The Return of the Obra Dinn...Let's Investigate! | Blind Playthrough [Part 1]

[@Mapocolops]

Hello everyone! I genuinely do hope you enjoy this playthrough and have fun watching along. Feel free to sit back and let this one play out, as I've already finished the game in it's entirety, as it's not too long. I'll be honest, this might be the playthrough I am actually the most self conscious about on my channel haha! It's a hard game, made harder by being on camera feeling the pressure and voicing my thoughts. I'm sure there will be plenty of frustrating moments, like damn... how that Captain definitely shot that guy huh? Definitely not the woman with the gun, shooting him point blank... (Don't worry, we'll get there.) Every mistake is clearly a well thought out, perfectly intricate detective method you're just not used to seeing yet...it'll all tie together fantastically.

[@Villain_in_Glasses]

Game is great, commentary is great. Don't worry, this game is designed to trip you up and keep you guessing. Figuring it out is the point, but figuring out how you figured it out is the fun.

[@Glinkis]

Don't worry about it. Everyone that plays this draws conclusions that seem wild in hindsight, and it's all part of the game design. It's also what makes the game fun!

[@ViewfromtheVoid]

Dont worry dude

[@thegnjoy]

Having finished watching your playthrough, you did pretty well! Was a fun ride-along watching you figure out where you went wrong and what you missed. If every nerd on here giving you heck had to show their playthrough to thousands of people too they'd shut up real fast.

[@BuenButter6211]

Don't worry about it being too hard, I brute forced a couple of things too and I felt really dumb sometimes, God knows I walked around the ship for hours looking for just one answer

[@Omphalite]

Spoiler about one of my biggest realizations in the game. It has to do with the helmsman. Early on I scrolled over him in the book and he was already clear even though I had barely any information at that point. So I was like "How in the fuck would I identify who this is." a a minute or two of thinking while staring at him with narrowed eyes I was like. "Wait a second. He... He's at the wheel of the ship.... He. Are you kidding me? He's the helmsman?". At that point my brain expanded. I started identifying people by their location in memories on the ship, by their outfits, tattoos,, what they had in their rooms or by their hammocks, by their positions in the paintings and who in them they were hanging out with, anything. As an example "The Russians seem to hang around each other a lot so maybe they're hanging out together in the top painting too?". And so on. It was an amazing moment.

[@isak2209]

I regret to admit I did the same thing except even worse, as the helmsman was like the 10th last person I identified. yikes.

[@diegokevin3824]

No one notices that when you first get the book, even if you dont see any memories, the helmsman is always unblurred. Same with the Henry Evans part, somepeople do like this playthrough and inmediately connect the preface and crew list, some other people get stuck until the end not knowing where the survivors went.

[@mibadada]

As a bit of trivia, the couple of voice lines your character gets at the beginning can be a masculine or feminine voice, and which one you get is random!

[@dunemessiah4058]

Are you sure? I've thought it depends of what grafic style you have chosen

[@mibadada]

@@dunemessiah4058 nope! I had the same style as mapo at the start and got the feminine voice

[@thegnjoy]

Ohhh that's why I was a bit confused. My character was a woman and that's how I'd remembered the story haha. That's cool!

[@lordperkele3778]

I was sure it depended on how many times you had started the game or something

[@Remerai]

One thing I really love about playthroughs like these is that it's the closest you can get to experience them again through new eyes. It's the reason I even subscribed to you, because of the Outer Wilds videos.

[@lamparez]

Same here. Played this game because outer wilds, followed Mapo on his excellent OW playthrough, stuck with Mapo because FUN, played Inscryptio because of Mapo Now I'm glad to re-experience this game with this guy

[@andreassmed2255]

35:18 Here, the game will also accept: Clubbed by beast and crushed by beast. There are multiple cases in the game where more than one interpretation of the cause of death is valid.

