UG has been a bit of a gamble for me. I’m not really into photography games and I’m not knowledgeable about the subject in real life either. Many games allow you to take pictures on the side, I tend to mostly ignore this function because it feels pointless without any objectives. The negative reviews focusing on the tight timer, unclear objectives, janky gameplay and bad controls also had me spooked. And yet I feel very happy for getting the game against all odds. It seems as if the game is misunderstood with some of the claims.

The game has 8 stages and 4 DLC stages. Each stage has a couple of main objectives that you have to do to complete a stage. The main objectives are taking pictures of something unique related to each stage. There are also optional objectives that are always the same regardless of the stage. You can think of earn x money with your pictures, find x amount of film canisters etc. Each stage has at least two camera tools to unlock. One is for completing the stage and the other is for completing everything, including the optional objectives, in one go. This means getting it done within 10 minutes. I usually HATE timers in games but it’s really not bad here. You can perfectly ignore the timer and take as long as you need. You can even turn it off from showing in the options menu. You can attempt it after exploring a stage thoroughly. It’s easier than it sounds because the stages are not big at all. It’s easy to get everything done quickly once you know where everything is. In fact, I’ve had instances where I’ve (almost) done everything on my first try once I understood how the game accepts the pictures taken. It’s also better to unlock some lenses early before attempting the timers because they will make things FAR easier.

This makes UG feel like an arcade game. None of the objectives you did before are remembered, so you’ll always have to do them again. But it works because you’ll always have the lenses and other tools you unlocked plus remembering what you did before. It also does an excellent job of giving you an idea of how actual photography works. This along with making the gameplay and progression system fun, while informative, impresses me a lot. Some people mentioned how the objectives can be unclear or how some screenshots are not being accepted while they should. This has not been my experience for the most part. Some of those pictures are required to be taken with certain lenses, you’re shown the icons in the objectives menu and it was mentioned in the tutorial. It makes it feel like those people missed these important aspects. The controls are also fine with mouse and keyboard. It’s similar to an FPS with some minor differences for the most part. The complaints were mostly about the controller, so do keep that in mind. The game looks and sounds like a Dreamcast game a bit. I’m slightly reminded of my time playing Jet Set Radio. The achievements are enjoyable to get too. There are some creative ones that might get annoying to figure out but the game has tons of guides to help out with that.

The criticisms regarding janky gameplay and a few bugs are valid. Sometimes you jump really high when you go up the stairs. Jumping can also not work when you’re too close to objects. These are the kind of janky gameplay problems that can be dealt with and avoided once you know how they trigger. The UI is not the best. It feels clunky but it can get the job done. In terms of bugs, the speedrun achievement does not work. Right now you can either go back to an older version (it’s introduced with the last update), use SAM or pray the devs will patch it at some point. It doesn’t seem like the latter will happen since the last patch we got was in 2022. The game also has weird performance issues but it’s not something I’ve seen others mention. So it might be my set-up in combination with the changes I’ve made in the options menu. The game has a kind of annoying and pretty constant stuttering. It’s worse in certain stages and can disappear after a while. None of this is solved by forcing 60fps through Nvidia.

UG is a required taste. Not everyone is going to put up with the lack of polish. But what it does is unique and it does it really well. I paid €1,85 for the game and DLC when it was on sale. It’s definitely worth it. The normal price for both is too high but they’re worth considering when they’re cheaper.

I will be talking about all the chapters in the game one by one so its spoiler territory. I wanted to write this after Ishmael's chapter but said to myself nah I'll do it after Heathcliffs, which probably made my thoughts more organized. I'll probably update it after chapter 7 (canto 7, Don's chapter). For my thoughts on the game as a whole, this is the best gacha out there and it will only keep getting better and better with their writing quality and their ideas to implement evolving as Project Moon adds their previous ideas on it, expands the lore and gaining new insights while they experimenting/ making those ideas real. Even if you hate gachas this is still a must getting into if you love Project Moon's other works because it literally includes all of the previous ones, also its not entirely gacha as you can get everything with playing and in time. I think making Limbus gacha was the right choice because if it was a standalone game how would they add the new stories later, like, new dlc for new chapters? Sure you can use the argument ''they could finish everything and then publish the game'' and my response would be good luck waiting 5 years, with no chance of getting fixes after it releases and no cool other versions of sinners we get every week on banners, because you would probably had to play the game with base sinners if it wasnt gacha. Plus waiting for new cantos/in between stories of cantos (events) is the sweet nectar.

