The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 15: Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn (2018)

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FOURTH time in a row we're playing a pick of mine! Return of the Obra Dinn is a special game by all accounts. Created by Lucas Pope, who also brought us Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn is set aboard a fictional East India Company ghost ship in the early 1800s whose crew and passengers have all mysteriously died or disappeared. And it's up to the player to investigate and figure out exactly what happened. For insurance purposes, of course.

You can find the wikipedia page here, usual spoiler warning apply. How Long to Beat estimates about 8-9 hours to completion. Available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Switch, PS4, Xbox One (currently 20% off on Steam)!

You can find the main thread over this way. We'll be playing Return of the Obra Dinn in January 2020, with an extra month if need be.

Oh its so good! I 100%ed the game when it came out last year. I'll give it another year or two for all my memories to vanish before I try again.

This game really made me wish that this style of mystery/investigation would essentially become its own platform/genre. I'd play a dozen games like this where you inspect a frozen 3d scene for clues to fill out a journal.

If you have others in your households, consider playing in a common area where others can point out things they notice and help out. I got the worst ending on my own and the best with my wife knitting and helping.

i am very interested to see what people think of this, it was one of my GOTY picks and I loved every minute of playing it (sadly it's very much a one-and-done deal, being a mystery game). I shall be following on with interest!

I played this only a few weeks ago, and it is indeed great.

polypusher wrote:

This game really made me wish that this style of mystery/investigation would essentially become its own platform/genre. I'd play a dozen games like this where you inspect a frozen 3d scene for clues to fill out a journal.

Yeah, it really seems like the sort of thing more developers should pick up on, isn't it? Maybe in some kind of fusion with the mechanics of other games like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, which have something of the investigative element to them, but which don't really make you feel like a proper detective in the way Obra Dinn does.

I'm in. Had my eye on this since the rave reviews during GOTY 2018 season.

This is on my GOTY 2019 list. Such an extremely well designed game - even if I might appreciate the design more than I appreciated playing it.

This looks interesting. I'm curious, are there ways to buy this for less than $15.99, the Steam sale price? I've poked about the usual places (Is There Any Deal, etc.), but didn't see anything.

Mr. Dragon and I finished this in January over three days (GOTY write-up coming in under the wire, I promise). We got 100% and have actually been looking to wander through it again after introducing my parents to it over Christmas. Looking forward to watching people work through it, and I'm happy to give spoilered hints if anybody needs a nudge, though there's probably also hints out there.

I had forgotten to check in on the main thread during voting but have conveniently been playing this with my brother over the holidays. We're most of the way through and hopefully we'll find a time to clean up our straggling loose ends. It's been a fantastic experience.

Put some time into it tonight and I have to say, that graphical style is impressive, even if it takes my eyes some time to reattune to a normal color range after I exit out. I really like the commodore 64 variant.

Got three ....I'm going to call them bios.... right, and have guessed at parts of several more. I've moved into the events of chapter III. The identity of the guy in the wool cap who you meet right at the beginning is driving me nuts. I have to know who he is; he turns up everywhere!

Spent another few hours on this last night. Solved 15 fates, and although I'm pretty sure I have another 4-5 right, the game disagrees. Now that there are so many scenarios unlocked, I'm beginning to lose track of who did what where with whom now.

This is a weird game to play only a few months after

Spoiler:

reading about the real life events of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, and then watching the show The Terror, season 1.

11 hours in and 45 fates solved. I've probably brute-force guessed my way through the identities of 8-10 people (after narrowing the pool of possibilities) and about 5 fates, as at times I was sure one thing happened, but the game either felt otherwise.

Also, a few of the identities (about 4) don't make sense to me, even after I found out the answer...

I'm definitely into this, even if my progress has been glacial at times.

Wow, that's solid progress!! Nicely done!
I'm hoping to get into this tomorrow now that things on the GOTY front are settling down (though the GOTD stuff is going strong!)

Finished this on Wednesday with all fates solved.

Really like what it was doing and the art style is, as everybody knows, something else. However, I'm not entirely a fan of the fact that some identities/fates can only be guessed at (after narrowing down the options) until the game tells you that you are correct (how would I know that it's correct without more clues??). I still don't understand how at least 2 of the identities make sense, even after reexamining some of the scenes. On the other hand, I like how the game sometimes plays with your assumptions based on a person's appearance.

Like I mentioned before...I brute-force guessed my way through a few identities (and a few fates) until the game told me I'm right. I wish I knew how I was supposed to do it otherwise, as I consider this method unsatisfying.

Spoiler, but sort of important if you want the good ending.

