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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/01/22 in all areas

  1. I am not sure if this detail has been discussed before, but I think there is no doubt that getting drunk and hanging on a chandelier can only lead to bad consequences:
    6 points
  2. I actually turned down the music during one playthrough, too. I don't know, the music is great, but it... never lets up (or it rarely does). A bit of ambiance is nice at times. Also noticed... Anyone know what you can do with the image of the chef?? And an interesting bit of foreshadowing.. And I'm sure this must have already been explained in this thread? The history of XYZZY.
    5 points
  3. "Dark Magic" is very similar to hacking via social engineering. You spy personal information and can use it to guess a "password" to gain information or to impersonate somebody by "logging in" as them. I'd not be surprised if that inspired it.
    4 points
  4. My simple explanation for this was that Widey is, like Guybrush, so obsessed with the Secret that she follows Locke wherever she goes, to see if the golden key Locke inherited from her mother somehow comes back into her possession:
    4 points
  5. I’ve been obsessing over Guybrush coming back to the alleyway at the end of the game and saying “Not yet!” It’s such a delicious detail to unpack and ponder. Not so much an exclamation of surprise as inevitability. Is a spell wearing off? A ride stopping? The ending coming too soon?
    3 points
  6. I thought about it and could not come up with an acceptable answer. Perhaps the flower was related to LeChuck's diary, but it is unlikely that he used a flower as a bookmark, and the diary has no markings to suggest this. Since it is a yellow flower, it could be a reference to the yellow flowers used in MI1 or those outside the Governor's Mansion on Melee Island. ---- Since I am reading a lot of posts about music, I suggest an experiment. When I first played MI1, I was mesmerized by the total absence of music in some places in Melee. So I suggest you give it a try: keep all the other sounds on, but turn off the music and visit the places in Melee that had no music in MI1, such as low street or the docks. 🙂 It will make you appreciate the ambience sounds as well.
    3 points
  7. The music you can hear here: Is quoting this: And what follows: Is also quoting this:
    3 points
  8. 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
    2 points
  9. 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?
    2 points
  10. When entering this thread, the name on my mind was also Lila, but I'll have to think a bit more about the others. I think the connection between Dee and Lila makes sense as well because she turns the Guybrush/LeChuck relationship into a triangle, same as Dee does to Boybrush and Chuckie. Also Delilah is a name, and both Dee and Lila are short for it, like Chuckie to LeChuck. What does it all mean? 😂
    2 points
  11. This is 100% how I took it. Finally someone builds a museum to Guybrush’s many exploits, but of course he gets credit for none of them (to the point that a character from a whole different pirate franchise gets credit for one of his feats).
    2 points
  12. I had to squeeze this wonderful promotional artwork for "Dark Forces" in. Painted by David Grove, this was used for print ads in several magazines back in the time. Interestingly, the original painting was created with much brighter colors, and later darkened for printing. Surely this was intentional, as the art works much better this way, given the game it was created for. I've created several different versions for this:
    2 points
  13. As I kept reflecting on the ending, some new thoughts have sprung. This will be an enormous post, soI’ll be truly grateful to those who manage to read the whole thing. So called “metanarratives” have been told before, across various mediums, whereas by placing the audience as the unwilling target of some sort of storytelling, fourth-wall breaking pun, or resorting to the “it was all in the main character’s head and imagination all along” angle. Regardless of how masterfully conceived these “metanarratives” can be (whether in the form of books, movies, etc.), there is inevitably a gap, a distance, between what the characters are experiencing and what is our own reaction to those experiences. A good storyteller will diminish that distance, create greater empathy between the audience and the characters, but we are still outside witnesses, external observants. We can be touched emotionally by the story, but that tends to come down to how much empathy has been conjured between us and the characters, on how much we can imagine ourselves in the characters’ shoes, on how much we can “relate”. However, I feel RTMI takes this to a whole new level, using a storytelling method that is a particularly perfect vehicle for exploration of this kind of thematic undercurrent: the point and click adventure game. This goes beyond the mere notion of being able to control where the main character goes, or how long we can linger in certain places or even the choices of dialogue (within the obvious limitations of the game framework). Those are just the mechanical and functional means of the storytelling experience. We learn, in what I think is a pretty definitive and unequivocal conclusion, that the world of Monkey Island is a plateau of existence, a mental place, a dimension, if you will, where Guybrush finds solace, refuge, escapism and entertainment. I won’t go into the discussion whether this dimension is any more real than the one where his everyday existence is taking place. What seems pretty definitive to me, is that those two dimensions are