Prologue: What a cool introduction to a new story on pmoonverse with giving us two familiar faces from the previous entry (Leviathan) and making us question why Vergilius is here now and what the hell is going on with Dante. Wow our character cast is immortal as long as Dante can revive them, there are so many possibilies for pmoon to explore with this, like for example making extremely dire situations because they can challenge what a normal human cant with immortality. Oh Mili and Studio Eim (Studio Eim please upload the soundtracks to spotify please I beg thee) will keep on working for Limbus huh, okay we got music side covered they cant go wrong, cant wait for Mili songs in the future.

Canto 1: Our first sinner to get his conclusion and character development, it was good and exciting with a surprising ending. Gregor makes peace with his difference from others. We got so see more information on what happened to lobotomy corp branches after the previous entries, looks like we search for golden boughs and we got more info about smoke war because Gregor is a smoke war veteran and story took place in Gregors memories because of the golden bough. We also saw the main villains. So, characters and their stories are actually from literature and Limbus integrates them to its own story huh, cool, we can speculate what to expect from their books.

Canto 2: This one was weird and underwhelming from previous canto, I assume they rushed this because they were working for other aspects of the game and next canto and release date was nearing. There was no climax and Rodion didnt get her resolution, also no new info except there is a gambling district in the city. At least we saw funny interactions of the cast and how they are getting used to each other and to the job they do. Still sucks for Rodion but they might come back to this later.

Canto 3: Overall incredible and peak and makes you wonder how we come to this from canto 2's bland ending. We saw our most meek and always terrified sinner Sinclair get courage to stand up to this cantos villain, Kromer, and I think this is the most bitter one after Heathcliffs canto, people understate/ forget what happened to his family and town from what I've seen. If I remember correctly this is the first time we saw distortion since Library of Ruina, they keep on continuing building on the lore. Also we got our first Mili song (if we dont include opening Mili song) bgm, going more in line with LoR's formula. Made me wonder how can they top this at the time of experiencing it, which, it was at the launch of the game, what I mean is it looked hopeful for future content, if you start wondering how can they top this, pmoon tops it, works in reverse. This was also the hardest time for both devs and players with so many bugs or lack of quality of life options. If devs stopped giving a fuck we wouldnt get what limbus is today, so I applaud their hard work, just like what their stories conveys, they faced the fear and built the future. Most of the bad opinions about Limbus stems from bad launch or Velmori incident or people who hate the gameplay (skill issue)

Canto 4: Very emotional canto with again another peak ending and another question of ''how can they top this?'' (Im repeating myself and I will keep on doing it but its literally this every single time, plus my vocabulary isnt much good for me to talk about it detailed, but still I want to write a review about the game most excited I get nowadays, which is waiting for new limbus stories). We got to see why Yisang is depressed, we see the league of nine and we learn more about the most important aspect in the entire game: mirror worlds, its basically paralel universes of someone you can see on the other side of the mirror or extract with a another complex tech. Thats basically how we can use different versions of our sinners in combat and its inventor is Yisang. Another cool concept and how it makes Limbus work as a gacha, you wouldnt imagine a gacha with a low number of just 12 characters keep living in this medium but it actually works wonders with giving you more worlbuilding in those mirror world versions and stories of the characters, everything Project Moon does and implements expands on their lore (even the sandwhich restaurant HamHamPangPang). Plus you got to see more of the sinner(s) you like so basically a clever way of fanservice. Now getting back to canto, Yisang gets over his depression after confronting his past coworkers and seeing his smile on canto ending song and later cantos, seeing him become more sharing and talkative just melts you and gives you a smile too. If you get invested in these 12 characters you definitelly see them develop and change later with how they interact differently from earlier cantos, a genius writing as always and a living story, never staying stagnant, seeing those are one of the best enjoyments you can get from this game and other Project Moon works in general.

