History VideoGame / LibraryOfRuina

** The Head themselves attacked Carmen's former laboratory over a decade ago not for reasons Michelle told them, but to [[spoiler:prevent an upcoming event where Lobotomy Corporation would team up with multiple Wings to construct Angela.]] Unfortunately, they did not kill Ayin and Benjamin and created exactly the ideal conditions where [[spoiler:they could create her right inside the City.]]

The game also has a novel tie-in, ''[[Literature/TheDistortionDetective The Distortion Detective]]'', which is set concurrently to the events of the game, but from the perspective of a Fixer outside of the Library. The series has been cancelled, but [=ProjectMoon=] has announced that they intend to develop a full-scale game based on the series following their next game's release. In November 2021, [=ProjectMoon=] announced a comic set in the game's setting, ''Leviathan''.

** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E725h0Io9o Children of the City], the battle theme for [[spoiler:얀샋ㄷ요무 / Distorted Yan]], has an upbeat jazzy tune, but the lyrics focus on [[spoiler:the impersonally horrifying nature of the prescripts and the city's desires in general, with multiple references to self-harm and suicide.]]

* LyricalDissonance: The melody of "From a Place of Love", the Love Town battle theme, makes it sound like an upbeat (if slightly nostalgic) love song. The first few verses are merely slightly unsettling; the last few verses, however, [[spoiler:unambiguously have Tomerry wishing they were dead.]]

** In many respects, the game’s insight into Fixer culture undermines the power fantasy aspect of Cyberpunk fiction. Whereas the Fixer life is often glamorized to those yearning after freedom, it’s abundantly clear that being one involves the same hopeless grind everyone else suffers through.

* DevelopersForesight: Several characters have different pre-battle banter depending on who you bring to fight them. In particular, [[spoiler:Kali]] has ones for [[spoiler:Binah, Roland, and Gebura, the only patron librarians you're allowed to use against her.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: All illness has been cured and DismembermentIsEasy. Body augmentations are so commonplace, as described below, that they're practically a necessity if you want to remain safe when going out. They can make you defy your normal limits...but the ones that are of better quality need quite some money.

* BoringButPractical: A huge element of the metagame for ''Library of Ruina'' is being able to assemble competent decks. Each set of pages can have a completely different focus from the rest, such as inflicting [[DamageOverTime Bleed]] via Kurokumo Clan or Thumb pages, or more unique effects such as Smoke (which grants a buff that increases card strength depending on how many stacks of it you have) or Charge (where certain cards grant stacks of a buff that can be expended on other cards for different effects). Or you could just build an Index Singleton deck, where every card in your deck must be unique to proc the Singleton bonus. Doing so usually grants cards with the Singleton tag huge dice roll bonuses or other useful effects, and unlike most card packs, Index cards are designed to synergize extremely well with one another. Singleton even retains its usefulness into Star of the City, where new Singleton cards are introduced and can be very powerful if built around.

** The player can do this by using any E.G.O. page that allows you to synchronize with its corresponding Anomaly, overriding the background music with the Library of Ruina version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6Nq3Ku2Yg Second Warning]] for the duration of the synchronization.

** The player can do this by using any E.G.O. page that allow you to synchronize with its corresponding Anomaly, overriding the background music with the Library of Ruina version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6Nq3Ku2Yg Second Warning]] for the duration of the synchronization.

* BackgroundMusicOverride: Some Guests will have their own background and theme replacing the Floor of your choosing's theme, as shown with Love Town's Tomerry, Philip, the 8 o'clock Circus' Emma and Noah, The Crying Children, [[spoiler:the Red Mist]], Xiao, and Yan. In the case of Tomerry and Emma/Noah, there are multiple enemies on-screen units, but defeating the strongest unit will restore the background music and background to its default state.

Has an upcoming winter 2022 sequel of its own, ''Limbus Company''.
%%''VideoGame/LimbusCompany''

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The game ends with Angela deciding to rebuild the Library to combat the Head, while the Hana Association plans to create a specialized Association to deal with Distortions. The latter will specifically tie into Project Moon's next game, ''Limbus Company'']].

