History VideoGame / LimboOfTheLost

* AssPull: During the climax of Chapter 3: Allright, the facts exposed by Briggs to reveal who the culprits are may work on some feeble, pathetic logic. However, [[spoiler: the games doesn't bother to explain how Briggs knew that he could seal away the Soul Taker with a black candle and a glass box and act so smugly about it. Notice that all he knew about the Soul Taker was the ritual to summon it by a scroll.]]

* PropRecycling: Thor's mighty hammer is used several times, at several sizes, to [[MundaneUtility solve anything imaginable]]. Namely, first is found as a hammer inside Death's own armory. Later on the same model is used for the doorknobs of the SevenDeadlySins doors.

* TalkingToHimself: Let's just say the studio didn't overspend on voice actors. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the guy could actually, y'know, act.

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Well, not really: at the end of Chapter 1 and 3 an [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings incredibly familiar-looking troll]] will appear to take away most of Briggs stuff. [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNoWhere Both times without warning.]]

* ApatheticCitizens: In Chapter 3, even though everyone knows about their fellow townies getting their souls sucked out, no one bothers to do anything about it, leaving Briggs with the dirty work. [[spoiler: Not to mention that [[TooDumbToLive Not a Single One]] of them can tell apart snow from ashes.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: [[spoiler:Flaying the Mayor and wearing his skin]] does NOT WORK THAT WAY, GOOD NIGHT!

* CardCarryingVillain: All them members of the Cult who summoned the Soul Taker in Chapter 3. [[spoiler: It is mentioned that they need seven souls for something, which doesn't make any sense since one of them, O'Negus, already has a large collection of souls in his possession.]]

* DramaticUnmask: The last person to be in the cult, murdering people and [[spoiler:pretending to be the mayor is... a monster.]]

* FogFeet: The Soul Taker is supposed to have this, in game his model ends at the waist with green sparkles and a mass of sand.
* GainaxEnding: Really, the whole game is one long MindScrew, but the ending is particularly weird even by the remaining game's standards.

* {{Hammerspace}}: At one point, in the game you are forced to take along a coffin lid in your pocket. Never explained either. Then there's the near 30 items you're carrying around at the same time, in that same small pocket, in chapter three... Made more notorious as sometimes Briggs complains about picking up some smaller objects for similar space reasons.
* {{Hellhound}}: A trio of them, apparently all named [[FluffyTheTerrible Fluffy]] is encountered in Chapter 1. They have to be fed with something to let you pass.

* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The final chapter contains a puzzle related to both the four horsemen and the seven deadly sins. On their seals, they are all represented as skeletal undeads with various distinctive traits (War wears a roman helmet and Plague wears a broken hood.) [[spoiler: The hooded guys who take Briggs prisoner in the final segmet may be them.]]

* NominalHero: Allright, Briggs is supposed to be humanity's last hope and greatest hero. [[SociopathicHero Why]], [[SmugSnake exactly]]?

* PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration: You act as an "Earthly guide" for Briggs, meaning you tell him where to go, where to look, or what to collect. Briggs occasionally acts independant of you, going to certain areas by himself or collecting things unprompted. [[spoiler:In the finale, Briggs gets captured, and you must solve the final puzzle by yourself.]]

* [[ScrewDestiny Screw Fate]]: Benjamin is the pawn of Destiny, who favors free will and is in a contest against [[YouCantFightFate Fate]]. Incidentally, this may be ''also'' a ripoff, this time of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series.

* SmugSnake: Alas, Briggs himself will swing between making ridicolously dumb-looking faces to smugly grin with superiority at will. This is evident during the climax of Chapter 3.

* SoreLoser: Fate, lampshaded by his brother Destiny (who, to be fair, is right.]]

* TimedMission: [[spoiler:The final puzzle in the game gives you a limited amount of time to save Briggs from the Sins. Run out and you get the bad ending. However even this is sloppily done, as the timer actually doesn't move and will only drop for a fixed amount of times whenever you enter or leave one of the Seven Sins' chambers. So is less about running out of time and more like "know exactly what to do and when."]]

