Recent reviews by somebodybond

If you've played Cultist Sim, Fallen London, or the like, you will probably enjoy this game. Book of Hours is a lot like Cultist Sim, but slower-paced and (at least in some ways) more complex. If you buy in the week of release (until August 24 or 25), you get all future DLC for free, and if you're familiar with Cultist Sim, that is likely to be a very good deal if this is your sort of game!

As expected for a game just released, there are some bugs ranging from minor to major, as well as UI issues that need improving, but that work is happening; multiple updates have been released already with more clearly in the works. The dev is active in the discussion section here on Steam and also responsive via email.

The game is intentionally somewhat opaque - you may need a bit of help to get going, but there are already guides up on Steam to help with that. In general, be sure to click the card slots and see what can go there, and be ready to take copious notes (far more than Cultist Sim).

It's probably not for everyone, but I really enjoy this game, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here!

This is a gorgeous, cozy, and addictive game. Roguelike city-builder is such an interesting concept, and it is very well executed. This review is written shortly after the game came to Steam in Early Access, but it's basically a full game already; they're taking some time to add some features, but it's worth the money already. Highly recommend this one!

Was an excellent game! Until they released a borked launcher update. Now I can't play at all. :(

A lovely piece of nostalgia, held back somewhat by a lack of customization options & unfinished storyline. Still strongly recommend it for any fan of the JRPG genre, especially the old-school turn-based games.

I absolutely love MARDEK, going so far as to finagle a downloaded copy of the chapters played via a flash container long before the steam version was released. The first chapter was originally released back in 2007, so it’s definitely somewhat dated, and the flash format adds some constraints, but don’t let that discourage you from playing an excellent game.

The good:
+ A few dozen hours (I'm really bad at time estimates so I won't get more specific than that) of gameplay
+ Strong cast of playable characters, each with their own weapons & skills - two in ch 1, five in ch 2, 11 (or 15, or 16, depending how you count!) in ch 3
+ Awesome, hilarious, quirky dialogue throughout, especially from the minor NPCs
+ Excellent music throughout, available as a separate DLC for your listening pleasure (with sheet music for selected tracks, even!)
+ Nice system for switching party members & managing inventory at save crystals
+ walkthrough included in the game download, though it doesn't cover all the optional bosses & tasks
+ various balance changes made from the web version, with a list included in the game download. Mostly changes to make learning some skills (especially passives) less grindy & improved droprates for some useful items only dropped by enemies with a fixed quantity of encounters (like 1 or 2)

The neutral:
* "use it till you learn it" skill acquisition method is cool, but gets very grindy if you want to max everything out, especially passives which only get one point per battle
* some grinding is quite necessary, mostly filling the chalices in ch 3. (be sure to do that before getting the plot item the elemental crystal from each temple or it's going to take much, much longer!)
* mostly keyboard controls, but inventory/shop screens use the mouse

The bad:
- Only three of the planned eight chapters were developed, so the storyline is incomplete. This is well-signaled if you read the game description or reviews; they aren’t trying to pull one over on you. But please do be aware that the game won’t be finished in this form, though the dev may put out a sort of modern re-envisioning of the game at some point. There is a set of notes included in the DLC that gives a broad outline of where the story was planned to go.
- The Steam port is essentially just a flash file packaged in an .exe, which causes some minor to moderate issues:
- performance issues on higher qualities even with a good computer; the game lags when casting spells with heavy particle effects
- volume is simply on/off for sound effects & music, no sliders, and the sound effects in particular can be disproportionately loud vs the music
- no custom keybinds (just a toggle for QWERTZ keyboards) or built-in controller support (though you can bind controller buttons to keyboard buttons to make it work, using Steam's controller config or another third-party program)
- only three resolutions to choose from: 720 x 528, 1080 x 792, 1440 x 1056, with a windowed option
- Have to manually navigate to the game folder to launch the walkthrough if you want to view it while the game is running, since Steam won’t launch the launcher again with the game already running.
- Full-screen version does not take especially well to alt-tabbing while the game is running; you have to click back into the game’s flash window in order to interact with the game/register your key presses, and even then the first (non-arrow) keypress doesn’t always count, which can make for missed reactions in battle or a failed chance to skip an encounter if you aren’t paying attention.

All in all, despite the flaws, it’s still a great experience and absolutely worth the money.

Pretty straightforward typing game. A touch grindy with all the things you can buy (in-game, not IRL money), but overall a solid game; you get what it says on the tin. I like.

I'm maybe a third of the way through the game's story, at a guess, and I'm absolutely loving it. I was a little leery from readying some of the negative reviews, but the main issues seem to have been fixed (mostly not being able to remove workstations after placing them; that's easy enough now). The setting is delightful, the characters are entertaining, and the gameplay is lovely. Really enjoying it & highly recommend this new take on the Stardew Valley-ish genre!

Fun management game; quite a nice soundtrack, too.