uh... bestie, k corp wouldnt be buying snuff films if they didnt need to produce endless profit. this sort of thing can only exist with the head making the world like this.
This will be a spoiler about part 3 but i think K corp could exist without chase for endless profit. They could never achieve such influence with a humane approach, that's true but they still could exist, not thrive but still. But in my opinion, the problem with many (of those that we know) singularities is that they require enormous amounts of human suffering in the pursuit of endless growth and profit. But they could work without need for human pain.
This will be a spoiler about part 3 but i think K corp could exist without chase for endless profit. They could never achieve such influence with a humane approach, that's true but they still could exist, not thrive but still. But in my opinion, the problem with many (of those that we know) singularities is that they require enormous amounts of human suffering in the pursuit of endless growth and profit. But they could work without need for human pain.
im... agreeing with you? its the chase for endless profit that makes them do this, but the basic idea of "orginization for the harvest and production of medicine dirived from the tearful thing" would exist regardless if such a thing as the tearful thing was real, no matter the economic system.
I'd like to step in and say this isn't a general Limbus or PM thread, and I'm pretty sure the Head hasn't come up at all so far, certainly not in specific or anything about ideology.
I'd like to step in and say this isn't a general Limbus or PM thread, and I'm pretty sure the Head hasn't come up at all so far, certainly not in specific or anything about ideology.
This will be a spoiler about part 3 but i think K corp could exist without chase for endless profit. They could never achieve such influence with a humane approach, that's true but they still could exist, not thrive but still. But in my opinion, the problem with many (of those that we know) singularities is that they require enormous amounts of human suffering in the pursuit of endless growth and profit. But they could work without need for human pain.
I don't think they could, not with the rules and laws and the playing field that the Head has set up. It's intrinsic. Like I don't blame the Head for K Corp's (and other organizations') heinous actions, but all the same, I also think that with the way the Head has set the City up, if K Corp doesn't play with the rule of the game, they would just get devoured, like so many others. Another K Corp would simply takes its place.
Of course, K Corp could have still tried, to be benevolent and so and so in the City, and it would be amazing. Wonderful, even. But it would be akin to swimming against the current. Or a tsunami.
I don't think they could, not with the rules and laws and the playing field that the Head has set up. It's intrinsic. Like I don't blame the Head for K Corp's (and other organizations') heinous actions, but all the same, I also think that with the way the Head has set the City up, if K Corp doesn't play with the rule of the game, they would just get devoured, like so many others. Another K Corp would simply takes its place.
Of course, K Corp could have still tried, but it would be akin to swimming against the current. Or a tsunami.
Better just wait with the disucussion of this topic. I already deleted parts of my posts because we still not there in moment. Better talk about that after chapter end.
Hello, this is Project Moon. The Combat Stage composition of Canto 4, 'The Unchanging', will be changed via a hotfix on Dec. 6th, 23:00 (KST). The hotfix will be deployed without a separate update; restart the game to apply the changes. However, please note that additional downloads may occur...
Hello, this is Project Moon. The Combat Stage composition of Canto 4, 'The Unchanging', will be changed via a hotfix on Dec. 6th, 23:00 (KST). The hotfix will be deployed without a separate update; restart the game to apply the changes. However, please note that additional downloads may occur...
We return to find the Sinners very much not still in the screening room. Depicted on the world map as a corner of the sky dissolving into an abstract cubic maze, the Golden Bough has resonated and constructed another simulacrum based on the K Corp high-rise in which they once stood. Ishmael asks how the Golden Bough can possibly have the power to warp reality when they haven't even officially entered the fathoms of Yi Sang's ego, but Faust answers in her typical Faust fashion - asking her or anybody about the capabilities and limitations of the Golden Boughs is a meaningless endeavour. Most of what they witness on their journey is going to be unprecedented, so they might as well skip the 20 questions. Ishmael is swift to agree, in no small amount due to what else she sees in this abstract space.
The dead, TLA and K Corp in equal measure, rising again from wounds too severe for them to have possibly survived.
Gregor: "Huh, I've seen some stuff, but bringing people back from the dead... sounds too implausible. Even K Corp's HP ampules couldn't do this much, right?" Outis: "It's unlikely that there was absolutely no technology or Singularity capable of complete revival at some point. However, if such technology did exist... I, for one, haven't heard of it once even during war." Outis: "That can only mean... it's not a kind of technology allowed to prosper in the City. If I had to guess, the Head might..." Faust: "Indeed. It may well be an act of taboo as established by the Head."
What is the Head, you may ask? It's a conglomerate of Wings (A Corp, B Corp and C Corp to be specific) that acts as the closest thing to a government the City has - though at the scale the City is operating at, where each Wing's district might as well be its own city-state or small country, maybe it's closer to a version of the United Nations that ever does anything. There are few ironclad laws in the City but those that exist are enforced by the Head, the tiny modicum of order in the chaos of unrestricted nightmare capitalism. Naturally the Head is a rentseeking entity, officiating the collection of taxes and the Citywide patent office, but there are some few technologies even they won't countenance. AI was one (something covered in more detail back in Ruina), cloning another (ditto), and now third and more pressingly the matter of resurrection.
These laws are ironclad, but not all-encompassing and infallible. For some reason, what Dante is capable of doesn't count. If it did, we would certainly know about it by now. Faust herself takes it as a given, dismissing it as "experienc[ing] revival by synchronising with Dante" - presumably the trick is that the Sinners have become subordinate entities to Dante on a supernatural level, and they are not 'resurrected' so much as their fatally injured bodies rewound to a previous hale and hearty state.
Meursault: "It's different, and wrong." Meursault: "Theirs is not a complete restoration, unlike our case. They're merely..." Meursault: "Animated. That is all. They appear to lack consciousness and reason." Gregor: "Seems that way... In other words, I guess it would only count as a taboo if both the mind and body are recovered."
What's very curious is that Faust gets a reaction beat to herself, processing what Gregor and Meursault have surmised shortly before the battle node begins. Why could that be? Well, given the previously-discussed connections to the homunculus of the play Faust and the imagery in her base EGO, my guess is something to the effect of Faust being a revived specimen herself. What was it that Kromer-Faust said? That the brain is the holiest, most pure of all body parts because there's no way to replace or augment it?
This is my message to you - yes you right there - that you need to stop being so fucking thirsty to talk about things that have not been covered in the LP yet. I saw a lot of talk about the Head and how it works in the page prior, and I was simply too tired to step in and arbitrate again then, but clearly I should've because yet again we've had people talking about spoiler material that was literally just about to come up naturally. I am begging you all to please just trust my judgement in how I intend to portion out information appropriate to the flow of the narrative.
We get two nodes of revived K Corp security staff and later two nodes of revived TLA fighters, more or less unchanged from our previous bouts with them save new panic typing and passives. The Dejection state causes them to gain Fragile and absolutely tank their clash power anytime they flip a single tails, and the passives Floods of Sorrow and Overflowing Sorrow cause them to inflict 2 Sinking on tails hit and lose 5 SP per turn respectively. Why do the zombies have depression? Well...
Narration: When I took a closer look at the revived foes after the battle, I could see a liquid of a familiar hue flowing from their eyes.
The tears, and the entity that shed them, still have a role to play. Did Dongrang release the Brazen Bull on purpose after experimenting on it with the tears, or did he simply not give a shit when it inevitably broke free just as Dongbaek warned him? The distiction is kind of academic at this point. Limbus Company collided with it at full speed and suppressed it for him, he got to farm tears from the collateral the Bull caused, and he got to blame it all on Dongbaek in the aftermath. That's the kind of cost-cutting efficiency that gets a brilliant mind like him a promotion.
Shifting focus from the tearful revenants, Faust asks Dante if they can sense the Golden Bough anywhere nearby. Last anybody saw it it was of course lodged in Dongbaek's body, but of her corpse there is not a trace. It and Dongrang were both whisked away when space first warped, borne aloft helplessly on the current of the Golden Bough's resonance - but not, curiously, Dante and the Sinners.
Heathcliff has no idea what he's talking about at first, but Sinclair doesn't have a bad hypothesis. He clearly seems to think that the Sinners' contract with Dante has anchored the thirteen of them together as a collective entity, allowing them to remain unmoved where the waves of the Golden Bough's resonance had swallowed Dongbaek and Dongrang whole. He just fumbles and says 'affinity' when he meant -as Faust decodes- the chains that bind them all.
