I feel like I have to redeem myself. My review of Library of Ruina is very bad and desperately needs rewriting, but I'm putting that off until I finish the game because now I actually have an intention of doing so. I would not feel that way had it not been for Limbus Company.

Limbus Company is a legitimate contender for my favorite videogame OF ALL TIME and I do not say that lightly. Honkai Star Rail almost did that for me, but where HSR absolutely fumbles the bag Limbus Company soars. I would recommend this game even to people who cannot stand gacha games because it is simply that great a game, and I even considered telling my COLLEGE WRITING PROFESSOR (that is, the one who teaches classes on how to tell a great story) that she would probably enjoy this game. I might still do that actually. Limbus Company is a masterpiece. S++.

Story isn't really that important a factor in selling a gacha game like Limbus Company. I don't think HSR does a consistently amazing job with this, although that game does have some pretty insanely high highs. Genshin's writing is notoriously hit-or-miss, but mostly miss in my opinion. Even Zenless Zone Zero, a game that I have dedicated a significant amount of my life buildcrafting and even making videos for, doesn't really have a great story, though its worldbuilding is pretty darn good. Limbus Company has one of the best stories of any videogame I've played and it isn't even done yet. This isn't just a case of like HSR's Penacony where for like 6 months the game was peak, Limbus's main story has not faltered in the slightest since Canto 5 and even the low points of Limbus Company are at least on par with the best that ZZZ has to offer. I know I have only mentioned Hoyoverse games so far in this review, so I'll bring up another example: Limbus managed to grab my attention from basically frame 1, even before that. The loading screen for when you're downloading update data was more narratively compelling than the entire first hour of Wuthering Waves.

A lot of this is because Project Moon has created a very established and compelling universe across its previous two games that I strongly intend on playing, but even Library of Ruina didn't manage to really latch on to me quite like Limbus Company was able to. I think a lot of that has to do with Limbus's absolutely stellar cast of characters.

The game's story is absolutely a 5/5 stars, the only major problem is that some of the early cantos leave a lot to be desired. They're still good, just not as well fleshed-out as what would come later. Canto 2 in particular takes a lot of time getting to the focus character's actual story and leaves it mostly unfinished by the end, but I expect that a future story will probably bring it to a close at some point. As such, while I would do so if all of the game's cantos were at the same level as 5 and onward, I will not be giving Limbus Company an extra point in this category.

The game's gameplay is tremendously complex for a gacha game. I would even go so far as to say that it is the most complicated combat system I have seen in any turn based game ever. This complexity, when properly understood, is a lot of fun, and it really makes you think about every move. The problem is that the game doesn't really bother explaining a majority of it. There are people who can explain it better than me, look up a guide on YouTube. 5/5, Limbus Company continually surprises me with its sheer nuance and depth.

The graphics of Limbus Company are very stylized, but I would stay this is a massive step up from Library of Ruina, especially when it comes to the combat. I didn't have a huge problem with LoR visually, but going back to it after playing Limbus made it feel like a massive downgrade. The CGs are full life and energy, despite the simple artstyle(s). However, there is a noticeable point in the story where the CG artist was changed, for reasons I'm not fully equipped to go over in this review that you can research yourself if you're interested. I think both styles work very well and I don't really have a preference for one or the other, but they are fairly different. I still think the visuals in this game are 5/5, especially considering how well the game is able to blend its combat and storytelling with them.

The music is fantastic. I gave Library of Ruina a fair bit of both praise and criticism, but I don't think I did a very good job in that review considering I just kind of assumed that the singer for the vocal pieces was Korean, which is completely untrue. The same music group was responsible for the music here as was in LoR, and they knock it out of the park with this game's major boss themes, almost all of which are a lyric piece with several movements that pertain specifically to the story being told by the rest of the game. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. is fantastic. I'm not a huge fan of LoR's opening theme, so my expectations weren't very high going into Limbus. In Hell We Live, Lament might actually be my favorite song in the game. Limbus Company does what I think no other game I've played can with its music, something HSR tried to do to significantly less success. Limbus Company allows its story to speak through song, it lets its story sing. The closest I think I can compare it to is Undertale, a game with a soundtrack I hold in very high regard, but Undertale doesn't have the guts to do what Limbus does. I've given games a 6/5 in categories before in my reviews, specifically in my review of Risk of Rain Returns, but part of me would like to gave Limbus Company a score even higher. I'm not going to because I feel that a +1 in a category is already very well and capably of throwing off the balance of my scoring system, but I want it to be known that Limbus Company is a contender for having my favorite soundtrack in any videogame, and I would go so far as to say that it is probably the victor in the competition. 5/5. +1.

