Cult of the Lamb

0:17 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Other Castle. The Other Castle, I'm Andrea. And my name is Tom. And we do the plot, lore, and more behind all your favorite video games. That's the story of its inception, to its development, all the way to publish, and then we tell you exactly what happens in the game, so you get a crash course on all the best video games out there. Yes, we do, and if this is your first time joining us, you can check out our website, theothercastlepodcast.com. That's the othercastlepodcast.com. Over there, you can check out our Patreon, we can check out our Discord, we have a newsletter you can sign up for, all sorts of fun things. You can just listen to the episodes there as well. Yeah, and you know what? I'm actually doing this week's game because it got called out in the Discord, and I was like, hell yeah, I have played that.

0:57 That's fun as shit, let's do it. So if you also have suggestions for games you want to see us cover, hear us cover, I suppose, pop in the Discord. We can totally bully Tom into doing shit for us now. Yeah, but not get a tramp stamp. Oh, I've been trying really hard to get the Discord to rally around Tom getting a tramp stamp. It's not going well. Because it's not gonna happen. But we did get him to do Five Nights at Freddy's. That's true. We got him to do a couple of different games that he wasn't emotionally ready for, but we'll get there. You do have a tattoo for the show. I do, yeah. You have a little goomba. I've got a goomba. On your wrist, which is like, that's on the bloodline. Oh yeah. That's an important piece. I got a little boo the same day from Mario, because I guess I'm not as committed, which is funny because I'm a little more tattoo covered than you are.

1:43 Yeah, you are heavily tattooed. I don't really think I am anymore. I don't have my face or my, I have a little bit of my face. I don't have my neck or the top. No, I do have my hands. Fuck. No, I'm pretty heavily tattooed. Yeah, you are. You're right. It never feels like it. I've gotten to the point where I see my tattoos in my dreams, which didn't happen for the first few years. Oh really? Because I had my first full sleeve by like 19 or so. So like looking down for a couple of years, I would have a sensation of looking at my skin and not seeing anything there. But after a couple of years, I started being like, no, that's there for real. And it's not going anywhere. So now in my dreams, I see my tattoos, which is kind of a trip to notice that your mental perception of your body changes.

2:25 But that's not what we're here to talk about today. Well, that's when you know that they're truly a part of you. Yeah, then it's like real. Yeah. Because the immediate permanence of a tattoo does not sink in for a while, which is kind of funny. But today, we are talking about Cult of the Lamb. Goodness, you have been playing this for a minute now. Yeah, I wanted a cozy switch game to play while you were hogging the TV on the PS5. Yep, and then I found Dave the Diver. So then we switched, which was great. But no, for probably a couple months straight, I would just pick up Cult of the Lamb as my cozy game, run through it, and it was wonderful. I went through a couple different cozy games. I still haven't played an Animal Crossing, but like I get it.

3:08 Yeah, I haven't either. And I'm like not into like Farmville, those kind of games at all. Yeah, I mean, despite what you were talking about last week. Right. I guess with Dave the Diver, you were like, I do not care for the farming pit. Everything else is fucking awesome. But I went through a couple different cozy games, and I landed on Cult of the Lamb being like my gem, my heart, my shining fucking star, because this is so weird. And I still get to kill things in the cozy game, which I think satisfies a part of my brain that is broken, and that's okay. You know what? Things exist for a reason. Andrea fell for the one with the cult? No way. I do love cult. There was a time in my life where I really wanted to be a cult deprogrammer, but I am in no way, shape or form qualified for anything relating to that even.

3:55 I couldn't be their fucking desk manager to be real. So I will just admire from afar and appreciate the mentality of cults. They fascinate me. I don't know what it is, but it changed my brain chemistry and I'm fucking into it. So Cult of the Lamb is a trails like game. Thank you. Or a rogue life from the developer, Massive Monster. Massive Monster is an indie developer rooted in Australia, like our friends House House, who came up with Untitled Goose Game. Oh, the goose game. Another very seemingly cute game about a small animal wreaking havoc in the world. What's going on in Australia? Animals are constantly wreaking havoc in Australia.

4:35 Are you kidding me? That's true. That's fair. They're really pulling from the one hat here. We talked about a fish who eats birds last week. We did. That's horrifying. Have you seen that video of the kangaroo that punches a grown man? Yeah. It's horrifying. I love it. Like I know there's the trope of the kangaroo with the boxing gloves. Yeah, they're out here fucking like mollywopping bitches. Mollywopping. You can really get jumped by a kangaroo, which I appreciate the irony of that statement. It's fucking terrifying. I'm gonna stay, what's the opposite of down under? Up here. I'm gonna stay the fuck up here. You know why? My door is locked. Spiders aren't bigger than my hands. I'm happy about that.

5:16 Call you Andrea Topside. Don't do that. Massive Monster was established in January of 2016, and they self-describe as being born from the ashes of flash games. Well, flash games didn't officially die until the end of 2020, like a lot of things died. Oh my God. This is gonna be a dark episode. Buckle the fuck up. The writing was on the wall for many video game creators to pivot from flash games to a different structure. In April 2018, Massive Monster released The Adventure Pals, a quirky platformer with very cute graphics, and it came out and has been released across Steam and consoles. That immediately made me think of Happy Tree Friends.

5:57 Oh no, yeah, that's fair. You're gonna want to sit in that mental space. That game got nominated in some indie and art-based categories for some awards, but was largely considered a cute indie title built on the Unity Engine. Good for you, move on. The next year, in August of 2019, Massive Monster released Never Give Up, also using the Unity Engine. I'm getting the feeling that the Unity Engine's gonna come up a little bit in this story. Look at you, picking up the clues on breadcrumbing you. Anyway, Never Give Up was another quirky platformer with fun graphics, albeit a little more grueling than its previous, and was largely remembered as an indie darling with lineage in the aforementioned Flash games.

6:41 Very like, oh, okay, I get it. Then the team got weird with it. That's why I come in. Now, per Jay Armstrong, who's Massive Monster's co-founder and current director of game design, the art team got really inspired by horror games, especially these unassuming horror games. They started breaking out of the platforming bubble while still using the Unity engine, which they'd spent years working out. So they're like, okay, we're familiar with the structure. Let's get fucking weird with it. So when you say unassuming horror, what kind of games are you talking about? I'm thinking a FNAF. I'm thinking a Tattletale. I'm thinking, this shouldn't be scary. Why am I scared? Bendy and the Ink Machine.

7:21 A Bendy, yeah, where you're like, oh, the animation's sick. And then you're like, I'm trapped forever. Armstrong said that they started with a prototype that smushed together the two genres of dungeon crawling and a colony simulator with some base building. They tried a number of different situational combinations that never really landed until they settled on the theme of a cult. After the team realized that the game had to be based around a cult, the creative completely took off. The structure of the game fully came together. As J. Armstrong describes it, you need to take care of your followers and build up the cult. You do this by going out, dungeon crawling and returning with loot.

8:03 The followers will in turn unlock new weapons and abilities for you, so you can travel farther when you're out dungeon crawling. Additionally, roguelikes have a great way of creating a different story for you each time you play, so it turned out to be a great fit. Outside of the roguelike elements, the game balances so many resource management elements as you build your cult up. These colony building simulators are a popular cozy game genre. We're thinking like animal crossing, stuff like that, but they rarely step into violence. Oh. Let alone dungeon crawling and developing your own religion. So when you say violence, how violent?

