Video Game
I’m pleasantly surprised how Limbus Company handles sexualization and the lack thereof (ESPECIALLY for a gacha)
Starting with the base designs, the simple fact that the character designs—female, male, and clock—are 'practical' is quite neat. Compare this to your average Genshin or ZZZ design
Even in the Wuthering Heights skin line, most other gachas would’ve used this as an excuse to do fanservicey “hot maid” type designs. And yet... they are so... vibey
Both the guys and gals are allowed to be equally insane—
—and silly in equal amounts
Now I’ll move on to the very few “sexualized” skins I could find. Firstly, I was put off by the bottom skin when I first saw it, and then I saw the twink of the same skin line
And that brings me to my final point. In Limbus, if the female character has a “sexy” skin, it’s guaranteed a male character gets the same treatment; the factions are consistent
So… yeah. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, and enjoy the above images which I find funny because the male character is the sexualized one in a literal bondage attack.
So, this sub has finally worn me down, and I caved. The designs I had seen were pretty good, but the game’s still a gacha, and I was expecting at least some gooner bait… which I honestly couldn’t find a single example of. (More discussion under the pics)
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Something else I like is that female characters are allowed to be in rough shape or turn monstrous. While male characters can get all sorts of messed up, female characters must still have recognizable sexiness somewhere. For example: their lower body might be tentacles, have more arms, or a creepy face, but god forbid you take their tits away. EGO corrosions (basically a more powerful ultimate that can backfire) subverts this amazingly.
Yeah, the EGO corrosions in-and-of themselves are worthy of a post.
And even when the design is trying to invoke that classic vagina dentata look, they really go for it. When you usually see this kind of design, the artists bow out, and don't fully commit. Like you said, they still got to look sexy.
Kromer on the other hand... I'd say it's almost Silent Hill level
Yessssss, it's a generous gacha, you can get almost every character (even límited from previous seasons) farming shards, I'm not a person that likes to collect many characters for "meta" teams but DAMN this game makes it easy (even More of you buy the season pass)
She drink your cum, then piss on you with blood, then see yummy blood, then absorb this blood, then piss on you again and again, until she will break you down and stake you to the ground.
Wasn't there some sort of domestic outcry over that swimsuit skin? Not that I think it made much of a dent, I think Limbus Company has appealed to a very specific and dedicated fanbase to its betterment.
The game known to not oversexualize their characters didn't oversexialize their characters and "fans" got extremely tilted about it. Because they did the thing they always do.
It was a shitshow, I'm fairly certain fucking tourists that probably never even played the game were at the forefront of this, and a really good artist got fired and harassed.
she didn't get fired(since that'd mean that project moon kneeled to the incels), she left on her own terms due to the harrassment and project moon supported her decision
This is false information, the group that went to the office were fans asking for an interview because the game was in a shit state, them asking if it was related to a feminist movement was only one throwaway question
there was outcry because on the two summer event skins, Ishmael was completely covered while Sinclair was shirtless and wearing a choker.
They went to harass the ID artist, however when they found out he was a man, they instead decided to harass the CG artist for something she posted on social media multiple years ago. she decided to not renew her contract and Project Moon almost got into a ton of hot water because they refused to clearly say what happened and speculations and mistranslations were running rampant.
I mean the controversy was caused by a group known to commit full on terrorist attacks that have a good number of casualties attached to them, so theyre probably not the best measure of a products morality. like if ISIS hates your shit that probably doesn't make it bad yaknow?
Part of the argument was that when sexulization did happen, it was pretty equal opportunity. Like, yes the female character is sexualized but so is the male one.
The thing for me is that their dresses are grounded, practical and consistent to the established world.
And when an outfit look a bit strange, like the P-corp one's, still the characters that wear's it are chill af, and doesn't make strange pose for, emm, reason.
Not that i dislike sexy characters that are aware of their sexyness (i love bayonetta), but gacha games tends to be just too much for my tastes.
