Limbus Company is an indiegacha strategy video game for Microsoft Windows and mobile devices using iOS or Android,[1] developed and published by South Korean studio Project Moon.[2] It was released worldwide on February 26, 2023. The game is set in the same dystopian, hyper-capitalist world known only as "The City", where all of Project Moon's other works take place, including Lobotomy Corporation, Library of Ruina, and multiple webcomics such as Leviathan and The Distortion Detective, but takes place some time after the events of all those stories.[3]
The game contains gacha elements, making it possible to spend real money to acquire Lunacy (the in-game currency) or tickets used to acquire new Sinner Identities or their respective Extermination of Geometrical Organ (E.G.O) outside of the base units given to the player. Director Kim Ji-hoon claimed during a Q&A session that this was necessary both to fund and explore making new Project Moon games, such as a currently unnamed "3rd-person Action RPG" set in the City, and that a live service game would expand the fanbase and keep them entertained in-between full retail releases.[1]
Gameplay
When entering a battle stage, the player is able to choose up to either 5, 6, or 7 out of 12 Sinners (not including Dante) to fight. Each Sinner can be equipped with an Identity that defines their base skills, and a variety of E.G.O that provide powerful additional skills. Each E.G.O has an assigned power level, and a Sinner may only equip one E.G.O of each. Newer stages using the Chain Battle format allow the player to substitute non-fielded Sinners in when a fighting Sinner dies, effectively allowing the player to use all 12 Sinners.
In normal fights, the player drags a pointer across two rows of circles. Each circle represents a Sinner's attack. The aim is to form a chain of directable attacks against enemies. In battles against bosses or Abnormalities, players instead will be directed to pick and choose which Sinner's attack should target which enemy, or a specific body part of the enemy. Matching attacks of the same color, or Sin Affinity, activates Resonance, which increases the damage of the attacks included. Unleashing an attack also yields "Sin resources" of that attack's color. Attacks are also classified into different damage types: Slash, Blunt or Pierce. Different enemies are resistant, neutral, or weak to different damage types.
When a Sinner and enemy attack each other, the game decides which side's attacks are successful with a series of coin flips, with Sanity Points (SP) determining a character's luck in getting coin heads. A head will add a numbered change to the character's power (typically an increase; a decrease instead for certain Identities and E.G.Os), while a tail leaves the number as is.[4] When one side wins the coin flip, the loser loses one of their coins and coins are re-flipped. This process continues until either side loses all their coins, after which the winner executes their attack. Some characters' skills may also have unbreakable coins, colored in red. As per their name, unbreakable coins will not break even if that coin flip was lost (their coin power will not count in future flips), and allow a character to attack even if they lose the clash.
The player can choose to attack using a Sinner's respective E.G.O. attack in place of one of their normal attacks. E.G.O attacks are often significantly more powerful than a sinner's normal attack skills, however doing so requires spending the Sinner's SP and the collected Sin resources. The lower a Sinner's sanity is when they use an E.G.O. attack, the higher chance they have to launch a "corroded" E.G.O attack, which is more powerful, but renders that Sinner uncontrollable and prone to attacking allies for a few turns. The player can prevent a Sinner from corroding by "Overclocking" the E.G.O. attack, unleashing its corroded variant without harming allies, but at the cost of additional Sin resources.
The player may also choose to replace a Sinner's skill with their respective defense skill, of which there are three types. Block skills generate a shield that resist a certain amount of damage, Evade skills dodge attacks whose power are lower than or equal to the evasion's power, and Counter skills unavoidably attack an enemy after the Sinner was attacked.
When a character's health falls below, they become Staggered, increasing the damage they take and delaying their next turn. Some enemies have multiple thresholds that allow them to be Staggered repeatedly, amplifying the effects each time.
Setting
Following the previous installments in the series, Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina, Limbus Company takes place in a dystopian city-state simply known as the City. The City comprises twenty-six districts, each unique in technological advancements and culture. Each district is locally governed by a Wing, a megacorporation named after a letter of the alphabet that operates using a unique technology known as a Singularity. The Wings are led by the Head, a conglomerate consisting of A Corp, B Corp and C Corp, that also enforces universal taboos of the City. Each District is physically split into a Nest, the urban residence supported by the Corps, and the Backstreets, poverty-stricken areas overrun by criminal Syndicates and outside of the Corps' protection.
Several people in the city work as Fixers, contractors that take jobs relating to various fields of expertise. Each Fixer is assigned a numerical grade based on their skill and experience, with 9 being the lowest and 1 being the highest. Fixers that perform impressive feats, or surpass Grade 1 Fixers in certain aspects, will be promoted to the rank of Color Fixer and granted a unique title based on a color and concept they are associated with. Fixers may work together in small Offices, join Syndicates or Associations, or work on their own. The Hana Association, one of the largest associations in the City, is responsible for assigning licenses and fixer grades.
Occasionally, humans overcome with intense emotion will transform into monstrous entities called Distortions. Inversely, those who overcome such emotion may personally manifest E.G.O equipment in the form of armor, tools and/or weaponry that greatly empower their combat capabilities and provide supernatural abilities. Collectively referred to as the Distortion phenomenon, the concept holds great significance to the game's plot, and the plot of Library of Ruina.
The player takes the role of Dante, an amnesiac whose head was recently severed in favor of a clock-shaped prosthetic. Just before they are about to be executed, Dante is rescued by the Limbus Company Bus Department, who inform them of their new role as the manager of the team and their quest to find the Golden Boughs, rare and powerful artifacts that spawned across the city after the fall of Lobotomy Corporation that are believed to be remnants of L Corp's technology. The game is split into chapters, named "Cantos", which are all character-driven and delve into the Sinners' past and trauma on their quest.
Characters
The main party of Limbus Company is composed of 13 "Sinners", brought together under a contract with the titular Limbus Company. Dante is considered one of these Sinners, though they do not actively participate in combat. Joining them is Vergilius and Charon, who serve as the team's guide and bus driver respectively.
The game's original soundtrack is generally composed by Studio EIM, with the main theme, "In Hell We Live, Lament", being sung by the Japanese indie music group Mili and featuring vocalist KIHOW from the Japanese pop rock band Myth & Roid. Prior to Limbus Company, Mili had worked with Project Moon on their previous game Library of Ruina. Over the course of Limbus Company's updates, Mili began to compose the themes for the final boss fights in Cantos, including "Between Two Worlds", "Fly My Wings", "Compass", "Through Patches of Violet", "Hero", and "Tian Tian". (Stylized as "TIAN TIAN")[5]
At the end of every Canto, each of the Sinners perform their own rendition of the song "Pass On" (Sarajinae 사라지네).
Reception
According to its official website, it reached 180,000 total pre-registrations before releasing.[6][non-primary source needed]
Notes
↑ The character's true name is later revealed to be Sancho, who has taken up the alias Don Quixote in the place of the real one unknowingly.
↑ Notably also heavily references the musical Man of La Mancha in both her weapon and in-game quotes.
↑ "Ryōshū" Yoshihide is the original reading of the protagonist's name 良秀 as seen in Uji Shūi Monogatari, which Hell Screen is a reworking of.
↑ "Outis" is an alias translating to "Nobody" that Odysseus uses to refer to himself to Polyphemus briefly in the Odyssey.
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