played RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN (dev. lucas pope, 2018)
before all else, please play this game. don't wait as long as i did to play it. in return of the obra dinn, the titular ship, which went missing at sea during its final voyage to "the orient", returns to england. the ship's crew and passengers is missing or dead. cue the character who you play as, the inspector. they are tasked with unraveling the thread of events which caused this ship to meet its fate (with encounters with The Horrors along the ride) and ascertain how the east india company will deal with the multiple insurance claims. armed with a memento mortem (a watch which allows you to watch the final moments of a person's life) and a notebook (containing a crew log, maps, and sketches of the crew), you set out to do just that. everything that follows is nothing short of pure brilliance.
for each death scene, the game asks you: who is this person? how did they die? causes of death will be easily ascertained. it is the identities of the souls on board which will give you trouble. the game requires you to pay attention to everything, even things that you may not be used to thinking of as material to make your deductions. any combination of dialogue, physical appearance, relationships, and contextual clues may be used to make your inferences. the game only confirms your inferences once you have three correct identity and fate combinations, which prevents you from brute forcing it. la noire may be the best detective story i've engaged with in gaming, but obra dinn is the best detective game i have played.
some spoilery thoughts below because this game is superbly made.
lucas pope certainly has an eye for historical details that bolster the game. i adored the inclusion of the formosans, i adored the inclusion of the lascars. the care that was put into the languages and how this added a dimension to the narrative, particularly how the powers that be in this deeply imperialistic enterprise will use language differences to put down the foreigners and get them killed. of course, this game about unveiling a complicated weave of events also contends with the way stories are shaped. you witness the narratives that pass from person to person inside the ship with very heavy—and often lethal—consequences. the insurance agent will weave their own tale, in a very insurance lenses sort of way, that nitpicks the details. a man did not die by execution, it was a gunshot by a particular person that killed him. the eldritch creatures are abstracted away as a singular "terrible beast" that will be parsed out in whatever way the people of the east india company will want to parse them out. the very drawing of an execution at sea is a retelling of events filtered by the artist's own intentions—a man who in the real execution was looking away in shock and horror is portrayed in the drawing as watching on stoically.
lucas pope has a way with the kafkaesque. he showcased this ability brilliantly in papers, please. in return of the obra dinn he does not play his hand as openly, but it is evidently there. in a world with magical pocket watches which allow you to peer into the final moments of someone's life, these objects will be used as tools for insurance agencies. the horrors are abstracted away, and you will be left wondering as to what the true monstrosity at the center of this tale is.
- "why does anyone think picking a fight with a yakuza looking Mcbuffy dude is a good idea?! Is everyone in Kamurocho drunk?"
- He hates the mesuking minigame because it's as sexist as it is. I have great friends 💜
- "Is that gay pirate dude going to fight us in every minigame just to fight us?"
"Basically"
"....I want a rival boyfriend like that"
- General delight whenever Majima is on screen, usually accompanied by a variation of "There is! / There's ma dude!/ Here he comes!!!!"
- We played the subquests with Kiryu applying for the banana bar and after some silence he just said "I had my doubts but he can't hide it anymore, can he?"
- We meet Goromi and he said he was in immediatly. "She can fight. In THOSE HEELS?! Damn. Marry me."
So. I have created another Majima lover and Kazumaji shipper (no I did not spoil/push anything. He just. Looked at the screen and went "Oh. Oh no.")
