Sunless Sea Retrospective | The Old Dark Ocean Under the World

[@jpvilela32]

It is so nice to have someone passionately gushing about their favorite games for 1 hour or so.

[@richardsmall5265]

For real. Critique is needed as with any piece of art, but I really like just tuning into something where they’re just talking about how much they love something

[@rafasr0]

THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN.

[@candletype1a447]

"The light fades. The High Gate is closed. The Venturer and his cargo are gone, into the void. As your eyes recover, far, far, away, in the uttermost South, you glimpse a pulse of ruddy, envious light."

[@seanweb9051]

"... it's true: we eat the flesh of the beasts we hunt, as do you. But we will kill nothing that flies. The story is that they carry the airs of the Garden, that permit us to live forever. But I think it's sentiment. I think the Mountain dreams of flight..."

[@JoKad17]

I remember this summer in Fallen London when the admiralty got involved in the war everyone was chanting THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN but nope, it was just those pansy non-sequencer members of the admiralty.

[@spookydaily6590]

HE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. T

[@TheGrinningViking]

Praise the sun ☀️

[@aurum457]

I wrote a couple months ago that this retrospective convinced me to pick up the game; I wanted to follow up by saying that I'm so glad it did. I clocked close to 40 hours in my first two weeks of owning it. I've played marathons into 5am knowing I'll regret it at work the next day, all to do one more journey, unravel one more thread, discover one more mystery. I've got 100+ hours into the game now, and I *still* haven't finished my first main quest of finding my father's bones (it's become quite the generational curse for my lineage or Captains...); every time I jump back in, it feels like there's still so much for me to discover. Sunless Sea has become a firm favourite game, and I don't think I'd have ever taken the dive (pun fully intended) if I hadn't seen this retrospective and the passion you had for it. Thank you, truly!

[@candletype1a447]

Man, that's awesome to hear! Sunless Sea really is one of the most rewarding games to get into and I'm glad I could help you along in picking it up. Be sure to give Sunless Skies a go to! It's a bit of a different flavour to its predecessor, but still a great game nonetheless, and with most of the same gameplay elements.

[@tomfool23]

For what it’s worth, I adore Cultist Simulator. I think the way the intentionally opaque gameplay and the way it need to be deciphered perfectly mirrors the theme and story of descending into occult obsession is so cool and clever. It is a hurdle though and I get why it can be a block for people. Once you’re in though, the lore and occult system are amazing to slowly uncover.

[@michimatsch5862]

I got into it and it was amazing but..the timers man. The timers. Too stressful for me. I'd much rather take my time slowly exploring things. I heard the house of hours might be exactly up my alley. (also, dam, the writer clearly experienced depression and stuff himself those descriptions did put things into words I could never really describe).

[@matijamilosevic2305]

There isn't aenough Sunless Sea praise out there. I am going to enjoy this as much as your first one! Such a lovely surprise! Edit:I had to point out, we have no idea what Kingeater castle is about, not really. There are some theories, but it remains, to this day, probably one of few true mysteries of FL universe.

[@xTheOneToSaveUsAllx]

I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about it, since I don't know how much about Exceptional Stories (paid subscriber-only stories on Fallen London) is acceptable to discuss, but there has been one where it's featured, so it's some extra information on the mystery of Kingeater Castle.

[@zisaletter4602]

i'll never forget my first sunless seas playthrough. it did not last very long, as you might imagine. i didn't know what was going on. i made a few trips around a few islands and ran out of fuel just before reaching london; literally i couldve paddled in with my hands. a couple lads in a boat offered to row me in for a small fee. I did not have the money. i was genuinely well and truly stuck, except i had something: the attention of two gods. i asked one of em (i don't remember which) for help. nothing happened. i asked the other one (salt) for help. teleported!... to fcking kingeater castle. the run ended mere moments later. i have borne a distinct animosity towards salt ever since

[@korlaneumono3519]

There is a game that's built off the template of Sunless Sea called A House of Many Doors, with its own setting to work with. I absolutely adore it as a companion piece to the Sunless games, you might wanna try it!

[@TheGrinningViking]

It's very good. Like sunless sea had a child with "House of Leaves" - which is a great novel if you haven't seen it 👍🏻

[@renaperdikaki5363]

I'm hardly the first one to say this but Sunless Sea and its universe aren't appreciated enough! Thank you for this video! Failbetter and their creations don't get enough recognition.

[@FernBlackwood1995]

Finally, a long form Sunless Sea video. I could cry tears of joy.

[@wattambor1952]

Wonderful to finally see a proper Sunless Seas retrospective on KZbin! This is also one of my favourite games, and I've long fantasised about making a channel just to give this game the attention it deserves. I'm so glad that you took the time to write this love letter to a deeply underrated franchise.

[@legateelizabeth]

If you’re hankering for more adventures in the Neath, there’s a mod for Seas called ‘Sunless Stories’ that’s pretty well regarded.

[@candletype1a447]

Ah, hadn't heard of that. Cheers, I'll check it out!

