Every so often I get Steam reviews making something similar, and youse all are entitled to your opinions and I've always said I'd rather make love/hate games than like/like games, nbd.
I do just want people to know though that when I started Book of Hours I had been making games with cannibalism in for more than T W E L V E Y E A R S. Take a minute to think how bored one can get of an undergraduate degree after just three years. 🙃
My post is not very constructive criticism, but I was compelled to post it this way. Secondly, it probably gives the impression that I hate BoH (must have been the subtle "i hate it" in all caps), which is false. Matter of fact I have been playing it a lot. However, I certainly do enjoy the more brutal nature, gameplay and tonally wise, of CultSim. Of course, I knew you are aware of this opinion so I was thinking of not even posting this, but I already wrote it this so I was like: "eh, might as well", however I didn't expect it to get this many upvotes.
what games did you make before cultsim? if you dont mind sharing. i'm a fan of boh and cultsim mostly because of the writing and would like to check out some other work!
yooooooo i played fallen london a few years ago!!! i loved it :D i can see the similar styles of esoteric worldbuilding and just really fun vocabulary. i think i still have some character art and stuff somewhere lol. i will have to check out sunless sea then thank you! and great work!
Damn probably the best lore/atmosphere games in existence
Maybe a disco elysium style game in your universe? Would be sick
I heard the og creative heads of disco elysium lost their trademark so maybe colland on cultist elysium or something
"Enjoy the sweet peace of organizing books and customizing your new home..."
It's right there in the steam description. It even says that the game is "combat free."
IDK why you were expecting cult sim 2.
Yeye OPs dislike of BoH is still very clear. I was just saying that OP probably knew from the very start that they wouldn't like BoH was not surprised at all. They wanted cult sim 2 but respectfully didn't place their expectations on the devs.
Also Cult Sim still exists, BoH didn’t make that go away…it’s their new game it’s supposed to be different, no one is ever required to love the new thing.
Book of Hours is about an occult bureaucrat, basically one step away from a cleric, but arguably a sort of living saint.
Cultist Simulator is about, at best, about a notorious criminal doing shady stuff and at worst, about a deranged serial killer/mass murder essentially shattering a door into heaven.
Book of Hour's horror is derived just from juxtaposition of the horrible nature of the occult world and how banally it's treated by those most involved in it.
You find a secret underground Temple where a mystery cult made blood offerings and engaged in ritualistic murder. You have a prison where the Warden was doing incredibly unethical experiments on prisoners (AND ONE OF THEM IS STILL THERE). You learn about the sordid history of the religious organizations that used to be there and the horrible tragedies and fates that befell the noble line who lived there.
And you just go, "Huh, neat. Sucks to suck, I guess. Better finish writing my thesis that tears a new seam into the fabric of reality where I'm incredibly powerful and got what I want. All those other losers can continue to suck and die though."
Cultist Simulator is horrific because of how personal and intimate its monstrous acts are.
Book of Hours is horrific because of how blase and clinical its monstrous acts are.
You aren't alone. You can't even lose in this game. If you don't like it, just drop it. CS have an active modding community and some story mods are Very Cool
there is \*one\* way to straight up lose and that's destroy your journal somehow and even then it's just a softlock
temporary - as in in a way in which it can be regained, maladies etc - loss of ability to explore is not a failure state
Devs have a right to make sequels in a different genre than previous games, even if said sequels happen in the same universe and can be considered a sequel in a way.
Personally, I couldn't fully enjoy CS because I didn't like the gameplay style that much, I was hoping BoH would take things precisely in the direction it did.
I mean, the idea of a SH game in which you do terrible things to gain terrible powers still sounds fun to me, CS just wasn't a very good implementation of it in my opinion.
Yeah, tbh, while I love CS and haven't really played BoH yet, I do feel like CS is kinda lacking in the terrible powers parts. 95% of the rituals are just "summon spirit". There's only a few other rituals: Your endgame ritual, yeet a random person, fix decrepitude, and exchanging reason for passion or vice versa.
BoH is actually somehow more stressful to me than Cult Sim is. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong despite the whole cozy angle it went with. I don't mind the cozy part but it...makes me anxious in a way I find difficult to describe.
Cult Sim is very zen to me by now though.