Sinclair: "Yeah... this is one of their influences, right? Then, what will happen if someone like Dongrang gets to the fathoms?" Don Quixote: "Fret not, for we shall find out from now on! Let us vanquish the foes ahead of us for now!"
Sinclair's clearly also worried about a repeat of Kromer hijacking the Fathoms back in Canto III, because who knows what a snake like Dongrang could conjure with control of the mindspace. The Sinners rush on ahead, and after a couple more fights are at last able to reach the entrance to the Fathoms - the very last gasp of Canto IV's shitful pacing, for no other Canto yet has waited that long before showing you its dungeon.
Narration: Within the twisting space, petals were wavering.
K Corp's singularity isn't the only thing exerting some modicum of influence over the Fathoms it seems, but the group don't delay to discuss what the spicebush petals might mean. With only a moment's hesitance from Yi Sang, they plunge onward into the reminisced space.
Dante: <... There are stacks of paper on the desk.> Rodion: "Aha... Yes, you see, usually..." Rodion: "These are placed for visitors like us to read."
Look at him, bro could not possibly be less in the mood for whatever the fuck the Golden Bough is gonna inflict on him, but we're in it for the 1,000-screenshot long haul whether he likes it or not.
Yi Sang picks up a stack in complete silence, his expression unreadable as he sifts through the letters he finds waiting on his desk.
Yi Sang: "A letter, I had written once... And its structure... follows that of a play's script." Meursault: "It's then reasonable to assume that each actor in the play was provided with one." Yi Sang: "If so... This may well have been a stage awaiting our arrival, rather than a simple emptiness."
Dongrang: "Maybe Dongbaek might just come, Yi Sang. If Dongbaek got to this... space before she died... Haha, I'm not sure what I should call this." Dongrang: "Anyway, if the entrance opened while she was alive... her consciousness might have been wrapped up in this, as ours were." Yi Sang: "... For what reason did you stab Dongbaek?" Dongrang: "She hesitated a little too much... What, did you want this kind of eulogy from me?"
Dongrang: "No, it's really... You knew as well, Yi Sang. In that state, Dongbaek's death was imminent... Her life would've painfully scattered away if I let her be." Dongrang: "That's why you can't lash out at me, despite the anger boiling inside you. It wouldn't have made much of a difference."
The bulk of this analysis will wait until the postscript but man, Squirt already gave me an overview of The Wings and it is sending me how on an emotional level Dongrang maps most closely to the narrator's abusive, cheating wife whom he can't even bring himself to hate because he can't see a way for his anger to solve anything. Something as simple as 'why did you stab our lifelong friend in front of me like that' still gets Dongrang manipulate mansplain malewifing his way through it all.
Faust: "This time, the fathoms of ego... might present themselves differently from the previous ones. The fathoms of ego are places or images of someone's mind made manifest. It releases a powerful and complex energy... It might draw in people other than the Sinners, like those deeply related to Yi Sang in this case." Heathcliff: "... that so? To put it bluntly... It dragged in a bunch of clowns to act on stage, is that right?" Faust: "Although this is merely a guess... Yes, I suppose that's about right. We'll have to do our best with our given roles." Ryoshu: "... And if we don't?" Faust: "The image displayed by the fathoms of ego will go awry... ultimately preventing our access to the Golden Bough. We must reenact the original's - in other words, Yi Sang's - actual memories as closely as possible." Heathcliff: "Alright, I got that clear enough. So..."
Suddenly there's a loud bang, trailing off into a series of crackles and pops.
It's fireworks.
Yi Sang: "I had people who accompanied me, either by caprice, coincidence... or fate." Dongrang: "What a fascinating line."
The play has begun, and one of the key players steps onstage.
Heathcliff: "... what did you call me? Wait... Aren't you the one that just...?" Dongbaek: "What are you staring at me like you've seen a ghost for? Why, do I look cool?" Sinclair (Aneung): "S-She's right, Gap-ryong, don't act like such a country bumpkin. Do you want your mannerisms to match your name?"
The impromptu play has some... shall we say teething problems. But for his part Dongrang is able to slip easily into the role of his past self, deflecting the reminisced Dongbaek's confusion by saying 'Gap-ryong' was merely thinking back to how they all managed to gather at T Corp. Heathcliff, still not getting it, snarls at him not to call him by that name - which apparently is a perfectly Gap-ryong thing to do. I'll be tagging the dialogue that I surmise is part of the 'play' with the corresponding member of the League of Nine the Sinner is playing, using the list on the wiki.gg to keep the roles straight in my head. If you don't recognise a name, don't worry, there's a lot of names and they're usually not the relevant person's real-life legal name anyway.
Meanwhile Outis completely flubs her entrance, and Yi Sang must prompt 'Sang-heo' to begin their lines.
Outis: "Ahem. Ah... So..." Outis (Sang-heo): "As one might know, our hometown, S Corp's district, was going through a turbulent time, many things breaking and changing." Outis (Sang-heo): "Because of daydreaming higher-ups who tell sweet-sounding words with no substance and corrupt officials squeezing the people, the public's lives and economy teetered and twisted more and more each day... With no guarantees of arrangements between Wings or positions to apply for, researchers like us who pursued knowledge struggle to find even a simple bolt to help ourselves." Outis (Sang-heo): "That was when Brother Young-ji brought us together." Dongrang: "Ah... I was the one who called Yi Sang and Dongbaek. We grew up in the same town."
A small interjection, but one worthy of note. The play of his past is penned by Yi Sang's own memories, and Dongrang is clearly going off-script to clarify his own significance in Yi Sang's life. Is he doing it to aggrandise himself more, claiming a kind of ownership over Yi Sang and Dongbaek's significance in the story? Or is it a reflexive reminder that of the League of Nine, the three of them shared a closer and more intimate bond than the others?
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "There, I suggested: The Wing called T Corp is seeing remarkable technological growth nowadays, generously backing inventions of machines and technology. So it should be no problem at all to get any part we need; there, all the people invent for a living." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "So, the like-minded ones defected to the district empty-handed, risking everything." Meursault (Unknown League Member): "As everyone wished... We were free to continue our research here. Even though we had to yield the colours in them, making it so they didn't outwardly shine."
Oh, yes. That sepia tone? That's not a non-diagetic choice to convey that this is a world of memories. T Corp just looks like that. Even the flower, faintly visible beyond the window on the left, is totally monochrome.
Faust: "In T Corp's district, having colours is a kind of privilege." Sinclair: "They take away colours?" Ishmael: "Colours establish identity. There are few better ways to rob one of uniqueness than this. Isn't that right?" Faust: "For sure."
God, what an oddly casual response from Faust.
Heathcliff seems more sombre than usual talking about the way T Corp robs the world of colour. Wonder why that's the case? Probably nothing important!
Sinclair takes a moment, doubtless reflecting once again on the vastness of the world his privileged upbringing rendered him blind to, but the reminisced Dongbaek is once again annoyed by the off-script chattering.
Dongbaek: "Hey, Aneung, are you gonna keep chatting away? The conference is today. Watch, I've made a vibrant amusement." Dongbaek: "Look. It blows up better than before, doesn't it?"
Dongbaek: "Here, you can't see stars in the night sky thanks to blinding lights and smokestacks filling the air. The stars were so pretty in my hometown, it was fun watching them together." Dongbaek: "What's more, there's no colour here. Where we were, we could at least see the colours of flowers. So... I wanted to bring it back in some way." Dongbaek: "Look. Even if it's all black and white, you can still see it, right?"
Dongrang: "I'm a bit embarrassed. I don't have anything to show off for now." Dongbaek: "Is that really something to admit so merrily?" Dongrang: "Haha, treating injured animals on the streets took much of my time." Dongrang: "I couldn't leave them be. They reminded me of the yellow calf I left behind in my hometown."
Dongrang: "It was abandoned by its mother. Seeking warmth to lean on is an instinct all living beings have." Dongbaek: "Well, by now, I guess it... has offspring?" Dongrang: "Hm, probably not. That calf was male."
Another important thematic thread shows itself, hinting at hitherto unseen depths to Dongrang - it's no coincidence that the yellow calf is crying in this CG, when tears are a core motif for the entire Canto.
The play is suddenly interrupted by moans and groans, though in observation of kayfabe the reminisced Dongbaek assumes that the sounds of Tear-soaked revenants are actually the local bar owner coming to harass Gap-ryong for his tab. Faust explains that the Golden Bough's resonance with Yi Sang is so strong that it affected the entire building, sweeping up what seems to be everyone killed in the TLA's all-out assault. But since these hollow shells have no emotional ties to Yi Sang, they have no part to play in the narrative of his history, so they can only blindly disrupt the stage.