[@Redingold]

Neat detail: the watch hands correspond to the page in the book when looking at a corpse. The hour hand points to the chapter, and the minute hand points to the part within the chapter e.g. when looking at the corpse for chapter 10 part 3, the watch hands point to 10:15, and if you were looking at the corpse for, say, chapter 6 part 2, they'd point to 6:10.

[@Kronos_88]

I've played the game 3 times, watched like 4 playthroughs, and I always just thought it was random. God damn.

[@pap00s]

The pandemic lockdowns found me binging disco elysium, outer wilds and obra dinn, all games where you're some sort of investigator trying to figure things out, Scratched an inch that hasn't been scratched in years, made me feel extra smart. Obra Dinn stands out due to it being a solo dev, just imagine Lucas Pope building the ship piece by piece like it's a model kit, sorting out the plot, setting up the scenes, designing 50+ distinct character models... It seeps love, which is such a rare thing in games nowadays. "an itch" not "an inch", damnit brain

[@DrKunze]

Take a look at "Return of the Obra Dinn - Schematic Timelapse" on KZbin.

[@BorisZakharov98]

Never could get into outer woods, found it to be boring and confusing. But disco Elysium is probably my fav RPG game ever

[@jessewest5456]

@@BorisZakharov98 I highly recommend looking up the polygon guide for outer wilds. It tells you the best order to get all the translations in the way that makes the most sense without spoiling any of the experience. I spent 2 days wandering around aimlessly in that game and just about gave up on it before I found that guide and it turned out to be one of the very best solo gaming experiences of my life

[@chunkofchunks]

Is that “Scratched an inch” comment a freudian slip?

[@Redingold]

Nice catch with Henry Evans escaping to Morocco, most people forget that he signed the book and asked you to deliver it to Morocco by that point, and therefore that he must be alive in Morocco.

[@danigar]

Yeah but then he didn't know where Morocco was I was like Mapooo!! lol

[@sharondornhoff7563]

@@danigar There is another way to reason out that puzzle even without the Morocco reference, at least once you have a clear idea of who the people involved are: - - - - - - - - None of the people who make it onto the last lifeboat can actually be expected to know how to navigate. There's a young steward, two civilian women, and the surgeon, but no trained sailors or ship's officers. So the odds of them making it to any of the islands without veering off course is minimal: only sailing due East until they hit Africa will ensure they won't miss their target entirely.

[@ChimeratAlpha]

It's always interesting to see what parts of the game various people gravitate to when they play. For example, I'm semi-bad at accents, but when people mention "my Frenchman" or "you bloody Dane" my ear perks up and I'm skimming the list of crew and passengers. The game does, unfortunately, require some outside knowledge (mainly of cultures/accents/languages) to solve with minimal guesswork, but I'm interested in seeing how the four vids in this playlist pan out for you. EDIT: Nearly forgot to mention: I loved the look of childlike wonder that blossomed on your face when you saw the tentacles. I tend to go with a "holy crap...", wide-eyed look and several minutes just slowly spinning in place to try to take in the scope of the scene. (Thankfully, like a good movie or book, you can enjoy this on replay. Especially if you give it some time to fade a bit in your memory.)

[@RyaStarGames]

Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my god

[@bory7420]

Oh man just 30 minutes in and I think I'm gonna have to hold off on watching and give this a go. The atmosphere and level of detail is just insane!

[@octochan]

This is deffo one of those games you shouldn't spoil if you have any intention of playing it

[@kbsanders]

One of my favorite games of all time. The ambience, the story, the concept, the game mechanics, the music. It's all great.

[@eloniusz]

"I'm doing a 3D computer game." "WOW! Cool! I would like to try it. I hope my graphics card can handle it." "Your what card?"

[@Johno3998]

Damn this game is a lot cooler than I was expecting

[@Omphalite]

Mapo I don't know how far in advance you record these, and you might have realized this by now, but the "Unknown passenger" orr "Unknown Seaman" doesn't mean that there are unknown passengers or seamen on the ship. It's to be used when you've uncovered someone's role on the ship but don't know exactly who from that role it is.