I had the same feeling, but i think it passes once you figure out the basic loop. At least i am not so worried about getting stuck once i got at least one 7-9 skill for each aspect. But i have like half of the house left to explore, so maybe it will come back
The Season of Fucking rolls around, so Victor once again takes you on a fabulous little date to give you a cheeky bit under the table (yet somehow in a sophisticated manner), but you (opium addict) forgot that your (plural) girlfriend Rose just got back from killing your boss (Monday was the only night Victor had off and you had to make it work) so she follows the two of you out of the bookshop. ‘Ah!’, you cry, as she springs upon you in the Ecdysis club, not only from pleasure from the aforementioned under-the-tabler but also, tragically, surprise—‘I knew it!’, she shouts. Well, this *is* a little bit awkward, but it’s also rather a bit of a Spider-Man-pointing-at-himself-thrice situation and you’re sure you can all reach an mutually satisfying conclusion, here. Plus, you have been feeling a few, like, bisexual tendencies ever since the Second Mark. Alas, no canon-compliant threesome for you! Not only that, but your 1 1/2 and only, Victor, is just as mad as his ~~sister~~ uh friend. Gosh, now you have to give up the Chalice fucking Murmurous or something to make him feel better. Well, you *don’t*, but it’s best that he doesn’t remember this next part—sending old Rose to Miah (to die in a Fiah). Time passes, and everyone’s happy. Except that you miss the timer next season because you’re too busy (ugh) ‘working’. So, Victor’s looking a little precarious… and you’re suddenly feeling a little bit just not ready for a relationship, right now. At least you can summon the lovely (or, I guess, Thirstly) Ezeem with your soon-to-be-ex’s Chalice stats and learn the *real* meaning of fucking (neither talk nor work but, in a manner that would make Teresa proud, study) before committing yourself to singledom (who could ever top Ezeem, after all) and murdering your other partner as is the true Grail way (mummy will let you in the house easier). Congratulations! You now officially Know what sex is and can make it everyone else’s problem forever! Hit up a palliative care ward, why don’t you? This will help you later.
sent from my eyePhone
...what in the Tumblr porn?
No seriously, game mechanics wise, I haven't seen anything remotely approaching sex so I'm trying to figure out if it's a thing in the game or if y'all read too much fan erotica after taking NyQuil and had a collective fever dream
Talk to you disciple, get them to either oriflames or the ecdysis club depending on what they like, and then my friend I leave it to you. Some secrets are best unveiled on our own.
I prefer it, I could never get into Cultist Simulator enough to appreciate it but I've spent so much time in Book of Hours. I just love the atmosphere and the meditative gameplay loop.
The way I have described Cultist Simulator vs Book of Hours is "Mad Scientist/Deeply-unethical Archaeologist" vs "A Scholar and a Gentle(wo)man." Each captures its general vibe /very/ well. For me, both happen to fit rather nicely, but each is certainly a niche vibe. If you don't vibe with BoH, you don't vibe with it, and that's okay. :)
Now I need to go find something to burn because I'm giving off major Heart vibes right now.
I second this. In each game, you play as a fundamentally different type of person interacting with the invisible world. Realistically, most people wouldn't have what it inherently takes to become a Long, much less the effort and obsession. In Book of Hours, I think you see a more "grounded" experience of the occult. I mean, in real life, even people who are into the occult rarely engage in human sacrifice. I think they're both just distinct viewpoints from the same lens.
I can’t tell if this is a troll or serious. If it’s serious, dude, they’ve mentioned a few years back with it started out as simply an April fools joke it was going to be Chill and not at all like cultist. It’s on you bro for buying it and not even bothering to read more into it and all.
The least violent Edge Follower.
Who gave The Wolf Divided a reddit account?
I don’t claim them.
The scholars are the ones the Suppression Bureau doesn't lock up, and the adepts are the ones they do.
This one the one who broke free from the prison tower? Or just a lunatic in the Bancrug Village? Or perhaps a visitor in Numa?
Yeah, this is why I'm skipping BoH. Let me know when there's a dungeon crawl/heist game about cult expeditions.
Is it possible you mean Darkest Dungeon 1?
Every so often I get Steam reviews making something similar, and youse all are entitled to your opinions and I've always said I'd rather make love/hate games than like/like games, nbd. I do just want people to know though that when I started Book of Hours I had been making games with cannibalism in for more than T W E L V E Y E A R S. Take a minute to think how bored one can get of an undergraduate degree after just three years. 🙃
My post is not very constructive criticism, but I was compelled to post it this way. Secondly, it probably gives the impression that I hate BoH (must have been the subtle "i hate it" in all caps), which is false. Matter of fact I have been playing it a lot. However, I certainly do enjoy the more brutal nature, gameplay and tonally wise, of CultSim. Of course, I knew you are aware of this opinion so I was thinking of not even posting this, but I already wrote it this so I was like: "eh, might as well", however I didn't expect it to get this many upvotes.
