Cult of the Lamb on the Nintendo Switch

Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland worshippers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.

I don’t remember exactly when I became aware of this game, I want to say that it was in some Nintendo event where they announced a couple of indie games. What I do remember was being drawn to the game’s visuals, the art style, and obviously the gameplay. It looked both somewhat-creepy and adorable. I mean, you are a lamb, an innocent cute little lamb, and you lead an evil cult. So, I put its release date on my calendar and even pre-ordered a physical copy of it, that is supposed to arrive sometime in Q2 of 2023.

Now that is finally here, the gameplay is one part sim and one part action-roguelike, imagine if Hades and Stardew Valley had a baby. The premise of this game is you are being sacrificed by some cult by the Old Ones because a prophecy said that a lamb will be the vessel by which The One Who Waits will return. Obviously, you do get sacrificed and then return to life by The One Who Waits, for you to raise a cult in his name and to destroy the 4 Old Ones in order to break free, just like the prophecy says.

Again, the gameplay is divided between you taking care of your duties, tending to your followers and your efforts to fight your way through the forests of heretics, the rouge like part, and hunt down them Old Ones. Here is like your typical rouge like game, where you enter a dungeon, you pick a weapon, and you fight your way through different rooms. In some rooms, you will encounter some cult member that you can convert and at the end of the run, there will be a boss. These dungeons aren’t super-long, they might take about 10-15 mins to complete. Then you return to your commune with the spoils of your adventure!

In your Cult’s Commune is where you do your sim part of the game. Part of tending to your followers is to listen to them and resolve their issues, you farm, you harvest, you build things. You give sermons and teach doctrines, you can assign jobs and responsibilities to each of your cult members. You also need to do anything and everything to keep their faith from dropping, or they will turn on you. At this point, you can teach them again, throwing them into prison or my favorite, sacrifice them.

You do a zillion things, I won’t list because there’ll be too much, or I probably haven’t even got to do them.

This is definitely a completely unique rougelike kind of game, and I will say, half of it, to me, can be stressful. The action, rougelike part of the game isn’t that hard, granted, I’m playing on easy, and it is where I get a lot of fun out of. The sim aspect of it, well, that is the stressful part, for me. I always worried that I will not attend to every request, that my followers aren’t happy, that I am not building the necessary things, etc.

If you very much enjoy games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing, you will love this aspect of the game. I do own both Stardew and Animal Crossing, and I had never been able to get into them, I lose interest quickly.

This is a beautiful, cute-looking game, and it is a lot of fun, except for the sim part, for me, but it is definitely with checking out.

To me, this is a personal, not humble opinion, Spotify is the equivalent of Facebook, in the streaming services universe in some ways.

I don’t like it, I despise it, I hate the way the app looks, and I would rather not use it. However, recently I have been using it and paying for it. Yes, I feel gross, a little. The reason I have been using it, I blame nostalgia. Regrettably, on Spotify, there is a large library of old Reggaeton music that I loved listening to it back in the day. Most of this content is not available on Apple Music, which is my streaming service of choice. Some of it eventually make it to Apple Music, but it is rare and hard to find and Apple doesn’t do a good job at “finding” and suggesting these like Spotify does.

And I get it, I heard them [Artists and Producers] talking on different podcast shows about the fact that Spotify pays more for streaming than Apple Music does, or so they say. Thus, it makes more sense for them to have their music streaming on Spotify over Apple Music. That and most of the hardcore fans, from Puerto Rico, already use Spotify over Apple music, so…

I don’t like it but, I want my old-school reggaeton beats, again, for nostalgia.

How much do you edit yourself and why?

I mean, I guess if you write for a living or something related, editing might be paramount. But what about, personal blogs? Is that important? Is it required? 

I feel like I edit myself a lot. In fact, I think some parts of the "editing" used to hold me from writing and publishing things on the internet, where other people can read them. Same reason as always, English not being my first language. 

Well,  why you didn't write in Español then? (Español means Spanish)

 Well, to be honest, I guess I never considered, writing and publishing in my first language. Perhaps it is the fact that I had already been living here in the US for long enough and most of the people and blogs I used to read were in English and thought I would do the same, I think. I gotta think more about that.

Back on topic!

The only reason I dared start to publish things was, first, the use of word editing AI software like Grammarly.  And still, have a friend read through it and make changes. Changes, that oftentimes, made my post not sound like me, if that makes any sense.

With time I have become comfortable enough to not have anyone else read-check my writing but still use some kind of software to check my grammar and such. Like I am doing right now. And I have become so accustomed to that, to the point, if whatever text editor I am using, doesn't have a revision mode or a type of check, I won't use it. that is probably the main reason I use Ulysses all the time, or a web browser because it has Grammarly.

Many times, I don't want to care much, just enough to make sure I am conveying what it's in my mind and not worry so much about the editing part. But then I start thinking about punctuation, grammar, and all that!

It sometimes causes friction. Sometimes I just want to type away and be done and stress less about formalities.

I have found a new favorite Pod radio show:

The Friends With Beer Podcast

Two friends, two beers, one podcast, many topics.

It is light and fun, makes me want to crack up a beer too, so I feel like I’m in the same room. That being, said, I should not listen to this show at work. Apparently, drinking on the job is frowned upon.

Today, Marley, was riding her scooter, as she does. I come into the house to grab my car keys and wallet because I was going out to the car wash. I heard Marley crying, and see Annie rushing to Marley’s. She had fallen and hit her knee, nothing super-serious, a superficial scratch, but it will definitely bruise.

