3/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of LISA the Joyful.

TLDR: Joyful might be a perfect game to watch on youtube instead of playing it yourself. Gameplay: What do I like about LISA? The exploration. The large cast and freedom to create my own whacky party. What do I not like about certain RPG's? Small parties when the game is designed for large ones. LISA The Joyful's gameplay revolves around a short exploration-light and combat heavy story where you play as a character who can do something cool every 3 turns and then for half the game you also have a character whose sole purpose is to keep you alive until the halfway point. I hate to say it but there is a reason why I have replayed The Painful 10+ times and the Joyful twice. Battles are extremely long and boring due to bloated enemy health, and if you keep failing your quicktime events then you basically waste a turn and TP. Because of how TP works in the definitive edition, Buddy feels like she has been totally neutered in her usefulness because it takes much longer to build the meter and it's infuriating to use it on something that doesn't work. They should have made Buddy either an SP character or gave her both TP / SP (with different moves for each). Because as it is, Joyful is only a fraction as fun as Painful. I will say tho, that the gameplay does force you to play in a certain way narratively. By stocking the player with Joy constantly and having Buddy be frequently outnumbered and outdamaged, your supposed to abuse Joy. Which is cool, the only problem is that it's still boring because you're doing the same things but with higher damage. Story: LISA The Joyful is a full dive into a serious heart wrenching drama and without the humor to balance it out, I think Joyful's narrative suffers a bit. Despite a couple of moments its so serious, granted that appropriate for Buddy's journey but it actually is harder to take seriously because it's already trying so much. Graphics: Same as before. Good stuff. Sound: A good small soundtrack. 666 Kill Chop Deluxe is fun. Extra: There's a couple of side things to see. Definetely not as much as Painful. And also an even more esoteric ending to try to achieve that actually makes no sense. Favorite Thing: Boss, seriously cut that shit out Not My Favorite Thing: That one fight with the Joy Mutant Worshippers who are constantly firing arrows at you.