We Died At Sea, and Now We're Dead On Land. Let's Play Why Am I Dead at Sea and Why Am I Dead: Rebirth [Complete]

[Timrod]

Why Am I Dead At Sea is one of the most unique point-and-click style adventure games I’ve ever played, with a premise that takes the LucasArts/Sierra premise of your character being a useless vessel for a magic hole full of inventory items and kind of turns it on its head. It is a remake/spiritual sequel to a Flash game (called “Why Am I Dead?”) which can be found on the developer’s website: http://peltastdesign.com/

The concept is kind of ripped from Ghost Trick (which came out a year before the flash game and 5 years before the standalone remake) - you play as a ghost that doesn’t know who it is and who also wants to find their killer and bring them to justice. That’s about all I can say without giving away too much - you’ll see what I mean as the LP goes on.

Now that the main LP is complete, I’m planning on doing a less in-depth LP of the remake of the original Flash game! Updates for that will be located in a separate post, which you can find down below. The sub-LP will contain unmarked spoilers for Dead at Sea, so please read it after you’ve finished the first LP!

One thing I will confess is that while the game has an amazing premise and good execution, the writing is not always where it should be and some things just don’t make a whole lot of sense. Unlike that tire fire of a previous LP, these flaws are things I can look past because they don’t make themselves the focus of the game.

I first played this game around this time last year, and this was THE game I wanted to LP. That should give you an idea of how good this game is. My goal is to get this one into the LP Archive.

The Ghost
A newly deceased person whose identity and memories have been lost. Brought back to existence by Paulo, it wants to know why it is dead, and who killed it.

Captain Smilla
The former captain of the Douce Amere. A drifter with no family, Smilla worked on boats in a multitude of countries and had a taste for absinthe. Her prized possession is a copy of Euclid’s Elements. Murdered the day before the game started, she had suspected a conspiracy between a number of unknown parties and the existence of one or more secret rooms on the ship.

Paulo
A kid who is basically that kid from The Sixth Sense, Paulo sees dead people and can psychically interact with them. His room is located on the bottom-left part of the lower deck.

Alton
The DJ aboard the cruise ship Douce Amere. Seems to have a massive crush on Xu. Works in the Observation Room, which no one ever vists. Do not listen to his mixtape. His special ability when possessed changes the music. His room is located on the bottom-left part of the middle deck. Upon being investigated by Donovan, Alton turns out to have been a computer science major in college, but failed out before he could finish his degree. Has parents that still care for him, the bastard.

Marcurio
The ship’s head chef. Hates the Douce Amere and wants to get off it as quickly as possible. Also a control freak who maintains extremely tight control over his kitchen. Works for an unknown paymaster who has directed him to drop off food and other supplies in given locations and to leave the boarding ramps for the ship down at night. He also had the key to the chest in the captain’s room hidden in one of his books, which contained paint used to conceal a secret room. His room is on the left side of the middle deck. When possessed, he can find traces of spilled liquids.

Xu (Sue)
Marcurio’s assistant. Her room is located in the top-left part of the middle deck. She’s also a thief who has a box full of stolen items on top of her dresser. Xu turns out to be an undocumented immigrant who is stealing to get by. She can look inside people’s pockets if she gets close to them. Donovan is immune to this. Stole the master key from the ship’s pilothouse at the instructions of an unknown person.

Ferdinand
The Douce Amere’s first mate, and a complete idiot. Spends most of his time wandering around and not doing his job. His room is located in the bottom-right of the middle deck. He is the only character who is willing to screw with the instruments on the bridge. When possessed, Ferdinand makes dumb announcements over the intercom.

Darryl
A passenger. Darryl is on the ship attempting to flee from the memories of his wife’s suicide, which drove him into a deep depression. He’s also a high-powered attorney. His room is located on the lower-right of the bottom deck. When possessed, he takes a pill that causes the screen to go staticy and increases his movespeed to the same as everyone else’s.

Quella
A writer in the middle of her latest work, a futuristic story about the end of humanity. Her room is located next to Darryl’s on the lower deck. Her novel hasn’t been going well, and she’s struggling to support herself but doesn’t seem too concerned about it. Quella was revealed to have terminal cancer and a life expectancy of four to five months. Her special ability is getting people to talk.

Donovan

An undercover FBI agent who has been sent to the Douce Amere to track down and apprehend a serial killer. When possessed, he can identify hotspots to investigate. Carries the ship’s master key, which he stole from Xu.

Garv
A passenger on the ship, and the owner of Sunshine, a black cat. Seems to be a half-senile old man with a serious creepy factor. His room is located next to Donovan’s, on the lower deck. When possessed, he can call his cat to his side.

Gwen
A mysterious woman who seems to be totally mute. Believes that someone on the ship is stalking her. Her room is located in the top-right of the lower deck. When possessed, she can look through doors into the room beyond.

The Captain
The captain of the Douce Amere.

Sunshine
Garv’s cat. Her special ability is being able to fit inside the air ducts throughout the ship. She can also jump.

[Timrod]

Well, this sure is a grim way to start a game. There’s a lot of animations here that I couldn’t accurately capture with screenshots, so I made a video!

Not even a minute into the game and we’re already dead and talking to a teddy bear. Even the protagonist of Demon’s Souls lasted longer - not by much, mind you, but still longer.

… And now we’re in a room with some random kid. What the hell is going on here?

: “I mean… welcome back.”

: “Come over here to talk to me. Telepathy wears me out.”

: “Yeah… I’d be confused if I were you. How much do you remember?”

: “… … …”

: “Nothing, huh? Well, I have some bad news. You’re dead. In fact, you were murdered.”

: “But, your soul hung on to this world. And before it faded away completely, I brought it back.”

: “It was actually really close… I almost failed.”

: “You’re on a small cruise ship. At least, that’s what they call it.”

: “It’s really more of a ferry. A bad one.”

: “We’re out to sea right now, so I don’t know our exact location.”

: “I don’t know. But… it shouldn’t be too hard to find out. If you see a dead body anywhere, it’s probably you.”

: “My name’s Paulo.”

: “I see dead people.”

: “It’s not something I understand well…”

: “That is the big question, isn’t it?”

: “But I don’t know. Your memories are gone, and I can’t bring them back.”

: “I was able to pick up your final thoughts. Pain, shock, confusion… it wasn’t a quick death.”

: “I wish I could help more. I’m sorry.”

: “Well, to be honest… I need your help.”

: “Something bad is going to happen here. To the people on this ship. I can sense it.”

Kid, I think something bad has ALREADY happened to someone on this ship.

: “I don’t know how, but we’re heading into a living nightmare.”

: “I can’t prevent it from happening myself. I’m just a kid, and the other adults won’t listen to me.”

: “In your current form? Not much.”

: “The fact is, you’re hanging onto this world by a thread.”

So this is the part where he tells us we have to go use the Nexus to get our body back and then go slay some demons, right? That’s always how this kind of thing goes.

: “Not having a body has its perks, though.”

: “You might be able to get inside people. Read their minds, take control of them.”

: “If you can use other people to investigate, you might be able to figure out who killed you, and why.”

A cat jumps down through an air vent in the wall, and we’re introduced to this game’s main schtick: using other people’s bodies for fun and profit.

By moving on top of people, the ghost can possess them by quickly tapping the possession button. There’s actually a bit of a sequence break we could do here - but for sake of completion, I’m not going to do it.

There are two levels of possession, which are kind of poorly named. For sake of clarity, I’m going to call one method “quick possession” and the other “total control”. Paulo has a pretty good explanation for how it works.

: “But if you understand a person at a basic level, you should still be able to influence them.”

: “You could guide them along and nudge them to do things, but you would be sharing their body, not stealing it.”

: “For example, you wouldn’t be able to use their voice to talk about things they have no awareness of.”

: “However, if you completely understand someone’s will, you should be able to take full control of them.”

: “You could hijack their body and speak through their voice. I don’t expect that level of control would come easily, though.”

So, remember how I said in the title post that while this game has a really neat concept, the writing isn’t always where it should be? The possession mechanic is one of the few things that kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense - you’ll see what I mean later on, when we get to possessing actual people.

: “As expected, something as simple as a cat would be easy to take control of.”

: “Well? How do you like your new body?”

: “Admittedly, it will be hard to do much if you can’t even speak English…”

: “But you will need it to leave this room.”

So as a ghost, we have another mechanic that only really applies to this particular room. Due to the ghost’s fragile connection to reality, we can’t simply phase through the door to Paulo’s room.

: “I’d open the door for you, but I think it’s important that you get the hang of doing things on your own.”

With that, we have everything we need to leave this room.

Each possessable character has a special ability. The cat actually has two: it can fit through small spaces (including the air vents) and it can jump. The special abilities are sadly kind of under-utilized: they only really matter a handful of times, but it’s still kind of a neat addition.

As soon as we exit the air vent, the music changes to something much more upbeat.

A random blonde-haired man spaces out to music in the middle of a hallway.

Meet Alton. Alton is a random-ass DJ… who works on a ferry for some reason. The other guy, Marcurio, is the ship’s head chef.

: “You are? What’s going on?”

: “Oh. Uh, nothing. Nothing really. You finished up at the diner?”

: “Pretty much, dinner hours are over. I’m gonna go back up and clean the kitchen, though.”

: “You really like staying in the kitchen after hours, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you turn in.”

: "My shift in the observation room is over, so I’m gonna kick back and relax!’

: “Was there something you needed?”

: “Oh, that’s right, I just remembered. I was looking for Sue. She’s probably off hours too, right?”

: “Yeah, of course.”

: “Any idea where she went?”

: “No.”

: “Oh, okay. I just thought… she looked kind of upset earlier today, didn’t she?”

: “Maybe. I wouldn’t know.”

: “I was just curious what was up.”

: “Probably nothing.”

: “Oh. Well, maybe I’ll stop by her room to check on her, just in case.”

: “Knock yourself out. I’m going to clean the kitchen now.”

: “Would that be weird? I don’t know…”

Alton then goes upstairs to find Sue, leaving the cat to prowl around the lower deck of the ship.

Just north of where we encountered Alton is the rest room. The rest room is this game’s equivalent of the hint stand from Earthbound - but for right now, there’s an obvious thing we should be doing. Also, notice the little signs and pieces of paper underneath each door. Someone with the initial “-F” has signed notes under most of the doors leading to occupied rooms telling us who is in each room. Unfortunately, the only door we can open as the cat is the one we came out of Paulo’s room from. Speaking of which, Paulo barricades his door immediately after talking to us. None of the human characters can enter his room - only the ghost itself or the cat can.

Anyway, let’s just follow Alton upstairs, and…

We unlock our first possessable character! Alton is about as useful as you’d expect a DJ to be on a ship - that’s not to say he’s a badly written character, it’s just that he’s among the least useful gameplay wise.

His special ability is the one shared by all millennials - putting on his headphones and standing around.

Picking “Something Upbeat” changes the music back to the main theme that plays throughout the ship - it’s the one I linked to above that you should probably listen to. Picking “Something Modern” on the other hand…

Next time, we’ll go check on Sue and see what life is like as a DJ aboard a cruise ship.

The OST is freely available from the composer’s Bandcamp page. The songs are good, but they get way overused.

[Timrod]

Before we continue on as Alton, I just wanted to kind of show off a neat little thing. Characters in this game that are possessable won’t just stand around once you stop controlling them - each character has a couple of locations they’ll visit (they’ll usually wander around the ship or be in their room). In this case, however, we can actually use this to our advantage!

If you stop possessing Alton at this point and switch back to being the cat (say, to go save), Alton will be standing right outside Sue’s room. We could go right in, but let’s take a minute and explore the ship first. Thankfully, someone on Steam was nice enough to make a map-sized screenshot of the game, so I’ll just borrow these rather than trying to stitch together my own.

Right now, we’re on the middle deck. Sue’s room is the one marked by the number three.

If we go up a level, we find a guy who looks like a rejected Gilligan’s Island character running around in front of the Observation Room, where Alton works.

This is Ferdinand, the ship’s first mate. I won’t post his dialog just yet, because we’ll be coming back to talk to him a bit later in this update. The door across from Ferdinand leads to the dining room.

This is the inside of the Observation Room, which looks remarkably nice for a crappy cruise ship. Alton can access his laptop here, which does effectively the same thing as using his special ability.

The lower passage on the third floor leads to the deck, home of a guy dressed remarkably like the detective from Ghost Trick. All he’s missing is the jacket.

Alton can ask almost every character in the game if they want to check out the Observation Room. Let’s do that with this guy. He looks like he could use a night at a dance club… even if the DJ is some random guy on a cruise ship.

: “Well, the observation room has windows. So you can, you know, observe…”

: “Like I said, I prefer to watch the sunset. Out here.”

This is Darryl, one of the passengers aboard the Douce Amere. He’s kind of a jerk, but that’s pretty much the response Alton gets from everyone when he asks them about the observation room. Guess it’s kinda tough when people can see the surroundings from the deck, which is all of maybe 20 feet away.

Finally, the highest level of the ship is the bridge. I believe every character can come up here (which normally would be a massive security hazard on an actual ship) and look at stuff, but Alton won’t touch any of the controls. We don’t really have much else to do, so let’s go check out Sue and see what she’s doing.

Sue’s name is actually Xu - it’s an anglicized version of her name.

: “Not much with me. How are you?”

: “I’m okay. Um, you can come in.”

: “Oh, right.”

We’re given two dialog options and… oh god, Alton… no… don’t do it! It’s not worth it! Don’t be a Reginald!

No, Alton! Why?!

: “Oh, that sounds…nice.”

Oh god no Alton you’re doubling down that’s not what you’re supposed to do!

: “Oh… yeah. Well, I’m usually pretty busy, but maybe when I have time.”

Alton? What’s going on? Respond! Alton? ALLTONNNN!"

Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen, even though it totally did.

: “Y-yes! Everything’s alright. I’m sorry if I made you worry.”

: “Right. Well, I guess that’s everything. See you later.”

I’m honestly amazed he didn’t just ask her about the mixtape again.

: “I haven’t been completely honest.”

: “You were right. Something happened last night.”

: “Someone broke into my room and stole something.”

: “W…what?! How?!”

: “I don’t know. My door lock felt… different today. I think someone forced it open.”

: “Oh, they stole a, um… a family heirloom. An old vase. Yeah.”

: “It isn’t worth a lot of money, but they probably didn’t know that.”

: “But it would be really, really great if I could get it back.”

: “I guess they were looking for something expensive that they could pawn.”

: “Some people have no shame when it comes to money.”

: "No! We can’t!’

: “Um, I mean… I’d prefer to keep this just between the two of us, for now.”

: “I don’t know if we can trust the other ship staff. We don’t know who was behind this, after all.”

Now that we’ve gone through all of Xu’s dialogue, a new option pops up. Like Snatcher or Policenauts, a lot of this game revolves around exhausting dialogue.

: “Really? No, I wouldn’t want to get you caught up in this…”

: “Hey, that’s why I came here in the first place, right?”

: “…Thank you, Alton.”

: “We could start by talking to people around the ship.”

: “Maybe we’ll notice something.”

: “Alright! We can do this!”

: “I’d start upstairs. Marcurio is probably in the kitchen, behind the dining room. And the first mate is… well, he’s easy to find.”

This bit of dialogue is a little strange, mostly because you would assume Alton would know a bit about the other crewmembers given that he works here and all. Still, he DOES try to pawn off mixtapes on people so maybe there’s a reason for that. Also, this would be a good time to post the rest of those maps I borrowed!

This is the lower deck. Paulo’s room is the one marked by the number 6.

And this is the upper deck. We’ll take Xu’s advice and head up to see Marcurio first. Ferdinand and Darryl should still be up there as well, so we can get three of the seven suspects out of the way at once. Note that there are more than 7 people on the boat: no one seems to know that Paulo is aboard, so he’s not counted.

: “As the first mate of this vessel, it is my duty to assist the staff in any way I can.”

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but this game is really, really nice about how it handles conversations. Anything marked with an exclamation point is necessary to advance the plot, with everything else being optional. However, for sake of completeness and because these characters are actually pretty well-written, I’m going to include all of the possible unique dialogue points. If you’re in a rush, or just reading this LP at work, feel free to skip them.

: “She’s purring like a kitten! At this rate, we’ll reach our destination right on time!”

: “I have to say, all credit goes to our lovely captain. She is a true professional!”

You know, that’s kind of odd. No one’s ever mentioned the captain before.