8:45 Bitch, there's just straight up murder. Oh wow, okay. I don't know how to be more explicit about violence than taking a life. I guess if there's a cult, there's probably gonna be some sacrifices. You know, you are so ready for this game. While the lack of historical resources and references could occasionally be frustrating for the team, they were able to move fast and develop the best possible user experience through trial and error. They were a team of five people that swelled to six people, and all hands were on deck to make a good game. All six of them. All of them, all 12 hands. The game's development kicked off during the pandemic, and their team was able to work remotely to get the project moving.

9:29 They got so much done from home that the game title actually earned funding from VicScreen, an Australian media investing group in 2020. They only got about $40,000, but you know what? Every dollar counts when you're on an indie team. Damn right. While the VicScreen announcement had a very soft launch notice of Cult of the Lamb being in development, the game was officially announced at Gamescom in 2021 with a two-minute trailer, the one that I made you watch that made us both more confused. It tells you less than like any trailer I've ever seen. It's so, the South Park trailer for the games show footage that's not in the games at all and was somehow more akin to what the game is than the trailer for fucking Cult of the Lamb.

10:15 The world was curious and compelled by the two-minute look at this morbid but marvelous rogue-like cult leader Sim, which is an insane thing to say. You had a trouble saying it. Game Informer called the trailer equal parts fluffy and freaky and visually arresting. IGN called it as adorable as it is on Settling, which people have said about me as well. True. The list goes on, but the comparisons remained. This was cute as hell, but scary as hell. Okay, let's go. On August 11th, 2022, nearly a year to the date of the announcement, Cult of the Lamb came out across consoles and PC, and people generally liked it.

10:56 Hot on the heels of everyone's pandemic hyperfixation, Animal Crossing, PC Gamer said the game was like, if Tom Nook craved power and not money. Hell yeah. That's horrifying to think about. Don't cheers that. The game largely got eight or nines out of 10 across the board, which basically just loved the art and the atmosphere being like, holy shit, this is such a cool world to live in. Within its first week of release, the game moved over 1 million units. Hell yeah. For an indie title from Australia, they are really hot on the heels of Goose Game, you know. I love it. So the cult game is a cult hit. Absolutely. Go figure. Cult of the Lamb won the 2022 Golden Joystick Award for Best Indie Game and was nominated for the same at the Game Awards, but lost to Stray, which if you're gonna lose to something cute and cuddly, it might as well be Stray.

11:51 The stateside recognition was well-deserved, but what meant more were the awards won locally for the team. Jay Armstrong and a big chunk of massive monster are Australians, so the Australian Game Awards were their big show. At the 2022 Australian Game Awards, Cult of the Lamb was nominated for excellence in music, excellence in art, excellence in gameplay, and game of the year. And Cult of the Lamb took home every single Australian Game Award that they were nominated for. Ugh. Home court advantage, but still. That's fucking great. I am so happy for them. Massive Monsters creative director and co-founder Julian Wilton celebrated their local success, saying, After experiencing our success overseas, it was an amazing feeling to see our game really resonate with Australians as well.

12:41 It always feels good to be acknowledged where you are. Yeah, absolutely. Massive Monster was fully indie, broke out of what they were used to, and refused to compromise to get their game done. And that energy will continue past the initial release. In September of 2023, the team behind the Unity Engine announced a new pay structure for any games built on their engine. Essentially, they charge a licensing fee based on how much revenue the games make over a certain threshold. This new proposed pay structure would charge developers based on how many times the game was downloaded, not how much money the game would net. Ugh. This has the potential to genuinely bankrupt developers.

13:23 It is such a fucked up system they tried to introduce. Right? Like, having a pay structure for your free-to-use engine is not uncommon. Absolutely. Unreal does the same thing. But this little structure they were putting together was going to be such a backward-ass fucking thing, because, like, yeah, a customer can purchase the game once, and then it's every time they download it after they purchase it. So like, you can bankrupt a company by downloading it a million times. Yeah, you could get a legion of fans to completely bankrupt entire studios overnight. It's obscene. Upon hearing this, Massive Monster decided to show the world that they're more than just lambs. They tweeted, download Cult of the Lamb because we're deleting it on January 1st.

14:07 Kissy face emoji. Oh, the bald on them. The cuntiness. Oh, I'm obsessed. I was proud to be a fan. I was like, fuck yeah, these are my people. I was livid for them and loved that they were like, well, fuck you, we're Australians, we don't give a fuck. Okay, okay, so both Massive Monster and Unity walked both of their statements back. Massive Monster came back and said, it's a joke, we're being cheeky, no one's deleting the game. And Unity said, oh shit, I didn't think anyone would care if we got this greedy and reset their pay structure plans. Yeah. While Cult of the Lamb never got slated to be deleted, it did end up going viral for these tweets.

14:48 Amongst the largest coverage of the ongoing Unity engine story was how the teams behind Among Us at Innersloth and how Massive Monster reacted. These powerful indie devs spoke their minds and contributed to the wave that basically bitch slapped Unity into oblivion and embarrassment and stood up for other indie developers who weren't big enough to be heard and protected those who just want to put out cool games without being gouged on feats. Oh, Innersloth handled that so fucking well, too. They were like, fuck you, Unity. Also, here's our next DLC. They fully did a two-hander of like, one hand says the middle finger and the other one was, offering more game. And it's so great because you didn't really see like, a Santa Monica studio is like, I mean, a lot of bigger studios actually use Unreal versus Unity.

15:33 Unity seems to be at more of this mid to indie level developer. But having these big voices in the conversation helped sway the fucking conversation. If they didn't say anything, this might not have gotten the coverage that it deserved, and they might not have changed their shit. There's a lot of things I love more, but I do really enjoy seeing when the public can bully a company out of a terrible fucking decision. Are you thinking about the Sonic movie? I wasn't even thinking about the Sonic movie. No, I was thinking more Watsi. Oh, I'm just always thinking about the Sonic movie. With Wizards of the Coast and what happened with Magic the Gathering, what they were trying to do, that whole bullshit they were doing with the licensing.

16:14 Yeah, the community completely bullied them out of that decision. They said, fuck you then, and they went, oh, no, our fan base, fuck. Anyway, Cult of the Lamb is probably the coolest game in the entire massive monster catalog, and they continue to add to the world and lore to keep old fans and new players entertained as long as possible. In April of 2023, additional content was made available called Relics of the Old Faith, and in August of 2023, a crossover was also launched with Canada's indie game darling, Don't Starve. Oh, wow. This is just wild that both the cozy games that we've covered just in the last two weeks have these crazy crossovers with other games entirely.

16:56 Yeah, I mean, Dave the Diver has one leg up going into the Godzilla licensed territory in addition to Dredge. Yeah, I was gonna say. Cult of the Lamb's not doing a Cult of the Silence of the Lamb crossover. As good as that would fucking be. Oh, my God, but no, it's interesting that the indie devs tend to work very well together. I really like the camaraderie that comes out of these. We're fucking doing it ourselves. It's so like there's something really punk rock about it. It's very like, oh, I see you over there. In November of 2023, Massive Monster put out a challenge to its Twitter followers that if they could hit 300,000 followers, they'd add fucking to the game. In the first two days, the account racked up over 100,000 new followers, and they were like, honestly?

17:44 That was impressive. We got you. We're going to do it anyway. It'll come in a free update and an option for some paid cosmetic upgrades if you're nasty. The Sins of the Flesh update came out on January 16th, 2024, which indeed add fucking. Oh my god. What is this fucking game? It's just like about a lamb. The Sins of the Flesh update also added additional violence, but people don't really get down on that one as much because like, if there's gonna be fucking, you're gonna be fucking. And that leads us to today. Fill your Bioshock glasses up with Flavorade because we're gonna go join a cult. Oh goodness.

