Knight Owl

Maybe you still wouldn’t even get to read it until after the credits when he pieces it back together, and it goes in the scrapbook.

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE MENTIONED THIS. I love this game and I got used to it after a while but man this game feels so much less responsive than literally any other point and click adventure, purely because each click only registers *after* you let go of the mouse button, and you can’t hold it down to keep moving in a direction. It’s a good thing the controller controls are surprisingly fantastic. I don’t see how anyone could speedrun this game with mouse and keyboard with how much smoother the controller works; did you know you can free roam and run on the map screens with a controller, rather than being stuck to the path? It takes like less than half the time to traverse. I generally would agree with the rest of your critiques (although for me they didn’t bring the experience down much), but this is the one thing that I definitely never felt while playing the game. I replayed MI2 right before this one, and wow that game’s solutions are so ridiculous that I couldn’t get through it without hints. This one on the other hand, I felt like all the solutions were pretty reasonable, and the puzzles well designed, if not particularly complex. I managed to not use the hint book at all on my hard mode play through. I’ve heard some even say that the game was too easy compared to previous games. That said, I respect your opinions about it; I know how much puzzles feeling annoying can bring down the experience.

To me, I feel like part of what made the years of speculation so fun was knowing that there *was* an answer somewhere that could be revealed one day. And now that it has, I feel a really nice sense of closure. And I’m glad the game still gives us more to speculate about. I’d argue that the game is *not* saying that it’s better not to know the secret; if it was, I don’t think they would have revealed it. I think it’s saying that that there’s fun in not knowing, but that, if you do want to know, you need to prepare yourself for the reality that it might not be very exciting- but that, nonetheless, it can feel good just to finally find out. Hence why Guybrush says “I’ll need to think about [whether it was worth it]”, not that it definitively was or wasn’t worth it.

I love the art style but I definitely wouldn’t want every monkey island thing to look like that forever, just like I wouldn’t want it to be pixel art or 3D forever. But i would *love* a T shirt with this style pleaaaaseeeee. And, to be honest, the only part of the game where I felt like the vibes were *absolutely perfect* was on LeShip.

I think I would agree with this as it pertains to the ending, although before I got to the end, as I was playing the game, I honestly didn't have many complaints about the world and characters. I do think the islands could have been more fleshed out, but I was just happy to be able to explore this vast sea and meet a bunch of new characters. The part on LeChuck's ship struck me as being particularly character focused which was awesome, and a great change of pace from what I'd experienced with Monkey Island up until that point. The adventure just felt really big to me, the way it basically takes the structure of monkey island 1 and 2 and smushes them together. It certainly felt like a bigger game than SMI, imo. It helped that I only played a couple hours a day and spread it out over two weeks, I think. But near the end I felt like I was definitely rushing to see what was next and get to the secret, which dampened my enjoyment a bit. I was so caught up in getting to the next screen that I didn't even realize you could unlock the golden chest! Idk, feel like this game was pretty optimistic in the end (despite being intentionally unsatisfying in a traditional way), and I can't imagine that whatever Ron had in mind in the 90s would have been more optimistic than this.

The more I think about the ending, the more I simultaneously appreciate it for what it's trying to say, but also... *sigh* I just wish we got a bit more character resolution. I think they could have still incorporated those themes while not necessarily "taking the wind out" of the ending, as Ron put it in Cress's interview. The ending started to get a bit emotional, and I feel like it could have been more so if it played around in that space a little more. And, although the game's main themes revolve around storytelling and memory, there were also themes about accepting change, and being kind and respectful of others, that I'm not sure really came through in the ending. For how long this game was anticipated, and how many times Ron has done the abrupt ending, I guess I thought it would have been okay for this game to finally have a bit more of a cushion to land on. Idk. I think, certainly, the wrong way to approach this game's ending is to finish the game, immediately think "wow, that sucked and meant nothing," assume the team meant it as a slap in the face, and never try to think about it beyond that. But, even after thinking about it a whole bunch, I'm still not sure this is the best ending they could have gone with. Oh, btw, I think they handled the stuff with the secret and the dialogue tree with boybrush at the end really well (although I feel like, to make things slightly less confusing, the T-shirt probably should have said "all I *got* was this stupid t-shirt" rather than "all it *was* was this stupid t-shirt", no idea why they worded it that way, but whatever haha).

Terror island gave me Mary Blair vibes, like the colors and shapes, which I loved. really felt like something you’d see in a Disney art book

I wish Brr Muda had a little bit more to it – Like, I wish the little seaside town you can see to the far right of the trials building, with Guybrush’s ship, was explorable. Melee island felt like the only fully realized town in the game, which is fine, it’s all about what’s necessary for telling the story. But I like towns and I wish there were more 😛

I'm still interested in knowing the intent behind MI2's ending. If that was supposed to be the reveal of the secret, what the lighting eyes and Elaine saying "I hope he doesn't have a horrible spell on him" meant, or if they had any idea how they were gonna resolve it in a potential third game. Just curious

Well said

Now I'm thinking that maybe Ron just in the moment said "I have my own interpretation of what is canon" just in the sense that the game invites everyone to decide what's canon for themselves, but then realized the implications of what he just said and backtracked. Haha

Agreed. Which is why it's such a tease to go and say "One of these endings is my personal interpretation of what really happened." (paraphrasing) Why would he do this to us!! 😛

