Ending discussion [Spoilers obviously]

[Mowup]

i've just beat the game, managed to uncover all the identities and the fate of everyone, but still, i thought there was going to be a timelapse or something that would tell the whole story but thats fine.

What i wanted to discuss is what are those shells? Just some cursed artifact brought in by the formosa royalty? Did it cause all of those unfortunate deaths? Because there were a lot of accidents, misuderstandings, some sort of plague, betrayals etc.

Also, maybe it was something that the sea wanted back and that's why there was a bunch of sirens and a kraken? Did it made some of the crew mad like something out of a lovecraftian story or they just thought it was valuable so that's why some tried to steal it?

Another thing, were the shells stored on that chest? Or was that just something different, something that seemed to give whoever put his hand inside a power capable of killing the creatures or banishing the kraken, perhaps that's what Filipe Dahl did and not the captain?

I am still trying to figure these things out, but that was an awesome game, thanks for this masterpiece Lucas Pope, i knew this would be this good back in 2014 or 2015 when i played the demo.

[Horagema]

As much as I understand, these shells are some sea relics, which was stolen by Formosan Republic (that's why there is 4 formosan people on the ship - to guard it). Shells are contained in a sacred box created by sea gods, and whoever opens it will get burned to death (deaths of It-Beng Sia and Fillip Dahl, who tried to take shells in the hands). Also these shells bear a curse, and the forces of sea and nature itself (death of Huang Li who was thunderstruck). Sea really needs those shells back.
Captain somehow figured it out, and threw it off the ship at the end of the Doom chapter. That's why Alfred Klestil, the Bosun, says "The curse like that won't come off by itself". Filipp Dahl was nothing but a simple fool, who became mad because of all the things that happened.
Betrayals... well, it's just a human factor. Just imagine - 2 guys getting killed in England, they didn't even sail away. And over time they thought that captain is unlucky, and they need to kill him.

[Lisbon Mapping]

I was a bit disappointed by chapter 7 after all the buildup, but the game is still great. I don't really understand what happened with the third mate's death though, why he was there and what he was doing with the siren/mermaid etc

[Mowup]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Exort Essence:

As much as I understand, these shells are some sea relics, which was stolen by Formosan Republic (that's why there is 4 formosan people on the ship - to guard it). Shells are contained in a sacred box created by sea gods, and whoever opens it will get burned to death (deaths of It-Beng Sia and Fillip Dahl, who tried to take shells in the hands). Also these shells bear a curse, and the forces of sea and nature itself (death of Huang Li who was thunderstruck). Sea really needs those shells back.
Captain somehow figured it out, and threw it off the ship at the end of the Doom chapter. That's why Alfred Klestil, the Bosun, says "The curse like that won't come off by itself". Filipp Dahl was nothing but a simple fool, who became mad because of all the things that happened.
Betrayals... well, it's just a human factor. Just imagine - 2 guys getting killed in England, they didn't even sail away. And over time they thought that captain is unlucky, and they need to kill him.

Yeah that seems to make sense, also, did Henry Evans kill his monkey to be able to see the death of Martin Perrot and uncover the bargain chapter? If so, that means he already had the pocketwatch with him, more questions.

[Horagema]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Omega:

Yeah that seems to make sense, also, did Henry Evans kill his monkey to be able to see the death of Martin Perrot and uncover the bargain chapter? If so, that means he already had the pocketwatch with him, more questions.

Well, I'm not really sure about a monkey kill, but I can think of 2 options:

A) It's as much as you said, the monkey kill was the linking kill. He found a pocketwatch earlier on the ship, somewhere before the Chapter V. Then he ripped monkey's hand off, and stashed it.

B) It's sacrifice. Captain has killed 2 sirens, plus the crew killed one of those spider-like things. Sea needed 3 sacrifies, which was deaths of Martin Perrot, Fillip Dahl and the monkey (but here's the catch - I think that he has killed his monkey, as if he was buying some time for himself, he passed away 1 year later). After those 3 kills, the next deaths was created by humans.

I prefer the B option, since that chapter is called "Bargain", and that's kinda make sense.

[TcheQ]

Can someone tell me what the alleged 'bad' ending is? Or did I get the bad ending and now I have to find the good ending? Basically I got all fates...so I dunno.

[Rolfitude]

My understanding is that there are two types of endings: getting 58 fates correct before leaving the ship (and unlocking the Bargain for the epilogue) and not. I think the latter case has some variations based on how many fates you did get correct but it's basically 'you're in your study and you get a letter saying that Henry Evans has passed away'.