[@XenoZach]

The original sunless sea video is what got me into your channel. Happy to see more coverage!

[@semeras]

Thanks for becoming a youtuber, I kickstarted this game, I love it so much

[@semeras]

YOU CAN ENABLE MANUAL SAVING?!? 500 hours, no regrets

[@candletype1a447]

@@semerasPermadeath Club!

[@mgmonteiro1]

Few pieces of media have stuck with me as much as Sunless Sea, I'm so happy to see quality content for it after many years of ruminating over the experience!

[@RyanSeanEckford]

It’s been great to see your growth with your videos. Keep it up my friend!

[@JoshuaCChan]

I had felt the same way with Dark souls when I first saw it. Was put off by the way it looked, and by the different mechanics that I was used to from shooters. Didn't try it after a few years later. That feeling of accomplishment when you finally defeat your foe! Felt the same way when you first try to get to orbit or to the moon in Kerbal Space Program. Learning and discovering.

[@Slop_Dogg]

When I first saw Demon’s Souls, it looked so different from anything else around in ‘09. I had to get my hands on it to feel how it played.

[@hairypotter259]

I love the personal growth of being able to come back and giving it another go a genuine chance 👏🏻

[@pedroneto4397]

I entered the Fallen London's universe by Sunless Sea, like you. After falling in love with it, I tried Fallen London but it seemed to me much more grindy than SS, and you have limited actions until some time has passed, unless you pay real money for more actions. And there's paid stories too. I felt more tempted to explore the Neath than to stay inside London, and returned to SS when I understood the FL's lore was not needed to play SS. Then I heard about AK leaving Failbetter, and releasing CS. Sunless Skies was out too and I bought it, but since it was chronologically after SS I decided to wait until winning it a few times. This got me actually playing CS before because it occurs in a completely different universe. And it surpassed SS as my favorite game, to the point that I started to translate it to portuguese (I'm brazilian) just to share with others the joy of playing it. It has grind and permadeath too, since it's a roguelike. But I find it very fitting for a game where you're supposed to become some sort of god, although a lovecraftian one. Imagine yourself fending thru arcane knowledge, performing secret rituals without knowing exactly how to, meeting unearthly beings, while being pursued by the Bureau for crimes made inside dreams. I have to say the writing in CS is more cohesive, since it's all done by one single person. I always felt Pigmote Island, Visage and Varchas a bit out of place in SS, despite I enjoyed them. In CS all fell at their right place, even if a lot of things may seem confuse or even wrongly written, all make sense in the end game and after playing the dlc's and NG+. And it's a revelation, the game can make you feel as if you're really learning occult knowledge. While translating I found small pieces of lore as comments in the game files. If you search Weather Factory's page the right way, you'll find hidden pages with secret lore and clues to discover further. And there's the paralels with Tarot, which leads to more lore indeed. The lore of SS is vast and fascinating, but we all know it's just an invention. The lore of CS starts as nonsense, but as you play it you start to wonder if AK was trying to portray some sort of primal mythology, on top of which the most known religions came to be. It's a narrative game, maybe more than SS because it has minimal graphics. But I recommend you to read it all, because in certain point near the endgame they all come together in your mind. If you even plan to play it again, I hope you stream it so I can watch along. Thanks and good game!

[@candletype1a447]

Aw man, you've made me want to give CS another shot even more after reading all this; that sounds so cool. Honestly, it wasn't even so much the lore that confused me when I attempted to try it, but the mechanics. I just found myself really baffled about how it worked and what I was supposed to do, but then I'm not all that bright! I'll defo give it another shot though; there's been too much praise for it down here in the comments for me not too. Btw, that's absolutely awesome that you're translating it into Portuguse. What a cool project!

[@pedroneto4397]

@@candletype1a447 I already finished the translation, it's on steam now. There are two translations to Portuguese but mine is the only one 100% finished, the other one is paralyzed in 70% for a long time. I also wrote some posts about the game, they are in Portuguese but you can use Google translate if you're interested, talking about CS and Tarot. Although they will surely spoil the lore. Maybe it's better wait for later to read them. My tips to you, free from spoilers: you can always pause the game to think and read, don't try to do everything without pause. In the beginning it may seem easy but soon you'll have to deal with multiple verbs (boxes with slots for cards) and each of them has a diferent timer. Second, keep in mind the cards that go in each slot, you can click the slot and all the elegible card will shine. Then you pause and experiment with each one and read the text that shows in the verb, or as a floating description. You should click everything, even the small icons, and read their descriptions, there's a trial and error element in the beginnig, because you are dicovering the lore. Later you'll know what goes where, and why.

