Fixed an issue where game system and keybind settings may be reset.
Fixed dialogue logic for story NPCs joining the party.
Fixed progression blockers in intersecting questlines (e.g., "Ends of the Earth") caused by certain characters (e.g., Zuo Sansi) moving to unintended locations in specific story segments. [This fix applies only to saves created before May 2nd with the quest incomplete. Full save compatibility is in progress and will be resolved soon.]
Adjusted realm levels and stats of assassins targeting players in assassination missions.
Since we are just a small independent game studio with 2 people and limited funds, we will add more maps and regional servers as the updates develop and continue to update more content. Thank you for your support!
Meiling is back once more and needs your help to craft the dragon! Brave Uladh's Dungeons and Shadow Missions to collect the items needed for the dragon. Or, log in in every day to make this majestic pet your own! Check out the details below. [[/hr] Update: Thank you to all the Milletians who have provided your feedback regarding the Dragon Master Event. During the 5/15 Maintenance, we have updated the rewards for the Dragon Master Event below.
The Dragon Master Season 3 event rewards were far too spread out into the entirety of the duration of the event, making it more difficult than intended to receive all 9 Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch items to completely expand the Blue Dragon Bag. To alleviate some burden, we’ve reorganized the Attendance Scroll event rewards allowing you to obtain all of the Blue Dragon Bag Pouches with several days of leniency built in. We hope that this change will allow you to continue working towards becoming a Dragon Master!
Event Details
Event Dates: Thursday, May 8th, After Maintenance - Wednesday, June 4th, 7:00 AM PDT
Log in during the event period to receive the quest [Guide] Return of the Dragon Clan.
Talk to Meiling in Dunbarton Town Square to register a main character.
You can only register one character per account.
The character must be above Level 1,000.
Once completed, you will receive the following:
20,000 EXP
Attendance Scroll
Crafting a Marshal Blue Dragon's Horn
During the event, you can gather materials for Meiling to craft a Marshal Blue Dragon Whistle.
You can only craft one Marshal Blue Dragon's Horn during the event period.
You can also obtain a Marshal Blue Dragon's Horn as a reward from the Attendance Scroll event.
Note: The event items (Horn of Ten Thousand-Year Old Dragon, Blue Dragon's Hard Blue Leather, Golden Yarn of the First Dawn, Strength Essence, Incomplete Horn, and Attendance Scroll) will be removed after the event ends, including any items in the auction house, mailbox, bank, or pet inventory.
You must gather one Horn of Ten Thousand-Year Dragon, one Blue Dragon's Hard Blue Leather, one Golden Yarn of the First Dawn, and one Strength Essence for Meiling to attempt to craft the Marshal Blue Dragon's Horn.
Known Bug: The description text on the Horn of the Ten Thousand-Year Dragon, Golden Yarn of the First Dawn, Strength Essence, and Incomplete Horn incorrectly refers to a Red/Fire Dragon instead of a Blue Dragon. This is a text error and will not impede making the Marshal Blue Dragon's Horn.
You have a chance to collect the Horn of Ten Thousand-Year Dragon by clearing an Uladh Dungeon:
Alby Intermediate
Alby Advanced
Alby Advanced Hardmode
Ciar Intermediate
Ciar Advanced
Ciar Advanced Hardmode
Rabbie Basic
Rabbie Advanced
Fiodh Intermediate
Fiodh Advanced
Rundal Basic
Rundal Advanced
Rundal Advanced Hardmode
You have a chance to collect Blue Dragon's Hard Blue Leather when you complete a Tara or Tailteann Shadow Mission:
Basic
Intermediate
Advanced
Hard
Elite
Lord
You have a chance to collect Golden Yarn of the First Dawn when you fish at Tir Chonaill Fishing Area with Bait Tin.
You can receive the Strength Essence when you reach current levels 50, 100, 150, and 200.
You have a chance to collect Eminent Alchemist’s Note when you complete Tech Duinn Missions.
When the Eminent Alchemist’s Note is in your inventory, it increases the success rate of crafting the Incomplete Horn.
The harder the dungeon or mission difficulty, the better the chance to collect the material.
When the crafting succeeds, you will receive an Incomplete Horn. Stay logged in for 1 hour to convert it to a Marshal Blue Dragon’s Horn...and the Dragon might have something special for you!
