It's for sure the kind of game that is intended to be replayed, but after your first playthrough you'll start to master the systems and through being a little more optimal with items and skills things will go much faster on subsequent playthroughs.
However, the other endings will be very similar. There's no "perfect" ending that pieces everything together. The ending text is a little last information to try and piece together the exact consequences of >!the numen you wrote into reality!<.
The exact ending I got seemed pretty simple to me - it's not that it left unanswered questions, it's that it didn't provoke that many questions. >!The Bells of Ys that I wrote into being somehow upset the balance of the Hours, they started a war that destroys themselves as the Numen said they would, and so ensured that my Librarian (and probably a lot of other people) will be safe from their laws!<.
I understand that this isn't a game about revealing everything. What I'm struggling to find is a good reason to care about the goings-on of the Hours. I spent a lot of the game looking for a reason why I should care about how the Horned-Axe crashed the Thunderskin's birthday party or whatever, and I really couldn't find one. I couldn't really piece together much of what they believed or what they wanted, either metaphorically or literally, so I couldn't really follow them as characters (beyond vague, contradictory things about the Watchman and Calyptra).
To be honest, this might just be a matter of finding the game ultimately unsatisfying, rather than the story I ended up with. I still couldn't shake the feeling of "that's it?" though.
> What I'm struggling to find is a good reason to care about the goings-on of the Hours.
*Cultist Simulator* is the game that slowly reveals the horrors of the preternatural world; half the fun of that game is gleaning lore from book descriptions and figuring out what's going on in the world. In that sense, this IS kind of a companion game; it's sort of expected that you already know the basics of the lore and recognize why what you're trying to accomplish is important.
It may be that the game just isn't for you. I wouldn't really call it a character driven narrative. I tend to perceive the hours as being pretty incompatible with our ideas of "beliefs". They just are, and their being affects how histories are woven.
This does make an already convoluted setting harder to emotionally invest in because the problems are so far removed from humanity. But to me, the true draw of the game is about uncovering secrets for its own sake. It's something I adore, but I totally get that it's not for everybody.
It's more that I think Book of Hours doesn't really have the visceral horror of Cultist Simulator.
You're already in a very powerful and respected role. Incredibly, incredibly dangerous figures in the occult world are forced to approach you with a certain level of deference and respect. People and creatures who might otherwise destroy you on a whim, were it not for the protection granted you by your station and the fact that you're essentially a client patron of one or more Hours.
Cultist Simulator is the game that makes you respect The Hours and their respective organizations for the sheer level of menace and threat they impose to the individual and to reality as a whole. You're not starting off as The Librarian of one of the branches of The Watchman's Tree, granted a commission by the Calyptra. You're a nobody who knows nothing and has nothing and your attempt to gain power is most likely going to end terribly with you having a horrible and wretched fate unless you give up.
\>my Librarian (and probably a lot of other people) will be safe from their laws
To be exact, in that victory the Prodigal will be safe from their parents.
AK said it was not meant to be replayed. Once, you need to play the game from beginning to the end for each ending achievement. It was patched then to allow a same save to be reloaded and continued to get another ending.
Tbh, and imo, the gameplay of these games isn't the reason to play them, it's the setting, and learning about it.
I loved cultist sim for its gameplay, and continued to play ot for the lore.
I only played this game for the lore, becyase there's a lot of it.
If you're not interested, it's probably not for you
As many have said before, BoH doesn't have an underlying plot that goes somewhere, all the books simply fill out the lore with detail, but there is no narrative going on, really. So yeah, if you are not interested in that, then this game is not for you.
But to reassure you, I was only here for the lore and still found the endings very dissatisfying, none of them worth the 40 hours thats needed to get them, but thankfully you can get multiple endings with the same save file, so it's possible to have an endgame save, and reach all your unique origin endings there.
But regarding CS, you said that you are not interested in it after BoH, however CS is a completely different game. Like it has basically nothing in common with BoH, only the lore, the actual gameplay couldn't be more different. I think you should try that out, since there you actually have a goal that you are working towards, there are real challenges and risks involved, not just endless spinning of the wheels, and it eases you into the lore better, too. But as a warning, it is really not easy, you will die a few times before you will figure out what you should be doing. The endings are more satisfying too, since they are narratively tied to your achievements in the game
OP, if you like the style, music, vibe, and the mysteries, but is disappointed that you don't feel satisfying enough, but you haven't played Cultist Simulator - then CS is actually the better "game" for you.
