LISA: The Painful RPG
Shocking events motivates people to speak as soon as possible. Typing as the feeling is still fresh, I felt the need to write about the RPG that has not only shook me, but also made me think about modern videogame tropes. Spoiler ahead. But I really recommend the game.
A man has found the last girl in a post-apocaliptic island. When the secret was out and she was captured, he set on a journey to save her.
Different settings, experiences, meeting new people and old ghosts, no one but his team seems to agree with his objective; she is the last hope for humanity after all. There are no more women in that island, and even his old friend who previous helped in hiding her wants the girl to procreate with the leader of the biggest gang who is actually a nice and caring person.
There are more times where he is told he should give up, an avenger that wishes for him to lose everything and tortures him in their every encounter. Your items, teammates, body parts. . . nothing is safe. It is a cruel reality. An arm for a teammate, a nipple instead your items and money. The harsh world proves the possibility of being stolen, poisoned, abducted, or abandoned. It keeps your on your toes at all times.
Finally, as he chases the damsel in distress that escaped from him as soon as she got a chance to make a choice for herself, the desperation to redeem himself increasing. He ditches his team. He kills the boatman who helped him and one his childhood friends whom he spared. But that is only the beginning. His team finds him and tries to stop him. There is no other choice but kill them. The Escape button doesn't work. The despair can be felt from the options shown at the player. The skills change to a limited but powerful set in red letters, Cry and Scream added as the pain becomes unbearable in every turn.
They are dead. Attack items, healing items, everything needed for his victory is picked on the way to the last stage.
Then, he faces the army of the nice guy who wept for him and gave him his rations once, those same rations laid in the road to the field that made him invincible, for they restore all his life and skill points. The battle starts. A battle between a single man who wants to save his adopted daughter from the evil men who want to use her. Snd when he faces the man beloved by many, he is bleeding, crying; pierced by arrows and knives. Armless. It is a grotesque sight.
His daughter is scared. It was clear she didn't want to go with him. As a former martial artist, he taught her how to defend herself. Kill more people than we know.
The last fight is pitiful. The movements are mechanic: Throw bombs. Heal with rations. Exhaust bombs. Onto skills.
With each attack it is clear. This is a sad fight. The result is obvious. The nice man can't win, for the man's desperation to save his daughter and the vast amount of items made it possible. We stare the nice man's armor deteriorate, revealing a Broken Man. He fights, but not to kill. He believes the girl is hope but how can he kill his former master?
After his apprentice dies, he continues to chase the girl. She hates him. She took everything away from him, even the chance to choose her own fate. But he knows they would only use her. He knows how rotten people are.
In his final moments, he begs for a gesture of love. His last words, after killing everyone who dared to get in his way: thugs, partners, old friends, new friends, gangs, random violent people, and monsters, he doubt his actions.
"Did I do the right thing?"
This man wanted only wanted to take back his daughter, protect his family. Was that the wrong thing to do?