* RedHerring: A recurring plot point in the later chapters of the game is a WARP Train that seemingly malfunctions and doesn't arrive to its destination in 10 seconds as intended, stranding its passengers inside for thousands of years, unable to die even as their bodies become more and more mutilated, driving them insane. [[spoiler:The train is actually''working as intended'', and the forms of grotesque insanity and body horror which occur on the train we see is just about normal for WARP Corp, which even has special Cleanup Crews to restore the passengers and wipe their memories after they arrive at their stop. The only major deviation with WARP Train UW-212 was the involvement of the Reverberation Ensemble, who transform the train's passengers into particularly nightmarish creatures and vanish people into the Library to expose W Corp.]]

* TheStinger: Note that this refers to DummiedOut content found in the original Early Access versions and is no longer found in the current game. After the credits following the GoldenEnding, we are given a SequelHook in the form of [[spoiler:a Hana Association executive meeting discussing the fate of the Library and the possibility of creating a specialized Association to deal with Distortions, advocated for by none other than Iori, the Purple Tear herself. She further specifies that she wants to lead the new Association and that she would specially hire E.G.O. users to deal with a new tower found on the Outskirts, filled with Distortions, Abnormalities, and other monsters.]]

** The introduction for the Full Stop Office deals with a cult called the Church of Gears. It seems that the Church will be the ones fought, but the Office bursts in and kills everyone except the head, [[spoiler:who's saved by Argalia/the Blue Reverberation and Pluto. The Full Stop Office is then forced by Argalia to enter the Library to escape him.]]
** The Wedge Office might resemble a normal fight against Fixers just like before. However, the Office itself is [[spoiler:just ''phase 1'' and its considered a proper boss battle because of an incredibly powerful E.G.O. Phillip at the end.]]

* BandOfBrothers: DoubleSubverted in terms of Fixers. Relationships between Fixers are often distant and rife with betrayal and abandonment due to the sheer lethality of the profession, where a close friend or loved one can easily be killed without warning. This makes long-term relationships in the business much harder to achieve without threatening personal capability. Furthermore, many groups of Fixers encountered in-game still display some amounts of compassion or concern for one another. Played completely straight for most Syndicates, who espouse tight loyalty between members by principle, and are much less likely to betray their own circles. The Stray Dogs and the Thumb are prime examples of this.

** Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:Angela's desire to become human finally gets fulfilled. However, this is right aftershe learns from the Reverberation Ensemble that she is indirectly responsible for the Distortions that made Roland's life hell, and now due to her mortal body Roland can finally get the chance to kill her]]. If [[spoiler:Angela kills Roland instead, she will terrorize the City using the Library and her newfound mortal body, but she is still bound inside the Library due to what she did, unable to get the freedom she wished for, and is finally slain by an unnamed woman after 13 years. At the end, Angela will not get a happy ending from becoming a human.]]

* BigBadEnsemble: There are several faction leaders who are fighting against the heroes:
** Zena is one of the Head's Arbiters who control The Wings, a group of [[MegaCorp megacorporations]] which tyrannically reign over the districts of the City. She directly leads their efforts to destroy the Library on behalf of her superiors, and [[spoiler:is the PostFinalBoss]].
** Moirai and Kalo are two high-ranking members of The Five Fingers, the most powerful, infamous, and dangerous [[TheSyndicate Syndicates]] in the City which completely dominate the City's Backstreets and are rivals to the Wings who cannot be controlled by them. Moirai and Kalo are an Index Weaver and Sottocapi, respectively, who are in charge of some operations in the City, which include fighting against the Library.

** [[spoiler:Carmen, founder of the Seed of Light project, is now the Voice, the City-Distorting omnipresent existence that tries to make other turn into the Distortions of the game, and is the will of the Library itself, manipulating Angela and Argalia to do her work.]]