[@TasteTheWine.]

29:37 I'm really digging this. Almost makes me want to stop the playthrough, buy this game, play it, then come back to this video.

[@kemmons18]

This is one of those games you can only experience once. Definitely play it first and it makes it more fun to watch Mapo try to figure it out too.

[@mibadada]

Absolutely do it, it's 8-12 hours of game, and it is so much more fun to figure things out and have moments of discovery yourself (Or, if you do keep watching along, try and figure things out before he does! That would also be a fun way to experience the story I think)

[@ViewfromtheVoid]

you should

[@Kochen51]

You should

[@JoyaLewisTheMusician]

You might also like The Case of the Golden Idol for its detective point and click goodness ❤

[@codypavy]

Don’t second guess yourself! Theres a reason we wanted to see you play this 😊 it’s okay if the game trips you up here and there

[@lemonplays-gaming]

Awesome pick! You’re quickly becoming my favourite KZbin channel.

[@dsilvermane0]

Thanks for playing this - I had no idea it existed before seeing it suggested to you. And I still probably wouldn't have played it myself so this is really cool to watch. I need to get into the indie scene more often!

[@michaelspurgeon8093]

You're on a roll picking some of my favourite games to play through lately man! Found your channel recently from you Disco Elysium playthrough. Since i found it Inscription, Papers Please, Fallout 1, and this are all a kind of surprising picks to see on youtube that are high on my list of games. Not sure if you or your audience have great taste but keep it up my dude!

[@BlekDimon]

Omg I did not expect you will play it this soon. I'm excited.

[@Beghty27]

After seeing how much Mapo enjoyed Outer Wilds, I just knew he would eventually find his way to this. Enjoy my friend. This one is special.

[@Prototype-357]

No way! My favorite detective game I'm so excited!

[@mocharosa6473]

Pro tip for anyone interested in this game: if you have a guess for a specific person’s identity, make sure to actually write it in, even if you’re not 100% sure it’s right. The game will still validate your answer even if it’s just a guess, and writing your guesses in the book is the best way to test your hypotheses. Like the game says, sometimes you’ll have to make assumptions based on incomplete info, so don’t be afraid to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Very excited for this playthrough!

[@Redingold]

I sometimes see Let's Players refuse to enter any information until they're 100% sure, they won't make any guesses at all. It's sorta understandable, because guessing kinda feels like cheating the system, but there's definitely a middle ground between never guessing, ever, even when you're 99% sure of something, and blindly going through every possibility until the game tells you you're right.

[@Painocus]

I'd recommend against doing this. I've seen so many people throw in loose guesses, then disregard more concrete info they get later because it contradicts what they have filled in, then eventually start removing/changing names they were sure of and correct about before, because they are no longer sure what they were actually certain about and what was just a random guess. And also getting things correct this way, without fully knowing why it is correct, making it harder to put togheter more pieces later that builds on that understanding, and since they have already "solved" that death they are less likely look into it or think about it again.

[@Kochen51]

​@@Painocus I agree

[@mibadada]

I'm excited for both your successes and your mistakes! This game is very good and lots of fun to watch someone getting surprised and their moments of discovery

[@darnok6407]

I love and also hate how difficult Paul Moss is for content creators. They literally call out the name. Cue frantically scrolling through the names, overreading Paul and thinking it's someone else

[@masterluckyluke]

Another great game, looking forward the playthrough.

[@Deference_for_Darkness]

At 40:43 it starts the scene looking at a silhouette of the dude that died and mapo just can’t figure out where the body is. Granted it is hard to see if you’re not standing directly in front of it. Also at 1:06:10 he’s looking at the person who shot the guy and turns around and is like it must be this other guy who hasn’t fired yet.

[@aimelle3]

I really agree with what you said at the start about indies being refreshing in the AAA landscape. A few years ago I was feeling sort of bored with gaming, nothing really interested me, then I started playing indies and it rekindled my love of games. AAA games can be fun but unfortunately are getting kind of same-y, and as someone who doesn't like shooters or multiplayer, the current mainstream trends weren't appealing to me. But these days I'm mostly playing indie titles (including Obra Dinn!) and having more fun gaming than ever!

