MurraySchull

Hi all, has been an extremely busy month at my end and haven't had time to post about the newest developments of ReMI! Will just do a rundown: - September 19th! Amazing! Congrats to all who predicted correctly. Logical deduction wins again! - Jess Harnell as LeChuck... honestly isn't really doing it for me, but I think I can get used to it. Harnell is an fantastic talent and is excellent at comedic acting in particular, but Boen... his deep, gravelly voice just naturally lent itself to LeChuck, and he had the perfect blend of humour and dread that the character needed. As far as perfect casting goes, across any media, he's well up there for me. From the very small amount we've seen so far, this LeChuck just seems so... feeble by comparison. Where Boen felt natural, this feels like a performance, and I don't buy him as a threat yet. Forget the artstyle, I thought *THIS* would be the main reason for backlash if anything, but most people seem to be fine with it. Like I said, I think I'll get used to it over the course of the game, but I just can't help wishing that we could've got Earl back one last time, just to complete the ensemble if anything. - BUT... Jess Harnell being in the game means that we'll almost certainly have him back as the storekeeper too. Same with Rob Paulsen, now that we've seen Bob on LeChuck's ship. - Neil Ross is back as Wally! Excellent! It really looks like they've made an effort to keep the cast consistent from the rest of the series. I think that just leaves Otis now in terms of if the "main" returning characters have their returning actors. (It occurs to me that we haven't seen Meathook yet. Or Smirk. Wonder if they're still around being on Melee and all.) With both Ross and Delk, however, I can definitely hear the age in their voices compared to the older games, but of course, that's unavoidable, and I'd never consider recasting. (Also, does it bother anyone else that Murray doesn't make the "teeth-chattering" noise when he speaks? It was in all of the other games, so it feels strange that it's missing here.) - Glad that we have Gavin Hammond as Stan back. Originally, I was thinking it would be better for consistency to have Pinney from MI1/2, but if the majority of the game does take place after Tales, as we're predicting, then him sounding as he did in Tales may be the best option. He was probably also the best blend of all of the elements of Stan for me, though I do really like Pinney as well. - The interface looks amazing. I *love* what the context sensitive interface ended up being. The inner-thoughts are a fantastic addition, both in terms of the players' connections to the main character, and to provide additional context and background to the story. - As far as canon goes, Ron recently stated (or perhaps tweeted) that the games that you need to play before ReMI are 1 and 2, and if you have time, Curse. Ron also said that those were the only games he played before working on ReMI. I really get the impression that they've made an active effort to keep Curse canon, and if the boot fits for EMI and Tales, great, but they aren't actively pushing to fit them into the mould of ReMI. Already going to predict that they aren't going to acknowledge any of the robot/grandpa stuff here. - Finally... a few observations about a potential timeframe. Wally mentions that he spent "years in therapy" in ReMI, and at the beginning of Curse, Guybrush says to Wally "The last time I saw you, we were prisoners in LeChuck's dungeon" referring to MI2. Both of these add more weight to the idea that the majority of the post-carnival game takes place after Tales. Also, Stan being trapped in the coffin in MI2 and let out in Curse also makes me doubt his ReMI scenes, at least, take place in between those games. That's all I can think of for now, but I am now officially in the process of replaying the original games! Will update the thread when I've finished them all. Two weeks to go!

This was particularly common in the early 2010's, during the whole "young adult novel turned movie" phase. Lots of movies at the time were so confident and dedicated to the idea that they were going to be "the next big thing!" that they forgot to focus on just making it good. So many movies that I can't for the life of me remember the titles of now fell into the trap of starting a bunch of plot threads in the first movie, resolving none of them, ending on a cliffhanger, and never making a sequel. Which now in the grand scheme of things, ten years later, made that viewing experience ultimately worthless. Only a very small number of those franchises ultimately made it through to the end of the series as I recall (Divergent never even made the final movie due to diminishing returns and poor fan reaction.) My point is (and I know I've made this point before) I'd rather MI ended neatly (or as neatly as we could expect from Ron at least) on a strong note with as much of the legacy talent still with us as possible, than have it continue for years and diminishing in quality overtime, losing more and more of the talent over the years, eventually having to recast Guybrush with Harry Styles, or the like. I'd actually rather have a complete reboot than watch MI slowly lose, piece by piece, what makes it so special.