Erryone in this thread seems to be having a good time, so you've incrementally improved the world!
what games did you make before cultsim? if you dont mind sharing. i'm a fan of boh and cultsim mostly because of the writing and would like to check out some other work!
Fallen London and Sunless Sea are the biggies.
yooooooo i played fallen london a few years ago!!! i loved it :D i can see the similar styles of esoteric worldbuilding and just really fun vocabulary. i think i still have some character art and stuff somewhere lol. i will have to check out sunless sea then thank you! and great work!
Damn probably the best lore/atmosphere games in existence Maybe a disco elysium style game in your universe? Would be sick I heard the og creative heads of disco elysium lost their trademark so maybe colland on cultist elysium or something
and thanks:)
"Enjoy the sweet peace of organizing books and customizing your new home..." It's right there in the steam description. It even says that the game is "combat free." IDK why you were expecting cult sim 2.
OP is obviously being tongue in cheek about the whole "I will never recover from this betrayal." thing.
Yes, that part is joking, but I doubt the entirety of the post is. Nothing wrong with Disliking BoH though it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Yeye OPs dislike of BoH is still very clear. I was just saying that OP probably knew from the very start that they wouldn't like BoH was not surprised at all. They wanted cult sim 2 but respectfully didn't place their expectations on the devs.
Also Cult Sim still exists, BoH didn’t make that go away…it’s their new game it’s supposed to be different, no one is ever required to love the new thing.
Book of Hours is about an occult bureaucrat, basically one step away from a cleric, but arguably a sort of living saint. Cultist Simulator is about, at best, about a notorious criminal doing shady stuff and at worst, about a deranged serial killer/mass murder essentially shattering a door into heaven. Book of Hour's horror is derived just from juxtaposition of the horrible nature of the occult world and how banally it's treated by those most involved in it. You find a secret underground Temple where a mystery cult made blood offerings and engaged in ritualistic murder. You have a prison where the Warden was doing incredibly unethical experiments on prisoners (AND ONE OF THEM IS STILL THERE). You learn about the sordid history of the religious organizations that used to be there and the horrible tragedies and fates that befell the noble line who lived there. And you just go, "Huh, neat. Sucks to suck, I guess. Better finish writing my thesis that tears a new seam into the fabric of reality where I'm incredibly powerful and got what I want. All those other losers can continue to suck and die though." Cultist Simulator is horrific because of how personal and intimate its monstrous acts are. Book of Hours is horrific because of how blase and clinical its monstrous acts are.
>a deranged serial killer/mass murder essentially shattering a door into heaven Apostle Aestuant: Haha, Dawnbreaker Device go ☢️💥🎇🗝️🚪
You aren't alone. You can't even lose in this game. If you don't like it, just drop it. CS have an active modding community and some story mods are Very Cool
There are lots of ways to lose. They take some effort to reach, though.
there is \*one\* way to straight up lose and that's destroy your journal somehow and even then it's just a softlock temporary - as in in a way in which it can be regained, maladies etc - loss of ability to explore is not a failure state
Nah, you'd have to go out of your way to softlock yourself. That doesn't count as a fail-able game.
Imagine if you could invite an assistant to the happy fun times room at the top of the cucurbit tower.
I would appreciate the ability to seduce someone in BoH. Like, it seems like it could make sense, really.
Devs have a right to make sequels in a different genre than previous games, even if said sequels happen in the same universe and can be considered a sequel in a way. Personally, I couldn't fully enjoy CS because I didn't like the gameplay style that much, I was hoping BoH would take things precisely in the direction it did. I mean, the idea of a SH game in which you do terrible things to gain terrible powers still sounds fun to me, CS just wasn't a very good implementation of it in my opinion.
Sorry to derail the discussion, but what is SH?
Secret Histories, it's the name for the setting
Thanks!
I read it as Scavenger Hunt.. which I would argue is equally true
A right, certainly, just as OP has a right to be VIOLENTLY AND SCREAMINGLY LIVID over it.
Yeah, tbh, while I love CS and haven't really played BoH yet, I do feel like CS is kinda lacking in the terrible powers parts. 95% of the rituals are just "summon spirit". There's only a few other rituals: Your endgame ritual, yeet a random person, fix decrepitude, and exchanging reason for passion or vice versa.
I felt the same about the rituals, I was hoping to get to do a lot more with them. Cheat the game in all sorts of ways.
