Info about 司辰之书:

Official game description:
  
自一千五百年前以来，噤声之屋一直是一座知识的堡垒——直到那场火灾。馆藏被毁，最后的图书管理员也不再。只有像你一般有着独特才能之人才能重建这座图书馆。  
《司辰之书》是一款优雅，忧伤，无战斗的角色扮演游戏，背景设定在一座密教图书馆之中。《司辰之书》由Alexis Kennedy制作，他的代表作有：《伦敦陷落 (Fallen London)》、《无光之海 (Sunless Sea)》和获得过两次BAFTA提名的《密教模拟器 (Cultist Simulator)》。  
一边享受整理书籍与修缮新居的甜美平静，一边从你周遭充满神秘气息的石墙上缓缓揭开几百年的历史。  
图书管理员的影响远不局限于噤声之屋的围墙内——你将决定历史如何呈现。  
在约莫20-40个小时的游戏时长中，你可以：  
★ 获得，修复，编录密教书籍、卷轴、与珍品。  
★ 学习九大智慧，征服九大魂质。  
★ 指点那些求助于你的访客，选择他们的前路与故事。  
★ 探索多重秘史与统御它们的众多司辰。  
★ 修缮建于古老修道院地基之上，摇摇欲坠的宏伟建筑。  
★ 从朦胧的回忆中攫取你的过去，在决定你来历的九种出身中抉择其一。或许，你是一位富豪，放弃财富而寻求平静；或许，你是一名考古学家，正在逃避自己所唤醒的诅咒；又或许，你的来源更加不寻常：鸟慧者，还是二度降生者？每局游戏都有着不同的机遇。  
Weather Factory 是一个由众多优秀的自由职业者支持的二人开发团队。《司辰之书》由欧盟的“创意欧洲项目——媒体 类别”部分资助。谢谢你，欧洲！我们爱你。♥

Release date: 2023 年 8 月 17 日

Categories: Resource Management, Puzzle Solving, Exploration, Single-player Story, Character Progression, Management Simulation, Time-based Mechanics, Multiple Endings


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Exceptional Lore & World-building (weight 0.99): The game is lauded for its exceptional writing, rich lore, and immersive world-building, which are consistently highlighted as standout features. Players enjoy piecing together the fragmented narrative and exploring the deep, mysterious occult themes, enhanced by beautiful art and atmospheric sound design.
- Immersive & Cozy Atmosphere (weight 0.78): The game's atmosphere is consistently praised for being unique, cozy, and meditative, often with an underlying sense of mystery or subtle creepiness. This is greatly enhanced by the beautiful art style, evocative sound design, and fitting music, creating a truly immersive and distinct mood.
- Highly Engaging & Addictive Gameplay (weight 0.74): Players consistently praise the game for its unique, engaging, and addictive gameplay loop, often leading to hours of immersive play where time seems to disappear. The overall experience is described as highly enjoyable and captivating, with many considering it one of their favorite games.
- Satisfying Librarian Simulation (weight 0.63): The core gameplay loop, centered around being an occult librarian, involves satisfying activities like organizing books, exploring rooms, and managing resources. This appeals strongly to players who enjoy meticulous organization, puzzle-solving, and a sense of intellectual discovery.
- Rewarding Self-Discovery & Mastery (weight 0.59): Players appreciate the game's emphasis on self-discovery and experimentation, with minimal hand-holding. The learning curve, while initially challenging, is part of the fun, leading to rewarding 'aha!' moments as players gradually master the intricate mechanics and uncover secrets.
- Improved & Relaxed Experience (weight 0.45): A significant number of reviews compare the game favorably to its predecessor, Cultist Simulator, noting improvements in accessibility, reduced stress, and a more forgiving gameplay experience. The game is seen as a more relaxed yet equally intriguing evolution of the developer's style, offering higher replayability and more content.

