Entire Summary of The LISA Trilogy [Full of Spoilers and Super Long]

[The Brube]

After playing the LISA trilogy, I was blown away by the story. Each individual game had a very different tone, but they seemed to match together so well. For this reason, I decided to write-down the stories of LISA the First, LISA the Painful, and LISA the Joyful (for those who may still be confused with the details). The story below is in chronological order based on the order of events within the story. So, events that we learn about in Brad and Lisa’s childhood are mentioned first, even if we didn’t learn about them until LISA the Joyful. Let me know if I messed up any details or left anything out. I tried to be comprehensive with the major points. Anyways, I hope this helps people with understanding the saga of Lisa, Brad, Buddy, Marty, Buzzo, Rando, and many others.

The depressing story starts with an adolescent Lisa (sister), an adolescent Brad (brother), and an adult Marty (father). Lisa is physically and sexually abused by her father, Marty. She struggles to accept her reality, and eventually seems to rely on her boyfriend (Buzzo) for strength. One day, she asks Buzzo to secretly bring her an animal, and then asks him to cut off its paws. Once he complies, Lisa says that he is ready. She then asks him to cut her, believing that scars will make her unappealing to Marty. Unfortunately, her plan does not work, and Marty continues to be a horrible and despicable person. Throughout these events, Marty physically abuses Brad, but it does not appear that Brad is the target of Marty’s sexual abuse.

While Lisa and Brad are still in their adolescence, we are lead to believe that Marty forces Brad to get drunk to “make him a man.” The scene takes an excruciatingly dismal turn, as we find that Marty was apparently getting Brad drunk to then sexually assault his sister – possibly together. Sometime after this, Lisa commits suicide, likely unable to accept the reality that her brother abuses her in addition to her father.

Also, it should be noted that Dr. Yado moves into the hometown of Lisa, Brad, and Marty. His motives are unknown, but he wants to create a research laboratory.

Time passes, and Brad is now a young adult. He is the head of a karate studio. His occupation seems to stem from his inability to fight back against his father, who seems to no longer be around, and as a homage to his grandfather, who also practiced karate. Also, Brad now has adopted a son, Rando. Brad and Rando’s relationship seems weak, as Brad does not allow Rando to call him dad. We also learn that Rando is assaulted by someone, likely Buzzo, which leaves his face as permanently disfigured.

Time passes yet again, and Brad is now an adult. Since our last knowledge of Brad, the world has greatly changed. The traditional houses with white picket fences are no more. Instead, everyone seems to live in mud huts or dilapidated buildings. Most importantly, women seem to no longer exist. Likely the only explanation of the sudden change is war. Some characters even refer to the “White Flash” which is described very similarly to a nuclear explosion, and the “White Flash” is loosely credited for the removal of all women. Nevertheless, the full explanation of this link is never provided. Also, no one seems to mention anything else about the war, such as who-fought-who and who-fought-for-what.

We do know, however, that a popular drug has emerged – joy. Unbeknownst to the general population, joy was made by Dr. Yado for military purposes. Individuals can become addicted to joy, much like any other drug. When they are high on joy, their physical abilities improve; when they are having joy withdraws, their physical abilities wither. As we later find out, when a joy addict dies, they become a terrible monster. Scary! Some joy monsters are rabid and vicious, whereas others seem to be more docile. All of them, though, tend to be adept fighters. Also, due to the demons of his past, Brad is addicted to alcohol and joy.

Anyways, while going about his daily business, Brad finds a baby. Of course, a baby is extremely unusual in a world without women. Brad grows an immediate fondness for this baby, and he names it Buddy. When he brings Buddy to his friends, they discover that Buddy is female. Brad’s friend suggest that they bring Buddy to Rando, who has the capabilities (such as an army) to protect a female baby. They also note that a female baby could save the world. Brad refuses. He sees Buddy as his redemption for failing to protect Lisa. Protecting Buddy is Brad’s only hope to no longer be a failure.