If you change channels or log out before the hour has finished, the timer will reset. You will need to stay logged in for the full hour to convert it to a Marshal Blue Dragon’s Horn.
When the crafting fails, you could keep all three materials or could lose one or more materials. You will also receive a consolation item.
How to Feed Your Dragon Event
Event Dates: Thursday, May 29th, After Maintenance - Wednesday, June 4th, 7:00 AM PDT
After logging in during Week 4 of the event, you will received the event quest, [Event] Foods that Dragons Enjoy.
Talk to Meiling to start the quest and help her feed her Dragon by delivering food.
Each day, for 5 days, deliver the requested dish that the Dragon likes.
You can deliver the next dish after 7 AM PDT the next day.
After delivering all 5 dishes, you will receive the following rewards:
*NEW* Blue Dragon's Cintamani 2nd Title Coupon
Max Damage +25*
Magic Attack +40*
Alchemic Elemental Damage +15*
*Stats on the title expire after 14 days.
Attendance Scroll Event Details
Event Dates: Thursday, May 8th, After Maintenance - Wednesday, June 4th, 7:00 AM PDT
Every day, spend at least 36 minutes logged in to Mabinogi on your main character to receive a reward.
To receive your reward, you must use the Attendance Scroll and click 'Receive Gift.'
There is a maximum of 28 rewards to collect during the event period.
Known Bug: The "Period" date in the UI will be listed as 30 days from when you first registered your main character instead of the official event end date of June 4th.
The event resets daily at 7:00 AM PDT.
You can collect the following rewards:
Day 1:*NEW* Blue Dragon Bag Coupon (Not tradeable)
Redeem this voucher for a Blue Dragon Bag. Its default size is 9x4, offering a total of 36 slots.
When you apply a Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch to it, you can later expand its capacity to up to 9x13.
The bag takes up a 2x3 space in your Basic Inventory. You can only have one such bag.
Day 2: Rusty Hammer of Proficiency**
Day 3: AP 30 Potion (Event)**
Day 4:*NEW* Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch (Not tradeable)
A special Royal Pouch that can be applied to the Blue Dragon Bag. Use it on the Blue Dragon Bag to add 1 extra row at the bottom.
Up to 9 Royal Pouches can be applied to one Blue Dragon Bag.
Day 5: Direct Dye Ampoule**
Day 6: Golden Experience Fruit (300%) x5**
Day 7:Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 8: Full Recovery Potion x5**
Day 9: AP 50 Potion (Event)**
Day 10:Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 11: Rebirth Potion (Event)**
Day 12: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 13: Any Pass Selection Box**
Day 14: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 15: Bun-ches of Fun Wig Gift Box
Open this box to receive both a *NEW*Twin Bun Clips and Single Bun Clip.
Day 16: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 17: Platinum Hammer of Durability**
Day 18: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 19: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 20: *NEW* Marshal Blue Dragon's Whistle
Day 21: Blue Dragon Bag Royal Pouch
Day 22: Enchant Protection Potion**
Day 23: Pet Golden Experience Fruit (500%) x3**
Day 24: Protective Blue Upgrade Stone**
Day 25: Protective Red Upgrade Stone**
Day 26: Golden Experience Fruit (300%)**
Day 27: Golden Experience Fruit (300%)**
Day 28: Golden Experience Fruit (300%)** Expires in 15 days
The distance pushed back when using the skill has been removed.
An area of effect splash damage has been applied to the skill with a radius of 3.5m.
Bullet Slide
The delay after using the skill has been reduced.
Bullet Storm
Damage per shot has been increased for all Ranks.
For Rank 1:
Before: 50%
After: 100%
Damage per additional target has been increased for all Ranks.
For Rank 1:
Before: 60%
After: 120%
The Max Damage Limit has been increased for all Ranks.
For Rank 1:
Before: 400%
After: 600%
The cooldown has been shortened from 15 seconds to 12 seconds at Rank 1.
The attack interval per shot has been slightly increased from 0.02 seconds to 0.04 seconds.
The effect of Seal: Fragarach will only be applied once when using the skill.
Way of the Gun
Bonus Damage has been increased for all Ranks when Way of the Gun is active.
For Rank 1:
Before: 15%
After: 30%
The cooldown has been shortened from 180 seconds to 120 seconds at Rank 1.
