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Iron Rose and Putra are the standouts for me. Some good and funny dialogue, and they were among the most well defined and developed new characters in a game where my biggest complaint was that there weren't a lot of new interesting characters to talk to.

Exactly what I was hoping for when seeing DALL-E for the first time (logo removal): Still, far from perfect, obviously, but a good basis for further touch ups.

Hello! I finished Return last night and have spent a long time reading through this thread. I love everyone's opinions and analysis. Thanks for sharing them. I've got many thoughts swirling in my brain about Return and I wanted to plonk them down somewhere, so figured this was a good place for it. I'm not sure if they'll be interesting thoughts, and it's going to be scattergun, but it might help me figure out my feelings. I'm so glad the scrapbook exists and it acknowledges all the Monkey Island games. I love them all in different ways. Every time there was an in-game reference to Curse, Escape, or Tales, I was delighted -- I wish there were a few more, but I'll take what I can get. I also wish Herman wasn't retconned to not being a Marley, just because the idea of Ron and Dave sticking with Escape's controversial twist amuses me greatly. The opening Boybrush twist took me completely by surprise. I knew I was in for a good ride after that. Murray is a legend. You can never have enough Murray. When Return was announced, I was reserved about the new art style. However, my concerns immediately vanished when I began playing. In motion it looks absolutely stunning. The colours are vibrant and varied, the close-ups are funny and dynamic, and it's packed full of details. I particularly liked all the creatures lurking in the backgrounds. I found a lot of the interactions with Elaine to be quite unsettling. I appreciate this is a weird take, but: Guybrush seems surprised to see her on Melee, her photo with Guybrush is torn, she appears out of nowhere on Monkey Island, she knows how to get to Monkey without a potion, she coincidentally came to fix the Sea Monkey. At the end, where you're going through Monkey forest with her and Guybrush is struggling to keep up with her pace, I wondered if the distance between them would keep increasing before Guybrush is left alone. I was almost expecting Guybrush to have died when he got pushed off the Monkey cliff (with everything else following being a dream) or Elaine to be a figment of his imagination. I completed Return without using any hints and I'm happy about that. For me, it was the perfect difficulty because I was never stumped for too long. I can see why some people found it too easy, though, especially as the interface immediately shows that you can't use/combine items (which I welcomed -- the brute force 'try everything on everything' is tedious). Bit disappointed I didn't get an achievement for completing it without hints. How did Wally know where the secret of Monkey Island was? I might have missed that explanation. I like that the hover text shows Guybrush's thoughts, rather than just the name of the item. That's a simple change but it works well. Scurvy and Terror were nice islands, but felt slightly hollow. There were points on Scurvy's map that you couldn't visit, which was disappointing. On Terror, it had lots of places to go but nothing to do and no-one to talk to. Cut content perhaps? I wish these were more fleshed out. I can't see these becoming iconic islands. On the other hand, I really liked Brrr Muda. There wasn't loads to explore, but it felt lived in and meaningful. I enjoyed the act on LeChuck's ship where you're mingling with the crew, getting to know them, and helping them out. I respect Flambe's dedication to relaxation. You'll never replace Earl Boen, but the new LeChuck actor did an excellent job. Just the right blend of sinister and silly. I played all the old games directly before starting Return and Dominic Armato's voice acting is, as always, fantastic, but noticeably different. There's still the classic upbeat Guybrush, but at times he sounds more world-weary. It worked really well for the character and themes of the game. So many inventory items were paper-based, like books, pamphlets, notes, diaries, etc. I know this sounds petty, but I wish there was more variety in the items you carried. The trivia book was a fun addition, though thought it odd that it spoilt some things -- I found out Herman would appear in the game through a question, for example. I would have liked to discover that naturally. I also wish I knew that you had to answer them to generate more cards because that explains why I stopped getting them at a certain point. I'm keen to go back and collect them all. The music is fantastic. The way it blends between the tracks is excellent. I crave a soundtrack release ASAP. I've never been particularly interested in finding out what the secret of Monkey Island is, even when I first played the original. I just saw it as a fun framing device for a piratey adventure. Plus, now so much time has passed that any answer will be unsatisfying. I thought Return handled this concept spectacularly, with regular hints from characters that you shouldn't build things up. For me, the ending was perfect because it lets you take from it what you want. I'm still trying to figure out what I want. Guybrush on the bench at the end nearly made me cry. Please don't let this be the last Monkey Island game. But I'm content if it is.

