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Message: [QUOTE="LiberoVulpes, post: 227603, member: 204772"] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" width="622px" alt="Article Cover.png"]78024[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY] Gacha games, truly one of the most contentious and divisive “genres” currently within the gaming zeitgeist, with quite dedicated fans as well as quite fervent haters. Love them or hate them, they have carved themselves a spot within the industry, and for good and for ill, they are here to stay. Among the many gacha games which are released, very few actually manage to survive, let alone make it to the top, many studios and franchises have tried and failed to obtain that sweet sweet whale revenue. Yet, the number of actually good gacha games, can be counted in one hand. Most of which haven’t even made it to the top 10 of most profitable, but, they persevere. Whatever their strategy, be it waifuism, Stockholm Syndrome, exploiting FOMO, etc. etc. At this point, everyone knows what’s going on. Today, I will forgo any pretense of being unbiased, as I will be covering the only gacha game I play (for now, there is another one I am interested in), Limbus Company. A gacha game, made by Project Moon, the little Indie Studio that could, and, they have no idea how to make a gacha, this is a compliment.[/JUSTIFY] [HEADING=2]Inferno[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]Since this is Project Moon’s 3rd game, you may ask yourself, do I need to play Lobotomy Corporation and/or Library of Ruina first? Not really, Limbus will tell you the basics you need so you aren’t lost, but, playing the previous games does help to understand the references, and to know some of the more in-depth stuff. And, the novels (Distortion Detective, and Leviathan) are completely optional, as for the comic, Wonderlab is not canon. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" width="1042px" alt="The other project moon stuff.webp"]78025[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]First thing first, let me introduce you to the world of Limbus Company, or rather, The Project Moon universe. If you’ve already played Lobcorp or Ruina, then feel free to skip to the next section. The setting, is The City, a continent sized mega-city, welcome to hell, abandon all hope, ye who enter here. The City is divided in 26 districts, each of which is governed by a mega corporation known as a wing, going from letters A to Z, each corporation runs their district as they see fit, making each one quite distinct, and with unique idiosyncrasies. The City may be massive, but, its also isolated, then, how does it maintain stability and produce resources? Its quite simple really, each corporation has access to unique technologies, known as singularities, which are pretty much miraculous in their own right, but, they do have a dark side, which only employees and/or high ranking execs are aware of, well, some tend to show their side effects more openly, but those are a minority. Of course, to keep everyone in check, and to maintain a semblance of stability, there is a governing body, known as The Head, which directly controls A-corp, but also has control over B-corp (The Eye), and C-corp (The Claw), maintaining a constant watch upon the activities of the populace, it will make sure to absolutely obliterate anyone who dares break any of the taboos, be it an individual, or a Wing, it does not matter. But, what about the regular people? You might be asking. Well… Each district is divided into 2, the nest where the corporation, its employees, their families, and contractors reside, pretty much the rich neighborhood, under the careful watch and protection of the wing, as long as they prove themselves useful, and the corporation hasn’t exploded, they get to enjoy some semblance of decent life. The rest, well, to the backstreets, good luck. What’s so bad about the backstreets? Well… Anyone living there is pretty much on their own, either having to deal with the many many gangs which serve the major syndicates, each with their own crazy rules which you have to obey for some semblance of security, otherwise you are in danger of: Cannibalism, organ harvesting, kidnapping, becoming a guinea pig, being harvested in a myriad of ways, being turned into an avant garde piece of art, and many many more fates worse than dead. Some of which are district unique! There is also the night in the backstreets, which has pretty much everyone going outside to solve feuds the fun way, until 3am, cause no one wants to deal with the sweepers. It ain’t pretty. Everyone in the backstreets dreams of making it into the nest, and everyone in the nest slaves away to avoid being thrown into the backstreets. Although there are a lot of gangs, most serve a Syndicate, the 5 major Syndicates are known as “The Hand” each being named after a finger, like wings, each one has their own ways to govern and idiosyncrasies, and they usually have influence all around The City. To make a living, it is either joining a wing (good luck with that), joining a gang and maybe making it into a syndicate (its a double edged sword), or work as a fixer, which are pretty much the odd-jobbers around (each office and association has their own style, equipment and focus) and maybe make it… If you live long enough. The City will always corrupt, and dispose, it is the natural state of things, maintaining and endless cycle of misery and pain. You might wonder, why live in The City if its so hellish? Well… Outside is worse. It isn’t a completely Grim Dark world, some districts aren’t THAT bad (including their backstreets), and there are good people (albeit a minority), so there is some levity from all the darkness.