separate, they are two different things, although elements from the “everyday dimension”, to a certain extent, seem to feed the fabric of the Monkey Island dimension (and probably vice-versa. as well), as the things we experience almost subconsciously in our everyday lives can also feed our dreams. This Monkey Island dimension might have been triggered by Guybrush’s experiences, both as a child and as an adult, in a pirate themed amusement park, as a way to escape from a reality that is either too sad, too painful, too dull or too empty to face without solace. The details really don’t matter. And this is where the “metanarrative” comes to its full fruition. We are not witnessing Guybrush escaping into an imaginary pirate world, as he tries to take some reprieve from his everyday existente, while feeling empathy for his plight. No, we are Guybrush! As much as I ever felt in any work of art, we are indeed the character. We are not empathizing with Guybrush, we are not relating to Guybrush. We truly are Guybrush. We are the ones looking for solace, refuge, escapism and entertainment in a fictional pirate world. We are the ones (particularly in this forum of such dedicated fans), who treasure and look forward to the moments we spend in this Monkey Island dimension. We don’t do it to spend the time while waiting for the train to arrive. We don’t do it because there’s nothing else to do. We don’t do it to fill in the blanks in our daily schedule. We make it a pinnacle of our leisure time. It’s primetime worthy. In those playing hours, we rather be in the Monkey Island world than in whatever real life has to offer , regardless of how happy or fulfilled we feel. I don’t play Monkey Island the same way I play other games. Not even in the same way I play other point and click adventure games. It’s not to reach the end, get a dopamine fix or an adrenaline rush. I play it for the experience, to live in that world for a bit. That’s why I like linger in the wonderfully evocative locations, just wander around the locals, why I look forward wish to get stuck certain puzzles, so as the music and ambiance seep through my skin and become engrained, so as to when we listen to the soundtrack, it will immediately conjure up memories and feelings of those precious moments spent in the Monkey Island dimension. And I know Monkey Island is not real. Guybrush knows Monkey Island is not real. But it is true. And it matters. And that’s why we like to discuss the minutiae of this world, what things are “more real” than others (although nothing of it is really real), why we hang posters of it on the wall, listen to the soundtracks, replay the games knowing by heart all the solutions to every single puzzle. We want to keep visiting the same amusement park, we get excited when there’s a new ride on the horizon and we love riding the same old, well-worn, familiar rides.. And when not in the amusement park itself, we reminisce by looking at ticket stubs, park maps, promotional brochures. And I, like Guybrush, want Monkey Island to be as real as possible. So I keep chasing the horizon, clinging on to every small thing that might make it a little bit more concrete. I want to make LEGO models of Melee Town, the Giant Monkey Head and Woodtick. I want character statutes to proudly display on my bookcases. I want to wear T-Shirts of the Legendary Treasure of Melee Island. But it is not real. It 's not concrete. It can’t be. And just like Guybrush, I felt disheartened when I reached the back alley of Melee Island at the end of the game. It’s time to go home. My day at the amusement park is almost over. No more new rides to try. It’s with heavy hearts that I turn off all the lights in the park. I have to get back to my more mundane existence. But this game gives us something absolutely new. Almost revolutionary. It shows us a Guybrush with a life outside of Monkey Island. And a happy and fulfilling life at that, with a beautiful family. And we realize, maybe for the first time, that Guybrush doesn’t really need Monkey Island anymore. He’s ceased to be obsessed by it. And this is where The Secret comes in. And how it really could never have been something of true importance. It was a red herring all along, a distraction, something with an importance that grew in an unwarrantedly disproportionate manner throughout the years. It was ever only something that was part of the fabric of Monkey Island, among many other things. It was never its raison d'être, never a cipher to understand the whole thing. Monkey Island is not a mystery to solve, but a “reality” to experience. Like life itself. Lechuck lost sight of this. Monkey Island ceased to be a “good place”, where one could have sprawling adventures, meet colorful characters and visit fascinating places. It was all about The Secret, looking for some sort of resolution, an answer, something with which to cover the gaping holes in his existence. At the end of the game, Guybrush is finally freed from this anchor (ohh, symbolism). He can now visit Monkey Island because he wants to, not because he has to. It’s something that adds to his life, it doesn’t replace it. And it has become a pure thing again. A place where he can play pirates, simple as that, only constrained by the limits of his imagination. Stories being told around a campfire. In light of this, the very beginning of The Secret of Monkey Island has become even more perfect. Guybrush arrives at Melee Island not by ship, but by walking through a stone archway, as it were some sort of portal, and declare bluntly and plainly: This is all we want. We are Guybrush from the very start. We want to be pirates in a make-believe world. That’s why we are playing. Even the setting is perfect. How else would a