Ishmael: "In other words, we have to be quick with moving the play's plot along. The more time we spend fooling around like a certain complete oaf instead of reading what the script says, the more enemies will attack us."
And Ishmael being Ishmael cannot resist half a chance to snipe at Heathcliff, doubtless still Absolutely Fucking Pressed for the 'boatbilly' jab two updates ago.
We load into the dungeon proper, and see the first instance of a new trend - special ego gifts for the headline Sinner. Yi Sang is going to be a mandatory party member for certain fights deeper into the dungeon, and mercifully Project Moon recognised that you might not have decent IDs for him levelled or uptied. Thanks to this ego gift any loadout you select for Yi Sang will be automatically improved to the then-maximum limit for the duration of the dungeon, though not reduced to parity - a certain EGO of his I had equipped at the time is the only one I've ever threadspun to 4 but I don't think the boost made a meaningful difference so I'm going to let it slide for the sake of thematics.
The theme of this dungeon is spiralling inward. Each floor's backdrop is picture-in-picture, this one specifically being an image of Yi Sang's beloved workspace in T Corp erupting from the abstract green patterns of the Golden Bough's semi-fathoms back in K Corp. Whether we follow the track up or down, the goal is to reach the far edge of the picture and loop back inward. This is another particularly long dungeon, though what it loses in nonlinearity and exploration over Canto IIIs it makes up for in sheer amount of boss fights - a far cry from fighting a pair of shitty N Corp corrosions before hitting Kromer.
Fights on this floor take place in a warped funhouse mirror version of the T Corp workshop, and here you see the passives (collected into a single unique status revived enemies are permanently afflicted by) at work.
Yi Sang (VO): "I see flowers bloom outside, and the birds chirp every now and then. Though the scents of flowers spread as they like, they create a rather sweet smell once mingled in one place." Yi Sang (VO): "I wonder if you have taken in such a smell."
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "But the things she presents at the illuminators' conferences are relieving to see; they carry a certain joy with them. Can I take that as her way of indirectly expressing the smiles she couldn't show us?" Dongbaek: "... Well, take it however you want." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Yi Sang. What are you thinking?"
Yi Sang (VO): "Those who I have brushed past until now asked the same question." Yi Sang (VO): "However, as I did not possess the eloquence to utter a concise answer in words and the matter itself was too wearisome and perplexing to clearly summarize..." Yi Sang (VO): "I would substitute my answer with a figurative blank sheet of paper."
He is, and I cannot stress this enough, just like me fr.
Yi Sang (VO): "I would feel a desire to scatter into the winds in lush blue, sensing the sway of seeds plunging into my scrawling mind."
Yi Sang: "..." Yi Sang: "Brother Young-ji was a man of kindness. He was not one to rashly harbour spite or reproach for others."
Aww, look at him, he just felt a positive emotion for the first time in three years.
Leaving the node we pass through a fight with a bunch of Gluttony peccatula (the fight itself isn't noteworthy but make note of their sin affinity, like the Lust peccatula in N Corp's cathedral it's a surprise tool that'll help us later) and hit an event node on the top right corner of the map.
It's a simple one, just a Gluttony-advantage (again the funny green sin) check to search the broken drone for any leftover regeneration ampules. Relatively unique among these kinds of CYOAs where you can just retry it infinitely until you get it, though pass or fail the Sinner who attempts the check will lose 10hp each go. Yi Sang and Faust gain a small +2 circumstance bonus to their check, but I simply throw Dieci Hongler at it and he naenaes on it.
Narration: Several wounds were left on Hong Lu's hands while rummaging through the wreckage. Fortunately, we were able to find a small ampule in it. Narration: "After going through all that trouble..." The other Sinners sighed at the ultimately pointless haul. Narration: ... we had to leave the room with my promise that I'll turn the clock for them next time.
I don't see what they're bitching about, the Small Ampule ego gift is sure better than nothing! Albeit I find the wording a little ambiguous; 'At the start of the turn, allies under 40% HP heal 100% of max HP (once per floor)', so my best guess is that the first time you start your turn with any one ID under 40% HP the Small Ampule will kick in and heal anyone meeting that criterea to full and then cease working until the next floor.
Much more interesting is the next node, a Risky encounter where the two paths converge, and we see another window into the height of the League of Nine.
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "You see, I called you this time, because... I've made something interesting that I'd like to show."
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "There are simply too many transient things that wilt all too soon, don't you think? The butterfly only wanted to lightly flutter, but to be punished with death for that crime... that felt too unfortunate." Dongbaek: "Did you... bring it back... from the dead? I thought that kind of technology was forbidden by the Head's treaty..." Yi Sang: "It is no such case. Although the carcass remains inanimate, something has overridden it." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "That's right. To be exact... it's the glass window. The butterfly can now be free within it." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Even if its wings dampen while trying to cross a pond, are gripped in somebody's hands and crumble to dust, or dry out due to the lack of flowers..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "The butterfly won't stop. And eventually... in the distant future..."
Faust (Rim): "If that happens, will the butterfly no longer be afraid of the sea?" Dongrang: "Splendid, Young-ji. This level of technology could have numerous applications." Dongbaek: "Young-ji... Are you sure... you really made this just for the conference?" Hong Lu (Young-ji): "What do you mean by that?" Dongbaek: "A gathering where we show technology we've created as a hobby in our free time after returning from a day's work, sharing our thoughts..." Dongbaek: "Wasn't that the significance and appeal of the illuminator's conference our League had?" Dongbaek: "But this... it doesn't look like a simple hobbyhorse to me."
It's left to implication in this scene, but Young-ji as the inventor of the Window is a reference to the real Jeong Ji-yong's poem Yurichang/Windowpane, believed in the critical sphere to have been influenced by the deaths of his children shortly before publication.
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "... that's... how you see it, Dongbaek..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "I'd like to know what you think as well, Yi Sang." Yi Sang: "... as Dongrang rightfully assessed, this is nothing short of a great first discovery. Alas..." Yi Sang: "If frost were to form on the glass window... It will blur the reflected image all the same. As such, the frame of this glass window... will need to be made firmer and straighter." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Yi Sang, you managed to see through its essence from just a single glance. But personally... I can't seem to think of a way, so how about this instead?" Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Yi Sang, try creating it in your own way." Yi Sang: "My own way..." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "That's right. By the next conference." Yi Sang: "Is it... truly okay for me... to handle a technology as valuable as the glass window?" Hong Lu (Young-ji): "You got it wrong. I'm making this suggestion because it's valuable."
Yi Sang's mention of frost forming on the window is another reference to the poem Yurichang, the narrator's own breath condensing on the glass in the form of 'frozen wings' doubtless the inspiration for Young-ji's windowpane appearing to resurrect an ethereal white butterfly in the CG. Yi Sang's hesitance to do as Young-ji suggests is likely inspired in part by the fact that Jeong Ji-yong was the eldest of the real-life Guinhoe, as evidenced by the Young-ji of Limbus Company constantly being referred to as 'Brother' (hyeong, connotations of seniority and hierarchy, similar to the Japanese aniki).
Here we run into one of those sexy Class 3 K Corp security officers we all saw storming towards the screening room two updates ago. Technically we fought a bunch of these in the pre-dungeon battle nodes but I don't respect those fights so fuck em. Class 3 K Corp staff were also previously encountered in Refraction Railway Line 1 with slightly different mechanics, but old RR lines can't be replayed and Line 1 has no minisode so I wouldn't have bothered even if they could.
Class 3 K Corp Staff are mono-Blunt mono-Gluttony and come in two variants, normal and Empowered, visually distinguished by the Empowered variant having their regeneration formula tubes pop out and hang slack (as shown above) and the dark 'underlayer' parts of their armour glow bright green. The regular kind heals 20hp per turn like everybody else and their mother does at K corp but they've got pretty mid skills and the Tears status so it's not hard to outlast them. No, it's the Empowered kind you gotta watch out for, as they've overdosed on the good shit and they're about to make it your problem. They've got much more impressive ceilings of 12/14/17, have permanent 2 Damage Up + 2 Fragile, and offset that Fragile with both the standard 20hp heal per turn and the far stronger Emergency Ampule Administration passive which heals them for 40% of their max hp the first time they drop below 25% without being killed outright. Their SP will be constantly degrading thanks to the tears, but even so their strongest skill No Trespassing is a four-coin that locks onto the highest-HP Sinner and, bizarrely, gains raw damage from continually hitting tails. Fortunately even with damage conditionals on a four-coin skill, self-dumpstering SP and 2 or 4 Attack Power Down from being perpetually depressed means that their minds (or lack thereof given the circumstances) will betray them before their superb healing does.
At this point instead of proceeding left towards the boss I dip down to the second event node in the bottom right corner because I'm giftmaxxing.
This CYOA doesn't even have a skill check, instead a simple choice - whether you dose everybody, or only your most injured Sinner. The latter has exactly the effects you'd expect, no frills or surprises. In the former case, every Sinner that was already at max HP will take 20 HP and 10 SP damage from overheal as they all start groaning and complaining alarmingly the second Dante hits the 'heal all' button, and anyone below max only heals a measly 20 HP to boot. As a surprise consolation prize however, the entire team gains 3 Attack Power Up on the first turn of their next encounter, which is more than enough to brute-force past the SP demerit.
Speaking of eggs, another event node along the critical path reveals itself.
Narration: "Whoah, hey... Is this thing twitching?" As the Sinner observed, an egg begins to move. What will we do?
Another simple one, you touch the egg if you want a gift or move on if you don't for some reason. It's a relatively easy Sloth-advantage check, made even easier for Sinners with 'a delicate hand' - here meaning a +2 circumstance bonus for Sinclair, Faust and Hong Lu, or a +4 for Yi Sang. Dieci Yi Sang is perfect for the job, only requiring a single heads with his s3 to pass the DC 9 check, and handily nets me the gift. He loses 10 SP in the process but the trade is well worth it, as Piece of Crumbled Egg will grant us 2 of a random sin resource on the first turn of each encounter - fuel for EGO never goes awry, and that goes double when it can otherwise bypass the difficulties my chosen team has with certain affinities.
We move on to another battle node, though this one yields a cutscene.
Ishmael: "It looks like the group was at peace." Dongrang: "Things were good for a short while. It was as though we were on a trip. We thought everythign would be fine after leaving our hometown for this new place, but alas..." Dongrang: "At the end of the day, human societies weren't so different from each other."
Dongrang: "Now that intrigues me. What is it, Sang-heo?' Outis (Sang-heo): "This invention. Wasn't this your work for the League of Nine, Gap-ryong?" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "It... is. But, I mean... there's no need to scour the markets and all that, right? It, it's trust and faith that binds us together, isn't it?"
Heathcliff is noticeably the worst at delivering his lines at first, which may be equal parts shyness about performing (much like Outis showed) and genuine difficulty sight-reading his lines, but either way it's a very endearing character flourish.
Outis (Sangh-heo): "You must have forgotten the League's nine laws." Ryoshu: "(L.N.L. Pft. Fascinating.)" Sinclair: "(Ryoshu! You aren't supposed to say things that aren't in the script!)" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "Tsk... I know. They made me memorise every word of it, you think I'll forget? No technology made within the league shall be distributed outside. Be particularly careful not to be tainted with the smell of money. But... we've been told that all our property will be seized if we don't pay the rent for the laboratory within the next six days. What are we supposed to do?" Heathcliff (Gap-ryong): "We've got to do something about it. The money we earn at the factory can only barely keep us fed. We got here from S Corp's district, taking nothing but passion for research with us! Tell me how else we're gonna pay the rent." Meursault (Unknown League Member): "That's a valid point. Taxes are heavier on us because we migrated from another district. They are demanding a fee we cannot afford to pay regularly." Yi Sang: "... I can pay that. So I suggest we put this matter to rest."
Outis (Sang-heo): "I understand that you're upset, but be mindful of what you say to Brother Young-ji, Dongbaek." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "I'm fine, Sang-heo. Dongbaek, I was planning to tell you once it had been dealt with. I figured you'd be the first to get furious about matters concerning the League. And Yi Sang, while I sincerely appreciate your offer, I couldn't possibly take it." Yi Sang: "It bothers me not, for accumulating wealth has no meaning to me. I urge you to spend it for the League's sake."
Dongrang: "The enemies will start attacking again, you know."
Ishmael may be American but she's been forced to take port in Copenseethen more than once this Canto and it's a riot.
Ishmael's character-break does in fact draw enemies, Sloshing EGOsuit users as foreshadowing for what we're about to fight in about five seconds. But first a rest stop for the obligatory reset to 0 SP, and a cutscene.
Yi Sang (VO): "And, I happened to catch a signal while turning out numerous noises and shatterings." Yi Sang (VO): "In Yeonsim, I met you at last."
Yi Sang: "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am..." Sang Yi: "Yi Sang, isn't it. What a peculiar experience this is. And that mirror you're holding..." Yi Sang: "It's what I call Yeonsim."
Check it out, Sang Yi even has reversed colours for his nameplate.
Yi Sang: "This is a product of grinding something... scraping even the mind to polish it." Sang Yi: "I see. I suppose all versions of Yi Sang were dedicated to research. " Yi Sang: "You have wings on your back, if my eyes aren't being deceitful." Sang Yi: "... what do you think of them?" Yi Sang: "... Resplendant." Yi Sang: "They look quite warm... and free." Yi Sang (VO): "We looked into and ahead of each other."
Doen't it just hit different, seeing this CG again and knowing the monochrome filter was diagetic? Yi Sang showing them the infinite possibilities of the Mirror Worlds through his mirror was equivalent to showing them colour in a world of sepia tones.
The dialogue replays itself from the first time we saw this scene, and picks up where the prior flashback left off.
Dongrang: "Gubo, why don't you say something? You've been part of the League for fairly long now, so stop standing around like a guest."
Interesting that the one we know signs on with N Corp under Hermann is the only one not sincerely enchanted by the mirror.
Dongbaek: "... if you're trying to be an odd one out, at least have some audacity. Some cold fish you are."
lmao sis really hit him with the raw 'just checking to make sure I don't fit in' image.
Hong Lu (Young-ji): "I see... So this... is how you view the world." Yi Sang: "... The world I view, is it." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "Did you know? They say every invention carries hints of the hopes and dreams of its inventor. Discovering them is one of the spectator's joys. It's a tidbit that's good to know." Dongrang: "So, Yi sang, what do you plan to do with this technology?"
Can you imagine how fucked this feels to Yi Sang and Dongrang? They're not learning as they go like the other Sinners or perception filtering out the oddities like the reminisced Dongbaek, they're consciously reliving the story of their mutual downfall and having to stare each other in the face while they do it.
Dongrang: "Brother Young-ji's glass window is already making the rounds. Researchers from other Nests have taken an interest, or so I've heard. Really... we rarely saw visitors in the past, but now we might have to start punching tickets so all those people will stand in line." Dongrang: "So if you announce your work here..." Yi Sang: "Dongrang, I have absolutely no intention of announcing this." Dongrang: "... none? At all?" Yi Sang: "All that I ask..." Yi Sang: "Is to keep this a moment of laughter, solely between us."
Dongbaek: "Pft... Yi Sang. That was the second funniest moment I've seen out of you. The first is... y'know, when the yellow calf was being fed milk, and it suddenly licked his hair... Pfh..." Dongrang: "True, I've never seen Dongbaek laugh as loudly as then." Yi Sang: "T-that... I think we'd best forget..."
Yi Sang (VO): "However, not seeing the subject straightly does not mean I think lowly of them." Yi Sang (VO): "Even without looking, it is possible to seep in."
Rodion asks the obvious - is that the very same mirror that the Sinners use to extract all their IDs? Faust quickly clarifies that it's only 'similar', and that the mirror they use has 'special modifications' doubtless related to how closely intertwined it is with Mephistopheles and its various subsystems. Yi Sang awkwardly deflects Rodion's attempt to praise him for his incredible invention, insisting that what he and Young-ji did was more like 'discovery'. Meursault's thoughts are more practically-minded.
Meursault: "T Corp... wouldn't have been pleased with the idea of a technology capable of peeping into other worlds without permission. I do believe you know well enough that their problem lies with the lack of permission, not the capability of the technology." Yi Sang: "Although we had figured that... we thought it would be fine since it was only used as a pastime between us."
This is Fairy Gentleman, the source of the Sloshing EGO suits. He's also a Thread Luxcavation target so I could probably explain his mechanics in my sleep, so I'm gonna keep this short and reserve my brainpower for the rest of this long-ass dungeon.
