- Pronouns
- She/Her
First off...
Lets's be careful.
But, for the record, refer to the first part of the post.
Has to be an Augment. That person's head is, by The Head's definition at least, still a human head.
Now let's cut that off there.
All Aboard The Magic Hellbus! Let's Play Limbus Company
- Thread starter ZerbanDaGreat
- Start date
- Let's Play
But, for the record, refer to the first part of the post.
Now let's cut that off there.
Timaeus
Professional Likebot
- Location
- None of your business
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Greta is also she/her. I think all of the Reverbation Ensemble were binary gendered cept the Musicians of Bremen
- Pronouns
- She/Her
For the record, everyone's favourite Clown is also Genderless.
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
how do you do spoilers again?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
In the textboxt, you wanna click the three little dots that should be around ^ if you quote me. And then click on either "Spoiler" or "Inline Spoiler"
Spoiler is the box that opens, Inline Spoiler is the one you can hover over that we're doing.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
I feel like this line of conversation should stop here if we need to talk about how to do spoilers, the thing that Zerban specifically requested we don't do in the opening post.
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
oh yes, sorry.
now, somebody mentioned Meursault earlier, so how about we talk about him?
now, somebody mentioned Meursault earlier, so how about we talk about him?
Fourthmatchflame
Fangirl of Ryoshu and Scorched Girl
- Location
- A certain Pale Librarians Book.
- Pronouns
- She/Fae
fair.
a kinda interesting thing about him is that his death sprite implies soiel was supposed to have claws at some point.
EDIT: oh, i believe this has gone unmentioned right now: all the sinners weapons have names.
for example, sinclairs halberd is named "vogel."
a kinda interesting thing about him is that his death sprite implies soiel was supposed to have claws at some point.
EDIT: oh, i believe this has gone unmentioned right now: all the sinners weapons have names.
for example, sinclairs halberd is named "vogel."
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- Location
- Portugal
Wow they are worse at instigating bloody fights between themselves than I expected. Ryoshu is on her own level here, but Ishmael's picky comments do seem loaded with sharp intentionality, despite the first impression that she was one of the most reasonable Sinners. Poor Gregor, he really is trying to have an acceptable day with mundane conversation where he can manage it, but with this bunch it's like swimming against the current as sharks fly downstream.
I already knew the Backstreets were violent, but the grimly comedic tone to how the meatgrinder bus goes through while the driver doesn't give a shit and two passengers try their best to instill standards to the pathfinding, is just so much. The script is dropping several hints, but in reflection of this update, I'm in particular intrigued by what degree of familiarity Vergilius (and Faust) had with Dante, if any, before their timely head-replacement and memory loss.
I already knew the Backstreets were violent, but the grimly comedic tone to how the meatgrinder bus goes through while the driver doesn't give a shit and two passengers try their best to instill standards to the pathfinding, is just so much. The script is dropping several hints, but in reflection of this update, I'm in particular intrigued by what degree of familiarity Vergilius (and Faust) had with Dante, if any, before their timely head-replacement and memory loss.
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Canto I: The Outcast (Part 2) - Ungeziefer
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
The bus team plus Grade 8 Fixers descend into the dark.
What awaits them is not a pleasant sight.
Sinclair: "Urk... the smell... it's awful..."
Yi Sang: "Mmm... I can feel the waste collecting in my lungs. The odor is so intense, it winds back to refreshing."
Yi Sang what.
Anyway, Faust reminds the gang that if they die down here Dante won't be able to resurrect them as easily as usual. I don't understand why exactly, like obviously in gameplay terms dead Sinners stay dead until you reach the next rest zone in a dungeon but it's unclear why that applies in-universe. Hopkins wonders what the hell Faust meant by that, but Aya decides it's a weird meme going around the City and Dante decides if Faust won't correct them they won't either (perhaps momentarily forgetting they can't say shit to normal people anyway). Instead Dante takes another look at the corpses visible lying around in the background CG.
Dante: <Looks like they probably died a while ago.>
Outis: "An astute observation, Manager. The corpses have reached the stage of active decay."
Rodion: "Bleh, looks like the bugs are having a feast over there."
Gregor: "... let's just hurry along."
Rodion: "Huh... Something up, Gregor babe? Are you scared of bugs?"
Rodion: "Boo!!!"
Gregor: "But just in case one of y- GAH! Put it away! What's so funny about this?!"
Choi Han's delivery here is hysterical, I love Gregor. Rodion has herself a good laugh at Greg's expense, astonished that he of all people would be afraid of some bugs... only for the laughter to die as she realises Gregor's taking it much harder than she anticipated. Gregor brushes it off, and Outis admonishes Rodion for fucking around. Meanwhile Faust and Yi Sang are examining the bodies - here they realise that some of the bodies are still warm, indicating a much more recent attack. Yuri's initially darkened expression clears at this.
Not as far out from her time at L Corp than she thought, it seems
Ishmael: "I heard these buried facilities are considered pure goldmines now, attracting all sorts looking for riches. Phrases like the 'Lobotomy Dream' or the 'Enkephalin Rush' are apparently starting to catch on among Fixers and Syndicates."
Ryoshu: "LD. E-Rush... Got a nice ring to it..."
Ishmael: "Sigh, that's what you have to say after keeping quiet for so long...?"
An already funny exchange made hilarious by remembering that Ryoshu randomly decapitated Ishmael like an hour ago and nobody's allowed to talk about that. Interestingly, Yi Sang interjects.
Yi Sang: "Is such a frivolous use of English not prone to blurring the original meaning?"
Ishmael: "That's what I'm sayi-"
Ishmael: "Huh, you seem to be talking a lot more than usual, Yi Sang?"
Yi Sang: "Does that reflect strangely?"
Faust: "He was never really the quiet sort. He only had a... shift recently."
It's interesting to see this seeded here, so early on. There are multitudes conained within Faust's one line there, but sadly I'll have to wait until all the way in Canto IV to elaborate. Suffice it to say, Faust isn't kidding.
Outis: "It's not a bad thing to have more lackeys with keen eyes. I'd like you to keep that up. Let us march."
Yi Sang: "You make yourself look like the captain here. I dare say that role belongs to the manager."
At which point Yi Sang calls Outis on deciding she's General Limbus sight unseen so she whips around and bows to Dante while begging forgiveness for her insolence like Ichiban dolphin-diving over the counter at a shareholder's meeting in LAD 7 god she's the best. Dante awkwardly brushes her off so they can all head down to the next level, where another bloody rusted corridor full of corpses awaits - because what Silent Hill considers a hellish otherworld is just weekend overtime in The City.
Narration: Most of the corpses' body parts were morphed in bizarre ways. One had pairs of wings protruding through their intestines, and another had horribly twisted antennae hanging down.
Ishmael: "You mean those bug-headed people?"
Outis: "Quiet. I'm seeing Uniform Tangos ahead."
Outis cautions the party at the sight of some figures up ahead and this time all obey, albeit with a whispered conversation between Rodion and Gregor where he explains Outis is using military alphabet to refer to Unidentified Targets. I also realise that I really need to turn off notifications when I take screenshots for this LP because the exchange is broken up by Steam telling me all about how Omi is getting back into Baldur's Gate 3.
In any case, Dante frets about the possibility that the figures are some of those 'Abnormalities' Faust mentioned earlier, and Outis notes with a sense of grim resignation that the narrow confines of the facility offer them no other option besides forcing their way through. The group moves forward and are hailed, not by Abnormalities, but by humans. This, Dante's narration notes, does not make it the better option.
Vulgar Veteran: "Did they slip past our team at the entrance? Those scavengers keep coming one after the other."
Heathcliff: "Oi, bug buggers! You friends with the bodies back there?"
Dante: <heathcliff there had to be a better way to say that.>
Vulgar Veteran: "Bodies?! You bastards didn't..."
Crooked Veteran: "Wait. I don't know where you scum're from, but hear me out a sec. You're here for the Enkephalin, aren't ya? If you go just one floor down, there's a treasure trove just waiting to be nabbed. Whatever's on that floor is yours. We'll just take what we can here and be on our..."
The Crooked Veteran trails off and the Vulgar Veteran steps in to finish his sentence with a dry, mirthless chuckle as he recognises that oh so famous face. For "the moment the soldier's eyes landed on Gregor's face, their thin veil of kindness was torn down".
Vulgar Veteran: "... way. Ha- Haha."
Gregor: "Tsk. So you recognised me, huh."
Crooked Veteran: "Traitorous pissant..."
Gregor: "Ahh, you must've been dispatched to the front lines too. I look better in real life than on those flyers, right?"
Crooked Veteran: "Cut the cheeky crap! I'm disgusted that I once saluted to your face."
Gregor: "Whoah, easy there, it's not like you had to salute me in person."
Vulgar Veteran: "While you posed as a normal member of society thanks to your dumbass privilege freeing you from the side effects... we never even got a chance, you fraternizer. We were thrown away right after the war was lost."
Gregor: "... I was tossed out all the same, you know. Isn't that how it is for all the soldiers? So this is the lifestyle you chose? Rifling through the trash like actual bugs?"
Outis: "Halt! No good can come out of taunting your foe!"
Gregor: "You served the military too. Y'know where this is going. We're not getting outta this without a fight."
Crooked Veteran: "... we were planning to let you through, we really were."
Vulgar Veteran: "But now, I'll mince you and your traitor friend into mutt meat."
Sinclair: "W-wait, were they?"
Heathcliff: "They've fallen to rock bottom and below, an' I swear down they don't care a whit for honour, eh? Well-off or broke, people turn on each other as long as there's something. You're way too naive to think otherwise."
The scene ends somewhat awkwardly without actually transitioning straight into another fight, because it's time to check out our new surroundings - a dungeon!
Here we are, floor one of our very first dungeon. As you can see we've got a simplified map overlaid on top of a cropped version of the background CG from earlier, denoting various rooms and their purposes with lines of passage through. You move one map square at a time, dealing with whatever encounter is on that square, so on and so forth. What makes it more unique is that we have access to all twelve Sinners, with their health and SP values retained between battles - if a Sinner were to drop dead they would remain dead even after the battle as Faust warned, allowing us to sub in another for them until we reach a rest stop. Generally speaking it's just easier to reset if you lose someone though, seeing as having to build SP back up from 0 is almost always a horrid time. Upside, sin resources are retained all the way through a dungeon, allowing you to use EGO much more freely than you would in normal map node combat.
Anyhoo, to maintain continuity all three paths available to us from the start of the dungeon lead to the same thing, a normal battle (see the single sword map icon) with some G Corp Veterans. These battles aren't noteworthy save the fact they have a stronger Augmented Body passive than their starving above-ground fellows, healing 2hp at turn start if below half health. Being level 4 enemies with total hp pools below 50, this is both more than it sounds and nowhere near enough. Even if I weren't grotesquely overlevelled for this, they'd be dispatched with ease.
Regardless, with the veterans dispatched another scene plays - Gregor lighting up a cigarette and taking a deep drag as the Sinners discuss the precarious position of these G Corp remnants.
Ishmael: "They'd have fared better than this if they got a job at a security company or something..."
Outis: "They spent their entire lives as soldiers. The changes required for them to start a new life must have been overwhelming."
Gregor: "You have no idea how stubbornly the stigma of a fallen Wing's remnants will haunt you. If anyone's generous enough to take you in, licking their boots is the least you can do..."
Yuri: "..."
Yuri: "No, it's fine. I'm sure things were rough with G Corp's fall too.... the breaking of a Wing is a turbulent affair for many people."
Next up we're funnelled into a battle with Abnormalities, as denoted by the lil horned monster icon on the map up above. Specifically these are a brand new subcategory of Abnormality introduced in Limbus Company called the Peccatula
Specifically, Peccatulum Gulae. Fittingly they are very strong against Gluttony attacks and exclusively fire back with Gluttony attacks, but more importantly they're our first introduction to the proper mode of combat in Limbus company and alternative to the Brown's-Cows-brawls of normal battles - focused encounters. In a focused encounter the chain previously dragged across the skill deck vanishes and you are given full control over what exactly each Sinner targets with their skills. This is also where speed comes most into play because once you can target freely, the rules for clashing become much more important.
See here, for example - Faust has rolled a 3 for her speed this turn. The four Peccatula have rolled 3s and 1s, and if she were to target one of the 3-speed Peccatula she would launch a one-sided or upposed attack on that Peccatula either before or after it executed its own attack (I believe in cases of speed ties it's a simple 50/50 who acts first). If she instead, say, targeted that 1-speed Peccatulum on the top left who wants some of Yi Sang's ass, she would force it to switch targets and clash with her instead in what we could interchangably call an interception or redirection.
Now, let's think about this a little deeper. Let's say Yi Sang also aimed an attack at the 1-speed Peccatulum. In fact let's say the entire team decided Fuck This Peccatulum In Particular and all aimed their attacks at it. Then let's have Faust aim her attack at it last, causing her targeting arrow to touch tips with the Peccatulum's. This would mean that upon combat start, the Peccatulum takes four unopposed attacks to the fucking dome before it even had a chance to try and overcome Faust's chosen skill, doubtless either staggering or (more likely given even my base ID sinners are overlevelled) dying outright. The Codex ESGOO names this maneuver 'redirecting downwards' and it's one of many benefits to winning on speed rolls, or better yet inflicting Bind on the enemy, but we'll get to status effects later.