Ninja
Shuriken Charge
Damage has been increased for all Ranks.
For Dan 3:
Before: 690%
After: 1035%
The range has been increased from 14m to 15m at Dan 3.
The cooldown time has been shortened from 4 seconds to 2 seconds at Dan 3.
Kunai Storm
Damage has been increased for all Ranks.
For Dan 3:
Before: 560%
After: 1288%
The range has been increased from 10m to 15m at Dan 3.
Explosive Kunai
Damage has been increased for all Ranks.
For Rank 1:
Before: 300%
After: 420%
The range has been increased from 10m to 20m for Rank 1.
The cooldown time has been shortened from 4 seconds to 2 seconds at Rank 1.
When the skill is cast, the distance between each kunai will adjust to be farther apart the farther the skill is from your character.
The Explosive Trigger Range of the kunai has been increased from 1m to 2m for Rank 1.
Changed so that the hit targets are no longer pushed out of position.
The cooldown time has been reduced from 11 seconds to 6 seconds at Rank 1.
The Enemy Stun Duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds at Rank 1.
The delay after using the skill has been reduced.
Smokescreen
The range has been increased from 10m to 15m at Rank 1.
The delay upon using the skill has been reduced.
Sakura Abyss
The cooldown time has been reduced from 300 seconds to 60 seconds at Rank 1.
Improvements
Partners
Several changes to Partners have been made.
Partner Card purchases will now appear in your inventory as an in-game item.
Using the card from the inventory will create a Partner Card on the character creation menu.
Partner Cards are tradeable with other players.
The following Partners and their Mounts are now permanent items on the Cash Shop:
Maid
Butler
Commerce
Partner’s Magical Broom
Partner’s Noble Carriage
Partner’s Long Boat
Partner Mount Package
Equipment items equipped by Partners are no longer bound and can be retrieved by the player without the use of a Partner Trade Unlock Potion.
All remaining Partner Trade Unlock Potions have been removed as a result.
Partner Trade Unlock Potions that have been purchased from the Cash Shop since April 1st, 2024 and unused will be refunded the amount purchased in NX.
Partner Trade Unlock Potions sold on the Auction House, but the funds are still unclaimed, will be claimed with the gold being delivered via mailbox.
A Style Tab has been added for Partners.
Tail and Facewear Slots have been added.
Newly created Laighlinne Partners will now have 5x Partner Stat Training Kits in their inventory.
Players who previously had a Laighlinne Partner created before the update will receive 5x Partner Stat Training Kits in the mailbox on their highest-leveled character.
The Gift function has been improved.
The maximum number of daily gifts you can give to your Partner has been increased.
Before: 5
After: 10
A Partner’s favorability now increases further when gifting an item.
Before: 2
After: 5
Partners will now only accept a certain type of gift.
Maid: Herbs
Butler: Fish
Laighlinne: Instruments
Commerce/William/Rem/Ram: Gems
Partners have been given a “Partner Exclusive” tab in their shop containing Partner Age Potions and Homestead Partner Basic Motion Card Boxes.
Partner Age Potions do not reset on Saturdays.
You can now change most Partners' body type and height.
A Partner’s weight, upper body, and lower body can be modified similar to a player’s body through the use of Hot Springs and feeding them food.
A Partner’s height can be modified through the use of Partner Age Potions.
William and Commerce Partners cannot have their body type or height modified.
Multi-person chairs can now be used with Partners.
A Partner can only be seated on a multi-person chair placed by the Milletian who summoned them.
After sitting on the multi-person chair, you can change the seat that your summoned Partner occupies through right-clicking your Partner and selecting “Sit Together”.
Some Partners' dialogue and lines have been updated.
A “Disable Basic Interaction” button has been added in the menu options when right-clicking a Partner.
Toggling this option will hide all speech bubbles and dialogue, as well as motions by the Partner.
Party System
The Party Creation Menu UI has been updated.
Regular Parties and Dungeon Parties have been merged.
The ability to restrict parties by Skill Level has been removed as of a result.
The maximum length of a party name has been increased to 50 characters.
Leaving a party name blank will auto-populate with "[Character Name]’s Party."
The Party Menu UI has been updated.
The “Wanted” button has been renamed to “Recruit Locally”.
The Recruitment Notice above your character will no longer expire.
The [Wanted] party recruitment messages will no longer appear in the party chat.