Fairy Gentleman is simple. Most of his skills are Blunt and Gluttony, inflicting some Tremor or Bind. He can Tremor Burst as well but he really won't inflict enough for it to make a difference. No, he introduces you to the only mechanic you should concern yourself with right away - I'll Have This is a Lust Pierce attack with insane clash power and bonus damage based on the target's Morale Boost stacks (you may remember those from two updates ago), and as a kind of 'tutorial' one of your Sinners randomly gains 5 Morale Boost on the first turn and is subsequently targeted by a special, unclashable weaker version of the attack. It's not supposed to be strong enough to stagger anyone turn 1, just scare you a little and provoke you not to let that happen again. Sinners gain 1 Morale Boost each time they enter a clash with Fairy Gentleman, the idea being that you pay attention to exactly who is taking the most clashes, especially if they wind up at the max of 5. They gain Damage Up equal to Morale Boost just like a Sloshing user, but the time to watch out starts turn 3.
On turn 3 Fairy Gentleman will summon a Fairy Wine add and on turn 4 he will turtle up, its two Body action slots using its You Like This Brew? evade. The Fairy Wine, like Sunshower Dongbaek's umbrellas, is an easily-pulverised non-hostile dummy unit that you really want to kill before things get bad. When the Fairy Wine is killed by a direct attack (high Attack Weight skills such as EGO don't count) the attacker's Morale Boost stacks are converted into Tipsy, which as mentioned previously debuff clash power. Meanwhile the Fairy Gentleman's 5+8 evade is pretty good, but the point isn't even to hurt him necessarily - each time he dodges the Body gains 1 Bind, so with only a few swings it'll end up a guaranteed 1 Speed.
The Arm part is destructabile but not severable - even if it is literally severed on the sprite, it's still targetable with permanently Fatal physical resistances and can still use offensive skills. Busting it will cancel its remaining attacks that turn and leave it staggered for the next so it's still pretty good.
On turn 5 Fairy Gentleman freaks out and uses I'll Have This! three times, targeting randomly. These are 6+10 attacks which gain another 5 clash power against targets without Tipsy, and on hit deals another 100% damage per stack of Morale Boost before clearing the status. Conversely if the target has Tipsy they take no damage and Fairy Gentleman eats 50 fixed damage for his crimes. This is scary, and sometimes you can turn the tables by letting Fairy Wine live until this round so whoever's targeted by the worst of it can beat the buzzer and kill it for the Tipsy stacks, but many a week in the thread lux mines lets me say authoritatively that you can kinda just ignore it depending on the team. Pierce and/or Lust resist on a relatively beefy ID and spreading the clashes around so nobody has too much Morale Boost effectively neuters the threat the nuke turn poses, and if you're fortunate enough to have multiple copies target the same unit like Yi Sang here you're laughing - because it removes Morale Boost after attack like I said, meaning the second copy gets no damage boost and is basically wasted. In this specific instance I was playing along by giving NClair Tipsy status, and Faust happened to draw her S3, so I said 'fuck it' and let those two clash and they won. Yi Sang ate a colossal amount of damage to the face on account of being Pierce-weak but hey it's enrichment for him.
If the nuke skills don't scare you this is the perfect opportunity to simply keep beating on his destroyed arm for the physical damage bonus, all the more effective if you're packing Sloth and Lust (or just Sloth in thread lux) to further boost your damage. In dailies this is about when he explodes spectacularly, but the story version is tuned high enough that he enters a second cycle. Every time he summons Fairy Wine after the first he mixes in the Envy skill Not This Time! which targets the Fairy Wine instead of a Sinner. If it hits he gains 2 Attack Power Up, Haste and Protection next turn, so best not let him do that - I did just because I wanted to finally see it in action but he doesn't do anything particularly interesting.
According to the wiki he's meant to have a mid-combat event if he hit a Sinner with 5 Tipsy and got backlashed, but I have genuinely never seen it before in my life so I think I'm just gonna skip it because it's never been a part of my experience with the game.
It's a decent concept but kind of a mid fight, it really only has one mechanic and then sometimes it has no mechanics if you simply hit it as hard as you possibly can. Its ego gift is worthless to us too, just inflicting a smattering of Tremor Potency across the enemy team on every hit with a Gluttony or Tremor-inflicting skill (which when I last checked had been bugged to trigger on any hit of any affinity and I haven't run Tremor recently enough to check if it's been fixed). It's fun that it and its ego gift serve as a reference to absinthe's nickname 'The Green Fairy' though. Not the best first showing for abnos but we'll keep an open mind and swing into the observation reports now.
Observation Report (Level 1): Feels an awful lot like you keep making me do all the awful things... It's just a feeling, right…? Pah, anyway... I'll write down what I know about that rotten tea-flavor jelly thingy. If you're asking how I know it in so much detail~ ...It's 'cause I got put in that gross maw of his. I mean, as soon as our eyes met, he flew up, like swoosh~ all of a sudden and then squashed me with the mouth on its belly! Like, splorch, y'know? It smelled so bad… Ugh, I hate it so much. Oh... Now that I think about it, the smell itself wasn't all that weird. It was just too... woefully sweet, I guess? My nose almost got numbed. Anyway, it felt really weird.
→ Hmm... Was it that foul? As for me, the smell of those... jelly-like pieces bouncing off with each attack was pretty alright.
→ It stimulated me. (Cigarette ash seeped into this segment of the note.)
→ It had strengthening properties and provided an overall mental uplift.
Well if a report is constantly complaining about how disgusting an Abnormality is it's definitely written by Rodion, which it seems she's noticed too because she's grousing about she has to keep writing about gross things. Her ass even got swallowed up by Fairy Gentleman's bellymouth, so considering he's made of slime and apparently Stinks Real Good that's gotta be at least three fetishes at once. I wonder if there's anything worth reading into that Rodion just reflexively complains about the smell before backtracking on it and the other three commentors all agree that actually it smelled good. Maybe since Fairy Gentleman is a Gluttony-focused enemy Rodion had herself a 'revolted by what she sees in the mirror' moment since we previously discussed her mask of hedonism.
Observation Report (Level 2): Grr... This guy really ticks me off. I dunno if it's the wobbly body, but every move of his feels so annoying! Especially when he dodges my attacks. It's just like dealing with bullies on the streets as a kid. Y'know, how they laugh at you like 'Haha, can't even hit me?'. This is just like that… Hngh... I guess I got really stressed out. I'm feeling a bit dizzy, too… I'll stop here for now. Sorry, Dante~
→ Is she drunk?
→ Impossible. There was no situation in which alcohol could have been ingested.
→ ...Right! W-When we were fighting the Abnormality, didn't she break a huge cup or something like that? I think she's been like this since then…
→ Ah. Now that you mention it, I do remember that fatso dodging her axe and causing it to smash into a glass cup.
I admit, through all the layers of gameplay abstraction I had somehow not actually imagined what it would be like for a Sinner to break the Fairy Wine and instantly become absolutely plastered so it's amusing to see Rodion being a Mean Drunk. Also hilarious is that according to Heathcliff the Sinners went so gorilla mode on this fight they did the mechanic to get one of them drunk for the next turn By Complete Fucking Accident.
Observation Report (Level 3): Sorry~ I was a bit messy with my last log. I asked Fau if I can erase it and write a new one, but she said I absolutely can't. Isn't she a meanie? Anyway... It did help with figuring some stuff out, so I hope you'll show some forgiveness. Here's what I can tell for sure: those bits of jelly that fly around as we fight boost our morale. And, the boost gets more powerful as the battle goes on. When someone whose morale is at its highest... I mean, like MAX! Kinda highest... breaks the glass of booze~ Bingo! That person gets super drunk right away! Once someone got drunk, their attacks would get weaker and miss a lot more easily. And here's the catch~ The fatty jelly fella gobbled up one of our drunk pals once, right? Then he suddenly got all weird and stumbly! We took the chance and swept him off the floor~~ See, I was super helpful!
→ If you were just a little faster to grasp it, you certainly would have been.
→ You just gotta say yes at times like this…
God, they really did just absolutely bumblefuck into the solution. The way Rodion's typing (is it typing? maybe the reports are handwritten? there was previously a reference to using whiteout so maybe the Sinners are journalling about The Horrors) makes me think that either she's still kinda drunk while writing the third report, or they fought Fairy Gentleman again and she got Tipsy 5 duty again, but on purpose, so she could get bodyslammed by Fairy Gentleman's gooey ass. Also love presumably-Gregor in the commends like "dude just say she did a good job so we can all leave...", you really have to wonder why Faust made these Abnormality observation reports blogposts anybody else on the bus can comment on unless she was shit-stirring on purpose (which is not impossible).
But defeating Fairy Gentleman doesn't send us down to the next floor, despite what prior evidence would imply. Instead we're forced to back out of the dead-end spiral that was his encounter node and walk down a path previously inaccessible, and in the process catch a glimpse of something... stranger than Yi Sang's memory.
Unknown Boy: "Nothing like the Outskirts..." Stephanette: "You're right. Was the world beyond the Outskirts one filled with such beautiful and tranquil beings?" Unknown Boy: "Yeah, I guess that must be the reason everyone tried to keep quiet about it." Stephanette: "Right, do you by any chance... know a story about the things beyond the Outskirts? It's said there's a thing that lives here... granting wishes to those who are earnest. Wanna hear it?" Unknown Boy: "Sure. I always look forward to your stories."
Unknown Boy: "..."
Unknown Boy: "But here..." Unknown Boy: "I can see lone stars looking down at us" Unknown Boy: "Since the city I can see from here is filled with cries of pain and despair..."
Stephanette: "I see, have you... finally fulfilled your wish?" Stephanette: "Starting today, even if a handful of stars doesn't rise in a corner of the night sky... those stars will light the dark of the lands below instead..." Stephanette: "So it'll all be okay."
The Sinners come out of a trance, having seen that very same scene of a mysterious boy's transformation far beyond the boundaries of the City. Faust suspects that Dongrang and the corpses left lying around the skyscraper weren't the only kind of foreign matter swept up by the Golden Bough as it 'generated the fathoms of ego in a frenzy'.
Faust: "K Corp's Singularity: Tears of the so-called 'Tearful Thing'." Gregor: "Can sure see that... It's bringing back dead people to fight us." Faust: "Yes, they seem to be relevant to the experiences... of melting down." Hong Lu: "Did the mind of that Tearful Thing melt into this resonance as well, then?" Sinclair: "That means... the Tearful Thing is... no different from people..."
Faust doesn't even try to hide how this little digression in Yi Sang's story relates to Dante. She looks them dead in the... clock... and says "this is relevant to the star imagery that's followedf you ever since we started this journey, this is relevant to your past self's goal". The game is hardly playing coy with the parallels between Dante's blatantly supernatural ability to revive the Sinners and the Tears' regenerative properties, the suffering Dante must take on their own shoulders to save others and the suffering inflicted on the Tearful Thing to extract its healing tears. It's practically daring you to surmise that Dante is themself a Singularity or otherwise the same kind of entity, I think because it's more concerned with letting you think about what that means. I already compared and contrasted the clock to the ampules in previous updates, so it's just something for us to keep in mind as we delve deeper into the fathoms.
Next up is another event node, a quick Pride-advantage skill check to search the cabinets. The zone is so unstable that the cabinet is soon to disappear, giving the Sinner only enough time to search one of three cabinets before it vanishes. Naturally I just check the wiki to get the one I want because the 'Gain an EGO Gift' text on each button is staggeringly unhelpful. The result boosts the damage of Gluttony, Pride or Sloth skills by 10%, of which I pick the Sloth variant because of reasons that will become apparent soon (though maybe is justified enough when Yi Sang's base EGO and current s3 are both Sloth).
In the next node, however, we get the most terrifying reveal of all.
T Corp is London.
Dongrang: "What are you talking about, Aneung. This is the road we would traverse all the time." Sinclair: "Oh... um... right."
I must emphasise that this isn't a scene in the play yet, there's a transition point but it comes later in the scene. Yi Sang is simply delivering exposition diagetically, nobody else is in-character, Dongrang just did that to be a dick to Sinclair.
Yi Sang: "This... was the place of my day's profession... or the avenue nearby. I was an architect." Gregor: "Ooh~ An architect, huh... That's a neat occupation you had, Yi Sang."
Yi Sang has a talent for looking cold and damp like a bird that fell in a river.
Yi Sang: "Originally, children used to run in these streets. Although there weren't many... they came into my view on occasion. Even a single abandoned ball could keep a smile on their faces." Don Quixote: "I am vastly fond of youths as well! Are they not the most innocent beings?"
Avaunt you nefarious slattern, begone from my chamber door.
Yi Sang: "Once children are old enough to learn language, they are taken to factories." Yi Sang: "Among them are those I made... those factories whose architecture I designed with my hands." Hong Lu: "Yi Sang..." Yi Sang: "They were optimised for efficiently monitoring people. It made pressing labourers more convenient than ever." Yi Sang: "Perhaps the reason my income has been rather high is that the owners of those buildings run a profitable business."
Damn Heathcliff sure seems more pensive now that he knows Yi Sang moved to T Corp, wonder what's up with that!
Heathcliff (Gap-ryong?): "Well, even so... It's not like you spent that money to show off. You gave it all for the League." Ishmael (Yurang): "... Do you remember? The first thing I invented... after getting a job at T Corp." Hong Lu (Young-ji): "The identification tags, right?" Ishmael (Yurang): "Yeah, I made them to help lost kids. It's absurd, I know. Maybe I expected it to help more children reunite with their parents." Ishmael (Yurang): "But now... they're being used to monitor the workers' time spent on the job in every factory. Heck, I made those things, and even I'm not free from the obligation to wear one while working." Yi Sang: "Those were the kinds of achievements we accomplished in T Corp's district. Which is why... I became more engrossed in the mirror."
Yi Sang: "So that... I wouldn't have to take anything from anyone."
Sang Yi: "That you'd have to exploit others if you don't want to be." Sang Yi: "So don't feel guilty about it."
Rather appropriately this leads into the second boss fight of this floor - So That No One Will Cry, fought in the foggy grey streets of reminisced T Corp.
Slash, Lust and Envy resist, Pride weak, Blunt and Wrath fatal. Yuri Faust is gonna be suffering but NClair boutta snap a brother in half once he draws his s3.
So That No One Will Cry is if anything a pretty good example of how Limbus Company uses the sin of Lust as specifically a kind of obsession or delusion rather than sexual desire. The talisman-covered wooden doll uses almost exclusively Lust skills because it's acting as a living vessel for the curses and burdens of others, a synthetic sin-eater. If Fairy Gentleman spoke to the gluttonous excess of K Corp in any regard then So That No One Will Cry stands in for the Tearful Thing, 'crying' in place of all others who might suffer. Fittingly, the fight revolves around the unique status Entangled Curse Talisman which is inflicted on a Sinner if they clash with the doll, even more if they actually get smacked in the mouth. Entangled Curse Talisman minorly raises the afflicted's damage output just like it was with the Red Sheet EGO users a couple updates ago, and again you really don't want that count to hit 9.
On the third turn So That No One Will Cry double-slots its guard skill Transferring Talisman. The key here is that if it actually uses its guard on a Sinner, it will absorb their Entangled Curse Talisman stacks and convert them into Reattached Curse Talisman next turn. This is pretty important as it may otherwise catch you off-guard and reduce a Sinner to mulch - and when fighting this guy again in thread lux it's quite common to do so much damage you simply stagger the Body and cancel its guards before it can absorb your talismans anyway, so it's almost novel that it's relatively much tougher when faced here.
In ideal scenarios So That No One Will Cry will actively target someone who has a decent amount of talismans with its guard. Then you can have that Sinner clash with one of its attack skills, which will gain them even more Entangled Curse Talisman, and then once they win the clash the doll will automatically use its guard to defend itself, thus absorbing the boosted stack amount. This is not an ideal scenario so I full send at it like a gorilla. At the end of the third turn a surprisingly difficult mid-combat skillcheck will occur, asking for a DC of 13 even with Sloth advantage - at least there's no direct penalty for failing, so it's mostly just annoying compared to a certain other mid-combat check coming up later. If you do succeed then the chosen Sinner acts in a kind of trance, gathering up fallen talismans for the doll as it waits expectantly for them to be returned, muttering "so that no one will cry" as the strips of paper are suddenly drawn back to the doll as if magnetised.
On the fourth turn So That No One Will Cry will double-slot its Gloom skill of the same name (and other attacks, or it would if I hadn't broken its ribs), a whopping 5-coin attack with 5 next-turn Paralyse. Your mercies are threefold - it has a pitiful -5 Offence Level modifier, at 9+ Reattached Curse Talisman its Speed gets dumpstered to 1 so you can effortlessly control who clashes, and at 12+ reattatched talismans it eats a crippling 5 Attack Power Down for good measure.
