BOOK OF HOURS
Restore a crumbling occult library by a winter sea. Build the world’s foremost collection of grimoires and arcana. Master the invisible arts. BOOK OF HOURS is a narrative crafting RPG set in a 1930s world of hidden gods and secret histories. What sort of Librarian will you choose to be?
BOOK OF HOURS is a rpg, card game and deckbuilding game
developed and published by Weather Factory.
Released on August 17th 2023 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux
in 3 languages: English, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 4,018 reviews of which 3,396 were positive and 622 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.2 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 14.70€ on Steam and has a 40% discount.
The Steam community has classified BOOK OF HOURS into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at BOOK OF HOURS through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: Windows 10 or later, 64-bit
- Processor: 2GHz or better
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 4GB VRAM, 1600x1024 minimum resolution; integrated graphics cards will only work if post-2012
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 5 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 11 compatible
MacOS
- OS: MacOS 12 or later
- Processor: 2GHz or better
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 4GB VRAM, 1600x1024 minimum resolution; integrated graphics cards will only work if post-2012
- Storage: 5 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 11 compatible
Linux
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04 (these are the standard Unity Player requirements; other distros may work; we test on Mint Cinnamon)
- Processor: 2GHz or better, x64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support.
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 4GB VRAM, 1600x1024 minimum resolution, OpenGL 3.2+, post-2012 integrated graphics
- Storage: 5 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Ah nothing better than spending a few hours, tea in hand, cataloguing the books of ages past while the storm batters the walls of the House. Gorgeous art style and laid-back storytelling. A unique ambience totally unlike Cultist Simulator. Tips: Remember to read everything, take notes of anything interesting written in the books and cataloguing the books by memories produced massively sped the game up for me.
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I wrote a powershell script to convert my pasted notes to CSV files that I can play with in Excel. I'm seriously thinking about putting them into an SQL database. No, there is absolutely no real need for me to do these things. The lore is just so dang engrossing that I feel compelled to build my own relational database for it instead of relying on the wikis. 10/10
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I've come to think of this game as the Dark Souls of non-combat games, in two very important ways. First, the lore is everywhere. You don't exactly get cutscenes (it's nice to go without them for a change) so it's up to you to draw conclusions from bits of information scattered around in books, paintings, and even room descriptions. Second, there is little hand-holding. If you want to make sense of something you will have to figure it out yourself, and the community generally does not dispense a lot of tutorials or explanations. They exist, and you can find them, but they aren't nearly as prevalent as in some other games. For these reasons, the game is difficult. It's not difficult in the sense of a tense, pulse-pounding action game where a good guy must use weapons and abilities to defeat bad guys but you get dead if you do so in an unsatisfactory manner. It is difficult in the sense of figuring out how to work with the game mechanics and progress with what you have. This often requires you to use your existing resources in different ways. The game mechanics are deliberately opaque. I haven't found a way to die, and I only know of one way to prevent yourself from making further progress in the game. In that way I suppose it is unlike Souls games. I love the game for its atmosphere and intellectual bent. Who wouldn't want to wander through an almost certainly haunted, giant Cornish library-mansion during a thunderstorm sipping tea before a crackling fireplace, and either paging through an endless series of books or exploring the mysterious rooms? Well, I would. (As an American who has been to Cornwall, it is delightfully rainy and I would definitely live there.) True, the game is not always easy, but it is satisfying. Just like Souls players insist that an egregious level of difficulty makes success more enjoyable, figuring out how to do things in this game opens up many new possibilities and means you can progress further. A bit like Metroid, but instead of having to find some kind of upgrade to get to new areas, you have to just figure out how to advance using the available game mechanics. It's much different from other games. That makes it difficult but also fun in a way you won't find elsewhere. I once told an inveterate Soulsborne-player about this game. He appeared horrified and assured me that he would never enjoy a game with such little action or combat. To him I condescendingly retorted, "NO ACTION. ONLY BOOK." Also, based on the way it was laid out, I expected this to be a short game and relatively simplistic. It is not. I was shocked by the depth of it. If you like depth and complexity, this game has both. (It also has whisky and wine, which are both known to have depth and complexity!) While this game certainly isn't for everyone, and that's fine, the specious argument about timers being bad seems goofy and arbitrary to me. It sometimes takes time to perform a task. I honestly don't see the problem with it. Yes, life would be easier if actions took no time to perform, but this mechanic allows time to advance in a logical way where you can actually have four (well, 5) seasons. So, in summary, you might like it for the cozy atmosphere, books, lore, and complexity. You may not like it if you need lots of stuff moving around on the screen all the time, or raytracing, or [EDIT: "if you dislike"] very complex game mechanics that potentially take a long time to learn.