: “She must have turned in for the night. She was around a little earlier, I think.”

: “We make a great team, I think! She’s a little rough around the edges with people, but I’m a natural people-person.”

: “And I may be a little fuzzy with the details, but she is the paragon of diligence.”

: “They seem quite content. But perhaps - as the ship entertainer - you are more of an authority on the matter!”

: “I’m sure you’ve been able to acquaint yourself with all the passengers at the Observation Room, yes?”

: “No one goes to the observation room.”

: “Haha! Oh Alton, you’re such a kidder!”

Wait… did he just say… oh god, this is going to turn right into Harvester, isn’t it?

: “I’m sure with your natural charm and talent, it’s party central over there!”

He says to the guy who just tried to get Xu to listen to his mixtape of what is no doubt generic techno.

: “Party city! Party headquarters! Party palooza!”

What Ferdinand doesn’t know is that the first two went out of business permanently after Halloween got cancelled that one year due to a hurricane. True story.

: “Why don’t you stop by, then?”

: “Ooh, hmm, yes, I would, I really would.”

: “But you see, I’m busy. So busy. Yes, very much so.”

: “With the boat, you know. Looking after the boat.”

Says the guy who spends most of his time prancing around the ship like an idiot. I bet he’d listen to Alton’s mixtape.

: “But really, it’s for the best. I’d just cramp your style!”

Let’s move on to the big question now.

: “Last night? Why, I was making sure all of the ship’s readings were correct.”

: “Double checking all of our instruments in the pilothouse. Yes, that took a while.”

: “I got to bed rather late, I must admit, but it was worth it!”

: “Isn’t that something the captain would normally do?”

: “Maybe… but is it not my job, as the first mate, to assist the captain in any way I can?”

: “She cannot be everywhere at once. So, I am like an extension to her eyes and ears!”

: “That means making sure everything is in order, at all parts of the ship, all the time.”

There is one thing that’s kind of strange about the Douce Amere and that’s that there’s no engineers. I have a feeling the writer didn’t put those characters in for simplicity’s sake rather than out of disregard for detail. Usually, a first mate on a modern civilian ship is in charge of personnel and maybe taking the occasional watch cycle.

Now that we’re done questioning Ferdinand, we can go to the kitchen and talk to Marcurio. Strangely, any one of the possessable characters can enter the kitchen straight up. It hasn’t been said outright yet, but Xu is basically Marcurio’s assistant - so she at least has a reason to go in there.

The kitchen is rather… sparse for a cruise ship.

Interestingly, the refrigerator has a lock on it. Alton can’t look inside or Marcurio will complain at him, but I wonder why Marcurio would bother to lock a fridge that’s already behind a door in the first place.

: “At all.”

: “Well, whatever. Need something?”

: “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

: “Good. Do me a favor and don’t touch anything, alright?”

: “I have my own system. Please don’t mess up my system.”

: “Yeah. Stayed after hours cleaning and stuff, like usual.”

: “You spent the entire night cleaning the kitchen?”

: “No. I spent some time organizing, too.”

: “Look, I have an inventory to manage and keep stock of.”

: “If I get sloppy and disorganized, stuff gets forgotten. Things go bad. Money is lost.”

: “I bet I have to do more management work on this boat than everyone else combined.”

: “… So yeah, I spent the entire night in the kitchen.”

: “I’ll do whatever it takes to get off this tin can. Anything.”

: “If I have to work in this terrible place, I’m going to make it the best terrible place in the world.”

: “I’m not going to be a creature of circumstance. I create my own circumstances.”

Sounds like he REALLY hates his job.

Our next stop is the top deck, where Darryl and… someone else are waiting. The other person here moves around the ship while Darryl will pretty much confine himself to the top deck, so let’s talk to her first.

This is Quella. Quella is actually one of the more important people aboard the ship despite being just a passenger.

: “I’ve just been busy writing. That’s all I seem to do, just about!”

: “What are you writing?”

: “I’ve been working on a book for a while now.”

: “The first draft is pretty close to being finished, but there’s still a lot to do.”

: "So, I’m trying to power through this last stretch!’

: “What’s it about?”

: "Oh, you really want to know? Cool!’

: “Well, it’s a science fiction story that takes place in the far future.”

: “The world is dying and coming to an end, basically.”

: “It focuses on a small group of characters and how they cope with it.”

: “Wow, that sounds…depressing.”

: “It may sound that way, but it’s actually a happy story.”

: “It’s about endings. I mean, everything ends, and often before we’re ready.”

: “But endings are necessary. They teach us to enjoy what we have while it’s here.”

: “And even when we find ourselves in what seems like a living nightmare, we can still find comfort.”

: “I guess it’s not a happy story. It’s… bittersweet?”

This is kind of a pun. The name of the ship, Douce Amere, means “bittersweet” in English.

: “Well, I was doing the same thing I do most nights…writing.”

: “Man, I went to bed too late and got up this morning all groggy. But I do my best writing really late!”

: “Why, what’s up?”

: “Oh, um… nobody was at the Observation Room last night. It was pretty quiet.”

: “I’m sure everybody was just busy with their own stuff. Like me!”

: “I wouldn’t worry about it. Maybe people will stop by later.”

Finally, we’ve got Darryl where he’s been the entire time. We might as well talk to him now, since all of the other people on the ship tend to congregate on the lower deck.

: “Nothing.”

: “So, what were you up to?”

: “I was here, outside the ship for the whole night.”

: "Well, not really. The captain came out and kept trying to talk to me, so I went back to my room.’

: “That’s all.”

: “You don’t like the captain?”

: “I don’t like her or dislike her. I don’t know anything about her.”

Our next victim is this guy. This is Donovan, and like Quella, he tends to roam around, mainly between his room and the hall. Unlike most of the people on the Douce Amere, Donovan keeps his room locked at all times, meaning he can be kind of a pain to find. Donovan doesn’t have any interesting optional dialogues (he’ll basically just try to get Alton to go away) but we do have to try asking him what he was doing last night.

: “Nothing. Why do you care?”

: “My friend lost something last night. I was wondering if you saw it.”

: “Your friend, huh?”

: “No, I didn’t see anything last night.”

: “Come to think of it, other things have seemed to go missing around here too.”

: “You don’t think it was…stolen, do you?”

: “Yeah, maybe it was stolen. Any idea who would steal it?”

: “I wouldn’t know. It was just a thought.”

: “On a boat this small and with so few people, it would be easy for them to get caught, though.”

: “You have to wonder what would cause someone to take that risk.”

Alton’s room is on the way downstairs, so I figured I’d show off what it looks like. I think it would’ve been kind of neat if you could have Alton hide his laptop and the spare headphones (since you just know Alton is one of those people buying $700 headphones) since there’s a potential thief afoot, but alas.

On the lower deck, where we started, we run into one of the two remaining characters we haven’t met yet.

: “…Oh, hi!”

: “You should take a look at my parrotlets. They’ve learned some phrases!”

: “They seem to love attention, so don’t be shy.”

: “They’ve learned phrases?”

: “Sure! Most people just think of parrots talking, but parakeets and parrotlets can talk too.”

: “They’re still young, so they don’t know too much.”

: “But I think I’m a pretty good trainer, if I do say so myself.”

: “Love is a bit of a strong word, but they do keep me company.”

: “They may not be as smart as humans, but they’re simpler. They don’t have mortgages or mid-life crises, and they don’t lie.”

: “It’s comforting that the things I can give them - food, shelter - are all they’ll ever need.”

: “Wouldn’t you agree?”

: “Mortgages or mid-life crises? What does that have to do with cats and birds?”

: “What I mean is that pets have no desire or ambition.”

: “Humans, we… we always like to have dreams, and plans. We’re always chasing something. Or someone.”

: “But these desires can hurt ourselves. Or worse, it can hurt other people.”

: “Those dreams can be manipulated by others for their own ends.”

: “Are we still talking about pets, or…”

: “Oh, I’m sorry, I started rambling there!”

: “Don’t mind me - the older I get, the more I go on about things.”

: “…”

: "Oh, hello!’

: “Have you seen my cat? She’s a nice black Bombay.”

: “She likes to explore a lot, so I let her move around the ship. Maybe you’ve seen her.”

: “You have a cat? Cool! What’s it’s name?”

: “Her name? Sunshine. It’s one of those ironic names, since she’s black.”

: “It was my daughter who picked the name actually.”

: “I… would have picked something else.”

: “Last night? I wouldn’t know, myself. I was just looking after my pets at the time.”

: “Actually, last night a rat snuck into my room! Thankfully, I managed to kill it.”

: “Can’t let any filthy rats spread diseases to my pets.”

: “I didn’t know there were rats on this ship.”

: “Oh, sure. I imagine they sneak on the ship when it docks. Once they get on, there’s nothing to do but kill them.”

So yeah, Garv is kind of a creepy old guy. At least now we know the cat’s name - Sunshine - and that the cat belongs to him. We’ll try visiting him as Sunshine in the next update.

The last remaining passenger just happened to walk onscreen at the right time.

For right now, Gwen is totally mute.

: “Maybe we should just move on.”

: “I don’t know if this is working. It seems like we’re just creeping people out.”

Regardless of how Alton answers…

: “I don’t know. Maybe we should go back to my room and rethink things.”

Well, that about does it for this update. Next update, we’ll finish the first of the game’s four chapters, and get some new people to possess!

Alton’s Steam trading card (small ver.)

Xu’s Steam trading card (small ver.)

[Timrod]

So as I mentioned before, inside the restroom is a mysterious entity that we can only interact with when not possessing anyone. They don’t have a whole lot to tell us right now, but I figured I’d show them off on the way back to Xu’s room.

: “I’d really hoped there would be some detail I’d pick up.”

: “What about you?”

We could accuse someone, but really, Alton doesn’t have a whole lot of leads to go off of. If we did pick that option, this is what comes up:

Suddenly, I’m having flashbacks to Dagger of Amon Ra.

Whichever option we pick, the end result is the same.

: “Well, we didn’t actually talk to everyone, I guess. We never ran into the captain.”

: “She must’ve turned in for the night. She’s almost always around, so that’s bad luck on our part.”

: “Ahh… ahhh…”

: “AAACHOOOO!”

: “Oh jeez, you’re still reacting to the dust, huh? I really need to clean up my room, I guess.”

: “… Ha, I just had a thought. Maybe the person left their fingerprint in the dust on my glass furniture!”

: “Now, all we need is a copy of the fingerprints from everyone on the ship…”

: “Wait, Alton! You don’t have to do that. I was just joking!”

: “I mean, there’s no way we could figure out who it was from a fingerprint.”

: “But… there are no fingerprints.”

: “What do you mean?”

: “I mean there are finger marks where someone touched the glass… but there are no fingerprints.”

: “Oh, okay. Hmm…”

: “So… I guess they were wearing gloves, then?”

: “I guess.”

: “Wait… that’s it! Alton, you’re a genius!”

: “If there are no fingerprints, it must mean that they were wearing gloves, which means it must have been…”

: “Donovan! That weird quiet guy. I always thought it was strange how he wears those all the time.”

: “I bet it was him!”

: “Ahhh…”

: “It makes sense, really. That guy always gave me a bad feeling.”

: “Aaahhh…”

: “But why would he break into my room and steal, er, that?”

Suddenly, the box that was sitting atop Xu’s dresser falls over onto the floor.

: “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry. I hope I didn’t break anything!”

: “No, no, it’s fine. Let’s get you out of here. You look so ill!”

: “It’s weird though. Why wouldn’t Donovan have stolen some of this stuff?”

:“There’s an MP3 player here - a really good model! I used to have one like that, but I lost it.”

: “…um…”

: “And those headphones are a really good brand too. Not cheap. I had one like that too, but I…”

: “… Lost it.”

: “…”

: “I never lost them. You stole them.”

: “Alton, wait! It’s not like that!”

: “I was always just an easy mark, huh? A walking pile of money. That was how you saw me.”

No Alton, that would be that one guy from Persona 5 who saw everyone as walking ATMs.

: “That was a nice long con you had going there. Congratulations.”

: “Come on. Just wait a minute!”

: “So that you can steal something else from me? I’m out of here.”

Alton runs off and forcibly ejects the ghost from his body. At least we’ve been into Alton’s room, so he really doesn’t have a place to hide, but…

People who glow green in this game are unlocked for possession. We now have a new host body available… who might have some more useful skills than Alton does.

Just as we go to possess her, however, Paulo chimes in via his psychic link.

During the cutscene, Xu runs off to find Alton.

Fortunately, we find her on the lower deck on the way to Paulo’s room. Let’s take control of her now and find out what her special ability is.

Xu is by far one of the most useful characters on the Douce Amere. We will be using her frequently, as she is key to unlocking several other people. Let’s try this on Garv up there, and see what he’s carrying.

Okay, that is INCREDIBLY suspicious. The creepy old man is carrying around a syringe? It’s too bad we don’t have total control of Xu yet, because she could probably find the ghost’s killer fairly easily.

There is one person that Xu’s ability won’t work on, and that’s Donovan, who will immediately notice her trying to look through his pockets. That’s also incredibly suspicious. Rather than posting screenshots, I’ll list off everyone and what they have in their pockets.

Ferdinand
: “Looks like he has his staff keys with him. He’s also carrying three combs. And… is that makeup?”

Gwen
: “Jeez, she’s got a pocket knife on her. Maybe I should keep my distance…”

Alton
: “As always, he’s got some fancy MP3 player and headphones with him.”

: “… And the latest smartphone. He’s probably carrying a couple hundred dollars on him, at least.”

: “Prick.”

Marcurio

: “He’s got a notepad and a keychain on him, but nothing else.”

Darryl

: “In one pocket, he’s got a wallet, a smartphone… pretty standard.”

: “But in the other, he’s carrying tons of empty pill bottles. Weird.”

Quella

: “She’s got a bunch of folded-up one dollar bills and a notepad.”

: “She’s really taking this starving artist thing pretty far.”

The cat’s nowhere to be found (I was going to talk to Garv with it) so let’s go talk to Paulo.

: “It doesn’t look like it’s connected to your death at all, but who knows?”

: “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I have good news and bad news.”

: “You may have noticed that each person you possess has a special ability you can use.”

: “The good news is, your ghost form now has some abilities of its own.”

The two new abilities are essentially Batman vision for the ghost, activated by holding down the “special ability” button:

Red indicates a person we haven’t unlocked for possession. Green indicates something we can possess, and light blue is a save point. Doors will color-code themselves as well, with red meaning the ghost cannot enter without a host body.

The other ability is reading minds, which works exactly like Xu’s ability. Press the button near a person, and you can read their thoughts. This is an ability that is… kind of criminally underused in this game. It also begs the question “Well, why can’t we just read everyone’s minds until we know who the killer is?” Honestly, I have no idea.

This is what mind-reading looks like. There’s a moving background and random words or phrases that pop up and disappear. This is Sunshine’s mind.

This, in comparison… is Gwen’s. I’ll post all of the mind-reading results at the end of the update.

: “The bad news is, there’s still something else I need you to do.”

: “In your current state, your spirit can only move so far from your body.”

: “The problem is, we’re moving away from your body very quickly… probably because it’s no longer on board.”

: “If the ship continues on its path, I can’t guarantee that you’ll have enough time in this world.”

: “The ship’s direction has to be changed, at least for the time being.”

Anyway, let’s grab the cat and head out of here.

We can bother Garv on the way out.

: “What? Your food bowl is filled, you stupid cat.”

: “Stop your meowing. I know you’re not hungry. You have your food.”

: “And I just emptied your litterbox yesterday. Don’t tell me you’re going to wet the floor anyway.”

: “I think there must be something wrong with your stupid little brain. That’s why you keep bothering me.”

Okay yeah, he’s suspicious as hell.

There are a couple of different ways we could go from here, but all of them start with Xu.

While anyone can enter Quella’s room, Xu is the person we need for this.

: “Hahaha! You saw my trash bin, I guess.”

: “Yeah, I’m writing a story and I can never decide how to word things. I end up throwing a lot away.”

: “I’m trying to be. I don’t know if you can call yourself a writer when you haven’t finished writing anything.”

: “I have been working on a novel, and I do hope to get it published. But… it feels like I do more re-writing than actual writing.”

: “Sometimes it feels like I’m never going to finish it.”

: “Money-wise? It doesn’t work out.”

: “I don’t get paid for writing, of course. I have to finish a book and get it published.”