Very curious if they've given the game a definitive "ending" scene for the series or not. If so... man, that'll feel weird. Not gonna lie. But after all this time of not having these questions answered, and the uncertainty of weather the series would ever return, let alone Ron's trilogy being completed, it'll feel welcome. The team have made a few points of noting that the game will have a bittersweet, emotional feeling in parts. But weather that means just a general sense of nostalgia throughout, or weather it means we'll end with old-man Guybrush handing down his sword to his son is anybody's guess right now.

It's a fantastic recreation of the soundtrack! Have you thought about doing the same with MI2? Appreciate it's a bigger soundtrack, but have you thought about maybe doing the most "iconic" tracks?

I'm surprised there hasn't been more speculation on if Largo might return. He's not been mentioned or alluded to yet, but given that his ending was pretty ambiguous in MI2 (as was the Voodoo Priest's for that matter) I suppose the door might be open for him to reappear. If he doesn't, I guess we just have to assume that he and the Voodoo Priest died in the fortress explosion! (Hell, maybe Largo became one of the skeleton pirates for all we know!) I'm still very curious if all of the returning characters will have their original voice actors or not. Otis in particular. Carla seems to be her MI1 voice actress (and she also voiced the Voodoo Lady) but everybody else is unanswered on that front so far.

That's the Men of Low Moral Fiber, isn't it? The Pirate Leaders don't appear in MI2 and one of the Low Moral Fiber men is named Frank. ("Frank! Make him quit it!") I don't think the pirate leaders have canonical names yet.

Ron, Dave and Tim. Calling it!

I'm going to take a wild guess here and say... tomorrows' Monkey Island Monday will be the announcement that pre-orders have gone live... And yes, I ashamedly walkthroughed my way through MI1-4 (simultaneously as well, which was interesting!) and I got the occasional hint with Tales. For this game, however, particularly since there's some degree of a hint system included, I want to keep the experience of solving the puzzles 100% in-game. If only to rectify that mistake of how I beat the first four games almost 20 years ago!

Devolver will be bringing a collection of games to Pax West from 3rd - 6th September. Pretty much guaranteed they’ll bring ReMI and we’ll see more promo/gameplay in action.

I personally think a ReMI animation makes the most sense to do next, then Ron's trilogy will be complete in Flash Animation form! In terms of the other games, the IWWH videos kindof cover Tales, and perhaps a Curse/Escape movie could be held off for potential remasters/rereleases of the games?...

Presuming it's not referring to the other Monkey Island Mondays, I'd imagine this will be additional platforms (most likely Mac and iOS) and/or an official release date. I'm still betting on Monday 19th September, Talk Like A Pirate Day. I really liked those "Making Of" videos that we got ahead of the two special editions that went into detail about what to expect from the game. Hoping we get something like that this time as well!

Considering that one of their first scenes in SMI features Guybrush and Elaine calling each other "love muffin" "sugar boots" "honey pumpkin" "plunder bunny" etc. and ends with them looking lovingly into the night sky together, I don't think it's a giant leap in logic for Ackley and Ahern to presume that Ron would've put them together in the third game (after resolving their differences brought about in MI2 of course.) Even if that wasn't Ron's plan, I don't blame Curse for putting them together when it is/was very common for couples in movies, etc. to fight/argue in the middle of the story, and get back together at the end. Hell, even in MI2, she briefly begins to fall for Guybrush's "weakness and ineptitude" again, until she finds out that he just wants the map, of course! I just find it difficult to imagine MI now that doesn't feature Guybrush and Elaine together, and it's not as if the implication isn't there at all in the first two games. I'm just curious to the direction that their relationship would've taken in Ron's presumably 1992 version of MI3. This will be something that I'd imagine he'll be working around in ReMI.

