YMMV / LISA: The Pointless - Scholar of the Wilbur Sin

• Anti-Climax Boss: Arnold Shpitz manages to become this in the eyes of some, due to him coming across as less imposing when next to some of the new bosses, such as Jeremy Denkins or Floyd Burnside. It doesn't help that the "Super" version of him is actually weaker than normal, and the crowd of Franchisers who normally appear after he dies will actually attack him at times, with him wasting turns by also attacking them.
  • No longer the case as of a recent update, as the extra franchisers begin appearing early in the fight, and while they still occasionally attack Arnold instead of you, they more commonly ''help'' Arnold in the fight by attacking with him and whenever Arnold himself lashes out at them (when he’s not healing them), he can attack you again in the same turn. You want the Bloody Valve, be prepared to earn it.
• Breather Level:
  • The Twilight Plaza, a hidden village in the desert. There are no enemies or hostile creatures there, and most of the inhabitants are weird, but friendly. The village's elder even gives Alex some advice, and wishes him good luck on his search for the city.
  • The Salt Lake town is in a similar boat. While most of its inhabitants are weird and a bit creepy, there's no threats; if anything, the only fight is one that Alex initiates.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Old Rosary Belt, one of the items that can be acquired through trading with the purveyor, raises Alex's max SP and provides a passive SP regeneration, but makes you unable to use stances. The downside of this item is nearly non-existent, as the SP regeneration is usually enough to allow you to spam techniques, and if you find yourself low in SP, you can just mash the combo dial for pure damage and wait for the next turn.
  • The Sapphire Coat allows Joel to act twice in a turn. This is exceedingly powerful when you consider that you can do some powerful combos (Taunt+Roll, Taunt+Mind Games, Passionate Warning+Take Aim) in a single turn, or even support your party by using items alongside a normal action. The downside is that Joel's SP and HP will be cut in half. You can counteract the SP reduction by equipping the All-Seeing Fez, however this in-turn will cut all of Joel's stats, making him extremely squishy for late-game. There's also the King Brand Necklace and the Spare Tie, which automatically give the Cool Status and reduce Joel's SP usage by 10% respectively, and although relatively useful on their own, they can make Joel arguably even more overpowered than with the All-Seeing Fez, due to giving him health regeneration and a reduced SP-Cost alongside letting him act twice in the same turn when equipped alongside the aformentioned Sapphire Coat.
• Good Bad Bugs: It's possible for Alex to still call the baby Fishman to use Douse even when it's already dead.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • During your conversation with Mikhail, he will ask Alex what his idea of Peace is. One of the options you can pick is "being with my friends". Joel (and whatever other party member you may have) are noticeably touched.
  Alex: Without people like Joel here, I probably would have given up a long time ago.
  Joel: Oh, Lucky... you're too kind.
  • When exploring the salt lake, you might come across a small group of people sitting around a campfire. One of them, Ron Constitution will be pissed at your intrusion, and will tell you to leave. If you pick the correct dialogue choices, you can convince them that you mean no harm, and Ron will stand down, and invite you to join them (only Alex though. Joel and Geen/Saltcrab must wait outside) to rest around the fire and have some friendly conversation. Considering the hell that's happening in Downtown Olathe, small, calming moments like these feel like a blessing.
    • During the conversation, the group tells Alex that they consider themselves to be losers, and that they feel like they don't belong anywhere, something Alex says he can sympathize with. They feel hopeless, and plan on sitting around until they die, but Alex gives them a small pep talk about not giving up.
    Lewy: All we can do is sit and drink 'till we die.
    Alex: Now, you know that's not true. There's always a second chance waiting for you. You just gotta find it.
    Ron: *smiles* I like you, kid. You have a spark the rest of us ain't got. Been a long time since I've seen that.
    Alex: Well, I hope I can pass that spark along. Light some fires inside you guys as well.
    You felt something warm inside your heart.
  • Early on in Garbage Island, you can find a cat, which leads to Joel gushing about it and talking about his old hobby as an artist, and Alex encourages him to pick the hobby back up. It's a small but a really sweet moment.
  • A minor example is the short conversation Alex has with Xerosik Courtly, the taser using jerseyhead in the Sweet Breeze Hotel if Alex decides to tell him the truth and say that he's ugly, which spares him.
  Alex:...Sorry, but you're actually pretty ugly.
  Xerosik: I knew it.
  Xerosik: Mom was lying to me the whole time.
  Alex: That just means she loved you in spite of your appearance.
  Alex: Sounds like you had a good mother.
  Xerosik: Y-yeah.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • At a certain point, you'll come across one member of the Bureau standing guard, who proclaims he'll hold off any jerseyhead that tries to get past him. If you go back to that area later, you'll find him still standing, surrounded by several dead jerseyheads.
  • Floyd Burnside gets one once you get him to his second phase:
  Floyd Burnside: "I've seen enough."