: “But I haven’t finished, don’t know when I will, and even then I won’t have a publisher.”

: “So… it’s rough.”

: “I have some money saved up. I’m burning through it, though.”

:“I think I have… oh, four or five months left, and then I’m broke.”

: “I haven’t thought too much about it! I’m just focusing on writing as much as possible before that happens.”

: “I am. Maybe it seems a bit crazy or reckless, but in truth, it’s freeing.”

: “Writing is my dream. There is nothing I’d rather do.”

: “I’d rather try and fail at this than spend the rest of my life doing something I dislike.”

(note: grammatical error not mine)

: “That’s a good question. I guess the short answer is, I like writing.”

: “But that doesn’t mean it’s fun. It’s often very tedious… so much rewriting!”

: “And there isn’t much money in it.”

: “I guess I just want to share something with people that I couldn’t with regular words.”

: “And most of all, I want to leave something behind after I’m gone.”

: “Even if I have to work myself ragged and go broke, having the chance to do that… it’s enough, I think.”

And with that, we’ve unlocked Quella for possession. I wonder what her ability is?

Quella’s ability is basic human empathy being a human version of the CASIE implant from Deus Ex. Like Xu, she is another extremely important character. In fact, we’re going to be using her special ability… right now.

As soon as we walk out of Quella’s room (whether as Quella or Xu), the intercom goes off.

: “Testing, testing… oh right then, it’s working.”

: “Hello, most esteemed passengers! This is the first mate of the ship, Ferdinand.”

: “I elected to use the ship intercom to give a quick, friendly reminder.”

: “If you feel unsafe on the ship in any way, know that you can speak to me!”

: “I will exhaust every measure to ensure your sense of security while on our cruise.”

: “That is all. Have a wonderful evening!”

As soon as the announcement finishes, the camera pans up to Gwen. If you’ll remember from last update, Alton and Xu couldn’t get Gwen to even talk to them. This is where Quella’s special ability comes in handy.

Even Quella has a hard time getting Gwen to talk to her. Most of the responses on this tree elicit just an ellipsis.

: “Hi, Quella. I’m Gwen.”

: “Um…”

: “Nice to meet you.”

: “…No. I usually stay in my room, that’s why.”

: “…Please don’t say this to anyone, but…”

: “I think someone’s following me.”

There’s a tree of options after this, but all of them give the same response.

: “…I can just sense it.”

: “I don’t know who, but a person here is… looking for a target.”

: “There’s a cruel feeling in the air. I hate it…”

And with that, we unlock Gwen. Remember how I said the writing in this game isn’t always where it needs to be? I’m reasonably certain that Gwen was originally supposed to be a psychic like Paulo, but the writer decided against that at the last minute. Let’s take control of Gwen and find out what her ability is.

Doors don’t really work that way anymore, but sure, go for it! Gwen is how we manage to get the ghost into a bunch of rooms we otherwise couldn’t - keep in mind we’re still under the restriction that the ghost can’t go into any room it hasn’t been into inside someone’s body. Gwen’s ability bypasses that restriction. Any room she’s looked into becomes unlocked for the ghost.

This is Gwen’s room, which is usually locked. Notice the air vent. I wonder where that could lead? I also have to question how she managed to smuggle a fire axe in here. She won’t say much about the axe (other than that she felt she needed it) but she does have something interesting to say about her backpack.

: “I wanted to travel light, after all.”

: “…I’m getting tired of running.”

: “Will I ever be far away enough?”

I’m also reasonably certain Gwen was more than a little inspired by Terra from Final Fantasy VI. In any case, we can now look into a couple of rooms we couldn’t before.

This is Donovan’s room. Notice that he also has an open air vent - what is it with this place and not having the vent covers screwed on? Also notice the piles of cameras and… is that bugging equipment? We won’t be able to actually enter Donovan’s room for some time, but this is something to keep in mind.

And hey, wait - we know where the captain’s room is! Ferdinand said she went to sleep earlier… maybe we could go up there and find her!

Oh, shit. There’s no one in that room… and there’s a chest in the corner. I think I’ve played enough Hitman games to know that the chest would make a really convienient place to dump a body…

: “There’s something strange about the book. As you draw near it, a familiar feeling washes over you.”

: “Whatever properties the doll in Paulo’s room had, you can sense the same thing here.”

This is the game’s second save point. There’s only one other thing in this room we can interact with without having a physical body, and that’s the journal on the nightstand.

: “Just when I thought I had exhausted all possibilities, I lucked out.”

: “I got a tip about a recent opening for a captain on a small cruise ship.”

: “Strangely, it’s not part of a larger cruise line, but it is still financed by some company.”

: “The ship looks really small, and a bit run down, but I don’t have the luxury of being picky.”

: “Given all that’s happened, I can’t expect a good ref from any of my past employers… so I’m stuck with this.”

: “But hey, how bad could it be?”

Considering that your dead body is probably inside that chest or on the bottom of the ocean, pretty bad.

: “I’ve gotten settled in and met the staff and passengers.”

: “It’s a pretty… colorful lot.”

: “I get the sense that most people are here for the same reason I am - there’s nowhere else to go.”

: “One of the passengers is just a child, on his own. I can’t imagine what his family is like…”

: “Some of the others have been through hell and back. You can see it in their eyes.”

: “Maybe I’ve arrived amongst my own people.”

: “I already knew this wasn’t going to be a five-star cruise before I got here, but I had no idea.”

: “Everything is so disorganized. I’m surprised the ship hasn’t shut down for one reason or another.”

: “For instance, food seems to go missing from the kitchen on a recurring basis. Why? No one knows.”

: “There also isn’t any set boarding time for everyone - the passengers come whenever they want before a set date.”

: “A couple of them were already moved in and ready to go by the time I got here.”

: “And weirdest of all, the ship’s displacement is just… off.”

: “For a boat of this size and capacity, it sits lower in the water than it should. Like…”

: “Like there’s leftover cargo on the ship somewhere that nobody knows about.”

: “There must be something, at least, that’s making this ship heavier than it appears.”

Oh, fuck. I think I know who we are now. The book… and the journal… You might have guessed it already, but

We’re the captain.

So now, there’s two problems left: figuring out who killed the captain, and finding a way to end them. This means we’re going to need a puppet - after all, no one else on the ship even seems to know that the captain is missing… and even if they did, they’re not likely to willingly do anything about it.

Next time, we’ll get that puppet and start turning this ship around - literally, and figuratively. Oh, and before I forget… here’s what the insides of the rest of the cast’s minds look like.

This is Xu’s mind. That top line brings up some serious questions. Who’s… they?

This is Garv’s mind. Not much to see here.

Ferdinand’s mind. More or less exactly what you’d expect.

Quella’s. That hourglass in the back…

Alton’s.

Darryl’s.

Marcurio’s. This is more or less how I felt at the end of my last LP.

Donovan’s. Gee, that isn’t suspicious as all hell or anything, no sir.

- Quella’s Steam trading card (small)

- Gwen’s Steam trading card (small)

[Timrod]

Now that we know what our objective actually is, it’s time we got ourselves a puppet.

To do that, we first have to possess Quella again.

Most of the other characters who are capable of talking to Alton will have the first dialog option unlocked. Only Quella’s special ability can unlock the second one. There is one thing I do want to talk briefly about here, and that is the writing. We could have attempted to fully possess Alton without ever going into the Captain’s room - in fact, it’s doable as soon as Quella is unlocked. This is something I want you to keep in mind, as there’s a potential sequence break that occurs here pretty soon.

: “I don’t know… I just…”

: “I’m such an idiot. I should have seen this coming.”

: “Yeah… sort of.”

: “That obvious, huh?”

“That my mind is too fast for eyes. You’re done in… but now , time to send you your last surprise…”

Wait, wrong game. Should’ve seen that coming!

: “I really liked her. I just wanted to help her out, you know…”

: “And she just used me! That’s the only reason she kept me around in the first place!”

These options all pan out to the same thing, so I just picked one.

: “Yeah there was.”

: “This always happens. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

: “Why else would she have spent time with me? Nobody actually likes being around me.”

: “Well… well yeah, I guess.”

: “But it’s really my fault. I should have known.”

: “I’m just this stupid guy that’ll do what she asks and can be tricked…”

: “I guess I could try… what’s the worst that could happen?”

I’m not entirely sure why Alton flashes green here, because we still haven’t actually unlocked the ability to take total control of him. It might be a hint as to what we’re supposed to do next: namely, possess him and have him go talk to Xu. Just a note, for conversations that do not actually have branching dialogue, I’m going to just stick to dialogue portraits rather than cutting out the individual selection boxes.

: “…Okay… let’s talk.”

: “Why? Why would you steal from me?”

: “I’m really sorry… really, really sorry.”

: “I didn’t mean to…uh… y’know.”

: “It’s kinda hard for me to talk about.”

: “What were you planning to do with that stuff? Sell it?”

: “…Yeah. Look, I…I really need the money. Really badly.”

: “And that makes it okay, or something?”

: “Well, not everyone has it off as well as you do, Alton.”

: “You’re here because you wanted to take a long vacation. But others are here because it’s the only way they’ll stay fed.”

: “If I didn’t have this job, I’d be screwed. Same with Marc.”

: “And they know that, so they pay us shit for honest work.”

: “Meanwhile, you get to sit around all day doing nothing, and for way higher pay.”

: “What if I told you there’s a whole world of people living under you?”

: “That you are so privileged over, you aren’t even aware of them?”

: “I… I didn’t realize things were so bad.”

: “Well… they are. I’m stuck here, you know?”

: “You can leave here, get a real job, move on with your life. But not me.”

: “I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this awful place. I just know it.”

: “Look… I’m sorry about what I did. I just want you to know it wasn’t personal.”

Finally, we need to bring Alton to Quella, then possess Quella and talk to Alton again.

: “You seem… even worse off than before. What’s wrong?”

: “I had a talk with Xu. It turns out she hates my guts, and always has.”

I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say it, Alton is an asshole.

: “Maybe the two of you just aren’t a good fit. It happens.”

: “Maybe you’re right.”

: “She was always so nice to me. Just really sweet and friendly. But that was a complete front.”

: “We were never on an equal level. She sees me as more privileged than her, or whatever.”

: “I never should’ve taken this job.”

: “What do you mean?”

: “I thought on this ship, I could travel. Meet lots of people. It’d be great.”

: “But instead, everyone sees me like some kind of useless parasite.”

Well I mean, you ARE a DJ… on a ferry.

: “I have the easiest job here. I’m an abject failure at it, and nobody likes me.”

Christ Alton, what are you, five? Quella, punch him. God dammit I don’t have total control so I can’t make you punch him.

: “This whole thing was a mistake. I should be back home. I was stupid to leave.”

And now we’ve got our puppet. Who knew that the key to Alton’s personality is that he’s whiny and kind of an asshole? Unfortunately, he runs off before we get a chance to dangle his chains.

By holding the possession button, the ghost charges up to a purple color, allowing her to take total control over anyone with that ability unlocked.

When fully possessed, each character’s dialog changes to be exactly the same - and this is where the game design kinda breaks a little bit. We need Alton puppeted to be able to make progress… but it’s possible to do this without looking in the captain’s room and finding out the ghost’s real identity. This happened to me on my first playthrough, and while I had my suspicions, the whole thing seemed like a giant sequence break.

Now, at this point, the logical thing to do would be to go to Ferdinand as Alton and tell him that the Captain is missing. We know from Xu’s examination of his pockets that he has keys to the entire ship, so he’s the one person who could confirm it. However, even if we do this, he won’t do anything about it. I feel like the writer dropped the ball there.

Instead, we need to possess Gwen and have her talk to Ferdinand.

: “I, um, heard you over the intercom.”

: “As the first mate of this ship, I must attend to any and all concerns of my passengers!”

: “Is there anything that concerns you?”

: “I think I’m being followed.”

: “Goodness! On this ship? What makes you say so?”

: “It’s hard to explain. But I can tell. I can sense it - him, watching me.”

: “I know how that sounds, but you have to believe me.”

: “Please, miss, be at ease. I understand.”

: “Some people, such as yourself, simply have a highly attuned… intuition.”

Again, I’m pretty sure Gwen was originally written to be psychic.

: “Our instincts often see danger before our eyes do. As a sailor, it is vital that I trust my instincts.”

: “To be honest, I have felt a dark presence on this ship. But I have kept quiet, to avoid alarming others.”

: “What do you mean, dark presence?”

: “I suspect that the passenger Donovan - if that is his real name - is up to no good.”

: “Yes, I sense in him a great ill will.”

: “It is as if he is on this ship in pursuit of someone.”

: “What are you going to do?”

: “I’m not sure. If only I could learn more, maybe I could do something…”

Okay so as an aside here, the first mate of a ship usually has full access to almost everything. If Ferdinand really wanted to, I’m sure he could just go ahead and look in Donovan’s room.

: “If he could be lured out of his room, there’d be an opportunity to go inside and look around.”

: “But my advice to you is to stay away from him. He could be very dangerous.”

: “And stay away from his room, B201. You know, the one downstairs, up and to the left.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ferdinand knows about Gwen’s axe… and her knife.

This is why we needed to puppet Alton - right now, he’s the only one capable of luring Donovan out.

This gets Donovan out of his room, but the door is still locked… as is the door to Gwen’s room to everyone who isn’t Gwen herself.

This is where Sunshine comes in handy. Gwen’s room is locked, but the room directly next to hers is empty.

It also links up to the same air vent that Donovan and Gwen’s rooms do.

Fortunately, the door can be unlocked from the inside, allowing Gwen an easy way in. I’ve GMed enough Pathfinder to know never to question a player who asks if his animal companion can unlock a door… or climb a ladder… or in one case, pilot an airship. I have weird players.

It’s entirely possible that Donovan has video footage of the captain’s murder, given the amount of spy hardware he has. Unfortunately, his laptop is locked down.

Finally, there’s the mystery key on his dresser.

Once we’ve examined those three things (the spy hardware, the laptop, and the key), we can go back to Ferdinand.

: “Ah yes, Donovan. Please tell me you have stayed clear of him.”

: “Actually, I, um… took a quick peek in his room.”

: “Young miss! I expressly warned you that it was much too dangerous!”

: “And yet you still went, putting yourself in direct danger!”

: “…What did you find?”

Strangely, Ferdinand doesn’t seem to care much about the first two options, but when we mention the key to him…

: “An engraved golden rod? That must be the…”

: “…Thank you for your aid, miss.”

: “I am now more sure than ever that this man is up to no good.”

: “Do you think he’s following me? What can we do?”

: “Well, to be honest, Gwen… I think it might be worse than that. Between you and me, the captain hasn’t been around recently. I haven’t been able to find her.”

: “I am beginning to fear the worst.”

: “But don’t worry - I have a plan that will sort this all out.”

: “In the meantime, please keep our little discovery between the two of us.”

: “Above all, do not trust anyone else on this ship, especially not Donovan. Can you do this?”

: “I don’t like this at all. Shouldn’t the others know about the captain?”

: “I want nothing more than to tell the others, and yet…”

: “I worry that there is someone behind the captain’s sudden absence.”

: “I need time to carry out an investigation. Until then, we must be discrete.”

So now we’ve unlocked Ferdinand. Ferdinand has two special abilities.

First, he’s the only character that will touch any of the panels on the bridge, or the ship’s wheel.

Second, he can make dumb announcements over the intercom. You would think this would be used somewhere, but I’m just gonna spoil something and say that no, it’s never useful.

Next update, we’ll advance to the next day… and get some more puppets. You can never have too many puppets.

Ferdinand’s Steam trading card.

[Mas]

I’m not seeing a huge number of screenshots, only the last 7.

[Timrod]

Paulo wants to meet up with us again. Let’s go see what he’s up to.

: “Now we can breathe a bit easier. Except, not really, since there’s still a murderer on the loose.”

: “All of this has really exhausted me, though. I wasn’t prepared to deal with maintaining such a distant connection…”

: “Overnight, we’ll have to rest. I’ll need you to enter a dormant state.”

: “I doubt there’s much you can do while everyone else on the ship is asleep, in any case.”

Well, we could puppet Alton and force him to toss all of his crappy sound equipment overboard and then find a real job, but whatever you say, kid.

Paulo essentially asks if we’re ready to move on to the next day. There’s actually nothing missable on Day 1 - everything we did was absolutely necessary to make progress, and there’s really nothing else we can do without being able to possess one specific person that we haven’t gained control over… yet.

