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MurraySchull

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Everything posted by MurraySchull

  1. I at least would like people to have the option to consider Curse - Tales canon if they want to. Otherwise, we'd end up with a franchise where each entry is at war with the other and retconning the parts they don't like (i.e. the Terminator sequels or the Star Wars sequel trilogy). I personally feel that breaks the illusion of the games feeling like a continuous story, which you could argue that Escape does in a few places, but now that those events have happened, I'd rather they were sidestepped and ignored in future entries than completely undone. Hell, Tales still makes references to the events of Escape, so if Tales is still canon (going by the image of Morgan in the scrapbook) then so is Escape. And you know what? That's as it should be! 😎
  2. It really says a lot about how well realised and memorable these locations from the games feel to us that we're still here debating about what Melee Island is supposed to look like, even down to weather or not palm trees grew on the island! A less well realised world wouldn't have inspired that discussion.
  3. Really hoping the storekeeper makes a reappearance, and that he'll be voiced by Jess Harnell once again. I know we saw a brief glimpse of him in that original Melee screenshot but hoping we get some more interactions. Wondering to what degree other characters/returning voice actors will be appearing in the game. I know we've seen glimpses of Wally, The Scumm Bar Chef, Cobb and Otis, etc. but we haven't recieved official confirmation on their returning voice actors yet. Carla sounds identical to her MI1SE actress, who also voiced the Voodoo Lady, so I'd imagine she'll be back in both roles too. We also know Rob Paulsen is voicing the lookout once again, which to me feels like a nice bookend!
  4. I guess the carnival could be a pre-credits sequence along the lines of Tales' opening. (Not to say that it will be its' only appearance) I'm curious if we'll return to Melee through the elevator in the underground tunnels rather than sailing there. Given that we presumably will be exploring Melee early into the game, I'd lean towards getting there through the shortcut.
  5. You know, I never even considered the potential inconsistency Monkey Head being destroyed by the robot! (And I like EMI!) Yeah, I have a feeling that perhaps they'll ignore that, or come up with some weird throwaway explanation for why it's still here. (Then again, EMI turning the caverns of meat into a robot control room is an inconsistency in itself!) Yeah, looking at the overhead Melee image on the previous page, I think it's largely the music, and the audio in general, that saves a lot of EMI for me. Looking at the image on it's own compared to the other games made me go "ew" , but thinking about it with the soundtrack that plays in that scene made me go "ooh!" Also very curious now about how "poignant" the game is apparently going to feel, as it's been referred to a number of times by a few people on the team. Wondering if it's more along the lines of a general sense of bittersweet nostalgia, or if they're gonna "Toy Story 3" us at the end. Of all the games, Tales probably has the closest to what I'd call "emotional moments" with the death scenes, Morgan's sacrifice in Episode 5, and Guybrush's pained deliveries in the climax. Even the final "puzzle" of Guybrush being alone in the crossroads, and the scene being completely silent, is very striking atmospherically after all of the audio in the rest of the game.
  6. And who's Vice Sherrif? Ignatius Cheese!
  7. Wonder if we'll see Meathook/Captain Smirk in this game while we're bringing back Melee Island characters. (And I wonder if Meathook will still be a painter!)
  8. Yeah, we are seeing an awful lot of returning characters and locations so far (in fact, there are more than I expected since the initial announcement), but we're also seeing a good amount of new elements too. And yes, I think you're right, they're using the nostalgia element to hook us back in. And it's working! But I wouldn't say no to being teased about some of the new stuff too. Hearing music on Melee Island, while it actually maintains the MI1 Melee Island geography is very satisfying! It was actually something that I was wondering might have been updated for the MI1 Special Edition since MI1 has a very limited, disc-space conscious soundtrack, and I was curious if we might've seen, perhaps, an optional "Supplemental Music" toggle for MI1SE, in which Melee Island's music from EMI, for example, plays on Melee instead of just being silent. And then other scenes could be supplemented with music from the other games too (i.e. the Rollercoaster of Death music underneath the fight in the Governers' Mansion, etc.) But I digress, having canonical music to match these geographical-accurate locations almost makes me want them to be ported over to MI1 more now! I never really understood why EMI changed the layout of Melee/Monkey/The Tri Island Area map so much. In that game it seemed to be done mainly for the sake of it rather than for any plot-related reason. I think for the most part, they could've gotten away with keeping the original geography of those areas intact without impacting the puzzles too much. Maybe extend the town slightly to allow room for the Charles L Charles statue, or something, but I didn't think it was a case where the entire layout of the islands needed to be overhauled!