The width of the UI has been expanded for better visibility of text.
Added new functionality buttons:
Recruit on Party Board - adds/removes your party from the Party Bulletin Board.
Move to Destination - teleports you to the pre-determined location.
Recruit via Bugle - allows you to send a bugle with the party information.
The Party Bulletin Board UI has been updated.
All parties, regardless of objective, will be displayed as a default view.
You can now search via party name directly (case-sensitive).
The ability to move parties to a preset destination has been added.
When creating a Normal Party, the following locations have been added as destinations to teleport to:
Glenn Bearna
Crom Bás
Tech Duinn
Mag Mell
Avalon Purification
Sidhe Finnachaid
Alban Knights
Taillteann Shadow Mission
Tara Shadow Mission
Hard Mode Alby Advanced Dungeon
Rabbie Phantasm
Abyss Peaca Advanced Dungeon
Hard Mode Rundal Advanced Dungeon
A 30-second cooldown has also been added to prevent teleport spamming.
You can now right click → Invite to Join Party.
If not in a party, this will create the party and send an invite to the player.
This option is available through the Player, Friends List, and Guild List.
This can be done across channels / maps.
Added a Bugle Recruitment Feature.
When a destination is determined in a party, the “Recruit via Bugle” option will be available in the Party Menu UI.
A ‘Horn Bugle - World’ item is required and consumed when used.
The Horn Bugle - World with the shortest expiration timer will be consumed first.
Using the feature will display a clickable message with the party information in the message log, allowing other players to join with ease.
The bugle message will begin with a # symbol and have an outline around the message.
Players joining the party via clicking the bugle message will be prompted to change channels (if necessary) and move to the destination.
The bugle link is valid for up to 3 minutes.
Emblems
A new UI has been added for synthesizing Alban Knight and Commander emblems.
Right-click an Alban Knight or Commander emblem and select "Synthesize" to open the synthesis UI.
It is no longer possible to combine emblems through the "drag and drop" method.
A "Training Camp" tab has been added to Shaun's shop in the Alban Knights Training Camp with the following items:
Unadorned Alban Knights Emblem
Rune of Body
Rune of Mind
Rune of Sharpness
Rune of Ingenuity
Rune of Mana
*New* Alban Knights Rune Box
This box will contain a random chance at an Unadorned Emblem or any of the 5 Runes.
A "Commander" tab has been added to the Royal Quartermaster's shop in the Tech Duinn Lobby with the following items:
Unadorned Commander's Emblem
Rune of Command: Phantasmal Sight
Rune of Command: Fateweaver
Rune of Command: Tenacious Taunt
Rune of Command: Zone of Renewal
Rune of Command: Unified Might
*New* Rune of Command Box
This box will contain a random chance at an Unadorned Emblem or any of the 5 Runes.
Auction House
You can now preview Hair Dyes and Chairs through the Auction House.
An “All” category has been added to the top of the Category list. Categories can now be expanded/collapsed with a single click rather than double click.
The following items can now be sold/purchased via the Auction House:
Clothing/Outfits:
Aladdin Shoes
Badoura Costume
Cat Armor
Cat Armor (Giant)
Cheerleader Boots
China 7th Anniversary Headdress (F)
China 7th Anniversary Headdress (M)
China 7th Anniversary Outfit (F)
China 7th Anniversary Outfit (M)
China 7th Anniversary Ring
China 7th Anniversary Shoes (F)
China 7th Anniversary Shoes (M)
Clover Pig Costume (F)
Clover Pig Costume (M)
Dorren's Robe
Goggle Shades
Great Goggle Shades
Heart Eyepatch
Lollipop Heart Eyepatch
Mabinogi School Shoes
Ornamented Crown
Pop Star Bracelet
Pop Star Dress
Pop Star Earrings
Pop Star Shoes
Style Sunglasses
Taoist Bracelet
Taoist Costume
Taoist Headdress
Taoist Shoes
Weapons:
Carpinus Healing Wand
Chef's Passion
Metal Ice Wand
Metal Lightning Wand
Panacea Healing Wand
Pop Star Conductor Baton
Ruyuefeixue's Butterfly Fan
Scythe that Reaps Darkness
Chairs:
Double Sunbed
Single Sunbed
Misc. Items:
Ballista Bolt (Merchant Group)
Ruined Bonita Twin Tail Ribbons
Bonita Twin Tail Ribbons Repair Kit
Broken Ruyuefeixue's Butterfly Fan
Ruyuefeixue's Butterfly Fan Repair Kit
Rabbie Phantasm Dungeon Mirror World Pass
Receiver of Nao's Blessing Title Coupon
Totem Reset Coupon
Patch Notes
Fantasy Life Changes
Keyword Highlights have been added to the Chat Menu Options.