Also it bears mentioning that with a speed range of 5-8 base Ishmael is genuinely the fastest base ID (rivalled only by Yi Sang's 4-8) and is still currently in the highest tier of ID speeds. The sailor lady took the concept of 'sealegs' as a challenge and decided to become Fast As Fuck on land.
Anyhoo, another thing with abnormalities is that they come with an Observation Level. The more times you defeat a given Abnormality the more you fill out its observation level, and the higher your observation level - from 0 to V - the greater the global damage bonus applies to that target. This is only a 3% boost per level to a max of 15%, which is... there, I suppose? As far as player experience it honestly feels like a placebo, but I can hardly complain about free damage. The real meat of Observation Level is that it correspondingly unlocks portions of the Observation Log, reports relevant to the target offering snippets of lore or insight. Naturally I already have most abnos at max observation due to being a launch day account so I'll just throw up their info as they appear.
Observation Log (cont'd): -missing sustenance. Continously shoving things into the mouth, despite being unable to absorb any of it... What an odd creature that was.
A strange and cryptic little story. I'm unsure of what it could mean, as the idea of a 'jungle' existing anywhere remotely near the City feels wrong to me (considering the climate just beyond the city limits appears to be Midgar-esque if I recall the relevant CGs correctly), but then again there was a whole-ass forest in D Corp's district that we started in so maybe there's a fucking jungle somewhere too.
Also, when you click on human enemies it spits out their revealed damage affinities automatically. For the Peccatulum I would have to click on the Body part first, because Abnos can have multiple destructible body parts - but we'll have an opportunity to talk about that more indepth very soon.
After the four Peccatulum are pasted, Yuri remarks aloud that she's never seen such things before in her life.
Narration: Hopkins' face quickly turned into a cold frown. It was in such stark contrast to the face he showed before Vergilius I shuddered in fright.
Yuri: "No, I... well..."
Hopkins: "Don't you know why we bothered to let a fallen Wing's feather into our Office?"
Yuri: "T-to deal with requests taking place in L Corp branches more safely..."
Hopkins: "Exactly. I didn't even expect much from a low-rank agent. Just two simple jobs: lead the way, and tell us how to deal with those Abnormaladies or whatever. Now look... what do you expect us to do with just 'Oh nooo, I've never seen those before!' Huh?"
Aya is significantly more chilled out than Hopkins, and I have to assume co-owner of the Office with him because based on the low-grade Fixer offices seen in Library of Ruina their entire company is probably just These Three Right Here. Even so it's not much comfort to Yuri, at least not until Faust steps in.
Faust: "If they are in fact new to Ms. Yuri, then these might be another type of entity derived from Abnormalities... perhaps a new species.
Yi Sang: "Yuri, there is no reason to lambaste yourself for neglecting to remember what you were never taught."
Hopkins: "Ahem..."
Yuri: "... Thank you, sir."
Heathcliff: "What's there to argue about? All that matters is we beat 'em to death, right?"
Meursault: "Give the word, and we'll do it."
Next choice of two map nodes is yet another pair of Peccatulum battles, this time mixing the Gluttoy lads with Pigritiae (Sloth) or Irae (Wrath) boys. I elect to battle the Sloth ones, but it's really much of a muchness - these are the weakest kind of Peccatula and as such have very little in the way of riders or passives to keep track of. Gulae self-heal a little on hit, Irae inflict Burn, and Pigritiae inflict Bind.
Observation Log (cont'd): And the same could be said of me.
A particularly noteworthy distinction to be made is that these analyses of the low-ranked peccatula are done from this... strange, personal-yet-removed viewpoint with an unclear identity to the narrator. Observation logs are usually not tagged with whoever is commenting, leaving that to be inferred by their choice of wording, but there are clearer senses of 'who where when what why' than is provided here. Curious.
Ryoshu: "... What'd you say?"
Aya: "Oh boy, there goes Hopkins again, being clumsy with his tongue... I'll apologise in his stead~ Heheheh."
Little does Hopkins know that Aya is the only reason his ass is still breathing. And speaking of his ass-
Aya: "What's taking you so long though, Hopkins? Haemorrhoids acting up again?"
Hopkins: "W-what- no I'm not! Dunno what you mean..."
Hopkins stands up and his pockets are so clearly stuffed full of salvage that even Dante notices, but they decide not to cause a fuss about it.
Instead we come to the first rest stop of the dungeon, the Employee Lounge. Faust schmoves in front of Dante the moment they open the door - a likely story, considering her ass' horrid 1-4 speed range. She tells Dante to close their eyes and seek their star again.
Dante: <This star... This one won't hurt, right?>
Faust: "It shouldn't cause you any pain since you're simply locating it."
Narration: Something about the way Faust put that bothered me, but I decided to trust her and block my sight.
Dante: <That's... beautiful. That light... is it only visible to me?>
Faust: "Not quite. Through you, now all of us can see it. Even though we're inside a dungeon, we can now reap the benefits of your ability through the star."
Fun fact: the game randomly selects a CG to display every time you hit a loading screen, based on whatever mainplot scene or Uptie 3 story you viewed last. This specific CG of Dante looking up at the star is the one you always see while loading in from the title screen (which itself changes depending on the season or active event). Unfortunately the Sinners do not share in the magic and wonder of this moment.
Ishmael: "Can you please hurry up with the clock, then? I think I dislocated my shoulder."
Yuri: "The clock? It wasn't just for show?"
Gregor: "That's not all it does. They have a really neat power. You should come and take a look, Yuri."
Dante: <... will no one recognise the pain I endure?>
Being Dantehhh is suffering and it shall continue to be so until further notice.
Rodion: "Ah~ That felt real good."
Case in point.
Aya: "What an amazing clock you've got~ I haven't seen that technology anywhere."
Hopkins: "That has to be on the level of a S-Singularity... What Wing could be responsible..."
See? At least these two appropriately recognise Dante's contributions!
Narration: Hopkins greedily stared at my head. I really tried to ignore it, but looking at his stuffed pockets again...
Rodion: "Dante? Why are you clutching your head like that?"
Dante: <I-it's nothing.>
Okay nevermind. Yi Sang even asks whether Dante can resurrect their guides the same way they can the Sinners, perhaps having noticed the intensity between Hopkins and Dante, only for Faust to bluntly state that -quite obviously- the clock will only work for Sinners.
Aya: "Aw gee~ I s'pose that's for the better. Imagine you're dragged right back to life with a gaping hole in your stomach. Wouldn't that suck? Nah, y'know what, you're lucky if a hole is punched in your gut. You'd be a goner in seconds-"
You see the more you fuck around, the more you're gonna find out.
Outis commands the Sinners to form up and prepare for battle, wary against another tentacle attack from the walls.
Aya: "... What'd I tell you? I've always... been a... lucky girl..."
Yuri: "AYA!!"
Yi Sang: "Her life has departed."
Gregor: "Come, now... You'll have to keep it together, especially in times like these, yeah?"
Yuri: "B-but..."
Faust quickly surmises that such an unconventional attack must have come from an Abnormality. Outis prompts Dante for commands. Yuri is still in tears at Aya's death, looking between the Sinners and the corpse and back again, and pity distracts Dante momentarily. The knowledge that their guides are the few Dante can't revive spurs them on, and they order the Sinners to meet the Abnormality in combat to prevent more permanent deaths.
Every time she makes this face she's a 10/10 character
Hopkins asks how Outis can make sense of the ticking, only to receive a glare so fiery Outis was honestly probably going to tell him to kill himself before she remembered that she's got a job to do. She once again shouts for the "lackeys" to form up and target the foe ahead of them.
Our first ever proper Abnormality battle, let's go!
Ebony Queen's Apple
As you can see the sin resources we've accumulated naturally by killing our way here in the first place have been retained, allowing us to have access to certain EGO and passives right off the bat if we wish. Also don't look at Yi Sang, he got an alternative ZAYIN class EGO this season that I forgor to strip off him with all the rest when I assembled this 'story' team. This is as good a time as any to mention that while physical affinities are set according to the Sinner's equipped ID, their sin affinities are set via which EGO they used last, and their equipped ZAYIN-class EGO determines what affinities they show up with in the first place. So Yi Sang's resistances are a lil different for now but it won't matter.
Next, body parts! Abnormalities have multiple body parts, each with their own damage affinities, speed ranges, and health pools. The Abnormality itself has a master health pool known as 'core' health which is depleted every time a body part is damaged, which has the unique effect of making AoE EGO particularly effective against them owing to effectively dealing double or more damage for the price of one activation. This is why Abnormalities tend to have parts with higher Slot Weight, such that something like Representation Emitter would target the Roots 'twice' and then another random part once. These targetable body parts also have their own independent Stagger thresholds, and when their health is fully depleted there can be a range of effects up to and including breaking the part entirely, whether temporarily (tagged 'Destructible') or permanently (tagged 'Severable'). A severed body part obviously can no longer be targeted, but also can no longer use any attacks, while destroyed body parts will cause the core to take greatly increased damage until they have a chance to regrow.
Next, status effects. Ebony Queen's Apple is quite the nasty wakeup call of a fight if you're a truly fresh account, because she rolls up with a serious problem in the form of combining partywide Bind with Attack Power Up. Let's do a sidebar on some 'generic' status effects now while they're relevant;
The Roots will use Root Spike every turn, utterly overwhelming anything but EGO - and even then probably most base EGOs coming from a fresh at-level party - as she picks apart the team. In order to restore their speed the Sinners must break the roots, but how are they to break the roots if they're so powerful? Well, they have a few options. One is to go Gorilla Mode and beat on the roots as much as possible, sacrificing whoever they target to the whims of whatever defensive skill they have active, as the roots do have two Stagger thresholds placed decently apart to take advantage of. They can also focus on the arms, which have much weaker and more easily clashed attacks, to build up SP and finally sever them for good in order to depower the roots. There's also the Fruit, which does nothing but guard every turn - should you give in to curiosity and attack it anyway seeking to destroy it, good news! On destruction it applies 2 next-turn Fragile to all body parts, greatly boosting your chances of staggering/severing a part before it can do serious damage.
I could just unga it down, as my level advantage gives me the sheer Offence Level to clash with the Roots anyway, but in the interests of playing along I mainly go for the head and arms to dismantle the Queen piece by piece.
Pictured: Greg using his s3, obscured by the swooshy effects. Most attacks use a horizontal vignette effect, and even resolve multiple attacks/clashes simultaneously in normal encounters where speed ranges and order of operations allow. Focused encounters like this show all clashes one at a time, but both kinds of encounters halt all the action and zoom in real close when a Sinner uses their s3. This particular angled vignette effect is unique to the use of a skill 3, and Greg's art cut-in up there is happening because he flipped heads on his second coin. Generally speaking blows will land with a particularly meaty, satisfying impact on heads hit compared to tails (or vice versa with a reverse coin skill) and some IDs even have different combat barks depending on a skill coin's result. All this to say woo gregor go babygirl give us that hot 17 damage sorry babe I know she's pierce-resist but it's fine.
In any case we deal enough damage that round to push the Queen's Apple to trigger another new mechanic - skillcheck events!
Narration: Yet, someone has to pull up these thorny roots, as there is no wound that can remain unearthed. The Sinners gave each other looks. Being coiled in piercing, sharp pain was something to avoid even in one's dreams.
Skill checks offer advantage (a lower DC) to certain sin affinities, but can be attempted by any Sinner in the active team. I genuinely have no idea how it picks which skill to use for a skill check, I've seen skill 2s and 3s used with no particular rhyme or reason, but generally speaking you wanna set yourself up to win these because they see a lot of use and they usually have some pretty good rewards for passing. I ultimately chose Faust to do the deed, as with a base power of 6 her s3 was able to beat the DC even if she hadn't flipped all heads.
Narration: Faust walked with shaky steps. With bare hands, they dug up the roots. In their hands were the doubts of others. The Sinner realised... That while the injury may heal, distrust might take deep root in their heart.
With this the effects of Entangling Roots are removed with the Roots body part only Staggered at half-health rather than destroyed entirely. I elect to finish the job entirely with the help of Ryoshu's s2, which deals bonus damage on both coins so long as the target already took damage that turn. This damage boost is enough to push her over the line to breaking the Roots entirely, and with a piddling 65 core health left I send in the clowns to finish the job.
Pictured: base Ishmael's s3, Shield Bash. It has a unique animation flourish where after winnng a clash the target will perform another generic attack animation, which Ishmael blocks with her shield before shattering all their bones. This also inflicts same-turn Blunt Fragility (remember what I said about specific types of fragility?) but this team both isn't set up to take advantage nor in need of the extra 10% damage.
The Ebony Queen's Stem falls in a spray of blood - not as a corpse, but as this egg made of twisted bleached roots, set with the Abnormality's amethyst broach. We'll be talking about what that means exactly in just a moment!
With the fight over, Heathcliff has only one question.
Yeah no kidding dude that shit was risk level WAW that's literally the penultimate threat level not 'gets shit pushed in by level 5 losers'.
Ishmael: "I heard Abnormalities were supposed to be so powerful that even suppressing them is a dangerous task..."
Faust: "It's the Qliphoth Deterrance in action.
Heathcliff: "Huh? Coffee pots?"
The way Hong Seung-hyo says "huh? co-pe-pot?" is hilarious, even not understanding Korean I love the vocal performances in this game a whole awful lot.