So I've only played monkey island 1, 2, and this, but honestly, despite not knowing how I feel about the ending, I'm pretty sure this is my favorite so far. It was so fun to *actually think about solutions to puzzles in my head and have them turn out to be correct*. That never happened to me with 1 or 2. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up liking Curse more when I get around to playing it, just because of how freaking gorgeous and atmospheric it is. (and I'm a sucker for frame by frame animation). We'll see!

I think I’d want something that played it straight, but maybe allude to it a little bit. Like, if the game opened with a little sliver of Guybrush narration, the slimmest reference to it being a frame story or being somehow recounted, but was otherwise just a rollicking adventure. I feel like Return existing means a next game doesn’t HAVE to get deep into this if it doesn’t want to, it just has to be aware that it happened, and players’ brains will do the rest on their own.

Guybrush: "Somehow it was more exciting before I knew that." Me: "Nuts to that, old man! I kind of wanted to know her name, and now I know her name." 😛

Hey, you got an apology frog!

I have returned from my spoiler hole. I... uhh... ok... huh... just... gonna read the thread

It's not all fun though...

The hint book is excellent, to be fair. I've looked at it randomly now I've finished the game, and the hints have always been excellent. No idea why people post in forums for help when the best help is in the game already (although maybe some people are afraid they'll be penalised for using it?).

Zero, but I was very tempted during the last chapter in the second ring because I couldn't clearly tell what the in-game rule expected of me. So I spend time looking too much into background details and trying to interpret them, when the solution was much easier. It did help that I took a break to go for a walk with my dog and then return back to the game with a fresh mind.

That's a cool take. She definitely seems to be omnipresent, which almost felt like a deus ex machina at times. I was also curious about that tumble he takes off the cliff, which seems unsurvivable (same concept as holding his breath, I guess) and wondered if there was some twist in store. The other thing is that it really seems like they were split up or separated for a time. There's like a gulf between them, even though they say all the right words to each other. I really wish we knew the devs intentions with this; it's one of those things that feels almost purposeful, but I don't know what the right interpretation is. Some have likened it to a "therapist" role, which takes a very specific stance, but I'm wondering if they were on a break for some time and are basically treading on eggshells.

I added a “never” option. Hope that’s alright!

My try made the ship a bit too small:

Yes true it is a remastered bandana.

I somehow made a connection to Stan's toothbrush and tried to break in.

She had second thoughts about him and Guybrush convinced her that his arch nemesis is not so bad and worth following, so he could find the Secret.

One of the best things is, that the real MI3a was never made, so now we have a real addition to the mythos from the old team and the speculation of what could have been in in the 90s is still there. We now have two exciting paths to take us back to the theme park whenever we want. We are like the chums, a club of people telling each other stories. I think that is worth so much more than a definitive answer.

I was kind of expecting to end up in the alley in the end of the game. During the cutscenes with LeChuck and Lila I saw the door and was crossing my fingers that it's not the end yet. I was in denial. Then walking through the door, indeed leading to the alley, simultaneously with Guybrush, I thought, no! Not yet!

I think I would have liked to see the ending in the weird theme park version of Melee last a bit longer – maybe have Guybrush comment on some more things, see some other characters, or more rooms. And then maybe build up to the secret in the chest just being the T-shirt. I think I like the direction they took but i was just *way* not ready for it to end that abruptly, haha. Like I didn't dislike it, but I definitely wasn't in a good mood as the credits rolled. I guess I wish the game stayed with me a bit more to talk about the themes and resolve some of the collateral damage Guybrush caused. Maybe, like, you get past the code wheel puzzle, there's a little cutscene with LeChuck, then you open up the chest and it's the T-Shirt. Guybrush says "wait, I'm not ready!" (or whatever that line was) and you find yourself in the Melee amusement park behind the church. Cut to title card: *Part 6: the secret.* then you sort of just go through this weird version of melee island, talking to Elaine about your disappointment in the secret, sort of a Part 2 of their conversation on Monkey Island. And then after that sequence, then we go back to the park bench. Idk that's just an idea. I'm not upset. I'm not upset! I'm not upset...

Hmm. I guess this is an early mockup, but why not use the explosion on the disc box case? It looks like Ben is just going for a leisurely ride! Either way, this one isn't for me.