[@silverswordsmith5424]

I remember last time I played this I made a harrowing journey all the way to the Sea of Statues and the Kingeater's Gate. I had done so by following the Western and Southern Coast over, stopping in at, memorably, a city of perpetual bright light on the way. I was determined to reach my destination, seeking, if I remember correctly, information on the location of my father's body, so when I reached half of my supplies I chose to press onwards rather than return to London. After narrowly sneaking past a shark (I was still in the starting ship with no upgrades to combat abilities mind) I made it in with no fuel left and only one unit of supplies. My only option was to take a 50% chance to be teleported back to London. Fortunately, luck was with me that day and I found myself back at Wolfstack Docks, hilarious running out of fuel just shy of the port and having to be towed in. It was honestly quite exhilerating to have such a close brush with death, and the profits I gained from all the port reports made me feel like I had won the lottery.

[@andreykuzmin4317]

Sunless Sea/Sky and Battle Brothers to me are top three games, that made every victory feel hard fought and snatcht from jaws of defeat.

[@aurum457]

I've been dithering on whether I wanted to buy this game for a while now, and this video sold me! Absolutely brilliant retrospective

[@RatsofaFeather]

Got into Fallen London this year and have been hooked since. I’ve started Mask of the Rose, and soon I’ll be zailing!

[@lfemomo77]

The algorithm occasionally does a good! So happy to see others enjoy the game also. It was so haunting. It doesn’t get enough praise. You got another sub.

[@AndyCandyZeroSugar]

Just as I took a comforting sip of hot latte, though I knew It would likely appear, yet the unceremonious appearance of the Eye took me by surprise and I don't know how I didn't spill my drink. That thing inspired nightmares and I remember when I first laid eyes on the ruins and the message that heralds it. I saw the lids and turned tail and fled. Thankfully I never been near it under the zee. Your pleasant narration did not prepare me for it, but the horror was lessened thanks to you! Your voice and accent are wonderful to listen to, I'm enjoying this and am glad your video was recommended by YT! I love Sunless Sea, though I have thalassophobia, there are many moments I cherish, such as selling coffee in Port Carnelian and the soothing music that starts when we draw near, the ramblings of the Sheperd Isles (TENTACLES!), the rituals at the Chapel of Light and the steamy rivalry with the Clay Poet, just to name a few. Even frolicking naked and free above the gaping maw of Nook, though it always took a bit out of me to even approach that place every playthrough. Thank you for bringing back these memories! I look forward to watching the rest of the video.

[@eerieghosts]

Introducing yourself as someone with basically no analysis/longform/video editing experience in such a genuinely nice way made me immediately subscribe to your channel. Please continue your good work and stay as authentic as you sound. Best Wishes!

[@willferrous8677]

First time viewer here. Video production is good enough that I would fall asleep to this =D

[@proudnhello1294]

Great video, I always love to see someone else enjoying my particular hyper fixation. That being said, you're sleeping on the Caligo. In essence, they key is to not simply travel around, but you need to trade as well. There are some fantastic, but quite hidden trade routes, and if you can find those, it's entirely worth it.

[@miniontalk2477]

Excellent Video! Adding this mostly because of all of the other comments recommending Cultist Simulator, not necessarily your video itself: Alexis Kennedy was accused of abuse by multiple of the women who worked for and with him in the industry. Can look up “About Alexis Kennedy” by Adam Myers for the current CEO of Failbetter’s breakdown. Also worth noting that Failbetter’s work has always been a collaboration of tons of writers. I don’t think the change in tone seen in Skies has anything to do with Kennedy’s departure, Fallen London continues at pace in the same excellent horror tone and he hasn’t worked on it in almost 7 years. On a cheerier note, highly recommend checking out 80 Days, a game written by one of the writers on Sunless Sea.

[@DCking14682]

This game will always have a special place in my heart. The stories,the setting, the atmosphere, it’s all immaculate. I just wish the gameplay wasn’t so slow. Also kinda wish they would have another expansion or modders would start tearing into it. Oh well. The zee calls

[@anthonyjgreene]

Thanks for the retrospective. i thoroughly enjoyed.

[@jomojas5786]

If you were confused by Cultist sim, I highly recommend Book of Hours. The game was designed to be the opposite gameplay wise to Cultist sims high paced time-driven rush to long hood. Book of hours is still very lore dense and in the same universe but is almost impossible to mess up in any large way, it’s just you, your books and time (and mysteries)

[@jamaro2006]

I will add to the people recommending Cultist Simulator, and for me especially, Book of Hours. However, they are two very different games, and I fully understand if either of them doesn't click with you. Personally I think Book of Hours is actually the easier introduction to the setting, as it actually has a visual component to keep people interested for long enough to be sucked into the writing. It also lets you figure things out on your own pace since you are not constantly at threat of death if you forget about a timer like you are in cultist simulator. Being a chill librarian, reading rare tomes of occult lore and exploring a massive library contructed in phases over more than 1000 years, with uncovering the history of the building and its inhabitants having just as much if not more draw than uncovering more lore about the setting itself, was all a beautiful experience for me. I bought the game on launch day and proceeded to play it in every moment of freetime I had for the next 12 days until I finally completed my run. There is unfortunately little interaction with the other living inhabitants of the world, but the first DLC (coming some time this year) is supposed to change that, which I am greatly looking forward to. With Cultist Simulator, I think you might enjoy the expansion storylines more than the regular game, as normal playthroughs are unfortunately rather lacking in character interactions and more focused on your personal journey to occult power, which while interesting can get dull in the mid to late game as you are just grinding for the resources to finally win. The Dancer, Priest and Ghoul DLCs are mostly the same gameplay loop as the main game but with more focused goals and less end game tedium, while the Exile expansion plays completely differently to everything else in the game, and has a lot more character interaction. Both games are definitely flawed, with rather weak gameplay loops focused mainly on spacing out bits of lore rather than really functioning as their own draws to the game, and both having unfortunately drawn out mid-end games (especially base game cultist sim), but the writing is so strong and when it clicks for me it draws me in like almost no other setting ever has.

