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So far, my absolute favorite part of Return has been when LeChuck landed on Monkey Island and used the Mop Map (which Guybrush had used on Mêlée Island to find its historic mop tree), and he was somehow able to follow that map's directions to accidentally find a different mop tree on Monkey Island.

I have a theory! It's the The Mysterious Island of Cleptomaniac Parrots! Part of good old Crooked Island.

“He is drinking a can of root beer through a straw.”

Hi! After finishing Return To Monkey Island, I wanted a new puzzle, so I tried to unpack the game files. Thanks to far smarter people than me working on expanding BgBennyBoy's Thimbleweed Park Explorer, I managed to unpack and re-pack the game files. May I present to you: MonkeyPack. So far this is a pretty bare-bones commandline application, but it can do the most important parts: Unpacking the existing ReMI ggpack files, and re-packing edited files. To unpack: select one or more ggpack files, and drag and drop them onto the application; or open a commandline where you extracted the application, and call it with the arguments 'unpack [path to ggpack(s)]', for instance 'MonkeyPack.exe unpack "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\Return To Monkey Island\Weird.ggpack1a"'. Game files will be extracted to where MonkeyPack resides, in a subfolder named after the ggpack file. To pack: Select one or more files and/or folders (no ggpack files), and drag and drop them on the application; or open a commandline where you extracted the application, and call it with the arguments 'pack [list of filenames/folders to pack', for instance 'MonkeyPack.exe pack Text_en.tsv Text_de.tsv"'. The new ggpack file will be created where MonkeyPack resides. The project's readme explains things in a bit more detail. I found that if you pack a file with the same name as one of the packed files, and name it so it gets sorted after the existing files (Like 'Weird.ggpack6'), the data in the repacked file takes precedence over the existing data. This for instance makes it easy to use fan-made translations: Unpack 'Weird.ggpack1a', find the 'Text_en.tsv' file, translate some text, repack it, and place the new ggpack back into the game folder, and the English text should be replaced with the fan-translated one. I hope it's ok for me to post this, and that people find uses for it! If there are any questions or if I didn't word something clearly, please let me know! Versionlog: MonkeyPack v0.3 - 2022-10-17: -Fix a bug in the GGDict parser, that could make it miss some strings in the strings list MonkeyPack v0.2 - 2022-10-10: -Don't keep all the files to pack in memory. This massively reduces memory usage during packing -'pack' now ignores ggpack files -Add filename filtering. For example, 'monkeypack.exe unpack path/to/game/Weird.ggpack1a *.tsv' only unpacks the .tsv files from the ggpack file. Works for 'list' and 'pack' too. -Update help inside program -Update and expand readme MonkeyPack v0.1 - 2022-10-03: -Initial release

I would say there are only two sensible rules here: 1) named islands only - so Hook Isle counts, Knuttin Atoll counts, but not that Booty one. 2) Visitable islands only - any location that is separated by water from the other locations, and so is reachable only by boat/bridge or similar, which would include the booty mansion (or would it? It's sort of a land-bridge right?) but still knock out the little islands that have nothing on them and you can't go to.

Or is it the same island and the state of the tree and indeed which island you’re on really just down to your imagination?!

Hi! I've grown up with adventure games; Curse Of Monkey Island is largely responsible for me learning English as a kid, along with the other Monkey Island games and some Humongous games, which made middle school English class a breeze a few years later, and now about 20 years later I'm still benefiting from that. Plus, one of the reasons I started learning piano a few years ago was because I wanted to be able to play the music from the Monkey Island games. That's just to say the Monkey Island games have had a big impact on my life. I only found the Monkey Island games well after they released, except for Tales, but I've been lurking here since ReMI was announced. Thanks for all the thoughtful, interesting and fun discussions and analyses before and after the game came out, it really made me even more excited about this Return!

I'm feeling a renaissance of appreciation for the ISLAND of Monkey Island itself, rewatching playthroughs of SMI Part 3 and EMI Part 3, in between the times that my children and I make progress at RMI (a game that uses Monkey Island's vista for its title screen). For your consideration: * In Secret, the Cannibals live on Monkey Island, which has a dormant volcano. * In Curse, the Cannibals live on Blood Island and explain they have tamed the local volcano (Sherman, AKA Mt. Acidophilus), which had been wildly active before they repaired its diet and set it at peace. Until Guybrush ruined it. * In Escape, the Cannibals are absent from Monkey Island. And... the volcano is active now. I want to know the name of the volcano god on Monkey Island, as learned by the Cannibals, and I want to know the diet regimen they gave it before it binged on Big Whoop carnival mojo.