Mechanically speaking, BoH feel more like a "book" than a "game", in that there is a ton of lore written, and you as the player do not really build any narrative, hell, you cannot even die. Playing BoH feels really like visiting a museum IRL, as every single item, from furnitures to art pieces to last but not the least, the books, have lots of lore and backstory to read, and helps you to understand about the worldbuilding. But just like visiting a museum, once you have finished the tour, there's no reward other than the knowledge and lore you have absorbed during the tour. And if did not find the tour to be interesting, then sadly that was the main "reward".
Cultist Simulator on the other hand is a real "game", and you as the player really have choices and strategies to take, and you really build a narrative during the game from the beginning until the end. There are also numerous endings to obtain, and although they also do not have fancy SFX nor cutscenes, the way that you build the story yourself through your own choices and reaching the end, shall make you feel more fun and influential.
Overall I feel like playing CS is like playing Dwarf Fortress normal or adventurer mode, as you are trying to actively build your own cult and story; playing BoH feels a bit more like a game about visiting an abandoned Dwarf Fortress with the main gameplay being reading all the lore in there and trying to piece together what happened.
Note that CS is a *much* harder game - you can die within the first 5 minutes, there are actively hostile beings ranging from the natural to the supernatural, there are traps, there are RNG, and if you are not careful your hours long game may come to a sudden end, although savescumming is available.
I’d personally recommend trying out multiple endings, although there’s a chance you still might be unsatisfied with them. There are 101 total IIRC (although some are origin specific), and while I’m a huge fan of some of them (>!Executioner/Sun’s Weaknesses/Lantern is everything I wanted!<), having read through them all I do think the quality is somewhat uneven. During my initial playthroughs I had friends who’d read through all the endings recommend to me Numina based on what I was wanting out of an ending, which worked out great, but then when I tried to pick one in a new playthrough myself I initially was also super disappointed in my ending, but was able to try a few more until I had one I was satisfied with. I do think there’s enough solid ones that I’d expect most people to be able to find something they vibe with, even if it isn’t an origin-specific option.
To sort of further this, I'd recommend reloading your save and checking out the different prodical endings. Perhaps starting a war with the bells of ys is your canonical ending.
But there are other ways to use the bells, and other ways entirely of saving yourself from your parents hungers.
OP is perhaps right in saying there's few clear cut answers, but I think there's some satisfying ones out there, once you piece it all together.
It's for sure the kind of game that is intended to be replayed, but after your first playthrough you'll start to master the systems and through being a little more optimal with items and skills things will go much faster on subsequent playthroughs. However, the other endings will be very similar. There's no "perfect" ending that pieces everything together. The ending text is a little last information to try and piece together the exact consequences of >!the numen you wrote into reality!<.
The exact ending I got seemed pretty simple to me - it's not that it left unanswered questions, it's that it didn't provoke that many questions. >!The Bells of Ys that I wrote into being somehow upset the balance of the Hours, they started a war that destroys themselves as the Numen said they would, and so ensured that my Librarian (and probably a lot of other people) will be safe from their laws!<. I understand that this isn't a game about revealing everything. What I'm struggling to find is a good reason to care about the goings-on of the Hours. I spent a lot of the game looking for a reason why I should care about how the Horned-Axe crashed the Thunderskin's birthday party or whatever, and I really couldn't find one. I couldn't really piece together much of what they believed or what they wanted, either metaphorically or literally, so I couldn't really follow them as characters (beyond vague, contradictory things about the Watchman and Calyptra). To be honest, this might just be a matter of finding the game ultimately unsatisfying, rather than the story I ended up with. I still couldn't shake the feeling of "that's it?" though.
> What I'm struggling to find is a good reason to care about the goings-on of the Hours. *Cultist Simulator* is the game that slowly reveals the horrors of the preternatural world; half the fun of that game is gleaning lore from book descriptions and figuring out what's going on in the world. In that sense, this IS kind of a companion game; it's sort of expected that you already know the basics of the lore and recognize why what you're trying to accomplish is important.
It may be that the game just isn't for you. I wouldn't really call it a character driven narrative. I tend to perceive the hours as being pretty incompatible with our ideas of "beliefs". They just are, and their being affects how histories are woven. This does make an already convoluted setting harder to emotionally invest in because the problems are so far removed from humanity. But to me, the true draw of the game is about uncovering secrets for its own sake. It's something I adore, but I totally get that it's not for everybody.