The next day, we can talk to Paulo about some topics that we couldn’t before. Most of what Paulo has to say here is for the sole purpose of unlocking an achievement for talking to him - however, there is one thing we need to ask him about here in order to obtain the best ending.

: “I saw her a couple of times. She visited me here. She was nice. We… talked about geometry.”

: “Nobody else likes talking to me.”

So yeah, Paulo isn’t much of a character unto himself. Seriously, his defining personality trait is “I’m the kid from The Sixth Sense and also I like geometry kinda.”

There are a couple of other questions we can ask him (“How long had she been captain of this ship?” and “What did everyone else on the ship think of her?”) but we know the answer to the first one from the diary and Paulo doesn’t really have an answer for the second one. There’s a third question, however, that IS important.

: “She never brought it up. Actually, she avoided talking about it.”

: “I guess wherever she was, she didn’t like it. That’s why she was here.”

And just like the diary in the captain’s room, we’ve gained back part of the captain’s identity. We’ll see what that does pretty soon. We could also ask Paulo about why he’s here… though we never get the ability to possess him.

: “I’m on my way back home from boarding school. My parents are at home… probably. They travel a lot for work. It’s hard to say where they are at any given time.”

With that done, let’s go venture out into the ship and see what’s happened since last night. Maybe we’ll find someone else dead and can finally give the ghost captain the friend she’s always wanted.

: “I would like to ask all staff and passengers onto the B1 floor for an important announcement!”

: “I could make the announcement via intercom, but I feel that this is a matter that requires a face to face talk.”

: “Thank you, and I’ll see you very soon!”

So one mistake I made here while taking screenshots was possessing Sunshine (who is right outside Garv’s room) and using Sunshine to walk upstairs rather than going up as the ghost. Do not do this. It softlocks the game after the cutscene. Thankfully, I had saved right before this so it wasn’t a huge deal to regain progress.

Oh wow, everyone’s here… except Paulo and Donovan.

: “As the first mate of this fine vessel, I must inform the crew of any notable events!”

: “And it just so happens that right now, we find ourselves in just such a -”

: “cough cough COUGH”

: “…right.”

: “Yesterday, our lovely captain was not in the pilothouse all day.”

: “In her absence, it is my duty to fill her shoes and pilot the ship. For the time being.”

: “However, rest assured that this is no cause for alarm! I am sure the captain is fine.”

: “She is most certainly on the ship somewhere. Yup. Right as rain.”

: “If the staff would look for her in their off-hours, I’m sure things will be back to normal by nightfall.”

: “Now, I must head to the pilothouse. Enjoy your cruise!”

: “Is that… is that true? The captain is missing?”

: “Actually, I didn’t see her yesterday either. Not that I was looking, but…”

: “We won’t know anything for sure until we’ve searched the ship.”

: “No reason to start freaking out now.”

: “Maybe not, but it does raise a lot of questions, doesn’t it?”

: “…Well, breakfast hours have started. I gotta get back to work.”

: “No matter what happens, people gotta eat.”

: “Sue, you coming?”

: “…Yes! Yes, of course. Sorry.”

: “W… what do you mean?”

: “Given the circumstances, they didn’t seem very worried.”

: “I wonder if they know something they’re not letting on.”

: “But the captain has to be somewhere, right?”

: “…”

: “… I should get to work, I guess. I’m sure this’ll turn out okay…”

: “Where’s Donovan? He’s the only person that didn’t show up.”

: “Yeah, strange. I’m sure he heard the announcement over the intercom.”

: “…That’s okay. He creeps me out…”

: “He is a strange one. It might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on him.”

: “Well, I should go feed my pets. Be careful, everyone.”

: “…”

: “What do you think? What should we do?”

: “Nothing. There’s no point.”

: “We can search the ship, or ask around if anyone saw anything suspicious, or…”

: “…”

: “What is it?”

: “Don’t you get it? She’s dead. And there’s nothing we can do about it.”

: “When they announced the captain was missing, Darryl had a strong reaction.”

: “He looked like he was in pain. What’s going on with him?”

We can grab Quella as she leaves. She’s given us a pretty good idea of what to do - go talk to Darryl using her ability.

: “The captain… a murder… I don’t have the energy to deal with it. And even if I did, there’s nothing I could do about any of it.”

: “I couldn’t help her, and I can’t help anyone here.”

: “She reminded me of… someone I used to know.”

: “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

: “I did notice that some things were missing from my room. Like the key to my journal.”

: “And when I say missing, I mean stolen. Seems like there’s a thief on board.”

A thief, huh? Well, we already know that Xu stole a bunch of stuff… and we know where she kept it. Let’s see if we can have Quella stumble upon it.

Fortunately, Xu hasn’t moved the box full of stolen stuff since last night.

: “There’s assorted electronics and jewelry in here. Does all of this belong to Sue?”

: “Wait… that key says ‘Darryl’ on it.”

: “… I think I understand what’s going on here.”

: “I should take Darryl’s key. It unlocks his journal, doesn’t it?”

Welcome to Darryl’s room. It honestly looks like he lives here rather than that he’s just on a short trip from point A to point B.

Entry #1

I’ve been told that reflecting on my thoughts could help. I doubt I’ll end up sticking to the habit, but when I get to that point I’ll try to write. I don’t know why. I don’t believe for a second it’ll do anything.

Several pages have been torn from the journal.

Entry #9

I should be happy. Good career. Good health. Financially sound. Loving parents. The most amazing husband in the world. I shouldn’t be unhappy. I don’t have the right to be unhappy. I have more than I deserve. I would be spoiled or ungrateful not to appreciate what I have. So what the fuck is my problem?

Entry #11

Broke down again this morning. I was able to come up with an excuse so that he wouldn’t see me. I want to tell him how I feel… but he doesn’t need that weight. Don’t be so selfish. Take, take, take, that’s all I can do. No matter how much I’m given, all I can do is bring people down. I’ll do it to him too at this rate.

I don’t deserve him.

Entry #15

I started again. I’m such a fuck up. This time, I won’t be able to hide my wrists. People will see… oh god… I’m so fucking pathetic.

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just don’t see any way forward, or any other way out. This was always coming. There was no avoiding it. I just… can’t. I can’t do it anymore.

I want you to know I love you more than anything. Please, forget about me. I know you deserve better.

I love you.

 > - Mari  

Well, that was some heavy shit. We could go talk to Xu and complain at her for stealing the key, but there’s no real reason to do that - we already know Xu is a thief. What we can do, however…

: “You… what? That was private. Extremely private.”

: “There’s a reason it was locked. How did you get the key?”

: “I got the key from Sue’s room. I think she stole it from you.”

: “Is that right? Well… thanks for letting me know, I guess. But there was no reason to use it for yourself.”

: “I’ll return the key, but we have to talk.”

: “There’s nothing to talk about. You read the journal, so you know what happened.”

: “We were married for three years. Moved out to the suburbs, got a house… had plans for a family.”

: “She was stressed about her work, but she was happy… I thought.”

: “She had combined medications. Lots of them. I guess she wanted to be sure.”

: “I came home from work late, and well… there she was.”

: “There were signs. For a long time, really.”

: “But I never saw them. And she never brought them up.”

: “Why? Why didn’t I notice? For years, she was suffering, and I did nothing.”

: “…Maybe.”

: “But if I did… if I knew. She’d still be here, wouldn’t she?”

: “…A couple times. But I stopped going. I wasn’t getting much out of it.”

: “Far away, I hope. I can’t be sure.”

: “But it doesn’t matter. None of it matters.”

: “…We’re just strangers. There’s no reason for you to care about me. So please… don’t.”

So now, we’ve unlocked Darryl. Darryl is kind of the most useless character on the ship next to Alton. His special ability is, uh…

Remember how when we searched his pockets as Xu, she said he had a ton of empty pill bottles? His special ability is pulling out a pill and swallowing, which causes the screen to go staticky for a few seconds. The only guide I’ve ever seen to this game claims that he moves slightly faster than everyone else while under this effect, but I can’t really see it.

Darryl’s real ability (apart from being depressed and possibly suicidal) is that he can unlock a couple more puppets for us.

She didn’t actually say that, but okay!

: “I know. It sounds really dramatic. I just mean… people who have come to terms with their death act differently. They see the world in a different way.”

: “You struck me as that kind of person.”

: “And how do you know so much about this?”

: “Well, I’ve got several months left to live, so there’s that.”

: “…What?”

: “Yeah, I’ve got cancer pretty much all over my body.”

: “It’s the liver cancer that’s gonna do it, though. Not gonna lie, my liver’s a total mess.”

: “I think I’m looking at three or four months now.”

: “I’ve spent lots of time with them since I first got the news. But I also wanted to spend some time with myself, just writing.”

: “When it comes time, I’ll head back and see everyone again. Say my goodbyes.”

: “Couldn’t afford health insurance. Obviously, without that, couldn’t afford treatment.”

: “Considering that, I’ve had a pretty long run. Cancer is persistent, but it can be slow too.”

: “I can afford it. I’ll help you pay for whatever you need.”

: “Hahaha!”

: “No, I appreciate it, I really do, but… it’s too late for that.”

: “By this point, the cancer must’ve spread everywhere. There isn’t much that can be done now.”

: “…I’m so sorry to hear that.”

: “Aww… don’t get like that. It’s just how life goes sometimes.”

: “You’re so… upbeat about this.”

: “I guess it could look that way. I’ve just gotten used to it. It took a while. At first, I was devastated, of course.”

: “Eventually it sunk in that this was going to happen, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”

: “That this… is all I have. All I’m ever going to have.”

: “I had to come to terms with that. I had to keep living, and be happy, despite that.”

: “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was worth it.”

And with that, we’ve fully unlocked Quella. Doing this is actually totally optional - in fact, Alton is the only person we need to fully possess in order to finish the game. However, getting the good ending requires that we have every puppet possible.

Next time, we’ll use Quella to begin the process of unlocking everyone else on the ship… and increasing the power of the captain’s ghost.

- Darryl’s Steam trading card.

[Ferrovore]

Well, this update sure was a feel-good read! I kind of like Quella’s chill-at-all-costs attitude, actually; she’s a nice contrast to Darryl.

Does the softlocking happen because the game assumes you’re in a person and not a cat, or is it just one of life’s little mysteries?

[Timrod]

Well, this update sure was a feel-good read! I kind of like Quella’s chill-at-all-costs attitude, actually; she’s a nice contrast to Darryl.

Does the softlocking happen because the game assumes you’re in a person and not a cat, or is it just one of life’s little mysteries?

I’m not entirely sure, but I do have a theory about why the game softlocks. The game actually expects that you leave Paulo’s room as the ghost and go straight upstairs without possessing anyone (since at that point, all of the human characters are on the floor above).

The game is known to have some weird code for how it determines where a character is at any given time - it actually saves the position of each NPC in this big unorganized text file along with their “home location” (where they’ll return to if you suddenly stop possessing them) and patrol path in the same file that is used for savegames. It’s actually possible to edit each character’s “home location” provided you know where the coordinates are mapped to.

My theory is that when the cutscene starts, the game sets the positions of all of the NPCs (since in the save file, they’re each essentially a variable) but doesn’t know where to put the cat, so it puts the cat at its home location, which is right outside Garv’s room.

The cutscene happens, and then at the end of the cutscene there’s probably another trigger to send all of the NPCs except for Quella back to their home locations - the camera follows Quella up to the staircase to the top deck. This is most likely so none of the NPCs get stuck. The NPCs getting stuck is a thing that can happen in this game, by the way, and it’s effectively game-ending unless you edit the save file to change their position.

What I think happens is that if you’re possessing the cat at that point, the game sends the cat back to its home location in the lower deck, and sends the ghost to the same spot. This causes the game to get really confused and softlock.

[Timrod]

This is going to be kind of a short update, mostly because the next one is going to be a bombshell in terms of plot and to fit all of that in one update might mean losing the images again. There are two things we can do right now, assuming we’re aiming for the good ending. We could go get more puppets… or we could use Quella to our advantage first. We actually need to do this in order to take total control of two people, so let’s do this thing.

Unlike Alton, who has all the personality of a brick, Quella is capable of asking far more in-depth questions and getting answers with actual information in them. Actually, Alton can ask these same questions now rather than the two he could before, when we took total control of him the first time. The first three answers are basically the same from everyone, and the fourth option has a lot of restatements of stuff we already know. What I’m going to do is give the unique parts of each character’s answer to the final question.

Xu

: "I didn’t really know her all that well. She was a strange person.

: “Strange in what way?”

: "Don’t take it the wrong way. I really liked her. She was just… very honest. In good ways, and in harsh ways. She didn’t seem to know what tact was. She got into arguments with Marc a lot. And I remember one time she almost made Alton cry.

: “How did she get along with you?”

: "We got along very smoothly. I was her young little sidekick. She was actually a very nice person, granted you told her what she wanted to hear.

I hope to god Xu secretly recorded Alton crying in the corner of the Observation deck.

Marcurio

: “Not much. She’s worryingly absent recently.”

: “Is that all you can say?”

: “I dunno, what do you want me to tell you? I work in the kitchen all day. She drives the ship. Didn’t see her a lot.”

: “But you haven’t gotten along with her very well.”

: “Ugh. Everyone’s a gossip around here, huh? Well, it’s not my fault she was a nazi about everything. I mean, look around you. Do you think this is a four-star cruise line headed to Bermuda? And she couldn’t accept other people’s word on things. She had to micromanage everything.”

: “What kind of things did she micromanage?”

: “You know she always wanted to come back here and check on the stock? And the appliances? I’ve been running this kitchen immaculately for a very long time. I know what I’m doing. You know, we’ve got our own way of doing things here, and there are reasons for them. Very good reasons.”

Still an asshole, as always. Anyway, once we talk to Marcurio…

Now that we’ve recovered enough of the captain’s identity, the ghost goes from a tiny wisp to a vaguely humanoid figure. There’s not a whole lot of difference between the ghost’s first form and the second form - apart from one thing.

Now, we can interact with people as the ghost without possessing them. Right now, this doesn’t do a whole lot… but it’ll be useful later. You might be wondering why we’d continue talking to people if we’ve already levelled up, and let me explain why, briefly.

The game uses a point system to track which form the ghost should be in. Using certain dialog options and looking at some specific objects (namely the captain’s diary) add points to the total. The second form requires roughly half the possible points in the game. The ghost has one more form… which requires ALL of the points to be gathered. By the end of this update, we’ll have all but about five or six points, which we’ll be getting quite soon afterward. Anyway, on with the questioning!

Ferdinand

: "I do hope we can find her soon. She is indispensable to the management of this shipp and its crew!’

: “What kind of person is she?”

: “Diligent, to say the least! She’s devoted to making this ship the best it can be! There is resignation and stagnation all around us. But no matter our situation, we can strive for better. The captain understands this.”

: “I hear her relationship with the crew has been rocky.”

: “Hmm. Yes, I suppose you could say that, but it’s nothing to worry over. These things are to be expected when old ideas and new ones come together. Some clash is inevitable.”

Alton

: “The captain? She doesn’t get along with everyone, but I like her. She’s just trying to do her best.”

: “I mean sure, she can be kind of… abrasive. But I think that’s because she’s so new. She’s just trying to give a strong first impression.”

: “What do you mean, abrasive?”

: “Well, she’s really friendly most of the time. She’s just strict sometimes. When she found out how much electricity I use in the observation room, she said she was going to take a hammer and smash all my speakers.”

: “But hey, she didn’t!”

I kind of wish she had. I also kind of wished she’d thrown your laptop overboard.

Garv

: “She was a straight arrow, that’s for sure. Hard working. Honest. I like that in people. But also young, idealistic, and sentimental. Well, life has a way of beating that outta you.”

: “What do you mean, sentimental?”

: “Look around you. Look at the people. You know where you are? You’re in purgatory. We all are, and we all know it. Somewhere, things went wrong and that’s why we’re in this dump. The only thing any of us want is to get out of here and move on with our lives.”

: “The captain really thought she was doing something important. She wanted to turn this place around. Isn’t that a little sad?”

: “How did you get along with her?”

: “Well enough, at first. Then she found out about my pets. Apparently, this ship has a strict no-pets policy, but it’s the first time I’d ever heard of it. The old staff never cared. But she had to do everything by the book, right? That was the captain for you.”

Gwen and Darryl don’t have too much to say - Gwen because she’s been in her room almost the entire time she’s been on the ship, and Darryl because the captain reminds him of his wife. Now we have to use Alton to talk to Quella.