Last, but certainly not least, is the game's monetization. Normally, I give either gameplay or story 10 points of weight in a review, but in a game like this, that is, a gacha game, I think the way a game is monetized can be very important. In addition, I believe in a game like this, story and gameplay hold equal value, and as such I would like them to be balanced equally. Limbus Company is a gacha game made by people who do not know how to make a gacha game. It's just way too generous. You don't even have to pull for the character you want, you can just grind for shards and buy them for ABSOLUTELY FREE. Lets say, for example, your favorite character is Faust. You can just grind for and buy all of the Faust IDs if you want, I basically did that. Some IDs are limited and unavailable to shard, but if you're patient enough you can get any ID or EGO you want without pulling on the gacha ONCE. The two limitations, now three as of literally the most recent update, are that 1) Walpurgistnacht IDs and EGOs can only be sharded or pulled during the Walpurgistnacht event, which happens every few months. 2) Once a season ends, you cannot shard IDs from that season or events that season until two seasons afterwards, so, right now, season 5, season 4 IDs cannot be obtained until season 6 begins. 3) Some seasonal IDs cannot be sharded until 1 week after release, the only ID for which this is the case right now is the Manager Don Quixote, which is literally the most recent ID added to the game. Obviously this is a 5/5, no other gacha game is this generous to its playerbase. You still can spend money on the game of course, and honestly I recommend it. Buy the battle pass if you want to support the devs, it gives you a lot of rewards and it helps them fund the game and future projects.

So, tallying up my points, Limbus Company has an outstanding 26/25 points, being one of the two games I have ever given a score above 100. (25+1)/25 = 104%, an S++.

