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Oh man, if the game is about revealing the secret, I hope it focuses on Guybrush and what it means to him. I think his reaction and relationship to it is key. I agree that there can‘t be any twist that would surprise us/the player in a meaningful way. It should be a twist for Guybrush first. Also it would be cool to reveal the secret at the beginning of the game, not at the end! So that we can spend as much time as possible with Guybrush dealing with it.

I noticed in the different forums I'm in, you can tell when we're desperate for news as the topic eventually turn into talk about if Escape was good and what the Secret was 😂😂😂 Sorry hope that didn't sound rude, just a random thing i noticed. Hope everyones having a good week 😁

the T-shirts (invented 1971) the Hook Island neon sign (1910) the cereal box (1863) the grog vending machine (1890) diverse printed brochures (1946) breath mints (1790) glass wine bottle (not in this shape/form before 1821) the giant Q-Tip (1926) the staple remover (1971) gopher repellant spray can (1970) wax lips (1924) root beer (1876) rubber chicken (early 1900s) electronic door lock (1976) "fuel economy" sign (not relevant until 1960s) circus poster (1840s) the circus, actually (since 1768, yet not in its modern form, "clown" as on the poster not recognizable until the 1800s) Things get REALLY wild in LeChuck's Revenge of course.

I do feel like this conversation has been a little overdone, but I do think there's an extremely noticeable shift in the way they use anachronisms between the first 3 games and EMI. In the first games, they're there - but they are barely referenced in dialogue. You get some star wars and indy jokes, and a few parody moments but the overwhelming feeling is you're in a piratey world where there are a few things eerily out of place. They're there, on the edges of the story but until the end of MI2 - as a deliberate move to introduce a twist, they never ARE the story. They're backdrop, little things that make you go 'huh' but you then forget they exist. They're that moment on the Pirates of The Carribean ride where you momentarily glimpse the mechanism or panel behind the animatronics but then forget about it a second later to lose yourself in the fantasy. My problem with EMI was that it never conceals its hand long enough to let you forget you're in a fake parody of a pirate world. And my secondary gripe is that it's not even very funny about it. Which is more a matter of taste. I remember playing the demo of EMI and wondering why I wasn't laughing. And the reason I know this isn't a false memory is that I specifically remember turning the subtitles on and off, and trying to work out whether the dialogue was funnier with or without. Wrenching this back on topic, I suppose I'm glad they haven't seemed to have really focused on EMI as inspiration, as while I appreciate it has its fans, to me it's become pretty emblematic of the gulf between what people THINK Monkey Island is like in tone, and what it's ACTUALLY like.

This. I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high either. I think that if they reveal the ‘secret’ they’ll probably make it a part of an even bigger secret that will leave us hanging for years to come, or it’ll be so ludicrous that we’ll all feel stupid for obsessing over it for so many years. Just don’t expect Ron to tie everything up with a bow and you’ll be fine.

This topic has been argued to death, but here’s my two cents. I actually really like the fact that MadMardi’s favourite game is EMI, even though it’s not my own. It’s an exciting new opinion! I don’t know who said it, and I’m too lazy to scroll back, but I agree to the fact that I don’t dislike EMI as much anymore as I did when it was the final part of the series. I would’ve hated the series to end this way, but now it’s just another chapter which got a little wonky. Even though I truly dislike the second part of the game with all the pop culture references, Herman backstory, and return to Monkey Island (there I did it), I’m actually pretty excited to play the game again in my MI playthrough’s! Also I’m curious about how I’ll feel about Monkey Kombat. I don’t really remember disliking it that much, but maybe I was too blown away by the Herman revelation to notice.

Ahhhh folks, can we not do this right now? At the very least, LucasArt's willingness to revive the Monkey Island franchise this side of Y2K made Tales of Monkey Island possible, maybe even Return to Monkey Island. It certainly made the Special Editions possible. Had Maniac Mansion or Zak McKracken received the same treatment, who knows where these franchises would be right now. At the very least, the composer trinity did stellar and enduring work for Escape. If they draw on their EMI Scumm Bar theme, the lawyers, the peg leg shop for ReMI, come on! That would be great! EMI is definitely a central part of their body of work. At the very least, Escape from Monkey Island found a way to use the insult sword fighting paradigm without reapplying its strict and stale mechanisms over and over again. My rejection is now 20 years old. I played it once and rejected it out of a variety of reasons, none of them strictly speaking objective. When I watch how people see the art style of Return to Monkey Island and instantly reject the game before it's even out, I'm reminded how I rejected EMI's art style. Maybe I should just buy and try it again. Give it another chance. I really doubt it will ever become my favorite, but if I can find some moments in that game that I might have missed back in the day, that's certainly worth it. 🫂

This is so important. And I'm pretty sure that's where we're heading! With LeChuck's Revenge, Ron has been dripping the personal on the character already. Suddenly he was a person with a mom and a dad, possibly even a brother. Who has tried but failed to practise playing the piano. Starting with Curse, Guybrush has become more of a projection figure / wish fulfilment for the player again, more of a blank slate, suddenly of slim build and possibly even handsome. I'd love for the question Who even is that guy(brush)? to come into focus again. Have Ron and Dave answer questions about the character that really only they should be allowed to answer.

That's a really good point/idea! Never thought about revealing the secret at the beginning or at least very early. And I am on your side: The secret should have more of an emotional impact than a sensational one. I'd like to see Guybrush really broken at some time – and maybe then get it all back together by the end.