Faust: "... a force that weakens Abnormalities. Its original purpose is to safely supervise them in containment. As we continue our assignment in collecting more Golden Boughs, the deterrence will weaken as well. Although this was a simple battle..."
Ishmael: "... later on, one of them might take our lives more than a hundredfold to handle it."
No kidding, Dante.
Dante: <... Where'd its corpse go, anyway? I'm pretty sure that attack did it in...>
Outis: "It was felled without a doubt. All thanks to your exceptional command, Manager."
Dante: <It couldn't have disappeared into the sky...>
I'm gonna shit my pants, "yes manager of course it only makes sense to consider whether it flew into fucking orbit", love you Outis
Gregor: "... is the tough-looking ceiling above us not a thing to you two?"
Yuri, hardly in the mood to partake in japery and tomfoolery at present, points over at the fallen egg of the Ebony Queen's Stem. Faust identifies it as the Abnormality's core, reduced to a condensed 'ovate' form when 'suppressed via appropriate measures' (read: beat it with sticks until it falls over) - and Yuri clarifies that once enough time has passed, it'll hatch.
Faust: "Abnormalities simply cannot die. It's one of the factors that contributed to L corp's massive energy production."
So you're probably thinking at this point 'hey wait a second what about the Peccatula?' And you would be right to think that, as Peccatula are not reduced to eggs when defeated, and instead are turned to paste like most anything that gets killed in this game. That's because Faust wasn't blowing smoke up Yuri's ass when she said that Peccatula could be a new breed of entity. What are they, exactly? What are the implications of their existence? Don't worry about it!
Anyway, Limbus Company isn't unprepared for this, what with the job description being delving into fallen L Corp branch offices and all. The company has a larger and more extensive organisational structure than just a dirty dozen assholes on a bus committing vehicular manslaughter across the City; Dante is the Executive of LCB (presumably 'Limbus Company - Bus'), but there's also the Before Team (LCCB) and the After Team (I forgor their acronym). Yuri is already faintly aware of the After Team, having heard them mentioned in orientation, and it's this After Team who will sweep through after the Sinners are done to collect any Abnormality eggs left lying around so they can be contained properly (and presumably harvested for Enkephalin again, as the fall of Lobcorp hasn't stopped them from doing shit with the funny green juice).
Rodion: "What's stopping you from calling them now?"
Faust: "The transmission device... is on Mephistopheles."
Gregor: "Figures."
Womp womp
Quickly before the jump, let's do some cleanup of the Ebony Queen's Stem battle courtesy of the wiki (limbuscompany.wiki.gg not that Fandom cancer). Firstly, there's a second event that triggers after the Fruit has been broken once and subsequently reduced to 50% health after regenerating.
Narration: The Sinners peered at its face. They gazed upon the weathered memories within... Down to the holes left by pests. An apple does not culminate when it ripens to a glossy red. When the apple browns, cracks, shrivels, and attracts lowly creatures... That is when is when it has met its golden bliss. The Sinners knew now was the time to bring the apple to earth.
[Pride Advantage check]
Narration: [Sinner] brought the apple to the ground. The fall left a dull thud. The fruit was emptied of its lifeblood long ago; only futility remained. This attack allowed the Sinners a brief moment of respite.
The reward for this one is practically an 'I Win' button, as it instantly breaks the Fruit part while Staggering every part of Ebony Queen's Stem at once.
I wonder why the very first Abnormality we face in this dungeon, in this Canto, has so much emphasis placed on the idea of a rotting apple? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Next, let's take a look at the full Observation Logs.
Observation Log (First Clear): Recording the information gained from an encounter with the entity. <Company Rules> Article 11, Paragraph 2 states that I am to categorize it as an Abnormality. When first faced with the Sinners, the Abnormality showed no signs of hostility. Instead, it initiated direct communication through the psyche. Out of all the languages I knew, the Abnormality appeared to use my most commonly spoken one. I did not see any sound-producing organs such as the mouth or vocal cords in motion. "Bring Snow White." This is what the Abnormality said. A report on the former L Corp. I analyzed after disengagement suggests that it has a connection with F-04-42. In addition, I discovered a corpse that seemed to belong to the staff that arrived here before us for preliminary investigation. Their ID confirmed that they were from the Operations Planning department, so we retrieved the remains and left the scene before a battle could break out. Concluding the report.
First I'm hearing about this psychic communication shit, Faust! The writer of the report most likely being Faust based on the 'out of all the languages I knew' comment and the generally formal, clinical wording of the report. I wonder if this psychic message reached Dante too, just offscreen, or they were excluded.
Observation Log (Level 1): Recording the information gained from encountering the entity in battle. <Company Rules> Article 11, Paragraph 3 states that I am to designate its risk level as WAW. This is based on the managerial procedures retrieved from the branch facility. I will describe its behavior during combat. It attacks using growths of vines. It wraps its vines around itself as well, forming a shape that resembles a dress; it is possible that it believes itself to be a "noble". Its vines are used in a variety of ways, such as persistently stabbing one Sinner and rising from the floor to injure multiple Sinners. In addition, its sturdy exterior made it difficult to damage. In one battle where many Sinners were lost, we managed to remove one of its arms. (As I could most aptly describe.) I found then that it could no longer perform the attack that targeted every Sinner. I will record any additional discoveries I observe in future encounters. Concluding the report.
In fact this is as good a time as any to talk about Risk Level, as it's a thing introduced in LobCorp which kind of skipped a game in terms of relevance but is now back in full force with Limbus Company. The five risk levels are ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW and ALEPH in that order. These are based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (zayin, tet, he, waw/vav and alef natch), as the series has kind of a Thing with Jewish mysticism - in case the phrase 'Qliphot Deterrance' didn't clue you in - and has a particular fondness for the Sefirot. That part is of lesser prominence in Limbus compared to Lobcorp and Ruina, but we'll see it here and there eventually.
Observation Log (Level 2): Recording an additional significant discovery. We were able to remove its head during an encounter. While we did not initially consider the head a target as its height was considerably higher than the Sinners' reach, Heathcliff's unstoppable advance provided a helpful clue. We were able to successfully destroy the head. Although Heathcliff's head was destroyed as well, it should be a negligible loss as it is a renewable asset. It continued to move and attack despite the lack of a head, but we found that its exterior significantly softened. Removing its "limbs" became a much more manageable task. Even though the head grew back after a period of time, the removal of its arms and legs in the meantime freed us from the threat of powerful attacks for the rest of the operation. Concluding the report.
Fucking lmao at Heathcliff catching a random stray in the reports one last time.
What awaits them is not a pleasant sight.
Sinclair: "Urk... the smell... it's awful..."
Yi Sang: "Mmm... I can feel the waste collecting in my lungs. The odor is so intense, it winds back to refreshing."
Yi Sang what.
Anyway, Faust reminds the gang that if they die down here Dante won't be able to resurrect them as easily as usual. I don't understand why exactly, like obviously in gameplay terms dead Sinners stay dead until you reach the next rest zone in a dungeon but it's unclear why that applies in-universe. Hopkins wonders what the hell Faust meant by that, but Aya decides it's a weird meme going around the City and Dante decides if Faust won't correct them they won't either (perhaps momentarily forgetting they can't say shit to normal people anyway). Instead Dante takes another look at the corpses visible lying around in the background CG.
Dante: <Looks like they probably died a while ago.>
Outis: "An astute observation, Manager. The corpses have reached the stage of active decay."
Rodion: "Bleh, looks like the bugs are having a feast over there."
Gregor: "... let's just hurry along."
Rodion: "Huh... Something up, Gregor babe? Are you scared of bugs?"
Rodion: "Boo!!!"
Gregor: "But just in case one of y- GAH! Put it away! What's so funny about this?!"
Choi Han's delivery here is hysterical, I love Gregor. Rodion has herself a good laugh at Greg's expense, astonished that he of all people would be afraid of some bugs... only for the laughter to die as she realises Gregor's taking it much harder than she anticipated. Gregor brushes it off, and Outis admonishes Rodion for fucking around. Meanwhile Faust and Yi Sang are examining the bodies - here they realise that some of the bodies are still warm, indicating a much more recent attack. Yuri's initially darkened expression clears at this.
Not as far out from her time at L Corp than she thought, it seems
Ishmael: "I heard these buried facilities are considered pure goldmines now, attracting all sorts looking for riches. Phrases like the 'Lobotomy Dream' or the 'Enkephalin Rush' are apparently starting to catch on among Fixers and Syndicates."
Ryoshu: "LD. E-Rush... Got a nice ring to it..."
Ishmael: "Sigh, that's what you have to say after keeping quiet for so long...?"
An already funny exchange made hilarious by remembering that Ryoshu randomly decapitated Ishmael like an hour ago and nobody's allowed to talk about that. Interestingly, Yi Sang interjects.
Yi Sang: "Is such a frivolous use of English not prone to blurring the original meaning?"
Ishmael: "That's what I'm sayi-"
Ishmael: "Huh, you seem to be talking a lot more than usual, Yi Sang?"
Yi Sang: "Does that reflect strangely?"
Faust: "He was never really the quiet sort. He only had a... shift recently."
It's interesting to see this seeded here, so early on. There are multitudes conained within Faust's one line there, but sadly I'll have to wait until all the way in Canto IV to elaborate. Suffice it to say, Faust isn't kidding.
Outis: "It's not a bad thing to have more lackeys with keen eyes. I'd like you to keep that up. Let us march."
Yi Sang: "You make yourself look like the captain here. I dare say that role belongs to the manager."
At which point Yi Sang calls Outis on deciding she's General Limbus sight unseen so she whips around and bows to Dante while begging forgiveness for her insolence like Ichiban dolphin-diving over the counter at a shareholder's meeting in LAD 7 god she's the best. Dante awkwardly brushes her off so they can all head down to the next level, where another bloody rusted corridor full of corpses awaits - because what Silent Hill considers a hellish otherworld is just weekend overtime in The City.
Narration: Most of the corpses' body parts were morphed in bizarre ways. One had pairs of wings protruding through their intestines, and another had horribly twisted antennae hanging down.
Ishmael: "You mean those bug-headed people?"
Outis: "Quiet. I'm seeing Uniform Tangos ahead."
Outis cautions the party at the sight of some figures up ahead and this time all obey, albeit with a whispered conversation between Rodion and Gregor where he explains Outis is using military alphabet to refer to Unidentified Targets. I also realise that I really need to turn off notifications when I take screenshots for this LP because the exchange is broken up by Steam telling me all about how Omi is getting back into Baldur's Gate 3.
In any case, Dante frets about the possibility that the figures are some of those 'Abnormalities' Faust mentioned earlier, and Outis notes with a sense of grim resignation that the narrow confines of the facility offer them no other option besides forcing their way through. The group moves forward and are hailed, not by Abnormalities, but by humans. This, Dante's narration notes, does not make it the better option.
Vulgar Veteran: "Did they slip past our team at the entrance? Those scavengers keep coming one after the other."
Heathcliff: "Oi, bug buggers! You friends with the bodies back there?"
Dante: <heathcliff there had to be a better way to say that.>
Vulgar Veteran: "Bodies?! You bastards didn't..."
Crooked Veteran: "Wait. I don't know where you scum're from, but hear me out a sec. You're here for the Enkephalin, aren't ya? If you go just one floor down, there's a treasure trove just waiting to be nabbed. Whatever's on that floor is yours. We'll just take what we can here and be on our..."
The Crooked Veteran trails off and the Vulgar Veteran steps in to finish his sentence with a dry, mirthless chuckle as he recognises that oh so famous face. For "the moment the soldier's eyes landed on Gregor's face, their thin veil of kindness was torn down".
Vulgar Veteran: "... way. Ha- Haha."
Gregor: "Tsk. So you recognised me, huh."
Crooked Veteran: "Traitorous pissant..."
Gregor: "Ahh, you must've been dispatched to the front lines too. I look better in real life than on those flyers, right?"
Crooked Veteran: "Cut the cheeky crap! I'm disgusted that I once saluted to your face."
Gregor: "Whoah, easy there, it's not like you had to salute me in person."
Vulgar Veteran: "While you posed as a normal member of society thanks to your dumbass privilege freeing you from the side effects... we never even got a chance, you fraternizer. We were thrown away right after the war was lost."
Gregor: "... I was tossed out all the same, you know. Isn't that how it is for all the soldiers? So this is the lifestyle you chose? Rifling through the trash like actual bugs?"
Outis: "Halt! No good can come out of taunting your foe!"
Gregor: "You served the military too. Y'know where this is going. We're not getting outta this without a fight."
Crooked Veteran: "... we were planning to let you through, we really were."
Vulgar Veteran: "But now, I'll mince you and your traitor friend into mutt meat."
Sinclair: "W-wait, were they?"
Heathcliff: "They've fallen to rock bottom and below, an' I swear down they don't care a whit for honour, eh? Well-off or broke, people turn on each other as long as there's something. You're way too naive to think otherwise."
The scene ends somewhat awkwardly without actually transitioning straight into another fight, because it's time to check out our new surroundings - a dungeon!
