Limbus Company

Limbus Company is an indie gacha 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]

Limbus Company
Developer(s)	Project Moon
Director(s)	Kim Ji-Hoon
Composer(s)	Mili Studio EIM
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, Linux
Release	February 26, 2023
Genre(s)	Management simulation, turn-based role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

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. 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. 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.

A battle in Limbus Company with 5 Sinners deployed.

In normal fights, the player can drag their pointer across the circles representing each Sinner's attack, forming 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 correspond to which enemy, or a specific body part of the enemy they wish to attack. Matching attacks of the same color, or Sin Affinity, activates Resonance, which increases the damage of the attacks included.

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 a boost; a decrease instead for certain Identities and E.G.Os), while a tail leaves the number as is.^[4]

The player can choose to attack using a Sinner's respective E.G.O in place of their normal attack. 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 collected "Sin" resources. If a Sinner's sanity points is low enough, they may launch a "corroded" E.G.O on their own, which is more powerful but cannot be controlled by the player. The player may be able to control a "corroded" E.G.O by overclocking the E.G.O which costs more "Sin" resources.

Setting

Following its prequel installments, Limbus Company takes place in a dystopian world known as the City, made of twenty-six districts, each unique in technological advancements and culture. The 26 Wings, mega-corporations named after alphabet letters that govern their respective Districts, are led by the Head, a conglomerate consisting of A Corp, B Corp and C Corp. Each District is physically split into a Nest, the urban residence supported by the Corps, and the Backstreets, the poverty-ridden areas overrun by criminal Syndicates and outside of the Corps' protection.

Throughout the City, there are many offices run by Fixers, mercenaries regulated by a branch of the government known as the Hana Association. 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.

Occasionally, humans overcome with intense emotion will transform into monstrous entities called Distortions. Inversely, those who overcome such emotion may 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.

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.

Sinner #	Name	Voice Actor	Literary Reference
1	Yi Sang	Min Seung-woo	Kim Hae-Gyeong (Yi Sang), famous Korean writer and poet, and his short novel The Wings.
2	Faust	Park Ji-yoon	Faust, titular protagonist of the play written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3	Don Quixote	Kim Yea-lim	Don Quixote, titular protagonist of the novel written by Miguel de Cervantes[a][b]
4	Ryōshū[c]	Yi Sae-ah	Yoshihide, the protagonist of the short story Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
5	Meursault	Kwon Sung-hyuk	Main character of the novella The Stranger by Albert Camus
6	Hong Lu	Kim Sin-woo	Jia Baoyu, main character of the novel Honglou Meng ("Dream of the Red Chamber") by Cao Xueqin
7	Heathcliff	Hong Seung-hyo	Main character of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8	Ishmael	Jang Ye-na	Narrator and main character of the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville
9	Rodion	Yoon A-young	Main character of the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
10	Dante	N/A	Dante Alighieri and his narrative poem The Divine Comedy
11	Emil Sinclair	Kim Da-ol	Protagonist of the bildungsroman Demian by Hermann Hesse
12	Outis[d]	Kim Bo-na	Odysseus, the protagonist of the epic poem Odyssey by Homer
13	Gregor	Choi Han	Main character "Gregor Samsa" from the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Music

The main theme for Limbus Company, "In Hell We Live, Lament", is sung by the Japanese indie music group Mili and features the singer KIHOW from the Japanese pop rock band Myth & Roid. Mili had a history of working with Project Moon having composed music for Project Moon's previous game Library of Ruina. Over the course of Limbus Company's updates, Mili had composed theme songs for several of the sinners. This include "Between Two Worlds" for Sinclair, "Fly My Wings" for Yi Sang, "Compass" for Ishmael, "Through Patches of Violet" for Heathcliff, and "Hero" for Don Quixote.^[5]

At the end of every canto, each of the sinners perform their own rendition of the song "Pass On" (Sarajinae 사라지네).

Plot

The plot of the game is split into chapters, or "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 2024, 7 Cantos are available in full.