[@HarshawardhanDeshpande]

I watched your first video and appreciated it so much. Thanks for this detailed retrospective on one of the most under-appreciated games I now of!

[@larshalvorsen5990]

Didn't know that "mask of the rose" existed, bought it now

[@the13lordsofgaming16]

Well done mate. The mark of a good video is making someone interested in a game they have never heard of. Still got it, chief!

[@Slop_Dogg]

Well done. Loved this game for years.

[@georgiost6189]

Thank you for this video. It brought back many memories of playing this dark, delicious game. I agree, it has (by far) the best writing I've ever seen in a video game, and it's a pity the original writer didn't stick around for Sunless Skies. Skies tries to keep some of the writing elements of Sea but, overall, its writing felt a bit flat. It actually felt like something I could have written, given the time. The synergy of atmosphere, music and writing of Sunless Sea is what makes this game a masterful work.

[@t2bstryker]

Seeing you cover more of the sunless games is such a treat, keep up the good quality content m8, reinstalling skies and sea rn lol

[@ChrisVoiceman]

I love your retrospective videos. Always nice to see a new one in my subscriptions.

[@magicjinn]

11:38 The reason the load time is so long, even if it's a simple text based game, is because it loads and "hydrates" all of the text content in the game when you load your save, which is about 148MB (200MB after hydration). Hydration meaning, converting all the text in the game's data files into usable data for the game to contruct storylets. So with your comment about not knowing game design, you're right that the load times are very slow. This certainly isn't the most efficient way of handling it, it would probably be better to load this data when it's required, but I guess it works. 1:18:26 It is really interesting to see people critisize the game for being too hard. The second, third and fourth most popular mods for this game are all mods that severely decrease the difficulty. One of the things I find so wonderful about this game is that almost all progress you make in the game is from learning the mechanics and strategies, instead of just gaining better stats. My first captain died pretty quickly, but my 5th? He was able to zail around the entire map comfortably, just with all the knowledge I had from previous captains. Once you understand the game, it really starts to feel too easy, and I advise anyone who wants to have fun with this game to avoid guides and wikis as much as possible, as they only speed up this process.

[@metalgeardull8279]

Can't wait to watch this after my week of Uni stuff. I'll just add it to the queue of 200 videos I have, on just my phone... send help!

[@brainwasher9876]

Caligo is good for completing quests. You need massive hull space for the guy who you need to take to the avid horizon, as well as getting the fulgent impeller. After you get all the quests out of the way, it's safe to aim for the last ship to purchase.

[@sup1602]

I am happy for you to go back to sunless sea. This game caused me to get so mad due to it being unfair sometimes. Then the game clicked with me and it's probably my favourite game next to frostpunk. Funny, both games can very depressing, and very british.

[@michimatsch5862]

A good and even-keeled (sorry) retrospective. You also got a lovely accent. That's a voice you wanna sit down in a bar with and let them tell you a story.

[@nicknevco215]

This is a crazy good narrative game

[@jayknight1099]

I had the same problem. I started it, saw some potential in the stories, but was turned off by the rest. I came back to it a year or two later? Went much farther and got really into it. The mythology of the game is wild.

[@someguyoutthere110]

Right there with you on Cultist Sim, I genuinely have no idea how people enjoy that game. It's like 90% busywork. Wild that the same guy wrote one of my favorite games and one of my least favorite.

[@ignaciosolana7182]

I really want to watch this video, but I haven't played Sunless Sea yet. I'm giving like anyway, because I know in advance that it will be amazing. Keep it up with the great content!

[@asturias0267]

I've just finished watching this video and the Sunless Skies video. It's definitely gotten me to pick back up Sunless Sea to finish it. The things you've expressed liking about these games makes me think that you'd enjoy the Fear & Hunger games. The first one is way more dark and moody (and hard), but my personal favorite is the sequel. The RPG mechanics are more fleshed out, and the characters and setting are more interesting to me. Maybe give them a try. You don't need to have played the first game to play the second if you wanted to try that one out first.