Yeahh, honestly! Like I'm genuinely just curious, and I don't think I would take that as being canon, seeing as the game clearly treats all endings as equally "canon," and that Ron says Dave and the other team members likely have their own choice for which ending is canon. I get what Ron is saying, that whichever one he says is right is what the internet is going to latch on to, but I *kinda* think there's a way to talk about it without that happening. Idk. That said, if I had to guess which ending I think Ron thinks is canon, just based on process of elimination, I feel like it's gotta be the theme park ending, just because Ron says in the interview that the secret was originally envisioned to be that guybrush was really in an amusement park the whole time. I think maybe part of the reason he doesn't want to say it is that he knows it's not the direction the series has gone in over the years, and wants to respect that. I know it doesn't matter but I really dislike speculating about what *Ron's real thoughts* are. I just wanna know, haha, I don't think it would ruin anything for me. It's definitely a little horrifying that Ron seemingly plans to take this one to the grave. Haha, I don't really care. I don't care. I don't. I do not.

Wow, hearing ron talking openly about the secret and how it changed/stayed the same from the original game is so, incredibly satisfying. Like, I know that an interpretation of the game's themes is that, whatever the secret was, it was going to be unsatisfying. But for me, hearing this, it's just so nice to finally get some closure.

Can't wait for Return To Monkey Island: Special Edition where we get developer commentary

Possibly more foreshadowing to it being an escape-room esque experience?

This one feels really Peter McChonnell-ey, like something from Psychonauts 2. I love it

Sorry about that btw, I misunderstood what you were saying. I think we’re both on the same page 😅

Fair enough

I loved the LeShip music but I couldn’t stop hearing fiddler on the roof every time it looped, lol. It’s amazing but after hours of it I got slightly tired of it so I’m going with Melee

Well, even if they didn’t have the same ideas that I had, I can still come up with my interpretation for everything, right? That’s the whole thesis of the game!

ughhh I literally can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about the ending, and trying to think of an interpretation that works with everything we’ve seen. I just really hope that, since all interpretations are valid, that Ron Gilbert won’t shy away from telling us his interpretation. Stuff like, why he keeps returning to the idea of theme parks. How the carnival opening evolved in his mind over the years, what he was originally planning on doing that after MI2. I feel pretty confident that the amusement park was his original idea for the secret, because of the plaque, but I’d like to hear him expand on like, what that meant exactly at the time, how that might have played out. Like I’m totally cool with the idea that there’s no definitive answers to any of the questions, but I hope in interviews Ron will tell us all his thoughts and opinions honestly, without holding back just to be mysterious like he would have before this game came out. Anyways, here’s where I’m at with the story right now. Sorry if it’s super incoherent, it’s like 2am right now haha. I like the idea that Guybrush wanted to tell a story about how all his adventures were really just him at a carnival. (Why, I’m not sure, but I’m sure you could speculate about that. Maybe something from his childhood?) But because of what we know from all the other games, the story guybrush wanted to tell just didn’t really make sense anymore. Boybrush literally lives in a piratey world where Elaine is his mom, so of course to him that story wouldn’t make any sense! In other words, Ron Gilbert had a story he wanted to tell, but all the other games contradicted it, and so this game is the story that emerges from those contradictions. This is represented in the game at the end, when we see a literal contradiction with how guybrush acts when looking at all the cardboard cutouts (like he knew the whole time that it was all fake) vs how he acts when talking to Elaine (confused about what’s going on.) I think Elaine is telling him, “this weird obsession with the original secret of monkey island, this weird carnival thing, just doesn’t work anymore. Let’s put it to rest.” And so you turning off all the lights is like Ron Gilbert symbolically putting the whole carnival plotline to rest, and embracing whatever direction the story wants to go next. To be clear, I think that guybrush’s adventures were mostly all real, with some embellishments here and there. I think that because I see no reason for the park bench stuff to not be considered “real.” To me, it’s the carnival stuff that’s the fantasy, hence why we see the “Big Whoop Amusement Park” turn into a quaint little town at the beginning of the game. As for what really happened when Guybrush went through the door? I think whatever you tell boybrush happened is what really happened, as we see with all the epilogues. On the topic of contradictions: At the beginning of the game, guyrbush tells boybrush that you can’t just mess around with the ending, and that that’s not how storytelling works. At the end of the game, boybrush reminds guybrush that he said that, To which he replies, “I did?” I think This is Ron Gilbert sort of poking fun at himself, and how he used to be so particular with what his third MI would be, and how he’s loosened up. And it (lovingly) pokes fun at the fanbase, for obsessing so much about every word he’s said. The beginning of the game is “If I made another monkey island,” and the end of the game is “when I made another monkey island.” I’m reminded of the initial reveal trailer. Murray: Ron Gilbert told me he’d never make another monkey island unless~ Ron Gilbert: I did? Ok that’s enough for now. I probably missed a whole bunch of stuff. Not gonna proofread this, just had to get it out there. TLDR: Game good, I need sleep. Aaaaaaaaaaaaa

anyone have an idea about what this is? When you click on it in the scrapbook Guybrush comments on how it fell out. (sorry again if this has already been talked about)

I believe it was in a mandatory cutscene! When LeChuck is fighting Lila. He says something like "We're looking for the SECRET, I'll have my REVENGE, something about a CURSE, you can't ESCAPE, or live to tell the TALES"

I'm sure someone's mentioned this already, but the line LeChuck has at the end where he says all the names of the monkey island games 👌 Didn't someone make that exact joke in one of the other threads??