** To 100% complete a floor, [[spoiler:you must face off against Angela (and later Roland), who goes into a Meltdown-esque freakout after being stood up to by said floor's Patron Librarian, using the E.G.O.s of every Abnormality faced on said floor without break, including an additional one not used until now.]]
** Just like in ''Lobotomy Corporation'', the final scenario of the game, triggered after defeating the Hana Association is a slew of 18 boss fights, consisting of [[spoiler:10 individual Reverberation Ensemble members, the Black Silence (a MarathonBoss), the Keter Realization (consisting of 5 separate Abnormality bosses with break, made up with increased difficulty of each battle), the Distorted Ensemble (three boss fights) and an Arbiter and a Claw Executioner.]] There's also a roadblock [[spoiler:after the Black Silence]] that makes sure you have to [[spoiler:clear all previous nine Floor Realizations before you could continue; if you don't you had to choose a bad ending and had to back off, clear the remaining realizations and start over from the first series of encounters.]]

** The Udjat, the main antagonistic faction in ''The Distortion Detective'', is one of the General Invitations during Star of the City.

** Even in the Slums called Backstreets, Syndicates, consisting of well-organized, formally dressed Mafia groups and their more overtly thuggish associates roam around the Backstreets and tax its residents with hefty sums of cash or weird orders and will happily execute those who don't pay or follow these orders without a question. They are also more than willing to fight with each other to death and potentially affecting nearby residents. At the top of all Syndicates are the Five Fingers who are considered equal to the Wings in terms of power and influence.

** Just about every person coming to the library is either someone looking for their big break out of squalor, trying to make ends meet, just plain crazy or even being forcefully thrown into it.

* CurbStompCushion: [[spoiler: At the end of the game, while the Library is completely outmatched by the Agents of the Head, they still manage to hold out for a surprisingly long amount of time, all things considered. Zena is even surprised that they're still holding on, and ultimately, while the Library is still banished to the Outskirts, The Head fails to recover Binah]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: Downplayed, since ''Lobotomy Corporation'' is a dark enough game with gruesome deaths all over the place and a Dystopian outside world mentioned in passing, although we don't really see how bad the outside world is. However in ''Library of Ruina'', since the outside world is now the main focus, we get to see it in its full glory...and just as expected, everything is terribly wrong. Basically nobody seems to be in their right state of mind, bloodthirsty and eccentric {{Megacorp}}s and organized Mafia-style thugs who kill for strange reasons rule over every square mile of the city, aspiring young men and women are forced to enroll into paramilitary units, people can lose control of themselves and mutate into HumanoidAbomination entities called Distortions... the list of horrors goes on and on.

* ThePurge: In a similar vein as [[Film/ThePurge the movie with the same name as the trope]], the 90 minutes from [=3:13=] AM each day in the Backstreets is known as the "Night of the Backstreets", where all crime is permitted and Sweepers arrive to kill and feast on people indiscriminately, with the implication being the Head sponsoring it to remove the homeless from the Backstreets. Usual law enforcement such as the Zwei or Backstreet neighbor watch squads are forced to back off during that time of the day, but inversely the criminals are forbidden from committing crimes in residential areas, so most people who are not homeless or happen to end up in the streets at midnight are relatively safe from it. If anyone tries to film the crimes that happened during this hour and present them as evidence against a certain group, the Head will deploy a Claw and kill the person who attempted to report the crime.

* RedHerring: A recurring plot point of the game is a Warp Train that seemingly became dysfunctional and didn't arrive to the destination in 10 seconds as intended, driving its passengers insane so they attempt to kill each other or commit suicide but remain alive even if their bodies are heavily mutilated, and the train seemingly remained dysfunctional for 2,000 years and becomes hijacked by [[spoiler:Reverberation Ensemble members sent in by Eileen.]] In reality, the train [[spoiler:is ''not'' dysfunctional; it was ''working as intended'', and the trains regularly mutate into {{Eldritch Location}}s where people go insane, but are then rendered normal upon reaching its destination when W Corp's Clean-Up Crew erases the passenger's memories. The Reverberation Ensemble members take advantage of this and vanish people into the Library to expose W Corp.]]

** Oswald, when first met in Urban Nightmare, makes mention of a "Ms. Sun" who granted him the desire to open a circus filled with his "imaginary friends". In ''Lobotomy Corporation'', one of the terms [[spoiler:A (as Abram)]] used to refer to [[spoiler:Carmen near the end of that game is "our sun", and she's always been referred to as a fiery and upbeat woman when she was still actually alive and before she succumbed to suicidal depression. Knowing all of this, it should be a dead giveaway that Carmen was instigating the Distortion Phenomenon amongst the City, something that is confirmed by Hokma much later on in the game.]]