Here we are, floor one of our very first dungeon. As you can see we've got a simplified map overlaid on top of a cropped version of the background CG from earlier, denoting various rooms and their purposes with lines of passage through. You move one map square at a time, dealing with whatever encounter is on that square, so on and so forth. What makes it more unique is that we have access to all twelve Sinners, with their health and SP values retained between battles - if a Sinner were to drop dead they would remain dead even after the battle as Faust warned, allowing us to sub in another for them until we reach a rest stop. Generally speaking it's just easier to reset if you lose someone though, seeing as having to build SP back up from 0 is almost always a horrid time. Upside, sin resources are retained all the way through a dungeon, allowing you to use EGO much more freely than you would in normal map node combat.
Anyhoo, to maintain continuity all three paths available to us from the start of the dungeon lead to the same thing, a normal battle (see the single sword map icon) with some G Corp Veterans. These battles aren't noteworthy save the fact they have a stronger Augmented Body passive than their starving above-ground fellows, healing 2hp at turn start if below half health. Being level 4 enemies with total hp pools below 50, this is both more than it sounds and nowhere near enough. Even if I weren't grotesquely overlevelled for this, they'd be dispatched with ease.
Regardless, with the veterans dispatched another scene plays - Gregor lighting up a cigarette and taking a deep drag as the Sinners discuss the precarious position of these G Corp remnants.
Ishmael: "They'd have fared better than this if they got a job at a security company or something..."
Outis: "They spent their entire lives as soldiers. The changes required for them to start a new life must have been overwhelming."
Gregor: "You have no idea how stubbornly the stigma of a fallen Wing's remnants will haunt you. If anyone's generous enough to take you in, licking their boots is the least you can do..."
Yuri: "..."
Yuri: "No, it's fine. I'm sure things were rough with G Corp's fall too.... the breaking of a Wing is a turbulent affair for many people."
Next up we're funnelled into a battle with Abnormalities, as denoted by the lil horned monster icon on the map up above. Specifically these are a brand new subcategory of Abnormality introduced in Limbus Company called the Peccatula
Specifically, Peccatulum Gulae. Fittingly they are very strong against Gluttony attacks and exclusively fire back with Gluttony attacks, but more importantly they're our first introduction to the proper mode of combat in Limbus company and alternative to the Brown's-Cows-brawls of normal battles - focused encounters. In a focused encounter the chain previously dragged across the skill deck vanishes and you are given full control over what exactly each Sinner targets with their skills. This is also where speed comes most into play because once you can target freely, the rules for clashing become much more important.
See here, for example - Faust has rolled a 3 for her speed this turn. The four Peccatula have rolled 3s and 1s, and if she were to target one of the 3-speed Peccatula she would launch a one-sided or upposed attack on that Peccatula either before or after it executed its own attack (I believe in cases of speed ties it's a simple 50/50 who acts first). If she instead, say, targeted that 1-speed Peccatulum on the top left who wants some of Yi Sang's ass, she would force it to switch targets and clash with her instead in what we could interchangably call an interception or redirection.
Now, let's think about this a little deeper. Let's say Yi Sang also aimed an attack at the 1-speed Peccatulum. In fact let's say the entire team decided Fuck This Peccatulum In Particular and all aimed their attacks at it. Then let's have Faust aim her attack at it last, causing her targeting arrow to touch tips with the Peccatulum's. This would mean that upon combat start, the Peccatulum takes four unopposed attacks to the fucking dome before it even had a chance to try and overcome Faust's chosen skill, doubtless either staggering or (more likely given even my base ID sinners are overlevelled) dying outright. The Codex ESGOO names this maneuver 'redirecting downwards' and it's one of many benefits to winning on speed rolls, or better yet inflicting Bind on the enemy, but we'll get to status effects later.
Also it bears mentioning that with a speed range of 5-8 base Ishmael is genuinely the fastest base ID (rivalled only by Yi Sang's 4-8) and is still currently in the highest tier of ID speeds. The sailor lady took the concept of 'sealegs' as a challenge and decided to become Fast As Fuck on land.
Anyhoo, another thing with abnormalities is that they come with an Observation Level. The more times you defeat a given Abnormality the more you fill out its observation level, and the higher your observation level - from 0 to V - the greater the global damage bonus applies to that target. This is only a 3% boost per level to a max of 15%, which is... there, I suppose? As far as player experience it honestly feels like a placebo, but I can hardly complain about free damage. The real meat of Observation Level is that it correspondingly unlocks portions of the Observation Log, reports relevant to the target offering snippets of lore or insight. Naturally I already have most abnos at max observation due to being a launch day account so I'll just throw up their info as they appear.
Observation Log (cont'd): -missing sustenance. Continously shoving things into the mouth, despite being unable to absorb any of it... What an odd creature that was.
A strange and cryptic little story. I'm unsure of what it could mean, as the idea of a 'jungle' existing anywhere remotely near the City feels wrong to me (considering the climate just beyond the city limits appears to be Midgar-esque if I recall the relevant CGs correctly), but then again there was a whole-ass forest in D Corp's district that we started in so maybe there's a fucking jungle somewhere too.
Also, when you click on human enemies it spits out their revealed damage affinities automatically. For the Peccatulum I would have to click on the Body part first, because Abnos can have multiple destructible body parts - but we'll have an opportunity to talk about that more indepth very soon.
After the four Peccatulum are pasted, Yuri remarks aloud that she's never seen such things before in her life.
Narration: Hopkins' face quickly turned into a cold frown. It was in such stark contrast to the face he showed before Vergilius I shuddered in fright.
Yuri: "No, I... well..."
Hopkins: "Don't you know why we bothered to let a fallen Wing's feather into our Office?"
Yuri: "T-to deal with requests taking place in L Corp branches more safely..."
Hopkins: "Exactly. I didn't even expect much from a low-rank agent. Just two simple jobs: lead the way, and tell us how to deal with those Abnormaladies or whatever. Now look... what do you expect us to do with just 'Oh nooo, I've never seen those before!' Huh?"
Aya is significantly more chilled out than Hopkins, and I have to assume co-owner of the Office with him because based on the low-grade Fixer offices seen in Library of Ruina their entire company is probably just These Three Right Here. Even so it's not much comfort to Yuri, at least not until Faust steps in.
Faust: "If they are in fact new to Ms. Yuri, then these might be another type of entity derived from Abnormalities... perhaps a new species.
Yi Sang: "Yuri, there is no reason to lambaste yourself for neglecting to remember what you were never taught."
Hopkins: "Ahem..."
Yuri: "... Thank you, sir."
Heathcliff: "What's there to argue about? All that matters is we beat 'em to death, right?"
Meursault: "Give the word, and we'll do it."
Next choice of two map nodes is yet another pair of Peccatulum battles, this time mixing the Gluttoy lads with Pigritiae (Sloth) or Irae (Wrath) boys. I elect to battle the Sloth ones, but it's really much of a muchness - these are the weakest kind of Peccatula and as such have very little in the way of riders or passives to keep track of. Gulae self-heal a little on hit, Irae inflict Burn, and Pigritiae inflict Bind.
Observation Log (cont'd): And the same could be said of me.
A particularly noteworthy distinction to be made is that these analyses of the low-ranked peccatula are done from this... strange, personal-yet-removed viewpoint with an unclear identity to the narrator. Observation logs are usually not tagged with whoever is commenting, leaving that to be inferred by their choice of wording, but there are clearer senses of 'who where when what why' than is provided here. Curious.
Ryoshu: "... What'd you say?"
Aya: "Oh boy, there goes Hopkins again, being clumsy with his tongue... I'll apologise in his stead~ Heheheh."
Little does Hopkins know that Aya is the only reason his ass is still breathing. And speaking of his ass-
Aya: "What's taking you so long though, Hopkins? Haemorrhoids acting up again?"
Hopkins: "W-what- no I'm not! Dunno what you mean..."
Hopkins stands up and his pockets are so clearly stuffed full of salvage that even Dante notices, but they decide not to cause a fuss about it.
Instead we come to the first rest stop of the dungeon, the Employee Lounge. Faust schmoves in front of Dante the moment they open the door - a likely story, considering her ass' horrid 1-4 speed range. She tells Dante to close their eyes and seek their star again.
Dante: <This star... This one won't hurt, right?>
Faust: "It shouldn't cause you any pain since you're simply locating it."
Narration: Something about the way Faust put that bothered me, but I decided to trust her and block my sight.
Dante: <That's... beautiful. That light... is it only visible to me?>
Faust: "Not quite. Through you, now all of us can see it. Even though we're inside a dungeon, we can now reap the benefits of your ability through the star."
Fun fact: the game randomly selects a CG to display every time you hit a loading screen, based on whatever mainplot scene or Uptie 3 story you viewed last. This specific CG of Dante looking up at the star is the one you always see while loading in from the title screen (which itself changes depending on the season or active event). Unfortunately the Sinners do not share in the magic and wonder of this moment.
Ishmael: "Can you please hurry up with the clock, then? I think I dislocated my shoulder."
Yuri: "The clock? It wasn't just for show?"
Gregor: "That's not all it does. They have a really neat power. You should come and take a look, Yuri."
Dante: <... will no one recognise the pain I endure?>
Being Dantehhh is suffering and it shall continue to be so until further notice.
Rodion: "Ah~ That felt real good."
Case in point.
Aya: "What an amazing clock you've got~ I haven't seen that technology anywhere."
Hopkins: "That has to be on the level of a S-Singularity... What Wing could be responsible..."
See? At least these two appropriately recognise Dante's contributions!
Narration: Hopkins greedily stared at my head. I really tried to ignore it, but looking at his stuffed pockets again...
Rodion: "Dante? Why are you clutching your head like that?"
Dante: <I-it's nothing.>
Okay nevermind. Yi Sang even asks whether Dante can resurrect their guides the same way they can the Sinners, perhaps having noticed the intensity between Hopkins and Dante, only for Faust to bluntly state that -quite obviously- the clock will only work for Sinners.
Aya: "Aw gee~ I s'pose that's for the better. Imagine you're dragged right back to life with a gaping hole in your stomach. Wouldn't that suck? Nah, y'know what, you're lucky if a hole is punched in your gut. You'd be a goner in seconds-"
You see the more you fuck around, the more you're gonna find out.
Outis commands the Sinners to form up and prepare for battle, wary against another tentacle attack from the walls.
Aya: "... What'd I tell you? I've always... been a... lucky girl..."
Yuri: "AYA!!"
Yi Sang: "Her life has departed."
Gregor: "Come, now... You'll have to keep it together, especially in times like these, yeah?"
Yuri: "B-but..."
Faust quickly surmises that such an unconventional attack must have come from an Abnormality. Outis prompts Dante for commands. Yuri is still in tears at Aya's death, looking between the Sinners and the corpse and back again, and pity distracts Dante momentarily. The knowledge that their guides are the few Dante can't revive spurs them on, and they order the Sinners to meet the Abnormality in combat to prevent more permanent deaths.
Every time she makes this face she's a 10/10 character
Hopkins asks how Outis can make sense of the ticking, only to receive a glare so fiery Outis was honestly probably going to tell him to kill himself before she remembered that she's got a job to do. She once again shouts for the "lackeys" to form up and target the foe ahead of them.
Our first ever proper Abnormality battle, let's go!
Ebony Queen's Apple
As you can see the sin resources we've accumulated naturally by killing our way here in the first place have been retained, allowing us to have access to certain EGO and passives right off the bat if we wish. Also don't look at Yi Sang, he got an alternative ZAYIN class EGO this season that I forgor to strip off him with all the rest when I assembled this 'story' team. This is as good a time as any to mention that while physical affinities are set according to the Sinner's equipped ID, their sin affinities are set via which EGO they used last, and their equipped ZAYIN-class EGO determines what affinities they show up with in the first place. So Yi Sang's resistances are a lil different for now but it won't matter.
Next, body parts! Abnormalities have multiple body parts, each with their own damage affinities, speed ranges, and health pools. The Abnormality itself has a master health pool known as 'core' health which is depleted every time a body part is damaged, which has the unique effect of making AoE EGO particularly effective against them owing to effectively dealing double or more damage for the price of one activation. This is why Abnormalities tend to have parts with higher Slot Weight, such that something like Representation Emitter would target the Roots 'twice' and then another random part once. These targetable body parts also have their own independent Stagger thresholds, and when their health is fully depleted there can be a range of effects up to and including breaking the part entirely, whether temporarily (tagged 'Destructible') or permanently (tagged 'Severable'). A severed body part obviously can no longer be targeted, but also can no longer use any attacks, while destroyed body parts will cause the core to take greatly increased damage until they have a chance to regrow.
Next, status effects. Ebony Queen's Apple is quite the nasty wakeup call of a fight if you're a truly fresh account, because she rolls up with a serious problem in the form of combining partywide Bind with Attack Power Up. Let's do a sidebar on some 'generic' status effects now while they're relevant;
- Attack Power Up/Down: Increases or decreases the base value of an attack skill by the corresponding amount. This means that Ebony Queen's Apple's rather nasty Pride attack Root Spike, which naturally rolls 4+5 for a ceiling of 11, is actually rolling 8+5 for a ceiling of 15, a very tall order for an on-level team of mostly base IDs starting at 0 SP. Note that only her Roots body part has this 4 ATK Power Up, which you can see by clicking on the Abnormality and then on the Roots body part.