And that's that, that's the entire boss rotation, it does that four-turn loop until you kill it. I appreciate So That No One Will Cry in terms of what its presence in the Canto IV dungeon adds to the story but it's another no-brainer of a fight - fielding it practically back-to-back with Fairy Gentleman on the same floor was also a huge mistake because it just brings into relief how similar the two of them are to fight, what with the unique status you build by clashing and then dumpster with the correct timing in order to counter the boss' nuke turn. They even both have a single Arm part you can destroy and just beat with hammers over and over until the raw damage skips most of the mechanics. Other than that the only noteworthy thing about it is the Spreading Ember passive, causing So That No One Will Cry to spread its current Burn Potency to all units with Entangled Curse Talisman at turn end - meaning that it hard-counters Burn teams and until this passive was removed from the MD variant you were in for a bad fucking time if you ran into each other on a Burn run.
Observation Report (Level 1): Well... It's a creepy-looking wood block. It's got blood all over... and papers, too. They weren't common, but I did see things like this in the Backstreets from time to time. What were they about, curses...? It was funny to me that some scallies actually believed that tosh... Gah, I guess it wasn't a total load of bollocks, seeing that thing with my eyes. That chop of wood, that thing moves. Could've sworn it was stiff as wood when we saw it in the mirror dungeons or whatever, like props for a horror film. The attacks aren't much, but when you see a solid block of wood like that... fly at you at the speed it does, it does scare you a bit. Feels like one hit could crack a bone or two... Well, I'm not about to sit down and let it hit me.
Heathcliff, how ya been buddy! Sure enough the wooden talisman doll was encounterable from launch as a Mirror Dungeon event before becoming fightable in Railway, Canto IV marking its debut in the permanent rotation.
Observation Report (Level 2): Cor, why is it so bloody sticky... (A substance that seems to be yellow glue are smidged around this part.) I bet this bugger would've posted flyers in the Backstreets for a living if it were a human... doing nothing but that for years, I guarantee you. It put several talismans over my body before I could notice. Dammit… Not sure if it was those creepy pieces of paper pissing me off, but it felt a bit like the bat was working better. Whatever it was, it didn't feel like a bad thing. Oh, and the talismans on its body moved to my bat, too. Don't know how it works, but... I guess they wrapped around it. Anyway, this thing bugs me more the more I hit it. Some kinds of stress you gotta relieve by beating things, but this doesn't help.
→ That's something only a thug would say. You really are crude.
→...Huh? How's he holding off his anger when that comment's right up there?
→ Faust deliberately prevented him from looking at this. It would have been a waste to fill the space with useless information.
→ That's our wise bud.
→ By the way... I think I felt myself feeling stronger with more talismans on me, too. Even if they didn't annoy me or make me feel anything.
→ In that case... The talismans themselves might have some kind of effect. What if we tried attaching a lot of them on purpose?
God. Faust really said "here, look at the silly bongy plush" so Heathcliff didn't see another hate comment from Ishmael and start breaking windows and Gregor could only recognise the deftness of her interpersonal genius. As a whole the report of course hints to the fact that Entangled Curse Talismans make you stronger (by 1-8% bro calm down it is not moving the needle) and that getting them all stuck on the doll again is a good idea.
Observation Report (Level 3): Damn it, why are you telling me to write this separately? I could just keep writing where I was, you know... What's with the special treatment? It's narking me. Forget it, I feel great turning that wood block into a pile of firewood, so I'll let it slide this time. We tried getting a bunch of talismans on us like one of us suggested... but too many talismans actually weighed us down. It's weirdly tiring like some others said. Instead... That wood block sometimes puts up its guard instead of attacking, you see...? The little lad swung his halberd right then, and the talismans on that weapon got pulled into the wood block. Then it turned purple… Heh, that's when I got it. It couldn't do anything as we kept putting the papers on it, so we turned it into regular firewood.
→ Correction: the Abnormality returned to its ovate form. No experimental activities such as it actually turning into a pile of firewood or being lit on fire took place.
Nothing too illuminating, pretty much just more translation of mechanics into behaviour the characters are diagetically observing in combat. It is a little amusing at least how Faust just felt compelled to chime in in the comments saying "uhm akshooally it didn't turn into firewood it turned into an egg like any other abnormality" and then she probably adjusted her glasses tipped her fedora and rode her heelies all the way to the back of the bus so she could go to her private room and return to her true passion of moderating Reddit.
Defeating the talisman doll yields another 'story' EGO gift and at last lets us advance to the second floor.
Second verse same as the first, starting at one edge of the map and taking one of two paths that converge on the far side to send us deeper. The background CG is distinctly more cluttered than last time, proof of Yi Sang's ever-deepening obsession with his mirror taking centre stage.
Yi Sang (VO): "More people are visiting us each day, and twice the noise fills the air."
Dongbaek: "... nine was the right amount of people." Don Quixote: "Oho... many new curiosities have taken up the space! May I be permitted to touch the inventions here?" Dongbaek: "... will you shut that mouth?"
The ADHD made her forget she's supposed to be playing Gubo, relatable I fear.
Dante: <How scary...> Dongrang: "Don't be so sour, Dongbaek. Liveliness is good to have." Yi Sang (VO): "Some considered the assemblage to be mere noise... while some considered the commotion to be growth."
Yi Sang (VO): "I saw no meaning in attempting to fathom the caprices of the weather." Yi Sang: "I would simply wait for things to calm, looking out for the day's arrival."
Deeper into the reminisced space the workshop has distorted yet further, the furniture looming colossal and warped in the background as if we were mere toys flitting about on the floor. Broken shards of Yi Sang's beloved mirror lie scattered everywhere. We push onward, further, to find the reminisced Dongbaek deep in thought.
Dongbaek: "..." Dongbaek: "Young-ji hasn't shown up for this conference as well." Dongrang: "I heard he's been officially invited by a Wing. This is probably the second time." Faust (Rim): "You don't happen to know which Wing it was, do you?" Gregor (Aseah): "No one seems to know." Dongrang: "Why are you displeased about it? You're the one who turned down Brother Young-ji's offer to go with him, Dongbaek." Dongbaek: "..." Dongrang: "There's no need to be so fixated on the number nine. What if there are eight or five of us?" Rodion(Nul-in): "Say, Dongrang... How long are you gonna stick to your vet routine? I made precious time in my packed schedule to check out what Young-ji's group was like... and all I see are children's playthings." Dongrang: "Oh, it's been a while, Nul-in. It's a pleasure to see a fellow from my hometown here. You arrived later than we did, but it looks like you adapted much faster." Dongrang: "But I must say... it's a bit disheartening to hear you call them children's playthings."
Rodion (Nul-in): "Well, I'll take my words back if those animals start repaying the kindness by bringign money or something~" Dongbaek: "Nul-in, do you take this for a gaudy auction where technology is sold for cash? You didn't even care to cast a glance at us mere months ago, calling illuminators' conferences out of fashion... have you come now to rake off a piece of the profit you're smelling?" Dongrang: "Dongbaek..." Dongbaek: "Don't mistake it for covering for you. I just don't want to see her face, that's all." Dongbaek: "By the way... what made you so passionate about curing animals? They can't pay the bills or anything. How are you gonna make a living?" Dongrang: "You like to nag a lot. Well, I suppose I could run a chicken restaurant?"
Sis is flabbergasted.
Dongrang: "Hear me out for a second. I could make chickens grow tons of wings... and cut them off without inflicting any pain. They only need a single pair to fly. That way, humans get more meat to eat, while chickens lose nothing for it." Dongbaek: "Pshaw..." Yi Sang: "What name do you plan to give to the chicken?" Dongrang: "Let's see, how about Plumpy Chicken?" Dongbaek: "Dongrang, never try naming things again. Got it?"
Yi Sang (VO): "I may have heard a faint sound at that moment. Yi Sang (VO): "It was the sound of a crack." Yi Sang (VO): "Knowing well what consequences a miniscule crack could bring about, I chose to look past it..." Yi Sang (VO): "Perhaps I wanted to pretend that I did not hear it..." Yi Sang (VO): "Alas, I was careless in my assumption that I could simply observe slantwise as it comes to pass until it has seeped..."
Dongrang: "You know, Dongbaek? Your words weren't particularly reassuring either. It was actually what Nul-in said that gave me an important lesson."
The party move deeper into the memory, and a flicker of the Tearful Thing's story crosses their path.
Stephanette: "If all the stories in the world were happy ones, the skies might not have needed stars any more." Stephanette: "In solitude and darkness are stars born." Stephanette: "You loved my stories for the same reason." Stephanette: "..." Stephanette: "I'll tell you tales of more worlds."
