Board 8 > Return of the Obra Dinn discussion topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

anyone else playing it?

just started today and... man, this game is overwhelming.

Visuals are awesome. Took some time to get used to but eventually you adjust to it

Sound design is even better. Everything just feels really oddly satisfying

but goddamn is it hard. Maybe my brain just doesn't work quite right for this type of thinking, but trying to piece every detail together given so little has been brutally tough outside the opening like 4 deaths
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Yeah, it is in fact possible to solve everything without any guesswork, there's just a lot of clues that aren't immediately obvious. Take physical notes if you need to, and keep in mind that you can press tab while zoomed in on a person/corpse to jump to their notebook page!

(I played it back at release, took 11 hours to complete everything with minimal hintseeking when I got stuck)
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I beat it... two weeks ago? Three weeks ago. It's a damn good game. It's super satisfying when you finally put everything together for a group of characters
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actually now that I think about it there is one detail I was confused about even after finishing it
Is there a way to identify the seaman from Sierra Leone other than his ethnicity? He was one of the last ones I got because with the artstyle he didn't look any different from the other generic seamen
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I'm still kind of early in the game. Got through the first three chapters (the mutiny/suicide, the Kraken attack, and the escape) but have huge holes in everything except the first

I hate when someone's face becomes cleared up but I don't have any idea who they are. First one was the tattoo guy on the top deck. No idea who he is but I'm expected to know, so I feel like I missed something
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Watching a lets play of it, really into it

Even when their face becomes unblurred note the triangles on top. It notes how difficult it is to figure out who they are
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Loved every moment; could not stop thinking about the game until I finished it. Maintains a uniquely eerie sense of isolation, while the frequent feelings of accomplishment from piecing together the mystery provide breaks in the tension. The characters and situations are smartly inventive without being trendy or gimmicky. Just a lot of wellconsidered design choices that made an unforgettable impression.
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ScareChan posted...

Watching a lets play of it, really into it

Even when their face becomes unblurred note the triangles on top. It notes how difficult it is to figure out who they are

Oh I didn't even see that

Zyxyz0 posted...

Take physical notes if you need to

I'm kind of considering it. The only game I've ever taken physical notes for was Her Story, but that was a ~3 hour game played in a small window so I could just do it right on Notepad. This is so much I doubt I'd even be able to keep track of my own notes
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So I've got all but one of the stories finished (not counting the locked one) but only probably <1/4 of the identities uncovered

geez this is tough. I'm hoping once the final story's done things will start piecing together easier
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That sounds at about the right pace. You're really supposed to take in what's going on at first and kind of go back and piece all the details together later I think. A lot of stuff is being very observant and I dont think you are expected to get all that on the first view because usually it's a lot to take in and you're looking for other bodies
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quick tip since it's about to be relevant for you: the storm is not an actual time limit, even if the guy on the boat makes it sound that way. It's just a signal for "hey, you've found all the memories on the ship, you can go trigger the ending if you want or stay here to solve more"

And if you're going for 100% solved, the game will straight up tell you "you've done everything you can on the Obra Dinn" when you reach the point where you can safely leave for it, so dw about that
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tempted to keep powering through this to see how far I get (already played a lot today) but also just got Red Dead 2 and want to start that
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alright so all the stories are finished and I've got 18 fates correctly sealed (well, technically 19 because if I got Samuel Peters right then I know I have Nathan Peters right)

time to start digging one by one I suppose
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up to 39 solved

figuring out everyone that fell off the boat in The Doom and everyone that escaped to Africa was a huge help

also the four Indian seamen ended up being process of elimination
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I haven't played but it sounds a lot like The Painscreek Killings, which was great
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Johnbobb posted...

also the four Indian seamen ended up being process of elimination

You can figure out three of them conclusively and then get the fourth through process of elimination (unless that's what you mean here and I'm dumb)
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Zyxyz0 posted...

Johnbobb posted...

also the four Indian seamen ended up being process of elimination

You can figure out three of them conclusively and then get the fourth through process of elimination (unless that's what you mean here and I'm dumb)

I actually mostly just guessed them until I got them right

I think I got one conclusively
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as far as I can tell, the only person here without an "end" (either death or gone missing) is the person I think is the captain's steward, who was locked up
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Johnbobb posted...

as far as I can tell, the only person here without an "end" (either death or gone missing) is the person I think is the captain's steward, who was locked up

That guy and one other, yeah
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geez I'm so close but there's just a few I have left

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNPP0IND5u8" data-time="
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oh the third mate isn't there either

hmmmmm
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The detail that differentiates the three non-obvious Indian seamen is involved in a lot of the "minor character" fates, actually, so it's kinda surprising you've gotten to "just a few left" without it... unless you're just brute-forcing things lol
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goddamnit

like the whole time I had Alarcus Nikishin basically figured out but it never accepted him because I had it as "eaten by a beast" instead of "drowned by a beast" after he died off-screen after being grabbed by one of the mermaid things
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CoD confusion can be annoying yeah, though some of the scenes actually accept multiple answers if there's ambiguity

e.g., for the lady in The End who you get near the beginning, both "crushed by falling rigging" and "clubbed by a beast" work, since there is a piece of rigging involved but the kraken is holding it with a tentacle and using it as a blunt instrument
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There is nothing left to do on the Obra Dinn

yesssssss

also "clubbed by a beast" is a hilarious description
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There's also "shot with a cannon by a beast", if you blame the kraken for turning the cannon around instead of blaming the guy who lit the fuse!
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just beat it

what a great game

I'm not sure I actually solved a lot of it the way I was supposed to. Used a lot of guesswork and especially made several wild guesses based on trying to match countries with the way people were drawn.
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the asians all being from shoes was kinda funny I thought

but the lets play Im watching just refuses to believe the guy at the helm is the helmsmen its so frustrating
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