18:25 This is Cult of the Lamb. The game opens with red text on a black screen. Praise the lamb, conduit to great power, promised liberator of the one who waits below. Yet sacrificial beast, take heed for a crown cannot sit upon two brows. We see a dark dungeon lit up red by the tortures in the corners of the room. The art is gentle and soft while the atmosphere is cold and harsh. In the middle is a soft looking lamb. It has big anime eyes filled with tears. In the shadows of the dungeon are cultists, draped in red pointy robes holding daggers.

19:08 They follow the lamb as the lamb goes on to the next area of the dungeon. In the next room, there is a pentagram surrounded by even more red hooded cultists. The cultists are in a circle and are also surrounded by lit candles. Outside of the dungeon's platform floating above the land and the cultists and the ritual are four figures that are massive. These are the four bishops of the Old Faith, the rulers of the worlds here. The Old Gods. They're literally the Old Gods. The Lamb enters the room and walks to the center of the pentagram at the feet of the bishops of the Old Faith. The bishops see the Lamb and take turns adding to the last moments of this Lamb's life.

19:51 Before us stands the last of its kind, all others we have hunted down and put to the blade. With this sacrifice, the prophecy will be impossible to fulfill. The heretic who lies bound below will be condemned to eternal captivity, and the Old Faith shall be preserved. The Lamb falls to their knees and cries as a large masked executioner walks to them. With a swing of an axe, the Lamb is now in a different realm. Instead of the dark, flamelit dungeon, the Lamb is in a soft white landscape on a floating platform. The Lamb sees chains between past the floor, up, and through the ceiling of wherever we are.

20:33 The Lamb walks towards a giant figure who is draped in chains and guarded by two others. The one in chains we see here is the one who waits. It stretches and screams in captivity, but then looks down to see the Lamb. He says, Come closer, fear not, for thou you are already dead, I still have need of you. Those foolish bishops thought they could keep you from me in death, but instead they sent you straight to me. I will give you life again, but at a price. All I ask of you is that you start a cult in my name. Do we have a deal?

21:13 The lamb has two options, yes or absolutely. A small hat that sat on the one who waits head lifts. The hat is black and pointy, and has a red eye insignia in the middle. It floats down to the lamb's head, and the lamb's eyes glow red. The lamb wakes up where their body was left, in the middle of the dungeon, surrounded by cultists and candles. The lamb's eyes glow red, and it produces a sword. We get into the hack and slash battle elements, as the lamb takes revenge on the cultists who just killed them.

21:57 The lamb splashes blood throughout the dungeon, and comes upon another small being named Rattow. Kind of like a little rat dude. Rattow is missing an eye, and has a little paper hat, fashioned to look kind of like the lamb's hat. Rattow says, they were once a chosen vessel, just like the lamb. Rattow was sent to the lamb as a guide through the lands of the old faith. Rattow's like, all right, I'll see you soon, and then just fucking leaves. The lamb slays through dungeons and runs back into Rattow. Rattow's like, oh, shit, look over there. In this dungeon, we see another small being tied up about to be sacrificed by cultists, just like you were.

22:38 But look, they're about to get fucked up. If the lamb saves them, we could probably get them to join the cult as a thank you. Hint, hint. The lamb does defeat the cultists and goes up to the small being. After narrowly escaping death, they are terrified. The lamb goes to rescue them, and as they do, their eyes glow red. The little guy is being lifted into the air, levitates for a moment, and then is sucked down into a portal and is just fucking gone. Oh my god, was that really rescuing them? Yeah, we're gonna get there. Okay. In the next dungeon, the lamb sees Rattow again, who's like, hey, you did it. Your crown is the key to transporting around, and is really just the key to all your magical shit and your powers and your whole cult being.

23:22 Like, it's your good shit. From here, you can take this to a ruined temple and we can take over. I'll see you there. Sounds good. I died this morning. Yeah. The lamb jumps into a pentagram on the ground and is transported to their new cult home base. Rattow is at the entrance and he welcomes the lamb to the land. He tells the lamb this whole area used to be his and is now the lamb's. He knows that there's a lot to running a cult, so he takes the lamb to get the first follower indoctrinated. Down the way, there's a portal made of stone. We see our new follower found in the dungeon appear out of the portal. They look horrified at whatever mid-space transitionary dimension they were just held in.

24:06 As the lamb indoctrinates a follower and as the player, you can change their name and their look. If you're interested in customizing the followers, you can make them all blue. You can change what kind of creature they look like. You can change their name, all kinds of shit. Oh, like the Happy Happiest Cult from Earthbound. Kinda. All the cults are kind of the same, huh? The small beings all look cute and they're like animals or monsters. Some aren't just straight up deer and elephants and cute shit like that. There's some snails and cows, some are unicorns or like mythical creatures or made up monsters. It's a whole Noah's Ark. Yeah, it's wonderful and amazing and so cute. And if you really wanna get down, like you can make like a cute little army of followers. After the follower is indoctrinated, the lamb can get started making the follower work for them.

24:49 This can include farming, mining resources, cleaning, building, shit like that. The lamb can also help out with resource management and should because they're in charge of feeding the followers. Lamb unlocks recipes with different ingredients and I'm gonna let you know right now, you can fuck up the cooking and give your followers food poisoning. Give them dysentery. It fucking sucks every time and they look sad and sick and then they just start pooping everywhere. Yep, they get dysentery. Rattos like, oh shit, good job, lamb. You're getting set up. You just need to start forming some shrines. And he's like, oh, by the way, our mutual benefactor, the one who waits, has been trapped by the four bishops of the Old Faith.

25:30 Each of them guards a chain that binds him to the realm beyond. Now those four bishops, those are those big ass beings that we saw earlier that killed the lamb. The Old Gods. Exactly. Rattos conjured up some openings to their respective realms. It's the responsibility of the lamb to go to each realm and slay each of the bishops. That will free the one who waits, and that is what the lamb owes. Are you fucking Kratos? I mean like a little. Bore. That sounded like Arthur Morgan. That did. I can't do it. It's not in me. I don't think I can get that low. No, I don't think you can. Can you do it? Bore. No, you can't. All right. A simple no would have sufficed.

26:12 Rattos opens up the world and vanishes to leave the lamb to complete their prophecy. From here's the lamb, you balance a bizarre bastard child of Hades and Animal Crossing. On the south end of the screen, we have a massive field. This field is where the lamb brings the followers, gives them jobs, expand and cultivate the cult. As a cult leader, you'll want to keep your cult strong and engaged, or they'll revolt or leave. You can encourage your cult by doing sermons, rituals and regular maintenance to keep them happy like feeding them, letting them sleep, stuff like that. So you have to keep your cult happy on top of running a cult. Well, you don't want like an unruly cult.

26:53 Unless it's what you're going for. I mean. Thinking about Far Cry 5. Sometimes they're on drugs. It is what it is. Keep the cult's faith up and keep them dedicated, and they won't doubt your leadership. If they doubt you, they'll shit talk you, and they'll tell other members you suck, and soon enough, your cult will whittle away to no one. And you won't be able to progress in the goddamn game, so you have to keep them happy. Oh my God. I know, right? I created a series of mines on the west side to harvest materials and place a cemetery for sacrifices just south of the mines. I keep the jail for unloyal followers near the cemetery, so they'd be reminded of the inevitable next step if their behavior doesn't improve.