[@Flo-rj8tz]

Really excited for this playthrough, always a joy to see people puzzle their way through this game :D I've got another "cool looking indie game" for your list if you're interested: "Heaven's Vault" has you explore a nebula as an archeologist, uncovering forgotten sites and deciphering a lost language word by word. Has a great sense of mystery as it unfolds and when the whole language puzzle at its center starts to click it makes you feel really clever.

[@beefarren]

Seconding the recommendation for Heaven's Vault! It's a beautiful game with a really cool core mechanic and it doesn't get nearly enough attention from the letsplay community.

[@Prototype-357]

Thirding the recommendation (is that even a thing?? well it is now). The lost language that you're deciphering is ridiculously well detailed, the lore and history of this world is a joy to uncover, I love the art direction from the hand drawn artstyle of the characters to the design of the 3d geometry. And one small thing that I really like is that your dialogue is mostly choices and the game never does the Telltale thing of (character will remember that) after you picked a choice, so you're forced to make choices without knowing which ones will have consequences in the future, some would say this make the decision making process too difficult but i love that level of uncertainty that it brings.

[@octochan]

I should play Heaven's Vault again, I was really only there for puzzling out the language the first time and I didn't really pick up on the lore

[@beefarren]

@@octochan I've been meaning to play it again myself - apparently if you play on the same account the in-game dictionary remembers the words you learned in previous playthroughs, so you get more and more of the language the more you play. By the end of my first playthrough I could almost read the language without the help of the in-game dictionary, but it's been a couple of years so I'd have to relearn it lol.

[@Flo-rj8tz]

@@beefarren yep, the replayability is great, in addition to keeping your dictionary NG+ also replaces most of the inscriptions with more complex version to keep it fresh

[@RoderickThe13]

I finished this game in two days when I played it. I loved it so much I wish it was longer

[@Xenotric]

"watch this guy be henry evans" yes the guy being shot :P silly mapo Good luck! this one gets tough if going for the 100%

[@BuenButter6211]

WOOOOOO IT'S HERE!!! Right, so... I love this game lol So I can't wait to see someone play it for the first time, seeing how the player puts all the pieces together is so awesome it's just ahhh!! Oh and I can't spoil anything so it's even better, I really hope you enjoyed this game Mapo

[@Yolanee]

I'm looking forward to you playing it because I couldn't. Sadly, the movement and the style made me sick. But it's apparently amazing game, so I hope you have fun!

[@warmdeserttt]

I'm excited! I think this game has some of the coolest realizations of like, figuring out what's going on, and how everything comes together as you progress. (you don't need to feel subconscious about it, figuring it out and going back to realize what you missed is part of the charm of this game)

[@Zanoab]

I love how you were fighting with the game in windowed mode. Once I unlocked all the parts, I kept the game in windowed mode so I can build and maintain spreadsheets full of notes and theories. It'll be interesting to find out if you will include note taking and spreadsheet building in the videos because that is the main appeal. Seeing another person's thoughts and how differently clues are found and put together.

[@TasteTheWine.]

1:44:37 Amazing game thus far! I hope you can piece it all together!

[@madnessoverload7824]

"Y'arrr be smooth sailing on the surface of my brain" 😂

[@Monoryable]

One of the games one can never replay and is forever cursed to seek out others’ play throughs

[@Trimmbor]

Ooooo finally Mapo tackles Obra Dinn!!! So excited

[@SirKurt25]

Mapo dropping another great series, while I need to get things done...

[@PyreflySky]

This is a game I really wish I could play for the first time again. I completed it over a weekend with a friend, its sooo satisfying when everything finally clicks into place. ❤

[@Utbaut]

Yas, hoped for this since papers please was covered.