[/JUSTIFY] [HEADING=2]Purgatorio[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]Now, lets cover Limbus Company proper. You play as Dante, someone who has lost all his memories, and, has a clock for a head (it is possible to get full body transplants in The City, including head transplants). You end up working as an executive manager for Limbus Company, taking charge of 12 people denominated as Sinners, and being guided by Vergilius one of the legendary color fixers (the pinnacle of being a fixer). Each sinner has a specific reason as to why they joined Limbus Company, and, as long as they are in a contract with you, you can revive them if they die. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" width="845px" alt="Meet the sinners.jpg"]78035[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]Your objective is simple, travel around The City, and collect Golden Boughs, artifacts which used to belong to Lobotomy Corporation, now scattered around The City due to the events of the game. The catch however, is that each bough will resonate with one of the sinners, making them having to re-experience the worst moments in their lives and forcing the team to navigate through their psyche, well, that but also the abnormalities (monsters) Lobotomy Corporation used to use in their activities, and people who just want to make things difficult. Sometimes you get to go on little side-quests like dealing with Distortions, or doing some extra work for Limbus Company. It ain’t much, but its honest living. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]HTRQgFYCXHY[/MEDIA][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]Alright, enough about the world-building, lets look at the gameplay. As its the tradition in Project Moon games, the tutorial sucks, so, instead let me give you a simple primer. You see, Limbus Company has a very unique combat system, and it can be quite difficult for people to understand it. In order to avoid over-complicating, I am solely going to explain the basics, I am going to avoid the more gimmicky stuff, like characters who have a second form, or characters who require specific conditions, or the minutia of solo runs, or the discard mechanic, or Durante powers, or red coins, or backup units. Alright so, each character has 3 offensive skills, think of them as cards, each has a certain amount of copies of each skill in their deck, weaker skills have more copies, stronger skills have less. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Some ID profiles.webp"]78029[/ATTACH] If you haven't played the game, these IDs are too complex for you.[/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]Skills have 3 basic damage types, slash, pierce, and blunt, both your characters and the enemy, have better defenses against one, or are weak to another. In combat, each character is assigned at least 1 slot, and every turn they pull 2 skills for every slot, you are the one who decides which of the 2 to play, with the other one being reshuffled for next turn. The catch, comes from how you do this process of picking. You see, in group fights, instead of picking who goes against who, the game does it for you, your job is to pick what they use. To do that, you see all the skills at the bottom of your screen, and, you drag a chain along the skills you want them to use, building either a combo, or an effective offensive, or a survival strategy. At the end of the chain you are allowed to rethink your strategy, switch some things around, or simply confirm it and go. As for the order, every character rolls speed (initiative) at the start of each turn (then they apply buffs and debuffs to their speed) and that determines their order in the chain going from fastest on the left, to slower on the right, enemies do the same, and this is how the game picks fights. Once you hit the confirm button, you will see the fight take place, here you will notice a few things. This is when it gets complicated. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" width="1154px" alt="Typical combat.webp"]78030[/ATTACH] (Left) Before picking actions. (Right) After picking actions.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]Lets start with coins, each skill has a set of actions, represented as coins, each skill has at least 1 coin, when characters fight, they must first have a clash with their skills, this means that they flip all their coins, and whoever has the bigger number gets to be the one hurting the other. Each action can even have different effects on both your character and the enemy. You see that each skill has a big number, and a smaller number above it, the big number is the current total, and the number above is how much the skill will gain (or lose) if the coins are heads. So, when 2 characters clash, they flip coins, whoever wins destroys 1 coin of the loser, and the clash ends when one side runs out of coins, allowing the winning side to use its remaining coins to deal damage. The are some bonuses for the winner the longer the clash goes, but this is rarely a thing. When you are picking abilities, if there is a clash, the game will give you a prediction, hopeless, struggling, neutral, favorable, and dominating, the predictions aren’t set in stone, but are reliable most of the time (advanced players like myself do the calculations instead). But, when there is no clash, then, its an unopposed attack, which simply means that the aggressor skips clashing, and just does the damage instead. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Fighting.webp"]78034[/ATTACH] (Left) Both have offensive skills, so a clash happens, my character wins for having an 8 vs Boss' 5. (Right) The enemy used a defensive skill, so my character gets a free attack.