madmardi

Okay, now I want to know which of the ten endings Ron (and Dave!) thinks is 'cannon'! Not that it matters or anything...

Same!

Yea, I thought it was funny when he started jumping. I kept doing it while wondering if he would eventually fall, but eventually gave up. Still wonder if there was a hidden easter egg there if you keep on jumping like 50 or a 100 times.... BTW, is there any CTRL W option in RtMI? I tried but couldn't get anything to work.

Hey, when was this added to the website?

I didn't know you could pick up the daisies! Does this randomly change each time you play?!

Or.. maybe this was even one of Stan's marketing gimmicks to hook Guybrush to keep coming back...

Interesting. The way I took it the whole scene on the bench was still part of his carnival fantasies. The story was over so it was time to go 'wake up' and go home. Part of my interpretation of the long pause was that the adventure Elaine whispered in his ear will have to wait for another park visit. Anyone else think that Boybrush and the entire prologue was still part of the "adventures" that Guybrush was having at Stan's pirate adventure park?

Yea, I was assuming we were talking about the MI games, not the island itself! Anyways, if the ending had been more "traditional" with some sort of LeChuck confrontation, would you have felt differently?

I think I hear what you are saying, but IMHO there was a LOT of Monkey Island in this game. Not really sure how you could ask for more...

I completely missed this! Just went back and played the ending again. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I was wondering if this was Ron standing firmly by his unconventional ending?

I haven't been on reddit, but this is my impression as well. Definitely a few vocal people that didn't like the ending, but I definitely feel they are outweighed by those that did. There is a bunch too though that liked the game, but were underwhelmed by how it ended. Oh well, overall it seems to be well received!

I also thought Harness did a wonderful job, and it wasn't too long before I forgot about the casting change. That being said, I'm grateful for and really enjoyed Boen's LeChuck over the years!

Yea, I was wondering the same. And wasn't there some line from the pirate leaders about this after they pushed Guybrush off the cliff? I didn't quite understand that.

Yea, I had the exact same issue. I ended up solving it by chance and when the door opened I ended up sitting there for a few more minutes trying to figure it out as I didn't want to go through unless I understood why it worked. Speaking of puzzles, I generally enjoyed them all but I did find it was a little easier than I expected. First MI game I managed to get through completely without using hints. And I wasn't ever stuck more than a few minutes before I found something I could progress with. Is this just because I'm getting better at adventure games?

Now that the game's out I wanted to go back and read some of the previews that I skipped earlier when I was afraid of spoilers. The one I was most interested in was the Ars preview, but it seems to have been replaced by their review. Anyone know what the big spoilerly reveal was that everyone was warning about?

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was changed/rewritten for the SE. And as a side note: Your voice work was impeccable Dom - thank you for that!

Definitely with you on this... I've been thinking about that ending for a few days (and nights!) now. This afternoon I was literally sitting out on the grass at the park watching my kids play, quietly reflecting on my own thoughts/memories of playing these games. Not so different from when I was a kid finishing the ending of MI2 for the umpteenth time and trying to figure out how to process it all. I feel like there's been a lot tied together for me... yet still a lot of loose ends that keep me wondering. And I'm okay with that.

I just did another quick playthrough trying to pick up some more trivia cards and achievements, but it's really the ending that's still on my mind... I've now played through about 5 of the different ending options, and read the Mojo article to look at the rest, but I have to say I've been thinking about the ending to Return non-stop since I originally finished it. My goodness... I think it's going to take me a really long time to process all this! Besides some of the items Jake mentioned above, for me the most emotional part was turning off the lights and leaving... First time I played it I don't think it really hit me as hard as my mind was so overrun with everything, but now the more I think about it I just start feeling really... emotional. I guess for me it's really about realizing that it's all over (for now) and it's back to reality. When Guybrush appears surprised to be back in the alley he makes the comment, "Oh no... not yet!" and the sadness in his voice.... just gets to me. And it's exactly how I feel. Personally, life's been super busy and stressful these past few years, and hearing about Return's announcement was an unexpected oasis of excitement that I didn't ever expect... and something I didn't realize I desperately needed. I've been looking forward to this game more than any game I've ever looked forward to in my life, and even though I've been swamped with both personal and work stuff these past few months, I carved out some time this week to focus on just this - escaping from reality for a few days to go on an adventure as a loveable pirate. Unfortunately, after this weekend (that's all I could allocate) it's really back to reality for me, and all those things I've been pushing off. Sure, both Guybrush and I can always return to those old adventures (and potentially even new ones?) but that has to wait until another day... as it's closing time. <Sigh> I really really loved the ending, and I think it tied together so many themes for me throughout the series, not just MI1 and MI2. If there was one reservation I had as I played Return, it was that I struggled for a while trying to piece together 'when' the story took place. And more specifically, it bothered me that there wasn't clearer references to some of the events from Escape. That being said, I loved the scrapbook and the reference to the 'cushy government jobs', and I felt they did a respectful job with Herman, and by the time I neared the end of the game I was okay with how they chose to handle past cannon. And then ending came. For me it felt like it made everything okay and wrapped all 6 chapters of the series together into one nice big bundle, allowing me to understand that these are all just separate adventures stories that are just meant to be... fun. And that's it. They allow Guybrush (and all of us) to escape from our lives as flooring inspectors, and temporarily enjoying being a pirate. And I'm okay with that. And if this is our last adventure together... I will be okay with that too. Damn... I feel like I've been stabbed in the heartstrings!

I just finished the game yesterday and I absolutely loved it! I think it's going to take me a looooong time to process that ending, but I have to say it left me feeling really, really satisfied... in a really ambiguous way! I literally could not stop laughing when I saw the t-shirt! I just starting chuckling and couldn't stop! I think this has a lot do with my low expectation of the secret all along. I knew there would no way that the secret could live up to hype. Shit, guess I was wrong! Hahaha Man.... I loved that game! Absolutely gorgeous, and I really liked how they tied in the whole series (personally, I really loved the nods to Curse, Escape and Tales). Now to go back and try to finish up some of those achievements... I don't know how else to describe it, but that game was a masterpiece!

Sooo.... as soon as RtMI is releasing I'm planning on going dark until I complete it. No twitter, no Facebook groups, no reviews, and no Mojo forums (even the spoiler-free ones) as I really don't want to be influenced by anyone else's opinions until I've completed it. Hopefully I have time right away, but life's pretty busy at the moment so it may be a matter of weeks (months?) rather than days if I want to complete it all on my own. Anyways, my only concern with all this is I want to know if and when any big box physical release is available and not miss out on any preordering etc. My question is - will the main mixnmojo news page be a good place to periodically check? In other words, will it remain spoiler free?

Man... I know Ron mentioned this before, but just reading that sentence sent shivers down my spine! I can't believe that we're picking up right from the ending of MI2 - I never thought we'd get a clear(er?) explanation of that ending!

I had no idea that Al made Donald Duck's Playground! Probably one of my most played games on the C64!

Hmm.. I could get on board with this.

Yea, I feel you.

So does the machine. Yea, I still think it's a possibility.