  Floyd grabs his enormous sword. He gets +Armed, and the party gets +Spooked.
  Floyd Burnside: "Look into my eyes when you die. Know that all hope has abandoned you."
• Nintendo Hard: The original LISA the Pointless was hard enough, this fan-made expansion takes it up to eleven. While there's tons of extra areas to explore, you aren't given that much extra items to keep your party alive, and a majority of the new enemies you fight have a generous amount of health that will take a while to defeat if you're not familiar with the Pointless' formula. Additionally, some saving graces like the tree bearing infinite Rotten Fruit on Garbage Island, or the meat seller in Downtown Olathe have been nerfed to not give you as many free options for HP and SP recovery respectively. Not only that, but every item seller in the game has limited stock now, so the merchants will actually run out of stock and prevent you from buying any healing items in bulk.
• The Scrappy: Although Georgy is a bit more versatile than he is in the base game, he's still the weakest of the three companions you can recruit on Garbage Island. At best he's a meat shield with some mildly useful debuff abilities, but his utility is outmatched by Darry on every front. He'll constantly bitch and moan if you take too long to reach the boat, and will permanently leave your party if you try to explore new areas, or if you take Darry into your party (who he belittles and insults at every opportunity). The only reason you'd want him in your party would be to open the safe containing the golden watch (which will be stolen from you anyways), or to watch other Garbage Island residents make fun of him.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The fates of the playground kids. Manny falls to his death in a prank gone wrong, Danny becomes a jerseyhead and dies at the hands of Wily Knight and his gang, and Shammi becomes a Joy mutant. If you kill him, Tony survives, but is left to deal with the fact that all of his friends are dead. If you don't, Scrawny Davy (who has joined the Franchise) burns Shammi to death, then burns Tony to death too for getting in the way.
  • Darry Sweets' flashback is Played for Laughs, but it gets a bit poignant by the end.
  Darry: *crying* It still hurts. I miss you, pap.
  • During your time in the fisherman village, you'll come across a small infant fisherman. Interact with it enough, and it will hop in your pocket and join you. Besides being adorable, It can help you in battle by cleansing some debuffs. Cute right? Though if you check on it later after arriving at Downtown, you'll find the poor thing burnt to a crisp. The little guy doesn't survive the trip through the desert. At least you can eat it to regain health. There actually is a way to prevent this, though it isn't immediately obvious...
  • If you go back and explore Garbage Island after defeating Roland, you'll find Wiseman Tanner standing by the graves of the other wisemen. He says he wasn't expecting to be the last man standing of the three and tells Alex he may have been right about the cellophane lifestyle all along.
  Tanner: For the first time in a long time, I'm starting to feel something again.
  Alex: Sadness?
  Tanner: Nah. I feel sick.
• That One Boss
  • The Fishman Elder is a brutal combination of an Early-Bird Boss (since he’s more often than not fought with barely any healing or revival items and not enough mags to buy more and at a point where Alex doesn’t have a weapon or Joel may be lacking in bottles to throw, hurting your offensive potential) and a Wolfpack Boss (he’s accompanied by two other fishmen, with the parasol carrying one buffing his allies and the red eyed one scaring your party and knocking down party members). All three targets are fairly sturdy, and the main boss has a very strong electrical attack that can hit dodging characters and strengthened by his flunky’s skills that will more often than not kill them instantly. Thankfully, the three are an optional encounter, but if you want either a Regenerating Health stance for Alex or a stance that increases bottle power for Joel, prepare to suffer.
  • Jeremy Denkins is much more powerful than the other Sweet Breeze bosses. Why? He’s one of the only people in the game with a functional firearm, toting a double barreled shotgun, and unlike Joel, he’s willing and able to fire said gun. Assuming that it doesn’t jam, which gives him a Rage buff, when said shotgun fires, it inflicts a permanent Rupture debuff as well as instantly killing whoever got hit by it. Did we mention you cannot dodge the attack or disarm Jeremy? And when he Turns Red, he supplements his shotgun with hard hitting melee attacks, as well as taking half the time to prepare to shoot a party member. It’s highly advised to beat him down quick before he puts on too much pressure.
• The Woobie:
  • Tony, one of the playground kids. He watches his friends die, one-by-one, and he's completely powerless to stop it. He will either be burned to death by Scrawny Davi, or he'll stay on the playground, all by himself. You can't take him to somewhere safer, or even comfort him. Poor kid.
  • Serjio Oman, one of the Twilight Plaza's warrior tasked with recovering the pink pill from Downtown Olathe. His entire group gets brutalized by the infinity franchise, and he finds himself between a rock and a hard place: he isn't powerful enough to defeat Arnold, who's in possession of the pill, but he also cannot go back to the village empty-handed, or he'll be killed by the elder. He had no choice other than donning the jersey.