Nah, the rat is fine. There's clearly no burner on under the pot, and when you look at it after putting the rat in there Guybrush first says it appears to be doing the backstroke. If you look a while later he says that it seems to have left (after leaving some hair behind).

I scanned archival assets for Laserschwert and all I used was this black tshirt.

A Diplomacy tabletop variant. Either focusing on this Caribbean (Tri-Island Pirates, Undead Pirates, Phatt Island, Skull Island Smugglers, Australian Developers, Vaycaylian Merfolk, Brrr Muda), or on Monkey Island itself (Cannibals, LeChuck, Herman, Jojo, Madison).

Maybe it's a mistake? Maybe they'll add an update that lets you skip cutscenes, and the No Sign will go away.

Yep, that red circle slash sign is what happens when you try to press ESC on the PC version (well, the Mac version at least). It seems very temperamental, though. Like if you hit it too quickly, it'll just block you from skipping that entire cut scene... but if you wait a few seconds, you can skip without issue. Basically it sounds the same behaviour across versions.

Strange. I swear he didn't say anything to me and I DID talk to him... maybe there's a specific line that triggers his line that I missed? (Or I'm just misremembering)

As well as the face value gag, I guess this could be another example of the secret’s unveiling being foreshadowed. That secret, anyway.

+ the gazillion dollars on shipping and taxes. It’s actually double as expensive if you live overseas.

I started playing on Casual, but then regretted it after a few puzzles. But before I did, I looked up a hint to make the mop head. (Not sure what I was expecting to be honest.) Then I switched to hard and never used the Hint Book... although I came close once or twice.

Don't know if that fits in here and if that was just a coincidence, but at some point I made a break from playing RtMI ( I know, how can someone possible do that, right? Hardly imaginable :-)) and the next time I loaded the saved game the game started with Guybrush and young Guybrush sitting on the bench in the park and Guybrush was freshen up his sons memory on what has happened so far. I found this a very nice and cool detail and shows how much love the programmers put into the game. Can someone confirm this?

I'm curious to see if Ron will talk openly now about the history of the secret now that the game's out.

👕 I beat #Mojole #194 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 2/6 💛🖤💛💚💚 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

It is. I haven’t watched the last couple seasons of Star Wars shows (boba and obi wan) because the end of Mandalorian season 2 made me need some time away, but these first four episodes of Andor have been some of my favorite Star Wars viewing of the Disney era. I was never as huge into the EU/Legends stuff as my friends growing up, but Andor captures the most aspirational version of the EU feeling for me: The idea that off in the corners of the Star Wars universe, there’s a bunch of human-scale stories happening that are probably just as interesting (or more interesting) than the operatic drama at the heart of it. Some episodes of Mandalorian have scratched that itch, but nowhere near as potently or consistently as these first few hours of Andor have. Andor also just looks great. One of my favorite things about the main Star Wars movies is that as the story goes on, from scene to scene, you learn more about the universe: you’re going somewhere new, seeing something you’ve never seen before, learning about a new place with its own rules and a history you’ve not yet encountered in the story until now. It’s a type of worldbuilding that leaves tons of pockets for your imagination to explore in its wake. Mandalorian didn’t do that for me - it felt like it was circling the same few places over and over, and even when they went somewhere that was technically new, it either felt the same as what came before, or like it didn’t really belong in the show. Andor though, is delivering this particular Star Wars feeling in a way that’s totally working for me. It helps that all the production design is really inspired, and it’s shot very cinematically. I don’t feel the edge of the virtual set the way I eventually started to on the Mandalorian. (I’m sure they’re using the volume plenty as part of their toolkit, but it’s blended in better and doesn’t feel so one note as a result.)

This release seems fine? It has the soundtrack on CD, the return of the classic bandana, the Corley Motors keychain is a genuinely great idea, and the box looks good. Just ignore the other stuff if you don’t care about it. Limited Run makes boxes full of fun stuff, they aren’t the criterion collection. It would be cool to get very hallowed and grown up style criterion releases of these games because they’re things we liked as kids and are now very smart and tasteful adults, but also, eh. This is closer to what I imagine a deluxe version would have actually looked like in 1995 had it existed, and that’s fun to me too.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t really like the new pirate leaders. I think they’re too bland for bad guys, and they never really develope into anything interesting. I love me some Iron Rose though. She’s pretty well developed for the role she has, and

I kind of wish they had done a little more with Dark Magic as an element of the plot... It would have been cool to see a Dark Magic/Occult LeChuck of some sort

I really enjoy Judge Planke... although I don't know why. His constant frustration amuses me, I think. The great animation on him helps, too.

