Limbus Company

Limbus Company is an indie horror role-playing video game for Microsoft Windows and mobile devices using iOS or Android, developed and published by South Korean studio Project Moon. 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 Distortion Detective, but takes place some time after the events of all those stories.

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.

Gameplay
Players can use Lunacy or certain tickets to summon alternate Identities and E.G.O. that can be equipped by their respective Sinner to use in battle. The alternate Identity can radically change how the Sinner acts in combat, and might be more useful for different stages than their default Identity. However, each alternate Identity has to be built up separately. When entering a battle stage, the player is able to choose up to 7 out of 12 Sinners (not including Dante) to fight, and must balance each Sinner's strengths and weaknesses to emerge victorious. The player must choose both the Sinner's Identity and the E.G.O that they want to take with them into battle. The player cannot use multiple Identities of the same Sinner, and likewise cannot attach multiple E.G.O of the same power level to the Sinner. Once they have made their selections, the battle starts.

In normal fights, the player can drag their pointer across the circles representing each Sinner's attack, either to form a chain of attacks with similar Sin categories or to use the attack that best fits the situation. In battles against bosses or Abnormalities, players instead will be directed to pick and choose which Sinner's attack should correspond to which enemy, or a specific body part of the enemy they wish to attack. Once they have made their choice, the battle phase begins. The game decides which side's attacks are successful with a series of coin flips. A coin landing on heads will add a numbered boost to the character's power (with the exception of certain skills from various other identities, in which power is instead subtracted), while a tails will leave the number as it currently stands. A character's respective Sanity Points (SP) determines their luck in getting Heads from the coins. After the clashes are resolved and damage added up, the battle phase resets and new attacks can be launched, until one side is wiped out.

The player can choose to attack using a Sinner's respective E.G.O in place of their normal attack. However, doing so requires spending the Sinner's SP, and collected "Sin" of certain categories from normal attacks, to feed the E.G.O and then use it on the enemy. If a Sinner's SP is low enough, they may choose to launch a "corroded" E.G.O on their own, which is more powerful but cannot be controlled by the player. The Sinner will randomly target enemies or allies with this corroded E.G.O until they regain some SP.

Outside of normal stages, there are dungeon maps where the player must choose a route that eventually leads towards the final boss of the dungeon, and defeat them to finish the stage. Unlike other stages, dungeon maps force players to strategize, as they are stuck with the Sinners' Identity and E.G.O chosen at the start of the map and do not automatically heal between battles. Some rooms or boss fights will force the player to make a choice where the correct answer is not always obvious, and passing the check may involve using a Sinner's respective Sin Affinity in order to pass through without harm.

Plot
Limbus Company opens with a person who has lost their memories and has a literal clock for a head being accosted by strong Fixers. This person is soon saved by Vergilius, a legendary Fixer (the in-universe term of mercenary) known as the "Red Gaze," who informs them that their name is Dante, and that they are the new executive manager of Limbus Company. The company has tasked a special group of its employees known as Sinners with a mission to seek out Golden Boughs, sources of great power, that are scattered across The City in the ruins of the now-destroyed Lobotomy Corporation and its branch offices for an unexplained purpose. As they travel across The City in a customized bus named Mephistopheles (sometimes shortened to Mephi or Mephisto), Dante tries to piece back their identity, while the Sinners are forced to reckon with their own pasts as they seek out the Golden Boughs.

The plot of the game is split into chapters that are referenced within the game as "Cantos", inspired from Dante's Inferno and the 9 circles of Hell. Each Canto is character-driven, with the plot diving into the past of one of the Sinners. As of the current state of the game, 6 Cantos are available in full.

Canto I: The Outcast: The Sinners' first stop is District 4, where they must venture into the ruins of a Lobotomy Corp. branch with a survivor named Yuri and a pair of independent Fixers as guides. Once inside, Gregor soon begins to resonate with the Golden Bough, and the Sinners are forced to relive his past as an officer in the "Smoke War". As they venture through Gregor's memories, they encounter an "Abnormality", a monster used by Lobotomy Corporation to generate power. In the middle of the fight, Yuri dies to the Abnormality (named "Golden Apple"), and the Golden Bough emerges from her severed head, only to be seized by a rival group led by Gregor's alleged mother, Hermann, with Yi Sang's former friend and Hong Lu's older brother allied with them. The Sinners leave the facility dejected that they failed.