Common complaints:
- Repetitive & Tedious Gameplay (weight 0.46): Many players found the core gameplay loop to be repetitive, tedious, and lacking in engaging progression, especially in the mid to late game. This leads to a significant drop in player motivation and replayability after the initial hours or first playthrough.
- Poor Guidance & High Complexity (weight 0.43): The game suffers from a severe lack of in-game tutorials, guidance, and clear explanations for its complex mechanics and UI. This forces players to rely heavily on external wikis, guides, or extensive trial-and-error, leading to significant frustration and a steep, often overwhelming, learning curve.
- Frustrating UI & QoL Issues (weight 0.29): The user interface and overall quality-of-life features are consistently criticized as clunky, unintuitive, and actively hostile to the player. Issues include poor item management, lack of search functions, awkward controls, and excessive clicking/dragging, leading to physical strain and a frustrating user experience.
- Inferior to Predecessor (weight 0.17): A significant number of players compare the game unfavorably to its predecessor, Cultist Simulator, citing a regression in gameplay depth, tension, atmosphere, and overall enjoyment. Many feel it lacks the unique charm and engaging systems of the previous title.
- Flawed Skill Tree System (weight 0.07): The skill tree system is problematic due to irreversible choices, lack of clear information on skill utility, and an abundance of seemingly useless or redundant skills. This makes progression feel unrewarding and can lead to soft-locks or inefficient builds.
- Obtuse Crafting Mechanics (weight 0.06): The crafting system is overly complex and obtuse, with hidden recipes and a lack of in-game tracking. This necessitates constant external reference (wiki/spreadsheets) and makes crafting a tedious, repetitive grind rather than an enjoyable mechanic.
- Fragmented & Unrewarding Narrative (weight 0.06): The narrative structure is fragmented and difficult to follow, with many endings feeling superficial or requiring excessive grind. The story's presentation often fails to provide a satisfying payoff for the effort invested in discovery.

Gameplay feedback:
- Library Management & Restoration (weight 0.28): The core gameplay revolves around the player acting as a librarian, restoring and managing a vast, mysterious occult library within an old mansion. This includes cataloging books, organizing rooms, and managing various items and resources.
- Discovery Through Experimentation (weight 0.19): The game provides minimal guidance or tutorials, encouraging players to learn mechanics and progress through experimentation and trial-and-error. This design choice makes discovery a central part of the experience, though it can be initially challenging.
- Successor to Cultist Simulator (weight 0.14): The game is a spiritual successor to 'Cultist Simulator', sharing its unique world-building, card-based mechanics, and narrative style. However, it significantly differs in pace and difficulty, offering a more relaxed and less punishing experience without constant threats or time pressure.
- Card-Based Puzzle Gameplay (weight 0.12): The primary gameplay involves a card-based system where players combine various cards (representing aspects, memories, skills, and items) to solve puzzles, unlock new content, and progress the story. It's essentially a text-based puzzle game with deep lore.
- External Note-Taking Required (weight 0.12): The game heavily emphasizes note-taking, often requiring players to use external tools like physical notebooks or spreadsheets to track ephemeral memories, item locations, and complex mechanics due to the game's intentional obscurity.
- Relaxed & Forgiving Pace (weight 0.11): The game is characterized by its slow, deliberate pace and forgiving nature. There are no immediate threats, death mechanics, or strict time limits, allowing players to explore and progress at their own leisure without significant pressure.
- Skill & Soul Quality System (weight 0.09): A significant mechanic involves a skill tree and soul quality system. Players upgrade skills and soul qualities by reading books and combining aspects, which in turn unlocks new abilities, crafting options, and progression paths.
- Strategic Time Management (weight 0.04): The game incorporates a time management system where actions consume daily time, and various elements like weather and memories are time-sensitive. Players must plan their actions strategically within these daily cycles.
- Multiple Endings & Replayability (weight 0.04): The game boasts a large number of possible endings (over a hundred), encouraging multiple playthroughs and diverse approaches to achieve different narrative conclusions and explore all aspects of the lore.
- Exploration & Item Discovery (weight 0.04): Exploration and discovery are key elements, with items scattered across the map and secrets hidden within the environment. Players are encouraged to experiment and meticulously search to uncover all content.