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]There are a few ways to buff your numbers, and to have better chances to get heads. First one, is the colors of the skills, yes they do matter, these are called, sin affinities. Besides the basic attack type, each skill also has a sin type. Wrath (Red), Lust (Orange), Sloth (Yellow), Gluttony (Green), Gloom (Cyan)(Greed is not a Sin in The City), Pride (Blue), and Envy (Purple). The more skills you pick of the same color, slightly buff each other. But, the real bonus, is on resonance, you see, when 3 or more skills are next to each other in the chain, they form a resonance, buffing every skill in the chain, based on how long the chain is, it can truly make a difference when used correctly. You can see a Gluttony resonance in the typical combat screenshot. And, both enemies and your characters, can be weak or strong against certain sin types, adding a very nice multiplier to damage. The other way to increase your odds in a clash, is, sanity, that little ball with a number next to the health bar. You see, at 0 the odds of heads and tails are 50-50, the higher it gets the higher the odds of heads, the lower it goes, the higher the odds for tails, the highest it can get is 45 (95% chance of heads), and the lower it can get is -45 (95% chance of tails). You never want yourself to be at -45 (more about this later). You earn sanity in different ways (more about this later), but, the most reliable, is to win a clash, or to kill an enemy of a higher level. But, what if there is no realistic way to win a clash? Well, there are 2 other options. First one, is that every character has a defensive skill, you toggle it by clicking the slot, but, it takes over the bottom skill. Some defensive skills even have sin affinities for the purposes of resonance (more advanced players like myself pop them for different reasons as well). Defensive skills work the same as offensive skills, but, with some caveats, there are different types of defensive skills. Regular defense, just puts a shield over the character, reducing some of the damage, but giving the attacker an unopposed on the defender. Higher number means more shield. Evade, is high risk high reward, if the number is higher than the attack, the defender evades that coin, and repeats until either they are hit, or the attacker runs out of coins, it can also be reused as long as the defender isn’t hit while using it. If they are hit, they receive whatever coin they didn’t dodge, and the coins left. Counter, they receive the full unopposed, but attack afterwards, bear in mind, that counter triggers against the first enemy which attacks the character, not necessarily the targeted one. Some characters, can use defensive skills in an offensive manner, or have defensive skills which transform under certain circumstances, but that’s too complicated for our scope. Finally, there is the fun way of dealing with bad clashes. E.G.O. A staple of the Project Moon universe, in this game, think of them as EX skills, or limit breaks. You see, when you use the colored abilities, you earn resources from them, they are displayed on the right hand side. To use an E.G.O. You must first have enough resources to use it, then, you hold your mouse over the sinner, and pick the E.G.O. You want them to use, the UI will actually give you a little help, on showing who can pop an E.G.O. At any given moment. With color bars around the portrait, bright color bar means they can pop an E.G.O. An E.G.O. Usually has a high clash number, but it can also lose, so its not a foolproof plan, but, when it pops, it can be a game changer, a team saver, a play initiator, etc. The only other caveat with E.G.O. Is that using it, costs sanity from the sinner, and using it at low sanity, can have disastrous consequences. The higher tier the E.G.O. The higher its cost on both sanity and resources. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" size="1920x509"]78156[/ATTACH] (Left) Best E.G.O. In the game. (Right) Picking the E.G.O. That the team needs to succeed.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]You see, an E.G.O. Can corrode, which means that it pops a different version of itself, but, with the chance of attacking both friends and enemies. And, when a sinner has -45 sanity, they will use a random E.G.O. In its corroded version (thankfully their sanity returns to 0 the next turn). You can use a corroded E.G.O. by using overclocking, by holding the mouse button over the E.G.O. It will be the corroded version, without friendly fire, but at double the cost in sin resources. Sin resources, have another use, they trigger character’s passive abilities. There are 2 categories, 2 types each. Combat, and support, combat means that its the ability that will trigger while they are fighting, and support is the ability that triggers while they are benched. This means, that even non-fighting characters can provide help to the team! Then, there is owned, and res, they mean for sin resources, owned, means that in order to trigger, the ability needs you to have a certain amount of resources in the bank, it doesn’t consume them, it just needs them to be there. And res, means that in order to trigger, it requires you to use a certain amount sins in the turn. Always make sure to take into account passive abilities with team building, they too can be game changers, team savers, and strategy initiators. E.G.O. also come with special passives, you see, when a character uses an E.G.O. They equip it, their resistances to different types of sins change according to the E.G.O. They have equipped, and the E.G.O. Passive does not require anything, it will remain active until the character uses another E.G.O. Or, until the end of the fight. Characters begin combat with their lowest tier E.G.O. Equipped, but this is only for the resistances, not the passive. Finally, have you noticed the yellow bars in the health bars? Those are stagger thresholds, when an attack lowers health pass that mark, a character becomes staggered. Being staggered is bad, a staggered character loses all their actions, and becomes weak to all damage types, for the turn in which it happened, and the next one. The effect gets worse, if multiple stagger thresholds are crossed. If you are smart, you can stop enemies from using brutal attacks or counters by staggering them. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" width="996px" alt="Free real state.jpg"]78039[/ATTACH] Staggered = Free Real State.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]Then, there is the focused battles, which happen against special enemies, abnormalities, and bosses. They work the same as group battles, the only difference is that you are the one who controls the targeting. Do keep in mind this, if your entire team is faster than the enemy, defensive skills play last. When sinners and/or enemies have the same speed values, turn order is decided randomly among those of the same speed. And, most battles against bosses and abnormalities, are more like puzzles with their own gimmicks. Keep in mind, some enemies do want to have low sanity, and enemies which don’t have sanity, will always have a 50-50 for their coins. And, some abnormalities, as well as bosses, have body parts which can do different things, have different speed, and/or have different behavior and passives. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Fun Boss fights.webp"]78043[/ATTACH] (Left) VS an abnormality. (Right) VS a Boss.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]There is a lot more, like how to get more slots, or how deploy order works, or the stuff I mentioned at the start that I will skip, attack weight, E.G.O gifts, or the myriad of buffs, debuffs and status effects, but, we will be here all day if I covered all that. It can be a bit complicated, but take it slow, the first difficulty spike happens in Canto 3. But, your most valuable skill, is literacy, always read what skills do, both yours and the enemy, you can avoid nasty surprises, you can avoid doing something stupid, and you can even find weaknesses. Now that we covered the combat system, lets address the elephant in the room, the gacha. Unlike other gacha games, Limbus Company only has the 12 sinners, how it handles it, is that you pull for different versions of those 12 sinners from different worlds (Such a shame capesh** ruined multiverses), usually based off of enemies and bosses we encounter in the journey, these different versions are called identities, IDs for short. Every team can only have 1 version of each sinner. In the gacha you pull for both IDs and E.G.O. To equip them with. As for the rates, E.G.O. and 000 IDs (equivalent of a 5 star or a SSR in other gachas), are 1.3% and 2.9% respectively, this is per 10 rolls mind you. The pull currency is called Lunacy, which can be obtained by playing story mode, doing events, doing the weekly challenge, doing the seasonal challenge, the Battle Pass, or just getting some free lunacy each time there is an update. The game is also quite generous with extraction tickets which you can use for pulls, and there are even the 000 guaranteed tickets which is also very generous with. There is also a pity system which is after 200 failed rolls, but very rarely you might need it, keep in mind pity resets when the banner is done. But, you don’t have to actually pull for them, you see, there is another system to get IDs and E.G.O. You can use the dispenser, you see, when they are released, you can get them by pulling, but, if you wait a week, you can use the dispenser to get them, by using ego shards. Ego shards, are obtained when you get duplicates, or by using the shard boxes (which the game gives away like candy), they have 2 purposes, upgrading, or using them to get that ID or E.G.O. You want. So, you don’t actually have to engage with the gacha if you don’t want to. But, what about FOMO? Don’t worry, you can dispense every ID and E.G.O. from any season. The only exception, is announcers (have characters commentate over your fights), which you have to use paid lunacy for, or hope to build enough pity. There is also a special case, which is Walpurgis IDs and E.G.O. They can only be obtained while there is a Walpurgis event, and if you don’t get them, you have to wait for the next Walpurgis event to use the dispenser. Most people save their Lunacy for Walpurgis, and use the dispenser for everything else. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Gacha.webp"]78044[/ATTACH] (Left) My Egoshards in the dispenser. (Right) Banners when I took the screenshot.