27:37 I like the idea of unloyal followers. I know, like you're still fucking here. And they're like, well, all my stuff's here. Toward the center is the farming and worship sector of town. To the east, the sleeping compounds and the toilets and the medical bay. The followers will just shit where they stand if there aren't appropriate bathroom facilities, so I prioritized that. What else are they gonna do? The latest update made it so sometimes they'll shit gold bricks or a rainbow fertilizer, which makes your crops go immediately, which is kind of fucking sick. In the deep south of my map is where my church is. That's where we have weddings, sacrifices, team meetings, that kind of thing.

28:18 Weddings, sacrifices, and team meetings. It's our conference room. That's where the big animal crossing of it all comes in. The farm simulator, the resource management, the balance of gossip across a dedicated cult of followers. It's a whole thing. Near my church is the mating tent. It's exactly what it sounds like. I'll bet that is one stinky fuck tent. You know what? It's aired out because we're outside. It's not like it's enclosed. It's kind of a flappy tent. I hate saying flappy in regards to fucking, but you know what? It's airing out. The fact that there's a communal fuck tent though, that's just, there's something wrong with that.

29:00 In Jennifer's body where she walks in and goes, it smells like Thai food. Have you guys been fucking? That's the energy you get. I was also thinking of Super Troopers and he opens the truck and he says, it stinks like sex in here. But it's just a tent. With a bunch of fucking snails and fucking elephants having an orgy and shit. They're like, we're doing it for our fake god. And you're like, oh god. That is the farming half that takes up the bottom half of the map. The top half of the map is an area with four portals to each of the bishop's homelands. Two portals are on the left, two are on the right, and in the center, there's a staircase to a portal we can't unlock until we get through all the four bishops.

29:40 That leads to the one who waits. There's also some shop areas where the lamb can buy seeds for farming or kidnap nomads to be indoctrinated as followers. The shopkeeper of the kidnapped nomads is a spider who keeps those nomads stuck to its web and tied up using its spider web. Let's get to the Hades part of the game though. The first portal is to Darkwood, which requires one follower to gain access to. When the lamb enters any portal, they'll immediately be able to select a weapon. Based on any powers available, any boosters, whatever, you might have access to more than one weapon or different boosters, stuff like that. It just varies on how you're playing and where you are in your stage of play.

30:24 Darkwood is a forest themed area with woodland ass creatures that attack the lamb. I can't say how any of the portal runs will go again because it's a Hades-like. Okay, so like the layout and the enemies that you're gonna face, they're gonna change every round you go. Yeah, and it'll be structured where maybe it's one round of enemies, a round of resources, two rounds of enemies, and then a boss, whatever. But basically all your runs start, you get through some crazy shit, and then you get to a boss battle at the end. Okay. Through your adventures, the lamb will also run into Clawneck. Clawneck is a big red tree that is a tarot card reader. He presents the lamb with some tarot cards that will provide temporary power-ups during that run in that world.

31:06 They're not huge, but it's enough. Sometimes it's a bonus heart in your health bar. Sometimes it gives enemies poison damage when they're hit, shit like that. Okay, yeah. When you select one, Clawneck says, you cannot argue with the draw. A majority of each portal run will be fighting in different rooms, but part of the crawl will always reward you. Like I mentioned, there's resources. So sometimes you'll get wood for building shit for the cult, or you can actually rescue nomads that are kind of sprinkled throughout that you can convert into followers. I'm starting to see the Hades connections you were talking about. The Hades of it all, yeah. The Lamb will typically be presented with three roads through the world and can select which rewards can be unlocked.

31:47 I almost always end up taking on a new follower. I love connecting with others. I'm a romantic. Also, you want more followers. Absolutely. Have you seen me on Instagram? It's at Bouncy Andrea. Deep in Darkwood, the Lamb will meet a fisherman. The fisherman is a green fish with a mustache. He's got a chill vibe and we really like him. He tells the lamb he's a fisherman and he invites the lamb to fish with him at another time. There's an area of the map that will open up in each world and there are ways to unlock more side quests and mini games. This NPC unlocks the fishing area, which makes sense because every single fucking game has fishing.

32:27 Every game has fishing. Every goddamn game has fishing. I said that to you and it broke your fucking brain and now we can't unsee it. Yep. The lamb is not concerned with side quests as they are indebted to the one who waits, so perhaps we'll go fishing another day when we're not indebted to an old god. At the end of Darkwood, the lamb meets Lushy. Lushy is the youngest bishop of the Old Faith. Lushy is a big fuzzy ball at the top of this like kind of wobbly cone body somewhere between a worm and a shrub. His followers reference him as the worm. He wears a green crown and has his eyes bandaged from his last encounter with the one who waits.

33:10 This is in reference to See No Evil. Lushy is impressed to see the lamb after watching the lamb come under the blade, because he was like, bro, I fucking killed you. Right. Then clocks the crown of the one who waits on the lamb's head. Lushy's like, damn, that's crazy, but whatever, fuck you. I'm smart, you're dumb. I'm big, you're little. I'm right, you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it. Fuck you, dick. One of Lushy's followers, Amdusius, volunteers their blood to Lushy and becomes this horned worm ready to fight. Worm? Worm. Once the lamb defeats Amdusius, they fold and immediately offer themselves as a member of the cult.

33:54 What a punk bitch. Right. That concludes the first run of Darkwood, but not the last. You'll need to run through each portal four times to get everything you need out of it and to defeat that bishop. Oh, okay. The second time you go through Darkwood, the lamb battles Lushy's follower, Valfar, and on the third time, the follower, Barbados. On the fourth Darkwood run, instead of meeting a follower, the lamb meets with Lushy themselves. Lushy is surrounded by cloaked followers in worship. Lushy looks at the lamb and says, he grows tired of you, little lamb. Time to put an end to this frivolous masquerade. Lushy goes full fucking worm and grows into this horrible green lump log of a creature and has a great boss battle.

34:41 Like a big caterpillar? Yeah, it's horrible though. He burrows and he pops up and spits acid and flops around, slamming all over to smash the lamb. As he is defeated, his head is split open to reveal all of his rotting innards and his body. Oh my God. The lamb goes to his decaying corpse and pulls the heart from the heretic as the keepsake from the battle. Is it still beating? Yeah, it's fucking, it's very Temple of Doom. As the lamb collects hearts from the heretic, it can unlock power-ups for the crown. With Lushy's still pulsing heart in your hands, the lamb goes to visit the one who waits in his shackles.

35:28 He looks down and says, Lushy fell before you like a grain of sand before a tidal wave. Oof. The lamb returns to the flock and the followers rejoice at the sight of the heart of the heretic. From here, the lamb can build a statue in honor of Lushy's defeat for your cult followers. And they're like, we fucking love when you kill the heretic's daddy. Honestly, if you're gonna be a cult leader, I'd follow if you're killing old gods. If you're out here swinging dicks so hard the worm falls at your feet, you might not be wrong. Yeah, you might not be a cult leader. You might actually be the head of a religion.

36:09 Well, as we know, he is wearing the hat, the magical crown from the One Who Waits. Now, like I mentioned, I'm gonna take a little lore moment. So earlier when we meet the lamb, they're like, this is the last lamb of its kind, and if we kill it, this destroys the prophecy. So a long time prior to the events of this game, the One Who Waits worked along the other bishops, and he craved power. He is the god of death, and he was like, I'm gonna kill fucking everyone, including all y'all motherfuckers, and they were like, four against one, bitch. So they got into this huge fight, and the One Who Waits landed these crazy, crazy fucking blows on every single bishop.