[@chudpunter]

I generally thought Sunless Skies was an improvement, though I didn't really care for the weird economy system they set up. it's not especially hard to make decent money, but I don't find it all that satisfying either. I probably would have liked a single larger map more too. as for Cultist Sim, I love the writing and flavor, but the timers and threat cards (dread, fascination, notoriety, etc.) always added a bit more pressure than I really wanted. yes, there are not-particularly-difficult ways to deal with all of those if you know how. but my experience of playing it was wanting to collect tidbits of lore and explore the mansus and run expeditions. and that's all there... but you have to slog through quite a lot of setup and timer-management before you get to experience much of it. idk if Book of Hours has _quite_ as good a thematic flavor as Cultist Sim (though the further in you get, the neater is becomes), but it does away with most of the annoying meter watching, and is much more about exploration. overall, I like it more. though I do think they need to add a system to reduce the rng around the different assistants you can recruit from the inn. it gets very irritating to sometimes spend several days searching for one in particular. also the backstory you establish for your character at the very beginning of the game is pretty cool at the very end, but doesn't do much for the majority of the game, I wish that had been tied in a bit more.

[@tingle2958]

Right then. I'm going to try this game again.

[@anthonyjgreene]

If SS is your favourite game, you might check out Vagrus. It doesn’t have the polish, the writing is nowhere as tight, bugs, bugs, bugs, but if you’re looking another experience like SS, this is the closest I’ve found. It definitely patterns itself off the gameplay. I’m currently about 120 hours into it. There’s a lot there.

[@candletype1a447]

I've had Vagrus on my Steam Wishlist for months now after hearing about it somewhere (I think I'd been making Google searches on "games like Sunless Sea" haha) but just never ended up picking it up. I'll for sure need to give it a shot though!

[@tomasjanco7355]

Cultist Sim has probably the strongest "magic system" in any computer game ever. It is a slow burn, but the more you play it, the more it opens up and the more it rewards you.

[@Hugo_Tate]

lmao idk why I found the crashing of the Candle ships so hilarious

[@TheGrinningViking]

Cultist simulator is great - but I found that it's better as a phone game than on the PC. It was the only "idle" game I'd play for a long time, with the grind that might have bored me at a desk with my computer being not so bad on the bus while I listened to podcasts.

[@cory9919]

i adore this game. i wish skies grabbed me as well as sea but it just doesnt. i always find myself just wishing i was playing sunless sea every time i boot up sunless skies. Something about the ocean based atmosphere really grabs me.

[@mnk9073]

Sunless Sea works where Sunless Skies doesn't; the strange and fantastic lore is held together by the familiar victorian framework of Fallen London and the Zea get's more flavourful as you expand into the East. It's unforgiving but not cruel and it allows for a natural progression into deeper darker waters and deeper darker lore.

[@Ezghoul1]

I felt the same way with Cultist Simulator, love the theme and concept but can't wrap my head around the various mechanics😅. However things are a lot different with Book of Hours. In my opinion it's MUCH more accessible! Just make sure to hove over EVERYTHING and read ALL the tooltips!

[@supajasiu]

I peaced out of this Series twice. First time it was the browser game, where I was told I need to discover the mystery of who the Queen was in Fallen London - ya know me a native that lived there all my life. Second was when Sunless sea actively punished you for daring to want to get better ships, turning my play through in to a endless loop of Port reports and having just enough fuel and food to do one loop, all avenues to make money drying up as soon as they showed up. Third time I didn't even bother when I was told that the Sky is now sunless, which considering all the lore about Stars/The sun just made me go " This is just convoluted garbage masquerading as being complex. Now saying any of these are facts these were my feelings after playing the first two games quitting and then seeing the third one.

[@milocebatron5249]

Something forgotten lies here...

[@dangilboa6496]

Personally, I prefer having tea with the factor in Demaux station over any fancy Corlean Tea house. The company is better, and the tea itself has this unique pungent after taste to it. Excellent retrospective to a game that does not get half the love it deservs (much like Underrail) I still have shivers when I hear Undulata and Wolfpack lights. I am a big fan of Cultist simulator but to call it obscure would be a serious understatement. I understand that “Book of Hours” is using similar mechanics but is considered a lot more approachable. Maybe you should try this one first. Man , you got me thinking about yet another replay, did not do the immortality yet, and my father’s bones are already well rested (unless mother broke each and every one of them!) Got to play again.

[@garrick3727]

Given how good your videos are, I'm really surprised you're new at this. That's very inspirational. Now, if I can only get off my fat arse ...

[@31codyskater]

if you love lovecraftian horror games there is a niche game i love called shadows of the forbidden gods. it's a sort of crusader kinds style game where you send agents out to do jobs to prep for your chosen old gods awakening. and depending on the god you choose your agents and power menu have different abilities. iastur has a book of madness that you can give to people to drive them mad, a greed god that calls people to his mountain to be consumed and turned to gold, an insect hive mind, etc., etc. a bit janky but pretty cool thematically.

[@marcobartoli1896]

I'm longing for a sequel set in the Presbyterate....

[@JoKad17]

Same but with the hinterlands, the GHR is one of the best questlines in FL.

