LISA: The Timeless

[OUTDATED since 7/16/2021]

Hey man great game, usually I go into LISA fan-games not expecting a lot but I was pleasantly surprised both when the trailers dropped and when I got around to playing the game despite it still needing some polish from patch fixes.

Since I'm sure you've received a lot of talk about bugs already I'm just going to talk about some obscure stuff you can only know by checking RPG Maker.

Firstly the Darker Blue Floral Shirt does not increase your target rate. The Small Belt also decreases TP gain and Target Rate instead of increasing it. Lastly and this is more of a minor thing but there really is no reason to buy a leather jacket, the extra DEF is just not worth it when the other options gives Extra HP or SP. Personally I'd decrease the DEF and have it give the Cool status effect instead.

However after fixing those issues up myself I had a wonderful time. The game has a more evolved gameplay style of a 2 character dynamic than I've seen before in a LISA game. Moves like Tinder Box and Look Out! which has multiple results based on a certain characters state gives a strong sense of connection to party members.

If I had any suggestions the first would be that I would lean more into this angle to separate this game further from other LISA titles. Like maybe Pass Out makes enemies confused when Berny is K.O'ed allowing Elton to make use of it even when solo or have that Goldenbody effect make Elton immune to his moves that deal self-damage.

Another piece of advice would be to make Look Out! not cost TP for Berny. Create a second version of Berny's Dodge move that costs no TP and use that whenever using Look Out! for that matter have Berny learn his own Dodge as soon as you do the dodge tutorial instead of at Level 9.

Speaking of the dodge tutorial I'd suggest changing it to Turn 4 instead of Turn 3, because since the Dodge status effect takes up 2 turns if you actually do the tutorial as intended you get your bones broken. This is the only part of the game I thought was bullshit.

But I digress, I feel like with a bit more polishing and tweaking this game can really be one of the best there are in the LISA series and regardless this game is already better than most LISA games (Because most LISA games don't even exist) people seem to underestimate how hard making a game actually is, and your team managed to bypass that first hurdle.

This game is fucking funny as hell, good shit man. Btw one bug I noticed was that the tiles were not properly done in the resting room (where the gator base transition is) as elton just kinda starts flying rather than dropping down to the 3 guys around the campfire.

Other than that, this is probably my favorite fangame solely for the amount of charm and hilarity in it, from the sounds used for skills, random jokes that NPC's make, and secrets that you can find.

keep it up dude, really good stuff, I can't wait to fight those truck-sized joy mutants on your next release lmao

Hello, I played the game, so I thought that would be fair to give feedback. Probably some things that I will say already got reported.

First, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the game, it has a unique atmosphere, compared to the other fangames, this one seems to take itself less seriously, which is cool, the game looks like a cartoon because of the humor and the situations the characters are inserted in. And it seems to fit well in the Lisa universe.

The graphics are awesome, especially the animations, the movement is very fluid, making the game feels more alive. There are some technical issues, the style is a bit inconsistent, this is more noticeable on the maps, one very visible example is the cave to the swamp. The other issue is that the lineart is a bit messy, in the backgrounds this is very visible, there are some "jaggies". But I also think that these issues do not interfere with the big picture, the game still very beautiful and the lineart being this way can collaborate to create a unique style. I wouldn't change anything about the art.