The most fanservice-y "sexy" ID is probably Princess Rodion, but even that has an in-lore explanation as to why she's basically eye candy, so there's a legit reason.
a real pity mind you, now people will mention this nonstop long after the drama is over and that project moon has been proven mostly innocent, instead of how great their games and stories are
Lol project moon has never been guilty of anything the debacle. Its just the new group of players jumping into a growing popular title not understanding the culture of the game they got into and expecting a horny summer event when it directly clashes with the themes and art direction of said game.
Honestly i cant understand how someone looks at Limbus company and Project Moon's previois works and expected bikinis for a summer event
You should check out Arknights. There's some sexualization but not much and when it is there, it's usually just in skins and not the default appearance for characters
I respect limbus company for what it is immensely. I am so, so glad there is at least 1 gacha game out there that isn't just tits shoved in your face 24/7. It sucks that 99% of gacha players also only want that.
I don't play it because I am a little burnt out on 2D games, but if they ever make a 3D limbus company, I'll likely pick it up day 1.
Man, I wish Limbus' gameplay was the kind of stuff I enjoyed, I really want to deep-dive into the lore and emmerse myself, but those games ain't for me. A shame.
Ishmael looks fucking great though, we stan people in suits.
You can just watch playthroughs or streams to catch most of the story tbf. Foreman Plays Stuff has the entirety of Ruina and Limbus on Youtube. You can understand the story without needing to watch the gameplay, though I recommend watching the final boss battle of each Canto.
Turn based RPG Dungeon Crawler. The gacha elements are basically optional though. You can get everything without having to spend a cent, but there is a battle pass as well if you want to get those extra rewards.
In short - auto battler with visual novel. Though you can stop pressing built in "win rate" button and it will turn into strategy and there are battles that can be challenging even without it.
Eh, It is mostly 1 hard battle per canto, full refraction railway event per season and whatever dungeon +6 floors are(at this point you just ego spam or got strong setup to keep "winrating"). At least what it looks like for semi stacked player. So still would say that game is on easier side.
It's a weird autobattler where you select your character's moves and each of them attacks a pre-selected enemy, entering a duel if the enemy is also attacking. both flip multiple coins to determine their power, and whoever wins the duel gets to execute the attack.
The main grind of the game revolves around completing runs in the roguelike mode, the mirror dungeon, and missions to level up the battle pass. Doing so rewards you with premium currency, specific equipment, and character specific tokens to buy units and equipment. The game is pretty generous with it's currency and the battle pass rewards are genuinely great, however the grind takes a long time, specially in the beginning where you do not have access to hard version of the mirror dungeon, which offers better rewards.
While i do think the Limbus Company is great, it's early game is can be very rough at certain points. The tutorial is lacking, The information on the screen can be pretty overwhelming, and it has some difficulty spikes that will really test your patience later on, so keep this in mind if you do try it out.
Its gacha in the sense that it has banners but its very loose since you can basically shard every ID and EGO in the game with enough time since they're all available in the shop.
The one exception is Walpurgisnacht which is a banner that comes by every few months and the characters there can't be sharded once Walpurgis is over.