Canto II: The Unloving: Despite losing the Golden Bough to Hermann at the last moment, the bus is driven to District 10, where another Golden Bough is reportedly being offered as a prize in a casino operated by J Corp. In addition, Limbus Company has sent two members of the Limbus Company Clearance Before Team, Effie and Saude, to sneak them into the casino disguised as a representative from the Tingtang Gang, a local gang (referred to as "Syndicate" in-universe), to the high-stakes poker game where the Golden Bough is being held. However, complications arise when Don Quixote blows the group's cover forcing them to face the entire Syndicate. Eventually, the Sinners manage to fight their way past the Tingtang Gang, then multiple other Syndicates to the top of the casino, where Rodion offers to play for the prize in disguise as the Tingtang Gang's gangleader, as the original plan dictated. However, Rodion discovers that one of her opponents is her old comrade Sonya, who explains that Sonya and Rodion founded a Syndicate called the Yurodiviye, before Rodion left for reasons they refused to explain. When Rodion successfully wins, Sonya accepts his loss with grace, but one of the other competitors decides to kill them and claim the Golden Bough anyway. They defeat her and move through the basement of the casino, fighting the casino's enslaved debtors, then new Abnormalities. Eventually, the Golden Bough starts to resonate with Rodion, revealing her past as a starving peasant in the Backstreets (the in-universe term for areas not financially supported by the local megacorporations). She founded the Yurodiviye with Sonya to take action against the injustice against them, only to find them all dead at the hands of the Middle(one of the Five Fingers, the five major Syndicates of the City) due to Rodion killing one of their member's aunts. The Sinners leave District 10 with their first Golden Bough in tow but before revealing Sonya to be part of the same group as Hermann's revealing a plot to attain the Golden Boughs after the Sinners are done collecting them.

Canto III: The Unconfronting: The bus heads to District 11 to track down another Golden Bough. Vergilius decides to personally escort the Sinners through the District checkpoint, but Don Quixote hears the cry of a child from across a glass divider and throws her lance through it, causing K Corp security to attack the Sinners. Eventually, a heroic Fixer named Siegfried appears, and kills all the Sinners except Dante, allowing them to pass through the checkpoint and later resurrect the Sinners. After punishing Don Quixote on the bus for her detrimental actions to the Company, Vergilius then guides the group to the village of Calw, which turns out to be Sinclair's hometown. However, the village is under siege by a religious inquisition from N Corp, known as Nagel und Hammer, who have crucified everyone in the village with a mechanical prosthetic. As the Sinners fight their way through the village, Sinclair finds himself facing an old classmate named Kromer, who turns out to be the leader of Nagel und Hammer.

Intervallo I: Hell's Chicken: After barely surviving their battle with Kromer, Limbus Company continues to another part of District 11, where they are asked to resolve a Distortion involving the owner of a chicken restaurant. The man, "Papa Bongy," has turned into a chicken-like monster and is attaching sentient raw chickens to the heads of various people. Lured by the promise of free chicken for life upon resolution, the Sinners quickly organize a cooking competition amongst themselves, hoping to make a chicken dish that will pacify Papa Bongy.

Canto IV: The Unchanging: After suppressing a rampaging Abnormality, the Sinners enter the K Corp offices and meet with the Branch Manager, Dongrang, an old colleague of Yi Sang. Faust offers a contract to peacefully acquire the Golden Bough from K Corp, but suddenly, a terrorist group called the "Technology Liberation Alliance" storms the building, hijacks K Corp drones, and forces K Corp security to fight the Sinners along with their own robots. The Sinners are then forced to escort Dongrang past the terrorists, robots, K Corp security, Rosespanner Workshop Fixers, and a mole in K Corp who is quickly silenced before she can reveal extra information. After the terrorist Dongbaek stabs Yi Sang with the Golden Bough, the Sinners are forced to play through a recreation of Yi Sang's past with the "League of Nine Littérateurs," as the K Corp offices become a Distorted site and the defeated enemies all rise up as zombies to further trouble the Sinners. Some time later, the Sinners learn the truth behind K Corp's Singularity, and the respective roles of Yi Sang, Dongbaek, and Dongrang in bringing it about.