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This game was created because a subset of Cult Sim players spent all of their time in that game neatly organizing all of their occult curios instead of pursuing immortality, and kept thinking "gosh I wish that annoying detective would just leave me in peace to sort all my lovely books." I was one of those players. This game was, quite literally, made for me. Not only me, obviously - I was one of many. But the point is, obviously I fucking love this game. However, despite my very obvious love for and bias towards this game, I must recognize that it's not for everyone. This is a very particular sort of game for a very particular sort of person. If you're not that particular sort of person, then you're going to find the pacing and mechanics obtuse and uninteresting, and I doubt you'll play more than an hour or two before bouncing right off. But if you are that particular sort of person, then there is nothing else in the world quite like the Book of Hours. But I also think that, perhaps, some people bounce off of this game when they could love it, simply because they're missing one key understanding of what this game really is : The mechanics of this game are not explained because learning the mechanics is the game . This is, in essence, a puzzle game - and the puzzle you're trying to solve is how to play. It's completely reasonable to expect a game to tell you how to play, but it would be a bad puzzle that just tells you the solution. A good puzzle provides you with all the necessary information, but lets you discover that information yourself, making it feel like an accomplishment whenever you learn something new. And that's the key thing to remember with Book of Hours: it's a good puzzle, so it provides you with all the necessary information . All of the game's mechanics are clearly and explicitly explained - you just have to discover them yourself. It works because, realistically, there aren't that many actual actions you can take in this game. Every interaction is performed through a "verb" - a window with little slots where you can put cards that represent people, objects, thoughts, etc. Different combinations of cards produce different results, and different verbs do different things. You can "scrutinize" pretty much any object, you can "talk" to visitors. You can "work" at different desks or workstations within the library. You can "visit" different places in the little village. But, despite all these possible variations, the simple fact of the matter is that it's always just slotting combinations of cards into specific little slots to make something happen. So when I say that you're trying to puzzle out the mechanics, it's not as absurd as it sounds. All you're really trying to do is figure out which combinations of cards you can put into which verbs to produce something useful. And ALL the information you need to do that is provided. One of the loading screen tips is READ EVERYTHING . That's absolutely true. You have plenty of time - this is a very slow-paced game. Really do read everything . Not just the books - read the descriptions for the various objects you find around the house, read the interactions you have with visitors and helpers. And pay attention to the aspects of each card/object. Everything in this game has a list of aspects - every card, every object, every slot in every verb. They all have a little list of symbols along the bottom of their description, listing their principles, the type of object they are, etc. These little symbols are the game's mechanical rules. Once you understand that, it's just a matter of experimenting with the different combinations available to you, to see what you can do next. Don't pick a task that you feel like you "need" to accomplish because then you'll be stuck staring down the prospect of trying to dig through every single recipe and every single skill and every single object, looking for something that will do this one specific thing that you need. Instead, experiment to figure out what you can do with what you have - then figure out which tasks you can accomplish using what you've discovered. There is always, always, always something you can currently do to progress, even if it's not what you thought you were going to do. Also, don't fret about making the "wrong" decision. Should I use this object in this recipe? But what if I need it later? You won't "need" anything later - whatever you're using, you'll be able to replace. Most ingredients can be replaced, recreated, etc (excepting furniture and decor). Maybe not right away, but that's okay. And even if you can't replace something directly, you'll be able to produce or buy something else that serves the same purpose. This is especially true of the wine. There is so much wine in this House. You will never run out of wine, I promise. Don't be stingy about serving it, lol. This is a very relaxing game where you can stop and enjoy yourself, read every little thing, and never really have to worry about whether you're doing it "right". You're fine. It's always fine. If you make a mistake, the worst thing that can happen is that you'll have to try again tomorrow or the next day. Spend your time drinking tea by the fire and piecing together the mystery of the Hours without having to worry about getting eaten by some eldritch monster.
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For the first time, this game is best played the following way: - No Mods - No guides - No notes outside of the game - No notes inside of the game (Exception: Books shelves) Figure things out. Use intuition. Find a way. Enjoy the ride. Read everything. Unlike Cultist Simulator, its predecessor, this game does not wish to torment and obliterate you. It took me 101 hours to research my way to victory. I greatly enjoyed it.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 21 November 2024 00:37 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 19 December 2024 21:02 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:49 |
| Steam reviews | 23 December 2024 12:02 |
Online players
311
Developer
Weather Factory
Publisher
Weather Factory
Release
17 Aug 2023
Platforms
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