- Offence Level Up/Down: Increases or decreases the target's Offence Level by the corresponding amount. This modifies clash power and final damage dealt, though the former of course only truly kicks in so long as the modified amount is another 3 points higher or lower than who they're clashing with - eg Ebony Queen's Apple is level 6 with an Offence Level modifier of +1, so her Offence Level is 7 which a level 5 ID with a -1 Offence Level modifier would have -1 Clash Power against (isn't it sad Greg) because their final Offence Level of 4 is 3 lower than the Queen's. But if Faust whacked the Queen with her s2 it would be reduced to 4 next turn, causing Greg to clash equally with her.
- Bind: Reduces the sufferer's Speed by 1 this round, to a minimum of 1. A sufficiently slow target is an almost helpless target, as having full control over who clashes with it when is incredibly powerful for the reasons I outlined earlier with the Gulae. However Ebony Queen's Apple has woeful speed ranges of 1-2 or 1-3 on all its parts, meaning that because I accidentally brought some of the fastest base IDs only meaning to represent the major players of the Canto it's just not even a problem in this situation.
- Fragile: Causes the target to take 10% more final damage for a turn. This is a powerful and honestly kind of depreciated status, as most modern IDs inflict much more specific kinds of fragility to encourage certain synergies, but it's particularly applicable here thanks to the Queen's passives.
The Roots will use Root Spike every turn, utterly overwhelming anything but EGO - and even then probably most base EGOs coming from a fresh at-level party - as she picks apart the team. In order to restore their speed the Sinners must break the roots, but how are they to break the roots if they're so powerful? Well, they have a few options. One is to go Gorilla Mode and beat on the roots as much as possible, sacrificing whoever they target to the whims of whatever defensive skill they have active, as the roots do have two Stagger thresholds placed decently apart to take advantage of. They can also focus on the arms, which have much weaker and more easily clashed attacks, to build up SP and finally sever them for good in order to depower the roots. There's also the Fruit, which does nothing but guard every turn - should you give in to curiosity and attack it anyway seeking to destroy it, good news! On destruction it applies 2 next-turn Fragile to all body parts, greatly boosting your chances of staggering/severing a part before it can do serious damage.
I could just unga it down, as my level advantage gives me the sheer Offence Level to clash with the Roots anyway, but in the interests of playing along I mainly go for the head and arms to dismantle the Queen piece by piece.
Pictured: Greg using his s3, obscured by the swooshy effects. Most attacks use a horizontal vignette effect, and even resolve multiple attacks/clashes simultaneously in normal encounters where speed ranges and order of operations allow. Focused encounters like this show all clashes one at a time, but both kinds of encounters halt all the action and zoom in real close when a Sinner uses their s3. This particular angled vignette effect is unique to the use of a skill 3, and Greg's art cut-in up there is happening because he flipped heads on his second coin. Generally speaking blows will land with a particularly meaty, satisfying impact on heads hit compared to tails (or vice versa with a reverse coin skill) and some IDs even have different combat barks depending on a skill coin's result. All this to say woo gregor go babygirl give us that hot 17 damage sorry babe I know she's pierce-resist but it's fine.
In any case we deal enough damage that round to push the Queen's Apple to trigger another new mechanic - skillcheck events!
Narration: Yet, someone has to pull up these thorny roots, as there is no wound that can remain unearthed. The Sinners gave each other looks. Being coiled in piercing, sharp pain was something to avoid even in one's dreams.
Skill checks offer advantage (a lower DC) to certain sin affinities, but can be attempted by any Sinner in the active team. I genuinely have no idea how it picks which skill to use for a skill check, I've seen skill 2s and 3s used with no particular rhyme or reason, but generally speaking you wanna set yourself up to win these because they see a lot of use and they usually have some pretty good rewards for passing. I ultimately chose Faust to do the deed, as with a base power of 6 her s3 was able to beat the DC even if she hadn't flipped all heads.
Narration: Faust walked with shaky steps. With bare hands, they dug up the roots. In their hands were the doubts of others. The Sinner realised... That while the injury may heal, distrust might take deep root in their heart.
With this the effects of Entangling Roots are removed with the Roots body part only Staggered at half-health rather than destroyed entirely. I elect to finish the job entirely with the help of Ryoshu's s2, which deals bonus damage on both coins so long as the target already took damage that turn. This damage boost is enough to push her over the line to breaking the Roots entirely, and with a piddling 65 core health left I send in the clowns to finish the job.
Pictured: base Ishmael's s3, Shield Bash. It has a unique animation flourish where after winnng a clash the target will perform another generic attack animation, which Ishmael blocks with her shield before shattering all their bones. This also inflicts same-turn Blunt Fragility (remember what I said about specific types of fragility?) but this team both isn't set up to take advantage nor in need of the extra 10% damage.
The Ebony Queen's Stem falls in a spray of blood - not as a corpse, but as this egg made of twisted bleached roots, set with the Abnormality's amethyst broach. We'll be talking about what that means exactly in just a moment!
With the fight over, Heathcliff has only one question.
Yeah no kidding dude that shit was risk level WAW that's literally the penultimate threat level not 'gets shit pushed in by level 5 losers'.
Ishmael: "I heard Abnormalities were supposed to be so powerful that even suppressing them is a dangerous task..."
Faust: "It's the Qliphoth Deterrance in action.
Heathcliff: "Huh? Coffee pots?"
The way Hong Seung-hyo says "huh? co-pe-pot?" is hilarious, even not understanding Korean I love the vocal performances in this game a whole awful lot.
Faust: "... a force that weakens Abnormalities. Its original purpose is to safely supervise them in containment. As we continue our assignment in collecting more Golden Boughs, the deterrence will weaken as well. Although this was a simple battle..."
Ishmael: "... later on, one of them might take our lives more than a hundredfold to handle it."
No kidding, Dante.
Dante: <... Where'd its corpse go, anyway? I'm pretty sure that attack did it in...>
Outis: "It was felled without a doubt. All thanks to your exceptional command, Manager."
Dante: <It couldn't have disappeared into the sky...>
I'm gonna shit my pants, "yes manager of course it only makes sense to consider whether it flew into fucking orbit", love you Outis
Gregor: "... is the tough-looking ceiling above us not a thing to you two?"
Yuri, hardly in the mood to partake in japery and tomfoolery at present, points over at the fallen egg of the Ebony Queen's Stem. Faust identifies it as the Abnormality's core, reduced to a condensed 'ovate' form when 'suppressed via appropriate measures' (read: beat it with sticks until it falls over) - and Yuri clarifies that once enough time has passed, it'll hatch.
Faust: "Abnormalities simply cannot die. It's one of the factors that contributed to L corp's massive energy production."
So you're probably thinking at this point 'hey wait a second what about the Peccatula?' And you would be right to think that, as Peccatula are not reduced to eggs when defeated, and instead are turned to paste like most anything that gets killed in this game. That's because Faust wasn't blowing smoke up Yuri's ass when she said that Peccatula could be a new breed of entity. What are they, exactly? What are the implications of their existence? Don't worry about it!
Anyway, Limbus Company isn't unprepared for this, what with the job description being delving into fallen L Corp branch offices and all. The company has a larger and more extensive organisational structure than just a dirty dozen assholes on a bus committing vehicular manslaughter across the City; Dante is the Executive of LCB (presumably 'Limbus Company - Bus'), but there's also the Before Team (LCCB) and the After Team (I forgor their acronym). Yuri is already faintly aware of the After Team, having heard them mentioned in orientation, and it's this After Team who will sweep through after the Sinners are done to collect any Abnormality eggs left lying around so they can be contained properly (and presumably harvested for Enkephalin again, as the fall of Lobcorp hasn't stopped them from doing shit with the funny green juice).
Rodion: "What's stopping you from calling them now?"
Faust: "The transmission device... is on Mephistopheles."
Gregor: "Figures."
Womp womp
Quickly before the jump, let's do some cleanup of the Ebony Queen's Stem battle courtesy of the wiki (limbuscompany.wiki.gg not that Fandom cancer). Firstly, there's a second event that triggers after the Fruit has been broken once and subsequently reduced to 50% health after regenerating.
Narration: The Sinners peered at its face. They gazed upon the weathered memories within... Down to the holes left by pests. An apple does not culminate when it ripens to a glossy red. When the apple browns, cracks, shrivels, and attracts lowly creatures... That is when is when it has met its golden bliss. The Sinners knew now was the time to bring the apple to earth.
[Pride Advantage check]
Narration: [Sinner] brought the apple to the ground. The fall left a dull thud. The fruit was emptied of its lifeblood long ago; only futility remained. This attack allowed the Sinners a brief moment of respite.
The reward for this one is practically an 'I Win' button, as it instantly breaks the Fruit part while Staggering every part of Ebony Queen's Stem at once.
I wonder why the very first Abnormality we face in this dungeon, in this Canto, has so much emphasis placed on the idea of a rotting apple? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Next, let's take a look at the full Observation Logs.
Observation Log (First Clear): Recording the information gained from an encounter with the entity. <Company Rules> Article 11, Paragraph 2 states that I am to categorize it as an Abnormality. When first faced with the Sinners, the Abnormality showed no signs of hostility. Instead, it initiated direct communication through the psyche. Out of all the languages I knew, the Abnormality appeared to use my most commonly spoken one. I did not see any sound-producing organs such as the mouth or vocal cords in motion. "Bring Snow White." This is what the Abnormality said. A report on the former L Corp. I analyzed after disengagement suggests that it has a connection with F-04-42. In addition, I discovered a corpse that seemed to belong to the staff that arrived here before us for preliminary investigation. Their ID confirmed that they were from the Operations Planning department, so we retrieved the remains and left the scene before a battle could break out. Concluding the report.
First I'm hearing about this psychic communication shit, Faust! The writer of the report most likely being Faust based on the 'out of all the languages I knew' comment and the generally formal, clinical wording of the report. I wonder if this psychic message reached Dante too, just offscreen, or they were excluded.
Observation Log (Level 1): Recording the information gained from encountering the entity in battle. <Company Rules> Article 11, Paragraph 3 states that I am to designate its risk level as WAW. This is based on the managerial procedures retrieved from the branch facility. I will describe its behavior during combat. It attacks using growths of vines. It wraps its vines around itself as well, forming a shape that resembles a dress; it is possible that it believes itself to be a "noble". Its vines are used in a variety of ways, such as persistently stabbing one Sinner and rising from the floor to injure multiple Sinners. In addition, its sturdy exterior made it difficult to damage. In one battle where many Sinners were lost, we managed to remove one of its arms. (As I could most aptly describe.) I found then that it could no longer perform the attack that targeted every Sinner. I will record any additional discoveries I observe in future encounters. Concluding the report.
In fact this is as good a time as any to talk about Risk Level, as it's a thing introduced in LobCorp which kind of skipped a game in terms of relevance but is now back in full force with Limbus Company. The five risk levels are ZAYIN, TETH, HE, WAW and ALEPH in that order. These are based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (zayin, tet, he, waw/vav and alef natch), as the series has kind of a Thing with Jewish mysticism - in case the phrase 'Qliphot Deterrance' didn't clue you in - and has a particular fondness for the Sefirot. That part is of lesser prominence in Limbus compared to Lobcorp and Ruina, but we'll see it here and there eventually.
Observation Log (Level 2): Recording an additional significant discovery. We were able to remove its head during an encounter. While we did not initially consider the head a target as its height was considerably higher than the Sinners' reach, Heathcliff's unstoppable advance provided a helpful clue. We were able to successfully destroy the head. Although Heathcliff's head was destroyed as well, it should be a negligible loss as it is a renewable asset. It continued to move and attack despite the lack of a head, but we found that its exterior significantly softened. Removing its "limbs" became a much more manageable task. Even though the head grew back after a period of time, the removal of its arms and legs in the meantime freed us from the threat of powerful attacks for the rest of the operation. Concluding the report.
Fucking lmao at Heathcliff catching a random stray in the reports one last time.
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Yuri mutters that she never thought she'd be back here. Faust rattles off some more exposition about how Lobcorp facilities are normally multilevel affairs, and as such they should expect each floor to now be the domain of an escaped Abnormality. Rodion exclaims at the idea of having to fight more Abnos while Greg asks just how Faust knows all this shit about what they're up against in the first place.
Yuri: "The guide said a Before Team does reconnaissance in advance."
Gregor: "... so you only know that because you have ties to the staff."
Faust: "I never claimed otherwise."
Faust is iconic tbh, normalise straight-up fucking with your coworkers for no reason besides maybe looking smarter. Anyway, we already spoke briefly about the After Team, but here's our first explicit mention of the Before Team as well. We have a few IDs for the Before Team as of writing, so we've got a better idea of what exactly they're capable of than the After Team, but let's leave thinking about stuff like that for later. The gang saddle up to keep grinding their way down through the facility's ruins, and as a reward for defeating the Ebony Queen's Stem we have another first - an EGO Gift!
EGO Gifts originated in Lobcorp, being another piece of equipment that could be gained through interaction with contained Abnormalities and used to grant workers certain bonuses. Being Lobcorp, many of these were also traps that would eventually fuck you over somehow. In Limbus EGO Gifts are purely beneficial, awarded for clearing certain fights or event nodes in dungeons. We'll be seeing a couple more before this dungeon's through.
Another day, another dungeon floor. And as you can see the floors are stacked vertically like layers of a deconstructed sandwich, the first still visible up top. There's also a new kind of map icon, one with two swords crossed - these are 'risky' encounters, particularly dangerous battles which can either be normal or focused (well, we're in early content, so basically every fight is a normal fight if it's not against an Abnormality or Peccatulum).