Pirate setting be enticing unless when seen and interpreted by a child-like imagination? Throw any serious degree of historicity in it and the whole thing crumbles, with all the pillaging, violence, depravity and filth involved. It has to be a Pirate universe as imagined by a child. Again, it was never about The Secret. The whole point of experiencing Monkey Island is perfectly captured by the very first thing Guybrush says. There can never be a Monkey Island prequel. There’s no other possible beginning. To do it would be to corrupt it. Nothing exists before that declaration of intent. That’s where the whole dimension of Monkey Island is born. “I want to be a pirate”. That’s the absolute summation of what Monkey Island is all about. At the end, Guybrush (and myself), realize there’s peace to be found in knowing there’s no deeper meaning behind all of it. Monkey Island is a “good place” to visit every now and then. Guybrush has regained the purity of intent shown in that very first scene in The Secret of Monkey Island. The whole thing has become unburdened by overarching narratives, unsaddled by strict continuity between adventures, freed at last from the shackles of having to provide answers and meaning. Elaine emphasizes this by suggesting yet another adventure. Of the simpler, purer kind. And how perfect and crucial that little intervention is. Brings the whole thing full circle. And Guybrush sits on that bench, looking truly at peace with himself (as I see it), having regained the true purpose of Monkey Island. That image is the perfect coda to the Ron Gilbert trilogy. The lookout scene in SOMI as an overture. This is one as an epilogue. The world of Monkey Island is now wide open. There was never a better time to create new stories in it. Purer stories. With more cannons and less “canon”. I became a father 6 months ago. A little Boybrush named Manuel. Like Guybrush, I now have a family to share the world of Monkey Island with. And it has become something new again.
    2 points
  14. Related questions: which character did you like the most? Was it because he was funny? Was it because he was a mysterious figure? Why did the character intrigue you so much? Do you think there was something about the character that could have been explored more by the writers? Do you think the character really exists or was it just a representation of a cardboard cutout? Who invented liquid soap, and why? My favorite new character is Lila. She is a somewhat flat character, but she is also knowledgeable, intelligent and resourceful. She is a force of nature capable of turning useless Lorem Ipsum into powerful spells. She is not afraid to fight against LeChuck. Lila is strong and can kill you with one hand while she tags your door with magical graffiti with the other. She is also the one who tells my favorite joke in the whole game. Commenting on the irrelevance of the old pirate leaders, she mocks their very raison d'etre saying that they were probably "making up trials for each other". Genius. The fact that she is the most knowledgeable character among the new pirate leaders made me think of a possible connection with Dee.
    1 point
  15. A DOTT artbook would have been even more interesting to me, given the original marker backgrounds are part of the game's concept art gallery. In this case though, I'm especially interested in the soundtrack CD, as this was a much more refined remastered soundtrack than what DOTT got.
    1 point
  16. The game is really great there are just some things that prevent me from being able to recommend it to friends. The humor is sometimes predictable and comes across a bit too much as being 'for children' for its simplicity (most of the time, there is a fine line). It fits with the theme cause its literally a story told to a child tho I guess... Another small thing is that I sometimes wish that they would have looked more at the current state of meta games like Undertale and Deltarune for more inspiration. Alot of those use everything a 4th wall break can offer. Like the horror aspect for example. The creepyness of being called out really goes under the skin in them. And they're being more consistent with alot of the details so that endless theories can be formed. Undertale even stays a "(semi-)conventional story" by fusing the barrier between game world and reality. It's really hard to explain but I think I have a video that explains it pretty good if anyone is interested.
    1 point
  17. Hook! Of course. Counted it for secret. Forgot it for escape.
    1 point
  18. 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
    1 point
  19. Drowned yourself in Part 2, eh?
    1 point
  20. I noticed that captain lila was coincidentally also one of the people to walk through the door at the end. The three that walked through the door resemble the children at the beginning... This is some nice theory material but I haven't seen anyone think up of one. Maybe doors are symbolic for the seperation and connection of two worlds like in Psychonauts or Deltarune. Only that it's more than just symbolic in those games. It could be that it's also like that in Monkey Island and some magic-time-meta-story stuff is up with them. The random doors in melee island (tm) are also very freaky.
    1 point
  21. I'm partial to the new Melee Forest revamp... but also the very different music that plays when you climb up to the ice castle. It's not something I'd listen to, but it sounds so 1960s, and is so different, that I always enjoy it.
    1 point
  22. Yeah, exactly: Fink: "He must have finally got that nasty letter I wrote." Bart: "You sure can write a mean letter, Fink." It's a one way ticket... but the autosave will take you back to where you were before.