Yeah, and there was so much, for lack of a better word, backstory, in the way that Griswold delivered his dialogue. Even when the dialogue didn't necessarily call for it, you could tell that the character had lived a full life, you felt the immense respect that he had for his family, yet there was a sadness in his voice of being the last of his line, and feeling like he's letting the family down with the family hotel business drying up. (Until Guybrush saves the day of course!) On another note... is LeChuck's stress toy La Esponja Grande?... 👀

I think he passed away a while back, actually (not certain) so I doubt it's him. He was a voice in Grim Fandango too in the casino scene.

Yeah, I'm happy with this being the final game (provided the ending delivers, of course!) I'd rather have an ending now that leaves the series on a good note, ties up as many loose ends as it deems necessary, and features as much of the returning cast and crew as possible, than launch a story-arc that lasts many, many games in which the original talent gradually disappears, reviews and overall appreciation of the series begins to dwindle, the music wanes after the original composers depart, eventually Guybrush has to be recast, etc. My one lament with ReMI happening now rather than ten years earlier is that Boen can't be part of it (unless they've worked something out behind the scenes, and that's the big surprise!) But Ron most likely wouldn't have been able to work on the game ten years earlier either, so it's really a "pick your poison" of either recasting LeChuck, or not having Ron's third game at all.

Cause LeChuck is fire. And the writers needed something that beats fire. Ice! (That and the ride is called "Monkey Mountain!")

Yeah, that's what I sa- Ohhhhhhh!! 😎 The "I" and "bench" especially sound very Boen-esque. I could see it!

Very nice! Can definitely tell that this is going to feel like the original games. - iMuse-esque transition was lovely! Can already tell that the soundtrack is going to be a highlight. - Background motion and details are crazy! The snow, the flags, the parallax, the first time we've seen snow in a Monkey Island game (bar Monkey Mountain). Not even Curse's world felt this alive. - Dom hasn't lost his touch one bit. - Great to see the dialogue trees working as we remember them. Perhaps "reactive" dialogue trees mean that some of them will be on a timer ala. The Walking Dead. That'd be a first for the MI games. - Not really in love with the first judge's talking animation with the wobbly, distorted head, but the second "ORDER IN THE COURT" animation was spot on. - There appears to be lip sync! - The voice actor of the judge... I wonder if he'll also be LeChuck's voice actor...

Thanks for the thoughts. Yeah, that’s kindof how I’m seeing it too. I think new fans/players were mostly positive about the first games’ remastered visuals. On a similar point, where I’d be happy introducing people to MI1 through the Classic Mode included in the Special Edition as it practically is the original, unaltered game, MI2’s Classic Mode in the Special Edition is a different story. Broken soundtrack/iMuse, some amended lines, no vertical scrolling, loading screens, etc.

Yeah, the Ultimate Talkie Edition would be a nice compromise (I haven’t used it since it came out, actually, maybe it’s worth looking into!) Only issue with that approach is there’s no way back to the SE visuals once the game begins. (I await the collective reply from the forum of “...and?!” 😝 , but I just hope the pixels alone are not enough to put them off!) I know MI2 has an Ultimate Talkie Edition as well, but honestly, short of a few very small things, I’m perfectly happy introducing somebody to MI2 through the SE. And that’s a sign of how well that remaster turned out, in my opinion, when MI2 is already as good as it is and I don’t have issue introducing new players to it through the Special Edition. Which, as you can tell, I’m more iffy about with MI1. (MI2 Ultimate Talkie Edition doesn’t include the remastered soundtrack, right? I figure remapping the iMuse transitions would be a nightmare, but would be glad to know if there is one!)