Spoiler:

I'm glad I read online that you shouldn't leave the ship unless the game tells you that there are no more fates to solve on it. At the point that leaving the ship became an option I had become stuck and wondered if more clues would be available after I left - they won't be.

Spoilers for sure! Do not read if you haven't finished!!

Spoiler:

I totally missed the glaringly obvious clue that identifies the fates of four disappearances at the end of chapter IX. I guessed until the game told me I was correct, and afterwards had my "Ooooohhhh....DUH!" moment.

I was totally on the wrong track with the fate in chapter VI, part 7. He was the last one I solved on the ship.

What the heck was with the monkey? Why the monkey paw?? I don't get it. I didn't understand the monkey's fate until reading a forum discussion, but am still not sure it was necessary.

I do so enjoy this game, it's so unique. In my GotY writeup I posited that it might be a tad bit long with too many characters but otherwise think it's something special.

Of course I haven't finished it and filed it away in the same place Breath of the Wild is stored: a place I know I can come back to when I want to experience greatness again.

I'm about seven hours in, and I am LOVING it. Solved about 30 fates, some of them I'd narrowed down to one or two people and had to brute force. But yeah. Great stuff. More thoughts when I'm done (possibly on Tuesday?).

It's amazing. I love it, I can totally see why so many people do, and I absolutely adored it. Gonna catch up on the spoilers before I post more.

Two hours in now, and love it. Hope this inspires other mystery games.

Eleima wrote:

It's amazing. I love it, I can totally see why so many people do, and I absolutely adored it. Gonna catch up on the spoilers before I post more. :)

Did you get all 60?I flamed out eventually and got the "bad" ending. I would classify this as a solid "good" game - not the extraordinary masterpiece everyone else does. By the end, I got really frustrated with the game, particularly the mechanics and the graphics. Traversal was (maybe purposely?) too annoying. It should have been easier to jump back into specific memories instead of walking around and guessing which portal went where. The graphics began as "wow this is very stylized and cool" to "ah ha, this is how they obfuscate details to make it harder to guess identities."

I did enjoy it overall though. It didn't go from the highs and lows I experienced with the Outer Wilds - which went from "OMG this is my favorite game ever" to "I absolutely hate this game."

I did get all 60! Some of them towards the end I had to "brute force", because I was down to two or three candidates, so I swapped names in and out until something triggered. I really, really enjoyed it. This game spoke to my logical, analytical side, and that side is a strong, strong part of me. I had lots of fun puzzling things out, taking the puzzles apart and putting clues together. I'd like to give a hunge thank you to Pyxistyx who was an awesome audience member (bring on the puns!) and nudged me in the right direction when I was unsure how to tackle a specific problem I had.

Spoilers for the chapter "The Calling":

Spoiler:

That one really tripped me up. I'd decided the sirens were sentient and classified them as "enemy" instead of "beast" in the cause of death, which meant that I had a lot of pages that wouldn't lock in. That was slightly frustrating, but nothing too serious.

I'm sorry it didn't click with you, PaladinTom, but I can see how some of the game would not appeal to some. Some of the game can be a little obtuse, and that's bound to be frustrating.

AUs_TBirD, regarding your spoiler, I have an answer for you:

Spoiler:

When we leave the Obra Dinn, we have no idea what happened in the Lazarette. We vaguely here something about the Captain being below deck when the Kraken attacks, and that he "drove it off", but no more. Having the monkey die in the Lazarette and keeping a piece of the body allows to start what I called a "memory chain". You start the memory of the monkey's death, and can then jump to the memorty of the death of the body that you find in the Lazarette where the monkey was killed (Martin first I believe). From there, you jump to the two sirens and then to the Captain's Steward. Much like the chain in the "The Calling" chapter (the one where Nichols, the second mate, attempts to escape with the Formosan royalty and the treasure), you can only access those memories from the deck of the ship and threading back. not sure if that helps or not, but that's how I see it. :)

Yep

Spoiler:

once I suddenly was made to realize that the paw started the chain during your stream yesterday, it was all so clear. Not sure why I didn't process that during my playthrough. I'm guessing it was because I was getting far too little sleep

I also thought that I had marked George Shirley's fate as "torn apart by beast" and that it accepted it, but I seem to be misremembering. Funny that my last fate solved on the ship was also the ship's steward. It was kind of fitting how -if that's your last memory solved - once you're told there's nothing left to do on the ship, you exit the memory via a long corridor to the exit door.

I really dug the game too, but I can't give it top marks because of my previous comments regarding the necessity of guessing some identities and fates. I hope subsequent games in this feature logical reasoning as a path to all solutions .