[@komikuno]

It's definitely a hard game and very niche. I don't know if you caught it maybe I missed it, but you actually work in insurance claims

[@darthcarrots2581]

You can do the old sea-man’s accent so well Mapo!

[@3ghostsinatrenchcoat]

59:52 "Well I mean, here's the thing" *guesses the exact specific chain of events that occurred*

[@JediJoe-ml5kn]

This game is phenomenal. I've never been so immediately enraptured by a game, it's so unique and fun to unravel. Enjoy it!

[@Potatezone]

I'm super excited for this one! I can't wait to see all of the strange directions your logic goes to finding the truth! Spoilers below! People who have played/seen this before are going to agree with me: fuck those shoes.

[@nathancollins1715]

Just finished playing it blind and came here to watch the playthrough... what shoes?

[@Potatezone]

@@nathancollins1715 The chinamen have very few clues to determine their identities, you basically have to see who they are based on their hammock numbers and their unique shoes.

[@nathancollins1715]

Heh, I think I just guessed on them. I knew all their fates so I would wait until I had 2 other fates I knew were right and then cycled through the options until it got confirmed. Did that for the Indians and some of the other seamen, too. Never would have guessed about their shoes!

[@JR-pf9in]

​@@nathancollins1715 lol I did the exact same thing, glad it wasn't just me

[@lorenzomazza1758]

There was a person inside the explosion, if you zoom in it would highlight him

[@rileyhopkins9940]

I'm beyond excited for this game. Don't worry about struggling; god knows I did too. I gave up the first time I played this game and I could only beat it the second time I played when I had my girlfriend playing with me and helping me see things. Good luck!

[@Brutishandshort]

I played alongside my neurosurgeon husband and we had plenty of doofy moments. It’s easy to get frustrated when you’ve already beaten the game but it’s a tough one!

[@brennang9]

I'll be back at a later date after I first play this for myself

[@PENGAmurungu]

"Papers Please came across my desk" *KACHUNK* APPROVED

[@stobe187]

Great choice, such a fantastic game.

[@kalopo795]

Wow damn you actually play it

[@TasteTheWine.]

15:19 Odd game mechanics. Interesting!

[@SmilingMatthew]

This game is GOATED! I'm a big time fan of "point and click" and investigative videogames and this is the ONLY GAME were I felt like I was actually solving a mystery. Easy top ten of all time for me

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

>litterally sees him getting shot by the woman on the boat "Clearly the captain shot him"

[@tarantula4197]

44:20 that sheer dumb luck gives me shivers.

[@darnok6407]

It's ok. 1:06:08 makes up for that. Obra Dinn giveth and Obra Dinn taketh away lol Edit: And 1:11:25

[@nathanielholzgrafe5274]

This is going to be a great playthrough.

[@bradleypeate3266]

It's a fun game a lot of learning and remembering putting information together for sure 🧐

[@KevinKerrMusicLessons]

Ohhhhh I've been hoping for this!!

[@Rufiowascool]

Ive just found your channel - digging ALL your stuff. Easy damn sub!

[@caladbolg8666]

Hyped for this, such an amazing game.

[@ForTheWitches]

This game is so unique, never seen anything like it 😮

[@CJIEnOuBOBR]

*speaks in Pentiment* Go-od bless you Mapo for this playthrough =)

[@AbeLindstrom]

Very excited for this one!

[@marcusc9931]

The book and a watch might not be heavy, but try climbing a ladder with a wooden suitcase in one hand.

[@octochan]

FYI, click on the anchor in the start screen to check out the other flavours of antique monitors, and the look sensitivity options. Edit: oh, he found those settings

[@nezfromhki]

I personally quit the game out of frustration once I got to the point that I had seen most of the memories (everything except the Bargain chapter) but had only locked in like 16 people, as I simply didn't feel like going through all of the memories again to get the rest right. Still, I love seeing people play this game and respect the hell out it, even if it's not really one that's made for me.

[@schtoobs]

Oh cool was hoping you'd play this one.