I'm predicting a dialogue tree scene today and some samples of voiceover. Maybe a new character, maybe a returning one, maybe LeChuck... Thinking about Tales, I wonder how/if Winslow's absense will be explained in the game. ( Assuming he is, in fact, absent from the game and they're not just hiding him... 👀 ) Maybe we'll get a weird playable demo like with MI1, which used the games' visuals and engine, but had practically nothing to do with the games' story at all. I believe MI2's demo wasn't playable (though it is possible to run some early scenes of the game included in the demo files in ScummVM apparently.) CMI/EMI/Tales gave us the opening scenes as demos, I believe. Perhaps RMI will follow in that vein and give us the pre-credit carnival scenes as a demo!

Thanks for the responses, everybody! (Sorry for delay, busy week!) Yeah, there's no definitive timeline/plan of when to do it yet, and introducing them to MI wasn't something I'd planned this time last year (i.e. it belongs in the past, gaming has moved on, blablabla) but now that Return is coming, its something that I want to at least attempt now. They're mostly into Minecraft at the moment, actually, just like Kestrel's nephews. I was never much of a gamer growing up, but my brother was playing them on his computer when I was 12, and he gave me his copy of the first two MI games when I became interested in seeing how it played. Then I got CMI/EMI shortly later and totally fell in love with the series. (I actually played them all simultaneously, which was a weird way to go about it, true, but it meant I got to get a taste of them all faster!) Then after a year or so, I'd located all of the LucasArts games! And yeah, for all its' flaws, I'd be leaning more towards starting with the SE of MI1 over classic mode (switching back to classic occasionally, of course, to give them a taste of the olden days!) The main thing that holds me back from that idea, though, isn't even the occasionally iffy voice direction or weird visuals, but the control scheme, which is probably more awkward than the 19 year old game it was "improving!" I'd probably be totally fine with the first SE being an introduction to MI if it used the MI2SE interface and had voiceover in the classic mode. (I'll also remember to increase the subtitle speed (through classic mode) to remove the weird pauses between dialogue.)

Bit of a random thread but I'm just curious. With Return to Monkey Island approaching soon, I've decided that I would like to introduce the Monkey Island games to my younger cousin. Obviously, however, there is a generational gap, and the games that the youth of today are into are of a different nature to the games that many of us we were into back in the day in terms of "casual" gaming. I was curious if any of you have introduced Monkey Island (or any of the LucasArts, etc. adventure games) to your children/younger relatives, and what their reaction was if so. Were they interested? Did they want to keep going? Did you begin with the Special Edition or the classic version of MI1? Part of me wants to go with the classic mode of MI1, but I fear the pixel art, retro music and lack of voiceover might not give them the best first impression! So I'm leaning more towards the Special Edition and toggling back to Classic Mode occasionally, just to give them an idea of "what it was like in the olden days!" I was 12 when I first played and fell in love with the games, and my relative in question is slightly younger than that now. I definitely gravitated towards the more cartoony style of Curse/Escape at the time, though I did appreciate the art in the first two games for their time periods. I'd love for my cousin to have the same reaction that I did but I remain cautious and slightly anxious that they won't! Just curious to hear if any of you guys have had similar experiences/thoughts. Cheers!

I'm even wondering if a small section of the game might even take place in the "real world" so to speak. i.e. with Guybrush/Chuckie/Guybrush's parents at their modern-day home. Perhaps as the game nears its' climax and the answers to how the world works is revealed. The Carnival at the end of MI2 didn't seem to be at any particular timeframe, though I think the 90's would be appropriate. Then we have to jump back and forth between being a kid the real world and being an adult in the fantasy world. I know it sounds kindof out there, but given the ending of MI2, I don't think it's too unrealistic to consider. (And, just saying, this would also be a way the Giant Monkey Robot could still work in the story!)

Yeah, I'd be interested to see if Herman/Horatio being governor is referenced. (Or even if he'll be referred to as Horario for that matter!) Even in SMI, though, he has a boat and could've escaped Monkey Island all along, but he still chose to be a hermit for 20 years, so I'd imagine he just has a preference for it at this point!