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I think for me the biggest thing that stops this game from quite reaching the heights of some of the older games is that feeling that the new locations feel a bit empty, a bit like they're just locations for puzzles to occur in rather than having a strong personality. It's just 'ice island', 'scary island', 'lime island'. They feel a bit like video game levels rather than places. I can't imagine ever feeling like I understand Brrr Muda the way I do Scabb, Booty, Phatt, Melee, even Plunder and Blood, or even some of the places in the 3D ones, they're just a bit... thin in comparison, here. I think what makes up for it for me is just how it adds to the framing of the Monkey Island universe. It's almost like the story and locations are backdrop to the main thing that the game wants to convey. And while I can't deny I wish that they'd have fleshed out that backdrop a bit more, I also am still so in love with what it does around it that I'm giving it a pass on a lot of that stuff (also it's not like it's bad, just a bit slight). I learn a lot about the game moments that are really important to me when I think about how I skip through let's plays of a game on youtube. For MI1 I always watch most of Part 1, then I tend to skip to arriving on Monkey Island, then sometimes I'll just skip straight to the final part of the game and outro. For MI2 I will always want to watch parts of part 1, the end of part 1, I find myself seeking out certain parts of part 2 (the password puzzle, governor marley, Stan, the bone dance), I tend to watch the acid pit escape, then skip to the X marks the spot. For CMI I watch the opening, any part with Murray, the pirate song, bits and pieces of blood island and big whoop parts. For EMI I have tried but usually abort watching shortly into part 1 (sorry). Tales I'm most interested in seeing people play through parts 3-5 For RMI I've been watching the intro, a little bit of the first part, and then I tend to skip all the way to the final part. And I think that's because I don't really care that much about the middle of the game. I don't hate it, and I rather like it but there isn't a part of me that's begging to know what so-and-so thought of this bit or that bit. That said, I recently watched someone play through the part with the Chums stories, and that I did rather enjoy. But I might be more interested in seeing their reaction to the start and end of this game more than anything else in the whole series, with the possible exception of MI2's ending (which is of course closely related)

The more I think about the ending, the more I simultaneously appreciate it for what it's trying to say, but also... *sigh* I just wish we got a bit more character resolution. I think they could have still incorporated those themes while not necessarily "taking the wind out" of the ending, as Ron put it in Cress's interview. The ending started to get a bit emotional, and I feel like it could have been more so if it played around in that space a little more. And, although the game's main themes revolve around storytelling and memory, there were also themes about accepting change, and being kind and respectful of others, that I'm not sure really came through in the ending. For how long this game was anticipated, and how many times Ron has done the abrupt ending, I guess I thought it would have been okay for this game to finally have a bit more of a cushion to land on. Idk. I think, certainly, the wrong way to approach this game's ending is to finish the game, immediately think "wow, that sucked and meant nothing," assume the team meant it as a slap in the face, and never try to think about it beyond that. But, even after thinking about it a whole bunch, I'm still not sure this is the best ending they could have gone with. Oh, btw, I think they handled the stuff with the secret and the dialogue tree with boybrush at the end really well (although I feel like, to make things slightly less confusing, the T-shirt probably should have said "all I *got* was this stupid t-shirt" rather than "all it *was* was this stupid t-shirt", no idea why they worded it that way, but whatever haha).

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head here. They definitely felt less "real" (if that's the right way to put it) than Scabb, Phatt and Booty. Yeah, I wonder what would have happened if Guybrush could acquiesce to Boybrush's demands for a satisfying conclusion on the bench. And then we cut back and finish the story properly. I mean The Princess Bride did this and it worked beautifully... you can have your cake and eat it sometimes.

That very much looks like the Ron/Dave note in a box ending to me after seeing those images

I feel now that originally as a kid I loved MI2 despite the ending, because it confused me and I didn't understand it (I just got the Star Wars reference and found it cheap). Later I grew to love its ending after getting the themepark hints and also the themes about Guybrush's character development, as it gave what I already loved another several layers of meaning. RtMI feels like it focuses too much on the Secret of Disappointment and the Story and sidelines these (to me) very important parts of the older games like world building, the sense of adventure. Dispite RMI having like 10 times the dialog lines it felt smaller than SMI, MI2, CMI and EMI. I didn't enjoy _being_ in "the world" as much as with those games, and was focused, like Guybrush, to just get to the end, and get to the secret finally. And maybe all of this is on purpose, and I appreciate it for conveying this feeling so well. Just I would be curious what a more optimistic take on this theme from the 90s would have looked like. Like a fusion of this and Curse.