Quella

: “I hope everyone is wrong about the captain. I mean, I hope she’s alright. She’s an amazing person.”

: “How did you get along with her?”

: “She stopped by my room sometimes when I was writing. She even read through some of my drafts and gave feedback. She sincerely wanted to help me within moments of finding out who I am. A lot of empathy in her.”

: “I’d like to see her again and return the favor. She had clearly been through a lot.”

: “She had been through a lot?”

: “Sometimes the people who seem the warmest and the liveliest are the ones truly struggling. She was very friendly, but she never talked about herself. Where she was from, what she did before this. I think she came here to get away from her past. There was something she needed to forget.”

: “How did she get along with everyone else?”

: “She’d stop by the lower decks when she could to check up on people. It was a nice gesture. She meshes better with some people than with others, but I think everyone generally likes her.”

And with that, we’ve obtained all of the identity points we can up to this spot in the game. There’s one more thing I want to do this update, and that’s to get Xu as a puppet. I was actually wrong when I said that Alton is the only person who has to be fully controllable to finish the game - you need Xu as well. To do this, we need to go back to using Darryl, then confront Xu.

: “I…stole…? No, I would never do anything like that.”

: “I’m sorry, there must be some kind of misunderstanding, I…”

: “You can drop the act. I’ll take Quella’s word over yours any day.”

: “No, I mean, you don’t understand, it’s…”

: “Give me a good reason not to tell everyone else what you’re doing.”

: “W-what?!”

: “Jeez… look, I just… need any extra money I can get.”

: "I get paid peanuts here, and I’m really desperate. Every bit counts.

: “That’s not a good reason. You get room and board, so you don’t need the money.”

Darryl, going from suicidal and kind of empathetic to being an asshole in a single bound.

: “…”

: “I’m not legal, alright?”

: “I came over on a student visa for university and well… I flunked.”

: “My family threw away everything to send me over here. I couldn’t go back like a total failure.”

: “So, I disappeared. Stupid, I know. With no money or papers, I couldn’t get very far.”

: “This job didn’t need any ID or qualifications, but I’m pretty much broke and stuck here.”

: “For me to have any chance of getting out, I have to scrape together something.”

: “…If I lose this job, I have no idea what’ll happen to me.”

: “This is no way to live, Sue. Once we land, we’re going to sort this out.”

: “…You may not have to do anything. It seems like almost everyone knows by this point.”

: “I’m mostly worried about Donovan. I don’t know what he’s planning…”

With that, we’ve made Xu our puppet, bringing us to a total of three. With Xu under our control, we could theoretically move on and end the game - but there are still people on the ship we don’t have control over. Next time, we’ll unlock everyone on the ship and start moving this story to its conclusion.

[Timrod]

Since we’re already controlling Darryl, we might as well use him to unlock someone new.

Despite Quella being the one with the conversation skills, Darryl is the only one who can really get Garv to talk. I’m guessing it’s because there’s some kind of secret language that only old people know.

: “I just kind of float around depending on where I’m needed for work. Beyond that, who can say anymore?”

: “That’s how I’ve felt for a while now.”

: “It just comes with age. After a while, you just realize there’s no right or wrong way.”

: “No matter how good or bad things get, life keeps moving forward. The only thing that matters is if you keep moving with it or not.”

: “Sounds like you’ve seen your fair share of ups and downs.”

: “Yeah, I’ve hit rock bottom more than once. I’ve even lied down and slept on it. But overall, I’ve been able to live a very comfortable life.”

: “Point is, I always thought I had some idea where I was going, like things were all going according to plan. In truth, I had no idea.”

: “Maybe that sounds crazy. People are obsessed with self-improvement. Generally, I think you’ll wind up in the same place no matter what.”

: “We all get the life we secretly deserve.”

: “Oh sure, sure. Though I spend more time with my pets than with my own kids. Funny how that works out.”

: “What about you? You got a wife? Kids?”

: “An ex-wife.”

: “Same here. Let me tell you, divorce is one hell of a thing.”

: “No matter how close you get to someone, you can never really know them completely. There will always be some wall, something deep inside them you don’t know about.”

: “And sometimes, that thing can just rip you to shreds.”

: “I think I know what you mean.”

: “Well, I’m truly sorry to hear that. Sometimes it feels like the only things I can trust are my pets.”

: “Sure, they’re dumb as bricks, but that’s how you know you can trust 'em. I guess that’s why I like animals.”

: “…in any case, thank you for listening to the ramblings of a jaded old man.”

Now we have control of Garv. Like Darryl, he has an ability that is never used for anything: calling Sunshine to his side. This is actually kind of a risky maneuver because the cat can get stuck on the way to him, requiring that you go into the game’s files and manually reset its position.

Garv’s real ability is to complain at Marcurio until he relents and allows us to take control of him. I’m not going to post Marcurio’s dialogue here mostly because it covers stuff we already know: he hates his job and thought the captain was kind of a dick.

Also, Marcurio has the second-best theme in the game.

Marcurio’s special ability is actually more useful than you’d first think - it’s not strictly necessary for anything, but it answers one of the biggest questions we have left.

His special ability can detect trace liquid spills. Essentially, he’s a walking spray bottle of luminol. There’s a trail of liquid right outside the kitchen that looks like it was recently cleaned up. Let’s take a look at where that leads, shall we?

If we follow it outside, it leads to a massive freaking puddle just outside the door to the dining area. Sure, there’s nothing too suspicious about that - it IS outside, after all.

It leads to the storage closet next to Alton’s room!

… Wait, why is Garv here? He’s standing… right next to a storage locker… with a strange fluid spill leading right to it. This isn’t a glitch, by the way. If you watch Garv, his patrol path will occasionally take him into this room, which contains only that locker and a garbage can. The locker is locked, by the way.

There’s one other thing Marcurio has access to that no one else does - that being the fridge and the nearby cabinet. Both of these are kept permanently locked, and if anyone else (including Ferdinand) tries to access them, Marcurio will call them out and force them away.

There’s actually nothing in the fridge - just food. Well, Marcurio IS just a chef… maybe he doesn’t have anything crazy to hide! Let’s just check the cabinet too. I bet he’s got some spices in there or something, maybe something that can bring out that totally-not-a-bloodstain from what definitely was not the captain being killed

Let’s pick the top shelves. Gotta be something useful up there.

What a relief!

Oh, crap.

: “They all have vague instructions regarding dropping off items or supplies. One note has instructions for leaving the boat’s docking ramp out overnight before the ship had disembarked. In each case, few specifics are given, but a payment for each of these services is referenced.”

: “Keeping these around hasn’t done me much good. If I can’t figure out who sent the notes, I have no leverage. Period.”

: “That was the captain for you. Always so diligent.”

: “What did she care if a little food went missing here and there?”

If you’ve been following the LP closely up to this point, you may have noticed that we’ve now unlocked every character on the ship except one - Donovan. This is why we need to be able to take full control over Xu. Surely we’ll just enter him and have him turn himself in. He’s got to be the killer, right?

So, remember that strange golden object in Donovan’s room? That’s the master key to the ship. Gwen didn’t recognize it because she’d never seen it before… but the captain’s ghost inside of her sure did.

: “And I know you stole the master key first.”

: “You’re in no position to make any demands of me.”

: “There’s no reason I should tell you that. I don’t owe you any answers. Got that?”

Donovan’s theme is by far my favorite out of all the music in this game.

: “That’s too bad, because I don’t want to tell you.”

: “If you don’t tell me, I’ll let everyone know you broke into my room and stole the master key.”

: “Do that, and I guarantee you lose your job here.”

: “You’re pretty tight on money, aren’t you? You couldn’t afford to let that happen.”

: “I don’t care. The captain is missing, and we have to work together. I need to know why you wanted the master key so badly.”

: “Jesus. You’re… you’re serious, aren’t you?”

: “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

: “Fine. But not out here. Come into my room and I’ll tell you.”

: “Stealing the master key from the pilothouse, blackmailing me… what do you hope to accomplish?”

: “You mean the master key you stole from the pilothouse?”

: “I need unrestricted access to the rooms on this ship. For that, I needed the key.”

: “It was never yours to take, and I had greater need for it.”

: “There is no ‘we’. But fine.”

: “The first secret is that the captain isn’t dead.”

: “She’s still somewhere on this ship, though I don’t know in what state.”

So, I’m going to stop here a second and say that obviously, Donovan is wrong. This part honestly really confused me the first time I played it, because I figured that Donovan would be right… but he’s not. I’m not sure if this is a plot thread that the writers changed and just kind of forgot to fix all of the related dialog or what, but Donovan actually has quite a bit to say about this.

: “Only from your perspective. I have solid reason to believe it’s more likely that she’s been abducted.”

: “If she was abducted, she’s probably seriously injured. She should be alive, but she’ll need medical attention.”

: “I haven’t checked every room of the ship yet. The master key will solve that problem. On top of that, this is an old ship. It’s clearly seen renovations over the years. That could mean there are secret areas to it that we don’t know about.”

: “What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room… for the sake of the captain, and all of the other people on this ship.”

: “I’m in pursuit of a known serial killer. His trail has led me to this ship.”

: “He’s a sadist. He tortures his victims, maims them… and worse. But he keeps them alive for days.”

:“I believe he has chosen the captain as his latest victim.”

: “If I’m right, there’s still time to reach her before she dies.”

: “FBI.”

: “Can I see your badge?”

: “No.”

: “Then how can I trust what you say?”

: “I’m laying innocent lives on the line by sharing this information with you. If I’m going to put that much trust in you, I expect some in return.”

So yeah, Donovan is an undercover FBI agent. I’m surprised he hasn’t just arrested Alton for crimes against fashion and called it a day.

: “Why don’t you call for help?”

: “I don’t need any help. It would only get in my way.”

: “In order to apprehend the right person, I need evidence. That means stealth and surveillance. One person is more effective for that.”

: “If I knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

: “All I have is a basic profile - it’s an adult white male. So you’re ruled out, which is the only reason we’re having this conversation right now.”

If the profile’s right, that means the following people are out: Xu, Quella, Gwen, Paulo and Marcurio. Donovan is also out assuming that he’s actually an FBI agent. That leaves Alton, Darryl, Ferdinand, and Garv.

: “That’s confidential.”

: "This search has been going on for a long time, and has involved multiple people.

: “To him, there would be no point in immediately killing his target.”

: “And if anything, the risk of being discovered here… it might just make it more exciting for him.”

: “When I realized he was on this ship, I knew there was a chance that this could happen.”

: “You can help by being quiet and staying out of my way.”

: “I’ll need to make a full sweep of this boat. That’s where the master key comes in.”

: “When I do find the captain, I’ll be able to track down my killer.”

: “…Let me tell you something.”

: “There is such a thing as evil. It’s on this ship with us. And I’m here to exterminate it.”

And now Donovan is ours to control.

Donovan’s special ability is straight-up Batman vision, and highlights anything he can interact with or search. You might think that the first thing we should do is go check the locations of those mysterious totally-not-blood spills and the locked locker in the storage closet - and you’re right… sort of. Next time, we’ll track down a serial killer and unlock the ghost’s final form.

[Timrod]

Donovan has a lot of stuff to investigate - starting with his laptop. There’s kind of a massive text dump ahead (most of this update is going to be very text-heavy) but a lot of it is important to the plot.

Email #1

Hey, Donovan. It’s been a long time since we’ve spoken. I hope you’ve been doing better since you left the force. I know it’s been rough. Truth is, I’m contacting you because I need your help. Something has come up which requires a… special touch. It’s him, Donovan. Let me know if you can help.

                                                                              -L

I think this this the first time I’ve ever heard the FBI referred to as “the force”. As far as I know, Donovan is actually a rogue former FBI agent, though the character in the first game is only part of some kind of vague, nameless law enforcement agency. The writer/dev stated the game went through multiple rewrites so it’s entirely possible Donovan was originally meant to be a regular police officer.

Email #2

I’ve tracked him down to a small cruise ship. Of sorts. However, it’s across the border, so it’s out of our jurisdiction. By the time we can coordinate an effort, he’ll be gone. I’d throw away my badge and go after him myself, but I got close to him. My identity was compromised. I need someone from the outside that he doesn’t know. You’re the only one who can do this, Donovan. It’s been a long time since he last struck, and it’s possible he’ll regard this isolated ship as a prime opportunity. Attached, you’ll find everything you need to know in order to get there. The rest is on you.

                                                                             -L

Email #3

Oh, and… one last thing, Donovan. I know you blame me for your dismissal. But you weren’t okay, Donovan. You needed the break. Maybe you’re still bitter… but keep this in mind: I’m breaking a lot of regulations, and personal standards, enlisting your help like this. I’m putting a lot of trust in you. So please, be professional about this. Don’t do anything reckless. Get the job done, and come home. For me.

                                                                        -Lucille

Well, that would explain why Donovan didn’t want to show Xu his badge that he no longer has. You might be wondering what the flag we need to set here is - it’s actually reading the third email. You’ll understand why later. We can also check the recordings from Donovan’s cameras.

There’s a lot of text here, and a lot of it tells us things we already know, so I’m just going to bullet-point the most important highlights for the first choice:

• Donovan was only able to put cameras on the lowest deck and the middle deck, due to there being nowhere to hide them on the upper deck or outside.

• Marcurio and Garv are constantly going in and out of the broom closet for cleaning supplies. They’ve been doing it every day since the ship disembarked an unknown number of days ago.

• The camera on the lowest deck (where the passengers stay) has been mostly uneventful save for Garv’s cat, which sometimes carries small objects in its mouth.

Now let’s look at the second set of choices:

: “The day before last… that was the day the captain was last seen. There aren’t any peculiar movements that morning or afternoon. That night, after a break, the captain left her room and went up to the first floor. She never came back down.”

: “Unfortunately, I couldn’t install cameras on the first floor, so I don’t have any eyes on her after that point. Between the time when she left and the next morning, every single person went up to the first floor and came back down. So really, anything could have happened in that time period.”

: “The last thing to note is when Sue came back to her room that night, she had the spare master key with her. She must have picked it from the pilothouse when the captain wasn’t there.”

The footage for yesterday is all stuff we’ve already seen: Donovan comments about Alton and Xu talking to people, and will also add in a comment about Quella talking to a lot of people if you’ve unlocked the ghost’s second form before taking control of him. He’ll also mention having seen Gwen in his room, but not the cat.

: “Today isn’t over yet, but there’s still plenty of footage to cover. At the crack of dawn, Ferdinand paid a visit to Garv’s room. Odd.”

: “Not long afterward, he had a meeting with most of the ship. After the meeting, most people headed up to the first floor.”

With Donovan’s laptop thoroughly checked, we can now get into the meat and potatoes of his section, namely:

Both of those sound like great leads… but there’s a bunch of other stuff we can use Donovan to look at - and in fact, we need to have him do this to get the final “point” to unlocking the ghost’s third and final form.

The first place we’re going to check is Garv’s room, specifically his dresser.

The first three shelves have nothing of interest, but the bottom right shelf…

Well, I think we’ve got our serial killer… or at least someone who fits the bill for what Donovan is looking for.

Our next stop is the locker in the storage room.

: “It’s a giant stack of receipts and expenses. It all looks really uninteresting. Wait. In the middle of the stack, there’s a smaller paper with handwriting on it.”

: “I hope this note has been found by the right person. I have reason to believe someone has been breaking into my room while I’m away. I think it has something to do with that strange chest.”

: “If I’m right, it means something is terribly wrong here. Only the master key unlocks my door, and I have the only master key… right? I have a plan, but it could fail. If it does, someone else needs to know.”

: “I’m looking for a door that shouldn’t exist. It could be in a corner, or on a side where you don’t normally look. It must have something to do with that chest, but I couldn’t get it open.”

: “Be careful. This ship has eyes and ears. People know things they shouldn’t. There are alliances being forged.”

We can also investigate the boring receipts.

As soon as we leave the storage room, assuming we’ve gotten all the other ghost form points (which we have), this happens:

That last sentence is the most important one. In her final form, Captain Smilla has one ability she did not have before - namely, the ability to directly speak with living people. We’ll look at that in a short update that will follow this one, just before we complete Donovan’s investigation. I had to go get Donovan back since that cutscene exits his body, so let’s see what happens if we talk to him now.

Lucille seems very important to Donovan. If you haven’t guessed already, this is extremely important to getting the best ending.

