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   Return of the Obra Dinn is a new first-person mystery game by Lucas Pope. You're given the role of an East India Company bean counter and tasked with investigating a lost ship that has somehow returned with no one aboard left alive. You have only two tools to aid you on your solitary mission:   The first is a journal that starts with a complete passenger manifest, the Obra Dinn's deck plans, and a map of her intended voyage. It also records all your findings and deductions as you advance your investigation. The second is a little more out there:  Whenever you find someone's remains or a place where someone died, you can use your skull watch to see and hear their final seconds, frozen in an explorable 3-D tableau.    Most murder mysteries name the victim right up front and ask how they died; Return of the Obra Dinn does the exact opposite, showing you the moment and manner of each crewman's demise and challenging you to puzzle out their identities by matching faces to names & fates. Once or twice you'll be lucky enough to just hear somebody's name straight out, but most of the time you'll have to carefully look and listen for all the clues you can--voices, accents, movements, possessions, duty stations, friends, enemies...there's no telling what information might prove useful.   You've already noticed the striking monochrome art style. You can choose whichever ancient CRT display strikes your fancy but the Obra Dinn always remains crisply detailed and easy to read, even in her most chaotic moments.      Return of the Obra Dinn doesn't feature any big OH poo poo plot twists but it's still a deeply engaging, solidly-assembled mystery, and every bit as unique an experience as you might expect from the man who brought us Papers, Please.  captain did it Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 23, 2018 00:43
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:00 |
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Accordion Man posted:The moral of the story is to don't ever steal from Formosans. fixed Begemot posted:Also there's this bald guy with like a striped shirt who shows up in a TON of scenes but I can't figure out his name and it's driving me insane. lol that guy was one of the last I figured out too. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Oct 23, 2018 |
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Oct 23, 2018 00:59
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Most likely, but they had it handled until that jerk got greedy and hosed everything up.
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Oct 23, 2018 01:04
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he occupies the most vital position on the crew  also the journal lists him with the officers
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Oct 23, 2018 01:58
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imho a better tip for people who are mad about the gender of their inspector is "don't be a dingus"
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Oct 23, 2018 02:19
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AbstractNapper posted:I'm still not really sure about why the tattooed guy that gets torn apart is unblurred so early in the game, but not right from the start or at least from the first memory he is introduced. I thought it was because you can assume his origin/nationality from the fact that he is covered in tattoos, but perhaps it is something else I missed?. In my first playthrough I was only comfortable identifying him quite later in the game, where you get an additional clue. Nah, you didn't miss anything there. GraveVideos posted:I must say I already don't like being spoiled that the bald guy I'll fix that quote:Anyway, what I would add to the game is the ability to write your own notes on both the list of names and the crew photos. Also an ability to jump to the already visited memory scenes directly from the journal. It would own if you could get glossy fold-outs of the manifest, deck map, and sketch sheet. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Oct 23, 2018 |
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Oct 23, 2018 12:46
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Chomposaur posted:One spoilery question: were the deaths of the dudes who tried to peace out on the rowboat before the beast attack actually visible on-screen? I just kinda surmised the beast got them since a horrific tentacle beast popped out right where they lowered themselves into the ocean. You can see three guys being flung out of a boat when the tattooed guy is being torn apart.
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Oct 23, 2018 23:57
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xthetenth posted:Also, ending spoiler, is there a way to make it so that The guys who accidentally shoot fellow crewmen aren't fined? You could probably leave their victims as "shot with a gun by an unknown attacker," but I don't think you can get Chapter VIII that way.
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Oct 24, 2018 12:02
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I don't think it gets explained before you actually try it. You can also jump right to somebody's journal page if you open it while looking at their remains and holding up the watch. Additionally, you can click on unfilled fates in the crew manifest if you want to just match a face and name before having their page filled in.
Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 12:44
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Phenotype posted:I see you guys talking about getting different endings -- how can your actions make any difference? Apart from uncovering the story, your actions have only a very minor impact. The biggest difference is that you only ever get to see Chapter 8 if you fill out all the others correctly, although it doesn't hold any shocking revelations. You don't actually have to get anyone's names or fates right, though. The only condition for reaching the ending is witnessing every scene. Once you've done that, you can get back on your rowboat and leave even if the rest of the book is a complete blank. And hey, maybe you don't want the East India Company to know the whole truth. If your report implicates anyone in a killing, even an accidental or justifiable one, then the Company will fine their family . Maybe you decide you don't want that happening to someone, so you fudge your report to say their victim or victims had a different killer or a different cause of death. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 18:39
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Dominoes posted:Is that the EZIC star shining from the sea? Short answer: ________________________________no________________________________
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Oct 26, 2018 02:42
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Bold Robot posted:The other two seem solved to me, but I haven't gotten any confirmation: This one's wrong.