What's the gold bit below? Don't worry about it. You're just seeing things.
In the next node, another uncomfortable conversation Greg would rather not have awaits.
Narration: His sparkling old badge seemed to signify a high rank once held.
???: "... Manager Gregor?"
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "... I was the head manager of your time. Not only did you desert us, you now have the audacity to take the lives of your old comrades - my subordinates."
Gregor: "Look, the war ended a decade ago. But, I guess some folks still haven't let go of their obsolete ranks, huh?"
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "Ended? Nothing has ended. Nothing... has ended... dammit..."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "The war may have been over for you when you deserted G Corp... but we're fighting for our lives on the battlefield to this day."
Gregor: "As much as I didn't want to relate to you this way... I'm not really that different here."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "Then you ought to understand, Gregor. There is only one verdict that awaits deserters."
Look at that smug smirk, bro thinks he's got jokes.
Unfortunately for Mr. G Corp Head Manager here, his big bug head and cool jacket cannot prevent him from being steamrolled by Sinners who all outlevel him. Still, out of fairness we'll cover some of the unique things about his kit. Firstly his Gloom skill, which on use applies a stack of Protection to 2 random allies the following turn - Protection is 10% generic damage reduction per stack, and while a single stack probably won't save your life it sure ain't nothing. Plus [On Use] tagged effects can be quite handy, because there are quite a few skills out there with powerful riders that'll make you wanna kill yourself when it loses a clash and gets wasted. Second is his Wrath skill, Onslaught Command, which inflicts a frankly hilarious 5 Rupture Count. Which...
Oh we might as well talk about it here, if Old G Corp Head Manager isn't going to put up enough of a fight to fill wordcount. I talked about 'generic' statuses, now it's time to talked about 'archetype' statuses. Or, if you prefer, THE SEVEN STATUS SOULS. First, terminology! The two biggest ones to remember are Potency and Count. Potency is the strength of the status, and Count is how many times it will trigger. When Count reaches 0, all Potency is lost, and a status must be built from scratch all over again. When an effect refers to 'fixed damage', this is an Absolute damage which ignores all damage magnification or reduction multipliers. And now, the main event.
- Burn: At turn end, the target takes fixed damage equal to Potency, then reduces Count by 1. The Potency cap of 99 and its slow tick rate makes it a very weak status in terms of raw damage output, so the better Burn IDs generally use it to trigger conditionals that massively improve their offensive output. Most commonly associated with Wrath and Liu Association IDs.
- Bleed: Every time the target flips coins, they take fixed damage equal to the Potency, then reduce Count by 1. This means they can take damage multiple times in the course of a single clash, or even explosively haemorrhage to death mid-attack. Very difficult to build Count. Most commonly associated with Lust and the Kurokumo Clan, as well as [REDACTED]
- Tremor: When the target is struck by a Tremor Burst effect, their Stagger Threshold is raised by the equivalent of HP damage equal to the effect's Potency. The amount of Count a Tremor Burst skill consumes is not standardised, meaning they can range from hungrily chewing through multiple stacks of Count to being completely free. Also reduced by 1 at turn end. Useless without more Stagger Thresholds to raise*. Most commonly associated with Sloth, and appears in a relatively scattershot pattern across currently released IDs.
- Rupture: Every time the target is struck, they take fixed damage equal to Potency then reduce Count by 1. A particularly troublesome status to build for due to the necessity to play around multi-coin skills sucking up all your Count, with an associated reward in terms of raw damage output. Most commonly associated with Gluttony and the Seven Association.
- Sinking: A unique status that does different things depending on if the target is a human or an Abnormality (aka foes with SP or without SP). When a human is struck, they lose SP equal to the Potency then reduce Count by 1. When an Abnormality is struck, they take Gloom damage (thus affected by sin affinity) equal to the Potency instead. Most commonly associated with Gloom because... well it can do Gloom damage, it's not rocket science, and the [REDACTED] faction. Unique among status effects where it's fine to just kind of 'splash' it in without greater synergy because damaging a human foe's SP is never not a useful thing to do.
- Poise: One of two statuses that are strictly 'buff' type, stockpiled by the relevant ID for later use. Every point of Potency grants a 5% chance to critically hit (to a maximum of 100% at 20 Potency natch), turning the final damage number gold and dealing an extra... 20% damage (wow, it's fucking nothing). Then Count is reduced by 1. Count is also reduced by 1 at turn end, making this a notoriously unwieldy status to try and play around for very little benefit at launch, as IDs were absolutely pitiful at building/maintaining enough Count to keep their Poise around long enough to actually crit consistently. Most commonly associated with Pride and the Blade Lineage.
- Charge: The other status that is strictly 'buff' type, stockpiled in order to expend it later as fuel for an ID's biggest 'nuke' skills. Count decays by 1 at turn end. Notorious for being the strongest and easiest-to-play archetype for a very, very long time at launch, as Charge IDs specialise in niche things like Clashing Really Well and Being The Fucking Strong. Most commonly associated with Envy and the W Corp Cleanup Crew.
*Tremor recently had a massive renaissance with a slew of incredibly powerful IDs and EGOs to the point of becoming my new favourite status but holy shit was it pathetic for the year and a half before that. The [improvement] curve is vertical.
But to return to the story, we've an old soldier to send on his way.
Narration: The head manager who must have defeated countless enemies in his glory days was now nearing his own end.
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "You were once well-respected, Gregor..."
Gregor: "... I never really asked for respect."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "Don't proceed any further... Only hell awaits you."
Gregor: "Sorry, but I don't think I can follow your advice. I ought to be a go-getter if I don't wanna be fired."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "Have you abandoned your honour... for some pittance?"
FakeLaughHidingRealPain.mp3
A bitter smile appears on the head manager's face.
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "You're... no different from us..."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "In the end, we're..."
Decrepit G Corp Head Manager: "Nothing... but disgusting pests..."
The man breathes his last, and lies still.
Gregor: "... Hey, mind if I borrow a cig?"
Ryoshu: "... Just this once."
Gregor: "Sorry, didn't wanna share mine with that thing."
Ryoshu: "... Hmph."
And there is a moment of silence, allowing the smoke from Gregor's cigarette to rise and pool in the air.
A surprising moment of humanity from Ryoshu of all people, and another flash of vulnerability from Gregor. It's clear that he is in no mood to confront his past and perform any great reckoning with his origins, trying his level best to deflect and obfuscate how much all this is truly affecting him in service to chasing the big prize at the end of the rainbow. He can muster a kind of flippant confidence in his path in life but it's a hollow facade, gallows humour in the face of just how badly everyone got fucked over by G Corp. There's been a lot of talk of his privilege, of him being the lucky one, even of him deserting - I don't think that he literally deserted, more that the accusation is thrown at him by the other veterans as a cudgel to try and hurt him for the crime of emerging from the war superficially intact. We already know full well that he carried some of it out with him, trauma that makes him try his level best to make the most of this new opportunity with Limbus Company, that clearly makes him see Yuri as a kindred spirit for all that his sometimes myopic slip-ups hurt her by proxy.
He sold his honour with his medal because both are sentiments useless to a world that cares nothing for those who have suffered, that are still suffering. A landlord, like an employer, like a government, will always ask you 'but what have you done for me lately' because you are not their friend, you are a pest that they allow to live on their property because you provide for them. And if that pest loses the means to provide for them, and finds themself in need of help in their own right, well... then they become a burden. Then they become vermin. No better than a cockroach hiding from the light under the couch, waiting to die.
Greg takes this moment to himself, and then he moves on. Because he has to be a go-getter to make sure he keeps this new job, just like Yuri.
Moving deeper into the facility, Ishmael observes that it appears no more old G Corp vets made it this far. Everything that lay beyond was too great a threat for them to overcome. The Sinners are better qualified to brave the depths, but not by much. Further in, Yuri recognises the new corpses littering the floor.
Yi Sang notes that the bodies appear dead of blunt force trauma. Yuri is more preoccupied by the management report she finds nearby, containing detailed instructions for managing Abnormalities. She finds it strange, as normally employees assigned to Abnormalities make sure to memorise them until they know every line by heart. Carrying notes like this is peculiar. Yi Sang hypothesises that there were no employees with the requisite training left by the time the Abnormalities breached - perhaps if it happened before the eggs were even moved into containment, Yuri wonders. Ishmael wonders what kind of Abnormality could have killed so many employees, then-
Heathcliff: "What're you on about?"
Hopkins: "Sources suggested that toxin levels started to rise after a certain floor."
Rodion: "Uh, I've been bleeding from my ears a bit~ Is this okay?"
Hopkins: "I was told that continued exposure to it may cause bleeding, like that."
She stays silly, even when drowning in her own blood due to mustard gas exposure
Yuri realises that an anti-Abnormality gas grenade must have gone off somewhere among the bodies, causing the toxic cloud. Hopkins, knowing of the danger, made sure to surreptitously put on his gas mask before he was ever in danger. As for the Sinners, well... as Faust clinically puts it, "we weren't granted any additional supplies". Heathcliff makes to rush Hopkina, enraged that the backstabbing bastard would've let them walk straight into the gas to die, only to fall to one knee as the toxin takes effect. Faust advises him to remain calm and breathe evenly, or else accelerate the effects.
Yuri: "Hopkins... Why... cough. Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Hopkins: "Oh, I've got a question for you too, Yuri. Why would I make our Office waste our precious funds on expensive gadgets for dead weight like you to use?"
Yuri: "..."
Hopkins: "If we're being real, it's a miracle that you managed to join us in the first place. Maybe Aya took pity and gave you special treatment... but she's gone now, so who cares?"
Heathcliff: "Sneaky blighter... Is that how you want to live..."
Hopkins: "Don't be silly, everything's fair game for a Fixer. Hearing that the Red Gaze had company tickled my curiosity, but as it turns out... you were just a bunch of ragtag lunatics who thought it'd be a good idea to walk straight into these facilities with zero prep."
(Okay he's kinda got us on that one)
Heathcliff: "What a sick joke... Can't do anything but watch..."
Yeah that's right, scurry away from the guy actively dying from mustard gas you big blouse.
Motherfucker's hiding on the far edge of the frame and everything, look at him.
Hopkins: "I'll write in my report that you all went missing, 'cause 'suffocated to death' is just too embarrassing. Ta-ta."
Yuri, Heathcliff, and all the other Sinners begin to crumple from blood loss.
Gregor: "Tsk, I took this with me so you could have something to remember her by..."
Yuri: "But why..."
Gregor: "Heard Aya -cough- gave you special treatment, didn't she...? This is as good as yours, then. As for our unprepared band of lunatics... we do have a way out. Don't worry about us."
Still coughing up blood, Yuri quickly puts on the mask.
Yuri: "... I know he's right. I know earning recognition from an Office of strangers is a hard thing to do, even if I take on all kinds of errands day and night. There were only 3 minutes left until the branch was locked down..."
Yuri (VO): "The doors were about to close on me."
Announcement: [ENERGY TRANSFER IS 85% COMPLETE.]
Alex [L Corp Employee]: "Yuri, don't leave me behind! Yuri!"
Yuri: "Is it so wrong that I survived? Should I have been buried alive alongside my coworkers? When the whole building was going under, all so the Abnormalities won't escape?"
Gregor: "Khoff... it is a sin. At least down here."
Ishmael: "Kahoff, kahf. That stings a little, Gregor..."
Yuri: "A sin..."
Gregor: "But, pah... So what, buddy... You've got to live on like it's nobody's business. Cough. Laying guilt on yourself over spilt milk... will wear your heart out..."
Gregor falls dead. Yuri is the only survivor.
Except for Dante.
Who has a clock for a head.
And thus
doesn't
fucking
breathe.
Dante frantically reassures Yuri that they can just gather up all the bodies and take them to safety to be revived again - presumably via pantomime. Yuri doesn't seem to be paying attention regardless, her words meant for the now deceased Gregor rather than Dante.
Yuri: "... I know."
Strangely they don't all drag the bodies out of the cloud - forwards deeper in the facility I could understand being too dangerous, but not even backwards to the previous rest stop? Instead Dante and Yuri just kinda stand there T-posing at each other until the gas cloud disperses, because I guess that anti-Abno gas grenade had a year and a day's worth of stinky in it and the Sinners just got incomprehensibly unlucky walking into it with nine minutes left on the clock. We head through another mandatory abnormality battle node, which is one of firsts - our first time (canonically I guess) fighting Wrath Peccatulum, as well as new scrungos known as Doomsday Clay Dolls.
The clay dolls have no observation log of their own (EDIT: they do but I forgot to check them and didn't immediately find one online, slay me for my hubris), so let's buckle in for Peccatulum Irae's!
Observation Log: You want me to talk about that pointed thing, aye? Thing's shaped like a dried tentacle... There was some kind of red liquid in the middle. Smacked it a couple times with my bat, and the lanky thing was a bit more durable it seemed. Bigger problem, though... That thing's got a weird way of attacking. It prods poor sods with its long snout, and... It starts shooting that red water into the body! It gives me a heartburn like I had some hard stuff on an empty stomach... 's irritating...and suffocating... A-Anyway, it makes you feel all weird. Makes you mad over wee stuff. Some even blew up after getting hit by that juice. I really don't want that happening to me.
→ Weren't you always prone to getting mad over the smallest things?
→ Don't piss me off.
