I would not ever wish to reside in The Metropolis—the dystopian megalopolis on the coronary heart of Korean indie studio Venture Moon’s video games, comics and theme cafe—nevertheless it’s an enchanting place to take a road-trip by way of. That is precisely what I have been getting out of Limbus Firm, the studio’s third recreation and their first to not be Steam-exclusive. This formidable RPG can also be on cellular. And free-to-play. And supported by gacha mechanics. And sure, I used to be as fearful about that as you might be.
After sinking round thirty hours into Limbus Firm (and never feeling the necessity to spend any cash on it both), I’m very relieved to report that it is a completely legitimate successor to Lobotomy Company and Library Of Ruina. It is darkish, gory and heavy on the dialogue and drama. It is also robust, complicated and rewarding for gamers keen to sit down down and untangle its often-confusing net of fight mechanics. It is about as hardcore as cellular RPGs get, and much nearer to its PC-only predecessors than its new friends.
For full newcomers to the world of Venture Moon, Limbus Firm is equal components visible novel and turn-based RPG fight, a sequel to 2 different video games, however mechanically and narratively all its personal. In Limbus Firm, a clock-headed amnesiac named Dante (you) leads a pack of twelve immortal ‘Sinners’ (a mismatched medley of eccentrics, every loosely primarily based on a bit of classical literature or its creator) on a quest to get better a collection of techno-magical macguffins from deserted company ‘dungeons’ beneath a dystopian cyberpunk mega-city. You additionally function out of a carnivorous bus named Mephistopheles that should recurrently be fed reside human flesh. So, a standard company gig, then.
If that feels like rather a lot to absorb, then anticipate your head to spin when you get to the fight. For these acquainted with Library Of Ruina’s intensely complicated deckbuilding battles, a lot of its ideas listed here are acquainted if barely streamlined. Newcomers are going to should juggle a messy net of harm sorts, initiative and harm rolls, a large number of standing results, buffs and debuffs plus seven consumable sources used to gasoline restrict break-esque ‘EGO’ assaults. A single spherical of fight can typically have a dozen combatants clashing towards one another, with solely the upper rolling attacker attending to deal direct harm.
It is tense and unpredictable combating, however there’s actual technique and techniques concerned. Having twelve characters from the get-go—every with their very own assaults and harm resistances—means crew composition makes extra of a distinction than uncooked ranges and stats, and you may solely subject a most of 5 characters at current. It is common to modify your occasion members recurrently, even moreso within the dungeons that make up the again half of every of the (at the moment three) story chapters, the place harm and casualties persist between battles. It is totally potential to win a pyrrhic victory the place rolling again to the final save level is advisable. Probably irritating, however I’ve loved the problem it presents.
Whereas many cellular RPGs really feel like little greater than a skinner field asking you to gather enticing anime characters and dance them by way of a threadbare story, nearly all the pieces right here feels in service of Limbus Firm’s narrative. It is a densely written (and expertly translated) story with deep literary allusions and a tone oscillating from screwball comedy (chapter two had a number of laugh-out-loud moments for me) to unsettling horror. Anime fan-service this ain’t both, with its solid not sexualised within the slightest, and its gacha methods relegated purely to fight to make sure minimal dissonance between your Ludos and your Narratives.
Multiverse of misadventure
Actual effort appears to have been made to keep away from the same old exploitative trappings.
The elephant within the room is how a sequel to a pair of self-contained retail video games can go the free-to-play cellular route. The reply is fairly acquainted at a look—cash-shop currencies, random rolls for unlocks and a quarterly battle go—however actual effort appears to have been made to keep away from the same old exploitative trappings. Relatively than have you ever randomly roll for brand spanking new characters, you draw various timeline variations of your twelve Sinners from the gacha pool with their very own perks and downsides. These alternate variations are typically extra specialised and quirky, permitting for extra artistic occasion builds, however the default variations you begin the sport with can nonetheless carry you thru the marketing campaign because it at the moment stands.
Being a self-published recreation from a small studio, do not go anticipating a technological tour-de-force from Limbus Firm. I have been a fan of Venture Moon since their first recreation, however the subsequent miHoYo they aren’t. That mentioned, I adore this recreation’s aesthetics, leaning into barely rough-edged webcomic stylings, with broad brushstrokes on all the pieces from the backdrops to dialogue artwork panels and even the animatic-style fight sprites. Battles additionally go away the arenas plagued by craters, gashes and shattered corpses, lending its fights a bit extra vitality. The entire recreation has a constant and evocative look, constructing on the model they established for Library Of Ruina, with out being overly sophisticated.
The place the sport does go above and past is the audio. All the story is properly voiced (albeit solely in Korean), with loads of emotive performances. The music is the place it actually shines although; there are a couple of generic tracks used for dialogue, dungeon crawling and the principle menus, however every of the present three chapters has six or extra distinctive battle themes, and so they’re all bangers. Every chapter additionally wraps up with an ending theme sung by the first character, and the present closing boss has a multi-phase vocal theme by Mili, mirroring Ruina’s larger confrontations.
After a bit of over thirty hours of play and with no actual cash spent, I’ve at the moment exhausted all that Limbus Firm has to supply (outdoors of its every day roguelike XP-booster dungeons) and had a good time doing so. Now begins the lengthy anticipate Venture Moon to make good on their roadmap (which appears to be aiming for one more three or 4 chapters by the top of the yr) together with enhancements to the Mirror Dungeons. They’ve additionally introduced some main tweaks to the fight engine to make defensive expertise extra viable and the early-game much less tough. This one is a really energetic work-in-progress, and I can solely see it enhancing over time.
Seeing how a lot I’ve loved these first three chapters, and understanding Venture Moon’s penchant for wild escalation of their earlier video games, I am bucked up and able to experience. Newcomers to The Metropolis would possibly wish to begin their tour with Library Of Ruina for a barely slower introduction to this world and its complicated fight.
