One of the best 9 hours i have spent
Just finished the game yesterday and oh boy, what an experience. I absolutely adore this game.
I never thought a pixelated 3D(?) world can look so beautiful and immersive, like in the >!kraken scene!<, one of my favourite vignettes in the game. The ship Obra Dinn just keeps giving, it is so exciting and intriguing to explore each and every corner of the ship. A lot of thought and research went into designing the ship and it shows, it so well crafted with so much details. I would love to experience a whole world in that artstyle.
The gameplay and storytelling were the strongest points of this game(duh), how the game starts from the very end of the tale, keeping the player wondering who is right who is wrong, why did this happen, my mind was in a constant state of thinking and brainstroming from the >!DOOM!< chapter.
At no point during the playthrough i could predict where this story was going, until like i unlocked the chapters >!murder and the calling!<which were few of the last chapters i unlocked or around the last 2ish hours of my playthrough(i don't know if everyone unlocks the chapter in the same order or it can branch differently for different people). One of the regrets that i have is i tried guessing few characters on the basis of their accents and names, especially the >!chinese topmen!<, i didn't know i could look at their >!hammock numbers and feet !<. Now i want to do another playthrough but i already remember almost all of the fates 😭 , i need to wait months to have a blurry memory about this game so i can replay it, never wished for the ability to wipe my memory more than now.
The way the story unfolds and keeps you hooked you throughout, the constant chain of dopamine from getting 3 fates correct or even finding new information about one of the characters. The first 2-3 hours did feel a bit slow, but it is was a part of the story unfolding and was worth it. Also the chapter i liked the most was >!soldiers at sea!<, just how you can only get a glimpse from small rectangle windows or the viewing-hole(idk what to call it) after finding the body of >!zungi sathi!<and that whole chapter just keeps giving.
Also i need to talk about the character arcs of every character, almost no character feels ignored or unimportant, all the characters were well thought and well written. Every character's time on the ship feels like a story in itself that i want to know more about, how was their personal life and interactions before the incidents of the ship. MAN I JUST CAN'T STOP PRAISING THIS GAME!!!
Finally the music and sound effects were the chef's kiss, i cannot tell you how good the music hits at 3am watching a vignette of the whole ship getting attacked by spidercrabs
I don't think so i can think of a single think to complain about in this game, i would love to get recommendations for more such games!!