SPOILERS: Just a note that you can 100% figure out Timothy Butement without guessing based on nationality. In one of the Bitter cold chapter scenes with all the sleeping men in hammocks you can find one hammock where the arm tattoo from Timothy is visible so you can match the crew list number for that hammock to a man with a tattoo. You can see the tattoo in the scene were Timothy dies.
I remember seeing that tattoo, and kept looking around for it in the various tableaus. Then I rewatched that character's death scene and saw it clear as day. Was so satisfying that I'd managed to get that one without guessing.
Maybe a little late but MangledPork Gaming's gameplay of the game basically is the perfect example of finding all clues and answers. If he is not lying about what his deductions during the gameplay and looking on guides, he basically managed to find the identities of all characters a chapter and a half before ending the game. Meaning that he didn't need to see unholy captives or the calling to determine basically all the names of the characters. And he didn't use things like ethnicity for doing it even to some kind of stupid degrees, I mean when you are doubting between the Irish O'Hagan and the Diom of Sierra Leona. Also, he managed to predict who was hanged in the sketch with an actual logical reasoning only by using the sketches, so maybe he shouldn't count to what is reasonably expected when finding clues.
There is a reason one of the women is a "Miss". It's to show right away when you meet the two women that the one with the wedding band is not it. Also, an early clue as to Henry Evans' identity is that he has the box with him that you got the watch and book from.
Ooh boy! When you mentioned how you wanted the comments to help answer questions about the game, you proved yourself to be really mature in my eyes, not many people are willing to put aside their objections to give something the benefit of the doubt so, hats off to you my friend! As for the clues you missed, there were 6 clues I spotted that would of helped with identifying people. (Bear in mind I didn’t get these on my first play through as well, I learned about them afterwards) Here we go! 1 - John Davis can be seen peeking out of a window in calling part 6, if you look on the map, that window is into the 4th mates quarters, hence why he’s unblurred in that scene. He must be the 4th mate. 2 - Lewis Walkers hammock is number 44, it can be seen in present day as the last hammock still hanging up. When people die they can’t put up their hammocks anymore, hence why Doom part 2 has so few compared to Bitter part 1. Conversely no one can take down your hammock if everyone’s dead. Hence why 44 has to be one of the last top men left on the ship, giving evidence that knifey-man is him. (This is getting a bit long, isn’t it?) 3 - Tim Butement has a tattoo of a lady on his arm, which you can clearly see in his death. (murder part 3) You can also see this tattoo poking out of hammock 37 in Bitter part 1, as such, you don’t need to relay on his accent to figure him out. 4 - The Peters brothers are tricky, but if you use the knowledge that people’s hammocks are taken down when they die, and search doom part 2, you’ll find number 48 in the corner. Proving that Nathan must be still alive and Samuel dead. 5 - okay, on to the big ones, in Bitter part 1 (again) you’ll find a bag and a pipe hanging off of bunk no. 47, you’ll also find said pipe being smoked all throughout the Calling. By Aleksei Toporov. Since he smokes the pipe he must be no 47, leaving the other Russian as no. 46. 6 - finally, on the matter of Alaxander Booth, if you look in doom part 2, and take a note of all the hammocks still up. You’ll find no. 57 unoccupied by itself. Since George is underneath his taken down hammock in that scene, one of the people on the boat, as in Alex, must belong to that hammock! Phew! That was way too long winded, and I properly came off as quite egotistical but I really love this game and I think people show be able to enjoy it to its full extent without doubts weighing them down! Fantastic video Sir! Now, I’m off to leave a like!
This is so incredibly thorough! Your eye for hammocks and what happens to them over the course of the scenes is unmatched. Did you notice every one of your details yourself, or did you take advantage of guides? The last time I looked at any guides for the game was back in 2018, when they were still pretty sparse in detail. I deliberately avoided returning to them while constructing this video, because I didn't want them to color my critical eye too much. That pretty much guaranteed I'd miss things, though, hence my invitation for input in the comments!
Personally, I missed the pipe clue my first time, alongside the shoes sticking out (bit too vague for me!) but I’m most proud of finding that tattoo since I spent the entire game after that scene searching for it only to find it right at the end! After the game I went to message forums to try and get hints and such from others, eventually leading to those missing clues.