Okay so I was way off and it's still the Sinners writing these logs because this is obviously Heathcliff, he's even got Ishmael sniping at him in the footnotes. Which means...
Wait, fuck. The Sloth one I thought was so strange and otherworldly was just written by fucking Yi Sang.
Anyhoo, just beyond that is a new kind of map node. I don't have a good screenshot of it but it's just a "!?", which denotes an 'event' node where you'll face a skill check instead of combat - unless the event you encounter has choices which subsequently lead to combat, which isn't uncommon. Upon entering the node a cutscene plays where Dante is wondering-
Okay this is silly.
Dante: <Were those Abnormalities responsible for killing all the employees?>
Yuri: "I doubt that. If my guess is right..."
I can't even do the Red Fraud bit, I think the idea is that somebody offscreen is translating for Yuri, but it would've been just as easy to throw in a line of narration about that. Doesn't even have to specify which Sinner. And if it did, why not Gregor? This one just feels like a plain flub. Thankfully Outis is here to be perfect and flawless, cutting through the chatter to tell Dante 'eyes up king, november is almost over' because there's another masked figure up ahead. Except this one is rather larger, clothed, and slumped up against a wall.
Statuehead: "Gather all your IDs... and give them... to me. Then we'll find the winner."
It holds an ID badge in its hand, dangling by the strap. Yuri recognises the name on it.
Yuri: "... Alex."
Heathcliff: "Gone nuts, hasn't she? And what's that babble about winners?"
Yuri: "Some Abnormalities... demanded regular offerings as part of the managerial guidelines."
Statuehead: "You shouldn't go that way... They will find you..."
Yuri: "... And the offering happened, didn't it?"
Statuehead: "It's your turn... to draw..."
Ishmael asks what happens if no sacrifice is made. Yuri doesn't know - while she was there, they followed procedure every time, without fail. Ishmael surmises that it must've broken out and started killing people left and right - but Heathcliff disagrees.
Yuri: "What... do you mean?"
Heathcliff: "Did you all get jabbed in the eyes or what? Those wounds were clearly left by humans. You can tell they were beating the shite out of each other. Those thickos killed each other in a fight."
Yuri: "B-but for what reason?"
Heathcliff: "S'clear as day."
Heathcliff: "Keep offering folks from time to time, and the rest might get rescued one day."
Heathcliff: "Problem, though: Y'think the one picked as the fall guy would gladly accept his fate?"
Heathcliff: "Better them than me, ain't that right? ... An' the rest is history, I bet."
Ishmael: "And the last survivor... put on the stone mask belonging to the statueheads... Believing that it'll save her from being sacrificed."
Yuri: "That can't be. Alex wouldn't kill others just so she could live."
Heathcliff: "How do you know that? You can't even be sure if that's actually Alex or not."
Statuehead: "Let me... give you a tip... You'll be much better off... going on your own foot... before they come take you... Kehe... Kehe..."
So much for being a dullard, huh? Ishmael can talk shit about Heathcliff's level of refinement all the live-long day, but he has a keen eye and a keener intuition, to the point that Ishmael hops aboard with his theory without a word of a question. Still, Outis commands the group be on their way. It seems the Statuehead is too wounded, or maybe too exhausted and malnourished, to live long yet. Even so Yuri stays behind, lingering to stare down at the statue-headed figure.
Yuri: "It wasn't your fault... you know it's not, right?"
Statuehead: "Leave me behind, Yuri... Please leave me..."
Yuri: "..."
The group move on, straight into the event promised by the map icon.
Narration: You see a dying person nearby, gasping for air. Should you offer this person up? Or...
The three options are to offer the person on the floor beside the clay dolls, refuse and fight the dolls, or offer a Sinner. As of this writing skill events like this now have their consequences written out in much smaller text on the same buttons as the selections, but on launch oh boy did they not. Everyone had to fly blind through the CYOA bits - either that or open a wiki page and memorise, as most inevitably did. I appreciate the change, especially now I'll be going through old story dungeons again.
Anyway refusing to offer the person is the correct choice, because it's just a fight against four regular clay dolls and victory awards you this monstrosity.
Roughly 15% damage output and damage reduction for the Sinners, not to mention at minimum +1 Clash Power, all for one measly fight? Project Moon you spoil the gamers, where has your malice gone?
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Up ahead past the rest stop, we've got a boss battle with our second Abnormality of the Dungeon - everyone give it up for Doomsday Calendar!
The fight is split into a couple of fairly rigid phases. Doomsday Calendar isn't even targetable at first, content to stand I-posing in a corner while we trivially paste a pair of puppets. Once they've been dispatched, we proceed to phase 2.
I dunno, how upset could it be?
Oh god, that upset. Look at those throttlin' hands, this bitch could grab you by the neck and give you the ol Homer Simpson from 10 yards.
This phase is still simple, but a bit of a Suffering From Success moment for most. See, you've got six attacks incoming, but only five Sinners. You'll have to let an attack or two through, and though the Calendar doesn't inflict anything more serious than a bit of Bind with its Stranglin' Hands you still might as well clash it, right?
*EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER*
Doing too much damage to Doomsday Calendar - for example, through won clashes - will simply advance you directly to the next skill check event, and subsequently stage 3. For you see, the Abnormality is Pissed Off, and when it's Pissed Off it wants a blood sacrifice to appease it. If you've successfully killed one of the clay dolls during phase 2 you can simply offer its body up at the skillcheck and pass no issue. If you haven't, well now you have to choose a Sinner to take the fall.
This comes at a 20hp tax, which I assure you was severe if you were doing this on-level. Even so it wouldn't matter, because passing this skill check also gives 3 Attack Power Down to all parts of Doomsday Calendar, rendering its attacks a complete joke for the rest of the battle. Here phase 3 begins, and then being so overlevelled for Literally The Tutorial Dungeon bites me in the ass yet again as I think.
Submitted firstly because the animation sync with Doomsday Calendar is kind of wonky, leading to Sinners slashing the air 60ft away like they're doing an FF14 Trial, and secondly because the first coin of End Stop Stab has Yi Sang straight up bitchslap the target with his book?? He just gives 'em the ol' War & Peace across the jaw????
Now this is phase 3 proper. You can tell because the clay dolls have been swapped out for the enflamed kind, gaining some slightly more dangerous skills that inflict Burn. The Calendar itself also has a passive that inflicts 3 Burn Potency per turn, then sits there and guards every turn while you chip away at the dolls. The issue with Burn's horrid linear scaling is that this mechanic was sort-of dangerous at level 5, and then never again, even on refighting Calendar Man in Mirror Dungeon.
There's supposed to be a second skill check here where once again you must choose between a dead clay doll or a Sinner to offer up, and if successful the Burn passive is turned off and Calendar loses another 100hp. However I did enough damage that it skipped directly to its fourth and final phase, another kinda funny one.
Calendar Man pulls out a powerful, high Attack Weight reverse coin nuke... and then exclusively targets its own lackeys. This is not some kind of bug or funny coincidence, it'll just always target its own adds if any exist. Now, the goal here is to rush down the Calendar and finish it off before its nuke can go off. I could do it, but so could a sick child really, let alone a normal on-level party. So, because I genuinely couldn't remember what happens, I decided to throw.
This immediately triggers another skill check.
Narration: The stars are twinkling. When they shine, they'll rob us all of our sight. What gift would the stars like?
This time there's no option to select a clay doll, because they'll all be dead no matter what. You're forced to choose a Sinner to sing a lullaby for the stars, a mental image as funny as it is stressful as hell.
On success the Abnormality is just instantly defeated anyway, at the cost of a whopping 100hp from the chosen Sinner and 30 SP from the entire party. A punishment as hilarious as it is utterly meaningless, because there's a rest stop right after this fight anyway.
Doomsday Calendar is kind of a loser Abno even if you fight it on-level ngl. Anyway, let's see those reports!
Observation Report (First Clear): I was ordered to describe the facts about this in detail. So I observed. Placed on a wooden pedestal that seemed as though it was woven from fibers of muscles was a large stone plate. As I approached it, its compartments of bricks began to rattle. Seized by curiosity, I attempted to step closer for a better look... Alas, my colleagues strongly discouraged me from doing so, so I turned away. One thing I can say with confidence is that it was likely a tool for predicting a date of some kind, judging from the many letters carved on the bricks. Such is all I have to say.
→ Those letters are from an ancient language. If Yi Sang's depiction is correct, that plate is almost certainly a calendar.
Observation Report (Level 1): I had an opportunity to engage it in combat. Though it may have been less than pleasant as an observer to see the object of study sustain damage, more discoveries could be had in the behaviors it displayed during a battle. It summoned a number of flesh dolls wearing stone masks made of what I believe is the same mineral as the plate. By 'offering' these dolls to the plate, I was able to observe a change in its shape. The rattling bricks gradually widened, and I could see red muscle fibers and strange spatial extensions...or such. I can't say for sure how drastic the change will be, but an observable trend is that it's becoming more and more ominous. Such is all I have to say.
→ Why the hell did you put me in instead of those masked blokes? You damned clockhead, I'll #%^&@[The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
→ Dante made the right choice. From what I can see, it seems that those flesh dolls, or "clay dolls," can't be offered up while they're alive. The only other option we have is to sacrifice Sinners.
→ And why does that have to be me @(##$[The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
Heathcliff cannot catch a fucking break man.
Observation Report (Level 2): I had an opportunity to be offered to this. I am about to describe the disconcerting, wet, and abnormal experience here. I took unwavering steps forward as the choice was reasonable. I had no reason to fear, for I would be brought back to life even if I were to perish. I did not feel the death, so to speak. Though I have experienced death many times in battle, I was not subjected to the sort of pain or flashing disarray that normally accompanies a demise that time. It simply felt as though I was being transported to a different location. It may be the universe or some other dimension. My own body and voice couldn't be perceived by my senses. Perhaps my eyes had gone and I became a part of that place. There, I may have seen the end. You could say it was a doomsday I witnessed. No perhaps I may have been the end and the doomsday I was present at the end but not existent and while it may be misleading to say that it was there but even still I witnessed man and sky and earth tear into thousands of pieces [The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
→ I had Yi Sang talk with the recovery staff from After Team for a moment. His psychological corruption seems rather severe. Dante, I think we should refrain from making our observers directly experience these events from now on.
Jesus Christ bro has truly Witnessed The Horrors and it's just tucked away in a report you'd probably forget is even there. Free my boy.
Caleggder.
The group continue on, yet deeper into the facility. I'm not entirely sure whether they're literally headed to the third sub-level already, or if there even is a third floor, but that's besides the point. The floor is absolutely crawling with maggots, as Rodion helpfully points out, and Dante remarks that they're kinda cool with maggots compared to the last Abnormality - not entirely sure whether they're referring to Doomsday Calendar or Ebony Queen's Stem, either would be sufficiently creepy and visceral.
We're multiple floors underground and the power's out - no sunlight could be making that golden glow.
Gregor: "... Don't you all hear something?"
Ishmael: "We've been hearing a constant growl. Rodya, are you really that hungry at a time like this?"
Gregor suddenly rushes ahead of the group, throwing open the door beside him as if compelled.
Yuri: "Wait, that's a containment unit...!"
Gregor: "It's like... that time..."
But the door was already open.
And that's where we'll end it for today!
(It was maybe a mistake to cover two floors in one update but fuck it the work's done now.)
The fight is split into a couple of fairly rigid phases. Doomsday Calendar isn't even targetable at first, content to stand I-posing in a corner while we trivially paste a pair of puppets. Once they've been dispatched, we proceed to phase 2.
I dunno, how upset could it be?
Oh god, that upset. Look at those throttlin' hands, this bitch could grab you by the neck and give you the ol Homer Simpson from 10 yards.
This phase is still simple, but a bit of a Suffering From Success moment for most. See, you've got six attacks incoming, but only five Sinners. You'll have to let an attack or two through, and though the Calendar doesn't inflict anything more serious than a bit of Bind with its Stranglin' Hands you still might as well clash it, right?
*EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER*
Doing too much damage to Doomsday Calendar - for example, through won clashes - will simply advance you directly to the next skill check event, and subsequently stage 3. For you see, the Abnormality is Pissed Off, and when it's Pissed Off it wants a blood sacrifice to appease it. If you've successfully killed one of the clay dolls during phase 2 you can simply offer its body up at the skillcheck and pass no issue. If you haven't, well now you have to choose a Sinner to take the fall.
This comes at a 20hp tax, which I assure you was severe if you were doing this on-level. Even so it wouldn't matter, because passing this skill check also gives 3 Attack Power Down to all parts of Doomsday Calendar, rendering its attacks a complete joke for the rest of the battle. Here phase 3 begins, and then being so overlevelled for Literally The Tutorial Dungeon bites me in the ass yet again as I think.
Submitted firstly because the animation sync with Doomsday Calendar is kind of wonky, leading to Sinners slashing the air 60ft away like they're doing an FF14 Trial, and secondly because the first coin of End Stop Stab has Yi Sang straight up bitchslap the target with his book?? He just gives 'em the ol' War & Peace across the jaw????
Now this is phase 3 proper. You can tell because the clay dolls have been swapped out for the enflamed kind, gaining some slightly more dangerous skills that inflict Burn. The Calendar itself also has a passive that inflicts 3 Burn Potency per turn, then sits there and guards every turn while you chip away at the dolls. The issue with Burn's horrid linear scaling is that this mechanic was sort-of dangerous at level 5, and then never again, even on refighting Calendar Man in Mirror Dungeon.
