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Lechuck

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Posts posted by Lechuck

    Return to Monkey Island

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 7/1/2022 at 12:21 AM, Jake said:

    The EGA closeup portraits look really damn close to the box art for Monkey Island 1, and the way the Monkey Head and LeChuck’s ship look are also a close match. Monkey 1 and its box art do look very similar. The box art was drawn by one of the primary background and character artists on the game. It’s closer to a Struzan-style poster for a movie (imagining a heightened moment that doesn’t exist and/or a dreamlike collage), than to Mega Man (wildly and wholly unrelated), to me. I think the aftermarket VGA portraits have forever made the MI1 box and the game feel misaligned, but they aren’t.

     

    With Monkey 2 things start to separate more, for sure. 

     

    Monkey 2 has a mix of styles in its close up moments. The campfire near the beach and the fisherman both veer towards cartoony, but Rapp Scallion is quite realistic and is a pretty close match to the box art.

     

    The mismatch in styles never bothered me, and still doesn't - they just went with what was right for each moment. They tended to treat the horror aspects with a bit more realism, which I always liked. It was fun horror that still felt a bit dangerous - it trod its tonal tightrope very well.

    • Like 2

    Return to Monkey Island

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think something that is getting overlooked in the art discussion is not just the art from the original games, but the art used to sell them. While pixel art may leave a lot to the imagination, Steve Purcell's box art painted a pretty clear picture of how those worlds and characters were supposed to look. And I think we can agree that those paintings are seminal works amongst Monkey Island fans.

     

    Nostalgia for the childhoods of the 80s and 90s has been sweeping the world for several years now, across numerous properties, so I don't disagree that it's part of it. I've read about it for other reasons and it's seen as a symptom of troubled times, so take from that what you will.

     

    Yes there was a shift in art style between MI1 and 2, but it was hedged. The backgrounds were more surreal but the characters were similar, or in some cases exactly the same. And the promotional artwork was consistent in style across both games. The full shift in art didn't happen until Ron left the series.

     

    When taken as a totality - box art and game art, and the original creator responsible for both coming back - the choice to go in this direction is like expecting a sequel to the Mona Lisa and instead getting Picasso. Brilliant in its own right perhaps, but also confounding for many who were expecting something like the original Ron Gilbert game style.

     

    • Chef's Kiss 1

    Return to Monkey Island

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Unfortunately I'm just not a fan of the art style. To me, art as abstract as this is a barrier to immersion, and one of the things I always loved about the first two games was that you could get lost in those worlds. That was what Ron used to want too, with his story of wanting to get off the boat at Disneyland.

     

    This is no criticism of Rex. He does what he does very well. But for a game that is celebrating so many of the original team coming back, it feels like a shame that this wasn't extended to the art team as well.

     

    I wasn't necessarily after pixel art, and I hear Ron when he says that the games always used the most cutting edge technology that was available, but by returning to this property after so many years and making a direct sequel to MI2, this is by definition a legacy / nostalgia IP and that does come with years of weight to it.

     

    But it is what it is, and I will really try to meet the game on its own terms when I get to play it.

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    Return to Monkey Island

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    So what do we know so far?

     

    Melee Island is back. Guybrush probably gets there through through the elevator in the tunnels.

     

    LeChuck's ghost ship is docked at Melee Island... but didn't Guybrush wipe out his crew? And how will Zombie LeChuck engage with his old crew? Why didn't he use them in MI2?

     

    The one thing Ron's said about this in the past is that Guybrush will probably go to hell. But what does that mean? Is that different to what's below Monkey Island? Are we doing a Dante nine levels of hell? Or is it a different kind of hell? The hell of everyday life as a young boy?

     

    Confirmed returning characters: Murray and the lookout. We can probably assume Elaine, Voodoo Lady and Stan will be back too.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Return to Monkey Island

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The art style looks like an evolution from MI2, which was already leaning towards a stylistic vibe over the more 'realistic' SOMI. I know Ron wasn't such a fan of the more realistic close ups etc. I personally always liked them, and the pixel art kind of let your own imagination run wild as to what it all really looked like.

     

    I guess my one hope is that they keep that "light horror with an edge" vibe of MI2 - like that LeChuck was actually kind of scary. Some of his designs over the years with short stubby legs always felt like they undercut the character.

     

    But I'm looking forward to seeing more of everything. It's so great that so many of the original team are back!

    • Like 1

    The Monkey Island box set from Limited Run Games

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    This post from the Monkey Island subreddit sums up how I'm feeling:

     

    Quote

     

    The black boxes / covers - maybe they couldn't make it over to Lucasfilm, but couldn't the staff there look through the archives and do scans for them? If they were licensing the games for this, and could have had access, how much more of a step would it have been to ask, hey... could one of you scan what you've got?

     

    Alternatively, there's the Laserschwert posters, which supposedly were already used by them for the Sega CD release.

     

    Or, as you suggest, commission Steve Purcell and / or Peter Chan and / or Bill Tiller to generate something new.

     

    A real rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle, or a 3D printed Guybrush doll would have been so much better than that anime-esque statue which, while technically well sculpted, does not capture Guybrush's innocence or charm, or the vibe of the series.

     

    The posters... don't even get me started. Print Laserschwert's if you really can't get anything else, but the island maps and / or the tri-island area map from MI2 would have been so much better. Or recreate the "Do The Monkey!" treasure map from MI1.

     

    The behind the scenes book - I would LOVE a book with high quality prints of the art from the game, but if they couldn't get to the archives to get any art, then... what's in the book?

     

     

     

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