I would like to mention that with all my disliking of the game, it does have some genuinely good parts to it. Voice acting, the music, the backgrounds, good humor, and some good puzzles... it was just lacking for me in most of the storyline where it was less of a pirate tale but half real estate shenanigans and half gubernatorial drama. We waited quite a while for another Monkey Island game only to get Guybrush acting as an arbitrator to intergalactic trade deals instead of being a cool Jedi. Or something..., I stopped paying attention when I had to bother to figure out what "gubernatorial" meant way back when I was still in school. But it kind of was Phantom Menace all over again. Sure there were cool parts of it (pod racing and those sweet Roger droids) but it lost its way. Back on topic, I wouldn't really take all this Dominic and Ron teasing on Twitter as "The Secret is GOING to be revealed". I would definitely tamp your expectations. If it does, and it's satisfying, all the better. I'm assuming it won't be revealed, as to just add to the games allure, and I'm just looking for a good game and a good time. I believe I'm safe in expecting that.

For me, I think the only real disdain I had for Escape from Monkey Island was, for so many years, it was the final Monkey Island game. It felt lacking in that regard for me with Guybrush being kicked off a cliff by Timmy the Monkey, who I hated because he is foisted onto players as if he was an established character. Even with Tales being the final game for an even longer period of time, Tales really felt like a grand finale from a character and story perspective with an epic final showdown and some genuine, heartfelt moments at the end that also reminded me of previous entries. With Escape not being the final game, but one in the middle, that disdain basically dissolved for me. The only other thing I would say is that I think the game sorta missed the mark a little bit with Guybrush's character. While he was still funny, his edge was really lacking in the game. Guybrush is not really a badass, but he has these great moments of edge and wit that are perfectly captured in all the other games. He was basically degraded by every character over and over again in Escape to the point that he is kicked off a cliff and left calling for help. Beyond that, I really enjoyed it and it has a certain charm that is unique to it. It's certainly unlike any of the other games in the series and while some use that as evidence that it's a bad Monkey Island game, I think the opposite and feel its unique charm is a selling point. It also has some of Dominic's best and funny lines in the entire series in my opinion. I love the banter between him and Jojo and his original MI crew. I also really loved Meathook's backstory as a painter; funny yet moving at the same time. Despite Herman's backstory being a mess, I did appreciate how the game tied up the Carnival of the Damned and the Caverns of Hell, as well as Elaine's governorship. The overall story is silly, but I also respect it for just going completely crazy by the end with a talking monkey, a giant monkey robot, and fighting in Monkey jabber.

Or maybe he recorded exactly that line today. 😉

Well, it sort of is. But the root is just a MacGuffin. They could have chosen ANY method of being able to Kill LeChuck and the story would have been the same. I think that's where I draw the line. For most of MI1 and 2 you could take all the anachronisms out and still basically tell the same story. (If it wasn't a T-shirt it'd still be the same world and story, if it wasn't a rubber chicken... etc etc) And I think the same is true with CMI. But with MI2 and CMI it gets a bit trickier juuust in the final chapter. With EMI, it feels a lot harder because the pop culture is much more integrated into the story. You can't really talk about EMI's story without talking about the idea of modern corporate culture taking over pirate culture, without the idea of modern stuff and old pirate stuff colliding and at war with each other. And I never want things to be that lampshaded in MI, except for specific moments where we're doing a twist or something.

I think that’s the exception that proves the rule. It’s the one anachronistic thing that really punches through into the main game meaningfully, and also is the key to ending LeChuck.

Yeah, maybe you're right. I can't put my finger on it, but to me the references always felt more "noticeable" or "on the nose" in EMI (balance?). Although you're not wrong: There are many references in the other games too and they even also play a big role in the story (root beer). Hmhm, let's see what they cook up for RMI. 🙂

Hmm... I've heard this point before and the references to modern times are more than before, I'll give you that. However, it really doesn't seem inconsistent to me as those references started in MI1. The grog machine, references to tourism on Meathook's island, the PTA minutes, the door to the cannibal's hut that eventually turned into a beeping computerized door... there's a bunch others that I'm forgetting at the moment, but far as I'm concerned the MI games never did take themselves that seriously and those "charming references here and there" were actually pretty prevalent. Anyways, it is about balance, so I guess the balance for you wasn't right, but for me it wasn't anything concerning. Now would I want more of those references than in EFMI? Probably not. But it didn't cross the line for me.

FINALLY! 👕 I beat #Mojole and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 1/6 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

OR!

Oh come on, now he's just trolling. 😂

I also had a go at a quick Guybrush sketch. Strangely enough, I can more and more make myself comfortable with a mustache Guybrush. 😬 However, I like the right better (but I'm not a great drawer now, so... yeah).

You know, from my perspective it was more "I loved that game!! Wait... why are there so many vocal people online that hate it so much?!" First time through I just really enjoyed it - the story, humour, graphics, puzzles, music, ending - all of it. Nothing bothered me, and in many ways it seemed to be the next logical step from COMI. Sure, you can pick it apart if you want, but none of those things that kept coming up bothered me in the slightest. I had just played GF so the controls felt improved. I thought the ending was epic. And still don't know what people's problem with Monkey Kombat is (it's not really that hard to make a hexagon and write down the combinations - takes about the same amount of time as any of the insult sword fighting). I liked the 3D graphics with the 2D backgrounds. Honestly, I just think people don't like change (lots of evidence of that recently with the reaction to the graphics in RTMI). Anyways, if you want I could pick things apart about each of the MI games. They aren't perfect, but they are still my favourite series of all time. I just strongly believe that EFMI is highly underrated and overhated. It really doesn't deserve the bashing it gets.