Unfortunately, I haven’t finished Administrations of Lunacy, so this month’s WIR was just going to be a repeat of last month’s. I briefly considered not finishing it at all. It’s become more broad and less about individual stories, which is not as engaging. But I’m less than 100 pages from the end.
But since I don’t have much to say about what I’ve been reading, let me talk about what I’ve been playing.
I think my favorite genre of game to play is Metroidvanias that have a strong puzzle element to them. Cult of the Lamb is a departure for me in what I usually like to play.
The fighting aspect of it is pretty straight-forward. I’ve completed one of the four dungeons, so I’m still relatively toward the beginning of the game. Right now, I’ve got melee weapons, curses that work on fervor I get from killing enemies, and special attacks with relics that take time to recharge after being used. Even though I’ve defeated the boss of the dungeon, I’m continuing to make runs to accumulate followers, because you need to have a certain number of followers to unlock the dungeons. I have five, working toward seven to unlock the second dungeon.
The other aspect of the game is engine building. Your followers are able to do things around your camp, which creates resources that you use to do more stuff. The followers also create devotion, which you’re able to use to upgrade your camp.
You also need to maintain your followers’ faith, giving daily sermons, feeding them, blessing them, performing rituals, cleaning up after them, re-educating dissenters, etc. Honestly, there’s so much going on in this game, it’s very easy to lose yourself in it for hours at a time.
I’m probably spending more time than is strictly necessary maintaining my camp and followers. But I’m also the kind of RPG player that tries to level up in excess of what I think I’ll need before continuing the next step of the main storyline.
It’s been enjoyable to play, but also challenging. I’ve lost several followers to dissent, had several followers die of old age (already), and my success rate for dungeon runs is about 50%, despite having already beaten the boss of the first dungeon. The chibi animation style is appealing and the story is engaging, if not somewhat unoriginal.
If you play video games, I can recommend this one highly.
The Chimerical Dark 