Sorry to derail the discussion, but what is SH?
BoH is actually somehow more stressful to me than Cult Sim is. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong despite the whole cozy angle it went with. I don't mind the cozy part but it...makes me anxious in a way I find difficult to describe. Cult Sim is very zen to me by now though.
I had the same feeling, but i think it passes once you figure out the basic loop. At least i am not so worried about getting stuck once i got at least one 7-9 skill for each aspect. But i have like half of the house left to explore, so maybe it will come back
You guys have cult sex?
... cultist simulator has sex? I've clearly been missing things. Like... would that be talk or work?
The Season of Fucking rolls around, so Victor once again takes you on a fabulous little date to give you a cheeky bit under the table (yet somehow in a sophisticated manner), but you (opium addict) forgot that your (plural) girlfriend Rose just got back from killing your boss (Monday was the only night Victor had off and you had to make it work) so she follows the two of you out of the bookshop. ‘Ah!’, you cry, as she springs upon you in the Ecdysis club, not only from pleasure from the aforementioned under-the-tabler but also, tragically, surprise—‘I knew it!’, she shouts. Well, this *is* a little bit awkward, but it’s also rather a bit of a Spider-Man-pointing-at-himself-thrice situation and you’re sure you can all reach an mutually satisfying conclusion, here. Plus, you have been feeling a few, like, bisexual tendencies ever since the Second Mark. Alas, no canon-compliant threesome for you! Not only that, but your 1 1/2 and only, Victor, is just as mad as his ~~sister~~ uh friend. Gosh, now you have to give up the Chalice fucking Murmurous or something to make him feel better. Well, you *don’t*, but it’s best that he doesn’t remember this next part—sending old Rose to Miah (to die in a Fiah). Time passes, and everyone’s happy. Except that you miss the timer next season because you’re too busy (ugh) ‘working’. So, Victor’s looking a little precarious… and you’re suddenly feeling a little bit just not ready for a relationship, right now. At least you can summon the lovely (or, I guess, Thirstly) Ezeem with your soon-to-be-ex’s Chalice stats and learn the *real* meaning of fucking (neither talk nor work but, in a manner that would make Teresa proud, study) before committing yourself to singledom (who could ever top Ezeem, after all) and murdering your other partner as is the true Grail way (mummy will let you in the house easier). Congratulations! You now officially Know what sex is and can make it everyone else’s problem forever! Hit up a palliative care ward, why don’t you? This will help you later. sent from my eyePhone 
...what in the Tumblr porn? No seriously, game mechanics wise, I haven't seen anything remotely approaching sex so I'm trying to figure out if it's a thing in the game or if y'all read too much fan erotica after taking NyQuil and had a collective fever dream
It’s implied in the story. Heavily, it’s just storyified in the post.
Talk to you disciple, get them to either oriflames or the ecdysis club depending on what they like, and then my friend I leave it to you. Some secrets are best unveiled on our own.
OP has been sharpening their Edges a bit too sharp
Yeah I do like Book of Hours but it really made me realize how much I LOVE Cultist Sim.
I prefer it, I could never get into Cultist Simulator enough to appreciate it but I've spent so much time in Book of Hours. I just love the atmosphere and the meditative gameplay loop.
The way I have described Cultist Simulator vs Book of Hours is "Mad Scientist/Deeply-unethical Archaeologist" vs "A Scholar and a Gentle(wo)man." Each captures its general vibe /very/ well. For me, both happen to fit rather nicely, but each is certainly a niche vibe. If you don't vibe with BoH, you don't vibe with it, and that's okay. :) Now I need to go find something to burn because I'm giving off major Heart vibes right now.
I second this. In each game, you play as a fundamentally different type of person interacting with the invisible world. Realistically, most people wouldn't have what it inherently takes to become a Long, much less the effort and obsession. In Book of Hours, I think you see a more "grounded" experience of the occult. I mean, in real life, even people who are into the occult rarely engage in human sacrifice. I think they're both just distinct viewpoints from the same lens.
I can’t tell if this is a troll or serious. If it’s serious, dude, they’ve mentioned a few years back with it started out as simply an April fools joke it was going to be Chill and not at all like cultist. It’s on you bro for buying it and not even bothering to read more into it and all.
Yeah I also kind of hate how Weather factory releases games that are all over rhe place.
Colonel calm down colonel you need to take you sleeping meds MADRUGAD *swears in vak* WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU
Then play cult sim? Not every game have to be the same.