    1 point
  23. I count 6 for Escape: Mêlée, Hook, Jambalaya, Knuttin Atoll, Monkey and Lucre
    1 point
  24. Last night the kids and I finished Part 3 of the new game. When you look at the wreckage of the Sea Monkey, Guybrush comments that it's the Sea Monkey "from Monkey Island 1". So yeah, Daddy Guybrush just referenced being in a video game to Boybrush, and neither of them batted an eye.
    1 point
  25. For me it was daisies in easy mode (only tried once though) and tentacles in hard mode (tried, uhm, maybe three times).
    1 point
  26. I wish there was a non-obvious/hard way to make everybody happy while the obvious/easy way would leave the current trail of destruction, like with Wally. E.g. give the Xyzzy sign to Herman and have Elaine rescue you instead. Or somehow not destroy the Mop Tree or treat the crown with more respect. It could add a layer to the game and replayability, and a kind of dynamic difficulty. Like the optional puzzles in the intro.
    1 point
  27. You may be interested in this. This was more about DOTT, but DOTT very likely reused the ideas behind the Monkey Island special editions: and then the slides: http://www.p1xelcoder.com/resources/GDC_2017_Remastering_DotT_and_Grim.pdf And then there's also: and its slides: http://www.p1xelcoder.com/resources/Reboot_2016_From_Monkey_Island_to_Broken_Age.pdf
    1 point
  28. 👕 I beat #Mojole #193 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 🖤🖤💚💛🖤 💛🖤💚🖤🖤 💚🖤🖤💚🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/
    1 point
  29. 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…
    1 point
  30. I thought this was somewhat derivative if planet threepwood in escape tbh. I kept waiting for a joke or reference to it but it never happened. I guess it’s sort of funny that guybrush has twice visited a museum devoted to himself and no one there recognised or believed him.
    1 point
  31. 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).
    1 point
  32. Not sure if this is the right place, but since Vichyssoise was mentioned: When I was younger I found it cruel to put the rat into a boiling soup. Later I found out that Vichyssoise is a cold soup and was relieved. Then realized that Vichyssoise is only _served_ cold, but of course cooked before. And the Cook was still adding potatoes 😢
    1 point
  33. I can't tell the characters apart, the two pale pirate leaders and the museum guy and the composer on the ship, it's really confusing for me (but this might be a personal issue, I'm bad at recognizing faces in real life as well). I really like Flambe, didn't do much, but that's his life moto apparently. He knows nobody can do anything about him being lazy, he's a demon after all and a handy underwater light source! Just chilling in the crowsnest. I know it's not a new character, but I love how they presented the cook in the Scumm-Bar, the spiritual journey and mop enthusiasm!
    1 point
  34. 👕 I beat #Mojole #193 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 💛🖤💚💚🖤 🖤🖤💚💚💚 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/
    1 point
  35. Just discovered that when you ask Wally about the signs in Mêlée Town, he says that he designed them on Madison's behalf. This is another one of those nice details that brings the world to life, as you realize that the characters are also acting independently of you. This was done very well in MI1 and 2 too, especially on Mêlée Island (The store owner, Carla and Captain Smirk all know each other, everyone already has a rubber chicken from the Voodoo Lady etc.). EDIT: When you win the three contests, the queen's ice sculpture on Brrr Muda turns into one of Guybrush's (if you haven't melted it before by lighting the torch Next to it) and the pictures in the courtroom and the town hall are now pictures of him too. There are also one or two new dialogue lines when talking to the people there.
    1 point
  36. Picking up from a bit earlier in the thread, I just don't think I can buy the idea that we start off with the kids imagining the end of Monkey Island 2, break out of that into something approximating the real world and then submerge again into a different pirate fantasy when we take control. I think they were imagining a fancy carnival and then we get to see the slightly gross park underneath, and I didn't once think to question that when I was playing. Another thing which I think makes it more likely is the way the SPIT FUN banner has RUN pasted over it. Why would Boybrush be imagining a race instead of a spitting contest if the idea is that he's now imagining the world as more gross and piratey? That said, I think the wishing well is there to show us that there is some room for the boundary between imaginitive play and reality here, and that not everything we see on screen at any one time is either necessarily all real or all imagined.
    1 point
  37. Nah, I don't think so. I read it as just a continuation of Guybrush not getting any recognition for his dubious exploits. (eg. "I heard LeChuck drank so much root beer he exploded.")
