In a typical run-based dungeon crawler, at certain points your progress is blocked until you earn a tool like a grappling hook or a bomb that knocks down walls. In Cult of the Lamb, you don't unlock a single boomerang or even a double-jump. Instead, you brainwash more charming woodland creatures into devotion, then unlock the ability to convince them they go to a better place when you sacrifice them for dark power.
Maybe a better comparison is Stardew Valley, which does have a mine full of slime monsters. Still, Stardew's emphasis is on your farm and home life. Its dungeon is just a place where you harvest extra resources. Cult of the Lamb flips that around. The dungeon-crawling is the point, and your home base—a cult headquarters where you eventually train followers to do the farming for you—is where you earn improvements so you're better at killing monsters. If Stardew Valley is a crucifix, Cult of the Lamb turns it upside down. Then draws it on a pencil case beside a row of skulls.
