Let's talk about some fangames that most of the time get cancelled, are in development hell or when they release are either jokes or remixes of another ones:
The only two that I played and are deemed "finished" is Hopeful and Vegaful:
Hopeful is very well known has a basic plot and is basically about a trio of friends trying to get laid, for one of the first fangames is very enjoyable:
Lisa the Vegaful is a bit more about fanservice and adress the Vega gang from Joyful fighting other gangs before Buddy wrecked everyone, less polished than Hopeful but still alright:
For unfinished ones, the most famous one is Lisa the Pointless, a very polished fan-game with an interesting gimmick that revolves about messing with enemy stats but at the same time provides an on-rails experience:
Lisa the Timeless also has their own take on the Lisa the Pointless dynamic but with Fire and Dodge mechanics, somehow I ended enjoying more than Pointless, maybe because it provided a more simplistic plot rather than showing multiple characters and factions and doing nothing with them:
I only played an older version of Lisa the Unbreakable, I remember being a bit unbalanced, buggy and had a messy plot, the newer version released early this year seemingly fixed most of the issues, the game is more focused on exploring and has a lot of pop culture references to other games:
Desolate Expanse is a mod that adds more areas and fights to Painful, is quite enjoyable for what it is but the novelty quickly wears it off after the first playthrough, worth it at least a try but hardly a "definitive experience":
Scholar of Wilbur Sin is a complete overhaul from Pointless, it is great but hard as fuck and full of missable content, never managed to finish, it completely overshadows the original fangame by making fully explorable areas and ditching the original on-rails experience:
Fangames that were recently announced and I doubt that will be finished anytime soon:
Lisa the Wise, a couple trying to survive the wasteland:
Lisa the Fool, a retelling of Painful:
Lisa the Reckless, where the mod author recklessly shoehorn references from unfinished/cancelled Lisa fangames:
