A loving couple having a nice waltz
Canto X: The Gaze bearing has officially ended; by far, the longest chapter in Limbus Company’s story. We’ve finally wrapped up this story about consumerism, love, and enough existential philosophy to make you want your own suicide experience capsule. Without further ado, let’s get straight into this (mostly) spoiler-free review.
Synopsis: One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
In this canto, Project Moon’s uniquely absurd, grim world-building is manifested in the form of the Grand Magasin Sisyphe, a depressing department store created by N. Corp to generate experience batter. Criminals in N. Corp, once subjected to the Sisyphe penalty, are made to ‘experience death’ which sends their minds into the Grand Magasin. The unique dystopian settings of N Corp. and the Grand Magasin fit perfectly into the world Project Moon have nurtured over 3 games and 2 (or 3, depending on who you ask) web-novels/manhwa series.
This canto delves into the mind of Meursault, seemingly the most unmoving and rigid of our family of bizarre sinners. Based on the protagonist of Camus’ ‘The Stranger’, absurdism is seeping from every inch of Meursault’s actions and thoughts. Although he is a completely different person from his novella counterpart, as Project Moon are known to take creative liberties with the sources that inspire their stories, the distinct philosophical ideas of Albert Camus are vividly present throughout his characterisation. Plagued by a sense of alienation with the outside world, this Meursault, having been accused of matricide which he makes no effort to deny, is given the sisyphe penalty, at which point our protagonist Dante and the sinners they manage are sent to retrieve him as well as the sought-after golden bough that rests somewhere inside the Grand Magasin Sisyphe.
So ensues an approximately twenty-five-hour adventure, being lead around the Magasin in endless circles, fighting through hordes of clothing-obsessed weirdos and freaks as Meursault’s past is slowly unveiled.
The Good
Limbus Company is Back!
As always, canto X manages to retain the unique qualities that have made Limbus Company so well-renowned both within and without the gacha space. It’s the outstanding character designs, dialogue, music, voice acting, and art direction that have made the game so popular, and those are all here in spades. The new IDs, enemies, and characters all look gorgeous in Project Moon’s signature dystopian science-fantasy style, Studio EIM and Mili’s soundtracks remain ethereal and mesmerising, and the writing feels incredibly well-thought out, giving almost every character an exceptionally likeable quality. Even though most of this canto’s massive retinue of characters get very little screentime, they are all genuinely likeable and have fleshed-out, unique personalities.
The philosophy:
Aside from the usual, canto X’s story frankly has one of the best final acts in the entirety of Project Moon’s catalogue. To say as little as possible, the finale is an ideological clash between Camus’ absurdism and Sartre’s existentialism. It is a profound and beautifully presented dialogue that made me, and I’m certain many others, shed real tears. Mili’s currently unreleased song ‘Rendezvous’ which plays during this sequence helps add to its potent emotional quality and marks this conclusion as one of the highlights of the entire franchise.
Freer free than ever before:
Lastly, and as previously mentioned, canto X takes major creative liberties in how it handles the source inspiration of Meursault. This may be to some classical literature puritans’ chagrin; I believe this is to its benefit. Project Moon has been gradually steering away from more rigid adaptations with Canto, IIX, IX, and now X, taking only the root themes of these stories and adding or removing characters, plotlines and developments to fit the City’s futuristic advancement, fractured factions, and dystopian atmosphere. This heedlessness for the source material allows Project Moon far more creative freedom than in the earlier stages of Limbus Company and leads to the creation of iconic characters like Kong Qiu and Rien, who were non-existent in their original texts.
To summarise, canto X keeps everything that Project Moon fans have come to expect, as well as going above and beyond with its conclusion, and while it makes certain creative decisions that some may find controversial, it is an overall phenomenal story that will almost certainly leave you both satisfied and wanting more of the game.
Just some of the gorgeous ID designs of canto X
The Bad
Sisyphean Inferno:
Despite all the praises rightfully sung to canto X, it is not without flaw. Far from it. Most of the central flaws that plague this canto stem from the new mode that Project Moon decided to experiment with. In your exploration of the Grand Magasin Sisyphe, you will control Meursault in a top-down RPG-maker style minigame. While this is a laudable effort to alleviate some of the criticisms towards Limbus Company’s repetitive combat and gameplay, the exploration of the Grand Magasin is, as its namesake suggests, Sisyphean. Filled with mind-numbing and tedious fetch quests that miserably drag you along the innards of this freakish department store, the exploration of the Grand Magasin is often incredibly linear and repetitive, which are two words that are great at describing pushing a boulder up a hill and watching it roll down again, but not so great at describing a good adventure. This mini game takes up the bulk of the playtime of canto X and severely disrupts the pacing of the first two acts. I question if this tedium was a purposeful and ingenious design of ludonarrative harmony, intended to make you feel all the existential anguish that the characters within the story do, but even if it was, I can’t particularly say that it was an enjoyable experience sitting through those first twenty-ish hours of torment with the occasional interesting moment sprinkled in, just to reach the phenomenal finale.
The Combat:
While most of the flaws of canto X are rooted in its failed attempt at innovating on its stale combat formula, some of them are also the result of its pre-existing stale combat formula. One of the biggest pitfalls of many gacha games is attempting to balance the game you want to make with the game gacha fans want to play. Many games of this genre opt to have braindead easy gameplay, sometimes even playable with one hand for certain nefarious, lascivious reasons. Limbus Company, while certainly above the masses of mindless, practically automatic gachas on the market, still falls short of its predecessors in the complexity and nuance in its combat system. This has led to several major issues developing over the past three years of its lifetime, the most problematic of which being powercreep. The IDs of the past year have seen a huge boost to their damage which has resulted in a major balancing issue that plagues the fights in canto X: every team is either ridiculously overtuned or pathetically underpowered, resulting in a polarised user experience. People who use the powerful teams, like the ever-reliant scorch comp, are breezing through supposedly difficult encounters while people using IDs even a year old are struggling pointlessly in an uphill battle against every boss. This leaves two solutions, let all the non-meta slaves drown and make content even harder, or tune it down and make anyone using a slightly-stronger-than-average team disappointed. Nerfing is generally not a valid (or safe) option for a gacha game. Recent IDs from season 8 have tried to regress powercreep noticeably, but the issue of the already broken IDs remains. Further yet, the overly simplified combat system also means that Project Moon has very little room to work with in terms of game design variety. This is becoming especially noticeable as fights become progressively longer. Encounters rapidly devolve into repeating the same patterns and attacks, sometimes for upwards of an hour, until the encounter ends, with phase transitions providing minuscule, “asymptotic” variations in design tacked onto an increased damage multiplier. Compare this to The Black Silence from Library of Ruina (the predecessor to Limbus Company), a five-phase boss that also takes approximately an hour to beat, yet each phase contains a completely different strategy of approach, with entirely new mechanics and attacks. It’s that design which makes The Black Silence unforgettable, while most Limbus Company bosses have mechanics that slip your mind the moment it’s over.
In summary, Limbus Company remains plagued by all the issues affecting it since launch. Its rudimentary gameplay formula cannot advance without a complete overhaul, and the attempt at a novel mode to distract from the issues in its combat is futile, even ignoring the fact that said new mode is plagued with issues of its own.
Conclusions: Great Story; Still Full Of Problems.
You may have noticed that the two issues I had with canto X are taking up a majority of this article. That’s because, while I do deeply adore Project Moon and Limbus Company, these issues out scale canto X entirely. They plague Limbus Company and have done so since its release in 2023. The issues of the RPG-maker mode are just a symptom of the greater struggle of Project Moon to make new and interesting content in the game. From Reflectrial to Mirror Dungeon, Limbus Company has never had any outstanding side content or gameplay features that match the quality of its cast and story, and this is one of many failed attempts. While I can and do ignore these flaws to look at the things it does right, I cannot say the same for everyone. I personally know plenty of people who’ve prematurely dropped the game because of its boring gameplay, and want to draw attention to that flaw, in the hopes that it can be repaired. Criticisms aside, there is a tear-jerking, beautiful story to be enjoyed in canto X, a truly phenomenal collaborative effort between several musical, visual and literary artists that many people will deeply enjoy. Thanks for reading all the way through this, whoever you may be, and listen to Rendezvous by Mili whenever it drops on Spotify or YouTube.