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Oct 26, 2018 02:51
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Yes.
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Oct 26, 2018 03:24
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dmboogie posted:the thing that really gets me about the second mate's mutiny is that the poor old royal guy sacrificed his life to fend off the mermaids... but by the time he manages to open the chest, the only one left to save is the rear end in a top hat who started the whole mess, and he only lives long enough to bring the doom back to the ship before getting rightfully blasted in the face. He was also sacrificing his life to keep the shells out of the sea people's hands...which they now have.  
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Oct 26, 2018 11:29
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tonberrytoby posted:e: does anybody know enough about ships to tell me what those walks on the orlop deck are even for? shivering the timbers, mostly
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Oct 26, 2018 22:52
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Elendil004 posted:How are you supposed to get alive, in Africa? I got it by trial and error for the 4 in the boat, but I tried all the islands nearby first. What's the clue? hint: It's not anything you'll see on the boat.
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Oct 28, 2018 01:06
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Elendil004 posted:Hah I never connected those, too meta. I feel like I'm at the guessing stage. Been through all the scenes twice though I can't seem to find the hammock scene again. There are a couple but you're probably thinking of Scene 2-1--the wrapped body by the stern stairs on the orlop deck.
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Oct 28, 2018 01:28
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I've found something I don't get. Emily Jackson and Miss Jane Bird's sketch portraits are clear from the moment you first see them, during Scene VII-8. What clues am I missing that would identify them that early on?
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Oct 28, 2018 19:05
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 This loving game.
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Oct 28, 2018 19:27
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Dominoes posted:I believe there's a line explicitly saying there are 3 shells. xthetenth posted:Which is very interesting considering that Chioh Tan, the guard, who's one of four people you'd expect to really know what he's talking about specifically says *the* shell. My thought is that the crew only has a very brief bit of dialog before Tan is spiked and the chef's death to work from and draw an incorrect conclusion about shells vs the Shell. You're both right. The Formosans had only one shell in their possession. The others were captured with the mermaids; when they attack Nichols and his merry men in Chapter IV, you can see two of them wearing shells in their hair.
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Oct 28, 2018 21:46
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Unkempt posted:I must be the densest bastard on the planet because I'm getting nowhere with this. I've got the first three fates and now I've got two guys I should apparently be able to identify. One is the tattooed guy from The Doom part 7 who gets torn up by the kraken - later on someone tells the bosun that his mate gets torn apart so I thought Bosun's Mate, but apparently not? He doesn't really look like a bosun's mate, not that I know what one of those looks like.. But the one that's really bothering me is the one before that from Doom part 6 because he's only in two memories, one where he's getting blown the gently caress up by a keg of gunpowder and doesn't say anything and the one directly before that where he's just... running up the stairs? I have no idea how I'm supposed to get it from that. What am I missing there? Your second man has some more info in other memories where he doesn't appear.
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Oct 28, 2018 22:55
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Occultatio posted:I did note that, in addition to some people being mysteriously unblurred without obvious cause, there are other figures (like the surgeon) whom it is 100% possible to ID from context clues before their portraits clear up. Not sure what that's about, or why it sometimes gives only a single Difficulty Triangle to figures that took me forever -- was there a way I missed to tell which of the Indian crewmen was the one leaning over the sick guy's hammock in A Deadly Cold? Because that was marked one triangle, and I couldn't resolve it until close to the end of the game. The hammock numbers again--or rather, he's the only Indian seaman who doesn't get a hammock number there.
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Oct 29, 2018 11:52
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Rookersh posted:Last one With the way they had to leave, they definitely didn't have any money left for passage on another ship. Besides, if they go back then the East India Company charges them with Boat Crimes and throws them in The Obra Dinn was bound for the Orient; presumably none of the passengers planned on returning to England any time soon, even before disaster struck. Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Nov 5, 2018 |
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Nov 5, 2018 04:56
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Look at the ship's steward again. Try checking the scene in the present day.
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Nov 5, 2018 20:45
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stalagspikes hang spikely stalagspears might spear the roof
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Nov 6, 2018 19:00
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If it's started raining, then you've seen everything.
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Nov 7, 2018 00:40
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Just as long as you don't look at a dude covered in flames and go "I think he was shot or maybe it's illness????" poo poo's bad for my blood pressure.
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Dec 7, 2018 11:09
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tonberrytoby posted:I get more annoyed at the people who see that the tatooed guy was torn apart, hear that the bosun's mate was torn apart and decide that they must be the same person. Especially when they start loudly arguing with them self about if french people wear "celtic" tribal tattoos. Once they figure out they are wrong, they decide he clearly was Scottish. krakens are incredibly precise and selective with their kills, it's why they're called "the ninjas of the sea"
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Dec 8, 2018 12:56
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Vib Rib posted:He's one of only two people you can ID (meaning face unblurred) before ever even using the stopwatch once. Who's the other?