Marley being marley, it is a huge deal, and very dramatic. We sat her on the couch, she’s freaking out, we spayed her scratch with antiseptic, and put on some ice. Marley is still being dramatic, crying, “it hurts, it hurts!”

Once the situation has been somewhat handled, I say, “well, I’m leaving”.

Marley: Wait, where are you going?

Me: to wash the car

Marley: to the car wash?

Me: Yes…

Marley: I WANT TO GO!

Me, Can you walk?

Marley: I can try…

Next thing you know, a miracle! She’s walking and jumping! Clearly , it wasn’t that bad

I am pretty sure I am not alone on this one, but every once in a while, I do get the itch to try other blogging platforms. Even though I am always, and irrevocably, end up back at the same place. The one platform that always calls my attention is Ghost. I have self-hosted it, hated it, I have done their Pro plan, and loved it. But again, always back and our beloved it Micro.Blog. 

This week, I got the Ghost-itch. "Let us just do the trial", I said, thinking that would scratch the itch. Well, this time around, in the few attempts on setting it up, my card has been declined, which is a little odd, is the same one I have always used before. The only things I can think of are, either my bank, which is actually a credit union, it's been a little stingy since  Ghost it's a "foreign"  company or I have been blacklisted by Ghost 😂. 

Either way, I am taking this as a sign and slowly walking away. 

It has been a strange week this one. Mostly because I haven’t been sleeping well. I mean, previously I hadn’t been sleeping but it was more because my mind was always racing, or too much stress. This week, however, it’s been because; I honestly don’t know. I feel exhausted. Last night’s workout was mediocre at best. Not because of lack of motivation but lack of energy. Also, I showed up without a clear plan of what I wanted to do, so I was just aimlessly winging it, al-garete as we would say back home.

Two things, one, I need to rest and get some sleep. And two, I gotta be better at planning my workout routines. The latter should be easy, I have the resources. In fact, I pay for a Patreon membership, 5.00 USD/month to a guy that posts kettlebell workouts, I have just been too lazy to sit down and watch his workout routines and put something together for myself, based on that. And honestly, 5.00 USD a month for basically a workout program is a steal.

Perhaps I gotta start planning my weeks better from now on, no more al-garete

Me: Hey Siri! When is the next full moon?

HomePod Siri: I’ve found some web results. I can show if you want from your iPhone.

Me: Alexa! When is the next full moon?

Alexa: Last full moon was last Saturday September 10th at 3:59pm the next will be in October 9th at 2:55pm.

But no, Siri has gotten better.

This morning on our commute to grandma’s house, we had a nice spectacle. In our route, we are basically coming downhill a bit, and it is a long stretch, a few miles before we have to turn left and lose sight of what was happening, having a clear view of the sky.

It was a lightning show, somewhere north of us, there was a thunderstorm and although it wasn’t raining in our area, we could clearly see the lightning. Marley and I, were excited about it, and every time a bolt of lightning would show up in the stormy sky, we would go “Did you see that one!!?” Luna, on the other hand, was not impressed, whatsoever.

Having been living in Puerto Rico, I am very sad we don’t get that many thunderstorms here, they are rare, so I’ll take what I can get and be wowed by it.

Hope they don’t cause any Wildfires, though. 🤞🏼

I have read somewhere that dreams are usually your brain putting together and “reliving” events from the previous day, or something like that. That, to me, checks out, or at least more so recently.

I know I dreamed about a sweet dog that was following me and we were playing. That piece of the dream, I can explain. I had been listening to a book on tape by Stephen King before bed and yeah, there is a dog in this story.

What I cannot figure out is, why for most of my dream I was being chased by a Predator, and everyone was getting killed left and right. I remember waking up a few times trying to shake off the dream but I was always back at running away from this alien hunter creature.

Even Arnold was in it, “GET TOTHE CHOPPA!!!!”

just testing, this is a previous post

I’m in a “strange” mood today…

Allow me to explain.

Normally, especially on Sundays, my motivation to do anything is next to nothing. Whatever needs to get done around the house or yard, I’d do the bare minimum. Everything is a drag.

Today, so far, it’s a little different. I felt, feel, motivated. I prepared breakfast for Luna and I, coffee, and head outside for some yard work. Today I went above and beyond of what would normally be. I put on more effort into it and tackled things that had been bothering me around the front yard. I took the time to fertilize the threes and grass, which does need some work. These high temperatures have been rough on the yard.

Normally, I dread laundry, folding clothes and putting them away. Today, I didn’t mind it at all, I just, did it.

I’m excited for dinner tonight, I am preparing a flank steak. I was actually creative and intentional about seasoning and letting it marinate for the next few hours, rather than just preparing it last minute and throwing it in the air fryer or something.

I’m not sure if it’s just a spur of the moment or something else, perhaps my new meds are stating to kick in?

So, what I call strange, is probably my normal self that I haven’t felt or seen in a while…

I have this urging feeling of changing things around, shaking things up, as they say. It always starts with my blogging settings. No, I am not opening another Ghost account, but will most likely play around with a theme, change menus, and other things. Perhaps other systems and tools I use may change. definitely, there are personal things that need revisiting... I am a messy work in progress.

Also, and super-unrelated.

Do you read every item in your RSS feed? Or, just like me, do you triage and keep what you might truly read later, or just read it and move on?

I found myself scanning and just skipping until I find something I know I would like to read. Then I read it right there and then rather than "saving it for later".

I don't know, just a thought.

Although I have had many thoughts recently and I am having a hard time sorting them out. Something is not entirely right up in here (points to the head). At least I know is not a lack of serotonin, according to my crazy-doc...

😝😝