This is Marcurio’s room. Two things will set off Donovan’s batman senses - the chipped plaster on the wall, and the bookshelf. Let’s look at the wall first.

You might remember that there’s a similar spot in the dining area… which is just above Marcurio’s room. We’ll get there.

Marcurio’s bookshelf is a bit of a puzzle, but it’s not necessarily a hard one to solve - either by brute force, or by knowing a little about Marcurio.

The bookshelf has three shelves. On the bottom shelf is a book about creating a successful restaurant. We know that Marcurio’s dream is to get off the ship by any means necessary, and opening a restaurant would certainly do that. Let’s take a look inside.

Why is it that I keep LPing games that have items necessary to complete them hidden in books? We’re now down to just four things left to investigate on the ship. Let’s head to the Captain’s room now.

The captain’s room has two objects of interest - the dresser and the chest. The dresser is actually not useful to us, due to the fact that we’ve already unlocked the ghost’s final form. Had we not gone and done that right away, one of the points to unlocking the ghost’s final form disappears. The dresser is an alternate way of getting that point.

Finally, let’s take a look at the chest. Some of you may have already figured out where the hidden door is, based on where we’ve already been and the evidence we’ve seen. The chest basically solidifies that.

: “Inside are buckets of paint and a paint roller, along with a hand-written note:”

Wait a second. We’re on a boat… out at sea… and the captain had a chest with a paint roller in it?

Did anyone actually check to verify the captain wasn’t a squid? Has anyone done a thorough search of the nearest respawn point? Can we also toss Alton into the water to make sure he’s not a squid?

: “Do NOT get the cheap shit. The sun, rain, and salt water will make quick work of shoddy paint. I’m sure you understand how disastrous it would be if the paint started chipping before it’s due. Don’t be stupid. Make sure it’s paint for exteriors and is high quality.”

: “It’s all a bit dusty. It hasn’t seen recent use. Still, it’s clear that someone has had to do frequent painting on an exterior wall of the ship. I’d be interested to know why.”

Finally, we can check the plaster in the dining area. No surprise, the wall behind it is hollow. If you haven’t guessed yet, the hidden door is where we found the liquid spill on the outer deck as Marcurio… but there’s a few other things we’re going to want to do first. Next time, we’re going to use the ghost’s new abilities and get the final additions to our growing horde of puppets.

So… there is one other thing we could examine as Donovan. It’s not at all necessary for getting the best ending… but it does get you an achievement.

If you’ll remember back to last update, Donovan said that the profile of the serial killer is that they’re an adult white male, meaning that Alton is a possible suspect.

Donovan can’t search his laptop, but he can search Alton’s dresser.

Haha oh wow, Alton is actually… probably depressed just like everyone else on this boat. I still say the ghost should cure him by tossing his laptop into the ocean.

[Timrod]

Before we finish Donovan’s investigation, there are three other things we can do in this “chapter” of the game. All of them require that we have the ghost’s final form. This mini-update will cover two of them, and allow me to explain exactly why here: the next update will directly imply that a certain character is a victim of what may or may not be rape. This way, you can skip that portion and go right along to the next one should you need to do that.

First, let’s use the ghost’s new ability on Darryl. What could possibly go wrong from having a chat with a suicidal guy?

: “I’m so sorry… it’s all my fault. I should have seen what was happening. How could I not have seen…”

: “It should have been me. It should have been me.”

We wind up in something very similar to the place we started the game in, with Darryl standing in the middle of it. This is essentially a “quest” to unlock Darryl for use as a puppet. This is one of the plot points that I feel the writer could’ve done better with - even though we’re ultimately trying to help Darryl, we’re essentially going to be using his wife’s diary against him.

Both Darryl and the character we’re going to unlock in the next mini-update (who has a mind-world very similar to Darryl’s) start out with a blank text box. I’m not sure if this is a bug or not.

What follows is a small dialogue puzzle with only one correct line of answers. The text is typed exactly as it appears.

: “Darryl, it’s me.”

: “Mari”

: “is that you”

: “Yes, I’m Mari.”

: “I’m sorry”

: “I’m sorry”

: “I’m sorry”

: “I love you”

: “Why are you sorry?”

: “I should have done more”

: “should have noticed”

: “it’s my fault”

: “I should have been there”

: “it’s my fault”

: “it’s my fault”

: “It’s not your fault.”

: “then why”

: “I don’t understand”

: “Why did you go”

Note that once the ghost identifies herself as Darryl’s wife, her dialog boxes change from “Smilla” to “Mari”. It’s kind of a nice touch.

: “sick”

: “what do you mean”

Now we’re back to being Smilla again.

: “I was having terrible thoughts… incredibly painful thoughts. And I couldn’t escape them.”

: “My thoughts and feelings were distorted. I wasn’t myself.”

: “there had to be another way”

: “I want to help you”

: 'but I can’t"

: “I couldn’t”

: “I know. I’m sorry… I can’t change what I’ve done. It’s too late for me.”

: “But it’s not too late for you, Darryl. You can still be happy.”

: “Maybe right now, you don’t even want to be happy. But some day, you will. And you can. Please… don’t give up hope.”

: “I just had the strangest feeling wash over me. Like I just woke up from a living nightmare.”

: “Mari… was that the nightmare you were in at the time?”

We’ve now got the ability to turn Darryl into our puppet. I think it’s a fair deal - healing his suicidal thoughts in exchange for his body.

Darryl can now talk to Garv again… this time, with a little more effort put into his questions.

: “I could say the same of you. People are going missing. Aren’t you worried about what’s going to happen?”

: “Cold. Some would be shocked to hear such a cold thought.”

: “Is that so? I can imagine. Always being exposed to the worst side of people…”

: “It can take a toll on you. Seeing what people really are, underneath everything.”

: “That’s exactly right. Everyone has a price. They’ll stab you in the back if there’s a half-good reason. When I was younger, I thought the opposite. I was naive. But I learned the truth.”

: “It started with my marriage. She had been lying to me for years.”

: “And when she lied to the court, they gave her the kids and the house.”

: “Next was my career. I wasn’t much of a politician back then, and company politics was everything.”

: “When I had everything, people were great to me. But when I had nothing, they were all gone.”

: “People… we’re all just animals. Carnivores. You may as well be on the top of the food chain.”

So, if you read my Dagger of Amon Ra LP, you’ll remember how there were certain things we had to do and see to prove the identity of the killer in that game. Dead at Sea works in a largely similar way. Most of the things we looked at as Donovan counted toward that, as does this conversation with Garv. It’s looking more and more like we’ve found our serial killer.

Wait… what? So… remember when I said the writing in this game wasn’t always where it needs to be? I want you to consider something. At this point, we’ve got puppet-level control over three out of the four people Donovan suspects to be the serial killer he’s after. In fact, we’ve got total control over all but three people on the ship: Gwen, Donovan, and Ferdinand.

The question that will naturally pop up is “Well, why wouldn’t the ghost just take control of whoever it thinks killed it and make them commit suicide?” The answer is probably the same reason that Umbrella owns like… six different boats throughout the Resident Evil series. Everything makes sense when you’re at sea. Everything.

Next up will be another mini-update where we’re going to give some ghost-assisted therapy… to Gwen.

One thing I thought of after the fact: there is kind of a neat little thing that the game wouldn’t normally expect you to find (since the developer pretty much assumes you’re not going to leave Donovan until you’ve completed his investigation) but we can now ask a new question when controlling someone as a puppet.

Naturally, no one admits to knowing anything about any secret areas - and we really have no reason to ask, given that it should be pretty obvious at this point where it is.

[Timrod]

We’ve unlocked nearly everyone on the ship at this point - as I mentioned last update, the only three people we haven’t been able to puppet are Donovan, Gwen, and Ferdinand. That number is about to shrink by one.

Gwen’s nightmare realm is a lot like Darryl’s, only red instead of black.

So, one thing I didn’t notice the first time I played this game is that there’s actually a shadow figure in the doorway. It’s kind of hard to see if you’re not looking for it.

As with Darryl, the first text box for Gwen here is totally blank. I’m not sure if this is intentional or not.

This time, I’ll branch out into the second option - it doesn’t actually end the dialog puzzle.

: “in my bedroom”

: “it’s almost time for sleep”

: “it’s not normal”

: “no”

: “please no”

: “it’s just a dream”

: “it’s not real”

: “Gwen, it’s me.”

: “who is that”

: “please stay away”

: “It’s your sister.”

: “elisa”

: “you shouldn’t be here”

: “if they see you outside your room at this hour”

: “please go”

Just like with Darryl, the captain’s dialog boxes change to a new name.

: “They aren’t here. It’s just the two of us.”

: “you’re lying”

: “he can tell”

: “he’s watching me right now”

: “No, he isn’t watching you. He’s far away.”

: “what”

: “but why do I sense him watching”

:“always”

: “Pay close attention, Gwen. You’re in a dream. This isn’t real.”

: “just like when we were kids”

: “I would wake up and there you are letting me know it was a nightmare”

: “but why”

: “why does it always feel so real”

: “Because, Gwen, part of it is real. The part that still exists in your mind. What your mind recreates for you. But it’s only a part. And it’s not all true.”

: “then how do I tell the difference”

: “the nightmare when I’m asleep is the same as when I’m awake”

: “does it even matter which is which”

: “Yes. The nightmare you’re awake for is the one you can change. There are people that can help, Gwen. You don’t have to carry this by yourself.”

: “But you have to take a leap of faith first.”

And with that, we’ve unlocked Gwen as a puppet. Gwen is the last character we’ll be able to fully unlock. Next time, we’ll complete Donovan’s investigation… and then start collecting evidence.

[Timrod]

Okay. We’ve done literally everything else we can do at this point in the game. Let’s take control of Donovan again and finally finish his investigation. In case you somehow haven’t figured out where the hidden door is, let me point a few things out:

• Donovan does not have cameras on the outer deck or outside the bridge.

• There was a giant spill of totally-not-blood on the upper deck leading to the cleaning supply closet downstairs.

• Donovan found a bucket of high-quality outdoor paint and a note insinuating it would be used where it is exposed to the elements.

• There is a space behind Marcurio’s room and the kitchen, which are directly underneath where that spill on the outer deck was.

Anyway, the answer is that the hidden door is right here, indicated by the yellow line.

: “But investigating the dining room wall showed that there is a hollow space somewhere here.”

: “Hmmm… like I thought, there’s a layer of fresh paint here. I wonder if…”

: “Yes, there’s a seam in the wall that’s been painted over. There’s a waist-high door here.”

: “And now that I’ve cleared a bit more paint, I can see a lock on the door.”

: “Picking a lock like this is still possible, but I don’t have the tools. It could take several days…”

click

: “…Except that the boat’s antiquated skeleton key is somehow able to open it.”

: “The waist high door slides open to reveal a ladder down into darkness.”

Uh-oh… last time I saw a shadowy figure approach someone on a boat, it was at the start of Dagger of Amon Ra when Dr. Carrington got murdered. Donovan? Now might be a good time to turn around… and take out a gun.

This part is just a little ridiculous. I get that it’s dark outside, but Donovan is maybe 5 feet from this person, who would have had to walk all the way up the ship with that disguise on.

A gunshot. Then another. Then another. Five in total. The animation for this really sucks and I’m not even going to try and defend it.

Donovan is thrown off the side of the boat, in probably the same way the captain was. And now everyone else is boned, given that this person has a gun and no one else (barring Gwen) has any kind of weapon on them. Though, you know, there is one thing very strange about all this. Donovan said the serial killer liked to torture their victims… yet whoever this is shot Donovan five times and disposed of his body immediately.

Well, fuck. Is this what happens when the person you’re in dies? Must be.

We’re back in Paulo’s dream realm. Surely we can notify him, have Quella and Gwen go into his room and barricade it until the trip is over, then hope whoever’s left can somehow take out the killer.

That’s not good.

There’s music that plays here that doesn’t play anywhere else in the game… only I have no idea what it’s called. It’s not on Youtube and it’s not on the composer’s Bandcamp page.

: “I’m afraid I have more dreadful news. I don’t want to cause any panic, but these things must be said.”

: “It would appear two more people on the ship have gone missing.”

: “This morning, the ship staff and I did a comprehensive search of the ship. Donovan, the passenger from room 201, was missing.”

: “So was the boy from room 205. A boy named Paulo, if I remember correctly.”

: “Oh my god…”

: “…just like the captain. Why is this happening?”

: “This changes everything. Who will be next? How can we be sure we are safe?”

: “Where’s Gwen? I don’t see her anywhere. Shouldn’t she hear about all this?”

: “She… she knows…”

: “That’s right. When we searched the ship, we found something very troubling. Very troubling indeed.”

: “In Gwen’s room, we found a key. A very particular key.”

: “The ship’s master key. It can open any door in the entire ship. It had gone missing from the pilothouse not long ago.”

: “So? What does that have to do with these recent disappearances?”

: “You can tell them, Xu.”

: “…right. Okay. Before he went missing, I talked to Donovan. He was searching for the captain, who he believed was still on the ship.”

: “In order to find her, he had gotten hold of the master key. I saw it in his room.”

: “When he disappeared, so did the key. And then we found it… in Gwen’s room.”

: “Well, we didn’t have to believe it. We saw it ourselves.”

: “It’s hard to come to any other conclusion. And honestly, I’m not too surprised. She was kind of crazy.”

: “What happened to her? Where is she?”

: “You can be at ease, Quella. We have only restrained Gwen in the observation room. I think everything is simpler that way.”

: “After we land, we can ensure that she stays on board while the proper authorities take a look at this case.”

: “But I want everyone to know that they have no reason to feel they are in danger. The situation has been controlled.”

: “We will reach land in a few days. This awful affair will be behind us before you know it.”

: “And maybe you shouldn’t.”

: “What do you mean? You don’t think it was her?”

: “At first glance, it seems like Gwen having the key implicates her, maybe.”

: “But think. What doors does the master key open? All of them, of course. Including… the door to Gwen’s room.”

: “What if someone took the key from Donovan, used it to get into Gwen’s room, and planted it there?”

: “…You’re right. They could have done it overnight while she was asleep. Anyone could have done it.”

: “So, in reality, it tells us nothing. I think the truth is still out there… and we have to find it.”

: “Getting to that truth might involve clearing Gwen’s name.”

: “I have a lot to think about. I’m sure you do as well. Take care of yourselves, and be safe.”

: “Thank you, Garv. I’m glad I’m not the only one around here who has a little faith.”

: “Take care of yourself, too. The real criminal must still be free.”

: “…”

: “Three people have been killed or abducted. No witnesses. No crime scene. No evidence. I think the truth died along with the captain.”

Everyone disperses, leaving the ghost alone.

Quella will actually head up to the observation room by herself, where Alton is forcing her to listen to his mixtape.

While we’re here, Alton’s ability can now play a much wider range of tracks. These are all ones we’ve heard before.

To make progress, we have to grab Quella and go talk to Garv.

Garv has a bunch of dialog that is mostly just repeating what he’s already said about the real killer being on the loose still. We can ask him where to look for clues, and he suggests looking through Paulo’s room.

Paulo’s door is still locked, but if you’ll remember, we have another way in there that Garv outright reminds us about. This kind of makes no sense.

So somehow, whoever killed Paulo took him from his room… and then locked the door. From the inside. The dialog boxes here are identical to when we did the same trick to get into Donovan’s room, so I think it might’ve just been an oversight from the dev copy-pasting code.

And there’s the obligatory Earthbound reference. If you haven’t played that game, Overcoming Shyness is a book Ness has to give to a tribe of extremely shy underground dwellers.

: “The pages are bent and crumpled by the way it’s been thrown to the ground.”

: “The book is open to page 105. There doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary with it…”

: “Wait a second. The next page is missing. It looks like it got torn out somehow. There’s only a jagged scrap left.”

: “I don’t know why, but this seems like a really important detail. I should remember this. It might come up again later…”

We’ve just found another piece of evidence necessary to getting the good ending. There’s one more in this room, however.

: “The drawer hanging open on the top, however, has a bracelet resting on some socks. The bracelet and socks have been stained red with blood.”

Well, we know who that has to belong to! Only one person on the ship has a name beginning with M - Marcurio.

: “Oh, let me guess… did that little shit give it to you? That’s just great.”

: “I was looking for it all… wait, what’s wrong?”

: “I found a bracelet with the letter “M” on it in Paulo’s room. Covered in blood.”