I think we're at risk of turning this into a BTTF thread, but I am going to come to the defense of part 2. The Almanac is just a McGuffin, the film is about him saving his family and preventing a Biff-led dystopia. I don't think you can criticize BTTF2 for coasting on all the things that made the first film good, when it subverts and changes the formula of the first film in ways that I think are as ambitious as the Godfather Part II (while admittedly not as successful, but in a fun way). The easy thing to do would have just been to have Marty have to travel to 1965 and prevent his parents from splitting up again. To bring this back to Monkey Island, I think it's fun when a sequel to an impeccably crafted Part 1 take some liberties to do weird things that stretch and extend the concept in ways that are less 'perfect', but more interesting. Raiders, MI1, and BTTF1 are all structurally very tight, inventive and nearly unimpeachable. They all have sequels that are darker, weirder and messier, and threequels that are safer, cuddlier reversions to a more crowd-pleasing structure. Still good, but less exciting. I suppose the original Star Wars films are a bit like that as well. That seems to be the "trilogy" format that I grew up with, it seems!

There is also one related sketch of the ending:

Again, for science: Make your pick. (Cogg, may it rest in peace, is left out this time around.)

To me Terror Island gives the impression there could have been or were more riddles to solve than end up being in the game. Anyone else has the same thought?

LeShip... Island

I guess the "original" secret was always going to be the plaque... but they had a second surprise for the player if they kept playing: The note. But they felt that was too 4th wall breaking even for MI, so they switched it for a joke secret... it literally being a t-shirt. However I wonder if Guybrush originally tore up the note or something? And the post-credits scene is him piecing it back together again? It's intriguing.

I think I would agree with this as it pertains to the ending, although before I got to the end, as I was playing the game, I honestly didn't have many complaints about the world and characters. I do think the islands could have been more fleshed out, but I was just happy to be able to explore this vast sea and meet a bunch of new characters. The part on LeChuck's ship struck me as being particularly character focused which was awesome, and a great change of pace from what I'd experienced with Monkey Island up until that point. The adventure just felt really big to me, the way it basically takes the structure of monkey island 1 and 2 and smushes them together. It certainly felt like a bigger game than SMI, imo. It helped that I only played a couple hours a day and spread it out over two weeks, I think. But near the end I felt like I was definitely rushing to see what was next and get to the secret, which dampened my enjoyment a bit. I was so caught up in getting to the next screen that I didn't even realize you could unlock the golden chest! Idk, feel like this game was pretty optimistic in the end (despite being intentionally unsatisfying in a traditional way), and I can't imagine that whatever Ron had in mind in the 90s would have been more optimistic than this.

It's so detailed! This is my absolute favourite poster. Thank you for continuing to work on it!

That was one heck of a heist alright. As things were building up, I almost convinced myself that: I'm glad that didn't happen as it might have been too much, but I do wonder how that might play out and if Gilroy and co. drafted that idea at one point.

Latest episode was great.

It's not a reboot, because it maintains the continuity.

I have the same problem as many mentioned, that Mêlée simply doesn't excite me anymore, especially as the first location, despite it being the objectively best and most fleshed out location. When it was a surprise in the end of MI2 it was quite exciting and I would have loved to somehow get past the cones and explore the rest of it. Mêlée was also redone before and better in EMI, twice even, with the whole post Charles L. Charles version of it. Every other island felt incomplete, compared to Mêlée, and especially compared to the islands from the other games. Perhaps I'd have liked less islands but all of them as complete and alive as Mêlèe. That said, I was worried I wouldn't like Brrr Muda but it was my favorite, because of how alive it felt. Terror really felt like it was incomplete, although Ron insists it was not. That he was asked about it in the interview speaks for itself though. Return however is definitely larger than the sum of its parts and with the whole theme, I think it fits that most locations were a little bit underwhelming. LeShip though... loved it 😍 But not an island 🙄

I know there isn't a lot to do there, but I love Terror Island. I love spooky stuff, and I think it really has a creepy vibe - love the art and the music. I like also the fact that we actually meet no one there besides Herman. It makes the encounter even funnier, IMO. The screams we heard are just from this frail and crazy old man. Also, the maze puzzle drove me insane. I was so happy when I figured it out.

I've extracted, processed and uploaded the tracks to my channel: Enjoy!

Looking forward to Chris Pratt's take on your iconic role 😅