[@marcobartoli1896]

@@JoKad17 haven t started yet...; I am doing Evolution rn (so the Presbyterate... you can understand)

[@JoKad17]

@@marcobartoli1896 finished it last month. The prester is fucked up and evil. But yeah, a very good storyline with great writing 'till the end (even though the post-quest in Irem is very obtuse to play without a guide but peeking at the possible futures is cool af and now I can't stop wondering about Fallen Berlin.

[@skyfall-1738]

This is a quality video, my only critique would be to try and work more of the intro into the main body of the video, as its a bit long before you really get into it, and people may get disinterested before you hit your stride. Keep up the good work!

[@KaosNoKamisama]

If you like the weird and dark world of Sunless Sea, I would reccommend you to read Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities".

[@scottgoodrich5430]

I'll join in with the others trying to coax you back into cultist simulator. I'm not sure when you last gave it a try, but there have been a number of subtle quality of life changes added to the game. Many of the descriptions have been tweaked to provide a little more clarity about what options may be available, and clicking on a slot causes the cards which could fit there to flash. Still, while its gameplay opacity matches perfectly with its theme, that opacity does make the game an initially baffling experience that is very easy to bounce off of. It took me several tries, but once I got enough traction on the gameplay to start really getting into the lore, I was hooked. There are several tools available to make it more accessible. They do all diminish that link between frustrating gameplay element and thematic intent but if they get you into the game and accessing the stories within, then go for it. First is the wiki, which is extremely comprehensive. Use a light touch there, because every single secret is exposed within. Still, it's helpful if you're tired of aimlessly guessing and just want to know what a card is for, or what the possible remedies for dread are. Second are the mods, and there are two you might consider. One causes the work verb to automatically repeat until manually stopped. The drudgery of repeatedly using the work verb to make mundane money is certainly intentional, but it also sucks. The other mod creates shelves for your cards. It is intended as an organizational mod, but when a shelf has exactly 6 slots for 6 particular cards, you get inherent clues about how cards may be grouped. The only other thing I want to add is that it's not just the lore that is so great, though that is fantastic. There is a whole mythology and history to the MULTIPLE pantheons of deities that have existed. There are characters that show up repeatedly and are not always identified by name so you sometimes get these revelations where you're like "wait... are they talking about HER?" Beyond the lore, there are also gameplay mechanics that, of course, are not tutorialized. But when you discover them they are so useful it almost feels like you just realized that Mario can jump.

[@candletype1a447]

Cheers for all the advice mate! My plan was to be coaxed into trying it again and that's now happened haha. I'll give it another bash soon to try and penetrate a bit further in.

[@scottgoodrich5430]

When you're first starting, there are several game over states that are going to ruin your fun until you learn how to manage them. Cash, Dread, Fascination, and the cops. Like how you described combat in Sunless Sea, they seem intractable at first, but there is a method. Once you can lock those down, you can take your time and spend a long time digging around and figuring out what it means to "win."

[@KristopherRiddle]

Great game, sunless skys is also good but sea is my fav

[@detmigdetmig4893]

I really enjoyed ur video!!!

[@1liver966]

I wish to see you get hundreds of thousands of views on every video

[@candletype1a447]

I also wish that haha!

[@merrittk7403]

I have a silly thought ... at 10:13, I can swear I'm hearing SSkies music in the background.

[@LeeHarveyOswald1999]

Will play this

[@SparkIgnitionv2]

The biggest issue of Sunless Sea’s artwork is it’s inconsistency. It feels like it was made by a group of different people in their own unique styles without any moderation to bring it all together. It’s not even that Sunless Skies has better artwork, it just has better direction. But you’d expect that from a sequel to such a popular game anyway!

[@SparkIgnitionv2]

And Skies does keep the most fun aspect of the portraits which is that half of them are blatantly modelled on the devs/fans. So many gamer-ass looking people in this world and I love it.

[@jonathangiese5727]

"It feels like it was made by a group of different people in their own unique styles without any moderation to bring it all together." Oh, it absolutely was. Pretty much every image you see in Seas that isn't a character portrait or port report icon was borrowed from the browser game Fallen London, to which Seas owes much of its setting. Fallen London had been running for over five years by then, and the skill and style of its artists changed a lot in that time.

[@ButtorsGaming]

Really good video. I will probably never play but enjoyed your commentary on the game. I imagine you probably could have gone another 11 hours if you went too far into the lore. 10/10 video.

[@candletype1a447]

Thank you buddy, really appreciate it!

[@PureStealth]

"if you're more of a southern guy" actually i'm a girl ".. or girl!" oh thankyou

[@avivaodintz540]

YES.

[@Noogi302]

You should give A House of Many Doors a look, its the only game ive found thats like Sunless Sea/Skies

[@RabbitAfternoon]

I hope you continue to make videos like this one because it was a genuine pleasure to listen to. I laughed so hard when you described your uniform and hat “ritual” omg lol 5 star joke no notes

[@Alex.R.L]

I 100%'d (steam achievements) Sunless Sea. AMA. I also (checks steam) 93%'d (I'll get back to it eventually) Sunless Skies.