Performance notes:
- Performance and frame rate issues (weight 0.02): Players report significant frame rate drops, especially after extended play or specific in-game actions. While some optimization updates have improved performance, issues persist for many, making the game uncomfortable to play.
- Persistent visual glitches (weight 0): A recurring visual glitch affects one room consistently, impacting the visual experience for players.
- Blurry text at low resolutions (weight 0): Players have noted that text can appear blurry when the game is played at lower resolutions, affecting readability.
- Decent audio quality (weight 0): The game's audio quality is generally considered acceptable by players.
- Good Steam Deck compatibility (weight 0): The game is reported to run smoothly and without issues on the Steam Deck.
- Windows 8.1 compatibility (weight 0): The game is confirmed to be compatible and run on Windows 8.1.

Recommendations:
- Niche appeal, highly recommended (weight 0.2): The game is highly recommended for a specific niche audience that enjoys slow-paced, narrative-driven experiences. It appeals to players who love puzzles, deep lore, occult themes, and a cozy, intellectual challenge, often compared to being an occult librarian.
- Highly recommended despite flaws (weight 0.12): Despite its niche appeal and flaws, many reviewers highly recommend the game, often giving it high scores. They praise its unique charm, atmosphere, and the overall experience it provides.
- Play blind, or use guides (weight 0.04): Many players recommend going into the game blind for the first playthrough to fully experience the mystery and discovery. However, some also suggest watching tutorials or reading guides if you get stuck, especially with basic mechanics.
- Desire for more content (weight 0.03): Players are eager for more content, including DLC and future games from the developer. Many express a desire to return to the game or continue playing for extended periods.
- DLC is recommended (weight 0.02): The DLC is generally recommended, with some suggesting purchasing it early to enhance the game experience, particularly for its convenience features.
- Buy on sale (weight 0.01): Several reviewers suggest purchasing the game when it's on sale, indicating that while it's a good experience, its full price might be a barrier for some given its niche nature.
- Endings don't require grind (weight 0.01): Players note that grinding is not necessary to reach an ending, and focusing on an ending can be a quicker path. Not completing the library fully can also leave content for future playthroughs.
- Praise for developer (weight 0.01): Players express strong appreciation for the developer, Weather Factory, and look forward to their future projects, praising their unique approach to game design.
- Best played relaxed (weight 0.01): The game is best enjoyed in a relaxed, unhurried, and meditative setting, often described as a cozy experience with a cup of tea.