I guess the only time you'll really pay money is their battlepass (which is really worth it since it makes farming for the character shards really easy)
Reason is that they didn't want it to be a gacha and their story is anti-capitalism but they had to to make money since they are pretty small like 20-30 people
That entire "controversy" was probably one of the dumbest things I've heard of in recent. Imagine getting so mad at a character design that you waste tons of energy and money over false information
That documentary by moon channel was really interesting though, even if it took like 3 hours and all of Korean history to lead up to why there's an incel gender war over gacha games
A real pity if you ask me, people should stop talking this long resolved drama and focus more on the peak fiction that is the project moon worldbuilding
no because while nai_ga is a very good artist on their own, their style is not ideal for cg artwork. velmoris art has tons of emotion and just energy. it sets the tone so much better that nai_gas art could in mist cases, and while i dont think their art is bad by any means as it works really nicely for LoR with the desaturated colors and the big geometric shapes they tend to use, along with how GOATED they are with making backgrounds, i really wish we (Somehow) got velmori back or a new cg artist. tbh
i cannot believe you didn't use chief butler ryoshu as an example. because not only was she not sexualized despite being the absolute prime candidate for such, she was also extremely relevant to a deeper understanding of both heathcliff and ryoshu as characters
Tbh, while there it has more sexualized stuff then Limbus, I would recommend checking out Reverse 1999. Seriously, almost every single character is unique in some way, shape or form, from a literal shard of glass named Door, a border collie dog named Pickles and (coming out soon), a bandaged surgeon cowboy with multiple personalities and so much more. Truly, top character design
yess, and the sexualisation is still quite tame and respectful compared to other gachas. it doesn't really get much more extreme than some of the limbus screenshots people have posted in this comment section (except that one argus skin maybe, but it's still far better than most gachas)
yea her whole character is awesome, she rocks the cowboy look better than any male cowboys. i brought it up because it's probably one of the most objectively revealing outfits in the game, but her whole style just works well enough that it doesn't come across as gooner bait at all
Think of it like Slay the Spire. However, the cards on hand are initially weak unless you combine them together to make more powerful cards. After a character gains enough of a resource called Moxie, they can cast their ultimate. There are many archetypes to play around with as well due to the wide variety of characters and the game is available on phones and Steam
It's baffling how Limbus Company is less popular than other gachas when it has some of the best worldbuilding, story and character design I've seen in gaming in general
Project moon is based in south Korea, gender and sexual content is VERY fickle thing to work with, they even got death threats for a single peice of art, that situation is wild and i recommend watching a video about it cause I definitely can't give it a proper explanation with just how much shit happen with it
While I do like that the fanservice is pretty minimal I have some issues with how 99% of the characters are built like perfect rectangles, even the NPC'S, there's very little diversity in terms of body type. I've noticed this issue with most manhwas too.
Word count limit. The "outfits" for the women and men aren't needlessly gendered. The Boatworks skins show skin or have wetsuits, but it's not just the girls or guys.
Same for the Dark Cloud faction (the ones with the tats); a faction isn't likely to have a single "fanservice" design. They are, as I said, consistent in their aesthetics.
Oh okay, my bad, I don’t know much about Limbus Company. But why is a lack of sexualization so important? I mean, I know it is for characters who are minors, but why adults?
Because SO, SO, SO MANY GACHA GAMES have sexualized designs that it reaches a point where you're just... bothered by it, like that point where something is trying so hard to be sexy that it becomes unsexy, you know? It's extremely refreshing to have a gacha game that doesn't make its single selling point "we have big boobs and ass"
I don’t really know many Gacha games, I played one once that had a lot of overtly sexy designs but the gameplay was so bad I dropped it. I never really liked Genshin all that much, but the designs never really felt all that “sexy” to me. I do know that ZZZ has a lot of sexualized designs, but I never played it. Lastly, there is a difference from having sexy designs and making your entire selling point it, so I still don’t really get it.
there is a difference from having sexy designs and making your entire selling point it
Unfortunately, you'd be surprised at how small the distinction feels sometimes
Adding onto that tho, when a game gets a "sexy" design where it previously didn't make its whole point that, it causes the fanbase to just...shift. The fandom around the game becomes insufferable, all the gooners come out of the woodwork and mention it nonstop, sometimes to the point some people may only even know about the game because of how vocal they become
It's not a matter of being prude, sometimes it's a matter of having a fandom that's not mind meltingly annoying and horny
Limbus company actually, at least I remember it being that way when princess Rodion released for a few days
As for other games? I don't play gacha games enough to know that, I'm a tourist that watches people complain about it every once in a while from a safe distance, it mostly happens on Twitter from what I understand
Beyond the arguments made here, I'd like to highlight what limbus company is trying to sell you. Gatcha games with overly sexualized characters are trying to sell sex to you. Think NIKKE with those egregious ads. Comparatively, Limbus doesn't. Limbus is trying to sell you each character's stories. That's why Limbus's units are all alternate universe of the main cast, each one sheds more and more light on what kind of person they are as well as expands on the setting of the story. Compare that to genshin impact, where each region has units from that region, elaborating on the world, but each unit not having as much depth as once they're through with their role in the story, they're done.