When an added word/phrase is said in chat, it will be highlighted to draw your attention.
You may add up top 10 words/phrases, with a maximum of 20 characters per entry.
Management of this system is located in Options → Social → Chat → Manage Highlighted Keywords
Your chat log history will not reset upon changing channels.
It will still reset upon logging in/out of the game however.
Clicking a player's name on the Message Log will now bring up the Report User window.
The in-game Cash Shop has received an update:
The window will now load directly in your Mabinogi client, rather than as an external window.
The specifications and security have been updated.
The calculations performed when production crafting have been modified to capture the state when starting the craft. This will prevent situations where the display showed 100%, but it was still possible to fail, even when successfully clearing the crafting mini-game.
The setting to hide the visibility of your Support Puppet will now be saved when swapping to different Extra Equipment Slots.
Shadow Missions that previously required you to be in a party to progress, such as The Secret of Scathach Caverns, will now allow those not in a party to progress when speaking with the NPCs.
It's dangerous to go alone, but you got this!
You no longer need to meet the requirements to teleport to the entrance of Sidhe Finnachaid when using the Dungeon Guide.
Expanding/Collapsing a Group in your friends list now only requires a single-click instead of double-click.
In line with our rename change to Fragarach, we have also renamed the G25 sword from Luminous Cross-hilt Sword to The Answerer.
Combo Card Slot Change Coupons have been modified to allow them to be destroyed via the Trash Can.
Character Card purchases will now appear in your inventory as an in-game item.
Using the card from the inventory will create a Character Card on the character creation menu.
Character Cards are tradeable with other players.
With this change, Hero and Elite Character cards have been removed from the Cash Shop.
Bug Fixes
Smaller text fixes this month for some of the Shop related dialogue with NPCs, some C7 NPC text polish, more changes to the Party and Partner related texts, and unification of some of the Lance item descriptions to better convey the gameplay. Thank you for your eyes with each update. We're glad we can continue to make this game clean.
Improvements have been made to the newly added Pet Parade action that allow it to perform better under higher latencies.
The (old) Doki Doki Island quest Natural Dye Event has been cleared from all accounts. Apologies for the confusion!
Doll Bag Storage Chests will once again show the contents that are stored within the chest.
Shopkeeping Milletians of Dunbarton and elsewhere (though mostly Dunbarton…) - you will once again be able to check the set price of your wares when reviewing your merchandise.
Belvast Merchants where ya be? 😭
The range of Smokescreen was increased to 15m with the Battle Astrologer update. The associated skill text has been updated to reflect this change.
With the update to the in-game Cash Shop browser, the zoom level has been corrected and the page will now display as expected when opening.
The button redirects for opening specific Cash Shop pages have been updated to better direct you towards the relevant item(s).
Fixed an issue where the status effect from a Carpentry Quality Increase Potion was not properly removing itself when failing a crafting attempt.
Changes during the March 20th Maintenance
As mentioned in our April Update, the following mythological sword and accompanying technique have been renamed, and all accompanying text (such as from the storyline) has been replaced:
Pragarah -> Fragarach
Seal: Pragarah -> Seal: Fragarach
【 Localization Note 】 The Localization Team has wanted to correct "Pragarah" for several years now, re-localizing it to its proper mythological name "Fragarach" (which, in Gaelic, translates to "The Answerer"). After all, just as one would never expect to see "Excalibur" rendered otherwise in a game based on Arthurian legend, Fragarach ought to hold a similar status when one discusses the tales of Ireland. With the recent updates to the Seal: Fragarach skill, we finally had the opportunity to make the change to this odd artifact of legacy localization. The Mabinogi Team hopes that this small yet meaningful change will help foster a deeper connection with the Celtic lore that serves as the inspiration for so many characters, places, and events within the world of Erinn.
