demone

Agreed, you've been dead on with most of the marketing and I think you're right about the release date as well.

Well, as long as it comes out this year (there's been no indication it would be otherwise), the wait will be shorter than the amount of time passed since the game's announcement. This is where I really start to enjoy the wait for an upcoming game. Next week seems like it's going to be an awesome one.

LeChuck looks genuinely frightening on that cover and I love how it's a nice evolution of his zombie form while also taking elements from others as well. This might actually be my favorite design of him. I think some people were afraid he would be too goofy based off that initial clip a couple of weeks ago, but if this cover is anything to go off of, I think we'll see something akin to his presence in MI2. With so much appearing to happen in this game, it's nice to see that LeChuck will still have a center stage. The series I feel is more about his rivalry with Guybrush than anything else.

They said there would be more/big news this month. If Tuesday has a trailer and a release date, that's enough for me and would still make that tweet 100% true.

Ah true, how could I forget one of my favorite puzzles/moments from Curse.

I would love an interaction between LeChuck and Murray. It's actually wild, but I just realized Murray had only interacted with Guybrush and Decava's crew and Morgan if the player selected the option.

I think the best way to handle the whole canon thing is to essentially just go with the flow. Not everything needs to be referenced and Ron and Dave have been pretty upfront about not letting their canon guidelines be so stringent that they have to go out of their way to make everything consistent.

I mean outside of Melee Island, we've only seen one clip on another location and a couple of screens for Monkey Island. Nothing from the Terror island as far as I can tell and I hope it stays that way. This game does seem to be massive. As for Ron's thoughts on length, he also did say in the commentary for MI2 special edition that he found the game very long. I think for Return though, it's much different given how much is involved in the story at this point. So, the length of the game might be informed by that, especially given all the characters in it.

Symbols are also everywhere in this game. Could just be vandalism, another byproduct of Melee Island going south, but they are also on ships.

That small shot of the Melee Island clock and street... this game looks gorgeous.

Yeah, that's all I meant: them not knowing Keighley would make an announcement before the show. I fully assume they know what will actually be featured at the show. @Jake Also, by no means was I trying to create "conspiracy theory-like drama." There's a lot to unpack in that statement. It was a simple observation I was just making, nothing more.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but it's a little interesting that Ron nor Dave haven't retweeted or responded to the Gamescome tweet at all yet. I wonder if they weren't expecting it to be announced beforehand and wanted people to not know for sure if Return would be featured in any capacity at the show. Monkey Mondays are really the only marketing being done so far where people know when reveals are coming.

Edit: probably would've helped if I wasn't an idiot and I realized/read the date of Gamescom lol Disregard this post. That being said, I now think a release day at the event is more likely. If I had to make a prediction, Monday will showcase another character or inventory. Tuesday will be a trailer with a release date (I'd say it's a 50/50 chance for the release date). I'm still predicting mid-late September for the actual release. PAX would be a great, final opportunity for them to really hype it up. If we get a release date next week, I'm hibernating from the reveals/news until after that date and I played and finished the game lol I'm usually fine with any reveals from the marketing team with other games, but this game is potentially the most invested I've ever been with a game and I want as many seconds as possible to be my first experience with the full context.

Honestly, once we get the release date, I might just go dark until the actual release. I was sold the moment it was announced and I kinda wish I experienced some of the reveals in the game itself with full context.

If I had to guess, the release date is probably what Devolver was hinting at last month and will be the ones to reveal it, since it was their tweet hyping up news this month. I don't think it will be something that a Monkey Monday will reveal. Those seem like something Ron and Dave are heading and is more tied to game mechanics itself. Devolver seems to heading more of the traditional marketing and I think they will be the ones to reveal date sometime this month.

Yeah and even one that appears to be human, which would essentially cover the entire spectrum of his forms from Secret to Tales.

I see a lot of comments saying LeChuck seems too goofy, but I always find that LeChuck is at his best when he has goofy moments that disarm us and then a sudden shift to scary and creepy. LeChuck's Revenge was probably the closest to seeing a purely serious and sadistic LeChuck, followed closely by Tales Episode 5, but I think it can work better when you don't expect it. The idea that we can laugh at this guy, but then remember in the next scene that he kills and tortures people, forms pacts with demon netherworlds, becomes a demon himself, and conducts satanic rituals, has always been one of my core experiences with the series. The trailer implies that LeChuck will very much still have plenty of dark moments and remain a legitimate threat, which I think is the more important piece. I don't mind him having goofy moments, so long as he's still a legitimate threat. I would also say that I don't view LeChuck himself as being really goofy here; it's just the context of the scene. The scenes that will showcase his malice will be when to really judge if this version is too goofy or not, but so far, I really like the voice and it fits the character well in my opinion.

My guess is that Guybrush sneaks aboard LeChuck's ship after Melee Island. LeChuck's ship is docked there filling up with supplies and equipment while LeChuck is potentially meeting with someone. He's preparing for a long journey to perhaps a series of destinations. Guybrush rushes to see the Voodoo Lady who gives him the lowdown and he has to complete a series of tasks, culminating with him sneaking aboard the ship and ending Part I. Also, I like the voice. Hearing no one but Earl for so long will always make some adjustment necessary. I also think the bla bla blas are in Guybrush's mind. He's eavesdropping and eventually tunes out (sorta like at the end of Curse when talking to LeChuck) because he hears nothing of value except LeChuck talking about his usual torture methods.

Dominic mentioned this game having some really deep currents. Maybe one of the themes of the game is that both Guybrush and LeChuck are trying to find their place in the world. If they are indeed brothers, something must've happened that forced them to go on similar paths, albeit with very different outcomes. LeChuck looks angry and a little broken in the trailer; at his wit's end that he still doesn't have what he wants after so many years. Guybrush is mentioned as being in a similar situation and drifting along. I wonder what LeChuck's conclusion in particular will be in this game. I think it's gone beyond him simply being defeated now.

I think from a marketing perspective, LeChuck makes a lot of sense. He's voiced by someone different, unless they actually did convince Earl and want to surprise us, so I think it would really excite people to hear his voice. If not, the Voodoo lady would be my next bet. If so, I hope they use her voice actress from Tales. I found her take to be absolutely perfect.

With all due respect to the actor, the main problem I had with Adam was that he sounded like someone trying too hard to be a villain. The "HAR, HAR, HAR" just didn't work for me. Earl Boen just made his villainy seem so organic. Curse was my first Monkey Island game and LeChuck's monologues at the end actually frightened me as a child, in a good way. Up until that point, I was used to harmless and stereotypical cartoon villains. LeChuck was the first instance of me realizing that the villains in media can actually torture and kill people. The conversation between Guybrush and LeChuck at the end of Curse not only fascinated me, but horrified me as well lol Again, in a good way.

My first thought is LeChuck. Anyone wanna place some bets lol

Yeah, my impression was she's neither good or evil but right in the middle (maybe leaning a bit more towards good). She's not controlling people or changing their nature, just guiding them and omitting key details. She is working to keep things on a certain path and I think those details could fit nicely into what is going on and revealed from the end of LeChuck's Revenge.

Random thought, but damn, if they do also touch on the Voodoo Lady's ambitions, this game is going to be absolutely insane.

I think the other component to it is that Mike Stemmle has said in his interview with Laura that he himself feels that this plot point was them trying a little too hard to leave their mark on the series' lore and fully supports any head canons where this plot point does not really exist. Granted there were other people who wrote the story, I think Mike being fine with the plot point being ignored goes a long way in it not being too big a deal.