I never thought I’d see Monkey Island mentioned in the A.D. (a big Dutch newspaper), but here it is! The headline reads: The comeback of the century

Wow. That’s my daughter’s name and I didn’t pick up on that at all. 😂 I did notice the superficial resemblance between Dee and Lila, but also Flair. The name aside, Lila makes the most sense because…

I was also thinking about flambe. A very one note character but instantly likable and, dare i say, relatable. I think i’m going to go with gullet though. Great voice acting, beautiful poetry and some of the funniest lines. “I am your deity of choice. A cruel and vengeful deity!” “Perhaps we can arrange a bit of roast duck under glass for your majesty” Imo returns secret mvp.

His favourite food is tentacles with daisy sauce. I think it might be random which ingredient you need to go and get but i’ve got tentacles from the beach in one playthrough and daisies from near the monkey head in another. Not sure what you’re talking about in regards to a missing photo. Pic?

I hereby designate this an award-winning take. Thank you. 😄

One of the best analysis I have ever read about the series. I agree with every concept you expose. I think that is the true meaning of the ending too. You exposed it perfectly.

I'm always sort of wary of peeking behind the curtain too much these days, given the double edged sword that has proven to be. I think the average player doesn't think a lot about content getting cut, and doesn't understand very well that cutting is a big part of the creative process. On the one hand I'm super interested in what the concept behind Cogg might have been and what the puzzles were like and how it fit into the story. On the other, it's hard for me to wish it hadn't been cut because maybe it killed the pacing, or they decided it was just the worst bit of the game, or didn't advance the plot enough, or just didn't fit thematically as well as some other stuff. 'Cut for time' could mean a lot of things. Sometimes I watch deleted scenes out of interest, but I only very rarely wish they hadn't been cut. In a way, I'm happier this easter egg exists than I am sad that Cogg wasn't finished in the end.

Oh, hi Dom. Big fan of your voice work. I appreciate your reply and breaking down your interpretation for me. I find myself flip-flopping between my feelings of the game. I really loved the humor and puzzles and everything leading up to those final 5 minutes of the story. At the end, I feel like we were given a lot of information at once and not enough time to process it. For me, I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then it just ended and I had to reassess everything up to that point. I've considered a lot of points of view in this thread, which I can respect, but personally I find myself reaching. I wasn't looking for a big climactic fight between Guybrush and LeChuck. I just wanted that sense of closure that puts a big red bow on the entire series. The kind of revelation that allows me to replay the first two games and get something completely different out of it. I know that was a lot to expect from a computer game, but somehow I convinced myself that Ron was hiding an ace up his sleeve all this years. But instead it managed to rehash most of the things we already knew, just given a new context (and perspective, through Boybrush's eyes). My favorite TV show is Lost, so I'm no stranger to ambiguity or not getting all my questions answered. It's a series I still defend because it managed to feel satisfying without revealing every single mystery. It's that old adage that if you "wow" them at the end, you can forgive any of the flaws that came before. I realize a lot of it is about the "journey, not the destination," but I think they have equal standing. When I think of my nostalgia-filled memories of the first two games, it mostly comes down to the endings and how I felt about the whole experience. That beautiful graphic of Guybrush and Elaine watching LeChuck explode into fireworks. Or that carnival setting that comes out of left field and ends with a giant question mark. Only time will tell if I view this game and its ending in the same light. I've had a couple of days to sit on it and there are things I really like about it (the fact that there are so many variations and interpretations you can derive from it). I definitely don't take for granted how much of a gift it is that Ron and Dave got to make the game they wanted after all this time. Monkey Island will always be one of my favorite series regardless, but the fact that I still have so many reservations about the ending (and have devoted so many words to it) leaves me feeling less than satisfied. I'm certainly glad other people are getting more enjoyment out of it, but I can't help how I feel.

Hey, P.S., I don't mean to say that anybody would be wrong for wanting something less ambiguous. My MO would be to encourage you to judge it for what it is, not for what you wish it were. But at the end of the day, you like what you like.