That was really well done. I don't remember them explicitly mentioning the rubber trees in Return (until you see the hover description on the stump) so I think that must be a very different emotional journey depending on how well one remembers the first game. And unless I'm misremembering, I think the cliffside is interactable when you first explore Monkey Island, and Guybrush will comment on how sturdy the cliffside is, messing with anybody hoping to trigger a reprise of that bounce.

Ohhhh let's do that, that gets really interesting with Curse. But don't forget to factor in perspective!

Which Monkey Island game has the least/most aggregated island area in Square Guybrushs? may be spoilers outside the return spoilers forum?

Wait, this thread still going? You guys are pathetic in the best possible sense. Just so that this is clear, no counting monkeys in Return until GOG gets the game. As to counting islands ... folks ... why doesn't anybody listen to me? "In 2008, Royle writes, a nissologist—one who studies islands—named Christian Depraetere “selected a threshold of 0.1 sq km… and calculated that there are 86,732 islands at or above this size on earth.” When he reduced this threshold to .01 square kilometers, the number jumped up to around 450,000. When he brought it down still more, it rocketed to nearly 7 billion, “although there is some doubt as to the validity of his formula at this scale,” writes Royle." If we use quantifiable measurements to determine what an island is and what is just a speck of dirt in the ocean, there's yet another problem, which is that we don't know how big these islands on the screen really are. Unless of course we measure our islands in Guybrushs.

The water ripples and there’s a moon, so there are Could of course be from a wave machine and all the passing mechanical gondolas and bumper cars.

Well, they’ve gotten that in literally everything else that’s been shown on screen, other than the Ewok adventures maybe. So fair to them I guess but this is so refreshing. Stories like this have only ever been in games, books, comics so far. Glad to see one on screen, and (so far) done so well. I enjoyed the first four episodes enough that if the show does crap the bed I’ll still be happy.

Well, I gave a paragraph of Star Wars things that make me happy. For other people that list might include lightsabers, the Force, hero's journey in a fantastic space setting... a minimum of one action sequence... 😆

Whoa, I honestly had no idea this was a take. Andor feels like what my imagination always told me was happening off screen in the edges of the Star Wars universe, and it’s a treat to get to see it on screen. (It might be like you said, my real EU exposure is from Dark Forces, TIE Fighter, and the Heir to the Empire trilogy, and in modern times the world of Kieron Gillen’s Star Wars comics, all of which feel of a piece with Andor to me.) Rogue One I ultimately didn’t like at all. The end left such a bad taste in my mouth. I know the audience in my theater was just whooping it up during the final huge space battle, and were literally screaming when Darth Vader was tearing through the ship, but none of it felt right to me. It felt like those scenes were looking right at fans in the eye and saying “you like this, don’t you?” Reader, I did not want it. The end felt bigger than the battle of Yavin, Darth felt wildly more powerful and more desperate. Everyone knew everything about the beginning of A New Hope in the last scene - it felt like it ended moments before A New Hope starts. It was so pat, designed to make a Star Wars fan hyped more than designed to tell a compelling story. (* I understand that many people absolutely love Rogue One, probably including you whoever is reading this. I’m glad you like it! Please don’t feel compelled to defend it or tell me why I’m wrong, thanks! I’m only bringing it up in the context of Andor in the next paragraph.) Andor, so far, has none of that. The cinematography and dialog are all played straight - the characters live in the universe of Star Wars, but to them that’s just life. There is no self awareness that they are “in a Star Wars movie.” No fourth-wall-breaking quoting of existing dialog, no using old iconic shots as shorthand for story moments. The TIE fighter that flew by our heroes in episode four was a moment of absolute human-scale terror. They don’t know, like we the audience do, that powerful Force users can knock them out of the sky now. I bet when we see stormtroopers, if we do, they will be actually threatening, and scare our heroes. (They don’t know that “stormtroopers can’t hit anything” is a popular meme among their shows viewing audience.) When thinking about that TIE fighter moment and how successful it was, I am reminded of the moment when in Star Wars, they hyperspace jump to Alderaan and it’s dead silent until suddenly they get buzzed by the TIE fighter and everyone in the Falcon jumps. What Andor reminds me of the most is Star Wars (1977): the only other piece of Star Wars media that didn’t know it was “a piece of Star Wars media,” because it was lucky enough to exist in a world where it was the only one. Andor exists in a world where there are a million other Star Wars things, and I respect the heck out of it for trying to be true to all the internal rules and history of this universe, while refusing to let our worlds awareness of Star Wars reach back through the screen and change how the characters act or make decisions.

I think the top right one on Booty Island was named something like the island of parrots? @Marius please help me out

I loved the foreshadowing of the cliff with the rubber tree, then when Lila and the others left the plateau, I was sure Guybrush would bounce right back up from the rubber tree. I was laughing when he landed on the stump of that tree instead 😂

Wally is that good at making maps.