Other player notes:
- Impact of Review Bombing (weight 0.08): The game has experienced significant review bombing, particularly from the Chinese community, due to a marketing miscommunication regarding localization. This has skewed the overall review score, which many players feel does not accurately reflect the game's quality.
- Developer AK Criticism (weight 0.01): A specific developer, AK, is mentioned in connection with the localization issues, with players expressing a loss of confidence due to perceived incompetence in community management and marketing related to the Chinese translation.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.26): Players felt satisfied by the game's rich content, replayability, and the rewarding sense of discovery from its layered mechanics and lore. The game's challenging yet fair progression, combined with its unique atmosphere and the ability to customize and organize, contributed to a fulfilling experience. The absence of typical survival pressures and the focus on self-paced exploration also enhanced this feeling.
- Frustration (weight 0.13): Frustration stemmed primarily from the game's lack of guidance, unintuitive UI, and repetitive gameplay loops. Players struggled with the steep learning curve, difficulty in managing items and remembering recipes without external resources, and the tediousness of certain operations. Technical issues and a perceived lack of quality-of-life features also contributed to this negative emotion.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment arose from unfulfilled expectations, particularly when comparing the game to its predecessor, Cultist Simulator, noting a perceived lack of tension, challenge, and engaging content. Players were also let down by poor UI, repetitive late-game content, and the necessity of external tools due to missing in-game features like a recipe book or encyclopedia. Some felt the game became a chore rather than an enjoyable experience.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Players found enjoyment in the game's unique and engaging gameplay loop, rich world-building, and immersive atmosphere. The sense of discovery through trial and error, combined with the relaxing and pressure-free experience, contributed to a positive overall impression. The high-quality writing and the ability to play at one's own pace were also significant factors.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy was frequently expressed due to the game's cozy atmosphere, rewarding organizational aspects, and the sheer pleasure of discovering how mechanics fit together. Players delighted in the freedom of pace, the absence of sudden death, and quirky activities like raising animals. The game's overall quality and improvements over its predecessor also brought significant joy.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Excitement was driven by the continual discovery of new things, the positive feedback loop of progression, and the game's rich, mind-boggling mysteries and lore. Players were thrilled by the unique occult atmosphere, the potential for future content like DLC, and the overall innovative qualities of the game. The sense of forbidden knowledge and the captivating narrative also fueled excitement.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Players appreciated the game's unique charm, meditative pacing, and gorgeous visual design. The developers' efforts in improving upon the predecessor, the high-quality writing and translation, and the game's unique exploration of occult themes were highly valued. The consistent lore and accessibility for new players also garnered significant appreciation.
- Engagement (weight 0.03): Engagement was high due to the game's immersive world, deep mechanics, and rich lore, often leading players to spend significant time on external notes or spreadsheets to manage information. The unique challenge of figuring things out and the addictive gameplay loop kept players hooked for many hours, often losing track of time.
- Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration was directed towards the game's unique and interesting concept, exceptional writing, and overall high quality in art and music. Players admired the creators' ability to build a vast, intricately crafted world with philosophical depth and a unique blend of themes, often considering it one of the best games they had played.
- Confusion (weight 0.02): Confusion stemmed from the game's lack of clear guidance, unintuitive UI, and cryptic mechanics, making it difficult for players to understand progression or how to use certain features. The dense lore and initial learning curve often left players feeling lost, even after many hours of gameplay.
- Relaxation (weight 0.02): Players experienced relaxation due to the game's cozy, chill, and meditative atmosphere, characterized by a relaxed pace and lack of pressure or survival threats. The calming background sounds and the freedom to wander and explore Hush House contributed to a low-stress gameplay experience.
- Boredom (weight 0.02): Boredom arose from repetitive and uninteresting tasks, particularly in the late game, and a perceived lack of challenge or motivation. Players found the gameplay tedious, cumbersome, and often felt like meaningless labor, leading to disengagement.
- Love (weight 0.01): Love for the game was expressed through deep personal connections to its themes, beautiful design, and immaculate lore. Players cherished the rich lore, cozy gameplay, and the addictive loop of reading, sorting books, and discovering world events, often considering it one of their favorite games.
- Calmness (weight 0.01): Calmness was a result of the game's meditative and contemplative pace, cozy atmosphere, and the absence of stress or game-over states. The relaxed gameplay, especially when compared to its predecessor, allowed players to learn and experiment without pressure.
- Relief (weight 0.01): Relief was felt due to the game's less punishing nature and lack of survival pressure compared to its predecessor, Cultist Simulator. Players appreciated the easier learning curve, reduced need for constant pausing, and the forgiving gameplay that allowed for a more comfortable experience.
- Intrigue (weight 0.01): Intrigue was sparked by the game's unique theme, mysterious elements, and intentionally arcane lore and mechanics. Players were drawn in by the slow evolution of knowledge, the unsettling nature of the occult, and the continuous process of uncovering secrets and hidden experiences.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement came from the game's quirky and unexpected thematic elements, often contrasting mundane activities with world-altering ones. Players found humor in self-deprecating jokes about game difficulty, quirky gameplay descriptions, and the multifaceted role they played within the game.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance was caused by frustrating countdown timers, repetitive actions, and cumbersome gameplay, particularly tedious item management. Visual glitches, unnecessary content, and issues like incomplete localization or poor UI design also contributed to this feeling. Some mentions of 'review bombing' indicate external factors influencing this emotion.
- Fascination (weight 0.01): Fascination was driven by the game's immense and intricate lore, unique design, and the slow, horror-filled realization of its world-building. Players were captivated by the interconnected mechanics and the deep, unique narrative that unfolded.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation was primarily generated by the prospect of future content, including upcoming DLC and expansions, as well as ongoing localization efforts. Players looked forward to new works from the developer and potential future improvements to the game.}