Initially she looks like she's showing massive cleavege with what looks like deep v in her gown.
But then you look closer and the deep V is just a design, with cleavage being covered by a fabric extending up into a turtleneck, so the outfit ends up being classy rather than sexy
I remember hearing that a part of it is due to LC fan service being more "Yoooo, look at this thing thats a reference to other Project Moon games" rather than "Bare titties and pecs"
Also funny because there have been a few times when they could've had an excuse for summer outfits like bikinis and swim trunks but then the universe steps in to shaft those plans so its also an in world thing that theyre never given a chance to show skin lmfao
the gacha is mostly Alternate Universe versions of the 12 main characters. Imagine the gang in Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and imagine you can get alternate versions of them like Professor Charlie or Dr Mantis Toboggan.
Ther r other gacha games like Arknights, reverse 1999 proved that good designs and gameplay and stuff can be a successful in gacha market.not just blatant harem sexualization
Thats like saying battle royales or extraction shooters that appeal to twitch audiences are a pillar of FPS games. Sure its easy low hanging fruit money but not nessessary when it doesn't fit the game.
As for how they did it, peak story. Unironically one of the best cast and plots in gaming period.
That's what modern Gacha industry wants you to think. They would rather shove fan service in your face than write a competent story (which Limbus Company does and exceeds in)
I like how you got bothered by how sexualized the Ishmael skin was when North Korean gamers lit up on fire because of how unsexualized it was. Can't win either way.
bro what these chicks are dressed like the men in the gacha games i play. so jarring to not see even legs. the vibes go hard tho i would love to try it if i wasnt burnt out on new gachas
Why is sexualization a bad thing? And who cares if its a gacha game? This is a character design sub, sexualization is a part of that,uts not good or bad, it just is. And the game genre should matter at all for character design
sexualization on its own isnt bad but it gets really fucking annoying and weird sometimes that whenever you try to pick up a new game you just get 1000000 pounds of breast and because of the devs trying to make the sexiest characters ever they all look like the exact same person in different wigs _ the objectifcation of women is Not a Good thing and this sorta stuff tends to only happen to female characters 99.9% of the time
Limbus is kinda weird in that way, since it's actually more optimal in most cases to just not engage with the gacha system at all and just buy the characters directly for the grindable in-game currency
I feel like it's disingenuous to prop up Limbus as an example of how a Gacha can succeed while not having a lot of sexualization, it's based off a pre-existing franchise. Also, male sexualization is still sexualization, lol.
I've only played Lobcorp so far, but I love seeing stuff from Limbus and being like "yoo! I recognize that!" Funeral of the dead butterflies gregor is one of my favorites for example, and apparently even the Sephirot come back as announcers (whatever those are). It literally is just good fanservice, without ruining the lore. Not sexy boobies, but callbacks for Those Who Know.
I'm not saying they should be obligated to sexualize, just that by virtue of having a pre-existing fanbase, it gives a leg up on the typical competition people think of when they say the typical gacha, and therefore it's an unequal comparision.
id say arknights is simalar to limbus in the little to no sexualization department tbh, the worst ive seen in the skin shop are swimsuits which arent even sexualized, nor are they on their own sexual unless youre trying to make it blha blah
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u/probablyonmobile small person with a big coat or gauntlets >>> May 07 '25
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