Unbeknownst to almost everyone, Buddy is the child of Dr. Yado and his wife. At some point, Dr. Yado and Buzzo became friends and/or colleagues. Buzzo convinces Dr. Yado to mess-around (torture) Brad by playing with his life, and they decide to do so by strategically placing a baby (Buddy) for Brad to discover. Dr. Yado also sees Buddy as the lynchpin for a possible war, which he believes will result in his rule. After this act has been performed, Dr. Yado sees little use for his wife. We are led to believe that she kills herself, as a note is discovered next to her body in Dr. Yado’s laboratory; however, we are also led to believe that Dr. Yado shoots her. Regardless, the circle of violence against women is continued.

After finding the baby, Brad and his friends decide to raise Buddy in secret. They build a hidden basement for her personal room. Over time, Brad seems to move past his personal demons, throwing away his joy. Raising Buddy appears to fulfill his life, and they share several touching moments together.

Unfortunately, around the time Brad becomes middle-aged and Buddy is an adolescent, Brad relapses and becomes addicted to joy again. It is possible that Buddy’s striking similarity to Lisa refuels his demons. He often sees visions of Marty and Lisa, which disappear when he takes joy. Also, once Buddy becomes an adolescent, she begins to grow curious about the outside world. To her disappointment, Brad refuses to let her leave the house, believing that the cruel world would destroy her. She is seen crying, alone. To compromise, Brad fashions a mask for her, allowing her to take short walks by his side. Around this time, he also captures a person and beats him unconscious. He takes the unconscious person to Buddy, and tells her to kill the unconscious person. She is confused and refuses. Brad tells her that the world is a cruel place, and she must be strong and vicious to survive. The man awakens and begs her not to kill him. She decides to listen to Brad and kills the man. It is hinted that Brad does this several more times, possibly with abled-bodied people that Buddy must kill herself.

One day, Brad comes home (after a joy bender) and finds his hut has been attacked. His friends are either gone or dead, and Buddy is missing. She has been captured, and Brad’s friends (who are not dead) are the ones who caused it to happen. Brad takes it upon himself to save her. Throughout his adventure, several roadblocks stand in his way. Most notably, Buzzo and his gang harass him several times. In two of these run-ins, Buzzo forces Brad to choose between losing an arm or the lives of his friends. Buzzo’s sadistic game likely stems from Lisa’s request, ages ago, to have him cut off the paw of an animal.

Throughout his adventures, Brad unsurprisingly discovers that everyone wants to capture Buddy for their own purposes – mostly sexual pleasure. He also finds several allies to aid in his quest, and several very strange people join his party. At one point, he even crosses paths with Rando, but their meeting is short and Brad demonstrates little affection. Unfortunately, Brad also finds several villains who torture him. For instance, a gang forces his allies to play Russian roulette. In short, terrible things happen to Brad and his friends, but Brad continues throughout horrible hardships.

Eventually, Brad finds Buddy. Instead of going with him, Buddy resists Brad. She tells him that he was a terrible “dad” and he never allowed her to live her life. She says that it should have been her decision to live in the basement or risk living her life in the world. Although not mentioned in story, her life was similar to a dog’s life when she lived in the basement. She had to live inside, only go on short walks with her owner, and her name was Buddy. Also, it is possible that Buddy believes that Brad did not want to be a father to her, but only wanted to be redeemed for Lisa. Because of her hatred for Brad, she runs away.

Brad learns that Buddy used a boat to escape, and Brad must make one himself to follow her. The materials are extremely difficult to obtain, and Brad must kill several people to make the boat. Whereas Brad was the victim of his roadblocks before, he now appears to be the aggressor. This is especially true when Brad must chop-down the final tree of a sacred forest, only after killing those who consider the forest sacred.

Two additional detail should also be noted. First, as Brad progresses throughout his adventure, more joy mutants can be seen. It is unclear whether this is coincidental or planned. Second, in certain sections, Dr. Yado can be seen observing Brad in very hidden locations, always holding his trumpet. We later learn that Dr. Yado can control the joy mutants with his trumpet, which may be the cause of their growing frequency as Brad continues his journey.

Once Brad builds his boat, he follows Buddy’s trail. He arrives on an island with a single inhabitant – Marty. It is extremely unclear how Buddy found Marty, or where Marty has been. Marty has observably aged, so he does not seem to be a hallucination. Brad, of course, goes into a rage. Marty claims that he has changed, and Buddy says that Marty has been a better father to her in the short time that she has known him than Brad has in her entire life. Brad beats Marty to death, unforgiving of his transgressions towards himself and Lisa. Buddy runs away, again.

