Fun and cute little game with a very unique and well-executed art style and overall polished presentation. The environment and character designs manage to combine cuteness and body horror/gore in a way that feels really elegant and cohesive, as opposed to edgelord art where someone just slaps blood and guts on Hello Kitty for shock value. It's very deliberate and artistic here. I'm genuinely impressed that the artists managed to pull this off.

Combat isn't quite as snappy as you think it should be, and the farming/simulation elements aren't quite as intuitive or addictive as these types of games usually go for, but both were fun enough that I had a good time with the game and would recommend it to others. I also really enjoyed the writing, what little there was, as the tone and style reminded me appropriately of old religious texts, which really added to the overall atmosphere.

My one complaint would be that while the combat/roguelike portions of the game serve the farming portion, it's not really a symbiotic relationship. I'd say the game leans more heavily toward the farming and development of your cult over the "crusades" (the combat sections), and while that makes sense in terms of the game's story, I don't think it would've taken away much from said story if certain cult upgrades helped you on your crusades, for example.

Yes, a bit of this does exist in the game already, but most of your combat upgrades come from collecting tarot cards and holding sermons, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with your cult itself. Meanwhile, crusades focus almost entirely on gathering resources for your cult to bring back once you're done (and story missions). Because the game focuses more on you developing your cult, you will probably end up having fully upgraded it long before you reach the final boss/game's ending. A bit more balance in that regard would've gone a long way, methinks.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the presentation and art style, the music and sound design, and how rich the world feels despite the writing being somewhat minimal. Defo give this one a go if it seems like something you'd enjoy!

Reviewed on Mar 04, 2023


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