** If one re-watches cutscenes from ''Lobotomy Corporation'' after completing this game, they will notice that ''Lobotomy'' is ridden with UnreliableExposition because [[spoiler:most of the dialogue or actions in that game (especially those from Angela) are actually non-organic events from Ayin's "script" to make sure Angela runs the facility like [[BadBoss he would]] and force the Sephirot to break down. Ayin also has a very biased view of Carmen as some sort of saintly paragon like most Sephirot, but her actions in ''Library of Ruina'' point to her being more of an AmbiguouslyEvil DarkMessiah]].

* TheStinger: After the credits following the GoldenEnding, we are given a SequelHook in the form of [[spoiler:a Hana Association executive meeting discussing the fate of the Library and the possibility of creating a specialized Association to deal with Distortions, advocated for by none other than Iori, the Purple Tear herself. She further specifies that she wants to lead the new Association and that she would specially hire E.G.O. users to deal with a new tower found on the Outskirts, filled with Distortions, Abnormalities, and other monsters.]]
* StoryArc: Once the player hits Urban Plague, the story splits into four unique paths that each deal with a different topic plaguing the City. The leftmost path deals with the Syndicates and the criminal element of the City, the path second from the left puts a spotlight on the aftermath of the Pianists rampage and Argalia's creation of his EvilPlan, the path second from the right focuses on [[spoiler: Distortions and E.G.O. Users]], and the rightmost path is mainly about the Wings and their Singularities. [[spoiler: The Reverb Ensemble coming together under Argalia also makes up the MythArc of the story, which comes to a head in the finale.]]

** While [[spoiler:no guests are actually KilledOffForReal in the Library by Angela's design, their incapacitations all lead to severe indirect consequences, such as Walter's disappearance causing the Stray Dogs to massacre Zwei South Section 6, or the Thumb's loss of its leadership to the Library causing all its soldiers in Nest L to be purged by the Index.]] However, the most severe consequences of Angela's actions was [[spoiler:the dissappearance/booking of multiple influential Fixers or other combat units who would otherwise put the Reverberation Ensemle in check. ensuring that they wreck havoc in L corp's former nest and potentially spread the Seed of Light to turn people into monstrosities completely unopposed.]] While there's a valid argument that [[spoiler:the Distortion Voice a.k.a. the Will of the Library / Carmen were manipulating the invitations to make sure this happens, Angela still unintentionally gave her the oppurtunity through her betrayal at the end of ''Lobotomy Corporation''.]]

** The Library itself becomes this when later on, the more dangerous personnel in the game, such as [[spoiler:Argalia, Elena or the Index]] have been sending their targets or subordinates into the Library. [[spoiler: Argalia in particular, has been deliberately sending his victims to there, knowing that they will absolutely get killed.]]
*** It is later revealed that [[spoiler: the above case is partially subverted. While the librarians themselves definitely were unwitting pawns, the library itself (or to be more specific: Carmen, the will behind the library) is the ManBehindTheMan for many of the events going on outside the library as well as within, and the Reverberation Ensemble is presumably being exploited for goals unknown themselves.]]

* WhamShot: After the third time [[spoiler:Philip was defeated as the Crying Children, he fled and destroyed V Corp's Nest. It's unclear where he went to for a long time, but when the Blue Reverberation threatens the Purple Tear with his whole ensemble, Phillip, now a full blown distortion can be seen alongside his tormentors. He's broken enough to join what was his enemy.]]

* WholesomeCrossdresser: This game does not stop you from equipping male characters with pages that belonged to female characters and vice versa. It also does not alter the clothing when done so. While this doesn't especially matter since the multitude of female characters wear clothes that are made for practability first, some examples can be rather egregrious such as [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/5570af97b302ef91042934a3fcdd696f/c93ee04d1d68ef5e-c5/s400x600/07fac536dea3834053442e86c29c3a22651fa560.png Yesod wearing Meow's page]].

* WorldOfTechnicolorHair: Despite the more muted art style compared to its predecessor, many Cityfolk from different walks of life sport some exotic colored hair.

