demone

Voice recording is officially complete. https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/1536502578967547906?s=20&t=YALbs_jbJkdWdnBJt5H0Yw

Ron recently revealed on Twitter that the quickest a tester ran through the game was 1.5 hours on casual mode, skipping all dialogue and cutscenes. I think the speed runs for the other games were much shorter, so it looks like this game is going to be a massive MI game, especially given the amount of lines in it. I wonder if the casual mode will be similar to LeChuck's Revenge or Curse. Curse added more puzzles, but the bulk of the game was still there, but LeChuck's Revenge casual mode was almost like a demo version with how streamlined the puzzles were and significantly cut down the playtime.

While I was initially disappointed that there was no trailer, in many ways, I wouldn't have it any other way with this type of marketing. I have never really been so excited for a game where the only real updates come from the twitter of the creator, but I also love it because it's not only another Monkey Island game, but the Monkey Island game so many have been waiting for, so it makes perfect sense the marketing wouldn't cater to the typical model. I know there's been a lot of discussion on how this will not be the same game as it would've been 30 years ago, but it's still the game made by Ron that will begin right at that Carnival again. So in that regard, it was always the game I wanted and everything else, especially Ron and Dave having decades more experience as game designers and writers, will make it even better. I sorta love not knowing the release date or almost anything about this game. It helps me live in blissful ignorance that it could release at any time lol. Even though Ron and Dave say they wouldn't do this in an interview, I still wouldn't put it past them to reveal a trailer and then say "oh and it comes out next week." Ron has been pretty blunt and honest in his ambition to not market the hell out of this game, even reposting that rule in his "When I Made Another Monkey Island" Grumpy Gamer blog, as it's a much more personal one for him. Honestly, the fact that he isn't marketing the game in a traditional way a lot I think proves that Disney and Devolver Digital are fully letting Ron do what he always wanted to do. The way it was even so casually teased on Ron's blog is also pretty indicative of that as well. It wasn't the usual way to promote a game, but it was exactly how Ron had dreamed of doing it for years for this game, so I'm happy he is able to do it the way he wants; the guy deserves it. The fans of the series are pretty much hooked at this point. While Ron and Dave both expressed that they still want to appeal to the wider masses, I think the post-release coverage will do just that just as well. I also think that, if Ron doesn't make another Monkey Island after this, he will still be content in finally making the game he wanted to make. I'm also going to play this game with that expectation in mind and I think I'll be happy just knowing we not only had 6 Monkey Island games, all made from various talented and brilliant people and teams, but we finally got the Monkey Island game. What can I say, I think that even after two months, I'm still on a high, and in a little disbelief, knowing we're finally getting this game.

I loved how I found out about the official reveal and trailer. Going back 11 months to the summer, when the "Sea of Thieves" DLC came out and there was a massive Monkey Island easter egg in it, I watched it on YouTube (I don't own the game but I saw the video as a suggestion in my feed). It was a nice July night and I was enjoying a couple of beers and decided to leave a comment, which basically stated that the easter egg made it clear that Disney knew Monkey Island existed and I was hoping the easter egg was a teaser of what's to come. I ended the comment by stating my hope for the original trio, Ron, Dave, and Tim to collaborate one more time to make the game Ron wanted to make. Nine months later, I had seen Ron's Grumpy Gamer post on April 1st and, like many, thought it was a 50/50 chance of being true. Ron has such a creative sense of humor, I had honestly no idea what to make of it. Over the weekend, I had actually forgot about it. The day of the reveal trailer, someone responded to that 9 month-old YouTube comment with the news of the new game and I got the notification of that response. Upon reading it, I immediately Googled "Monkey Island" and watched the trailer. I think the shock of reading that response was even greater than the trailer itself for me. This YouTube video will forever mean something special to me lol.

That's awesome. Ron seems like such a good guy; makes it all the better that he's finally able to make the game he wants to make.