Prologue: Selva Oscura

The game opens with an amnesiac, person with a clock for a head being saved by Vergilius the "Red Gaze," who informs them that they are Dante, the new executive manager of Limbus Company Bus department (LCB). Under their management, a group of 13 employees known as the Sinners, Dante included, seek out Golden Boughs, sources of great power scattered across The City in the ruins of the now-destroyed Lobotomy Corp. branches. As they travel across The City on the bus Mephistopheles, 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.^[4]

Canto I: The Outcast

The Sinners' first stop is District 4, where they must venture into the ruins of a Lobotomy Corp. branch. Once inside, Gregor soon begins to resonate with the Golden Bough, and the Sinners are forced to relive his past and the stigma that stems from his position as an officer in the "Smoke War". The Golden Bough emerges, only to be seized by a rival group led by Gregor's alleged mother, Hermann, along with several old acquaintances of the Sinners.

Canto II: The Unloving

The Sinners arrive at District 10, where another Golden Bough is reportedly being offered as a prize in a casino operated by J Corp. The Sinners fight their way past local Syndicates to the top of the casino, where Rodion unexpectedly reunites with her old comrade Sonya, the co-founder of the Yurodiviye, a syndicate that aims to eradicate oppression and exploitation in the City. The Golden Bough resonates with Rodion, revealing her past as a peasant in the Backstreets and her futile attempt to change the system by killing the local tax collector, only to result in the deaths of her entire neighborhood from retribution of the Middle Finger, a major syndicate. The Sinners leave District 10 with their first Golden Bough in tow; Sonya is revealed to be allying with Hermann.

Canto III: The Unconfronting

The Sinners then arrive at Calw of District 11, Sinclair's hometown, only to find it under siege by a religious, anti-prosthetics inquisition from N Corp., known as Nagel und Hammer. The Golden Bough resonates with Sinclair, telling his past with Kromer and Demian, two of his former classmates, as well as how his misplaced trust in Kromer and discovery of an abandoned L Corp. branch beneath his house led to the murder of his family.

Kromer, now leader of Nagel und Hammer, confronts and overpowers the team with the Golden Bough in her possession. Out of the blue, the duo is saved by Demian, who kills Kromer for good. The LCB is rescued by the Limbus Company's After Team and celebrates their second Golden Bough acquired.

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

The Sinners enter the K Corp. offices and meet with the Branch Manager, Dongrang, an old colleague of Yi Sang from the disbanded League of Nine Littérateurs. Terrorist group "Technology Liberation Alliance" led by Dongbaek, another member of the League, hijacks the building and forces K Corp. security to fight the Sinners. Dongbaek manifests E.G.O. but dies at the hands of Dongrang who reveals himself as the League's traitor, causing its downfall.

As the Golden Bough resonates with Yi Sang, the Sinners learn of the League of Nine Littérateurs's decline and dissolution, Yi Sang's creation of the Mirror, and K Corp.'s Singularity. Dongrang distorts but soon manifests E.G.O. himself, seeking to kill Yi Sang and destroy his own past with the old League. Yi Sang, finally moving on from the past, ends his old friend's life. The Sinners have their memories of K Corp.'s Singularity erased and retrieve their third Golden Bough. However, it is revealed Dante is immune to the memory-erasure process, though they keep the truth secret for a future purpose.

The end scene features Demian's brief return; Dante's clock head inches toward midnight for the first time.

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.

Canto V: The Evil Defining

The Sinners sail across U Corp.'s territory, a giant sea known as the Great Lake, beset by Whales, Mermaids, and other monsters. Ishmael is focused on finding and taking revenge on Captain Ahab, her former Captain of the Pequod who led the crew to their death over her obsession: to hunt the Pallid Whale. The LCB is then taken into the belly of the Pallid Whale, where Captain Ahab and the Pequod's crew have somehow survived.

Ahab and the Sinners strike a deal to attack the Pallid Whale's heart, with the Golden Bough lying within. Ishmael's past as a sailor for the Pequod is revealed; Ahab sacrifices her party and manifests E.G.O., but loses to the Sinners. Ishmael delivers the final hit to the Pallid Whale's heart, absolving both of their obsessions, having found a new purpose beyond revenge.