* VerbalTic: One of the designers has an odd habit of peppering his writing with mad laughter ("HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"), and this sometimes shows up in the game's subtitled dialogue - but ''not'' in the voice acting.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Most of the times, for FanDisservice, expecially with the obese Innkeeper who sports man boobs.

* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler: During the climax of Chapter 3 the Soul Taker, who previously has killed many people with ease, stands perfectly stills roaring and screeching while Briggs takes his time to pull out the glass box, put the candle inside, lit the candle and slowly countdown before trapping him inside said box. This makes the Soul Taker look like a moron, and Briggs like a MartyStu.]]

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Pie Shoppe and the Pawn Shoppe.

Due to its absolutely massive amount of plagiarism, the game's been pulled off store shelves. It's still available in pirated form, though - while we at TV Tropes don't encourage it, you can sweep the Web and find a copy, [[BileFascination if you absolutely have to experience its legendary badness]]. Considering that most of the content was ''already'' pirated anyway, it'll probably even count as poetic justice. An alternative is to read the excellent LetsPlay from the SomethingAwful forums by LetsPlay/TheDarkId: [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ it does an excellent job pointing out each and every insult to your intelligence without forcing you to actually play it]]. There is also another LetsPlay by [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily]] which also does a good job at covering the game.

* YouFailBiologyForever: [[spoiler:Flaying the Mayor and wearing his skin]] does NOT WORK THAT WAY, GOOD NIGHT!

* ICantUseTheseThingsTogether: This game is very particular about what kinds of liquid can go in which containers.

* ApatheticCitizens: In Chapter 3, even though everyone knows about their fellow townies getting their souls sucked out, no one bothers to do anything about it, leaving Briggs with the dirty work.

* HumongousMecha

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The bottle-able variety.

* PropRecycling: Thor's mighty hammer is used several times, at several sizes, to [[MundaneUtility solve anything imaginable]].

* TimedMission: [[spoiler:The final puzzle in the game gives you a limited amount of time to save Briggs from the Sins. Run out and you get the bad ending.]]

Due to its absolutely massive amount of plagiarism, the game's been pulled off store shelves. It's still available in pirated form, though - while we at TV Tropes don't encourage it, you can sweep the Web and find a copy, [[BileFascination if you absolutely have to experience its legendary badness]]. Considering that most of the content was ''already'' pirated anyway, it'll probably even count as poetic justice. An alternative is to read the excellent LetsPlay from the SomethingAwful forums by TheDarkId: [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ it does an excellent job pointing out each and every insult to your intelligence without forcing you to actually play it]]. There is also another LetsPlay by [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily]] which also does a good job at covering the game.

Even in light of all these facts, it [[http://lotl.wikia.com/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost_Wiki is not immune]] to TheWikiRule (the wiki just notes what is stolen). And whatever you do, do not confuse it with ''{{Limbo}}''.

The game is not without its problems, though.

----

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The finale of Chapter 3 can come off as this. Aside from [[spoiler:the Skurge brothers and possibly the Mayor]], there are no hints pointing in the direction of [[spoiler:the innkeeper, Mrs. Blackley, and O'negus]] being the culprits. Briggs' deduction of them being guilty is supposed to make him sound like an expert detective, but sloppy writing just results in something that makes ordinary BatDeduction seem reasonable in comparison.

For one, [[{{Plagiarism}} pretty much every background is shamelessly ripped from another game, without so much as a mention or acknowledgment to be found - not even in the credits.]] Secondly, [[PixelHunt the items you need to pick up are often dark in color and hard to make out against the usually-dark backdrops, making progress a chore]] (in one instance, an item is partially obscured ''by your compass'', which can't be taken off of the screen). Third, the game's animation, CGI and otherwise, would look primitive in the late 1980s (The game, by the way, was released in 2008). Fourth, there's a constant and extremely annoying whisper of "Join us... Join us... Join us now!" in the background that plays every three minutes or so (shamefully ripped from the ''{{Thief}}'' series), which is fine and atmospheric [[MostAnnoyingSound up until you go stark staring mad]].