This is as usual fantastic! One thing though, for the two women in the early chapters that get unblurred and that you use as an example for how the blurring system kinda lies to you I want to point out that the clue that let me solve their identities was that one of them was wearing a wedding band. English is not my first language but doesn't this rule one as Miss? I get your point about the blurring system, but I think that example was not the best one. Besides that I also want to stress how the pictures allowed me to draw relations and connections between the characters quicker. I relied way more on the picture to figure out people's ship roles and groups of belonging than the tableaus (at least at the beginning of the game). Just to say that for all its blind spots (specifically the racial profiling) the game is brilliant in how it provides a million ways to reach conclusions and that's why maybe it feels bad when there're none for the very last deductions. Cheers!
Thank you! This is precisely the sort of details I must have missed that I was hoping commenters would point out. You're right about "Miss," in her name. I never noticed the wedding band. (The character models are often much more detailed than you first might expect!) I think the game reveals itself to be very fair when held up to scrutiny, and I suspect that the few gripes I have about it will ultimately be proven wrong, with enough attentive eyes & ears on the case. Might have to eventually make a follow-up video to this one...
If you look at Zungi Sathi's "others present at the time of death" picture, you can see the only person that could be shooting him would be Charles Miner. Thats how I did it anyway
This has been a fantastic series of videos to binge! It seems most of the unclear identities you mentioned in the video have already been brought up in the comments. I'm curious if you've played the game Paradise Killer? It's a game nominally about detective investigation, with a focus on player freedom that stands in contrast to some of your stated issues with, for example, the Ace Attorney series. However, I and some other critiques I've heard, find that this commitment to freedom, as well as some hand-holding in the UX, combine to form an unfortunate circumstance that invalidates the importance of the actual investigative process in the game. If you have played it, I'm curious what your feelings on it are from this perspective of investigation game design.
Pretty ironic you found those two pair of seamen the weakest part of the game, since in my playthrough they were some of the highlights from the investigation: seeing the pipe and pouch and then tracking down the smoker felt really rewarding, just as seeing that Shirley's hammock was up but unoccupied with someone below it. Also, I feel like the more accurate culprit for Wolff's and Shirley's death was the kraken, and in fact if you blame Ahkbar his estate will be fined for a murder that, in my opinion, he didn't really commit. Big kudos for everything else in the video, though. Glad I'm not the only one that felt a little weird making assumptions based only on race. (Also: I disagree with you about the Bargain; it felt amazing to travel from your home all the way to the lazarrette, through space and time, thanks to Henry Evans' plan. I felt like I was playing a sequel to the game!)
SPOILERS: Just a note that you can 100% figure out Timothy Butement without guessing based on nationality. In one of the Bitter cold chapter scenes with all the sleeping men in hammocks you can find one hammock where the arm tattoo from Timothy is visible so you can match the crew list number for that hammock to a man with a tattoo. You can see the tattoo in the scene were Timothy dies.
I remember seeing that tattoo, and kept looking around for it in the various tableaus. Then I rewatched that character's death scene and saw it clear as day. Was so satisfying that I'd managed to get that one without guessing.
Maybe a little late but MangledPork Gaming's gameplay of the game basically is the perfect example of finding all clues and answers. If he is not lying about what his deductions during the gameplay and looking on guides, he basically managed to find the identities of all characters a chapter and a half before ending the game. Meaning that he didn't need to see unholy captives or the calling to determine basically all the names of the characters. And he didn't use things like ethnicity for doing it even to some kind of stupid degrees, I mean when you are doubting between the Irish O'Hagan and the Diom of Sierra Leona.
Also, he managed to predict who was hanged in the sketch with an actual logical reasoning only by using the sketches, so maybe he shouldn't count to what is reasonably expected when finding clues.
There is a reason one of the women is a "Miss". It's to show right away when you meet the two women that the one with the wedding band is not it.
Also, an early clue as to Henry Evans' identity is that he has the box with him that you got the watch and book from.
Ooh boy! When you mentioned how you wanted the comments to help answer questions about the game, you proved yourself to be really mature in my eyes, not many people are willing to put aside their objections to give something the benefit of the doubt so, hats off to you my friend!
As for the clues you missed, there were 6 clues I spotted that would of helped with identifying people. (Bear in mind I didn’t get these on my first play through as well, I learned about them afterwards) Here we go!
1 - John Davis can be seen peeking out of a window in calling part 6, if you look on the map, that window is into the 4th mates quarters, hence why he’s unblurred in that scene. He must be the 4th mate.
2 - Lewis Walkers hammock is number 44, it can be seen in present day as the last hammock still hanging up. When people die they can’t put up their hammocks anymore, hence why Doom part 2 has so few compared to Bitter part 1. Conversely no one can take down your hammock if everyone’s dead. Hence why 44 has to be one of the last top men left on the ship, giving evidence that knifey-man is him. (This is getting a bit long, isn’t it?)