A post-credit scene shows that the now-broken Ahab survived the whale's collapse and is recruited by Hermann.

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, additionally revealing that the "Red Sack" Fixer may never have existed.

Intervallo III-2: 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 Blade Lineage 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, partly due to reports of a Golden Bough, and partly responding to Cathy's invitation, only to discover they are attending her funeral. The Sinners are quickly dragged into a conflict between Heathcliff, the Dead Rabbits gang hired by Hindley Earnshaw, and the waitstaff of Wuthering Heights. Venturing into the mansion's basement, the Sinners discover Cathy's body being used in an experiment by ex-Ring members led by one of Yi Sang's former colleagues, who was working with Hermann.

The Dead Rabbits Leader unmasks himself to be the Erlking, an alternate counterpart of Heathcliff. Having seen the unresolved sorrow between Heathcliff and Cathy of every Mirror World, the Erlking seeks to kill all Heathcliffs to have ever existed. The LCB's Heathcliff distorts, overwhelmed by guilt and anger, but is brought back afterward. Aided by Vergilius, who remains in the basement to fight off Erlking Heathcliff's Wild Hunt (a near-infinite horde of undead), the Sinners make it to the rooftop, where they defeat the Erlking and Every Catherine, a version of Catherine who succumbed to a similar madness. Cathy's spirit manifests through Dante's powers and enjoys a final heartfelt conversation with Heathcliff, after which she clears herself from all alternate worlds to erase all Heathcliffs' suffering, leaving Heathcliff and Dante the only people in any world to remember she existed. Nelly, turned traitor for Hermann's faction, claims the Golden Bough for herself, leaving the Sinners with the Golden Bough used to summon Every Catherine, which is now white and burned.

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.

Intervallo IV-2: Murder on the WARP Express

The Sinners board a WARP Train to their destination of P Corp. while eliminating a potential threat on the train. Faust reveals to Dante that her access to Gesellschaft, her source of knowledge from other versions of her, has been disconnected. The threat is eventually revealed to be a Sixth Kindred Bloodfiend (a vampire-like species) named Cassetti; with both parties exhausted from combat, Faust suggests peaceful negotiation when Don Quixote suddenly interrupts, only to be bitten by Cassetti. Faust's Gesellschaft returns; Don Quixote is revealed to be a far older and more powerful Second Kindred Bloodfiend who immediately kills Cassetti for the "sin of filial impiety" before falling unconscious. The Sinners return to the WARP Train through Mephistopheles' Backdoor.

Canto VII: The Dream Ending

The Sinners make their way to P Corp. for a phenomenon named "La Manchaland," an amusement park appearing intermittently that has been abducting citizens of District 16 to be fed on by its Bloodfiend employees. They meet multiple other groups of Fixers, including Hong Lu's sister Jia Xichun, and converse with Moses and Ezra from Distortion Detective who now work for Limbus Company.

As La Manchaland appears, the Sinners quickly venture through the park to its center. Sansón, an enigmatic Bloodfiend, forces the Sinners to re-enact Don Quixote's numerous adventures in the past, culminating in the reveal of Don Quixote's identity to the Sinners, a Bloodfiend named Sancho. She initially turns on the Sinners, seeking to protect her sire, the First Kindred Bloodfiend Don Quixote, but is convinced to remain true to the idealism of her amnesiac persona and of the original Don Quixote, and rejoins the LCB under her alias. She helps euthanize the true Don Quixote, impaled and weakened by the Golden Bough, causing the park to dissolve.

Sansón turns out to be an ally of Demian; Dante's clock head inches toward midnight for the second time.

Intervallo V: LCB Regular Check-up

The Sinners are brought to Limbus Company HQ for a "regular check-up" to check how strong they've gotten over the progress of their adventures. When arriving on the LCE floor, the Sinners meet Hohenheim, the abrasive and detached chief researcher and his two assistant, Alyssa and Marton.

