The recent remaster of LISA: The Painful includes updated graphics, UI, quality of life changes, and a handful of content changes.
In a refreshing change of pace to sneakily censoring content in patch notes (if they’re mentioned at all), publisher Serenity Forge offered an apologetic message and rationale for why some things had to change.
In addition, the PlayStation release dictated some additional changes for the platform which included removing references to drugs and alcohol. It’s noted that Nintendo didn’t seem to require similar changes on the Switch.
LISA contains sensitive content that is designed to move players out of complacency, to put them into a world that’s absurd and inappropriate, and to prompt players to confront how they feel in these specific moments. We feel confident in the direction and purpose of LISA’s content, but we also know that certain platforms have regulations that we have to follow.
There have been two specific changes to the game. Specifically, the Salvation Ranger introduction and Junior’s flashback have had small alterations made to them. Whether or not to make these changes was not easy to decide, but ultimately it became an exciting prospect to alter some content in a small way in hopes that it welcomes and includes more players.
In a similar vein, a few more changes were made on PlayStation only in order to launch the game on that platform, but we’re happy to say that none of them affect the meaning and intent of LISA. For the PlayStation version of LISA, we’ve added a notice about the protagonists at the beginning of the game. Additionally, cigarettes have been renamed to ‘cigarette candy,’ Joy is no longer referred to as ‘pills,’ and alcohol has been renamed as ‘soda’ in Joyful. Basically, the changes are not a big deal. We just wanted to make everyone aware of it in advance, because we know that LISA fans will notice it as a difference from the original games.
LISA: Definitive Edition is available July 18 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. You can check out our review here.
For those uninterested in the game as a result of these changes, the original is still for sale.