36:53 So every single bishop we meet will have a big bandaged area of their body or their being to represent where the One Who Waits hit them. Oh, okay, is that why the one was missing an eye? Exactly, yeah, they were able to capture the One Who Waits, put him in chains, put him in his crazy like hell plane, and they're like, perfect, he's gone. However, there was a prophecy that a lamb would come to defeat them all and release the One Who Waits. So they all are like, fuck all the lambs, and they go through killing every single lamb. However, because they had the One Who Waits in a hell dimension, he was able to like intercept and be like, yo, you sent me a lamb. I'm gonna resurrect this shit, give it my power, and it's gonna come up, and it's gonna fuck all your shit up.

37:34 Never even said it was a living lamb. Yeah, it's living now. It's got some kind of pulse. We got a health bar, bitch. Let's do this. Undead, maybe? Resurrected, yeah. Like a Jesus figure. Oh, yeah, if you wanna be literal about it. You wanna make a really clear line through the sand there. So the power behind this lamb is completing a prophecy. It is the last lamb known to the surface of this planet. We're gonna say earth, but there's not big ass worm gods. They're anthropomorphic animals. Yeah, exactly. So this is why this is so extra special. And that's why the one who waits is like, fuck yeah, kill them.

38:14 I fucking hate this shit. And his name's the one who waits. He's got patience. It's built into the name, babe. So with that in mind, it's probably time to do a sermon in the temple. The temple is big, and it's gorgeous, and it looks like a traditional pointy church. The followers may donate gold to you, so it's a good idea to swing by the temple daily to collect all offerings and tithes. The Lamb can do a sermon once per in-game day. And as this happens, all the cult followers gather into the temple and listen attentively. Sermons also raise the cult's overall faith in you, which keeps them from revolting.

38:55 While you have their attention, we might as well do some cult shit. Let's do a ritual. Hell yeah. Rituals are cult activity beats that have costs and cooldowns and become social events for the cult. Some are kind and fun, like bonfire rituals where the cult followers dance around the fire overnight and raise their faith as they worship you together. Cult by yaw, my lord. Some are not that. The Lamb begins the sacrifice of the flesh ritual, and all followers don cloaks and silently wait in the temple for your decision. The Lamb selects a follower to ascend. Let's just say it's Simon.

39:36 In exchange for their ascension, the Lamb receives some sort of boost or gold. Our follower Simon, sweet, elephant-faced Simon, enters the circle of the temple and takes their cloak off. The followers surround their brother Simon in a circle. Simon floats up in levitation, overwhelmed by the immediate power of the Lamb. And then a tentacle comes through the ground and grasps around the body of Simon. The fuck? The congregation sways as the tentacle drags Simon into the world beneath our own, as the Lamb receives the blessing and boosts from their sacrifice.

40:17 At the end of the ceremony, the followers take their cloaks down and celebrate Simon's sacrifice for the cult. They're also probably just happy they didn't get picked. Yeah, right? It's been a good day of worship, so let's get back to the bishops of the Old Faith and kill them. After Darkwood, the next area you can unlock is Anura. The minimum to unlock this area is seven followers. So you may need to run through Darkwood a couple more times or buy refugees from the spider. Buy refugees. Anura is very cute. It's a fall aesthetic area with orange and yellow tones and mushrooms everywhere. There are a lot of frog enemies and kind of generally charming battles.

41:00 It's giving complete cottage core. Anura is the land of Hecate, the sister of the bishops. The Old Faith bishops are two males, one female, and one non-binary bishop. Okay. Hecate wears the yellow crown and has bandages around her slit throat, making her the embodiment of Speak No Evil. Hecate is a red frog with four eyes, and her dialogue trembles to show that her slit throat does make her speech more difficult than her siblings. Oh my God, this is so fucked up. On your first run of Anura, you're met with Hecate's loyal follower, Gooseian. Gooseian is a green frog bastard who hops around with small frog lackeys who are also coming after the lamb.

41:45 Fuck me for thinking he was gonna be a goose. Gooseian. They went from cute to cruel, and it's very upsetting. Sometimes, between battles, the lamb will visit the one who waits. He may tell the lamb about how the bishops betrayed him, how they shackled him and left him to rot in this hell prison, that he's held by these four chains, each one bound by one of the bishops. As the lamb defeats the bishops, these chains will be broken and he will be released. The one who waits will guilt you and will remind you that you were dead and gone and that you were given life again through his grace and that you have to go kill the brothers and sisters.

42:27 Go, I'll wait here. Didn't ask for this. Right? On your second run of Anorah, the follower of Hecate named Illegos, who is a horrible bumpy owl, will attack you. He throws bees. Bees? Bees! Okay, so this is another Bioshop moment. There you go, fill it up with flavor aid. The third run of Anorah brings us the follower of Hecate named Zepar. He's a three-eyed frog, and he's missing a bunch of teeth, and I hate him. He brings in little frog minions to fight you, and it's not charming, even though it really should be. On our fourth run, the Lamb meets Hecate. Just like our fight with Lushy, Hecate is surrounded by hooded followers.

43:09 Hecate's four black eyes fill with yellow as energy is pulled from her followers, and she morphs into a large bow-legged frog. Hecate hops around and spits up bombs and brings up smaller frog minions to fight the Lamb. As the Lamb slays Hecate, Hecate splits at the jaw through her entire body, and the Lamb reaches in and collects her heart. With her heart in hand, the Lamb visits the one who waits. The one who waits says, I enjoyed watching you destroy Hecate. Her arrogance was always destined to be her undoing.

43:51 Your merciless crusade against the old faith warms my cold, unbeating heart. Unbeating? I mean, he's kinda dead. Yeah, I guess so. Back at the Cult, sometimes Cult followers will come to the Lamb for guidance or to ask for specific actions. Doing specific actions for Cult followers can build faith. I've had followers come up and ask if they can eat poop, so I feed them poop. Seriously? Yeah. Sometimes they say, I'd really love this specific flower. So you go out to a specific land and collect a certain flower. Yeah, but some of them want to eat poop. They do. They really fucking do. All right.

44:31 I guess they are animals. One of my followers asked that we do a mushroom ceremony. And you know what? I love doing mushrooms. I was gonna say, you probably signed up before they even got to the end of the sentence. That's a fucking lulie. Let's run it. The lamb calls the cult to attention in the temple, and we begin the brainwashing ritual. This one does require a minimum number of mushrooms, which can be grown in the farming fields, but it is worth it to invest in your cult. The followers don their hoods and form a circle. The lamb enters the circle and distributes mushrooms to all followers. As they ingest, the screen starts to shift around with rainbows and swirling.

45:12 The followers' eyes begin to spiral, and they sway together in pure bliss. They remove their hoods, high and happy, and begin their trip. The followers are high out of their fucking gourds for two straight days, with their faith locked at max level. And how many followers do you have around this time? You need at least seven to have gotten through Anorah. So let's say like nine. This is a big friend group doing drugs. This is my dream. This is all, am I a cult leader? Yeah. The cult frolics with the lamb, and come down after two days, when the haze of the high has worn off.

45:54 And the cult goes back to their day to day life, farming, worshiping, fucking, sleeping. As this happens, the lamb acknowledges their followers, and heads out to conquer the third bishop of the old faith, in the land of Anchor Deep. Anchor Deep requires the cult to have at least nine followers, and is a dreamy underwater inspired area. There's seaweed dancing on the edges of the platforms, and shells and algae swaying throughout, hooded followers and bubbling toxic jellyfish are all throughout the world. Anchor Deep is the land of Calamar, a large squid with bandages around his ears, a present from the one who waits.