[/CENTER] [RIGHT][/RIGHT] [JUSTIFY]But, there is something else, once you get an E.G.O. Its removed from the pool, which means, that the more E.G.O. You get, the higher your chances to get IDs and duplicates, increasing your odds. As for materials, unlike other gacha games, there is no bs random equipment farming. You use exp tickets which can be farmed, thread which can be farmed, and Ego shards which can be farmed (to an extent). The max level of your characters will increase, as you progress through story mode. And, the only actual upgrades which take materials, are called upties, they are like ascensions in other gacha games. In Limbus, it means upgrading base stats, improving skills, and passives, for both IDs and E.G.O. When an ID reaches uptie 3, you also get to enjoy a little bit of their story (which can give you more context for some enemies), as well as a cool new splash art of them. It is recommended to have IDs at uptie 4, uptie 4 is available after you beat Canto 4. For E.G.O is almost the same, there is no story attached to it, but the increases are really noticeable, and you don’t actually need to be at uptie 4, at the time of writing I have all current E.G.O. Over 1k hours play time, and only have 5 of them at uptie 4, the rest are at 3. And, there is something else, you can borrow IDs and their E.G.O. From your friends, you see, you can setup a roster that your friends can use, which means, that newer players can have access to strong teams, just by adding people. As for the battle pass, as someone who does buy it, trust me, its worth it, and seasons in Limbus last for about 6 months, so its a massive bang for your buck. There are even extra rewards once you complete it and keep getting levels. There is an energy system, but, it helps that you can turn that energy into modules (which are used in farming, challenges, and story dungeons), so you can just save that energy for later, and just use it when you feel like farming. All in all, Limbus Company is the most f2p friendly gacha there is, and, you are rewarded for as much effort you put in, don’t feel obligated to farm materials all day, nor feel obligated to 100% all the challenges and achievements, play at your own pace, and you will enjoy the journey. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Team Building.webp"]78045[/ATTACH] I have been playing since release, don't expect to get these stacked teams quickly.[/CENTER] [HEADING=2]Paradiso[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]Finally, why should you play Limbus Company? Its biggest strength, lies in the storytelling, Limbus has one of the best stories in Gacha games. It does start a bit slow and weak, having the usual problem gacha games have in their infancy, in which they are figuring out proper pacing for the story, at the same time as they are balancing everything else. Here is the thing, you get a glimpse of peak in Canto 3, afterwards, its peak after peak, there is the running gag of, everyone always saying “they can’t possibly top this Canto,” just for the next one to ALWAYS exceed expectations, Project Moon NEVER disappoints. If at any point you want to play Limbus Company, I implore you, at least, play until you finish Canto 4, if you aren’t convinced by then, then this isn’t your game. Why is it so good? It breaks so many gacha game conventions. By including the Identities, it allows you to pull for both technically dead characters besides the usual alive ones, instead of having waifuism/husbandoism and a crappy dating/affection system, it uses the short stories, not only to give tons of world-building, they also contextualize and humanize both allies and enemies. But, its not just breaking conventions. Each Canto is very distinct from one another, keeping you guessing as to how its going to play out. Some of the stories can be very relatable, there WILL be at least 1 character among the sinners you relate to the most. For me, Yi Sang, Heathcliff, and Hong Lu, are the most relatable, yes in that order. Even though all sinners and their cantos are references to literature and/or philosophy, even if you know the source material, Project Moon always makes sure to include both something familiar, as well as something unexpected, yet very clever. Like, how they managed to make Kafka’s metamorphosis apply to a war story, how they managed to literally tell Crime and Punishment, how they handled Moby Dick, how they handled Heathcliff and Catherine as well as all the side characters from Wuthering Heights, how cleverly they incorporated the Windmills in Don Quixote’s Canto, or how you get your *** beaten by literally Confucius until you understand the basis of Confucianism. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Story is peak.webp"]78047[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]Not only that, the filler episodes, known as intervallos, each have their own self-contained stories, which add a lot of world-building, and making you even more hyped for the next Canto, as well as being pretty solid short stories in their right. And finally, the music in Limbus Company, truly something magnificent to experience, specially when you get to listen to Mili’s track, always remember, when a new Canto happens, everyone is looking forward to what Mili cooked. The best (non Mili) songs in Limbus: [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]ezMouYfwPKg[/MEDIA][MEDIA=youtube]XVzrkvLBDRQ[/MEDIA][MEDIA=youtube]oioCa1Wlwb4[/MEDIA][MEDIA=youtube]V35FWeTtsdg[/MEDIA][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]Oh, and the credits song, you see, every Canto, you get to hear a different rendition of the same song, sang by the character who had to suffer in that Canto, you will be surprised how different it is each time, truly adding a lot more to their characterization. Even though there is A LOT of reading, it is worth it. Its not always visual novel, the game also takes advantage of using the models, as well as beating you over the head by properly implementing unwinnable fights, or absolute cinema scripted moments in boss fights. Project Moon had 2 previous games to perfect their craft, and they are giving it their all for Limbus Company. Limbus Company truly is an experience, and a game very well worth your time, either playing yourself or watching a lets play. Will you give it a try?[/JUSTIFY] [/QUOTE]

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