Now, Buddy has fled to the Rando army. Brad follows her and Rando instructs his army to stop him. Brad transforms into an unstoppable maniac, and he demolishes the army. Afterwards, he can be seen with several arrows and swords sticking out of him. Brad’s previous allies also appear and fight him. It likely that Brad’s allies in this fight are only a hallucination. Lastly, Brad fights Rando and seemingly kills him. In his final act, Brad and Buddy embrace. He has destroyed (almost) everyone that he encountered to protect her. Now that they are together again, he can die.

Shortly after, Buddy sleeps in a nearby house. Unbeknownst to her, Brad transforms into a joy mutant. Behind mutant Brad, Dr. Yado can be seen, but he is not playing his trumpet. Mutant Brad inches inside Buddy’s house, where he can see her with a stack of joy. We hear Buzzo and Dr. Yado arguing over Buddy. They seem to believe that Rando is strong enough to protect Buddy, now that they are done with their game. Buzzo and Dr. Yado also say that their relationship is over. Mutant Brad calls for Buddy, apparently able to speak. He seems to want Buddy to kill him, but Buzzo enters the house and captures Brad. He tells Buddy to leave – she is no interest to him.

[The Brube]

At the onset of Buddy’s journey, she is confronted by a group of men. One is particularly deviant, and does not make any confusion towards his intentions – he is like all the other men in this world. When it seems hopeless, Rando appears and tries to protect Buddy; however, he is much too weak after his fight with Brad. He tells Buddy to run. Suddenly, a joy Mutant attacks the group and saves Buddy and Rando. We later learn that the joy mutant is named Sweetheart, and it is personally controlled by Dr. Yado. Its appearance is unlike the other joy mutants, leading some to believe that it may be Dr. Yado’s wife.

Buddy and Rando takes this opportunity to run. They quickly arrive at Rando’s hideout. Inside, mysterious figures capture (or welcome?) Buddy and Rando. Many days later, the figures seem obedient to Rando. They tell Rando that they had to knock out and tie-up Buddy. Rando is upset at this. He also learns that one of the figures did something to Buddy, which they do not tell the full story. It sounds ominous, and they killed him for it. Rando tries his best to find Buddy, but he is too weak to move. He passes out, and the others try to “fix things” with Buddy. Eventually, Rando wakes up and crawls to Buddy. She has killed the mysterious figures. She doesn’t want to talk about what happened, and Rando claims not to know the men.

At this time, we find that Buzzo has tied mutant Brad up in a cave. His intentions are unknown.

Buddy decides that she must kill all the gang leaders in Olathe. She claims that she wants to rule the land, but she may feel the need to kill for safety reasons, too. Rando decides to help; however, he abandons her halfway through her quest, likely because he disagrees with her actions. Nevertheless, while they are together, they seem to grow a bond, and he reveals to her that he is her brother.

Near the end of her quest, Buddy finds Rando tied in barbwire and hanging above a cliff. When she tries to save him, by holding onto the barbed wire, the particularly deviant man from before appears. It is clear that Buddy can drop Rando to attack the deviant man, but she will kill Rando in the process. Alternatively, she can choose to hold on to Rando and save him, but the deviant man will rape her. The more informative option to the storyline is the latter. When the man tries to assault Buddy, a trumpet is heard in the distance. Sweetheart (Dr. Yado’s joy mutant) appears and kills the deviant man, then it runs away. Buddy explicitly says that the man was killed before he could do anything to her. Rando tells Buddy that she needs to drop him – there is no other way – and that he must tell her one last thing. Rando confesses that he ordered the men to capture her in his hideout. When Buddy hears this, she drops Rando to his death – obviously a sensitive topic for her.

After Buddy kills all the gang leaders, she faces a confrontation with Dr. Yado. He send his joy mutant, Sweetheart, to attack Buddy (although he just had Sweetheart save Buddy…oh well). During the fight, Buzzo appears. He tells Buddy to run after Dr. Yado, and Buzzo fights Sweetheart. Buddy finds Dr. Yado atop a throne of joy mutants, which he seems to be controlling with his trumpet. Dr. Yado is initially timid, but he quickly starts attacking Buddy as the fight progresses. When Buddy wins the fight, she has a vison of Brad. He is bloody, as the last time she saw his human form, but the arrows and swords are now flowers. She fights him. In the fight, she sees her relationship with Brad progress through its several stages, reliving several touching moments – as well as his final moments. Once the vision is over, the talks to Dr. Yado for the last time.