46:39 His name's Calamar. It's a sign of hear no evil. He wears the blue crown, which is, you know, he's underwater, go figure. Yeah. He is a gorgeous turquoise color, and when the lamb first meets him, he says, he has sent many other vessels like you. One after the other, they all fail. You have gotten farther than most, granted. I shall enjoy watching your cult rot from the inside. A disease upon them. As Calamar says this, one of the cult's followers is brought to this plane of existence. They look scared, and then they throw up. This follower is now sick and will die in just a few days unless the lamb can help them.

47:26 Thankfully, to help a sick follower, the lamb just has to give them medical attention in the medical tent and allow them to rest and sleep it off. Okay, good. But this guy's a real fucking asshole for getting them sick. Yeah. In the first run, Calamar sends his follower Salaos after the lamb. Salaos is a jellyfish with spikes and shoots around the map after the lamb. It's not very jelly-like of him to have spikes. Weirdly agile, yeah. In the second run, the lamb encounters Heborium, a big spiky bastard who shoots fireballs underwater somehow. I like the spikes. In the third run, the lamb encounters Beelzebub, a horned jellyfish with three eyes and a pentagram woven between its horns.

48:12 More spikes. On the fourth run, as with the other bishops of the Old Faith, the lamb comes upon Calamar, deep in worship with his followers. A ring of followers and cloaked hoods surround him as Calamar is burdened with the lamb's confrontation. Now compared to your cult, how big is his? Oh, his is bigger at this point. Okay. I'll admit that. Like I do like to go off about my size, but yeah. He's been a cult leader for longer though. You know, there's more longevity. It's like banking. You want to trust something that's been around for a long time. You can get weary of these startup cults, you know. I get you. Give it a minute. Calamar looks at the lamb and says, insignificant creature, you will learn your place.

48:56 You do not understand lamb. Heed my warning and stay away. With that, Calamar's followers draw daggers and stab themselves as their souls are absorbed by Calamar. Oh my God. Their bodies lay where they once stood as Calamar gears up to fight the lamb. Calamar reveals four large arms, each holding a different artifact. A sword, a scepter, a dagger, a globus cruciger, which is a little ornate circle often used as an artifact in religious ceremonies. Okay. The lamb evades Calamar's onslaught of fireballs and attacks, and once Calamar is slain, their big squid head is split in half down the middle.

49:41 All the way to his base, where you can reveal the heart of this heretic. Ha ha ha ha! The lamb claims their victory prize and visits the one who waits once again. The one who waits tells the lamb, their victor, that Calamar was always a coward. This land is a better place now that it is pathetic. Sniveling carcass is no more than a mound of rotting flesh. Soon I shall be freed, and the world will be remade in my image. All will pledge themselves to the cult, and all will bow to my name. Yeah, bud, that's the plan. The lamb returns to the cult, and the followers are unruly.

50:24 They need to get their aggression out. The lamb sees this and calls them to temple for worship, and instigates the ritual of wrath. Followers don their hoods as the lamb calls forth one follower to be the wrath leader and receive the power of sin. The wrath leader enters the center of the circle of followers and screams out while holding a pitchfork. This inspires the other followers, and they raise their pitchforks and scream together. The wrath leader goes to the followers screaming to raise their wrath, and then they exit the temple. Outside, the followers tear apart structures.

51:05 They rejoice as their hard work falls apart and crumbles beneath their rage. Some followers pick on each other, and some get hurt in physical fights. Some followers get scared of the rampage and hide and become cowards. After the ritual, the followers come back together in the temple, pleased with their acts of aggression and happy that they got to enjoy the ritual of wrath. Oh my God, this is wild. Now that the cult has gotten that out of their system, the lamb is free to defeat the last bishop of the Old Faith. The lamb heads to the portal for Silk Cradle, the last portal of the last bishop of the Old Faith.

51:47 The cult must be at a minimum of 12 members to open these gates. Silk Cradle is a dark and dreary, spider-infested world. I was gonna say, as soon as you said silk, there's gonna be a fucking spider, isn't there? This one's probably inspired by just Australia. The pathway to the gate itself is covered in spiderwebs, and spiders even scuttle across the gate entry before you even enter. The tones in Silk Cradle are deep and purple, and the land is covered in fast-moving critter creatures throughout. Silk Cradle is the land of the Old Faith bishop named Shamura. Shamura is a purple spider with a purple crown and many large eyes and a bandage around their head.

52:32 Don't like it. A souvenir from the One Who Waits, symbolic of Think No Evil. Through the first run, the Lamb meets Shamura in their chambers. Shamura looks down at the Lamb, who has slain their brothers and sister by now and says, He waits by the rocks of the Darkened Sea, at the foot of a long, sudden drop. Within the maw of pointed-teeth beasts, the stutter of the heart then stopped. He was the fifth, the fifth bishop of the Old Faith, our brother, the One Who Waits. Oh, shit. Back then, he was known by the name Narender.

53:14 But as the millennia wore on, he grew discontent with his role. He began to question. He was gluttonous in his ambition. And in my imprudence, I loved him, and for it, I lost my mind. For it, he lost his freedom. Can you fathom such betrayal, lamb, of your own turned against you? Would you like to find out? Oh, no. Shamura summons one of the cult followers, who is sobbing and apologetic to the lamb. The follower of the lamb begins to attack their lord, and their eyes glow red.

53:55 The lamb slays their own follower in spite of Shamura, and heads further into Silk Cradle. Through Silk Cradle, the lamb encounters Shamura's first follower, Focalore. Focalore is a horrible little insect wrapped in spider webs. On the second run of Silk Cradle, the lamb encounters Vifar, who is more centipede than the last. He does work with spiders, though, to attack the lamb, so like, fuck this guy. On the third run of Silk Cradle, the lamb encounters Horus, who is a horrible scorpion creature. I hate him so fucking much. These are all awful, awful insects to include.

54:38 I assume this is just what happens in Australia. Indorachnids. Yeah. On the fourth Silk Cradle run, the lamb enters the last chamber of the last standing bishop of the Old Faith. As with the rest, the lamb seems Shamura surrounded by hooded figures in dark robes. As the lamb approaches, Shamura says, He of havoc, he of blight, she of hunger, they of might. Five becomes four, becomes three, becomes two, becomes one, becomes nothing. As Shamura's followers stab themselves with daggers, Shamura glows and exudes silk and webbing out across the screen.

55:24 They scream as their insect legs break out of their body, and they have the stance and structure of a spider-preying mantis hybrid. Jesus, no! Shamura shoots fireballs and jumps all over the screen, and brings in other bugs to kill the lamb. But it's no use. There is no defying destiny, and the lamb is bound for beating the Old Faith bishops. Good, cuz fuck that insect hybrid creature. Bitch, right? As Shamura is defeated, their body breaks apart as their bones did in battle, and their heart becomes exposed. The lamb goes to the heart to collect the final trophy after defeating the last standing bishop of the Old Faith.

56:08 With the beating heart in hand, the lamb sees the one who waits. They say, Shamura was weak, not wise. Their vision was too small to contain the multitudes of one such as I. The time has come to free me. You shall have the honor of returning the Red Crown to its true bearer. I admit, you have worn it almost as well as I could have myself. Your appetite for death is something I can admire, vessel. Crown is mine, and none, none are worthy, none other than I. You shall lay down your life and return to me what is mine.

56:49 After millennia, all may bask in my glory once more. But it cannot be done here. The final gate awaits. Hurry now, time is at hand. And with that, the Lamb returns to the Cult. With the four hearts of the Heretics, the only thing left to do to complete the Lamb's mission is to bring the Red Crown to the One Who Waits, Narender, and fulfill destiny. To approach the One Who Waits, the Lamb's Cult must be as strong as possible to optimize the offering. When the Cult has 20 followers, the Lamb is able to enter the One Who Waits chambers.

