LISA: The Pointless

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**LISA: The Pointless** is an action role-playing game developed independently by Edvinas Kandrotas (Ed), that is based on LISA: THE PAINFUL RPG.

It was officially released for PC in December 27th, 2016, with a Mac OS X and Linux version published on February 26th, 2017. It is a story planned to be in three parts; Mystics of Trash and Violence, Fool's Gold, and Age of Sickness. Currently, the only released chapter is the first, Mystics of Trash and Violence.

## Story

The Pointless follows the journeys of Alex Churchland, a garbage man that once was a failed martial artist. After the Flash stole the women of the world and violated the laws of physics, Alex finds himself in desperate search of a better place. After hearing rumors of a city, a miraculous haven where some semblance of civilization remains, he, along with his life-saving cohort Joel Miller, travel eastwards through hell in hopes that they may find salvation.

## Gameplay

Very much reminiscent of it's inspiration, the PAINFUL, Pointless is a turn-based RPG set in a 2d side-scrolling environment. The overworld features numerous dynamic environments and unique characters and enemies. Unlike Brad, who had any party members to pick and choose from, Alex is almost always accompanied by only one party member for the duration of the game, Joel. They are heavily dependent on each-other for them to function well in battle, making them effective together, but weak alone.

In battle, Alex uses a "Dial Combo" system, the player able to use the WASD keys to deal damage, some certain combinations of letters activating unique abilities. Joel, in turn, has the standard of offensive, defensive, and supportive abilities: an example being a flashy gun toss that gives him a status effect that makes him targeted more often by enemies, allowing Alex more opportunity to strike.

## Development

Before work on LISA: The Pointless began, The main developer, Edvinas Kandrotas, was working on two RPGmaker games: Arche and Arsenik. Work on the two titles was demanding and strenuous. As a breather from their bleak settingsand from a purported dissatisfaction with the LISA: THE JOYFUL,he had the idea to make a fangame for the LISA series. Another major inspiration was John Water's film *Female Trouble.*, Most explicitly for the concept of The City in Fool's Gold, where "this overblown, overripe femininity that's smothering, that smells like cheap perfume and glitter and sweat [...] this *is* the norm."

The first chapter of the game was released on the 27th of December in 2016, the other two chapters, Fool's Gold and Age of Sickness, still in development.

### Monster Update

While development on Fool's Gold was happening, there was a purported quality gap between the second chapter and the first. As such, Ed sought to release what was only an update for the first chapter to align the quality level between the two releases. This patch initially featured a new, revamped intro, as well as some touched up sprites. The first reveal for the Monster Update was on July 20th, 2017, being a resprited Hugo Leopardi.

As time went on, however, what was initially just an 'update' slowly transformed into a full blown remake - completely overhauled graphics, a systemically examined and rewritten story, an original soundtrack, new areas, characters, gameplay mechanics - all stemming from an ambition and a desire to *"bring out the best in [the development team] and unearth the latent "treasures" hidden in the roughness of the original Mystics of Trash and Violence."* The 'update' aspect merely stuck as a name. (Monster Remake isn't as catchy, we suppose.)

A public announcement regarding the Monster Update was first made on December 30th 2018, showing off remade areas such as House Dust, teasing new ones, as well as a handful of sprites from Fool's Gold.'

A 45 minute long video was released on January 20th, 2021, showing a revamped intro.

## References

1. ↑ Edvinas Kandrotas And Kapadie Interview of Lisa The Pointless and More!, 33:20, 05-05-19
2. ↑  "... one of the reasons to get me started on working on the Pointless was really loathing the Joyful", Ed, 02-03-17
3. ↑ Edvinas Kandrotas And Kapadie Interview of Lisa The Pointless and More!, 33:45, 05-05-19
4. ↑ Behold: Something Monstrous This Way Comes (Monster Update Announcement), Gamejolt, 12-30-18
5. ↑ LISA: The Pointless CH1: Remake Intro, 01-20-21