You ever just wonder how the Sinners cope with knowing there's a better/worse version of themselves in an alternate timeline?
Does Gregor's heart break that another him is free from Hermann's modification? Does it ache to know that he could have been another dogmatic G Corp. soldier?
Does it disturb Rodya that she could have been a corporate-funded fanatic that relishes on the pain of people with prosthetics?
Does Don walk away with less of a spring in her step knowing the truths her W Corp employes self knows?
It really disheartens me that I see a lot of people disregard Lobotomy Corporation. Especially in the wake of Limbus Company's popularity. I was even told to skip it by one of my friends when I got into Project Moon last year (<3)
People say it's bad, it's hard, it's not worth playing, "Just watch a recap video" or "Just go straight to Ruina" or "Play it with cheats" (the gameplay experience is vital to the story but im a grouchy old woman about this) and while Ruina definitely can be played without playing LCorp first. A big theme of the game, repetition and cycles, hinges on you having played LCorp.
Not to mention LCorp is just, an amazing game? It's a clever little title that's an incredible experience, with some flaws that I think are outshined by the power-trip level moments when you're finally able to overcome the web of bullshit it throws at you. I'd put it in my top 3 games of all time, tbh. higher than Ruina.
If you're getting into Project Moon for whatever reason, I HIGHLY implore and recommend you to give Lobotomy Corporation a try before Ruina. It takes a bit to get going but if you see things through to the end, you won't regret it, I promise.
You'll make it. I know you will.
totally agree, although the nature of what makes LobCorp such a work of art is the fact that it REALLY isn't for everyone
some people just don't click that well with LobCorp, and, as someone who played the whole-ass thing to 100% Abno Dissolution and E.G.O extraction, I can safely say <b>most people should play LobCorp until they get sick of it</b>
it's a grindy, tedious, miserable slog of a game that demands just enough attention span to not be bg noise, it's buggy and unfair and it hates you, and that's the point!
not everyone will have the time, patience or attention span to take the entirety of LobCorp, and spending money on a game that might not be for you will always be hard to justify for most (which is why you should gift LobCorp to a friend)
all of this comes together into an experience that's inaccessible but transcendental, imposing the lessons of the game onto you if you ever are to beat it
going into Ruina after playing LobCorp elevated so many moments from mere revelations, catchphrases and twists into moments of visceral fear, catharsis and joy
I'd reccommend playing it with mods, the Casual Mode springs to mind as solving the biggest issue (training agents), but others are encouraged for bug fixes or reducing some of the absurd mental stack
either way, the suffering will happen and will be a constant, so go out there and be the manager you know you can be
Face the Fear, Build the Future
A thing I like about Ayin as a character and about LobCorp's narrative is that playing as X leads to become A, not because of text and lore, but because of the gameplay system itself.
Most of us start caring for our little employees but the cycle of having to start again, to go back to the last checkpoint, killing them and testing and killing them once again and starting from scratch you just...stop caring
I used to have a favourite employee, Dexter. I even made her again in my first full restart ever. If something would happen to her, I would restart the day immediately.
Now, in order to finish Gebura's last mission, I just let 75% of my employees have terrible deaths supressing the midnight ordeal. Half of my abnos had breached, including most WAW's and an ALEPH. So I just...send two employees to We Can Change Anything. I used their slow and painful deaths as fuel to end the day and reach the energy quota because why would I even care anymore?
The day ended, I re started everything once again, the supressions were available and I knew I would do all of it again. That's when I realized I became Ayin. And I hated it.
I love this game.
Malkuth's meltdown is so appropiate because of course the person who most struggles with memory and attention, and therefore with a lack of control, makes you fight her by forcing you to face the lack of control not understanding what you are doing can bring.
I remember facing her meltdown the firsts four or five times and being like "okay so with her some of my employees just randomly die? Okay, it's the inevitability of it I should accept it" and then I started to pay more attention to it and started to get how the works were not 100% random but just disordered and started TAKING NOTES (you know. Just like she does) outside the game to manage it so everything started going well again.
Until it changed again. And I didn't pay enought attention so didn't understand why my employees were dying again so I had to change my notes again and again until I saw when they started to change again.
Malkuth's whole character is about the consequences of both acting before you know exactly what you are doing but also about having additional dificulty getting to actually know what you are doing all of the time.
It's quite literally perfect, I felt her so hard when I had to face her meltdown, so far I still think her's is the best one.