I think Boybrush has been developed appropriately for the role assigned to the character. He has an important purpose and fulfills it well but, inevitably, players have more time to familiarize themselves with the characters who have more screen time. I also think that his voice actor made an excellent job.

I'm laughing so hard. I didn't even think about it. This is so funny.

I recommend a playthrough with voice turned all the way off and maybe even ambience turned off. It sounds great and gives you a legitimate old school feel.

This explanation keeps bein perfectly valid to me. If we take into account that Curse if a new adventure that Guybrush tells to Boybrush, and that (as the video games) the story continues the story of Monkey 2 (that Guybrush told Boybrush too), it is a perfect way to bind all the things inside the fantasy world of Monkey Island (the world inside the imagination of Guybrush). Yeah, we know that the last minute of Monkey 2 was a rehearsal of Boybrush and Chuckie, inside their minds. But when Guybrush told the story of Monkey 2 to Boybrush the first time, the ending of the story was Guybrush being trapped inside the tunnels of Dinky Island and dissapearing from Elaine. So, inside the storytelling world that Guybrush creates for Boybrush when he tells his stories, he had to find a conclusion for the next story (Curse), and the explanation of Curse is perfectly valid since that point of view.

I sometimes just sailed back to Scurvy Island just for the music, so I had to vote for that one. I'll just have to replay the game to focus more on the music, instead of wanting to advance through the story!

I believe she mentions everything, even without a cutscene. If you ruin someone's life without Elaine to hear it, what is the color of that crime? 😁

I think you might be projecting if you’re implying the Curse team effectively censored themselves for mass appeal, when it’s probably just that they didn’t like that stuff and didn’t want it in their game. I think the team did see themselves as artists and did feel free to create what they wanted, and it’s just very different from what you wanted. I think that team just didn’t like those surreal and mysterious themes that came to a head at the end of 2, so they chose to interpret that moment as “I hope LeChuck didn’t cast a spell on him or something” being the literal plot truth, and based their game on it. Even though I like Curse a lot, it’s never been the Monkey Island 3 that I wanted, because it ignores the things you’ve been talking about (which I also love about the series), but I’m sure it’s the game they wanted to make, with the only real compromises coming from budget and scope restrictions, not creative or thematic. Personally I didn’t ever care if I got “Rons original vision” in future monkey Island games, but always wanted them to live in that exciting space where uncertainty exists, where the world feels like it’s almost projected on paper and you can see that unreality and feel like you could poke a hole through it or fall through at a moments notice, if you dig too deep. I don’t think that stuff remotely appealed to the leads on Curse, though. In that case they were the ones who were irritated at the thought of the potential head on car crash with those themes, and drove the car as far away from it as possible as the motivation for their game. You’re probably right that it was a big contributor to its success - not necessarily because those themes are unpalatable, I think, but because their absence from the plot made Curse a soft reboot in a way, a great entry point in the series for a new era of players. Sorry my thoughts on this are kind of jumbled. It’s not something I’ve thought about enough.

Counterpoint: I’d argue that they didn’t ignore it, but that all the sequels are consciously attempting to deal with the aftermath of 2 in their own ways, with the knowledge that if they ever had attempted to say anything definitive, fans would have rioted and punished them for trying. Those teams were all in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. I don’t think they all liked the ending of 2, but every sequel was made in response to it in some way. For example, the original design document to Curse: Mediocre but real example: I dreamed of a moment in Tales where Guybrush hits his head or takes a huge punch from LeChuck and wakes up in a first aid tent, is bandaged up by a nurse, walks outside and is back in the story, and to never mention it again. Not the most genius idea of all time, but I know I’m not the only one who worked on these games and was drawn to the idea of crashing head-on into the dual-layer blurry reality we get a glimpse of at the end of 2, but knowing a head-on crash like that would be rejected by everyone everywhere for different reasons. Instead some games tried to fold it into the reality of the game, some games did their own version of surreal piracy, some tried to acknowledge it but only around the edges. (Anyway I know this isn’t really what you meant. You know they didn’t literally ignore it, you meant they didn’t try to imagine exactly what he wanted and try to do that. I think that would have been far worse than them instead reacting however they most naturally wanted to and making that game. Someone imagining what Ron would have done and just sort of futzing around would have probably created something far less memorable than the games we got!)

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." 😛

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

You may have some luck with this webpage. It's certainly fun to look through the large catalog and spin all the boxes around. https://bigboxcollection.com/#CollectionOverview

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?

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.

These are all valid mops! The others can be safely thrown in the fire.