Bug Fixes during the March 20th Maintenance
An issue was causing the Def/MDef/Prot/MProt reduced via Brionac and Seal: Fragarach to be lower than expected. This has been fixed, and both should be reducing the values in the same way to the appropriate amounts.
The description of this year's Lovely Doki Doki Commemorative Box has been updated to reflect the proper outfit.
The Life Exploration Tools now correctly line break in the Item Attribute field.
DJ Romantic will be coming back from his "judging competition" on April 17th instead of April 24th. He wrote the wrong date in his calendar, it seems.
Reserve Attack settings will now save upon logging out/changing channels.
Fixed an issue where an untranslated message was showing when a Trade Unlock Letter of Guarantee when applied on an item.
The family name of Zeder was retranslated from Shiarpe to Scharp.
Known Bugs
There are currently issues causing the Blacklist to not work as expected for some players.
Under periodic conditions, Milletians will be temporarily unable to duel other Milletians.
There is an issue with the in-game Guild list not populating with guilds.
No new content for this update, just a few changes and bug fixes.
Changes:
(General) Changed how Great Strength behaves on enemies: it will now be removed at the end of the NEXT enemy turn. The way it worked so far forced me to have the few enemies that gain great strength to do it as their first action, otherwise they would lose it at the end of their turn, and basically gain nothing from it. With this change, I can now have these enemies cast great strength as their last action (which is a lot more fair to the player). Affected enemies: Wealthy Abomination, Mimic, Paralux.
(General) Mimics are back in the game in normal mode too.
(Enemy) Paralux will now copy the player's statuses after attacking, with the statuses remaining until the next turn.
(Enemy) The change to great strength means that Wealthy Abomination can now use its Weak Spot attack (150 damage) with great strength, bringing it to 300 damage. Because of that I'm decreasing its base damage to 90.
(Enemy) Decreased Paralux base damage.
(Enemy) Kobolds now show a "Friendly Bond" status to tell you about the (so far hidden) ability to get strength when another Kobold dies.
(Enemies) Darkness Elemental and Ebonactite's actions that would have you discard their whole hand, will now make you discard only one card.
(Card) Boiling blood now deals 1/4 of your current blood instead of 1/2.
(Card) Platinum Melon can now be found only from the second level.
(UI) Added "(Currency)" to the Monster Blood tooltip.
(Event) The Blood Bank will now show the current deposited blood in the sprite itself.
Bug Fixes:
"Gods Protection" blessing's name changed to "Gods' Protection".
Fixed the ability to open the draw pile by spamming it during After Image's activation (soft locking the game).
Removed "AoE" tooltip from Boiling Blood.
Paralux was meant to always have the same statuses as the player, but it would wrongly not lose obtained statuses when the player didn't have them (for example, strength obtained through Warrior's Fortify (which is lost at turn end) would persist for Paralux when copied. Fixed.
Fixed pad controls not working on the newly added branching levels.
Fixed the game unlocking the Caves achievement when winning Echo Tower. The game will now unlock all level achievements when accessing the world map, instead of at the start of the next level.
☑ Fixed the problem of character clothes torn caused by localization ☑ Increase the number of pets that can be tamed to support up to 10 ☑ Fixed the problem that there is no taming times when killing pets and taming dinosaurs ☑ Fixed the problem that AI's health will be restored after not attacking it for a period of time ☑ Fixed the bug that the maximum number of taming times is reached when taming ☑ Turn off the character's foot IK function to prevent the legs from bending too much and the feet from floating ☑ Fixed some boulders floating in the air, set the collision of boulders on the map, and set the LOD optimization of boulders ☑ Localization errors fixes ☑ Changed the slot of creating a server in multiplayer mode to selecting an archive ☑ Server maintenance update ☑ Lots of optimization improvements
Welcome to our sixth blog post on the development of Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo. Today we delve into the music and sounds that bring life to the world of Limbo!
We’ll be sharing a lot of audio samples, so be sure to get your headphones or speakers ready to get the most out of this one.
Composers
Before we go any further, first it’s only right to thank the two very talented musicians responsible for the soundtrack and audio of this game: Zach Striefel and Clayton Tapp.
They’re responsible for one of the big pillars that hold this game together. They’re wonderful people and artists! So be sure to check out their other work!
Now let’s have a look (or listen) to the fruits of their efforts.