** Steve Bovis, the creative director of the game, seems to have a... bizarre understanding of how capitalization works: instead of just capitalizing the first letter of a word, he has the habit of capitalizing the entire word. This shows up in the subtitle's every now and then, and can also be seen in forum posts made by him that are floating around the Internet.

* [[ScrewDestiny Screw Fate]]: Benjamin is the pawn of Destiny, who favors free will and is in a contest against [[YouCantFightFate Fate]]. [[AllThereInTheManual Not that the game ever says this.]] Incidentally, this may be ''also'' a ripoff, this time of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series.
** Oh, the game says it, all of once at the very start of Chapter 1.

''Limbo of the Lost'' is a horror AdventureGame in which you control Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, captain of the ''Mary Celeste'' as he will let no one forget. Briggs wakes up in a cell with an extremely flexible, spider-like man named [[MeaningfulName Arach]], who unlocks the door and lets him into the dungeons of an ogre named Grunger. Briggs eventually finds that he is in Limbo, and attempts to escape, with the help of his "Earthly Guide"; that'd be you.

** When feeding the three-headed dog you feed it the same bone from the same body three times. The human body does not have three femurs.

* BagOfSpilling: After you finish two the sections, a giant troll will come and shake the items out of your absurdly spacious pockets. No explanation is given for where the troll comes from, why he has it in for you, or why Briggs is so nonchalant about it happening.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The finale of Chapter 3 can come off as this. Aside from [[spoiler: the Skurge brothers and possibly the Mayor]], there are no hints pointing in the direction of [[spoiler: the innkeeper, Mrs. Blackley and O'negus]] being the culprits. Briggs' deduction of them being guilty is supposed to make him sound like an expert detective, but sloppy writing just results in something that makes ordinary BatDeduction seem reasonable in comparison.

* {{Hammerspace}}: At one point in the game you are forced to take along a coffin lid in your pocket. Never explained either. Then there's the near 30 items you're carrying around at the same time, in that same small pocket, in chapter three... Made more notorious as sometimes Briggs complains about picking up some smaller objects for similar space reasons.

* {{Jerkass}}: Cap'n Briggs rather unhesitatingly mutilates people to advance the plot... and sometimes, for no real reason. Not just that, he commits ''murder'' to get an arm to make gruel. Holy Hell. Let's not forget when he claps what can best be descried as a bear trap onto a guy's head so he could steal his '''pen'''. Said pen is then used to blind a sea monster - which, as far as we know, has done '''nothing wrong'''. Blinding the sea monster doesn't actually do anything useful, but it turns the pen into a nib, which is then used as a lockpick to remove somebody from their chains. All this to get a clue to get to the next area, which is cryptic to the point of uselessness.

* RefugeInAudacity: Possibly invoked but it didn't work out for them. These guys blatantly stole from mega-blockbuster video games and a couple of summer action movies ''and weren't instantly sued into the ground,'' and still managed to get published ''twice?'' That'd be amazing if it weren't so ''very, very stupid.''

* VerbalTic: one of the designers has an odd habit of peppering his writing with mad laughter ("HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"), and this sometimes shows up in the game's subtitled dialogue - but ''not'' in the voice acting.

* WaterIsBlue: At one point you must put saffron in water to turn it green. This utterly insane break from reality is supposed to be justified by the water being rendered as blue. Note that apparently, water is always bright blue even if it's inside a dark green bottle.

* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did it Have to be Grubs?]] Briggs has no issues with tearing bones right out of a corpse, digging through rotted eye sockets for a key, or just outright maiming the inhabitants of Limbo to progress his goals. But he flat out refuses to pick up a grub with his bare hands. Said grub later morphs into a horrific fly-like creature, which he has no problem stuffing into his pants.

* YouFailLogicForever: The puzzles often make little sense. The "Soul Vial" puzzle is only the most notorious offender.