Dom said he knows the Secret now (albeit very playfully), so I'm going to risk being disappointed. I actually never put much stock in the secret blowing my mind simply because the only relevance the secret had was in the title of the first game. My excitement was always for a good game in an amazing series, but when tweets are made about the secret, yes I put stock in them. If it's not releveled, no big deal, but I'm enjoying in the speculation that it might.

I actually liked Gavin the most out of all of Stan's voice actors. I also remember him as Kenny from Telltale's Walking Dead series. Patrick Pinney was great as Stan in CoMI, but I felt his voice was a little forced in the Special Editions, which is a common complaint of mine for the voice acting in those games (more so the first one), especially the narrator.

For me, I think the only real disdain I had for Escape from Monkey Island was, for so many years, it was the final Monkey Island game. It felt lacking in that regard for me with Guybrush being kicked off a cliff by Timmy the Monkey, who I hated because he is foisted onto players as if he was an established character. Even with Tales being the final game for an even longer period of time, Tales really felt like a grand finale from a character and story perspective with an epic final showdown and some genuine, heartfelt moments at the end that also reminded me of previous entries. With Escape not being the final game, but one in the middle, that disdain basically dissolved for me. The only other thing I would say is that I think the game sorta missed the mark a little bit with Guybrush's character. While he was still funny, his edge was really lacking in the game. Guybrush is not really a badass, but he has these great moments of edge and wit that are perfectly captured in all the other games. He was basically degraded by every character over and over again in Escape to the point that he is kicked off a cliff and left calling for help. Beyond that, I really enjoyed it and it has a certain charm that is unique to it. It's certainly unlike any of the other games in the series and while some use that as evidence that it's a bad Monkey Island game, I think the opposite and feel its unique charm is a selling point. It also has some of Dominic's best and funny lines in the entire series in my opinion. I love the banter between him and Jojo and his original MI crew. I also really loved Meathook's backstory as a painter; funny yet moving at the same time. Despite Herman's backstory being a mess, I did appreciate how the game tied up the Carnival of the Damned and the Caverns of Hell, as well as Elaine's governorship. The overall story is silly, but I also respect it for just going completely crazy by the end with a talking monkey, a giant monkey robot, and fighting in Monkey jabber.

I wonder if this is the last session then; it would make sense that they would want to make it the last bit to record. I'm also relieved this basically confirms that the Secret will indeed be revealed in this game. I think it was generally assumed, but it's nice to have the reassurance. Starting the game by picking right back up where LeChuck's Revenge ended at the carnival and the Secret being revealed were literally the only things I was really hoping for with this game, even when it was only in a hypothetical state for decades. With both essentially confirmed, I'm more pumped than ever.

Escape had a lot of contradictions to the overall story and lore, so I think just avoiding references to that one is probably for the best. I actually really enjoyed that game, but it did make a lot of contradictions with Herman's new backstory. Ron has already said in an earlier tweet that Herman will be back to being just an old man. As for Tales, Ron did collaborate with Dave and Telltale on the overall story direction and did reference Guybrush going to the afterlife in his Grumpy Gamer blog, so he seems to remember the overall layout of that story well enough. If not, he has good ol' Dave who helmed the project.

I remember in one of Ron's blogs he wrote that, had he done insult sword fighting again, he would make it much more intuitive in that players could create their own insults, rather than rely on predetermined ones you needed to learn. I would be open to that, since it would be a somewhat new concept and would make it even more enjoyable on repeat plays. The only complaint I have against insult sword fighting is that replaying the games already knowing the insults but still needing to relearn them again can be very grating, especially when you keep fighting pirates that don't have them. But, as others have said, I would rather Return to be nearly entirely new. It really seems like this game is going to toy with the reality of Monkey Island, which started to almost break down and morph at the end of 2. I'm almost picturing a segment where reality breaks down completely. Guybrush's reflection changes to other incarnations of his character throughout the series as he walks, parts of the environment containing inventory items from all the games, sound bites from different parts of the series. Something crazy to outdo the ending of 2.