57:30 The Lamb returns to the flock and, upon analysis, sees the Cult is only 19 followers strong. Well, you did kill one. I know. We lost a few. You can also have them die of old age. Oh, damn. So if you take a long time? Well, no, they just age out. They're like, hey, I'm like 20, I'm in my prime. And then they're in like 40s, 50s, and they just start getting old. They get like a cane. They get different robes and shit, and they just like aren't helpful anymore. Then it becomes midsummer. They're in similar robes to midsummer, I'm not gonna lie. And there are a couple rituals that are very midsummer. Oh, really? The Lamb wanders the grounds to consider their options.

58:12 Perhaps send a follower on a mission trip to recruit someone new. Perhaps go on another crusade to hopefully rescue another lost soul. Maybe I'll just go fucking buy one from a fucking spider, I guess. Yeah, you can do that. As the Lamb reaches the outskirts of their land, they come upon the graveyard. Followers gone from illness, old age, occasionally rampaged, line the cult's campus. Dysentery. The Lamb thinks back to their journey of ascension through their cult following. And the Lamb fondly remembers their first ritual sacrifice. Simon. Fucking Simon! In deep thought, the Lamb brings the followers to temple and begins the ritual of resurrection.

58:58 We're gonna bring Simon back! Followers don their hooded cloaks and form a circle in the temple. A circle in the floor glows as the followers sway, welcoming their fallen brother, Simon, back home. From the center of the circle, the fallen Simon comes through from the afterlife, their eternal rest disrupted by religious obligation. Life returns to his eyes as their feet find the floor. The cult members rejoice and welcome back Simon. Hell yeah, welcome back Simon. With the resurrection of Simon, the Lamb has cultivated the followers to a level of glory, worthy of the one who waits.

59:42 Let's not keep him waiting. The Lamb approaches the portal to the one who waits, which is lined with candles in honor of Narender's imprisonment. The chains surrounding the portal gateway break apart and open up for the Lamb. The Lamb enters the gateway. The gateway is neutral in tone, unlike the themed old bishop portals, save for candles throughout. The Lamb enters the center of the gateway's entry, and the full follower flock appear in support of the Lamb. Their blood and their faith support the Lamb's ascension up to meet the one who waits and release him from his chains.

1:00:23 The Lamb appears in a plane of reality, where they're offered weapons and power-ups just as they have when the Lamb has entered the other old bishop portals. The Lamb suits up and heads down through the gateway to the one who waits. This world is light and airy, with distant chains looking ghostly through the distance. The Lamb approaches the massive god, the one who waits. At his feet are two guards, only half his size. The one who waits says, Vessel, I relinquish you from your service to the Red Crown. Return it to me, and embrace the end that awaits. With this last sacrifice of my most devoted follower, finally I will be free.

1:01:07 Approach, Vessel, and lay your life down at my feet. Eh, no thank you. As he says this, the followers of the cult appear, hanging in cages dangling above the arena the one who waits is held in. Oh no! They are crying and trembling in fear, unsure of what is to come, and if they can trust their faith enough to survive this situation and find salvation. The Lamb comes closer to the one who waits. The Lamb holds the red crown in their hands, and are positioned with the prompt, kneel to be sacrificed, with two options, refuse or accept.

1:01:47 Refuse! Fuck that shit! Alright, you want to refuse? Through sobs, the Lamb refuses. While they know the one who waits saved them from infinite rest of death, they have become attached to their flock and have no desire to return to the long sleep. Through tears and shaking chest, the Lamb shakes his head no. Then, empowered by the followers looking on, their eyes glow red and they draw their weapon. The one who waits looks down and says, So, you have betrayed me, Lamb. You have shunned my gospel and claimed yourself a false idol. The crown is mine by divine right.

1:02:29 You think to stand in the very face of death. Come and fucking take it. The guard at the one who waits right hand says, Master, allow me. I will give this wretch a taste of your wrath. This is Baal, a cat bastard who wields a scepter and swings mercilessly at the Lamb and summons chains to attack. Baal falls as the Lamb slays him. As Baal's corpse is eaten up by the arena's floor, the guard at the left hand of the one who waits steps up. They say, I will take care of this beast, Master. I will cut that crown from its head. This is Aime, another cat bastard with a scepter.

1:03:12 Cat bastard, I love this fucking phrase. Aime summons fireballs and even more chains than Baal ever had the power to. Aime is more agile than Baal and fights even more ruthlessly, but nonetheless is slaughtered by the little Lamb. As Aime is brought to his knees and then his death, the one who waits looks on. He says, You think yourself victorious? You think yourself safe? Do not forget you belong to me. Even after I have slaughtered you, your pain will not end. You cannot escape me even in death. Narender's chains break off of his massive body, and he enters the arena to take the red crown from the Lamb's head himself.

1:04:00 Narender attacks ruthlessly, quickly, and disappears in and out of the arena at will. His fireballs are fast and take up most of the battleground. The chains he harnesses are now weapons that shoot up out and around the Lamb. As the Lamb prevails, Narender sinks below the surface in defeat. His bottom half falls below the arena as his arms steady him above the surface as much as he still can. He looks down at the little Lamb. Did you believe me, defeated? Did you think that to be all there was to being such as I? You thought yourself above a god?

1:04:41 Narender narrows his red eyes down at the Lamb. The arena's surface begins to blister and crack the way glass cracks slowly throughout and spiders through the surface. Narender releases his grip and the entire screen goes black. Slowly, one by one, fire ignites small bits of light throughout the darkness and illuminates a new area. The lights are lit up shaped like upside-down crosses. Narender opens his mouth and has evolved into a monstrous demogorgon-looking beast with rows and rows of teeth and eyes. Oh, fuck. Narender says to the lamb, You are corrupt, false idol.

1:05:24 Your corruption has no doubt spread. Narender raises his arms, and each of the cult members rise from the ground, crucified and screaming out for their savior. Three of Narender's eyes leave his body and burrow themselves into the ground, only popping out to send fireballs down at the lamb. The cult members fall in and out of consciousness as they lay dangling on their crosses, crying out for their savior, the lamb. Enraged, Narender sends down fireballs across the arena himself to the lamb. Once each of the eyeballs are slain, Narender cries out in a blinded rage.

1:06:08 His body escapes him as Narender reverts to his original form, who he was before he was even the one who waits, before he was a bishop of the old faith, before he was the god of death. What's before all that? When he too was as small as a lamb, a small dog-like being, scared and holding his knees close to his body. He looks eye to eye to the lamb and says, You have supplanted me, a vessel no more, instead a crown bearing deity. Damned lamb, I am at your mercy. Are you to be a vengeful false idol or a merciful coward?

1:06:52 No longer can you blame your vile acts on me. The lamb looks at Nerinder eye to eye and all that he has become, and is presented with two options, spare or murder. Murder. Alright. Nerinder says to the lamb, so you are no different to me after all. You have become as I am. The lamb approaches Nerinder, and with the pure power of the red crown, the god of death, the lamb raises Nerinder in the ground and squeezes the life out of what is left of his small meager body.

1:07:33 The followers look on and are released from their crucifixes, and they gather around the lamb, rejoiceful. They praise their leader for defeating all that has ever questioned their power. The screen goes black and simply reads, Sacrifice reborn vessel, ascend once more and take true form, no longer a servant, no less than a god. Alright, so that's one option. You know, it's funny, because I'm thinking back to Red Dead Redemption 2, where we talked about, you can't play an evil Arthur run because you just keep wanting to make him a good person. I feel the opposite about this game.