I've been mostly posting to Reddit, but have been following this thread closely and finally decided to sign up just to add my (worthless) thoughts to the fire. I finished the game last night and since then have gone through a hastened version of the five stages of grief. From denial that it's all over, anger that it's not what I was promised, bargaining by exploring different interpretations, depression that I wasted so much of my life thinking about this, to eventual acceptance that there's nothing much more I can do about it. I think the reason this game didn't hit home with me is the fact that I haven't moved on in the same way Guybrush has. I never found my Elaine, I never went on any worthwhile life adventures, I never had a kid and now I sit on that park bench alone, contemplating my dead end of a life. In a way, though, it's a cheat. In the story Guybrush tells us, he is just as gung-ho about finding out the secret as I am. He lengthens the search as long as possible and even turns it into a search for five golden keys, and then a Matryoshka doll treasure within a treasure. Boybrush (who we initially control and in some ways represents the player) hangs on his every word. But at the end of the story, Guybrush uncharacteristically bails. In his current state, he's perfectly fine with not explaining the deeper meanings or even revealing the actual "secret" that the entire game was leading up to. He apparently reached this level of enlightenment off-screen, which doesn't necessarily feel earned throughout the gameplay we're given (which is single-mindedly about a dogged search for the truth). Rather than give us one definitive, satisfying, unifying, cohesive answer, we are allowed to "choose" our own ending and continue to speculate and theorize ad nauseam, just as we have for the 30 years prior to this release. The game doesn't really give us anything new to chew on, other than the fact that we will likely be disappointed by what we actually get (which feels a bit heavy-handed as far as foreshadowing goes). The only thing I really want to know at this point is the author's original intentions. Going back to 1989-1991, what were they initially planning to do? I know Ron has purported that this would be his MI3a, but I suspect he ended up having to compromise a lot of the original vision by accepting the new lore as canon. As others have speculated here, if the original intention was always for Guybrush to be a little kid lost in a theme park, and Guybrush and Elaine were never meant to be together (possibly because he's actually a kid with a crush on an older woman) and the whole thing culminates in a carnival like setting (which was apparently pitched as the original ending to MI1), then it still feels like we are denied an actual climax to MI2. Sure, we got other people's interpretations of what happened afterwards, but we never got all the answers straight from the original creator, and that's why I was so excited for Ron to complete his actual vision. (I'll also admit that I harbored a bias towards Curse onwards, because Ron wasn't involved; he initially seemed to disinherit the rest of the sequels, which always put a damper on my enjoyment.) I know that the "Original Secret" as established in 1989 by R. Gilbert on the plaque is that it's a theme park. That's about as literal an answer as he gives us, other than the stupid T-shirt in the ornamental box (which I suspect was devised by Stan as a cheap marketing gimmick and was probably always "The Secret" we were going to get). That's all fine and well, I guess. We can choose to tell Boybrush that it's literally what happened, or we can go back and bury our heads underground and deny everything. It's clever that we are allowed to keep our own interpretations within the construct of the game, but it's not really what I was tuning in for. I just wanted to know the truth directly from the horse's mouth and we've ultimately been denied that. Sorry for blathering on like this. It was actually therapeutic to get this off my chest, if nothing else.

I think after spending a couple of nights thinking about it I'm starting to form a tentative opinion. I really like Return to Monkey Island. I think I sort of love it. but (though it's just a little but) I think I like it more for what it does than what it is. In terms of what it is, it's great. It's well written, has fun characters, jokes that make me smile, neat puzzles, a servicable central story and wonderful art and music. All I could have realistically hoped for from a new Monkey Island game in 2022 really. But I'm never going to like it more than the MI2. I'm never going to internalise it in the same way I did with those games. I was ten. Those games opened my eyes to all SORTS of stuff that I've carried with me my whole life. But also, there are just some areas where I just don't think it's quite as sharp as the original - the dialog trees, the locations, the characters - I just don't think they're as well defined as I felt them to be in the earlier games. They're decent, just not *chef kiss* wonderful in the same way. But what it does, I think, and why I value it so much is that it provides just enough (but not too much!) extra context to the world of Monkey Island that it lifts every other game in the series. Return to Monkey Island is the game that does that rare thing of improving all the other games around it, and making me value them even more than I already did. And for doing that, I think it's really something special.