Return of the Obra Dinn: Legacy and Privilege
What is the value of a human life? While not the point of the game, it’s a question Return of the Obra Dinn asks indirectly. In it, you play as an insurance agent sent to investigate what happened to the Obra Dinn, a ship that mysteriously disappeared only to return years later, empty of her passengers. With the aid of a magic pocketwatch, the player’s task is to piece together each passenger’s fate.
Return of the Obra Dinn begins at the end; the agent works backward to uncover the events of the fateful journey. It began normally enough, with loose cargo claiming the lives of a seaman and a stowaway. Some fell ill and died. But others fell prey to the wrath of various, fantastical sea creatures: vicious mermaids, wrathful riders seated atop enormous Japanese spider crabs, a kraken the size of the ship. Others still attempted to mutiny and were killed for their efforts.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a story about bravery, treachery, loyalty, and murder. It is also a story about who gets to be remembered.
Only a few corpses remain on the decks of the Obra Dinn, and most can only be discovered through the final moments of those few. Instead of physical remains we see only hazy shadows — countless crew members must have been buried at sea in marine tradition, or if their actions were less honorable, tossed overboard with little ceremony. Their deaths, though interesting and remarkable and tragic, are unglamorous in the aftermath.
The player’s work as an insurance agent is similarly without glamour. The final report reflects only a fraction of the truth; deaths are attributed to terrible beasts, crew members performed their duties exceptionally or dishonorably. Everything is flattened into the institutional language of an insurance claim. What is the value of a human life? Philosophically, invaluable. To an insurance agent, it seems the value of a human life is unpaid wages — but only on the condition of honorable action. Dishonorable actions equal negative value: an estate fine.
The values awarded and penalized highlight the stark divide between officers and entry level seamen. The topmen and seamen, who comprise nearly half of the Obra Dinn’s crew, are the first to die and the hardest to identify. Few even had an estate to contact, and their payments go unclaimed.
Legacy is a privilege awarded to those who can afford it, who have the education, time, and money to become an officer instead of an entry-level sailor. The captain and officers have estates, family, people who will remember their deaths even though their lust for treasure that attracted the sea’s wrath in the first place. The true tragedy of Return of the Obra Dinn is that it reminds us how much is lost to history because wealth is equated with worthiness.