[Lim-Dul]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rolfitude:

My understanding is that there are two types of endings: getting 58 fates correct before leaving the ship (and unlocking the Bargain for the epilogue) and not. I think the latter case has some variations based on how many fates you did get correct but it's basically 'you're in your study and you get a letter saying that Henry Evans has passed away'.

I can confirm that there are multiple 'bad endings' but the differences are minute. Depending on the number of uncovered fates Henry Evans is either satisfied or dissatisfied with your performance but not giving you access to the final chapter (in one case it says he even dies BECAUSE of you sending back the book in such a shoddy state :P).

[Sinquetica]

I don't think the ending makes much thematic sense, and I was let down by the pacing. Five unexplorable static scenes featuring only a few characters. I didn't have any questions going in, really, except "what is this last bit". Ultimately I felt that the detail-oriented gameplay did fairly little to support or supplement the atmospheric "mystery" story we were meant to be uncovering.

I mean, don't we know almost all of the story from the beginning? Krakens don't just show up on boats, they are always explicitly attracted to the hubris of ship captains and their unholy plunders. Don't mess with artifacts, the sea wants what it wants, etc...

[Naberius]

I loved the game, I just found the last chapter to be a slight let down. I loved that evans threw the monkey inside the lazarette to "see" what happens thanks to the watch, I got chilled when I launched Bargain 5...

but I'd have prefered to get some answers, How did Evan get the watch ? (would have been really interesting f he had it from the start and like "used it" behind the scene, so when you realize it and explore the scenes that he's in, you can piece some sort of paralele narrative in or something)

But yeah, "bargain" doesn't have much, the captain acts like a bad ass, drives the kraken away, 3rd mate throws one of the mermaid away... and that's it. I'd have loved to have some sort of answers about the box's powers or the shell (I think that they were some sort of "sirene charm" crewmembers seemed to be attracted to them to a crazy level ?)

[ricky1981]

I also found chapter 7 pretty weak, to be honest the whole story actually isn't too strong but appears more interesting due to the great gameplay mechanic and the mysterious way it's wrapped up.

I'd love to see Lucas or someone else do a similar game but with a deeper/more intriguing story.

Still 100% worth playing though!

[Sinquetica]

I think Henry Evans, like us, is mostly incidental to the action of the story. I don't think I would have been satisfied with an origin of the magic pocketwatch as the ending to this story, which is ostensibly about this group of people and how they came to die. The monkey was a clever bit, but there's not much in the story for the Bargain chapter to reveal or resolve. There's not even a bargain, as far as I could tell...

[Mowup]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Xelias:

I loved the game, I just found the last chapter to be a slight let down. I loved that evans threw the monkey inside the lazarette to "see" what happens thanks to the watch, I got chilled when I launched Bargain 5...

but I'd have prefered to get some answers, How did Evan get the watch ? (would have been really interesting f he had it from the start and like "used it" behind the scene, so when you realize it and explore the scenes that he's in, you can piece some sort of paralele narrative in or something)

But yeah, "bargain" doesn't have much, the captain acts like a bad ass, drives the kraken away, 3rd mate throws one of the mermaid away... and that's it. I'd have loved to have some sort of answers about the box's powers or the shell (I think that they were some sort of "sirene charm" crewmembers seemed to be attracted to them to a crazy level ?)

Yes, i gotta admit that i thought that the bargain chapter was going to be mind blowing. I'd love if Lucas made another game on the same universe, exploring more the lore of the sea and the pocketwatch. But perhaps that was the point, to everything to be mysterious, Papers please for example had a lot of world building but we never got to explore all the different countries, so i guess this game could end here.

[Mowup]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Sinquetica:

I think Henry Evans, like us, is mostly incidental to the action of the story. I don't think I would have been satisfied with an origin of the magic pocketwatch as the ending to this story, which is ostensibly about this group of people and how they came to die. The monkey was a clever bit, but there's not much in the story for the Bargain chapter to reveal or resolve. There's not even a bargain, as far as I could tell...

Well, i think the bargain is the soul or life of whoever put his hand inside that box, it kills the person and banishes the kraken (as seen with Filipe Dahl) or kills the sirens (Ben from the formosa royalty).

[Al'Eksandar]

I think the bargain was "we set you free and throw the shells into the sea, so you leave us alone", though I don't know why they thought they had to do that, as the kraken was already pleased enough to leave.

[TheD3rp]

So what exactly was the Second Mate's deal?