I also had to brute force some solutions, and after I played I found ways that you could make a logical deduction on identities. The game does ask you to make some assumptions which I think are meant to make you feel a bit uncomfortable. The ship represents a highly stratified society, and that is used for many of the deductions.

We had the same understanding of that part, eleima. The whole story had to be documented.

The fates were solvable with some deduction and careful guessing. For instance:

Spoiler:

Clothing and rank is important. The stewards are dressed similarly, as are the other ranks. Noticing who is giving and taking orders can also be a hint. Accents are critical.

As I mentioned in the GOTY post, we finally identified the Chinese topmen because they wear different shoes. In one scene you can see them in their hammocks, which are all labeled with the crew number. Then between the drawings and other scenes we figured them all out.

I think we were also lucky to not stumble on phrasing the deaths. That's a frustrating way to miss a lock.

Hmmmm. Question about the first little group of people.

Spoiler:

The captain appears to have shot himself so I selected Captain as the identity of the body and means of death 'shot' but there isn't an option to select the captains name from the list for the person who killed him. Am I missing something or is it not the captain?

Higgledy wrote:

Hmmmm. Question about the first little group of people.

Spoiler:

The captain appears to have shot himself so I selected Captain as the identity of the body and means of death 'shot' but there isn't an option to select the captains name from the list for the person who killed him. Am I missing something or is it not the captain?

Spoiler:

There is an option for suicide as cause of death.

Higgledy wrote:

Hmmmm. Question about the first little group of people.

Spoiler:

The captain appears to have shot himself so I selected Captain as the identity of the body and means of death 'shot' but there isn't an option to select the captains name from the list for the person who killed him. Am I missing something or is it not the captain?

I can give you a nudge in the right direction on that one.

Spoiler:

He has indeed shot himself. Which in other terms, would be... suicide. you should have phrasing in there along those lines, suicide by gun. "Shot" is for shot by someone else.

ActualDragon wrote:

We had the same understanding of that part, eleima. The whole story had to be documented.

The fates were solvable with some deduction and careful guessing. For instance:

Spoiler:

Clothing and rank is important. The stewards are dressed similarly, as are the other ranks. Noticing who is giving and taking orders can also be a hint. Accents are critical.

As I mentioned in the GOTY post, we finally identified the Chinese topmen because they wear different shoes. In one scene you can see them in their hammocks, which are all labeled with the crew number. Then between the drawings and other scenes we figured them all out.

I think we were also lucky to not stumble on phrasing the deaths. That's a frustrating way to miss a lock.

You're absolutely right on that:

Spoiler:

This is something I picked up pretty quickly during my streams, especially for the officers' hats, the midshipmen's shirts and scarves and the stewards' collars. The Captain's steward was a bit of a fluke, having him in the top drawing kinda threw me off. And the bosun's mate who is French, had a very subtle, very late accent, so I missed that at first. But you're absolutely right that the game puts you in a position where you have to make certain assumptions, and as a very, very white person, it did make me slightly uncomfortable to hear words like "well, I think this guy looks like he's from Sierra Leone." Definitely.

Ah thanks both.

Wrapped this up a few days ago but I’ve been sitting on it and processing the experience. That was a helluva game. I’m a big fan of Papers, Please, so I had high hopes for Pope’s next game. This lived up to and exceeded them. 

For me, there were two main strengths to this game: the unique quasi retro art style and the detective gameplay. 

1. "Retro" art style - I’m a sucker for unique art styles in games and this drew me in immediately. I love the quirkiness (the sound options and monitor options lol) and the distinctiveness. I was worried it would distract from the gameplay or immersion but I found myself completely forgetting about the style within a few minutes and it just felt natural. It gave certain scenes a sense of dread that a more realistic portrayal might have cheapened. It reminds me of cartoony art giving more depth to games than ones that are trying too hard to be photorealistic. 

2. Detective gameplay - I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that really made me feel like an investigator like this did. Other murder-mysteries are a bit too on-rails or lead you on with one mandatory clue at a time. This could be pieced together slowly from the beginning to the end, all while you’re juggling (the total number of deaths to be solved)

Spoiler:

60 (!!) deaths or disappearances

I loved that there were threads I had picked up on in the first 10 minutes that weren’t finally resolved until hours later. I loved that almost everything could be logically determined, even if it took quite a while to find that last clue in an unrelated death scene. I loved that it relied so heavily on discovering the clues for yourself, nearly 100% on show-don’t-tell. I loved that piecing together all these parts revealed a surprisingly intimate look at these characters lives. There were so many brilliant aspects to the design that it’s hard to not gush about everything. 

