Why is this game so unrewarding?

I just lost my first playthrough, totaling 15 hours, because I prayed to the stone god for fuel and instead of just giving me a normal wound (I had 1 wound), he gave me a mortal wound and I instantly died. I would typically sacrifice crew to the gods for fuel, but in this case I didn’t have the storm god’s attention, and since I only had 1 wound I assumed it would be fine. One prayer would be enough to get me to the nearby harbor. Instead it deleted all my progress on the game. (No heir.)

I don’t understand how the devs think this is reasonable game design. It’s not like I made a bad decision (and you can argue that I put myself in a bad position by needing to pray, but the game’s punishingly slow pace generally encourages me to push it with every trip I take, and in any case is that really a game endingly bad position? of course not, I’ve been there countless times), I was simply uninformed that randomly receiving a mortal wound was even a possibility, and I was uninformed because the game didn’t give me access to any way of learning that information except through dying to it stupidly. In another game, this wouldn’t be an issue - teaching the player gameplay elements by killing them or delivering some other punishment is standard fare, and learning the hard way isn’t so bad. But in a roguelike with Sunless Sea’s pacing it’s ridiculous and insulting and tells me the devs have no regard for my time or my autonomy as a player. I enjoy making calculated risks and seeing the ensuing scenarios play out, not being gotcha’d by a random chance event that the game hid from me.

Compare it to a game like Darkest Dungeon where you’re consistently punished and prepared to be punished by the ample information and warnings the game gives you. Even if you get party wiped by a series of unfortunate events that you didn’t prepare for properly, the information is there. You aren’t cheated out of playing the game. Or compare it to FTL, which, for whatever reason, also enjoys hiding information from the player. In FTL, it’s not really a problem in the same way, because runs are typically pretty short, and even if you get ambushed by something you didn’t know existed, you’re not losing much, and furthermore the game prepares you to die and operates on the assumption that most of your runs are going to die in horrible and unexpected ways. Sunless Sea does none of those things, the game in general is incredibly easy and offers very few mechanical challenges - the real enjoyment of the game comes in the developing lines of story and character. So I can’t really come up with an excuse for why this would happen.

I have no desire to do another playthrough and it’s sad because some of the game is so damn good. I don’t know if I’m alone in this experience, but there it is.
edited by V on 3/8/2021

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sorry to hear you got screwed by the game. But I kind of expect this always to happen in any game sooner or later. So I learned to make a backup of my character save file at least once a day, that way I can always recover from a critical mistake.
edited by CoolDemon on 3/8/2021

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I absolutely adore Sunless Sea’s story, but the roguelite mechanics really hold it back. The early game is a slog even with perfect knowledge, while unlocking permanent upgrades comes too late to help ease new players in. What is an unexpected death supposed to add, when more skill wouldn’t have let you avoid it?

I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. (And bad luck, it’s only a 50% chance to receive two Wounds there.) If you do decide to play again someday, I strongly suggest making manual saves every time you dock. You could also use save editing for extra starting cash or stats; the save files look intimidating but only need a text editor to modify.

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Those are really good ideas Optimatum (and CoolDemon). Maybe I’ll give it another shot and try that… after a bit of a break from it haha. I guess I’m always more reluctant to use save files with roguelikes than I maybe should be. In this case maybe it’s appropriate (and necessary).

Eh. I lost about three captains before I got the hang of it. Now I’m in the endgame and have no problem with the game, having established safe trading routes.

Mark ports where you can reduce wounds and terror and take note of who needs what.

I’ve also stayed away from potentially dangerous quest lines. I’ll go over those once I finish the game. (I’ve just been going around taking my sweet time even though I know I can finish the game anytime I want to. (Fingers crossed I don’t get absent-minded and do something brash.))

My first 10 to 12 captains died horrible, ignominious, and sometimes funny deaths because I was very slow to understand this game. I ended up taking about 3 years away from the game in annoyance - I’m now back and on my second captain I’m at mid game with a Frigate and having completed most of my officers’ questlines.

I’ll definitely be sad when I inevitably make a misstep and this captain goes to take the other boat trip but there’s more content than you can possibly do in one playthrough - and that’s by design. I am also making notes and wish I’d done that from the start, there’s so much to remember and too many times I’ve sailed across the map only to realise I’d forgotten a vital cargo item.

I also died quickly and frequently and ended up taking a long break. When trying to explain the world to my 19 year old son (just after the release of Mask of the Rose) he was intrigued enough to start playing SS and his first captain did SO much better than any of mine ever had. After his first death, he decided it might make sense to “grind” for a bit, so he started trying to earn as much as he could with the expectation of each captain dying… I don’t know if he’s decided to actually try yet or if he’s still treating his captains as disposable, but it’s a very different way of playing than I’ve ever tried.

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Yeah, If you come back to the game, I wouldn’t worry about keeping the token. Just manually save reasonably often. The autosave only is punishing and I didn’t like it very much, once I decided to hell with that, I have about 70 or so hours in now and finished it a few times.

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I’ll admit, I really enjoy Sunless Sea, but yeah it can be punishing. I remember I accidentally wiped my file between computers and getting back to being able to go under the zee was very frustrating (once you’ve got a will it can speed up a bit).

At the same time I still think I prefer it to Sunless Skies. It’s a personal issue, owing to my co-ordination issues, but I physically can’t pilot the ships in Skies, just because of how floaty they feel. I’ve got some issues with my cerebellum and the smoothier controls just require too many button presses at once for me to actually do them and focus on where I am and where enemies are. Is there any way to modify this, as I’ve literally never been able to get out of the first map of Skies, because I’m not capable of fighting anything. As someone who comes to these games for the writing, it’s very frustrating.

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I have a lot more trouble steering in Sunless Skies. I’m not sure why either.

Sunless Skies more like Steerless Skies.

I’m sorry

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In Sea you could at least run away from most nasties. In Skies you have to deal with all these cosmic horrors, not on a psychological level, but on a “goddamnit why can’t my gunner just point the goddamn gun” level