1:08:13 Oh, I was so bloodthirsty in this shit. Yeah, you're a cult leader, and I feel like because you're going in as a cult leader, you gotta be fucking bloodthirsty. Yeah, and you're worshiping the god of death. Narender is supposed to represent just death. So here's what happens if you spare him. Narender looks up at the lamb, soaked in mercy, and says, you weak, sniveling, foul thing. You, wait, wait. Just as it happens, when the lamb has rescued followers in the wild, Narender is portalled through to the lamb's campus for indoctrination. The followers are released from their crucifixes and gather around the lamb rejoiceful.

1:08:55 As the lamb returns to their world, Narender is in the portal where indoctrination happens. However, Narender is immortal, so they will spend eternity serving the lamb that defeated them. Hell fucking yeah, the worshipped becomes the worshipper? And like, you can do fucked up shit. You can have Narender be in the stocks so all the followers come by and they're like, fuck you, you're a piece of shit. You can have them work the mines 24-7, so it's literally just physical labor nonstop, you know. You could force them to just worship a statue of the Lamb nonstop, which like, whatever you want to do to fuck with this dude, you can.

1:09:36 Yeah, I'm kind of backtracking on the killing because now I realize you can torture him. Yeah, and you can also use him. He's like that bitter employee that's been there too long that's like, I used to be a manager. He's like, I used to be a god. If you've ever worked a restaurant, it's that fucking server that's like, I used to be a shift lead, but I didn't want the hours. And you're like, shut the fuck up. Unless you're going to comp my shit, I don't care. So that's Nerinder. But to backtrack a little bit, you could also accept his original proposal, which technically was the plan. I mean, technically. I mean, it was Nerinder's plan. Then you got some power. So when presented with Neil to sacrifice, the lamb accepts the original agreement and is presented with an are you fucking sure prompt?

1:10:26 Exactly. Through sobs, the lamb accepts their fate. The red crown is lifted off the lamb's head and takes its sacred place on the head of the one who waits, Nerinder. Nerinder is free of his chains and brings the lamb's body up to his eye level to look at his vessel before completing the ritual. Nerinder holds his hands around the lamb and squeezes, and then the lamb falls to the ground, the last sensation ever meant for his being. Strangle to death? The screen goes dark, then an image of the red crown appears with the following text.

1:11:09 Thank you for playing noble disciple. Please spread the good word near and far so that others may be blessed by the divine teachings of the mighty lamb. And then the credits roll for massive monster. Fuck that ending entirely. It's what Narinder would have wanted, so that's not what you want to do. No, okay, I'm glad I went with the bloodthirsty option to start. I appreciate that because it's also fun to just see where your head's at throughout the game as someone who's never picked it up. Right. And to date, Cult of the Lamb has now sold over three and a half million copies and continues to roll out with more and more updates.

1:11:50 And if you keep it going, as long as you don't sacrifice yourself, you can just keep fucking playing. You can keep running through the portals. You can kind of just do it as a cozy game. I've been really into decorating my cult area. I have been torturing Narender. Good. He does work in a mine for me. He literally chips away to get rocks and gravel so I can build shit all day. And I'm just like, yeah, fuck you. I'd make him clean the fuck tent. You'd make him clean the fuck tent? Walking around with the bucket? Yep. Oh, I hate it. But yeah, that was Cult of the Lamb. That is the game you have been obsessing over for months.

1:12:33 It's so much fun. Oh my goodness. Honestly, I want to play it. It's my favorite cozy game. And honestly, you can pick it up for 20 minutes and then put it down and still feel like you got a lot done. You can do a full portal run relatively quickly. The game play elevates because your powers elevate in a really nice, satisfying way. And I didn't even cover the side quests. Like I mentioned the fisherman. There's a whole side quest called the fisherman. You can catch an octopus, catch all this crazy shit to make seafood, fucking calamari calamar for your followers. There's the rattle, the guy that introduces you. He retires and you can go meet him and basically play like little parlor games with him.

1:13:15 It's like a retired old man. There are all sorts of little mini games and extra things I didn't even want to bring up because this is the Lamb story, not everyone else's story. And I really encourage people to play this because to your point, super fucking fun and the art is incredible. The music is satisfying, but you can listen to a podcast while you play this. Play this while you listen to our show, whatever. But you've seen me just play it while you're playing video games. We have a full conversation, and it's so wonderful. And not to say I can have a full conversation where it's mindless, it's just that I can be on autopilot for some things. Yeah, the text on screen games, it makes it a lot easier to multitask.

1:13:56 I agree. When I have a game that is voiced, I do feel compelled to listen to everything and appreciate the performance. And perhaps it's just because I fucking do this show and I love video games and video game performances. But when it's just kind of an atmospheric game, you just vibe. You're just vibing in and out. Even with Hades though, they have such sexy, horny voices. I would never turn the sound out on that. But with this, you can kind of turn it down a little bit and be like, all right, let's see what Tana Mongeau is doing on Cancel. I fucking love Tana Mongeau. Yes, you do. I've been on a binge. I really like her. But I really enjoy this game. I do fully suggest this for a lot of people.

1:14:36 And the difficulty ranges can be very wide. So if you don't have the dexterity or weak thumbs, whatever, I keep breaking fucking toes, and I have cuts all over my hands. I don't know what's happening. All my extremities are falling apart, but you can set it to a really reasonable mode if you're not a heavy gamer. And if you are, you can turn it the fuck up and have it to a Hades level. And it's still really fucking fun. It's satisfying. It's cute. I really enjoyed this game a lot, and now you can make them fuck. You can marry your followers. I didn't even get into that. I just want to get into some rituals, but there's a lot I didn't cover purposefully so people can appreciate and explore this game on their own time.

1:15:17 Discover it for themselves. Absolutely. I highly encourage it. It's very fun. Well, thank you so much, Andrea. That was a fantastic ride through a cult. We know you love a cult. I do love a cult. You love a cult so much. Yeah, you know what else I love? Getting ratings on this show. So if you don't mind, leave us a rating. And if you want to give us some direct feedback, you can pop on our Discord and let us know how you feel. There's going to be a little channel specifically for Cult of the Lamb. Yes, there is. If you want to flex on how cute your cult is, I absolutely want to fucking see that too, because I am not a customized ass bitch. I'm just like, whatever. I don't give a shit. I'm not changing your name. I'm not changing your color. I'm not changing your species. Let's fucking go.

1:15:59 Who wore it best of the cult? Oh my God, I love that. But if you did have a good time with us again, please remember to like and subscribe, because we are at episode three of our brand new season. We've got seven more games coming out this cycle, and we also have a website at theothercastlepodcast.com. That's the othercastlepodcast.com. Where you can check out our Patreon for even more episodes. So two weeks ago, I did Alan Wake, the first one, and for our Patreon, I covered the DLC of The Signal, The Writer, and American Nightmare, which is aptly titled. Yes, it is. It was a full-blown nightmare. Some bitch tried to molest Alan Wake in that one.

1:16:40 That is fucking wild. Anyway, but the Patreons heard it first, and we would like to give a shoutout to... We got Berserk Panda, Andrew, That Chonky Boy, AJ, Paul, Omar, Erin, Cyrus, Unuseful, Molly, Krisha, Molly Mock, Jackie, and Ellen. Thank you all so much for helping make this show happen. We appreciate you more than we can express, so I'm just gonna give you a quick digital hug. I'm smelling your hair a little. Keep your hands up. Stop trying to touch their butt. Their butt's so cute, though. Patreons have better butts. That's all facts, but thank you all very much. All right, well, this is Tom and Andrea reminding you.

1:17:22 Worship me. And don't skip the cutscenes.