This is a tough one.

i REALLY want to be able to recommend this game, because for the first few hours it felt like one of the best indie roguelikes I've played, with an amazing theme and cute artstyle. Combat feels enjoyable and the fusion of a cult management sim is a wonderful combination.

Unfortunately once you pass those first few hours you begin to realise how truly shallow most of the systems are. Doctrines and individual skill trees are literally thrown at you early on, which results in a massive influx of new toys to play with and progression, and then everything just grinds to halt after a few hours once you get the grip of everything. To the point where the only 'choice' in the game will be choosing between two doctrines - and some are just outright better than others to the point where they just completely break the game (Looking at you, Grass Eater and Ritual of Enrichment) which results in you either throwing balance out the window or deciding to intentionally gimp yourself. Every choice comes down between two options and that's it, most outcomes being completely useless anyway.

Your cult skill trees means nothing when it is literally inevitable that you cap out and unlock everything likely before beating the final boss - which begs the question, what's the point? Why would you ever play the game more than once when there will likely be zero difference between your first cult and your second.
It's the equivalent of Borderlands having the level cap be 100 and just allowing you to eventually take every point on each Vault Hunters skill try - why would you want that?

That spells the main problem with the game. There is zero opportunity cost in any of your decisions. Zero variety of any 'builds' for your cult, followers, or combat style across the whole game. Followers are disposable since there's always more of them, the individual 'traits' they each get are laughable at best, the amount of days that pass mean absolutely nothing (it would be cool if enemies got tougher the longer time went on, in order to force you to budget your time and weigh risks etc, ala XCOM), weapon and curse variety is god-awful. And if you make the claim that combat is only a 'small' part of a game that's meant to be a cult management sim, then I ask: why are both parts of the game just as shallow as each other?

All bosses, and minibosses, save for perhaps the boss of the third area, are ridiculously easy (including the final boss sadly)

This unfortunately means once you've beaten the game...that's it. You've...beaten the game. And a second playthrough would be just that - doing everything a second time, the exact same way. No post-game, no new game+, nothing.

My theory is this game will quickly go from 'Very positive' - as it is now - to either Mostly, or even mixed, as time goes on and more people begin to finish the game and realise there's nothing more to it.

That doesn't even mention the bugs. For a title like this, the amount of game-breaking bugs this game somehow has is insane, insta-fail quests, invisible and invulnerable summoned enemies bricking my crusades, constant micro-stuttering in dungeons, enemies in cocoons that refuse to come out for 5+ minutes and more - are all things I experienced in my short time with the game, and other people have had far worse things including several ways of getting softlocked and completely bricking your save.

That's of course not to say the game is terrible - it's absolutely not. I had my fun with it, and the soundtrack, visuals, and dialogue were all very good. But after finishing the game in just 17 hours, that means that for the price I paid (£19.49), that equals out to less than an hour of playtime per £1 spent - does that seem worth it to you? Think of the amount of hours you can squeeze out of Issac, or Hades.

I feel like this game needs a big overhaul to justify its price tag, and perhaps some DLC for post-game content. Which I really believe can be done, this game has a brilliant base to build on, but there's just no meat on the bones yet, for lack of a better term. I really do hope I can come back in the future and change this review to a positive one, but for right now I just can't recommend this.

This is a tough one. i REALLY want to be able to recommend this game, because for the first few hours it felt like one of the best indie roguelikes I've played, with an amazing theme and cute artstyle. Combat feels enjoyable and the fusion of a cult management sim is a wonderful combination. Unfortunately once you pass those first few hours you begin to realise how truly shallow most of the systems are. Doctrines and individual skill trees are literally thrown at you early on, which results in a massive influx of new toys to play with and progression, and then everything just grinds to halt after a few hours once you get the grip of everything. To the point where the only 'choice' in the game will be choosing between two doctrines - and some are just outright better than others to the point where they just completely break the game (Looking at you, Grass Eater and Ritual of Enrichment) which results in you either throwing balance out the window or deciding to intentionally gimp yourself. Every choice comes down between two options and that's it, most outcomes being completely useless anyway. Your cult skill trees means nothing when it is literally inevitable that you cap out and unlock everything likely before beating the final boss - which begs the question, what's the point? Why would you ever play the game more than once when there will likely be zero difference between your first cult and your second. It's the equivalent of Borderlands having the level cap be 100 and just allowing you to eventually take every point on each Vault Hunters skill try - why would you want that? That spells the main problem with the game. There is zero opportunity cost in any of your decisions. Zero variety of any 'builds' for your cult, followers, or combat style across the whole game. Followers are disposable since there's always more of them, the individual 'traits' they each get are laughable at best, the amount of days that pass mean absolutely nothing (it would be cool if enemies got tougher the longer time went on, in order to force you to budget your time and weigh risks etc, ala XCOM), weapon and curse variety is god-awful. And if you make the claim that combat is only a 'small' part of a game that's meant to be a cult management sim, then I ask: why are both parts of the game just as shallow as each other? All bosses, and minibosses, save for perhaps the boss of the third area, are ridiculously easy (including the final boss sadly) This unfortunately means once you've beaten the game...that's it. You've...beaten the game. And a second playthrough would be just that - doing everything a second time, the exact same way. No post-game, no new game+, nothing. My theory is this game will quickly go from 'Very positive' - as it is now - to either Mostly, or even mixed, as time goes on and more people begin to finish the game and realise there's nothing more to it. That doesn't even mention the bugs. For a title like this, the amount of game-breaking bugs this game somehow has is insane, insta-fail quests, invisible and invulnerable summoned enemies bricking my crusades, constant micro-stuttering in dungeons, enemies in cocoons that refuse to come out for 5+ minutes and more - are all things I experienced in my short time with the game, and other people have had far worse things including several ways of getting softlocked and completely bricking your save. That's of course not to say the game is terrible - it's absolutely not. I had my fun with it, and the soundtrack, visuals, and dialogue were all very good. But after finishing the game in just 17 hours, that means that for the price I paid (£19.49), that equals out to less than an hour of playtime per £1 spent - does that seem worth it to you? Think of the amount of hours you can squeeze out of Issac, or Hades. I feel like this game needs a big overhaul to justify its price tag, and perhaps some DLC for post-game content. Which I really believe can be done, this game has a brilliant base to build on, but there's just no meat on the bones yet, for lack of a better term. I really do hope I can come back in the future and change this review to a positive one, but for right now I just can't recommend this.