: “…”

: “No way, uh…”’

: “Just a second ago… I was talking about a different bracelet.”

: “Alright, alright, yeah. It’s mine. It was a gift.”

: “…Shouldn’t have even kept the damn thing.”

: “I never went in there, I swear! I mean, not by myself.”

: “Sure, I went with Alton, Sue, and Ferdinand. For the search. That’s when we found the kid was missing.”

: “That was the only time. I never went into that room before or after, swear to god.”

: “No, I didn’t leave the bracelet in there during the search. I barely entered the room.”

: “But I never went in at any other time, either. Look… it was that stupid cat.”

: “I ran into it last night, and it attacked me! It went completely nuts!”

: “I was caught off guard, and when I reacted, the bracelet just kinda flew off.”

: “The cat must’ve nabbed it and carried it around for a while. I just assumed it gave it to you, like a gift or something.”

: “I had no idea it would put it in Paulo’s room, of all places.”

: “What would other people think if they heard about this?”

: “Hey, hold up. You have to… wait a sec.”

: “How did you get into that room anyway? Wasn’t it supposed to be sealed off from all of the passengers?”

: “Well… the door was unlocked.”

: “So you’re saying you broke in. And no one can back you up. Look, I never set foot in there besides the search, and I never left anything of mine in there.”

: “…I wonder if anyone saw the cat moving around with my bracelet. That would validate my story.”

: “Maybe it would try to give it to its owner as a gift.”

Wait a second. Didn’t Donovan catch the cat on camera taking stuff?

Unfortunately, Donovan’s room is locked again. This time, not even Sunshine can get us back in. The only person who can get inside is Ferdinand.

So, this is one of the ways in which you can screw yourself out of the good ending. Looking at Donovan’s laptop as Ferdinand counts as a piece of evidence. The only way to know his password is to have read all of his emails before Donovan dies. Most of what’s there is stuff we’ve already seen, but…

This is the “footage from today” option Donovan had, which covers some stuff that Donovan didn’t get to see.

: “Then that morning, there I am having a meeting with everyone and explaining the situation.”

: “Later on, there’s footage of Donovan walking around all over the place.”

: “It looks like he used the master key to enter the captain’s room, and even my room! So naughty!”

: “But then in the evening, he goes up to the first floor… never to return.”

: “Then the footage cuts out. Looks like someone found his little toys and turned them off.”

Interesting. So, even though Quella has no proof she didn’t tamper with anything in Paulo’s room, Marcurio also has no alibi for how the bracelet got there. There’s no footage of the cat holding it.

There are a few other things we need to do - and next update, we’ll find the rest of the evidence before moving straight along to the ending!

[Timrod]

What’s coming up is a rather long, dialog-heavy sequence that gets us the second-to-last evidence item we’ll need to get the good ending. A lot of it covers stuff we already know or loops back on itself, so I’m going to skip right to the pertinent parts.

So one thing I forgot to do last time was talk to Garv again after talking to Marcurio. He mostly confirms stuff we already know.

We know now that he saw the cat running around with the bracelet, and that Marcurio probably did something to provoke it.

Our next stop is to take total control over Quella and have her talk to Xu about the missing key.

Xu confirms Donovan’s theory that there are two master keys - the one that Xu stole from the bridge and that Donovan took from her, and a second one belonging to someone else.

Once we finish that, we have to do something a little tricky. First, we have to grab Marcurio and bring him to Gwen, then quickly switch into Gwen before he can walk away.

: “Fine, I’m listening.”

: “Well, when we find 'em, I’ll be the first to let you go. Until then, you’re our best suspect.”

: “Why should anyone believe you? You’ve been sneakin’ around and acting suspicious since the day you got here. It’s no surprise you’re the one under suspicion.”

: “I thought someone was following me. That’s all…”

: “You should listen to yourself. That explanation only makes you look worse.”

: “You thought someone was following you? What’s that all about?”

: “I…I thought someone was coming to take me back home.”

: “Listen. I don’t know exactly what you’ve been through. But I can probably relate. A little.”

: “My family was kind of a mess. My dad had some…issues. And he had, well, his own way of dealing with it.”

: “He’d beat me until I was bloody, using anything within arm’s reach.”

: “There were times when I really thought he’d kill me. Maybe he thought he would too.”

: “Who could I tell? And how would it help?”

: “They would see me the day after, all beaten to a pulp.
They could hear it happening. No one cared.”

: “You wouldn’t say that if you had met me five, ten years ago.”

: “I was messed up. Real messed up, and desperate. I did some dumb things.”

: “Which is why I’m stuck here in the first place.”

: “…You shouldn’t thank me. I still can’t help you.”

: “Yeah. I do. But there’s still a lot you don’t know about me.”

: “You know what, here, I’ll let you in on a secret.”

: “I know it wasn’t you.”

: “…Because I was the one who planted the key in your room.”

: “That’s the last thing I’m going to do.”

: “Look, Gwen. We had a moment just now. We’ve both been through some shit, and that’s great.”

: “There are forces larger than both of us at work here. My advice to you is just to go along with it.”

: “You’re not going to come to harm. If you’re innocent, which I know you are, you’ll be let go by the police after their investigation… probably.”

: “But until then, this little play has to keep on going.”

: “Well, I thought you should know. You deserve the truth. It’s nothing personal - I’m really just following instructions.”

: “But I’m mainly telling you because there’s literally nothing you can do about it.”

: “You just try and tell people I planted the key. Go on! They won’t believe you. It’s your word against mine.”

: “Just keep calm, and this whole thing will be over before you know it. Okay? Okay.”

There’s not much we can do, either. We can’t take total control over Marcurio, so making him kill himself is out. Instead, we need to do something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I hate to say it, but… we need Alton.

The ghost points out (through Alton) that they know Xu stole the master key, which we all already know. In response…

: “Telling me I’d find the key in the pilothouse. Ordering me to take it for myself, and hide it.”

: “Why did you follow the orders?”

: “It’s not the first set of instructions I’ve gotten. I have an… arrangement.”

: “I did small errands. Moved things around. And I got paid.”

: “I never understood it, but I didn’t have to. Of course I was suspicious, but it was all harmless stuff.”

: “Well now three people are missing - and it’s all your fault!”

: “N-no, what I did had nothing to do with that…”

: “… You’re right, aren’t you? I could have told Donovan everything I knew. And I didn’t.”

: “And now he’s gone. I really am a horrible person, aren’t I?”

I’m fairly certain that last line got added in with the final patch to the game, because even the writer admitted that Xu had some serious issues with being an unlikeable character. I haven’t said much about it, but this is honestly my least favorite part of this game for several reasons.

Xu then walks away and psychically transmits things we already know to Alton. The main problem with this part is that it’s possible to do it out of order and have things not make a whole lot of sense.

We then need to talk to Marcurio with Xu. Because we already looked in his cabinet and his fridge, we know that he’s on the same payroll Xu is.

The second half of this sentence refers to a single line in a big chunk of dialog about the stuff in the fridge being some kind of medicine.

: “The evidence doesn’t tell the whole story, but it must be connected to the captain and Donovan. The way he’s talking, he’d need a gun pointed at his head before he’d open up.”

There’s another big long sequence confirming again that both Marcurio and Xu are on the payroll of this shady individual.

Two seconds later, on the bridge…

: “The key I saw in Donovan’s room isn’t the same as the one found in Gwen’s room. And Marcurio admitted to planting that key to incriminate Gwen.”

: “That is quite the revelation, Sue. Marcurio, is she correct?”

: “Yeah, she’s right. I recieved the key in a package, along with anonymous instructions to plant it in Gwen’s room.”

: “What?! You cannot be serious! My very own staff, working behind my back to throw off my investigation!”

: “Actually, I’ve been following anonymous instructions as well. We both have, for quite some time.”

: “I…I don’t understand. What instructions? Why would you do something like this?”

: “For money. Whoever was sending the instructions would also send handsome payments at the end.”

: “And honestly, it’s been going on for a long time. Since before the captain even worked on this ship.”

: “As for Gwen… perhaps it is not her, but the two of you who should be restrained in the observation room.”

: “What kind of employees keep such secrets from their superiors?! And at such a crucial time!”

: “Sure, sure. The real issue is, what are you going to do with this information now?”

: “…Well, there is no longer a point to keeping Gwen tied up.”

: “Our main priority should now be to find out who this strange figure is issuing out commands and bribing our staff!”

: “You have to admit, there’s nothing directly linking the two.”

: “Like I said, these orders have been coming in for a long time. It’s not a new occurrence.”

: “Sure, but if this person wanted Gwen incriminated… it sounds like an attempt to throw suspicion off of themselves.”

: “That’s a pretty strong connection, in my opinion.”

: “Well, we can cross one person off the list - me.”

: “I have access to every room on the ship with or without a master key.”

: “I’d have no need to bribe someone to plant a key in Gwen’s room. I could do it myself!”

: “Also, I got my orders while the ship was at sea, so obviously it has to be someone who is on the ship now.”

: “That implies it must be one of the ship’s residents… but which one?”

: “We know now that Gwen is innocent, but not a whole lot else. So how much has really changed?”

: “If we can’t be certain who the culprit is, we don’t have much choice but to wait until we’ve landed.”

: “We can lock down the ship until the police have carried out an investigation and questioned everybody.”

: “Not the ideal course of action. I’d like to revisit the evidence with this new information.”

: “But I have to admit, if we can’t prove one person is guilty, I’m not sure what there is to do. Bind everyone in their rooms? That’s not a real solution.”

: “None of these are solutions. We need to find the killer and apprehend them before they get away.”

: “Uh huh. And just how do you propose we do that?”

: “Donovan was looking for a hidden area on the ship before he was killed. I know for a fact it exists… and where to find it. But only the master key can open it.”

: "W-what?! You never mentioned this to me before, Sue!’

: “You know where to find it? That’s incredible news. And if Donovan perished in his search for this area, that implies there’s something to be found there. Perhaps something that your anonymous donor wants to remain hidden, no?”

: “If Donovan went missing looking for it, then that’s all the more reason we should steer clear of it! Let the guys with the guns and badges investigate it.”

: “That’s not a bad point. We need to think of our own safety, as well as that of the passengers.”

: “… I’ve got it! What if everyone went into the hidden area together? Safety in numbers, and all that.”

Translation: We’re still missing one piece of evidence that we couldn’t possibly have until after we get Gwen untied. Next time, we’ll go right into the bad ending… before going back and getting that final piece of evidence.

[Timrod]

So, here we are. We’ve gotten all of the evidence minus one conversation we’re going to totally ignore for right now. Let’s go ahead and get the first of the game’s two endings.

Now, if you’ve played this game before, or if you’ve read the Steam achievement list for it, you might be a bit confused when I say “two endings”. While the game has five different achievements corresponding to different endings, there are only really two. Technically, there are two bad endings - “A Living Nightmare” and “False Awakening”. Both of these are almost identical… though I didn’t know that going in because the ending sequence to this game is honestly something you’re going to want to use a guide for. Dagger of Amon Ra, this isn’t.

The difference is that “A Living Nightmare” can be obtained at any time, even after getting the final piece of evidence we’re missing. “False Awakening” is basically what happens if you try to get the good ending without having the missing piece. Because “False Awakening” is missable, we’ll be going for that one.

Both the good and bad endings start exactly the same way:

Ferdinand then explains the plan… again… and makes a show of finding the secret door we already know is there. For sanity’s sake, I’ll cut that part out. The ghost is forcibly expelled from Xu when the cutscene starts, so there’s no way to softlock it.

The cast winds up here, in the secret room behind the kitchen. I think this is the dev kind of poking fun at himself - there’s really not enough room on the boat (at least, from how it looks on the outside) for this room to exist. I suppose you could write it off as there being a secret deck underneath all of the other ones.

: “Oh my god…”

: “…People. There are people down here.”

Well, looks like Marcurio was right about something living being smuggled on the boat.

: “I think they’re alive, but they aren’t responsive.”

: “Why are they even here? What’s going on?”

: “Guys, I don’t feel so good…”

: “Not to interrupt, but you all might want to check this out.”

So yeah, that kid in the corner that looks nothing like Paulo is, in fact, Paulo. It’s strange, though… why is he down here if the person who killed the captain and Donovan just threw them over the side?

: “What!? What is he doing here? But… I don’t see Donovan or the captain…”

: “He looks really injured. Is he…”

This line was added in an update, because I’ve seen videos where it’s not there and it wasn’t there the first time I played through this game. Originally, it wasn’t clear that Paulo actually survived in the Good Ending route, where he appears in the secret room but does not appear in the actual ending. This is why I think Gwen was originally written to be psychic - my theory is that she was supposed to be the one who supports the ghost once Paulo dies.

Holy shit, what?! Yeah, this part is kind of really contrived. If you watch Donovan’s “death” scene, he’s definitely thrown over the side after being shot five times. I suppose it’s possible that the shooter was using a really small caliber handgun (like a .22) and Donovan was wearing a bulletproof vest, but if you were going to waste five bullets why wouldn’t you just waste a sixth and pop him in the head?

: “But maybe it’s better this way.”

: “Donovan?! What happened to you? We were sure you were dead!”

: “I’m not so easy to get rid of.”

: “There’s still something I need to do before I die…”

So the story’s official explanation is that Donovan was shot five times without a vest, somehow survived that and got back onto a moving boat, then waited in a dark corner down here for probably 16-24 hours without dying from blood loss or going into shock. I say it’s still less stupid than Zero Time Dilemma.

: “Have you been here the whole time? What were you doing down here?”

: “Waiting… just waiting…”

: “Donovan, what is all of this? Who are these people? What about Paulo?”

: “And the captain. You didn’t find her, did you? I thought, since you’re here… maybe she…”

: “Why didn’t you show up earlier? Why wait until now to show up? What the hell’s your plan with that?”

: “But that’s okay… because there’s still a solution.”

: “One last resort… yes… this is what I came here to do.”

So yeah, Donovan apparently had a gun the entire time, and never even thought to draw it when the killer approached him.

: “I have a profile. He’s in this room, I know it.”

: “Whoever you are, you’re going to die here. There’s no hiding…”

At this point, we regain control and are able to start possessing people. The endings to this game are absolutely dickish - the game does guide you by giving you options marked with a ! that will make progress… but doing them in the wrong order gets you the first bad ending. This bad ending is essentially doing the same options that lead to the good ending… minus one we convieniently forgot. I should also mention that not all of the evidence is actually relevant. Remember that conversation where we got puppet-level control of Garv? Yeah, not ever brought up.

I think the dickish part of this whole thing is that there doesn’t necessarily need to be an “order” for some of these things. Really, you should be able to just bring up the evidence in any order as long as everything makes sense. So without further ado, let’s get to this. If you’re doing this on your own, by the way, there is (thankfully) a user-made Steam guide that tells you what you need to do to get all five of the endings.

By the way, for these following sections, assume I’m always picking the option marked by a !, or whichever option I have highlighted in the picture. The other options (as far as I know) lead to the other bad ending.

The Bracelet

The first thing we have to do is possess Quella. Not puppet - you’d think that we could just puppet her and get the same results, but no.

: “You did? But that room was off-limits! How did you get in there?”

: “Shut up. What did you find?”

Here, we have to mention the bracelet. The book is irrelevant, and mentioning it at all locks you into the other bad ending. This is pretty much the only difference between that ending and this one.

: “Wait, we talked about that! It wasn’t what it looked like!”

: “You’d better have a really good story. What were you doing there, Marcurio?”

: “I wasn’t there. Not then, at least.”

: “My bracelet was taken by that stupid cat. It must’ve carried it around and dropped it in that kid’s room.”

: “That sounds absurd. How does a cat steal a bracelet off a grown man’s arm? And why?”

: “Does it matter why? There’s testimony backing me up.”

: “The bracelet was a gift. I’ve had it for years. Why would I give it to some rodent?”

: “Okay… say that were true. I still don’t see how it’s relevant to anything else.”

: “That guy’s pointing a gun at us, and we’re arguing about why a cat took my bracelet?!”

: “It’s relevant because you were in Gwen’s room, weren’t you?”

: “You were there planting the master key to incriminate her, as you had been instructed.”

Wait…how does Garv know about that? There’s only one way he could - he’s Marcurio’s secret paymaster!

: “The cat was there, since it snuck in through the vents… and it was in your way. It wanted to play with you.”

: “You needed it to move and leave you alone, but if you antagonized it, Gwen would wake up.”