Canto 5: Ishmael is the most logical sinner aside from stoic and a machine of a being Meursault, but, she was also the most hotheaded one beside Heathcliff (which at this point Heathcliff became calmer after getting to know limbus crew better so Ishmael was the only one left out of the group) because of her obsession, which is, getting stuck on the thought of killing Ahab and getting her revenge. She would disagree at some points with Dante's choices in this canto and act on her own because she thinks its the most quick way for her to get to Ahab, making Limbus crew at a disadvantage or in danger, but at the same time she is the only one with immense knowledge on seafaring and the place they are on. Another point why she does this is because at this point in story sinners know they will get their spotlight, after witnessing it 4 times before they know it just like the player, their time will come, and Ishmael knows. Heathcliff knows too, with knowing hes the closest or next on the canto list, he tries to stole hair coupons for his canto and makes the situation hopeless unknowingly, because those hair coupons were Middle's, one of the fingers in the city, which never forgets the crime done to them. This was the thing I was talking about in prologue section with making the situation dire, Middle is way above their level and they fuck our sinners up hard, not even getting revived again and again saves them. At the same time it is about time for Middle to learn immortal sinners weakness, Dante, with no way of our own color fixer Vergilius to come help us (this is also the moment Fraudgilius memes appear). In the end Ishmael gets over her revenge after a fight with Ahab inside a whale and finds her way back, starts to make positive relationships with other sinners after breaking herself apart from just seeing one single goal. Again with this canto they increase the production value from previous ones, easily tops the previous canto again with overall quality increase and ending and they fix minor things like pacing issues in canto 4 which I didnt mention. We dont see Velmori's art anymore because of the incident (a sad korean drama and a lot of misunderstandings on english players side because of the confidentiality contract Project Moon made with Velmori at the time of drama) but I have to say, I prefer Naiga's art more, it works better with Limbus's tone and setting and more in line with previous game. Still, Velmori's character expressions were cute.

Canto 6: We came to Heathcliffs canto that he were despairing for this moment on both canto 5 and intervallo events and at the time of writing this is the best one with so many interesting things happening. More Leviathan lore, more mirror world and the technology for making identities lore, Vergilius beating the Fraudgilius allegations, our own sinner distorting, Dante getting a spotlight and we getting a boss fight similar to Black Silence reception in Library of Ruina, they have a beef with wifeless guys I swear. I didnt mention earlier again because it looked more fit here but this canto is the most clear we see Carmen trying to distort someone with voicelines and all because the one distorting is the closest to our team. We even see 2 cg arts of Carmen, that passes in the blink of an eye, from Lobotomy Corporation. After an absolute peak and cool of a boss fight Project Moon says nah its not over and breaks the hearts of the players more with a meta, fourth wall breaking gameplay cutscene, no wonder canto's name is Heartbreaking. Heathcliff's canto's ending is the most bitter with how it ends but he still has hopes for the future and determined to bring *** back. This is easily the best canto right now but I trust them to surpass themselves again in Don's chapter, we'll see in 3-4 months later.

I'm obsessed with this game. It's a brainrot that consumes me every waking hour. I binged the finale to Canto VI for 5 hours straight and was hooked the entire time. I've been working through reading the literary inspirations for all the Sinners, and what Project Moon have built off the back of Wuthering Heights is incredible. More than anything, the character writing is so movingly human despite the horrors and depravity of the City. Nobody's ever too "broken" to be worth love.

Love must be the reason why
I still believe in this lie
That you'll live a better life
Without me by your side