The Reminisced League of Nine is a dense beast of a dungeon, and I think this project acted as a grim reminder that I may need to portion our 3 or 4 updates for Canto act 3s in the future, but we'll deal with that as it comes. I believe this serves as a place to stop for the week as good as any other. Next up - the Fall of the League of Nine, and the truth that lies in a mirror's reflection.
I'd like to posit the theory that The Land Beyond the Outskirts is an endgame location. Assuming we're loosely following The Divine Comedy then it seems pretty clear that The City is more or less Inferno, The Outskirts are liable to be Purgatory (more or less) and beyond that will be Paradiso. Especially given that Dante's glimpse of The Star is illustrated like the most famous depiction of Paradiso.
Rather then run my mouth about all the foreshadowing here or put down a treatise on star symbolism throughout the PM games (and how this ties in), I'd like to note that Light Pollution in cities also makes it nigh impossible to glimpse stars.
So there's a fun bit of overlap between reality and the symbolism PM uses.
Honestly big thanks for the mechanics sections. Cause I usually unga bunga through these abnormalities. I must have fought Fairy 60 times at this point and I only now read his skills lmfao
Dongrang: "No, it's really... You knew as well, Yi Sang. In that state, Dongbaek's death was imminent... Her life would've painfully scattered away if I let her be." Dongrang: "That's why you can't lash out at me, despite the anger boiling inside you. It wouldn't have made much of a difference."
Despite Dongrang's overall sleaziness, he kinda has a point here. Dongbaek was facing either a slow death or worse if she survived long enough for K corp to collect her - Ran exploded herself for a reason after all. A quick death would be a mercy. Stabbing her with specifically the Golden Bough on the other hand...
Faust: "In T Corp's district, having colours is a kind of privilege." Sinclair: "They take away colours?" Ishmael: "Colours establish identity. There are few better ways to rob one of uniqueness than this. Isn't that right?"
Meursault: "T Corp... wouldn't have been pleased with the idea of a technology capable of peeping into other worlds without permission. I do believe you know well enough that their problem lies with the lack of permission, not the capability of the technology."
More interesting details about T Corp - their tech carries a wide range between impacting colors and dimensions/parallel worlds. Ugh, I want to talk more about this but I can't remember what has been brought up yet, so I'll leave it at that for now.
→ That's something only a thug would say. You really are crude.
→...Huh? How's he holding off his anger when that comment's right up there?
→ Faust deliberately prevented him from looking at this. It would have been a waste to fill the space with useless information.
God. Faust really said "here, look at the silly bongy plush" so Heathcliff didn't see another hate comment from Ishmael and start breaking windows and Gregor could only recognise the deftness of her interpersonal genius.
Observation Report (Level 3): Damn it, why are you telling me to write this separately?
Love how Faust doubles down to make sure Heathcliff doesn't see Ishmael's comment.
The Observation reports are a fun read, but its annoying you can only read them while in the fight with the Abnormality. And you have to fight the Abnormality multiple times to unlock the full log, so I always end up forgetting to look since I'm familiar with the fight mechanics and just want to kill it quickly by the 3rd time I see it in a Mirror Dungeon...
→ In that case... The talismans themselves might have some kind of effect. What if we tried attaching a lot of them on purpose?
...
As a whole the report of course hints to the fact that Entangled Curse Talismans make you stronger (by 1-8% bro calm down it is not moving the needle) and that getting them all stuck on the doll again is a good idea.
Minor inconsistency, the second log doesn't say anything about sticking them back on the doll, it's just saying gathering a bunch on a sinner is a buff, with no mention of a downside yet. (Well, unless you read the Entangled Curse Talismans "buff" itself, but the logs all have that issue with gameplay showing fight mechanics much faster than the log files would suggest.)
Can you imagine how fucked this feels to Yi Sang and Dongrang? They're not learning as they go like the other Sinners or perception filtering out the oddities like the reminisced Dongbaek, they're consciously reliving the story of their mutual downfall and having to stare each other in the face while they do it.
Honestly this entire dungeon feels like someone looked at Kromers hamfisted attempts at making Sinclair relive the worst moment of his life and went "nah fam, this is how you fuck with a head or two!"
Honestly this entire dungeon feels like someone looked at Kromers hamfisted attempts at making Sinclair relive the worst moment of his life and went "nah fam, this is how you fuck with a head or two!"
This is mostly because Kromer's existence is already the entire reason for his terrible backstory--he was basically just a normal upper-class(like 10 percenter kinda upper class) white boy. Yi Sang is a refugee, accomplished inventor, founder of a tragically fallen group and invented the Mirror
The way Rodion's typing (is it typing? maybe the reports are handwritten? there was previously a reference to using whiteout so maybe the Sinners are journalling about The Horrors)
you really have to wonder why Faust made these Abnormality observation reports blogposts anybody else on the bus can comment on unless she was shit-stirring on purpose (which is not impossible).
Corporate: -and we will have the other Sinners provide any insight they feel is lacking from the original observation logs, with their own perspectives.
Faust: My time is too important to explain why that's stupid, I fully approve this decision.
Grr... This guy really ticks me off. I dunno if it's the wobbly body, but every move of his feels so annoying! Especially when he dodges my attacks. It's just like dealing with bullies on the streets as a kid. Y'know, how they laugh at you like 'Haha, can't even hit me?'. This is just like that…
Dongrang: "No, it's really... You knew as well, Yi Sang. In that state, Dongbaek's death was imminent... Her life would've painfully scattered away if I let her be." Dongrang: "That's why you can't lash out at me, despite the anger boiling inside you. It wouldn't have made much of a difference."
As I played through this Canto myself, I saw Dongrong's constant faint smile as his way of papering over the depression and gloom he feels in his heart. He's surrendered completely to indifference about how the City works Does it really matter if he lets a town burn? If his loyal secretary dies? If he stabs his childhood friend through the heart?
— that's just how the City is, so why should he care? It doesn't have anything to do with him, even as he acts to create tragedies. He might as well just focus on his research and his hollow accolades.
Dongrang, like Yi Sang, gave in to sloth.
He's still a total fucking snake though. I honestly suspected he'd betray us the moment we dealt with Dongrang for him.
Outis: "Ahem. Ah... So..." Outis (Sang-heo): "As one might know, our hometown, S Corp's district, was going through a turbulent time, many things breaking and changing." Outis (Sang-heo): "Because of daydreaming higher-ups who tell sweet-sounding words with no substance and corrupt officials squeezing the people, the public's lives and economy teetered and twisted more and more each day... With no guarantees of arrangements between Wings or positions to apply for, researchers like us who pursued knowledge struggle to find even a simple bolt to help ourselves." Outis (Sang-heo): "That was when Brother Young-ji brought us together."
Outis reads these lines almost like she's barking them out and I love that about her. She's not good at acting (aka everything she does to try to butter Dante up), but damn if she's not going to bite the bullet and do her job!
The play has begun, and one of the key players steps onstage.
Heathcliff: "... what did you call me? Wait... Aren't you the one that just...?" Dongbaek: "What are you staring at me like you've seen a ghost for? Why, do I look cool?" Sinclair: "S-She's right, Gap-ryong, don't act like such a country bumpkin. Do you want your mannerisms to match your name?"
Whether she's a remnant of Dongbaek's fading memories or a pure construct of Yi Sang's mind, I love how Dongbaek is the only non-present member of the League of Nine who's not played by someone else. Seeing her so happy and alive is a really good way to further drive in the knife, both for Yi Sang and for us.
Ishmael "my most noticable character design trait is my enormous mane of bright orange hair" Moby Dick...
And yeah, I love how Project Moon builds foreshadowing for future Cantos with these sorts of offhand comments. Sinclair's dancing reminding the Mariachis of a bonfire that burnt through the whole night... (and then his hometown is quite literally burned by the Inquisition)
Other than that the only noteworthy thing about it is the Spreading Ember passive, causing So That No One Will Cry to spread its current Burn Potency to all units with Entangled Curse Talisman at turn end - meaning that it hard-counters Burn teams and until this passive was removed from the MD variant you were in for a bad fucking time if you ran into each other on a Burn run
So, fun story: the railway version of this fight caused me to ragequit the game.
I managed to muddle my way through this Canto's dungeon somehow, don't remember exactly how but I remember it being a very painful slog.
Along comes the railway and this is the first fight. My only good team (because this game hates people getting their IDs leveled and uptied in a timely fashion) is burn. I have grown attached to the burn team since it carried me through the robot hell of early Canto IV and was the only comp I had that could consistently handle MDH.