Dr. Yado tells Buddy that he is her father. He also has a god-complex, believing that the world is his for the taking. Before he can finish his monologue, a bloodied Buzzo appears and pushes Dr. Yado off the cliff. Buzzo tells Buddy to ignore Dr. Yado. He says that Buddy’s only father is Brad, and he says that Brad is a good man. Apparently, Buzzo’s time with mutant Brad changed his opinions - likely due to his repeated visions of Lisa and his chance to finally reflect on his life. At one point during the visions, he even tells Brad that he is "free." Buzzo continues to say that Brad’s only fault was being tortured and twisted by Marty (his dad) and Buzzo himself. Buzzo then blames his own twisted nature on Lisa’s death. Lastly, Buzzo tells Buddy to take Dr. Yado’s joy mutant vaccine before turning into a joy mutant himself. Buddy then kills mutant Buzzo.

In the final scene, Buddy is holding the joy mutant vaccine. She sees visions of a healed mutant Brad and Rando asking her to stay with them. They tell her that she was right all along. If she chooses to throw the vaccine away, Buddy turns into a joy mutant herself (looking similar to Sweetheart) – the visions of mutant Brad and Rando only being their corpses. If she chooses to take the vaccine, we see Buddy holding Dr. Yado’s horn with (assumingly) Rando’s grave, a healed mutant Brad, and a previously unseen baby. As the screen fades to black, we are left to wonder about the future of Buddy, Brad, and the baby.

At the conclusion, we seem to be left with several questions. First, who is the father of the baby? Personally, I believe that Buddy was raped in Rando’s lair. Rando was unconscious for several days, and we have limited knowledge of what occurred. Given her sensitivity towards the topic, I believe that this was the most likely moment for Buddy to be pregnant. Also, this is when Buddy decides to kill all the top gang leaders of Olathe.

Second, what are the capabilities of mutant Brad? We know that he can talk, but can he have entire conversations? Can he fight like other joy mutants? Can him and Buddy have a mutant-father/human-daughter relationship? I have no idea about this.

Third, what happened to all the women? It is hinted that they died in the “White Flash,” but Buzzo mentions that there are "other women" hidden somewhere. What happened to them? Some believe that Dr. Yado and Buzzo hid a population of women away from men to control the world. This would make sense, as Dr. Yado has little concern towards the well-being of his wife - which certainly would not be the case if she was really the last woman (before Buddy). Control of the last women would also add to Dr. Yado's god complex, which is very apparent.

Fourth, Dr. Yado mentions war a lot, but a war between who? We know nothing about the surrounding territory outside of Olathe. Was his war just between the rival gangs which Buddy killed? Or is there more to see in the world of Brad and Buddy? Some people theorize that Olathe is a quartined zone (or fake world) created by Dr. Yado to research joy and joy mutants, and the referenced war is the gang fighting over Buddy (or, as it turns out, Buddy fighting the gangs). Dr. Yado benefits from the gangs dissolving, as no one could protest his claim as ruler. It is possible that, after the gangs dissolved, he also intended to form a joy mutant army to take-over other areas outside of Olathe. This theory is only speculation, but it does provide explaination for several aspects of LISA the Painful and LISA the Joyful.

Fifth, how did Buddy find Marty? It seems a little too perfect that she’d sail directly to a random house that he happens to live in. Was there something else going on? Not sure…

Sixth, what is the future for Buddy? The scene with Buddy, Brad, and the baby is not the most joyous. Does she live out her life as the Queen of Olathe? Does she use Dr. Yado’s horn for good? Is the world peaceful without the gang leaders? Who knows – I sure don’t.

Anyways, there are a lot more questions, but I think those are the primary ones. I hope you enjoyed my write-up of the LISA trilogy. I thought it was an amazing series of games, and I really look forward to future games by Dingaling.