Other minor points: 
- I really appreciate that the investigator could be either male or female, chosen randomly when you create your save.  I didn't realize this until I read a bit about the game later. I had to start it up again to verify!
- The music was excellent.  I was humming the shanties for days. Should've known, since I still hum the Papers, Please theme randomly.
- The sound effects were excellent.  Maybe a little too good, leading to my next point... 
- The theme was a bit too macabre for my wife. She only watched a bit before the sound effects of all the deaths were a little too violent/realistic/unnerving.  I'd been hoping to piece together the puzzle with her and share the experience, but ended up mostly playing solo.  
- As Lara Crigger pointed out in this week's conference call, the causes of death could have been time-appropriate yet very unpleasant to discover (sexual violence, cannibalism, etc).  The game tiptoed a fine line of avoiding overtly unpleasant deaths or violence while still feeling true to the time period.  Examples of unpleasant "realistic" deaths that I think didn't quite cross the line:

Spoiler:

a lot of overt racism leading to violence, "icky" beast violence, murder resulting from greed, murder resulting from mutiny, innocent framed man being executed

- The game was just the right length.  I was about ready to move on when I figured out the last few details I was missing, and it felt like a complete experience.  

A couple criticisms: 
- A handful of the causes of death were a little too nit picky in my opinion. Examples:

Spoiler:

(Was the siren or the thing riding the spider a beast or an enemy...? Was the man pulled overboard by a siren killed by drowning by beast or by falling overboard?)  

- I did end up brute forcing a handful of identities when I couldn’t logic through them. I think there were probably hints I never picked up on somewhere, but maybe it could’ve been just a smidge more obvious. Example:

Spoiler:

Identifying the multiple Chinese top men or a few random mid-level officers

- Achievement related spoiler:

Spoiler:

I dislike that one of the achievements requires playing a very unusual way through the whole game.  Feels like a lot of wasted time to get through the whole game without identifying anything correctly.

Overall: I really enjoyed this experience and very highly recommend.  

Sasu wrote:

- I did end up brute forcing a handful of identities when I couldn’t logic through them. I think there were probably hints I never picked up on somewhere, but maybe it could’ve been just a smidge more obvious. Example:

Spoiler:

Identifying the multiple Chinese top men or a few random mid-level officers

I managed to figure out the topmen one eventually, and it was a really satisfying clue to figure out.

Spoiler:

In the section where they're sleeping in the hammocks, you can see how the sailors split up by race and other factors. For the topmen, you can figure them out by the numbers on the hammocks and their legs that are sticking out.

But yeah, there was a little fiddlyness with some of the clues and I think I bruted around a couple.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Sasu wrote:

- I did end up brute forcing a handful of identities when I couldn’t logic through them. I think there were probably hints I never picked up on somewhere, but maybe it could’ve been just a smidge more obvious. Example:

Spoiler:

Identifying the multiple Chinese top men or a few random mid-level officers

I managed to figure out the topmen one eventually, and it was a really satisfying clue to figure out.

Spoiler:

In the section where they're sleeping in the hammocks, you can see how the sailors split up by race and other factors. For the topmen, you can figure them out by the numbers on the hammocks and their legs that are sticking out.

But yeah, there was a little fiddlyness with some of the clues and I think I bruted around a couple.

Spoiler:

Agreed. We used the shoes and the hammock numbers for the topmen. For the mid-level stewards we used a lot of clues about who they were near in both the drawing and the scenes, nationalities, and the like. It's been a year and I can't remember specific examples, but if there was guesswork through that section I think it was educated guessing.

Just finally finished playing through with my brother. About 13 hours for the full completion, which is above the average, but seems reasonable since we were taking our time and chatting (and were wrong about a couple things for a while and had trouble finding one body). We did have some questions:

Spoiler:

1. Was the thing that the Doctor does with the monkey just so that he'd have the paw to send us later?
2. Did the goat ever figure in at all? Does it just get lost in the squid attack? We kept waiting for a payoff with it.
3. The Chinese top men - there didn't seem to be a way to tell them apart, so at times we had two other fates locked in, we started taking one of the top men's deaths where we were sure about the cause and then were going to cycle through assigning it to each of the four of them by elimination. Only, every time we did this, it locked in as correct on the first one we selected. Was this luck or does the game/the colonialist British authorities not care about distinguishing between the four of them?

Overall, it was a lot of fun. And it was a good way to spend time with family at a time when we especially needed it. There were a couple bits that were anticlimactic, where we were expecting a lot of information from a new chain of memories and instead it turned out we needed to do more work on what we already had. But there were also plenty of good surprises, where we made a connection or a memory revealed some striking, unexpected detail.