Intervallo II: S.E.A.: Limbus Company enters the Backstreets of District 21, where they park at the Molar Boatworks workshop to modify Mephistopheles to make it capable of sailing across the Great Lake of the District. The Sinners try to enjoy an impromptu summer vacation, but are pressed into collecting scrap metal from giant Trash Crabs to help out the workshop. Meanwhile, Ishmael gets increasingly angry with her colleagues, claiming that none of them are ready to brave the seas like her, even getting into a fight with Heathcliff and Vergilius over it.

Canto V: The Evil Defining: Mephistopheles is finally ready to sail across U Corp's territory, a giant sea known as The Great Lake. However, the Limbus Company bus must brave unwritten "Laws of the Great Lake" that change from section to section. When they don't follow a section's Laws in time, the area is beset by Whales, Mermaids, and other monsters capable of sinking their vessel. Eventually, Ishmael leaves her cabin and helps guide the Sinners through the platforms that make up the Nest of District 21, but she is focused on finding and taking revenge on Captain Ahab, her former Captain of the Pequod who drove the ship into ruin trying to hunt the Pallid Whale, to the point where she quickly slaughters pirates and monsters alike when they won't give her the answers she seeks. The Sinners' path takes them through a port to rescue the Limbus Company Before Team that came before them, to an abandoned L Corp branch that resembles an oil rig, nearly getting wiped out by Big Brother Ricardo of the Middle Finger in the process because Heathcliff stole his hair saloon coupons back at the port, saved by the Indigo Elder who then takes them literally into the belly of the Pallid Whale, where Captain Ahab and several of the Pequod's crew have somehow survived.

Intervallo III: Miracle in District 20: Don Quixote convinces Dante and Heathcliff to enter a door within the Backrooms that leads to a toy factory, hoping to find a present for Heathcliff and the mythical "Red Sack" Fixer for Don. However, Dante soon discovers that the factory is located somewhere in the Outskirts outside The City, staffed entirely by gnomes, and is making toys for non-human creatures out of human body parts. When Don and Heathcliff are knocked out, the rest of the Sinners rush in to rescue them and return to the bus before the portal closes.

Intervallo III: Yield my Flesh to Claim Their Bones: The Sinners finally arrive in District 20, but take a route through the Backstreets, where they suddenly find themselves in the middle of a gang war between the Blade Lineage and the Kurokumo Clan. After rescuing a wounded BL fighter named Aeng-du, the Company suddenly tasks the Sinners with investigating a Distortion in the area. Aeng-du and the Sinners fight their way to the top of an office building, where they discover the Distortion's source is Aeng-du's mentor, Bamboo-hatted Kim.

Canto VI: The Heartbreaking: Heathcliff leads the Sinners into the Wuthering Heights mansion where he was raised, partly responding to Cathy's invitation, and partly due to reports that a Golden Bough resides somewhere inside. However, shortly after arriving, Heathcliff is informed that Cathy is dead, and that Fixers from the Öufi Association have arrived to execute her Will. Heathcliff refuses to believe it, especially after Nelly mentions that she never saw her dead body. However, the Sinners are quickly dragged into a conflict between Heathcliff, the Dead Rabbits gang hired by Hindley Earnshaw, and the waitstaff contracted to the current master of Wuthering Heights, Linton Edgar. Venturing into the basement of the mansion, the Sinners discover Cathy's body being used in an experiment by one of Yi Sang's former colleagues and ex-Ring members, who are using their own mirror to imprint identities from another world onto supposedly disappeared District 20 residents.

Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time: Following the chaos at Wuthering Heights, the Sinners remain camped out in T Corp's Nest, wherein they are notified of an enormous 'Time Tax' they have accrued by T Corp. Collectors. While the rest of the Sinners sit in jail, Dante, Hong Lu, Ryōshū, and Rodion are tasked with tracking down the Distortion known as the 'Time Ripper', notorious for being able to 'kill' their victims' time, in order to have the debt waived. During the investigation, they encounter the District 20 branch of the Yurodiviye, and later confront the Time Ripper at the top of a malfunctioning clock tower.

Main characters
The main party of Limbus Company is composed of 13 "Sinners," along with Vergilius their guide and Charon their driver, brought together under some form of contract with the titular Limbus Company. Dante is considered one of these Sinners, though they do not actively participate in combat.

Reception
According to its official website, it reached 180,000 total pre-registrations before releasing.