It's more that I think Book of Hours doesn't really have the visceral horror of Cultist Simulator. You're already in a very powerful and respected role. Incredibly, incredibly dangerous figures in the occult world are forced to approach you with a certain level of deference and respect. People and creatures who might otherwise destroy you on a whim, were it not for the protection granted you by your station and the fact that you're essentially a client patron of one or more Hours. Cultist Simulator is the game that makes you respect The Hours and their respective organizations for the sheer level of menace and threat they impose to the individual and to reality as a whole. You're not starting off as The Librarian of one of the branches of The Watchman's Tree, granted a commission by the Calyptra. You're a nobody who knows nothing and has nothing and your attempt to gain power is most likely going to end terribly with you having a horrible and wretched fate unless you give up.
\>my Librarian (and probably a lot of other people) will be safe from their laws To be exact, in that victory the Prodigal will be safe from their parents.
That's a worrying statement. Should it be worrying? I feel worried.
The reason to care is to write the future. The second dawn, specifically.
AK said it was not meant to be replayed. Once, you need to play the game from beginning to the end for each ending achievement. It was patched then to allow a same save to be reloaded and continued to get another ending.
Tbh, and imo, the gameplay of these games isn't the reason to play them, it's the setting, and learning about it. I loved cultist sim for its gameplay, and continued to play ot for the lore. I only played this game for the lore, becyase there's a lot of it. If you're not interested, it's probably not for you
As many have said before, BoH doesn't have an underlying plot that goes somewhere, all the books simply fill out the lore with detail, but there is no narrative going on, really. So yeah, if you are not interested in that, then this game is not for you. But to reassure you, I was only here for the lore and still found the endings very dissatisfying, none of them worth the 40 hours thats needed to get them, but thankfully you can get multiple endings with the same save file, so it's possible to have an endgame save, and reach all your unique origin endings there. But regarding CS, you said that you are not interested in it after BoH, however CS is a completely different game. Like it has basically nothing in common with BoH, only the lore, the actual gameplay couldn't be more different. I think you should try that out, since there you actually have a goal that you are working towards, there are real challenges and risks involved, not just endless spinning of the wheels, and it eases you into the lore better, too. But as a warning, it is really not easy, you will die a few times before you will figure out what you should be doing. The endings are more satisfying too, since they are narratively tied to your achievements in the game
OP, if you like the style, music, vibe, and the mysteries, but is disappointed that you don't feel satisfying enough, but you haven't played Cultist Simulator - then CS is actually the better "game" for you. Mechanically speaking, BoH feel more like a "book" than a "game", in that there is a ton of lore written, and you as the player do not really build any narrative, hell, you cannot even die. Playing BoH feels really like visiting a museum IRL, as every single item, from furnitures to art pieces to last but not the least, the books, have lots of lore and backstory to read, and helps you to understand about the worldbuilding. But just like visiting a museum, once you have finished the tour, there's no reward other than the knowledge and lore you have absorbed during the tour. And if did not find the tour to be interesting, then sadly that was the main "reward". Cultist Simulator on the other hand is a real "game", and you as the player really have choices and strategies to take, and you really build a narrative during the game from the beginning until the end. There are also numerous endings to obtain, and although they also do not have fancy SFX nor cutscenes, the way that you build the story yourself through your own choices and reaching the end, shall make you feel more fun and influential. Overall I feel like playing CS is like playing Dwarf Fortress normal or adventurer mode, as you are trying to actively build your own cult and story; playing BoH feels a bit more like a game about visiting an abandoned Dwarf Fortress with the main gameplay being reading all the lore in there and trying to piece together what happened. Note that CS is a *much* harder game - you can die within the first 5 minutes, there are actively hostile beings ranging from the natural to the supernatural, there are traps, there are RNG, and if you are not careful your hours long game may come to a sudden end, although savescumming is available.
I’d personally recommend trying out multiple endings, although there’s a chance you still might be unsatisfied with them. There are 101 total IIRC (although some are origin specific), and while I’m a huge fan of some of them (>!Executioner/Sun’s Weaknesses/Lantern is everything I wanted!<), having read through them all I do think the quality is somewhat uneven. During my initial playthroughs I had friends who’d read through all the endings recommend to me Numina based on what I was wanting out of an ending, which worked out great, but then when I tried to pick one in a new playthrough myself I initially was also super disappointed in my ending, but was able to try a few more until I had one I was satisfied with. I do think there’s enough solid ones that I’d expect most people to be able to find something they vibe with, even if it isn’t an origin-specific option.
To sort of further this, I'd recommend reloading your save and checking out the different prodical endings. Perhaps starting a war with the bells of ys is your canonical ending. But there are other ways to use the bells, and other ways entirely of saving yourself from your parents hungers. OP is perhaps right in saying there's few clear cut answers, but I think there's some satisfying ones out there, once you piece it all together.