The Sinners are subjected to various tests to test the full scope of their abilities. After their test, Yi Sang makes an innocent comment about Don Quixote's shoes being loose, peaking Hohenheim's interest due to lack of data from Faust. Don Quixote takes off Rocinante and goes berserk, having to require Vergilius to contain her. The Sinners learn that due to Don Quixote's Bloodfiend nature, she is forced to bear the thirst of her collective Family. This also causes her to be ranked the highest in terms of strength, with Yi Sang being the lowest. (Gregor is omitted from the list because he's "an exception" according to Hohemheim.)

In order to test how the Sinners deal with a distortion, Hohenheim risks his life in order to distort by using the monolith encountered in Intervallo III-2:Yield my Flesh to Claim Their Bones. They travel through his (censored) fathoms and learn about his past as a Lobotomy Corporation researcher and only survival when his branch burried itself, leaving him with survivor's guilt. The Sinners bid their farewells and depart once again.

Intervallo V-2: Nocturnal Sweeping

The Sinners arrive at District 8 for their next mission, but are forced to take a detour through the Backstreets after finding the main road blocked due to construction work. They encounter Saude and Pilot, who direct them to their local guide Qingtao. Qingtao guides the Sinners through the Backstreets as the Sinners encounter hostile groups wishing to assassinate Hong Lu (whose real name is revealed to be Jia Baoyu) in regards to the upcoming Family Hierarch Evaluation. Qingtao's poor navigation arouses suspicion in the Sinners, and Outis is forced to evaluate her own attitude towards the Sinners and Dante through him.

The Sinners eventually manage to rest at a small kezhan, where they meet Jia Xichun and Wei. At night, the Sinners are attacked by assassins from a group called the Heishou Pack. The Sinners manage to repel them, where it is revealed that the mastermind of these events Shi Yihua conspired with Qingtao to bring the Sinners into the kezhan with the intention of assassinating Hong Lu. Suddenly, Ricardo (a Big Brother from The Middle who the Sinners had encountered during the events of Canto V) makes an appearance with several of his brothers, wanting revenge against the Sinners. He ends up clashing against the Heishou Pack after Shi Yihua insults his hair. Shi Yihua and the Pack eventually escape, but not before revealing that the kezhan itself was a trap; a false building designed to dissolve and leave the group vulnerable to the Sweepers (a large group of humanoid beings who are responsible for 'sweeping' the streets of The City clean between 3:14 AM and 4:34 AM but are prohibited from entering residential buildings).

The group battles the Sweepers and manage to stay alive long enough for their 'wave' to end. Ricardo is blasted into the sky when buildings shift around during the battle, promising he will return to exact his revenge. Shi Yihua returns, having come back to finish off the tired and battered Sinners. They are accosted by another group, led by Jia Qiu, who proceeds to reveal that he had Qingtao beheaded for his betrayal. Shi Yihua attempts to share his family's secrets in order to have Jia Qiu spare his life, but is decapitated by a Heishou Pack assassin from another branch working for Jia Qiu. Jia Qiu leaves, feigning disinterest in the Sinners and Hong Lu. Jia Xichun takes the Sinners out for a celebratory meal, where she intends for Dante and the Sinners to support her during the Family Hierarch Evaluation. Dante agrees, unsure of the real reason they arrived here and seeing Hong Lu's disinterest in becoming the hierarch of the Jia family. However, when Saude and Pilot return, they reveal that the LCB Department's next mission is to have Hong Lu participate in the Evaluation himself, much to Jia Xichun's chagrin.

Reception

According to its official website, it reached 180,000 total pre-registrations before releasing.^{[6][non-primary source needed]}

Notes

1. 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.
2. Notably also heavily references the musical Man of La Mancha in both her weapon and in-game quotes.
3. "Ryōshū" is the original reading of the protagonist's name 良秀 as seen in Uji Shūi Monogatari, which Hell Screen is a reworking of.
4. "Outis" is an alias translating to "Nobody" that Odysseus uses to refer to himself to Polyphemus briefly in the Odyssey.