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Dec 11, 2018 01:00
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His face never actually unblurs though 
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Dec 13, 2018 20:51
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double nine posted:just got started with this and I have a few user questions: when I use the watch to enter a memory/past scene, at some point the screen swirls to black and a little audio clip will play. Do I need to zoom in to a specific character to trigger this, is it on a timer, do I need to move into a specific place in a scene? It's timed. The scene exit unlocks after the fade-out, but you don't actually have to leave until you're good and ready so don't rush. quote:Is the weird swirly effect around the pocket watch explained? It starts showing up after solving the first/last "the end" chapter. I'm assuming it's plot related but I don't know what to think of it, do the bodies show up, is the player character corpse-blind at first ... Do you mean how it shakes and spits out a ghost-cloud that makes bodies show up? That's just so you can go back to deaths where the remains aren't actually present for whatever reason.
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Jan 2, 2019 11:54
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For the carpenter & mate: There's a scene in Unholy Captives, I think when the cook bites it, where they're both in the carpenter's workshop but one of them is stepping out to peep some awesome fish tits while the other continues working. That tells you which one has seniority. The carpenter's mate also says "I've got this boss!" in the scene where he dies, and the carpenter is crouched behind him saying "No get down!" and trying to pull him to safety.
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Jan 4, 2019 17:04
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Dalaram posted:So back on Maba Chat, is there some reasonable way to know that his tats are from New Zealand? I had him pegged as Celtic, before I thought he as french, before I finally had no other non-chinese topmen to say he was from NG. Celtic symbols weren't a very popular tattoo style back around 1800.
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Jan 14, 2019 03:00
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That's not what happened. Putting the shell in the mercury is how you activate its siren-seeking missiles. The Formosans used that bottom drawer for storage. Also it's not exactly mercury because it burns your flesh off. Nichols didn't kill the guard, he killed a passenger who caught him and framed the guard for it.
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Jan 17, 2019 16:55
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The Bargain takes place after Soldiers of the Sea and The Doom, though. Chinese Topmen would be a decent band name imho
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Jan 18, 2019 11:53
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Nothing that wouldn't be spoilers. You're off to a good start.
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Jan 25, 2019 01:13
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Poque posted:I feel stupid that it took me so long to realize that the pocketwatch isn't showing an actual time, but the chapter # as the hour hand and the part # as the minute hand in related news: the locked doors that open for you aren't just being videogamey, they open after you've seen them open in a death scene
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Jan 27, 2019 12:18
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Pretty sure there's only one right answer for that guy.
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Feb 5, 2019 16:13
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Gun Jam posted:And unrelated question about character motivation (spoilers about the doom, part 8): Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the captain down in the lazarette attacking the mermaids at this point? She wouldn't have known about them.
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Nov 11, 2019 11:53
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:00 |
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K8.0 posted:Just finished getting through this game and I'm quite disappointed. I'm still trying to avoid spoilers, but I wound up having exactly the sort of experience I was hoping I wouldn't have. Only ID'd ~20 people. I could have picked up a few more if I didn't find the ending sequence an utterly obnoxious guessing festival (for example, how do you tell what the gently caress are the death causes for either of the formosans? "Magic" and "bitten" aren't options and I guess after seeing all the scenes I could have gone back and tried electrocuted/poisoned but that feels like a really lovely guess), but for the most part I really don't know what I missed. I assume there are a few I could probably find out by spending a ton of time combing through every scene with people in bunks, like which Peters brother was crushed by cargo, but I was so disappointed with the end sequence that I kinda stopped caring. "clawed" and "burned" are like right there quote:I'm really not sure what I am missing. Even very early there are some people that become IDable for reasons that seem completely opaque to me. For example, IIRC the guy that Abigail is talking to is IDable from her scene and I have no idea how you could possibly conclude anything about him from that scene. The further I got into the game, the worse this became, with characters becoming identifiable seemingly at random. For the entire second half of the game I only ID'd people in ways I considered really obvious - names, obvious job roles, and one piece of gear the Persian guy has his sword hanging near his bunk. I spotted one or two other things that seemed like they were intended to serve the same function but never noticed them show up anywhere. What am I overlooking? I don't think you're just supposed to blindly guess through a set of possibilities, that seems really cheesy and un-fun, so I know I must be overlooking some things, but I have no idea what. Abigail calls him by name iirc. The ones that knocked me over were the other people who are ID-able from that scene. You're on to something with the bunks, but it doesn't seem like you're giving them quite enough attention.
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Feb 8, 2020 00:28
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