[Jaybird]

Amazing write up, pretty sure that covered everything. The whole Dr. Yado angle gives a whole new ambitious and complex aspect to the story whereas before LISA felt somewhat simple- at least managable to follow. It makes me really want more but I think this is a perfect ending, after all it's not a post-apocolyptic story as much as it is a story about family. Regardless I look forward to whatever games are next

[a gigglepuss!]

Very nice write up. About your third question, Buzzo may have hinted in Painful that there may be other women kept secluded from the male population. He says something like "[Buddy] would have been a huge asset with the other women". When Brad asks about what he means, Buzzo tells him it's not a concern for the likes of him. Perhaps separating women from men somehow played a role in Yado's plan to become God of a new world.

[Void]

After completing the game with the final ending, it was my assumption that Buzzo actually accidentally killed Lisa in his attempt to merely maim her. Especially when he mentions that he denied having a hand in her death. Could be wrong, of course, but it seemed that way to me.

Edit: Probably not, now that I think about it. Since a lot of other stuff had references to her committing suicide, right?

[hudge jolden]

Originally posted by Abaddon:

After completing the game with the final ending, it was my assumption that Buzzo actually accidentally killed Lisa in his attempt to merely maim her. Especially when he mentions that he denied having a hand in her death. Could be wrong, of course, but it seemed that way to me.

Edit: Probably not, now that I think about it. Since a lot of other stuff had references to her committing suicide, right?

in one of the epilogues Buzzo was manipulated by Lisa to mutilate her face, so Marty and Brad wouldn't want to touch her again, but it obviously didn't help
this is where his fascination with wanting to cut off Brad's limbs comes from and why he mutilated Dusty/Rando the same way, Lisa made him saw off a cats paw to numb him and then had him take the saw to her face respectively

[Sleeprocket]

Brad calls for Lisa when he turns into a joy mutant, and you might want to add Brads rivalry with Columbo

[Sleeprocket]

Originally posted by TonicThePossy:

Does it have any relevance that during Buzzo's second mutation phase his name changes to Bernie?

Its just his real name before he mutilated Lisa with a Buzz(o)saw

[Spirit Kettle Black]

Great write-up. It's also worth noting that Buzzo has his change of heart regarding Brad and Buddy after experiencing several hallunications of Lisa. He sees her talking to him, perhaps in his dream, blaming him for abandoning her, talling him to "make him suffer" - possibly in reference to Brad.

It's at this stage that Buzzo seems to accept that Brad wasn't responsible for Lisa's suffering, in spite of what his visions tell him. He encounters a mutated Brad in his dreams, and tells him that he's "free."

[Spirit Kettle Black]

There's also a big theory that the entirety of Olathe is some kind of fake world, set up by Dr. Yado and his accomplices to test their Joy experiments. According to this theory, Yado wants to use Olathe as a sort of breeding ground for Joy-mutants, which he plans to conquer the rest of the world with.

Regarding the war that Yado's referring to in the Joyful, I think this is the in-game war that takes place between the various gangs of Olathe over Buddy. Yado needs the gangs to break so that they won't resist his reign as god over Olathe, and rather than use his mutant army on them, he instead makes them destroy themselves by introducing Buddy to the world.

[The Brube]

Thanks for the kind words on the write up. I really appreciate it!

I went through and added a little more detail based on these comments. Most of the changes are on the lingering questions after The Joyful, as the proposed theories provide really interesting perspectives on the world of Olathe. Thanks for the thoughts!

[Spirit Kettle Black]

Thank you for doing this!

[CaptPunchy]

Very well done! Really helped me get all the facts straightened out in my head, thank you for taking the time to write it all out!

[Belmont]

im still rly curious what happened to all the women :<

[CaptPunchy]

Originally posted by AoA Hyejeong:

im still rly curious what happened to all the women :<

That's been bothering me a lot too. I've been thinking about the joy lab area in The Painful and all the Freak creatures running around in there. Maybe they were the women?

[The Brube]

Originally posted by Radical Edward:

Originally posted by AoA Hyejeong:

im still rly curious what happened to all the women :<

That's been bothering me a lot too. I've been thinking about the joy lab area in The Painful and all the Freak creatures running around in there. Maybe they were the women?

Or maybe they are the mutants on Resort Island? It could really be anything. I think this was the biggest question that we don't really get a hint about.