3 - Tim Butement has a tattoo of a lady on his arm, which you can clearly see in his death. (murder part 3) You can also see this tattoo poking out of hammock 37 in Bitter part 1, as such, you don’t need to relay on his accent to figure him out.
4 - The Peters brothers are tricky, but if you use the knowledge that people’s hammocks are taken down when they die, and search doom part 2, you’ll find number 48 in the corner. Proving that Nathan must be still alive and Samuel dead.
5 - okay, on to the big ones, in Bitter part 1 (again) you’ll find a bag and a pipe hanging off of bunk no. 47, you’ll also find said pipe being smoked all throughout the Calling. By Aleksei Toporov. Since he smokes the pipe he must be no 47, leaving the other Russian as no. 46.
6 - finally, on the matter of Alaxander Booth, if you look in doom part 2, and take a note of all the hammocks still up. You’ll find no. 57 unoccupied by itself. Since George is underneath his taken down hammock in that scene, one of the people on the boat, as in Alex, must belong to that hammock!
Phew! That was way too long winded, and I properly came off as quite egotistical but I really love this game and I think people show be able to enjoy it to its full extent without doubts weighing them down! Fantastic video Sir! Now, I’m off to leave a like!
This is so incredibly thorough! Your eye for hammocks and what happens to them over the course of the scenes is unmatched.
Did you notice every one of your details yourself, or did you take advantage of guides? The last time I looked at any guides for the game was back in 2018, when they were still pretty sparse in detail. I deliberately avoided returning to them while constructing this video, because I didn't want them to color my critical eye too much. That pretty much guaranteed I'd miss things, though, hence my invitation for input in the comments!
Personally, I missed the pipe clue my first time, alongside the shoes sticking out (bit too vague for me!)
but I’m most proud of finding that tattoo since I spent the entire game after that scene searching for it only to find it right at the end!
After the game I went to message forums to try and get hints and such from others, eventually leading to those missing clues.
This is as usual fantastic!
One thing though, for the two women in the early chapters that get unblurred and that you use as an example for how the blurring system kinda lies to you I want to point out that the clue that let me solve their identities was that one of them was wearing a wedding band. English is not my first language but doesn't this rule one as Miss? I get your point about the blurring system, but I think that example was not the best one.
Besides that I also want to stress how the pictures allowed me to draw relations and connections between the characters quicker. I relied way more on the picture to figure out people's ship roles and groups of belonging than the tableaus (at least at the beginning of the game). Just to say that for all its blind spots (specifically the racial profiling) the game is brilliant in how it provides a million ways to reach conclusions and that's why maybe it feels bad when there're none for the very last deductions.
Cheers!
Thank you! This is precisely the sort of details I must have missed that I was hoping commenters would point out. You're right about "Miss," in her name. I never noticed the wedding band. (The character models are often much more detailed than you first might expect!) I think the game reveals itself to be very fair when held up to scrutiny, and I suspect that the few gripes I have about it will ultimately be proven wrong, with enough attentive eyes & ears on the case. Might have to eventually make a follow-up video to this one...
If you look at Zungi Sathi's "others present at the time of death" picture, you can see the only person that could be shooting him would be Charles Miner. Thats how I did it anyway
This has been a fantastic series of videos to binge! It seems most of the unclear identities you mentioned in the video have already been brought up in the comments.
I'm curious if you've played the game Paradise Killer? It's a game nominally about detective investigation, with a focus on player freedom that stands in contrast to some of your stated issues with, for example, the Ace Attorney series. However, I and some other critiques I've heard, find that this commitment to freedom, as well as some hand-holding in the UX, combine to form an unfortunate circumstance that invalidates the importance of the actual investigative process in the game. If you have played it, I'm curious what your feelings on it are from this perspective of investigation game design.
wtf the helmsman had his hand on the wheel the whole time! I never noticed this
Pretty ironic you found those two pair of seamen the weakest part of the game, since in my playthrough they were some of the highlights from the investigation: seeing the pipe and pouch and then tracking down the smoker felt really rewarding, just as seeing that Shirley's hammock was up but unoccupied with someone below it. Also, I feel like the more accurate culprit for Wolff's and Shirley's death was the kraken, and in fact if you blame Ahkbar his estate will be fined for a murder that, in my opinion, he didn't really commit.
Big kudos for everything else in the video, though. Glad I'm not the only one that felt a little weird making assumptions based only on race.
(Also: I disagree with you about the Bargain; it felt amazing to travel from your home all the way to the lazarrette, through space and time, thanks to Henry Evans' plan. I felt like I was playing a sequel to the game!)
Holy molly, insane work done here, thank you!!!