  9. Yeah, I don't know if it'll be ten parts, nor do I think that's what they'll be revealing over the next nine (or so) #MonkeyIslandMonday's. And even if there are ten parts, I doubt they'll be anywhere close to an equal length (i.e. Escape/Tales). I think it'd be more likely we'll have one gigantic chapter, and a few smaller chapters on the side like MI1-3. I'd be happier to see more variety in these weekly posts. (i.e. "What's Herman Toothrot up to these days? Find out in ReMI!" , "The first spoken word of ReMI is "You!" Find our what happens next!" , "It's official! Chris Pratt is the new LeChuck!" etc.)
  10. Yep, I think you're onto something here! I'd be willing to bet on 19th September being the release date now, and will assume that it is until further notice! I guess that makes September Monkey Island Month, then! Will begin with MI1/2 classic, then CMI-Tales, then MI1/2 SE, then ReMI! My last series playthrough (and first for a good many years) was able to be completed within the space of a week. That was over the Christmas holidays, however, when I didn't need to account for the dayjob! Will probably begin 1st September and go from there as-and-when.
  11. I can already tell I'm going to want this soundtrack. What's the betting it will be a DLC? Just to put things into perspective, this will be the first Land/McConnell/Bajakian original Monkey Island soundtrack since Escape. I can already tell that it's going to be of the same quality of Curse and Escape's soundtracks. And yeah, Devolver's earlier tweet combined with this makes me think that the release date is at the very least within a few months! Should really start thinking about that series playthrough if that's the case...
  12. I've always assumed that since the bones of Guybrush's parents work with the LeChuck voodoo doll, that proves that they are indeed brothers. (Plus the ending in Big Whoop itself, of course, provided it is all true and not a complete illusion from LeChuckie!) However, the only thing really that makes me cast doubt into that is that CMI - Tales never refers to it at all. And you'd think that would be something one of them would bring up once in a while! (i.e. LeChuck dies for the umpteenth time and Guybrush is like "Til the next time... brother...") As much as I doubt that ReMI is going to tie up every question with a bow, this is an element that I think having more clarity on would be welcomed. On a seperate note, I actually never even realised that LeChuck had a crow in his hat in MI2 until the SE. I could never tell in the pixel art! Now that I know it's there, though. So cool!
  13. I defaulted to putting it after MI2 so that the “Ron Trilogy” would all be on the same line (that and since ReMI begins in the carnival, I feel justified putting it there regardless of what happens in the rest of the game) and then the “Non-Ron Trilogy” of Curse, Escape and Tales, could be on the same line too. I also realised this is technically the first time Murray has appeared on a poster! Very curious to see what kind of a role he has this time around. Even though you can definitely hear the age in his voice now (compared to CMI especially) it’s fantastic that Denny Delk agreed to come back. I wonder if they’d have even put Murray in the game if Delk had declined, or been unable, to return. He wasn’t Ron’s creation, after all.
  14. 😏 Good call! I just threw this together, really! Give us a minute... EDIT: Updated!
  15. And while I went that far, I thought there was no better time than now to display these posters, and the few other physical pieces of Monkey Island merch that I've acquired over the years, plus my physical editions of the games themselves, and display them in one location. Introducing Monkey Corner! (Overlooking the fact that I clearly need ink in my printer, I'm happy with the result nonetheless!)
  16. In anticipation for the new game, and in celebration of the new trailer, I decided to use the assets to hand to Photoshop a ReMI poster that would line up alongside the other Monkey Island posters in last years' LimitedRun box set. (I simply cropped the ReMI key art to the appropriate size (25.5cm x 20.5cm) and pasted the logo onto the top of it.) If you'd like to print one out for yourselves, see the image attached.
  17. Maybe Indy 5 will be Fate of Atlantis! Who knows! (They'd need to update and amend a number of things, of course, but in the movie canon, he hasn't been to Atlantis yet!)