There's supposed to be a second skill check here where once again you must choose between a dead clay doll or a Sinner to offer up, and if successful the Burn passive is turned off and Calendar loses another 100hp. However I did enough damage that it skipped directly to its fourth and final phase, another kinda funny one.
Calendar Man pulls out a powerful, high Attack Weight reverse coin nuke... and then exclusively targets its own lackeys. This is not some kind of bug or funny coincidence, it'll just always target its own adds if any exist. Now, the goal here is to rush down the Calendar and finish it off before its nuke can go off. I could do it, but so could a sick child really, let alone a normal on-level party. So, because I genuinely couldn't remember what happens, I decided to throw.
This immediately triggers another skill check.
Narration: The stars are twinkling. When they shine, they'll rob us all of our sight. What gift would the stars like?
This time there's no option to select a clay doll, because they'll all be dead no matter what. You're forced to choose a Sinner to sing a lullaby for the stars, a mental image as funny as it is stressful as hell.
On success the Abnormality is just instantly defeated anyway, at the cost of a whopping 100hp from the chosen Sinner and 30 SP from the entire party. A punishment as hilarious as it is utterly meaningless, because there's a rest stop right after this fight anyway.
Doomsday Calendar is kind of a loser Abno even if you fight it on-level ngl. Anyway, let's see those reports!
Observation Report (First Clear): I was ordered to describe the facts about this in detail. So I observed. Placed on a wooden pedestal that seemed as though it was woven from fibers of muscles was a large stone plate. As I approached it, its compartments of bricks began to rattle. Seized by curiosity, I attempted to step closer for a better look... Alas, my colleagues strongly discouraged me from doing so, so I turned away. One thing I can say with confidence is that it was likely a tool for predicting a date of some kind, judging from the many letters carved on the bricks. Such is all I have to say.
→ Those letters are from an ancient language. If Yi Sang's depiction is correct, that plate is almost certainly a calendar.
Observation Report (Level 1): I had an opportunity to engage it in combat. Though it may have been less than pleasant as an observer to see the object of study sustain damage, more discoveries could be had in the behaviors it displayed during a battle. It summoned a number of flesh dolls wearing stone masks made of what I believe is the same mineral as the plate. By 'offering' these dolls to the plate, I was able to observe a change in its shape. The rattling bricks gradually widened, and I could see red muscle fibers and strange spatial extensions...or such. I can't say for sure how drastic the change will be, but an observable trend is that it's becoming more and more ominous. Such is all I have to say.
→ Why the hell did you put me in instead of those masked blokes? You damned clockhead, I'll #%^&@[The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
→ Dante made the right choice. From what I can see, it seems that those flesh dolls, or "clay dolls," can't be offered up while they're alive. The only other option we have is to sacrifice Sinners.
→ And why does that have to be me @(##$[The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
Heathcliff cannot catch a fucking break man.
Observation Report (Level 2): I had an opportunity to be offered to this. I am about to describe the disconcerting, wet, and abnormal experience here. I took unwavering steps forward as the choice was reasonable. I had no reason to fear, for I would be brought back to life even if I were to perish. I did not feel the death, so to speak. Though I have experienced death many times in battle, I was not subjected to the sort of pain or flashing disarray that normally accompanies a demise that time. It simply felt as though I was being transported to a different location. It may be the universe or some other dimension. My own body and voice couldn't be perceived by my senses. Perhaps my eyes had gone and I became a part of that place. There, I may have seen the end. You could say it was a doomsday I witnessed. No perhaps I may have been the end and the doomsday I was present at the end but not existent and while it may be misleading to say that it was there but even still I witnessed man and sky and earth tear into thousands of pieces [The rest is neatly censored with a correction tape.]
→ I had Yi Sang talk with the recovery staff from After Team for a moment. His psychological corruption seems rather severe. Dante, I think we should refrain from making our observers directly experience these events from now on.
Jesus Christ bro has truly Witnessed The Horrors and it's just tucked away in a report you'd probably forget is even there. Free my boy.
Caleggder.
The group continue on, yet deeper into the facility. I'm not entirely sure whether they're literally headed to the third sub-level already, or if there even is a third floor, but that's besides the point. The floor is absolutely crawling with maggots, as Rodion helpfully points out, and Dante remarks that they're kinda cool with maggots compared to the last Abnormality - not entirely sure whether they're referring to Doomsday Calendar or Ebony Queen's Stem, either would be sufficiently creepy and visceral.
We're multiple floors underground and the power's out - no sunlight could be making that golden glow.
Gregor: "... Don't you all hear something?"
Ishmael: "We've been hearing a constant growl. Rodya, are you really that hungry at a time like this?"
Gregor suddenly rushes ahead of the group, throwing open the door beside him as if compelled.
Yuri: "Wait, that's a containment unit...!"
Gregor: "It's like... that time..."
But the door was already open.
And that's where we'll end it for today!
(It was maybe a mistake to cover two floors in one update but fuck it the work's done now.)
Dybbukpossesed
Falling Somewhere
- Location
- California
I mean I have my theory as to why Dante has trouble resurrecting the sinners down there. I'm guessing their head is an abnormality. I mean I'm only basing this off there being an effect that weakens abnormalities being active at the same time as Dante's resurrection ability being weakened and it could just be coincidence.
Edit: Damnit mistake on my part. Shouldn't post so late.
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- Location
- Ireland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We have a thread policy now about not misgendering Dante, c'mon.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Careful! Calling the Peccatula an "Abnormality" will cause discussions-
Ah, it was addressed. Zipping mouth now.
Fun fact, there was like a twitter poll at some stage, and Hopkins won "most hated character!"
In Project Moon, not just Limbus Company by itself. This man was so hated for his actions right here, that he shot up into being the most hated character at the time.
- Location
- Somewhere on Earth
He's also corpo racist, which is infuriating and also the funniest fucking way of introducing discrimination into the City I've ever seen. I think he deserves the top slot for introducing that concept alone.
- Location
- madison
With one infuriating exception, that used to be able to force itself on you in the mirror dungeon.
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Pecculatum Irae's log... doesn't read like Heathcliff? He's got a lower-class English accent, not a Scottish accent. Like, I can tell it's supposed to be him courtesy of the mention of the bat, but I don't think he's used 'aye' for 'yes' or 'wee' for 'small' so far? I'm guessing it's a translation issue as I can't think there's a direct Korean analogue for this stuff anyway.
Completely separately - Limbus Company, Lobotomy Corporation, L-Corp... seems like they might all share a letter. I'm guesing the fact Limbus Company shares a first letter with Lobotomy Corporation is actually meaningful in some way, particularly since they're the protagonist factions of their relevant games.
Abnormalities so far: an apple (Snow White, Garden of Eden via popular culture despite there being no evidence the fruit of knowledge of good and evil was supposed to be an apple), a vaguely-Mayan blood sacrifice doomsday calendar. The Doomsday Calendar doesn't really feel like it's thematically relevant, yet, but maybe we'll find out more about the inevitable end of all things that is coming soon and that'll recontextualise it. The apple is of course pretty damn relevant, combining the 'loss of innocence' with the 'gathering of (forbidden) knowledge' and rounding off with 'an apple is only 'completed' once it's done rotting', all of which are varyingly applicable to our protagonists here, in this dungeon immediately and I suspect across the rest of the game, too.
Given the multiplicity of the Pecculatum, my guess is they're either spawned from an Abnormality or they're just classed as Abnormalities, because it's not like anyone actually knows how Abnormalities really work? From what i'm gathering here it's a descriptive term, not a concrete category.
And finally, Yuri is likely to either die soon (likely offed by her shithead boss) or engage in an inevitable betrayal, given what we've seen so far. Feels like it'd go against the grinding murderous exploitation that's the strongest theme of the game if she just did her job and got her money and went on her way.
Completely separately - Limbus Company, Lobotomy Corporation, L-Corp... seems like they might all share a letter. I'm guesing the fact Limbus Company shares a first letter with Lobotomy Corporation is actually meaningful in some way, particularly since they're the protagonist factions of their relevant games.
Abnormalities so far: an apple (Snow White, Garden of Eden via popular culture despite there being no evidence the fruit of knowledge of good and evil was supposed to be an apple), a vaguely-Mayan blood sacrifice doomsday calendar. The Doomsday Calendar doesn't really feel like it's thematically relevant, yet, but maybe we'll find out more about the inevitable end of all things that is coming soon and that'll recontextualise it. The apple is of course pretty damn relevant, combining the 'loss of innocence' with the 'gathering of (forbidden) knowledge' and rounding off with 'an apple is only 'completed' once it's done rotting', all of which are varyingly applicable to our protagonists here, in this dungeon immediately and I suspect across the rest of the game, too.
Given the multiplicity of the Pecculatum, my guess is they're either spawned from an Abnormality or they're just classed as Abnormalities, because it's not like anyone actually knows how Abnormalities really work? From what i'm gathering here it's a descriptive term, not a concrete category.
And finally, Yuri is likely to either die soon (likely offed by her shithead boss) or engage in an inevitable betrayal, given what we've seen so far. Feels like it'd go against the grinding murderous exploitation that's the strongest theme of the game if she just did her job and got her money and went on her way.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
To be exact, the biggest thing that Tremor got that made it Actually Good was two EGOs in particular - Hong Lu's Cavernous Wailing, which converts Tremor into Tremor - Reverb, which is identical to Tremor except it causes actual damage when Burst instead of just fucking around with stagger bars, and
As such, Tremor, whose best shot at winning beforehand was setting up a stagger turn then just getting fucked after because there's only a limited number of stagger turns that all the other teams got to take advantage of anyway, got a new gameplan:
1. Build up a nice big stack of Tremor. 99 potency is the ideal.
2. Build up the resources to use the EGOs in question. Cavernous Wailing, the setup, needs Sloth x3, Gloom x3 and Pride x2, while Everlasting, the payoff, needs Lust x2, Sloth x4, Gloom x2, and Pride x3. Adding this together, to use these two EGO you'll need to accumulate Lust x2, Sloth x7, Gloom x5, and Pride x5, which is a total of 19 Sins. Assuming you're in a 6-man Focused battle using only Lust, Sloth, Gloom and Pride skills, this means that you'll need to spend at least four turns building up the resources to pull this off. In practice, it'll take a few more turns since the current Tremor team is also pretty Envy-heavy and you may or may not need to spend those EGO resources on other EGO.
3. At some point during this process, use Hong Lu's Cavernous Wailing EGO to apply Tremor - Reverb.
4. Make sure not to overwrite Tremor - Reverb with another, less useful version of Tremor, since there's several of them and you can only have one active at a time.
5. Use Faust's Everlasting EGO.
6.
(For reference, this is a lot of damage.)
As you can see, this is a fair few ducks you need to line up, but the end result is that Faust will do anywhere between 25% and 50% of a current content boss's lifebar. Often this will be enough to end the fight when combined with the damage you've dealt getting it prepped in the first place. This shows that despite the relative simplicity of the combat there's still a fair amount of potential for actual complexity in the gameplay mechanics. You're not just picking the biggest number, matching colors and pulling out EGO when you'd lose a clash, you've got a gameplan that has a significant payoff if you manage to follow it.
And this is why I genuinely enjoy playing Limbus Company.
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For any non-players in the thread: Drenched Gossypium is an abno that you can encounter in the Mirror Dungeon (the limbus rougelike game mode). That red-stained little bitch used to have an event where it used to give you this fucking ego gift
Regardless of what your choices or what you do. Like. No stagger for you! Consolation prize is like. Some bleed (good luck maintaining that for longer than a turn), and some defense level down (not worth losing the stun + 2x dmg).
This was changed after a while, of course - eventually you are able to just. Not get the gift if you elect to. But for a while it's a fucking jumpscare trap option that can completely screw with your run.
It's likely to be a translation issue, yeah. Pjm doesn't really have a team of translators (iirc it's just one guy on the eng side), so stuff like this slips through the cracks easily.
L-corp and lobotomy corps are one and the same! Each Wing of the City has both a one-letter name (a-corp, b-corp, c-corp etc all the way to y corp), and a full name that starts with that letter. Lobotomy corp is also l-corp, aka "the corporation formerly occupying nest L."
The exact details of abnos are...lobotomy corp spoilers, technically. Good predictions though! Pecculatums are a limbus original, so we're still very much figuring out their deal.
- Location
- the Cornfield
- Pronouns
- It/She
We LOVE this face specifically. 10/10 evil vizier expression.
She's just insufferable for the sake of it, aspirational behavior.
Ryoshu is definitely someone with some obvious hidden depths. This little moments of her having these flashes of empathy definitely feel indicative of ~something~ but I haven't read her source material so I can't really speculate.
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- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
reading this gave me the physical sensation of a raccoon getting caught by the courtyard light at 4am while digging through your stuff and freezing up, don't jump scare me like that
God but I have gotten too used to games taking twenty hours before you're allowed to see the Good Character Writing, I wasn't expecting this level of stakes and character drama from the first dungeon. What do you mean, "the second boss of the game causes your party members to witness the apocalypse and canonically gave one of them PTSD," what the fuck. Gregor is so precious, I want to protect his feelings, if anything happens to Yuri I'll cry (something will definitely happen to Yuri).What a bunch of blorbos.