I may be the first to think of this, but I will give it a try. This is a pretty wild idea but from speculation and playing in the game, I have quite an idea for what the Ocean Crawler could be.
We all know pirates are the main enemy of SoT but we know that there are the Skeleton Ships (Skeleton Crew) out in the sea. We also know that megaladons (The Shrouded Ghost) and the Kraken are the feared creatures of the ocean. Let me clear the air for a minute, just for those who may or may not know:
- The Shrouded Ghost: Can only be found in fog and is one of the rare sharks in the game.
- The Kraken: It's technically an octopus with large tentacles, but supersized (depending on your ship size).
Now since that has been cleared up and you know what it is, I will be focusing on those two for certain aspects of the topic, as well as the Ocean Crawler. We all know that at Morrow's Peak Outpost, Chester (Clothing Shop) has the Kraken set of clothes, Tad (Equipment Shop) has all the Kraken equipment, and Wednesday (Weaponsmith Shop) has all Kraken-designed weapons. They also sell Ocean Crawler styles as well.
Just from seeing the picture and the description in the shop, we already know that it is a crab-like style. For the most part you can see only the claws on the shoulder blade of the shirt, on the hook, and intertwined on the belt. That's just a no-brainer and technically we answered our first question, "What exactly is the Ocean Crawler?" The answer is that it's a crab.
Moving on to the next question, "Why do we not see it in the game?"
- Rare probably does not want to add it.
- The creature/entity simply could be just too big.
- Rare just probably does not know how to implement it into the game.
There are probably a lot more reason why it can't be added to the game but we can assume that it would be very, very difficult. This question will remain unanswered because we don't know why it wont be added in the game. If someone had the idea to implement this in SoT, I think it should go down this way. Note: "Ocean Crawler" sounds pretty scary and intimidating.
- The Shrouded Ghost can be found in fog, near the worlds edge, or anywhere on the map, which makes it very, very difficult.
- The Kraken can only be found in black water but that is randomly generated throughout the gameplay.
- The Ocean Crawler should only appear in stormy weather in thick fog underneath black water.
This is already setting the scene on how dangerous the Ocean Crawler can be. When it comes to actually encountering this creature, this is how I envision it happening:
The ship is sailing in the storm and it is pouring rain. Thick fog starts to roll in and I can hear a song similar to (Audiomachine - Vicarious) playing in the background. All of a sudden, I hear my ship being hit. So I go downstairs in my sloop and I see a claw inside the hull (just one claw). As I am looking, I see another puncture in the hull. This time, there is another claw. My ship then gets dragged down to the floor and I eventually see bits and pieces of Kraken tentacles floating in the water. The water is really murky and I see tall sea grass and seaweed on the floor. There are fish as well that are swimming too. At this time, there is an animation I see with my hands, which is making me stay afloat and now I have an oxygen meter in the bottom left corner, below my health bar. I see bubbles rising from my ship, so I go to one of them to regain half oxygen. In the distance, I see this figure in the shadows and it is moving quick. He swiftly moves to my boat, and hits me (my boat stays at the bottom of the sea but cannons are useable as well as the bananas too, making wood useless in this fight). The Ocean Crawler quickly walks backwards into the distance where I can only see the shadow, and I start taking shots at him, inflicting damage. A little time goes by and I take my final shot at the creature, rendering him dead, and my ship starts to rise as well as the loot from the crab. As I take the reward from this fight, black water disappears, the fog rolls away, the rain stops and clouds move on (in that order).
Let me know your thoughts and suggestions on this. I will actively edit this if I see any typos, have an idea in mind, or if I incorrectly stated something wrong. Every change will be noted with an "Edit" and whatever I did.
Edit 1: Grammatical mistakes.
Edit 2: Shrouded Ghost Location Updated - "anywhere on the map"
Edit 3: Question 2 Answer Added
