A broken man...
| “ | No. You don't understand. I've been dead for 35 years. Today is the day I live. | „ |
| ~ Brad Armstrong |
Summary
Note: This profile contains spoilers for the game LISA: The Painful. Please do not continue if you have yet to play the game and do not want to be spoiled.
Brad Armstrong is a character in the LISA franchise and the protagonist of LISA: The Painful. In LISA, an unexplained event known as the "Great White Flash" occurs, causing all females but one to be eradicated. In a world of men, Brad finds the only remaining female, a baby girl, who he names "Buddy". He raises her with his friends, but by the time she's pubescent, everyone knows about her and she is kidnapped. Being the only thing that keeps him happy, Brad goes on a desperate search to find her. Throughout the game, Brad is harassed by a man known as Buzzo, who constantly tells him to keep taking "Joy", and presents him with horrifying choices, e.g. cut his arm off or lose all of his items (twice, which can result in Brad being armless, severely reducing his combat strength).
At one point, Brad is reunited with Buddy, only to be ambushed by Buzzo once again. He force feeds Brad some Joy in front of Buddy, resulting in Brad hallucinating and Buzzo running away with Buddy. Moments later, Buddy successfully escapes from Buzzo and retreats to a remote island. When Brad arrives on this island, he finds that his father, Marty, is still alive and is taking care of Buddy. Brad kills him and Buddy escapes once again. Finally, at Rando Island, Brad encounters his friend's father seizing Buddy, whom he kills as well. At this point, Buddy tells Brad that he is the one who has hurt her the most, and Brad's in-game class turns from "Nobody" to "Failure", changing his skills to more powerful and devilish variants. At the end of the game, Brad has to fight 3 of his party members and 24 gang members, along with Rando, one of the main antagonists. After the fight, and a final dialogue with Buddy, the credits roll. After the credits, Brad is shown to be heavily mutated from his use of Joy, whether the player ever took joy or not.
Brad after fighting 28 enemies in a row.
Brad is a former children's karate teacher, using his own karate style "Armstrong style", described as "A home-brewed mixture of Karate & Pain." Brad is an alcoholic and addicted to a drug known as "Joy". He is also mentally scarred from witnessing his father, Marty, sexually abuse his sister, Lisa (which lead to her suicide, only to make things worse for Brad), as well as being physically abused himself as a child. If the player takes Joy during combat, Brad will replenish all HP, some of his stats are increased and all of his attacks are critical hits, severely increasing his combat strength. On the other hand, if Brad doesn't use joy for a long time, he will suffer from "Withdrawal", which decreases all stats to the point of his normal attacks doing no damage at all. The "Pain" aspect of his "Armstrong style" is clearly visible in how many of his attacks consist of risky maneuvers, e.g. cannonball (where he jumps really high and lands on the opponent) and head slide (in which he literally jumps forwards and slams his head against the opponents' knees at high speed). He can also cast fireballs. In-game, Armstrong style is represented by a "dial-combo", where the player enters combos of WASD to input attacks, e.g. WAD to do a headbutt.
Powers and Stats
Tier: 9-B | At least 9-B, possibly far higher
Name: Bradley Edwin Armstrong
Brad's immense lifting strength
Origin: Lisa
Age: Unknown, at least 35 years
Classification: Human, Nobody, Failure, Drug addict, Karate master, Father
Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics (Can weight-lift a car, survived the onslaught of 28 enemies in a row.), Statistics Amplification (If Brad takes Joy, his stats increase significantly.), Martial Arts, Fire Manipulation (Can use fire attacks) Berserk Mode, Regeneration (Unknown. Can regenerate from having his head ripped off, however this is likely game mechanics, as other party members are permanently killed by this)
Attack potency: Wall level (Can easily squat-lift a car and several others heavy objects. Comparable to characters able to beat down a bulldozer physically and stop trucks dead in their tracks.) | At least Wall level (Far stronger than before, killed 28 enemies that would have been comparable to his base form), possibly far higher (Defeated Rando)
Speed: Supersonic+ (Can dodge bullets from melee range and move a speed similar to a bullet's. Can repeatedly dodges bullets from Sticky's assault rifle.) | At least Supersonic+
Lifting Strength: Class 5, potentially higher when Joyed and/or Failure (Can lift a car stacked on three barrels, a cupboard, and a fridge without his arms)
Striking Strength: Wall Class | At least Wall Class, possibly far higher
Durability: Wall level (Can survive cars speeding into him, dynamite explosions, trucks ramming into him and the fall of Dismal Island) | At least Wall level, possibly far higher
Stamina: Quite high (His martial arts techniques lets him recover SP in the middle of a fight. Can fight dozens, without arms)
Range: Normal melee range, several metres with fire attacks.
Standard Equipment: Poncho, sweatbands, Joy (Becomes Joyed), jerky (Restores HP), Cocola Cola (Restores SP), bicycle, dead flower.
Intelligence: Average. Although skilled in Martial Arts, he's deeply scarred and traumatized by his past experiences, hindering him quite a bit.
Weaknesses: Brad will enter Withdrawal if he hasn't taken Joy in a while, which greatly hinders his stats (In Failure this doesn't apply because of him slowly turning into a Joy Mutant)
Notable Attacks/Techniques:
Base:
- Buster Punches: A simple combo of punches and then a push.
- Surprise Attack: Kicks the opponent in the groin.
- Dropkick: A flying double foot press.
- Machine Gun Fist: Unleashes a flurry of punches.
- Fireball: Brad fires a fireball at the enemy, either with both hands or simply one.
- Tackle: Brad charges at the enemy, knocking them over.
- Headbutt: Slams headfirst into his opponent.
- Charging Headbutt: Slams headfirst into his opponent.
- Homerun Head Slide: Slides headfirst towards his opponent.
Failure:
- Dropkick: A flying double foot press
- Charging Headbutt: Slams headfirst into his opponent.
- Fire Blast: Launches a massive blast of fire.
- Burning Head Slide: Slides headfirst and hits the opponent in the knees.
Key: Base | Failure/End of Game
Gallery
Others
Notable Victories:
Notable Losses:
Inconclusive Matches: