/ltg/ - Lisa: The General Fangame Guide
Last updated: 06-30-2024
Made in an accessible engine and having an open canvas setting with very few rules, LISA has become a popular underground medium in-and-of-itself. Dozens upon dozens of fangames have been made since Painful's original release in 2014: this guide is to help you find what's worth playing, and where to start.
This is not meant to be an objective ranking - just a guide for people new to fangames who want to get into them.
Projects that only exist in the form of announcements/have no playable builds will not be included.
The Big Two
Start with either of these. Hopeful if you want something familiar, Pointless if you want something new.
In one way or another, these are considered the most influential and popular fangames. Most subsequent projects take their cues from them and built off of what they started. Playing at least one of these helps give a good impression, and let's you understand the sensibilities of subsequent projects should you want more.
| LISA: The Pointless | LISA: The Hopeful |
|---|---|
 Gameplay consists of having only two party members, Pain Mode at default, difficult combat, and sparse resources. You are made to feel weak. Grungy aesthetic that sets itself apart from Painful, as well as a veiled story with esoteric elements. Many consider it to have set the standard in style and gameplay, including spawning an entire sub-genre of Pointless mods - more on that later... |
 A more conventional setup of three to four party members, with combat similar to Painful: punchy, forgiving, and with plenty of items to spare. You are a silly, gun-toting badass frolicking with his gang of friends. Fun characters, familiar artstyle, multiple routes and endings, and unlockable party members. Similiar plot to Painful, as well as a strong emotional core to the story. |
| Wiki / Youtube Page | Wiki / Youtube Page |
Hungry For More
So! You've finished Pointless, or Hopeful, or both, and you've found them enjoyable enough to see if there's anything else you might like. Luckily, there is absolutely no shortage of fangames. The projects listed here are all pretty equal in importance, and don't require a flowchart to play them: it's encouraged to pick and choose what catches your eye.
| LISA: The Timeless | LISA: The Unbreakable |
|---|---|
 A medium between Pointless and Hopeful. Two party members, Fun characterization, but meandering plot - best described as you wandering the wastelands and meeting odd people with no immediate goal. Beautiful, detailed artstyle with lush vistas and parallaxes. Vibe-based and low stakes. |
 The first fangame to truly understand the dozens of wrestling references Austin put in Painful. Two default party members with a few more recruitable ones, charming characters, and expansive and unique combat. Casual story, can be confusing at times: mostly composed of random cool ideas vaguely connected to each other. |
| Wiki / Twitter | Youtube |
| LISA: The Vegaful | LISA: The Bashful |
|---|---|
 Idiotic fun. Rides a fine line between stupid while also taking itself seriously - as a primer, you play as a man with brain damage. Less focused on a compelling narrative and more on combat - hub worlds, party members, potential permadeath. |
 Very short but novel setting. You are a man who has escaped prison just after the Flash happened. Barebones plot, Open-ish world and a respectable amount of content despite it's runtime. |
| xxx | xxx |
| LISA: The UNDONE | Brad Has A Pain |
|---|---|
 An overhaul of Joyful. Revamps the story, locations, enemies, game mechanics, and the characters of Buddy and Rando, adding new content on top of it. Wears it's Disco Elysium inspiration on it's sleeve: diceroll speech checks, inner monologues, and variables that affect your personality. 'Vanilla+' artstyle - keeps the characters simple but adds immense detail to environments and props. New recruitable party members that can join the duo. |
 A comedic parody of the original Painful. Here, Lisa is an evil cosmic apparition, the harbinger of all evil. You must stop her from corrupting the land of Olathe. 27 completely new or revamped party members, an original soundtrack, absurd 'mechanics' and overworld gags, and a dramatic retelling of the story of Painful. |
| xxx | xxx |
Honorable Mentions
LISA: The Lustful - Flips the usual script and has the demo take place in a hidden bunker full of women.
LISA: The Clueless - Demo where you play as two fishmen running around, trying to escape the ire of random creeps who want to kill you.
LISA: The Wishless - Demo where you play as a rando soldier. Surprisingly decent combat.
LISA: The Doleful - Absurd and cryptic joke fangame that parodied the stereotypical mod at the time of it's release. Lots and lots of community injokes.
LIZA: THE UNGRATEFUL - Features a woman named Dire trying to find Buddy after the flash.
Expansions
LISA: The Arkantos - This was the first Lisa fangame to actually be released! Modification of Joyful that adds a new area with new enemies. Doesn't hold a candle to most things released afterwards, but it's a start.
LISA: Desolate Expanse - Expansion of Painful that adds new areas, enemies, rebalanced combat, and game mechanics. Not as thorough as Undone, but still adds replay value.
Gamejam Projects
Scary Lemon's 2023 Game Jam
Olathe: Engraved in Time - An old artist and his apprentice travel to find inspiration.
LISA: Lovely Time - Based off of LISA: The Hopeful. Follows the story of a band of Lovelies who have defected from the Lovely gang, but not their Lovely ways.
Stag's 2024 Game Jam
BUCKET TIME - Katana Zero but with Buckets.
Buddy Has A Joy - Sequel to Brad Has A Pain. Shorter runtime, same absurd humor. Plays in a top-down perspective.
Tyler's White Lie - Contains an expanded set of overworld combat mechanics and platforming.
LISA: The Covetous - Play as four military recruits in post-apocalyptic Olathe sent on a mission to do something important underground.
X in Y
Hopeful in Joyful - Made by the same person developing Hopeless. Replaces Buddy with Beltboy, Lanks, Cyclops and Rodriguez. Multiple endings.
Timeless in Pointless - Drunkard's Paradise - Uses SOTWS as a base. Replaces Alex as Elton, let's you recruit party members from both games, plus a few extras.
It's Alex All The Way Down
Fangames having their own fangames is a pretty standard thing nowadays, believe it or not, but Pointless was the first one popular and reputable enough to have them. Most notably, "Scholar of the Wilbur Sin" (SOTWS) is infamous for unleashing an utter avalanche of mods and sub-mods, all basing themselves off of the extra content it adds. Perspective mods, Party member mods, so on and so forth. Whether these are earnest expressions of creativity or cynical, low-quality slop is still hotly debated among our greatest intellectuals.
| Scholar of the Wilbur Sin Edition | Gardenias |
|---|---|
 Greatly expands everything that the original pointless offered. New areas, characters, enemies, quests, items, and three more potential party members to recruit - Salt Crab, Geen, and Darry. Adds a new ending and consequences if you unabashadly kill in Downtown. Average playthrough can be 10+ hours. |
 Fanmod about Richie Cheasedust in Garbage Island that explores his feelings and inner world, mostly about his crush on Roland. Combat is very minimal and moreso focuses on exploration and story. Beautifully crafted maps with detailed parallaxes, a few interesting overworld mechanics and multiple endings. |
| Phone Crew | |
|---|---|
 Game where you play as two different characters in two different act: Imp. D and Long Leg Lenny. Consists of sidestories that take place in areas before Alex arrived. |
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There's quite a few more mods, but after this, it's diminishing returns the deeper you go. Only recommended to play these if you really really like Pointless or just LISA combat in general.
SOTWS - Infinity Unfolds - Adds even more extra content onto SOTWS. Not quite as quality, though.
Ultimate Mod Pack - Event horizon. Attempts to add every Pointless mod together into one pulsating heap. Very big, very buggy.
Arnold Fight - The antediluvian perspective mod ancestor. Made back in 2018 when these were still novel.
Dire Vs. Alex (Combat Demo) - Short fight mod that has Alex and Dire face off against eachother. Shows off a few name combat mechanics and very flashy moves.
Lisa Fan Project Archive
a GIANT (60+ GB) archive of various fangames and their associated media - project folders, art, screenshots, etc. Most of the things in here are novelties and not exactly worth playing, but it is a history lesson and proper look into just how many projects were made over the years.
Pastebin for posterity: https://pastebin.com/6RaXS0wL