LISA: The Timeless is a fan-game of ambiguous temporal relation to the LISA trilogy, created by a small team called Russian Archives, led by Torrrington.
The game opens with the protagonist, an aged vagrant named Elton Broll, waking up to find someone looming over him, rifling through his belongings. The man almost immediately makes a run for it as Elton lets out an angry yell- whereupon he resolves to open a can of whoop-ass on the thief, and get his stuff back. After heading to the bar he frequents regularly to look for clues, he meets Bernard Connorfold, who helps him out during a bar fight by torching the guy attacking him. After heading to Berny's home for the night and waking up the next morning, Elton discovers that Berny has started bleeding from his eyes. Berny explains that he's in debt to a gypsy caravan- the people who gave him his magic. And so the two set off to repay Berny's debt- and hopefully not get roped into anything else afterwards.
Gameplay is similar to that of The Painful, with a number of changes and additions. Neither Elton or Berny can use combos, with Elton's moves being weak on their own- but capable of synergizing with other moves used by Elton or his allies to dish out some serious hurt, and Berny being a more straightforward TP character who shoots finger beams and throws fireballs. The fact that both Elton and Berny require a bit of momentum to really get going in battle means it's imperative you know how to play defensively, and take advantage of your enemy's mistakes, otherwise the duo will likely get steamrolled by even the lowliest of foes.
The first chapter can be downloaded here
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This game contains examples of:
- Angrish: After Elton gets his ass beat trying to learn how to dodge, Steak Slab Steve gives him some food to wake him up, and Elton can only scream in inarticulate rage after.
- Answers to the Name of God: A bit of an odd example. The duo encounter a man who introduces himself as "God. James God," a wrestling star whom no one else in Olathe can defeat. As he attempts to use what he calls his "cardinal trick" on the party, Elton just walks out of the way of his attack, causing James* to crash into the ground and explode into a flaming pile of ash.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: You can find a guy seemingly dead underwater once you have the diving helmet. Inspecting him causes him to wake up and say "I'm just sleeping underwater," with no further explanation.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: The guy who has The Infamous Nugget demands a doner kebab with pineapples and mayo on it in exchange. Elton responds to this with "Who the hell puts that crap on doners?!"
- Cast from Hit Points: Elton is worse than Alex in this regard- with multiple moves that cost HP, and don't do as much in comparison. However, this is mitigated by the fact that Elton can fall asleep to restore his health, and grant himself the Cool status.
- Death Seeker: John Spin, who joins the party for one battle- a battle in which he blows his brains out on the first turn, before anyone else takes a turn.
- Dissonant Serenity: Berny's demeanor tends to lead towards this- not even the symptoms of his voodoo curse appear to rattle him much.
- Drink-Based Characterization: During the scene in the bar where Elton meets Berny, after Dale gets a warm hug from him, Berny takes Dale's spot and tries to order a boulevardier with aperol, but then after being told they don't have those there, orders some whiskey. The boulevardier is usually a drink of choice for intellectual characters, but Berny ordering whiskey afterwards indicates that he's tougher than the average intellectual.
- Extra Turn: Elton will automatically throw his bottle if he retains the "Armed" status for long enough- removing the status and dealing damage to a random foe, on top of whatever action he already did that turn. He'll even do it while stunned or asleep!
- Item Caddy: Elton can use bottles more effectively than any other character, and is the only character who can use the Revolver with a Flag.
- Motor Mouth: Steak Slab Steve speaks this way, with his dialogue having no spaces inbetween his words, and being capitalized in its entirety on top of it.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Defied. The password to enter the hideout of the Gatormen is more like "passwords-" seven of them, repeated in a specific order. When Elton asks why, the gatekeeper tells him it's to prevent people from guessing their way in.
- Proverbial Wisdom: Elton keeps a journal full of this. More sayings get added to it as Elton encounters certain things throughout the game.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: The game adds a new "trauma" status effect, explicitly called "lung cancer," adding onto those added by LISA: The Pointless. The one enemy who has it is also the one with a massive cigarette in his mouth.
- Swamp Monster: There's one made of mud the party can fight at nighttime if they backtrack to the Olathian Dam. There's a sidequest where you can bring its eye to either one of the inhabitants of the fishing village or a guy near the entrance of the swamp for a reward.
