Messages in Bottles change after defeating Crab King.

[Theukon-dos 4099]

As players will quickly realize as they sail the seas and collect bottles, the reason Pearl is throwing these bottles out to sea is in an effort to find her lover the Crab King. Which... doesn't work out.

So why then, do pearl's messages stay the same once she's accepted that CK doesn't love her anymore? Sure, they could just be left overs (though I think you can still see her throwing bottles out. Could be wrong though), but that's no fun, now is it? Instead, I propose the following.

After Crab King has been defeated and you give pearl the Broken Pearl, then:

1. The chance of finding a treasure chest increases to 66-75%. While the loot pools themselves could use some tuning, increasing the amount you can find would still be very nice.

2. Similarly to how the first bottle you find reveals Pearl's island, the first bottle you open will have a special note from pearl, thanking the player for everything they've done, and how she's come to enjoy the "Game" of theirs where they find the bottles they cast to sea.

3. If the player finds messages instead of a treasure map, the message will no longer be for Crab King, but instead will be directed towards the player. These messages would give fragments of lore about Pearl and Crab King's past. Some examples of things the player might learn could be

>How Pearl and Crab King met

>What Crab King's name was before making a pact with the moon

>What Crab King was like before making a pact with the moon

>Why pearl knows about all these treasure chests

All and all, I think this would be an excellent change to the bottle system. It doesn't fix all the issues I have, namely Pearl's trades being bad and treasure loot tables being average at best. But it would be a better reward for defeating the Crab King, and be a very noticable shift in how the world works for doing so.

[minespatch 95646]

Sad react cause this is great but sad. 

Would be great world building.

[Well-met 7105]

who said CK doesn't love pearl anymore?

perhaps he's simply incapacitated by mutations but can be saved some other way

we really don't know much at all between these two, so I disagree with your assumptions

[Theukon-dos 4099]

56 minutes ago, Well-met said:

who said CK doesn't love pearl anymore?

perhaps he's simply incapacitated by mutations but can be saved some other way

we really don't know much at all between these two, so I disagree with your assumptions

I suppose it's technically possible that CK's just hopelessly trapped, but that's most certainly how it's framed. Between Pearl getting more and more desperate to reach CK as the player increases their friendship, and pearl saying "Oh... I think I understand now... Thank you for bringing this back to me" when giving her the cracked pearl.

 

Also, if CK does still love pearl, then why does he go sicko mode when you give him Pearl's Pearl?

[ArubaroBeefalo 18459]

4 hours ago, Theukon-dos said:

Also, if CK does still love pearl, then why does he go sicko mode when you give him Pearl's Pearl?

internal fight making him agressive

[minespatch 95646]

Nah, I don't think CK hates Pearl, the king is senile like Ice King from Adventure Time. He's aggressive due to the mutation.

[Gods fiddler 713]

we need more crab king lore

[Theukon-dos 4099]

4 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

internal fight making him agressive

 

4 hours ago, minespatch said:

Nah, I don't think CK hates Pearl, the king is senile like Ice King from Adventure Time. He's aggressive due to the mutation.

I mean I guess that could be the case. I just can't see that making any sense with what we see in-game.

For starters, Pearl's entire arc is her accepting that Crab King doesn't care about her, but that's alright, because she has friends she can rely on in his stead. And I don't think that arc hits as hard if Crab King was "corrupted" or the moon's influence is was made him abandon her, rather than being his own choice.

I'm also not sure the "Corruption" argument holds up. Even if the moon did mutate his body (Which may not even be the case. We don't know what CK could have looked like before his supposed mutation, and Rock-shelled Crustaceans have existed in the constant long before the moon's influence started to grow ala Rock Lobsters). He seems rather proficient in spellcasting, and I'm not sure something without mind would be able to do so. CK not choosing to forsake Pearl also leaves me with a lot more questions than answers.

Did the moon completely take over/destroy his mind? If so, then why don't we kill him? (He does have an unused death animation where he kicks the bucket, and Klei chose to change this).

Does his mutation keep him from returning to pearl? Then why doesn't he try to message her? Or why doesn't he go to her once freed from his behemoth shell?

 

 

The way I see it, Pearl's story just... doesn't work as well if CK didn't leave her by choice. I'd also like to add that it doesn't really change my suggestion. Pearl accept that her lover is gone and moves on. That much is consistant in all interpretations.