Music
The main purpose of music in games (and in other media too) is to further convey emotion to what’s actively happening, at least generally speaking. You’ll notice how music for combat situations tends to be fast paced, and slower music is used for more introspective scenarios. Music is incredibly important to help us immerse ourselves in the worlds we see on any screen.
A game’s main theme reflects the story and experience it brings forth into sound. Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a game about uncovering mysteries and partaking in a journey to a world unknown to us.
Why don’t we try a brief exercise? Give the main theme a listen and see what words come to your mind.
To me, it radiates a sense of melancholy, but with a tone of hopefulness for things to come. Of course, there’s no right answer here, you might have gotten a completely different vibe from it. But that’s what makes it art.
Now, let’s look at how we use music throughout the game!
Matching the Clock
A core mechanic of Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is its time and schedule system. An in-game day is divided into “Day”, “Evening”, and “Night.” The clock will advance as you play, and you’ll transition between these 3 stages throughout the day.
Every major area in the game has its own music to invoke a distinct feel to each environment. And to go along with the time mechanic of the game, most environments have different tracks for each time of the day.
Here’s a little sample of how the music changes depending on the time. Have a listen!
A piece for every scenario!
Since Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo is a game about exploration and uncovering mysteries, much of the soundtrack will be on the softer side (It has plenty of good background music tracks to play while working, I can tell you that!). But of course, you can also expect a good variety of different genres of music!
One of our main goals is to make sure each part of the adventure feels unique, and our music plays an important role in doing that. But our music is worth a thousand words, so have a listen to a few unique pieces of the track which are a small taste of what to expect!
Live vs Synthesized Instruments
Most of the game’s music uses live instruments. This means that the music is made from live recordings of instruments, unlike synthesized music which is made digitally.
We felt this aspect helps to give the game a more organic, natural feel through the soundtrack. It’ll be much easier to convey what we mean with a sample, have a listen!
Speech
The world of Limbo is all about its characters, and the way someone talks is a huge part of their personality. We wanted each character to have a unique way of speaking, but how do we achieve that? Full voice acting was not a practical option for us (it’s a HUGE script after all). Eventually we reached the solution you’ll find in the game: Gibberish-speak!
What did we do?
The gibberish voice you hear is made from smaller voice samples that we play back-to-back quickly based on what the characters are saying. You can think of it as a typewriter that plays a sound every time it types something.
The samples you hear are performed by actual voice actors! We record a huge-bunch of small “syllables” sound that we use to put together the gibberish-speak. This way we can give “character” to the character’s voice; show their personality through the way they talk. The voice actors that helped us did a fantastic job! We’re extremely happy with their work in bringing these characters to life! (And our audio composers did an amazing job coordinating with them and putting the recordings together!)
We record a LOT of “syllables” to make sure we have enough variety so that the speech pattern is not repetitive (We record about 89 voice clips per character). The “syllables” picked are not completely random either: All the sound samples are linked to letters, and when a letter is typed on screen we pick one that has been assigned to that letter.
The gibberish-speak is not meant to be accurate or complex by any means, nor do we use AI to generate any of these sounds, so our fellow voice actors can rest assured that their work is in good hands. More-so, this approach is so that it FEELS like the characters are talking (albeit, in a very weird foreign language). Like I mentioned before, it’s mostly a funny-sounding typewriter.
Here’s part of the pool sound for the character Flora. There’s one sound for the letter “a”, and five for “b” and “c” respectively. The letters “c”, “k”, and “q” are similar enough, so they share the same sounds.
Ambience
There’s one final subtle piece of audio design we want to put on the spotlight: Ambience!. It’s generally more difficult to notice since it’s partially covered by the music, but it’s one of those things that makes a huge difference even if we don’t notice them right away.
This not only includes environmental sounds, but also other effects like echoes in big empty spaces, and muffled noises from sounds coming from another room. Listen to a few examples and check which little changes you notice with the sounds!
What do you think?
We hope you enjoyed your time delving into the inner workings of Kulebra’s and the Souls of Limbo’s audio design! Thank you very much for checking it out and we hope to see you here on our next development blog post. Toodle-oo!
Dear players, there will be a routine update maintenance for "Wonderland M" on April 30, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Please pay attention to the update and recharge event announcements on the Facebook page. The update announcement will be published on April 30, and the recharge event announcement will be published on May 1. Thank you.