About the game balancing and backtracking. I liked the difficulty, it makes you really feel that you are an old drunkard, but I understand the points that other people criticize, the balancing is very harsh, it seems to depend too much on the RNG. You need to be lucky so that the boulder won't miss, you need luck to the enemy won't give a strong attack or hit the wrong party member, and the list goes on. There aren't many ways to defend from the attacks and the items being scarce, gives small room for errors, failing makes you lose too much progress and is frustrating. The low quantity of saves also collaborates with this. Another detail that can make the battles fairer, is to make the enemy's skills that skip turns serve as warnings to the player. I thought that it was how it works in the game, but they seem to not mean anything, in most enemies that use these attacks. The game backtracking wasn't a big issue to me, I thought it was fine, It's not so much repetitive because things change over time, but I can see why other people are criticizing it, Elton is slow and the maps are way too big, I think that the best solution to this is putting more shortcuts, that are free and can be used to go and come back, as you can't change Elton movement speed. Exploration seems to be a big factor in the game, but because of the balancing, what would be optional turns into something "obligatory", it's way too much better if you explore everything, the game gets way easier. In some way, this does the game feel a bit linear, you always need to do the optional things if you want success. A big example of this is Ern, you are given the option to keep the perfume or recruit him to help kill Kirk, but Ern carries the fight too much, it became way easier, in fact, the battle seems to be balanced in this way. I think that would great if the option to keep the perfume was more viable, the battle still needs to be hard so that the help is justifiable, but also fair without. I really liked the idea behind Ern, recruiting temporary party members to help defeat strong enemies is something very cool, reminds me of Dark Souls, I think that would be great if there are more of this in the rest of the game, getting help in exchange of items or sidequests, with several different characters. Ern is also a very great character. In the few lines of dialogue that he has, he has a lot of charisma, the poses and moveset also help in giving the character more personality, It's a very creative party member, I really liked Ern.

I don't have too much to say about the music and the plot. The soundtrack works well with the game, some tracks are very great, like the one from the bar during the knife fight, but others are not so much. This is very subjective, all the music works in the game context. The plot felt a bit confusing at the beginning, there is a lot of people asking Elton to do things, but only a few you can really finish the quest. The story feels way too disperse, you don't have a clear motive to keep doing the things. The gameplay, even being hard, and the graphics, keep me more engaged with the game than the plot. But towards the end, everything starts to become more interesting, the plot becomes less disperse and the motivations start to make more sense.

The game has a lot of potential, the problems that people are saying are not a big obstacle, A lot is already being fixed. After this, I can see this as a very solid game, everyone that likes the Lisa universe must play this. It doesn't as depressing as the other games, but still a good "Lisa experience".

I don't have anything constructive to say besides that Elton feels like a bit of a reactionary protagonist but that doesn't distract from the game being extremely charming and enjoyable.

Okay so since 1.1 has released I've came around to beating it. It was extremely good, although a little short and sweet. Not gonna do the whole bullet point thing again, just gonna write some of my thoughts in.

Last time I played this, I barely got far, only about an hour in before I got stuck. This time, I was able to make it through with little to no problems, I found everything about this game on average extremely quality an memorable. Elton and Berny are very gratifying and interesting characters to control. A little disappointed by the lack of a combo dial (except in the first 30 min with Ern) since it is a staple of the series, but it didn't hinder my opinion on the overall package. Animations, themes, parallaxes, tilesets, characters, everything presentation wise is phenomenal and the only game that's gonna rival it soon will most likely be the MU. My personal favorite moment that showed me that RPGMaker can be pushed to so many limits to create some stunning and unbelievably amazing scenes was the main bar after you pass out. The amount of detail and dedication to shove so much shit to sell the fact that it's a post apocalyptic chaotic bar floored me. Kudos to the devs, seriously. My overall favorite fight was the "final boss" man in a red/gray suit, the devs made it so you had to use everything at your disposal to beat him, it felt like one of the most gratifying victories i'd ever achieved in an RPG, and definitely the most satisfying one in a Lisa game ever.

I only have a couple of nitpicks, it didn't exactly ruin my experience but it was game breaking to someone who doesn't know how to fix it. The biggest elephant in the room for me was the resting area at the beginning of the cave after I got the dodge roll. For some reason I couldn't jump down, whether I went left or right I walked on thin air and couldn't jump down. So I went into RPGMaker and created a couple of jumping events so I could get down, that was a pain in the ass. Also, when I started the game, I had 16 different save files already on there, which was a bit strange. Lastly, the wall climbing, that feels like a complete slog and gameplay padding, just please make it the same speed as the rope, I don't like looking at my phone because of a slow segment that takes forever.

But other than those somewhat minor things, this game's a breath of fresh air, and feels like it could set the standards for quality Lisa games in the future, keep it up guys, you got a gem on your hands. - A Legend Named Ryan. AKA ry dawg AKA Vyx.