* SockPuppet: Not in-game, but in RealLife: Steve Bovis wrote forum posts under the name of FABLE, pretending to be a fan of the game and recommending it left and right. Things got a little iffy after "FABLE" started berating a fellow forum member, whom he had helped beat the game, about posting hints on the forum for other people, saying that it was taking away the point of the game and disrespectful towards the developers who had worked so hard coming up with the puzzles. After the argument had gone on for a while, with Bovis actually chiming in as himself and backing FABLE up, an admin found out that for FABLE and Bovis had the same IP adress. [[BlatantLies Bovis explained that a play tester had been posting the messages without his knowledge, and that they only owned one computer that was connected to the Internet due to "safety reasons".]] [[InternetBackdraft The forumgoers didn't exactly buy it.]] Witness the whole thing in all its facepalm-inducing glory [[http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/233736/1 here]].

<<|ActionAdventure|>>

* SolveTheSoupCans: Pretty much all the puzzles. Some of them are needlessly roundabout solutions to simple problems, and frequently the "logic" behind them makes [[MoonLogicPuzzle no sense whatsoever]]. One puzzle involves putting a sleeping potion in a jailer's gruel. It involves a worm, 2 bottles, an unlit torch, human fat, an arm, a skull, sewage water, and snot. Good luck![[hottip:*:And to top it off, it's completely pointless because the jailer was ''already asleep''.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Cap'n Briggs rather unhesitatingly mutilates people to advance the plot... and sometimes, for no real reason. Not just that, he commits ''murder'' to get an arm to make gruel. Holy Hell. Let's not forget when he claps what can best be descried as a bear trap onto a guy's head so he could steal his '''pen'''. Said pen is then used to blind a sea monster - which, as far as we know, has done '''nothing wrong'''. Blinding the sea monster doesn't actually do anything useful, but it turns the pen into a nib, which is then used as a lockpick to remove somebody from their chains, when we have no knowledge of why he's in them. All this to get a clue to get to the next area, which is cryptic to the point of uselessness.

* SolveTheSoupCans: Pretty much all the puzzles. Some of them are needlessly roundabout solutions to simple problems, and frequently the "logic" behind them makes [[MoonLogicPuzzle no sense whatsoever]]. One puzzle involves putting a sleeping potion in a jailer's gruel. It involves a worm, 2 bottles, an unlit torch, human fat, an arm, a skull, sewage water, and snot. Good luck!

* {{Plagiarism}}

Due to its absolutely massive amount of plagiarism, the game's been pulled off store shelves. It's still available in pirated form, though - while we at TV Tropes don't encourage it, you can sweep the Web and find a copy, [[BileFascination if you absolutely have to experience its legendary badness]]. Considering that most of the content was ''already'' pirated anyway, it'll probably even count as poetic justice. An alternative is to read the excellent LetsPlay from the SomethingAwful forums: [[http://lparchive.org/Limbo-of-the-Lost/ it does an excellent job pointing out each and every insult to your intelligence without forcing you to actually play it]]. There is also another LetsPlay by [[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily]] which also does a good job at covering the game.

!![[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=400406 Wields-Rulebook-Heavily's Let's Play]] provides examples of:
* ApocalypticLog: It reads like one at times.
* BilingualBonus: When a character deliberately leaves part of his lines untranslated, Wields responds by cussing him out in Icelandic.
* BrownNote: The game itself.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Upon beating the game and discovering the SequelHook, "I have suffered your thievery, vocals, Nilmates, editing, lies, Nilmates and blather,..."
* EldritchAbomination: It's suggested that Briggs' willingness to pick up rotting meat without complaint is the result of having witnessed one of these.
* SanitySlippage: Culminating in him declaring that LimboOfTheLost is to him what MobyDick was to Captain Ahab, after seeing the game's infamous ending.
* StoryArc: Not intentionally (probably) on the creator's part, but WRH is able to identify each level with an ongoing theme: Level 1 was a game show, Level 2 was pinball, Level 3 was a JRPG, Level 4 was a Christmas Special, and Level 5 was a band.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness