp in Area 4? I ignored 'em in my last run but these guys are so obnoxious. For some reason these tiny things have a giant mass of HP, which makes no sense because they're just bats. Not only that, but they can Anger-lock you if they attack in groups, making it impossible to heal yourself because you're always +Pissed.
• Second problem with the bats is that if you run away from battle you are forced to take one step backwards, and because of the Bat's weird movement arc in the overworld I end up just re-entering the battle uncontrollably.
• A sort of sprite error after the massive truck crash in your party member's alternate routes. When Mr. Bullet Waster is dying on the ground the eye patch is on the wrong eye.
• The Amy mutant in the underground lab and the mutant pile that causes the truck crash, these sprites seem like they're lacking in shading? They look significantly less detailed than the rest of the characters and scenery in the entire game.
• I stand throughly corrected: The Hard Rider is by far the worst (optional) boss in the game. Why does he start the battle with a permanent +Cool status? I mean Aesthetically it makes sense but as an actual battle it's just awful. At this point in the game (except for the bonus Pain Mode route) you are pretty much going solo, so you have to waste a turn you could be using canceling out the 600 HP heal each turn healing yourself so you don't die. And like I said before this Cool status is permanent, unlike in the older builds where he did it by taking a smoke break, so it never goes away, and if you get hit badly enough you spend multiple turns keeping yourself alive while the Hard Rider's permanent status effectively undoes almost all the damage you dealt to him at that point. The battle goes on forever, and without the aid of Joy you'll be lucky to beat him with minimal turns gone by.

I feel kinda bad that I had so many critiques about the gameplay of the new update, but like, for real, this Lisa game was a real treat in general. Freaking great characters, unique areas, a terrifying main gang, the story, people and atmosphere is really good. And the final battle in the new alternate pain mode route was outstanding, I don't think I have ever gotten this much of a legit frightening since the first time I saw the ending of Lisa the Painful. Thanks for the hard work, and sorry for sounding like a hardass, I'm not good at being a critic.

I agree with everything said here. I also happened to play through this waterfall place past the sportsdome that's supposed to be for one of the secret endings and good god this place is absolute trash tier. I think this is even harder than the final boss of the game, who does that? The First of all every single one of these weird shadow enemies are so bulky in HP I wasted some of my best items before even getting to the boss of this area, and speaking of the boss:
1. These three fish people are too bulky in HP, this battle went on for 15 minutes for me.
2. All three of them have the capability to heal everyone when they're all low on HP, effectively adding the extra 10 minutes I spent on this boss.
3. These enemies have too much HP.
4. The final, final fish guy after this battle is the most badly designed boss I have ever seen in any possible LISA fangame, and I just finished playing the demo of Lustful. This guy should have been killed the first time, giving him a second form just makes this battle drag on even longer. It also doesn't help that a random helper joins in as piles on that status ailment that makes allies refuse to be healed (why is that status even in the game?)
5. These. Enemies. Have. Too. Much. HP. More HP doesn't make a boss tougher, it just makes it longer, and makes you waste more items than you need to.

There's a fine line between hard and challenging, and hard and bullshit, and these update crossed the line of the latter by at least 50 miles. I don't feel like I lost these battles because it was my fault, I lost these battles because the RNG of my crits, stats, and dodges were not good enough. Does Stinkbomb EVER poison the target? Can intimidate actually intimidate enemies? Can hiding actually let me dodge attacks more often?

What was originally a decently balanced and overall enjoyable experience has now turned into one of the most stressful games I had the displeasure of experiencing this year, and I am extremely disappointed that Hopeful sank to the low of other Lisa fangames where things just need to keep getting harder and harder until you hemorrhage.