    1 point
  38. I take that article with a little bit of a grain of salt, simply because it wasn't an answer directly from Ron in the Q&A, but the writer wrapping up the article. I don't think they can "confirm" it, especially so soon after launch. I think Ron and Dave probably said essentially what was said on Twitter; it will most likely be followed by other entries. I think writers take such comments and really embellish them. A good example would be all the articles taking "conclusion" from the site and interpreting it as, "This is it, the final one."
    1 point
  39. Add to this: Elaine is the governor at the mansion.
    1 point
  40. Initially I thought Dee was meant to be a child version of either Madison’s magic wielder or Flair, similar to the whole Chuckie/LeChuck and Boybrush/Guybrush paradigm. This never came to anything so I’m guessing it was just a similar design (indeed just like how the two adult characters I mentioned look similar), unless anyone knows better.
    1 point
  41. When I first heard about literal "escape rooms", it definitely felt like they had inspiration from adventure games. They even use some of the same moon logic.
    1 point
  42. 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.
    1 point
  43. This is from the pre-release thread but it’s still compelling I think, especially given Ron’s cryptic post on Twitter a while back asking why Guybrush arrives on Melee Island via the arch and not via the docks — something he does again in Return. * Archway? Park entrance? * Guybrush and blind Melee lookout stand in the same place as Guybrush and deaf Booty lookout relative to the entrance? * Big Whoop is Booty Town but also not? And in Return now a seaside park too? * Big Whoop ticket desk is Captain Dread’s ship? * Guybrush arrives on Melee expecting weenies, which happen to be next to the Big Whoop entrance? * You also start Monkey Island 2 next to a weenie shop?????
    1 point
  44. That is my problem. RTMI is a meta-commentary on the franchise, to the extent it leaves the conventional narrative as little more than a vehicle to carry said meta-commentary. My issue isn't that the "the secret" was underwhelming, or that it doesn't tie up every loose end. I'm well aware of the value of maintaining some basic level of mystery within a setting. My issue is that there is no journey. What I wanted from RTMI was more Monkey Island. Not commentary on Monkey Island.
    1 point
  45. Will grab some Room select Room name turned on, actors turned off I did try some of the toggles (show textures, show walkboxes etc.) with no immediate result, but maybe need to restart with those enabled or something.
    1 point
  46. The cannibals used to eat people, but that's probably not a good idea for a celebratory meal. I think Otis mentions catching rats. There are the yellow flowers from the forest, but those are just a condiment. Guybrush does survive a trip on some of those voodoo ingredients mentioned earlier. Otis gets some from the SCUMM Bar's cook sometimes, prehensile tail and all.
    1 point
  47. Hello! I finished the game last night, had the classic "Huh.", and then warmed up to it. Then I went to bed. And this morning, my partner asked me about the ending, so I told her what happened. And I talked and talked, tried to explain what was going on, which I couldn't, but I kept talking in excitement, and the longer I talked the more tears where flowing. Really!? Stupid game makes me cry and I don't no why? I wasn't able to explain really what was going on, but I felt this strong warmth from this game. The letter really hit my heart. Can't even make sense of all these feelings while writing you this. And I love it. I already miss the game, and I want to replay it immediately.
    1 point
  48. I don't know if anyone else got this ending, but I just went back the way I came through the monkey head and the game just ended with an achievement notification saying "I don't believe". Clearly I've missed a very different ending if I just turn the switches off 😜
    1 point
  49. Demone, I think you're very much in the right place on this, and I'm probably going to end up restating a lot of what you said. Whilst in Seattle a couple of weekends back, I told Ron and Dave that I kind of see them as Lynchian figures. By which I mean that I'm not 100% certain whether they know precisely what they're doing and it's up to us to decode it, or whether things aren't set in stone even in their own minds and the ambiguity is, in itself, part of the goal. But most importantly — same as I feel with Lynch — I'm not sure it matters. There's a very simple, surface way to interpret the ending. There are various meta levels you could easily apply to it. There are a lot of angles from which you can approach an interpretation. But I guess I'm just not convinced that ANY of them carry any weight beyond that which we feel compelled to add. The story isn't about the secret. It never really was. The possibility of learning some deep secret was *never* the real appeal of Monkey Island for any of us. And my feeling is that they've given us a nice soft landing to become comfortable with its ambiguity. Whether Guybrush is a pirate or a flooring inspector (or both), whether the stories are true or embellished tales or total fabrications for his kid's benefit... who cares? I'm reminded of how the Coen brothers kicked off Fargo with the completely fabricated "fact" that it was based on a true story. But a story doesn't have to be lowercase true to be uppercase True. Whether or not you're comfortable with the ending depends, I think, on whether that distinction is important to you.
    1 point
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