I feel like I have to redeem myself. My review of Library of Ruina is very bad and desperately needs rewriting, but I'm putting that off until I finish the game because now I actually have an intention of doing so. I would not feel that way had it not been for Limbus Company. Limbus Company is a legitimate contender for my favorite videogame OF ALL TIME and I do not say that lightly. Honkai Star Rail almost did that for me, but where HSR absolutely fumbles the bag Limbus Company soars. I would recommend this game even to people who cannot stand gacha games because it is simply that great a game, and I even considered telling my COLLEGE WRITING PROFESSOR (that is, the one who teaches classes on how to tell a great story) that she would probably enjoy this game. I might still do that actually. Limbus Company is a masterpiece. [b]S++[/b]. Story isn't really that important a factor in selling a gacha game like Limbus Company. I don't think HSR does a consistently amazing job with this, although that game does have some pretty insanely high highs. Genshin's writing is notoriously hit-or-miss, but mostly miss in my opinion. Even Zenless Zone Zero, a game that I have dedicated a significant amount of my life buildcrafting and even making videos for, doesn't really have a great story, though its worldbuilding is pretty darn good. Limbus Company has one of the best stories of any videogame I've played and it isn't even done yet. This isn't just a case of like HSR's Penacony where for like 6 months the game was peak, Limbus's main story has not faltered in the slightest since Canto 5 and even the low points of Limbus Company are at least on par with the best that ZZZ has to offer. I know I have only mentioned Hoyoverse games so far in this review, so I'll bring up another example: Limbus managed to grab my attention from basically frame 1, even before that. The loading screen for when you're downloading update data was more narratively compelling than the entire first hour of Wuthering Waves. A lot of this is because Project Moon has created a very established and compelling universe across its previous two games that I strongly intend on playing, but even Library of Ruina didn't manage to really latch on to me quite like Limbus Company was able to. I think a lot of that has to do with Limbus's absolutely stellar cast of characters. The game's story is absolutely a 5/5 stars, the only major problem is that some of the early cantos leave a lot to be desired. They're still good, just not as well fleshed-out as what would come later. Canto 2 in particular takes a lot of time getting to the focus character's actual story and leaves it mostly unfinished by the end, but I expect that a future story will probably bring it to a close at some point. As such, while I would do so if all of the game's cantos were at the same level as 5 and onward, I will not be giving Limbus Company an extra point in this category. The game's gameplay is tremendously complex for a gacha game. I would even go so far as to say that it is the most complicated combat system I have seen in any turn based game ever. This complexity, when properly understood, is a lot of fun, and it really makes you think about every move. The problem is that the game doesn't really bother explaining a majority of it. There are people who can explain it better than me, look up a guide on YouTube. 5/5, Limbus Company continually surprises me with its sheer nuance and depth. The graphics of Limbus Company are very stylized, but I would stay this is a massive step up from Library of Ruina, especially when it comes to the combat. I didn't have a huge problem with LoR visually, but going back to it after playing Limbus made it feel like a massive downgrade. The CGs are full life and energy, despite the simple artstyle(s). However, there is a noticeable point in the story where the CG artist was changed, for reasons I'm not fully equipped to go over in this review that you can research yourself if you're interested. I think both styles work very well and I don't really have a preference for one or the other, but they are fairly different. I still think the visuals in this game are 5/5, especially considering how well the game is able to blend its combat and storytelling with them. The music is fantastic. I gave Library of Ruina a fair bit of both praise and criticism, but I don't think I did a very good job in that review considering I just kind of assumed that the singer for the vocal pieces was Korean, which is completely untrue. The same music group was responsible for the music here as was in LoR, and they knock it out of the park with this game's major boss themes, almost all of which are a lyric piece with several movements that pertain specifically to the story being told by the rest of the game. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. is fantastic. I'm not a huge fan of LoR's opening theme, so my expectations weren't very high going into Limbus. In Hell We Live, Lament might actually be my favorite song in the game. Limbus Company does what I think no other game I've played can with its music, something HSR tried to do to significantly less success. Limbus Company allows its story to speak through song, it lets its story sing. The closest I think I can compare it to is Undertale, a game with a soundtrack I hold in very high regard, but Undertale doesn't have the guts to do what Limbus does. I've given games a 6/5 in categories before in my reviews, specifically in my review of Risk of Rain Returns, but part of me would like to gave Limbus Company a score even higher. I'm not going to because I feel that a +1 in a category is already very well and capably of throwing off the balance of my scoring system, but I want it to be known that Limbus Company is a contender for having my favorite soundtrack in any videogame, and I would go so far as to say that it is probably the victor in the competition. 5/5. +1. Last, but certainly not least, is the game's monetization. Normally, I give either gameplay or story 10 points of weight in a review, but in a game like this, that is, a gacha game, I think the way a game is monetized can be very important. In addition, I believe in a game like this, story and gameplay hold equal value, and as such I would like them to be balanced equally. Limbus Company is a gacha game made by people who do not know how to make a gacha game. It's just way too generous. You don't even have to pull for the character you want, you can just grind for shards and buy them for ABSOLUTELY FREE. Lets say, for example, your favorite character is Faust. You can just grind for and buy all of the Faust IDs if you want, I basically did that. Some IDs are limited and unavailable to shard, but if you're patient enough you can get any ID or EGO you want without pulling on the gacha ONCE. The two limitations, now three as of literally the most recent update, are that 1) Walpurgistnacht IDs and EGOs can only be sharded or pulled during the Walpurgistnacht event, which happens every few months. 2) Once a season ends, you cannot shard IDs from that season or events that season until two seasons afterwards, so, right now, season 5, season 4 IDs cannot be obtained until season 6 begins. 3) Some seasonal IDs cannot be sharded until 1 week after release, the only ID for which this is the case right now is the Manager Don Quixote, which is literally the most recent ID added to the game. Obviously this is a 5/5, no other gacha game is this generous to its playerbase. You still can spend money on the game of course, and honestly I recommend it. Buy the battle pass if you want to support the devs, it gives you a lot of rewards and it helps them fund the game and future projects. So, tallying up my points, Limbus Company has an outstanding 26/25 points, being one of the two games I have ever given a score above 100. (25+1)/25 = 104%, an [b]S++[/b].