  18. Personally, I think it's unlikely that the outstanding three Monkey Island games would receive high-end remasters/overhauls to the degree that MI1/2 recieved (Curse already being a very high standard aside from it's resolution/compression limitations, and the other two games both essentially being "a niche of a niche" and likely not being seen as worth the money by the studio). But theoretically, if a deal was able to be worked out to bundle all three games together into "lite - medium remasters" and released in a collection, I'd be all over that. Here's what I'd like to see. The Curse of Monkey Island - 4K Resolution (upscaled backgrounds with AI, redraw/trace character sprites in 4K. Uncompress the cutscenes.) - Widescreen (expand 4:3 artwork to 16:9, see more of scrolling backdrops onscreen at once) - Uncompressed soundtrack. (It exists already! The soundtrack is already wonderful. It just needs to be less compressed in-game. The same goes for the voices too.) - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.) Escape From Monkey Island - 4K Resolution (apparently on modern emulators, this fixes the issue of the character models being so compressed in-game? If so, great! We're halfway there!) - Widescreen (if 3D art assets still exist to recapture backgrounds. If not, upscale the 4:3 backgrounds with AI.) - Mouse-based control scheme, similar to Grim Fandango Remastered. - Alexandra Boyd as Elaine (for the sake of continuity across the series. British Elaine should be the default voice in the remaster, with an option in the settings to toggle back to US Elaine should the players wish.) - Uncompressed audio. (If the HQ audio for Curse's soundtrack exists, hopefully EMI's should too. Again, no need to update the music itself, just uncompress. The voices could do with uncompressing too.) - Monkey Kombat chart from PS2 version patched into remaster. - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.) EDIT: Thinking about it, Escape would probably be very difficult to convert into widescreen. Not only would they need to dig up the 3D background source files and recapture all of the backdrops (hoping their early 2000's software still works/is compatible in the meantime) but they'd have to do the same with the cutscenes as well, which rendered the characters and backdrops on different planes and later composited them together. I can't see them thinking widescreen would be worth the effort, so I'd anticipate they'd upscale/uncompress the 4:3 backdrops and cutscenes they have and make do. Tales of Monkey Island - Leilani Jones-Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady (again, for the purposes of continuity across the whole series.) - Live recorded soundtrack. (Even if not the whole soundtrack, the signature pieces could really benefit from live recordings to maintain the quality of CMI/EMI's soundtracks. Other tracks could perhaps do with lifts using alternate instrument banks.) - Improved lighting/shadows. (The Sam & Max remasters improved the first two seasons visuals in this department greatly, and it'd be great to see the same done for Tales.) - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.)
  19. Honestly, I think all of the games did a great job with the visuals and the budgets that they had at the time. Monkey 1 came off the heels of Loom and was comparable, if not an improvement, visually with it's DPaint backdrops. Monkey 2 had stellar paint/marker backgrounds which were compressed/converted into pixel art. Monkey 3 had fantastic artwork which by todays' standards is limited only by it's VGA resolution. Even Escape looks good in its' own right, despite early 2000's 3D (which pretty much the entire industry adopted before it looked good) getting the better of it, it still has good background designs, visual layout and colours. Tales is moreorless of a similar vein, but is far more dynamic in its use of cinematic camerawork and custom character animations. It clearly had a budget to work with and it's definitely showing its age now, but the ambition of it compared to Telltale's earlier works was a vast improvement. (The visual design of Rise of the Pirate God in particular being easily one of the best looking games of Telltale's earlier library, in my opinion.) ReMI seems to be moreorless doing something very different. I think the most divisive issue in regards to the artwork, from what I can tell, seems to be the character models. I think the colour palette is stellar, the backgrounds have both a retro and modern feeling at the same time, and the dynamic camerawork, background animation and atmosphere all help the world to feel alive. As great as the other games are, that's something they didn't always succeed with in that department to the same degree.
  20. Guybrush and Elaine's son, Herman. Named after HT Marley! Also, man, poppa Guybrush. Wouldn't that be closure! "There were pirates when I was a boy..."
  21. Happy Birthday, @KestrelPi!! 😃 🎉 🎈 🎂 🥳
  22. I imagine there will be a physical release through LimitedRun. But to be honest, that 30th Anniversary box set had so many issues that would’ve been so easy to fix (incorrect order of the games on the box, incorrect game artwork on the CD case, no Boen version of Tales Episode 1 after announcing it, even a corrupted USB drive for some recipients) that I feel they really need to get their act together if they’re going to keep releasing these physical editions. Since ReMI would be a solo product, I’d be willing to give them another chance as I feel there’d be less risk of the issues above repeating themselves. To think, if they’d just held off on that box set for another year or two, we could’ve had ReMI included as well, and it would’ve truly felt like a complete collection. I was much more positive towards the set at the time, and there is still a lot to admire about it (the majority being displayed on my wall!) but as more time passes, that set is looking like more and more of a misfire.
  23. If the majority of the game does take place after Tales, I guess that means diving deeper into weather the Voodoo Lady really is evil or not could be possible, especially knowing that she is definitely in the game now. And yes, really like those map transitions in Tales! Hope we get something like that here too.
  24. GUYBRUSH: I found it... After 32 whole years of searching... The Secret of Monkey Island... (opens treasure chest) GUYBRUSH: Wow! It's- *credits*
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