Game Lore

Sunless Sea
1

This is my biggest complaint with this game. It is not the lore but the reluctance the devs seem to have in letting the player in on it.

I have read a response in the Steam Forum from a dev basically saying go play Fallen London to learn it.

There is a recent thread in the Steam forums about The Chapel of Lights. The suggestions given are completely contrary to the lore of the world that Failbetter has created. This to me is a sign of failing to acclimate the player.

I do not mind exploring to learn more about the Neath but think the player should be given more. A good example is The Chapel of Lights. Once I discovered it as it is currently represented in the game I had no idea that it was not a safe haven in the dark to feed my crew but a place that probably should be feared. Apparently, if you do not already know, wells and candles are significant in this world. In my opinion I should have learned that once I discovered this island.

I payed to play Sunless Sea not Fallen London.

I realize things may change but wanted to give my 2 cents to the devs.

2

I agree. Furthermore, the suggestion to play Fallen London is ludicrous. Sunless Sea is a more conventional game in that it is complete-able and finite in time. It has a very high replayability value, which is excellent, but if I want to devote only a finite amount of my life to it I can do so without feeling dissatisfied. Fallen London is the opposite. The main reason I play Sunless Sea and not Fallen London (which I have played for several weeks) is precisely because I like the lore that FBG have created but am not willing to have another perpetual time-sink in my life.

3

&quotI have read a response in the Steam Forum from a dev basically saying go play Fallen London to learn it.&quot

[color=#009900]I appreciate that’s how it might have read, but what Rachael actually said was &quotThe lore behind Fallen London (and Sunless Sea) is meant to be gathered by the player piecemeal, but playing the intro to Fallen London will give you a good basic idea of what happened.&quot[/color][color=#009900]
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[color=#009900]I enjoy worlds and stories where the reader or player has to piece together the background from teasing hints: so those are the kind of worlds I write. That’s the creative intention for Sunless Sea. The backstory will become clearer as more content pops - there are more gaps than I would want in the finished product - but there will never be a codex, a text crawl, or an intro cutscene. [/color][color=#009900]
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[color=#009900]For people who want to dig in deeper, there are (literally) a million words of story in Fallen London. There’s also a comic you might want to check out - http://www.failbettergames.com/comic/ . We’re not going to replicate all that content in Sunless Sea, so if someone really wants to roll around in the lore, those are good places to go. If not, it’ll never be necessary.[/color]
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[/color][color=#009900]In the particular case of the Chapel of Lights; I think Paul’s done a marvellous job of making it look menacing as all get-out. And this is the intro text you get when you dock:[/color]

[color=#009900]&quotFurtive faithful gather in the shadows between the many, many candles. A bell tolls in the chapel tower: cracked iron laughter. Beware. The isle is full of voices.&quot[/color]

[color=#009900]If that’s honestly giving the impression that it’s a safe haven, let me know and I’ll consider a rewrite. :-)[/color][color=#009900]
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[color=#009900]tl:dr; Sunless Sea is always going to be a jigsaw, not a guided tour, but some of those jigsaw pieces are currently missing. Playing Fallen London will never be compulsory.[/color]
edited by Alexis on 7/20/2014

4

I had a completely different experience here - I got a distinct sense of unease from the Chapel of Lights. I won’t even let my crew eat there, even though it doesn’t seem to give me any negative qualities.

The other islands in the game with wells (Hunter’s Keep, Mutton Island) have text that alludes that wells are something dangerous – this knowledge is established by the game’s own lore.

I think as players, we’ve gotten used to games inelegantly dumping exposition on us. I love how this game doesn’t lead you by the hand.

5

I eat there all the time and was wondering why they were so generous with the free food. I figured a journal quality would show up if/when something funny started happening. Are there hidden stats in SS that we can’t see in the journal at all? I’m not talking about stuff like Something Awaits You where we can’t see the value/setting but we can see that it exists; something that players can’t access at all.

6

Im sure in the updates to come there will be some negative repercussions, after all there is no such thing as a free lunch

7

Do you really think Alexis would tell us if there were?

(That said, all of your qualities can be found in data files somewhere or another, since nothing is online… so unless they’re encrypted, probably not. But I wouldn’t put it past Alexis to encrypt them.)