* AdultFear: Roland lost his wife and unborn child [[spoiler: to the Pianist Distortion]], leaving him emotionally devastated, and some of his dialogue implies he feels personally responsible for it. [[spoiler: Later on, it's revealed he took this [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge much,]] [[EmptyShell MUCH worse]] than he initially lets on]].

* CallBack:
** Roland recalls seeing a "weird white light" that happened a while ago, which makes the true ending of ''VideoGame/LobotomyCorporation'' canon, as this is a direct sequel.
** The [[spoiler:Red Mist's book]] and Tiphereth's cutscenes mention a boy named Enoch. While merely a PosthumousCharacter that is not displayed on screen, Enoch is actually the human ego of the now-deceased Tiphereth B.
** Clearing the [[spoiler:General Works Floor Realization leads to Angela re-releasing the Library's collected Light, seen in an image of the Library releasing a bright beam of light into the sky in the middle of Nest L.]] This deliberately calls back to the ending scene of ''VideoGame/LobotomyCorporation'', which depicts almost the exact same thing, just without the Library.
* CapitalismIsBad: Heavily exaggerated and PlayedForHorror. While the game doesn't outright state it, the City doesn't have any non-corporate governors. In fact, it's ''solely'' ruled by corporations known as Wings who basically run on ''fanatical capitalism''; even the Head, supposedly being ruling authorities, are actually one such Corporation known as A Corp. It's not even a matter of pure greed; many of them seem to just make decisions that maximize bloodshed or violate all common sense either because they are integral for the Wing's survival, outright weirdness, malice or even any combination of the above. Standouts include former L Corp where the Manager deliberately gets his employees horribly killed by Abnormalities or W Corp[[spoiler: forcing passengers of the Warp Train to suffer from a 2000 century torture only to undo them instantly]]. Commonfolks are thrown into backstreet slums that the Wings don't usually give a rat's ass about and everyone has to more or less, eat rats or kill other human beings to survive. Most people there actually have to earn enough money to go to metropolitan areas called Nests, where the Wings behind it can and will kick you out if you don't yield any produce or societal contribution.

* ChekhovsGunman: All over the place here. Along with the FlavorText from ''Lobotomy Corporation'' hinting of the CrapsackWorld beyond the facility, most chapters mention characters who will show up later. For example, at the start of the game, the Rats talk about the Stray Dogs and the Fingers. They were also mention an entity heavily implied to be [[spoiler:the Puppeteer]], and the mangled corpse they collected was heavily implied to be a work from [[spoiler:Pluto]].
* CityOfAdventure: For every deadly danger the City has to offer, there’s a proportionally great opportunity for talented and well-armed denizens to achieve fame and riches by eliminating these dangers or becoming one themselves.

* ConductingTheCarnage: According to [[spoiler:the Purple Tear]], the Distortions that make up the Reverberation Ensemble are based on orchestra placement;

* CrapsackWorld: While alluded to in ''Lobotomy Corporation'', the world outside the facility is the main setting this time around, and it's... '''not great'''. To say it's not great is actually an understatement; in fact The City, as seen in game is pretty much [[WretchedHive hell on earth]].
** It says a lot that HiredGuns are about as common as retail workers, and basically everyone with a status is working for some paramilitary unit or a thuggish Syndicate.
** The whole city is run by the Wings, corrupt corporations practicing fanatical capitalism; their leader, the Head, actively works to maintain this status quo through cruel and outlandish that are enforced with absolute severity, inflicting harsh and often lethal punishment on anyone who even thinks of disobeying their rule while objectively obscene crimes are left ignored and only regulated by Fixers. Most, if not all, of the Wings are thoroughly corrupt and not simply for monetary reasons; it seemed like they were powered by an unholy combination of carnage, human suffering, outright weirdness and greed. If you do get enough money to go to a Nest (aka a Metropolitan area), the Wings will kick you back to the slums if you don't yield any form of produce.

* GreatOffscreenWar: Just like in ''Lobotomy Corporation'', the Smoke War that resulted in the ascension of the Seed of Light Project team into L Corp. remains a focal point of the story -- and it is also explored more innately this time around. Not only is it revealed in ''The Distortion Detective'' that [[spoiler:Benjamin and Ayin started the war themselves by recruiting Dias and the Udjat (who recruited R Corp's Fourth Pack in return), Roland and Salvador were also involved in it, and seeing the exposed, monstrous Singularity of the former L Corp. was enough to shape Roland's cynical worldview.]]