[@michimatsch5862]

Engagement for now. Hope I can remember to watch this later.

[@asturias0267]

You should come back and watch it if you haven't yet. :P

[@michimatsch5862]

@@asturias0267 ah, damn. Totally slipped my mind. Thanks for the reminder kind stranger.

[@anthonyjgreene]

I encourage you to give Cultist another try. AK has managed to create an even more fascinating literary world with the Secret Histories than Fallen London. Cultist is a game a many little systems. The game is learning the systems. Using any kind of faq would ruin the game. I’ve had very few moments in gaming as enjoyable as when another little system in CS ‘clicked’ for me. Die over and over again. Analyze what killed you. It’s one of these little systems. Analyze the system, master it. **** SPOILER **** Focus at first on figuring out how to improve your stats by several points each. That will get your feet wet, and make everything else easier.

[@Slywyn]

THE SUN THE SUN *THE SUN* _THE SUN_ -THE SUN- t h e s u n ThE sUn

[@justsomeginger2032]

I’ve never encountered the eye it is the only achievement blocking my platnium.

[@candletype1a447]

I hear ya m8. I've had multiple playthroughs from one captain to the next without encountering the eye at all. Not sure whether it sometimes just doesn't appear in a world or if it's always there but extremely well hidden.

[@dontnormally]

fallen london had been going for a long time before sunless sea

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

I wish I could take the steps necessary to create a video. There are a select few games that I’m very passionate about and could easily write a lengthy essay on their theming, mechanics, successes and failures, etc. I’ve even outlined and partially written a few and hardly scratched the surface of everything I had to say about it even after 20+ single-spaced pages. I feel like I could easily write hours of engaging content, but when it comes to the rest I’m completely lost. I don’t know anything about recording audio, editing video, script writing, or other barriers that I’m too ignorant to even know exist. I don’t want to pay somebody to do those things for a video that’s likely going to net me $0.03 cents over a lifetime, if that. I’m stuck at a computer creating delivery routes for drivers for most of my night at work so I watch/listen to a lot of video essays and think I’ve learned enough about the format to know what to do/what to avoid and I haven’t seen many of my personal takes on games mirrored in other videos. Heck, some of the games I would like to talk at length about don’t even have any videos on the platform besides a handful of 3-5 minute reviews and lets plays so it’s not like I would be one of the people dumping yet another Skyrim video into the void after PatricianTV talked about it for 20 hours (not saying that there can’t still be unique takes on it, but you’d really have to stretch to find one). Any words of wisdom or resources you could point me to? Is it even worth pursuing?

[@candletype1a447]

Hiya Mate, Regarding all those steps that come after writing the actual essay, I will say that I also had exactly zero experience with them when I started this channel in late 2022, but I'll also say that it's not as difficult to get into as you might think! A helpful wee video I watched to get me started was Mandalore Gaming's video on makin videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKq8eYGYf6iseJosi=-2MwOXs9dqzwKTfZ You mentioned that you wrote a good 20 pages of material for stuff but don't know how to get started with the actual script-writing. Regarding the actual content, that's all you baby (lol), but the structure is where it can get stressful. In fact, by far the biggest headache for me when writing a script is how to structure it all. I personally either go with a linear approach where I'm discussing the game in the order that it plays out from beginning to end, and highlighting and analysing its various gameplay mechanics and characters and themes and such along the way, or I go with an element-by-element approach like I did with this video where I effectively move from discussing one topic to another. The structure I use for the essay really depends on the type of game it is, and both structure have their strengths and weakness, though that's not to say there aren't a ton of other essay structures you can employ; those are just the two that I use, though in either case, at the most basic level they always go Intro, Main Body, then Conclusion - always. For recording, I simply use Audacity which is free and very easy to use. I got a second-hand Blue Yeti X from eBay which works just fine (though be sure to get yourself a pop-shield and make sure you're right up close to it when recording your voice otherwise it'll sound echoey and shit haha). Literally the only actual after-effects I use in Audacity are a Noise Reduction Tool (to remove that inevitable background hiss), and I apply a Compression effect (evens out the highs and low a bit or something, I dunno lol), taking a total of about 2 minutes to do. When I record I just have my script up in front of me in Word with the Audacity window in the bottom-right. You don't need to record it all in one-take or anything remotely close. In fact when I'm recording I constantly fuck up, but it's an easy fix; just delete the wee bit with the mistake and then you can make it sound all nice and smooth when editing it all together later. As far as recording actual gameplay goes, I use NVIDIA GeForce experience on the PC. It’s free and simple to use but you need a NVIDA GPU to use it believe. My preferred method of recording, however, is with my PS5. Super easy to record stuff on it and for whatever reason, the file sizes tend to be much smaller than when I’m recording on PC. When I record, I do it all in clips, rather than ending up with several hour long videos. I always play through the entire game before even thinking about starting the script and constantly recording clips along the way, and by the end of the game I might have anywhere from 100 - 500 clips, all of which I then go back and label systematically so that I know roughly what’s in each. It makes the editing process immeasurably easier when all my clips are labelled, otherwise trying to find footage of specific things can be a nightmare. As for the actual video-editing, like I said I knew absolutely fuck-all about it before I started, but I use Vegas Pro which I’d definitely recommend. It does have a tendence to crash a bit more than I’d like, but I find it easy to use. Mind you, I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the software is capable of, but nor do I need to. Just learn the basics and then whenever there’s something specific you want to do in your video, just google it and there’ll always be a tutorial on how. KZbin tutorials are how I learnt how to use it in the first place. As for actually getting Vegas Pro, well you can sometimes find older versions of it for cheap on Humble Bundle, but you can get a lifetime licence for £199 from the website. It’s a lot of money but there is a trial you can try out first to try and get to grips with it to see if it’ll be for you first, though there’s always Adobe Premier too which is more of an industry standard than Vegas Pro. Regarding thumbnails, I literally just use PowerPoint haha. I know nothing about Photoshop or anything, but PowerPoint is surprisingly pretty damn great for messing around with pictures, with a bunch of cool colour effects and tools too. Anyway, that’s about all the starting info I can think of for now, but feel free to ask if there’s anything specific, always happy to help someone get started out with video essays! Your first videos don’t have to be masterpieces (mine weren’t), and don’t be discouraged if your first few get next to no views (mine didn’t haha), but if you keep getting better and keep at it then at some point one of your vids will get a wee pop, and it can be a lot of fun. Good Luck m8!

[@ravencrow1011]

I wish steam version has controller like in sunless skies, and voicing.

[@EgoEroTergum]

*HE WHO THIRSTETH, AND DRINKETH OF THIS...*

[@Delmworks]

The problem I have with sunless sea is the the lore on the wiki is more fun than the gameplay

[@tylermontgomery3513]

Looks like a combination of Dredge and Disco Elysium.

[@Alfred5555]

I actually played Dredge recently, mistakenly thinking it was Sunless Sea. While playing Dredge, and having my subconscious in the background trying to rectify it with what I had seen and heard of Sunless Sea, I started to really wish for a sort of 1st/3rd person Sunless Sea. Like what we all wish for, an actually good and landmark Lovecraftian game.

[@ShadmehR_23]

12:41 what's the song in background

[@Emanon389]

Something awaits you in your feed.

[@CarrollLiddell]

I definitely had to mod the .ini file so my boat used less fuel.... It's just too brutal otherwise.

[@asturias0267]

You should try sailing with your lights off more often. It'll keep your fuel consumption lower at the cost of more terror gain. Enemies will also have to get closer to spot you.

[@JoyZoneYT]

That scottish accent. It's cute.

[@trunkage]

If you're looking for great wierd writing, check out Disco Elysium

[@tzeneth]

Honestly, if you're more into lore, I think you might enjoy Book of Hours. Cultist Simulator is a game I've actually beaten for the basic endings (they didn't have the advanced endings when I actually cared enough to finish) and I just don't enjoy it. The game more quickly reaches that "ignore the text" point once you understand what's going on because you repeat actions so many times. Book of hours is interesting but has different issues, potentially. It's also a bit grindier in some ways with lore being sprinkled in the books you analyze.

[@Krunchamunch220]

Oh Darkest Dungeon you naughty game you.

[@victormilione5685]

I can speak to the quality of Book of Hours-- its very similar to Cultist Simulator, but much more slow-paced and forgiving of mistakes. If you're the type to delve deep on mysteries, its a treasure trove.

[@unustheuntouchable]

Have you had a chance to engage with Cultist Simulator and / or Book of Hours? Common authorship, but also another couple games with wild emergent mechanical interactions.

[@unustheuntouchable]

Welp, got to the end of the video and feel foolish-ish CS is actually very dope. Book of Hours is a bit tougher to get into, but I think it's likely also pretty excellent, just a bit more impenetrable

[@saturn12002]

I really hope you didn't spend that entire 2 euros in channel rev in one place.

[@Canadian_Princess]

This was a great video. Very likely to get me into Sunless Sea again, as I had the same experience you did, minus the chance to figure things out. Minor nitpick, but you could have just used a gender neutral pronouns when referring to The Alarming Scholar. They/Them instead of switching between he/she or him/her. Looking forward to your next retrospective or whatever video you have in the pipeline! Recently found you and you've been great!

[@candletype1a447]

Cheers, glad ya liked the video, and I sure hope you do get into Sunless Sea again! About the Alarming Scholar pronouns, I was just referencing an in-game thing where our captain can't seem to figure out their gender. When you visit the Scholar the text reads, "The Alarming Scholar is mercurial, to say the least. A creature of sudden moods and provoking teeth. Possibly her (is it her?) appointment as University Maritime Liaison was precautionary: to keep his (is it his?)". Their character seems to be gender-fluid and so I was tryin to do an inside joke thing, but I guess it just sounded like me straining to figure out their gender haha

[@marko4560]

Play Outer Wilds blind. Trust this random comment.