: “So you gave it something to keep it distracted, and you planted the key in silence.”

: “… Yeah. You’re right. So I was planting the key in Gwen’s room when it happened. So what?”

: “Shut up.”

: “Again, we’re just going in circles…”

: “Shut up!”

The game’s a little ambiguous about this, but Ferdinand does in fact have the ability to enter any room without the master key. So… he’s got to be the one who took Paulo! And since Paulo is still alive, fitting the serial killer’s MO, we know that he’s the serial killer!

The game is not at all good about explaining this, but there are actually TWO criminals on board. The first is Garv, who is the person that was sending the messages to Xu and Marcurio. He’s actually a human trafficker, not the serial killer. The second is Ferdinand, who is the serial killer Donovan is looking for!

I should mention that the summary of this ending is “You proved that there are two things going on, but don’t have enough evidence to prove either one.” Really, Donovan should be able to intuit who the two criminals are… but he’s kind of an idiot.

The Kitchen Stock

Anyone can bring this up as long as they’re able to be puppeted. This is why we looked in the fridge and in the cabinet in the kitchen as Marcurio.

: “That would answer the question of how these people have stayed down here for so long. How do you know he was doing this?”

: “So the captain was on to what you were doing. And then soon after, she was gone.”

: “Even if you are as ignorant as you say, you undeniably had motive to silence her.”

: “No way! You’re not really thinking that I…”

: “There’s almost no evidence anyone else was involved.”

: “That’s ridiculous! Look, there’s no way it could’ve been me.”

: “Then who was it?”

: “One of the passengers. I know that much.”

: “So you were holding out earlier. You’d better talk, and fast.”

: “When the captain arrived, things changed. The way I received messages, what they told me to do…”

: “The person that was giving me orders changed, and it gave me some hints as to who they were.”

: “The notes I recieved were usually slid under the door while I was on shift. That way, I could never see who it was. It was discreet enough.”

: “Recently though, the orders have been placed in the broom closet.”

: "It’s strange, because it’s an un-necessary risk. What if someone else found those notes?’

: “Before the ship departed, before everyone even boarded, I was instructed to leave the boarding ramp out overnight.”

: “This would’ve allowed anyone to get on or off the ship without anyone noticing.”

: “And they could smuggle anything… or anyone… on board.”

: “Here’s the thing. At the time, all the staff were already on board. So the only reason I’d need to leave the ramp out…”

: “Is if the smuggler wasn’t staff. They were a passenger.”

Donovan’s Camera Footage

Like the last point, this one can be done using anyone that can be puppeted.

: “How did you find that? My computer was password protected.”

: “Well… what are you talking about? I never caught anything incriminating. I wasn’t able to hide cameras on the first floor, which was the most important thing.”

: “… Hold on. Marcurio said that before this boat trip, he got orders slid under his door. Why did that change? Why now?”

: “I wonder if the smuggler realized I had bugged the ship.”

: “If they were seen sliding notes under the door of a staff member, it would alert me. I would investigate.”

: “So they disguised their correspondence with something inocuous. Something like… cleaning up after their cat.”

: “Marcurio was going in and out per his usual need to clean the kitchen… but so were you, Garv.”

: “…Hm. As it happens, I was.”

: “Anything to add on that?”

: “Not really. I have a litter box I need to regularly clean out.”

: “You were the only person besides Marcurio who was going in and out of there! You orchestrated this!”

: “That’s a lot of conclusions to draw from such a small detail.”

: “Well, how do you explain how the notes got there?”

: “I’d say Marcurio is making this up to cover how suspicious he is. Maybe if he can tie a detail to someone else, he’ll be okay.”

: “You have to admit, there’s nothing concrete tying me to anything he’s talking about.”

Except the part where you kinda admitted you knew about him taking orders.

: “That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything. It just means I haven’t found it yet. But I will.”

: “No you won’t. Not if I’m innocent.”

Garv’s Confession

So yeah, the final piece of evidence in this path is forcing Garv to outright confess that he did it.

: “When considering the camera footage, that’s the only real possibility.”

: “So you knew about all of this? You were bribing the staff to cover this up?”

: “It’s clear that there were at least two people working together. But I don’t have enough evidence for both of them.”

Actually, yes you do, but whatever.

: “I’m not going to take a chance on letting one of them go.”

: “I can’t trust my profile anymore, but I’ll do what I can.”

: “This nightmare ends now.”

Oh, I get it. This is gonna be one of those things where he’s faking out Garv and Ferdinand so he can kill them without them pulling a gun.

Alton is summarily shot in the chest, dying instantly.

Well, Garv’s dead.

In case you don’t know what he’s saying (I sure as hell didn’t), the phrase is Latin for “The drama is over! Applaud!”. These were supposedly the last words of Caesar Augustus. Basically, Ferdinand is a smug fucker even in death.

’

Quella, assuming that Donovan is out of bullets, takes the bullet for Darryl.

Unfortunately, Donovan still has at least two bullets in his gun.

Donovan offs himself. It’s kind of a mystery to me why he doesn’t shoot Marcurio in this ending. The only thing I can think of is that Donovan’s gun is a six-shot revolver and he hadn’t planned on killing Quella.

: “…”

: “…”

: “Yeah… same here.”

: “We were the ones that were guilty! It’s… it’s our fault that they’re gone…”

: “He isn’t responding to anything. He just keeps staring straight ahead.”

: “What happened down there? What did he see? I can’t understand any of it.”

: “I know it’s hard, but we have to try and stay focused for now. We can try and figure out the rest later.”

: “And… maybe it’s best if we let someone else put the pieces together.”

: “I don’t know if I can do that.”

: “Something else happened there, on the ship. There was more going on.”

: “I need to understand what happened. I need for it to make sense.”

: “Just leaving it behind like that… it’s not right.”

And that’s it. Next time, we’ll go back and do one final sequence with Gwen before we move on to the good ending!

[Timrod]

So, let’s pretend that we didn’t just get the bad ending and instead went for that final piece of evidence. It’s honestly kind of dumb, but…

First, we need to get Xu and have her talk to Gwen now that Gwen is untied.

: “Wait…it wasn’t? Then whose key is it? And why do people think I took it from Donovan?”

: “How do you know it was a different key?”

: “An angry skull design? That sounds familiar.”

: “I think I saw that key… though I didn’t realize what it was at the time. I may have reacted differently had I known.”

: “I don’t have any idea. If I knew anything about it, I would tell you.”

: “Like I said, I didn’t even find out they were missing until this morning. And then I was brought here.”

: “When I heard Donovan was gone… I was more shocked than anyone. I really thought he was…”

: “Thought he was the killer?”

: “Not even that… I thought he was after me.”

: “I could just sense his anger. He seemed just incredibly angry, all the time…”

: “And it was as if he was looking for something. Or someone. I guess he reminded me of someone I know.”

: “Wait… really? He was looking for the captain? But I thought she was dead.”

: “W-what? I never heard anything about this before…”

: “So he was after a serial killer… was that why he had all those cameras?”

Once we exit the conversation…

So yes, that entire conversation basically boiled down to:

Yes, Gwen got defeated by the old “fake emerald on the space colony” gambit. Oldest trick in the book, that one.

So, we now need to have a largely pointless conversation with Ferdinand confirming what we already know.

Once we finish it off…

With that, we’re now clear to go right to the ending.

Everything up to this point is exactly the same - we’ve told Donovan about the bracelet, the food supplies, the camera footage, and had Garv outright confess that he was the one giving Marcurio and Xu orders. The difference is that Donovan (for some unknown reason) decides not to go shooting everyone and let Gwen say one last thing.

Gwen’s Testimony

: “Wait. You told him what you saw in my room? And just what did you see in my room?”

: “I saw the master key. And I told him. I’m sorry.”

: “I suspect the person who ambushed me knew I had the master key. That’s how they anticipated me.”

: “At that time, Sue knew because I got the key from her. And you knew because you broke into my room.”

: “And neither of you fit the profile. But Ferdinand… he fits the profile. And he knew.”

: “Why did you tell him?”

: “T-that’s not what happened! I merely confided in her that the captain was missing!”

: “I personally disapproved of her actions! I never told her to do anything!”

: “Even so, you set her against me. And you knew I had the master key. You were the only suspect with that information.”

: “Well, perhaps. But what if she told someone else? Or what if… what if I told someone else?”

: “I’ve heard enough. I think I finally understand.”

: “But the evidence doesn’t cancel itself out. It was both of you, wasn’t it?”

: “This theory is a bad detour! You said yourself you were after one person. You had a profile.”

: “What are the odds this killer you’re looking for would run into someone they could collaborate with?”

: “It sounds unlikely, doesn’t it?”

: “But I got my info from someone who had been tracking my killer. Maybe the killer expected they’d be tailed.”

: “When Gwen told Ferdinand about what she found in my room, he realized I was following him.”

: “Then he told Garv, who was able to get the jump on me.”

: “With me out of the picture, Ferdinand thought it was safe to target Paulo. At the same time, Garv worked to frame Gwen.”

: “I can understand why you’d suspect me, but what you don’t know is that I helped prove Gwen’s innocence!”

: “I also helped uncover evidence from Paulo’s room! Why would I do all of that?”

: “The evidence in Paulo’s room incriminates him, not you. And the evidence here does the same.”

: “You counted on everyone uncovering the pieces of truth you left behind, and accepting the story I had given them of a serial killer.”

: “I thought the idea of using Gwen as a patsy was kinda flimsy, but Garv insisted. I guess it makes sense now!”

: “What the fuck are you talking about? I had nothing to do with any of that!”

: “Sure you did! You told me that Donovan had been taken care of, and that you’d incriminate Gwen with your copy of the master key.”

: “Ha! I bet you knew the whole time they would figure out it was a plant. You sneaky old bastard!”

: “You know exactly what he’s talking about.”

: “You were gonna sell me out from the start, after how much I had helped you! How rude.”

: “Fuck you, you lunatic! You ruined everything!”

: “You brought feds onto my ship, and you tipped off the captain… that was blackmail, not help!”

: “Well, okay, but I also helped you get rid of the captain and the fed, so isn’t that like a wash?”

: “Look, he’s the one you’ve been after this whole time. He’s the one you want!”

Just like the last ending, Donovan shoots himself afterward.

: “Once they do, I’m out of here. This ship can sink into the ocean for all I care.”

: “I can’t believe it. Both Ferdinand and Garv, the things they did… and they didn’t even pretend to feel guilt.”

: “Darryl, Gwen… if you hadn’t come forward, who knows what would have happened to us?”

: “The information you gave brought us the truth. Thank you.”

: “I remember having help more than once along the way. Thanks, Quella.”

: “I just wish Donovan was still here. He didn’t deserve to die like that. The captain didn’t, either.”

: “Yeah. If it wasn’t for them, we never would have found out what was really happening.”

: “It can’t all be fixed, and a lot of it will take time. But… we can start to make things right.”

: “There won’t be any more victims now. The nightmare is over.”

: “I guess that depends on the police.”

: “Well, yeah… what I meant was, what are we going to do?”

Holy shit, can someone just toss Alton into the ocean already?

: “Oh. Right. I’ve been thinking about that…”

: “Oh. That’s… that’s really far away, isn’t it?”

Nothing could ever be far enough away from your horrible stack of mixtapes.

: “Yeah. Very far.”

: “I guess that means I won’t see you again. This is it.”

: “Pretty much. I mean, this was always going to happen. I never really planned to stay here forever.”

: “Right. Yeah, of course. I guess I kinda knew that.”

: “Well, good luck, Sue.”

: “You too, Alton. Oh, and I never corrected you, but I might as well now. It’s ‘Xu’.”

: “A little rattled, but I’m fine, thanks.”

: “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

: “…Say, I have an idea. Mind if I tag along with you for a while?”

: “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I don’t know when I’m going.”

: “That’s alright! You can figure it out on the way!”

: “I don’t think I’ll be pleasant company.”

: “You don’t have to be.”

: “…Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

: “I wouldn’t think of it.”

: “…What? Why?”

: “You figured out what that bastard was up to. Ferdinand.”

: “As much as I tried to keep my ear to the pavement, I had no idea about him.”

: “What are you talking about? You tried to frame me.”

: “You never wanted to find out what was going on.”

: “You’re right. I did a lot of shitty things. I probably bear some responsibility for what happened.”

Understatement of the century right there.

: “I’m not a good person, am I?”

: “What do you want me to say? That I forgive you? That you can change your ways?”

: “You’re like everyone else. You’ll keep doing what you’re doing as long as it’s convienient for you.”

: “Maybe you’re right. Look, I just wanted to say… thanks.”

And… that’s it! We’re done with Why Am I Dead at Sea! I’m not sure whether I’m actually going to go through the prototype Flash game for this, mostly because of how crude it is. I’ll think about it. Thanks for reading!

After going through the game for this LP, I figured “Why the hell not go for all the achievements?” and did all five endings. As I mentioned in the bad ending update, there are really only two endings - you either get the lifeboat scene with the handful of survivors or you get the docks scene with everyone. Let me summarize the other three endings for you:

• A Living Nightmare

This ending plays out exactly like False Awakening, except without Donovan realizing he’s actually dealing with two people working together instead of just the serial killer. You can get this by doing any combination that doesn’t lead to one of the other endings.

• Retribution

This ending is the first “neutral” ending. Here, you basically use Paulo’s book to prove that Ferdinand is the serial killer - the page he ripped out of his book matches Ferdinand’s room number. The only difference is that Gwen does not appear in the docks scene and instead, Garv offers Marcurio a job as the new Ferdinand.

• Justice

This is the second “neutral” ending. Instead of mentioning the bracelet with Quella, you instead mention the key deal with Xu and Marcurio, with Marcurio positing that Paulo was taken before he planted the key. Ferdinand survives and has a scene with Marcurio instead of Garv or Gwen.

[Zena]

Alton is summarily shot in the chest, dying instantly.

Holy shit, can someone just toss Alton into the ocean already?

Seems like the bad ending has some redeeming qualities.

In seriousness I enjoyed the LP and your commentary! As well as your ongoing contempt for Alton.

Would have been interesting if the ending was a bit more straightforward where you could’ve taken control of Donovan and picked out who the baddies were, right or wrong.

[Timrod]

So, I kind of found a way to get my screenshot tool working with the original game…kinda. As it turns out, the developer made a second version of it known as “Why Am I Dead: Rebirth”. Unlike Dead At Sea, the original game… kinda has a lot of shortcomings, namely that it doesn’t tell you which dialog options are important. Unfortunately, this involves a lot of manual editing on my end, so I definitely won’t be going nearly as in-depth as I did with the sequel. There will be unmarked spoilers for Dead At Sea here, so don’t read this until after you’ve finished the main LP.

I also haven’t played through all of the endings to this game: I got the first one (which is basically the equivalent to False Awakening and is clearly not canon to Dead At Sea) but did not get the other two that were added in the Rebirth remake.

I’ll be using this page as a sort of index page for Dead: Rebirth so that it doesn’t get mixed up with the first LP.

The characters in the original game are nowhere near as well-written as Dead At Sea’s are, mostly because I think this was supposed to be a “tech demo” of sorts for Dead At Sea. From the top, going clockwise, we have:

Cricket: Cricket has no real backstory, and is just kind of a person staying in a hotel where the owner has just been murdered. He’s basically the main character.

Orval: Orval is a flasher who is also probably a stalker. Seems to know where everyone in the hotel is at all times, though he doesn’t secretly have the hotel bugged. He’s pretty much unimportant to the plot.

Lucille: A shy, meek woman who is also an FBI agent chasing a serial killer. She’s the same Lucille that sent Donovan onto the ship in the sequel. She’s more of the “Smash Alton’s stack of Nickelback CDs that we all know he has” type rather than the “Shoot Alton just because” type.

Morgan: Morgan is an heiress who is also basically a non-French Yvette from Dagger of Amon Ra. She has a single daughter from her previous marriage.

Iblis: I think the writer named Morgan’s daughter this to bring back painful memories of Sonic 2006. Iblis is a little girl who may or may not be psychic - she’s essentially Paulo without having anywhere near as big a role.

Ted: Ted is Orval’s best friend, and a travelling salesman. He has information on where everyone was at the time of the murder. Also, his dialog noises are exactly the same as Ferdinand’s… but surprisingly, he’s not Ferdinand in disguise as far as I know.

Rose: Rose is an old woman who kind of hates everyone and everything.

Randy: Randy is the hotel manager, and also a drunken slob.