[@tarantula4197]

this is a art worth admiring

[@joaquinbaume1291]

ARRGH mateyyy good to see you play this

[@Brutishandshort]

Oh Mapo, your fucking face when you found Spratt 😂

[@lilldea]

I just finiahed playing the game earlier today and wanted to see how someone else played it. We thought so similar about things haha, I guess most people in similar ways while playing. I found it funny that you found out who Henry Evans was earlier than me and i was impressed that you managed to figure out he was in Morocco...but then didnt know where morcco is 😅 such an anticlimax.

[@theblah12]

Man, the death rate on this ship is quite something.

[@bradleypeate3266]

Flint lock pistols fire a metal ball worse than a modern day bullet if unreliable due to gun powder plus the reload times ☠️ By the way the ship has a helm or they call it the wheel to steer 🤓

[@evlogiy]

So, what was your dog barking about!!?

[@ahumanbeingfromtheearth1502]

Go back to the explosion memory and zoom in on the explosion itself. You'll find something Interesting

[@Adallace]

The developer had to use some clever tactics to get the graphics to display just right. Maybe forcing it into a window messes something up. Just a thought. I'm not sure if what we are seeing on this recording is exactly what you're seeing on your monitor.

[@sheepcouldtalk]

Oh shit!! Im so excited!

[@cemcoma4195]

you are the smartest person to make a gameplay about obra dinn, every other gameplay I watched didn't pick up the tutorials and ques as much as you did great video edit: bruh you don't know morocco is in Africa damn American education sucks

[@Mapocolops]

The fact you think I am American, somehow, is hilarious. Looks like we both have things we need to learn don't we Thank you for your initial comments, I'm not super well versed in my geography, sorry lol

[@cemcoma4195]

@@Mapocolops first video i watched accent was like american so i assumed it was

[@NumberJ42]

You know what they say about assuming, it makes you look like an ass.

[@goodeveningduchess]

I hope this means Case of the Golden Idol is imminent as well 🙏

[@dannyloveridge2661]

I’ve been watching your Chanel for a while now, please please do a walkthrough of the tomb raider (2013) trilogy, incredible story and voice acting and I think you’ll truly enjoy it

[@Mapocolops]

I’ve played the TR reboot trilogy in the past before KZbin :)

[@MasDouc]

The mad lad did it

[@chieflarry955]

What a great game... At this rate you should look into La Mulana

[@darthcarrots2581]

So excited!!!

[@juliawold77]

YASSSSSS SO EXCITED!!!!

[@Lycanthromancer1]

3:20 - Huh. Popeye made a cameo.

[@farukt122]

Lez Goooo

[@bradleypeate3266]

Lol pooping sounds 😆

[@zero-cool-ire3788]

1:42:00 had me cracking up 😂😂😂

[@addisonmartin3200]

Hah the sepia opening.

[@zwiebeldogs]

YES YES YES YES

[@SarahMaeBea]

This is already so fun! Gimme all the indie mystery games yum yum. You picked it up immediately that you only have a moment to look around and then you have to wait for it to open the book. A weird bit of timing that seems to confuse people. Also poor E.S.. Squeezed out like a tube of toothpaste.

[@bradleypeate3266]

LCD I found much easier to look at 😄

[@andreasbuehler1821]

Heck yes.

[@Coconut-219]

Boat: Please.

[@JaneXemylixa]

I've watched like 20 letsplays by now and NOBODY looks at the deck plans. Why? >:(

[@saotiago]

I was so happy to see him use it because it really helps you figure out the timeline XD

[@JaneXemylixa]

@@saotiago Yeah but... also just knowing where you are?? Bc ppl go to the bosun quarters and are all like "what's this hanging thing on the side? well I guess we'll never know" when they can just press Tab

[@RisqueBisquet]

Alright Mapo! Time to redeem yourself for missing subtle hints in previous games! You're doing pretty good so far! Full disclosure: This game is hard. I wasn't able to figure them all out myself. You need some lateral thinking, and some knowledge of history doesn't hurt either.