** A justified and in-universe example, as both guns and bullets are heavily controlled and regulated, are very expensive and, as Roland stated and proven by Argalia, are not very effective against highly competent opponents. It would be cheaper to outfit an entire Office with augmentations than with guns. It's subverted in the case of the Rabbit Team and the Head themselves, however, since unlike the rest, they ''do'' possess unregulated and often highly lethal firearms, ensuring that they are the deadliest fighters out there.

* HopelessBossFight: The PostFinalBoss battle against [[spoiler:Enforcers of the Head (more specifically, Zena the Arbiter and Baral the Executioner Claw)]]. Roland, Gebura, and Binah aren't exactly at their finest during this battle, they're left without any of the Library's keypage's or passives since [[spoiler:Angela had released all of the Guests she booked by that point]], and [[spoiler: Zena and Baral]] are both seemingly unable to be damaged and staggered[[note]]In reality, while not displayed on screen, both Zena and Baral have 550 HP and can realistically be taken down[[/note]], leading to them both overpowering the Librarians with ease. As of a recent update, you can actually [[spoiler:die in that fight despite it's placed after the credits, making it also a KaizoTrap, although this is downplayed as you just start from the beginning of that fight immediately should you die]].

** ''Prière pour aimer la douleur (lit.Praying to love pain)'': Fail to complete [[spoiler: the Middle Layer and Binah's Floor or chose to reject Angela. With Angela's back turned to release the Light and everyone's she's booked, Roland takes the chance to behead her. With that, the Library fades away, killing everyone inside except for himself. News of the Black Silence's return spreads throughout the City, but Roland himself, left with no other purpose after having achieved his revenge, has basically given up on life, turning to drugs and alcohol and taking on dirty jobs to fill his void. A few days later, Roland's corpse is found in a gutter, stabbed by numerous weapons, as Astolfo sadly notes that this is the fate for someone consumed by vengeance.]]

** [[spoiler:Carmen, former head of L-Corp, is now the Voice, the City-Distorting omnipresent existence that tries to make other turn into the Distortions of the game, and is the will of the Library itself forcing the heroes to do her work.]]

* BigBadEnsemble: There are no heroes here, only factions with varying degrees of morality and their own beliefs, goals, and motivations running around in the WretchedHive known as the City, prominent ones including but not limited to:
** The Wings, a group of [[MegaCorp megacorporations]] which tyrannically reign over the districts of the City, led by the mysterious Head which rules over all of the City. These corporations aren't simply greedy or corrupt, they are often AxCrazy, [[TheCaligula insane]], and draconian.
** The Five Fingers, [[TheAce the most powerful, infamous, and dangerous]] [[TheSyndicate Syndicates]] in the City which completely dominate the City's Backstreets. They rule with an iron fist, and each one has some manner of unique quirk that makes them dangerous to deal with. They are so powerful that not even the Wings nor the Head can easily assert control over them.
** The Reverberation Ensemble, a gang of [[HumanoidAbomination Distortions]] led by a legendary but psychotic Color Fixer who seeks to overthrow both the Wings and major Syndicates, hoping to use the Library to turn the entire City into Distortions. Compared to the aforementioned two, [[TheHeavy they have the most focus and relevance in the story as antagonists]].

** RevengeBeforeReason inevitably brings forth disaster. [[spoiler:Roland and Angela's motivations can be summed up as revenge against their unfortunate consequences despite the source of their sorrow being long gone. If they "succeed" in their revenge, they lose everything — Angela remains trapped in the Library and becomes just another Star of the City to eventually be shot down, while Roland dies an inglorious death with nothing left to live for]]. Even Guests who were once rational professionals demonstrate this; their loved ones get booked inside the Library, and they decide to storm the building in revenge only to be booked anyway, causing a chain of [[DisasterDominoes]] that ensures the entities who could otherwise [[spoiler:stop the Reverberation Ensemble from spreading the Seed of Light are removed from the picture]].