ThreeHeadedDonkey

from my perspective, the "wrapper" itself, is not bad. But it is relatively long and developed, whereas the ending to RTMI, is just a dialog choice, with a consequent video sequence of a few seconds. The metanarrative concept of themepark and storytelling, is ok... maybe could also make it a bit shorter. Above all, the problem is the actual ending! I mean, as a player, I want to PLAY it. With moving characters, dialogues, soundtrack, and actual narrative outcome for the main character! And why not, also some outcome about the side characters, what the hell. This is completely missing, this could have been done also with the "wrapper" in place. Thanks for sharing your views. 😄

thanks for sharing feedback. Well I would say that I see both the "intentions" that you mentioned. But for the disappointment part, I see it as worse than intended (if it was intended), because I'd like to play the story to the end, and not fill in the blanks by myself. No need to disrupt so much my gaming experience, just to draw attention on the author's "positive" intention about closure... which I don't like either, because I already knew that a fictional world is enjoyable: indeed, that's why I bought the game in the first place. 😄 No need to represent a fictional world inside a fictional world just to explain it is fictional. Everyone knows it right from the start. I know I'm remaining on my spot with this answer... but this is what I feel like. sure thanks I see it was merged 🙂

Hi all! I'm a long time point'n'click fan, I looked at this forum for some time, never subscribed. Now I just finished playing Return to Monkey Island and I created an account, so I can share my point of view. And here it is, maybe a bit out of limb for a fan site, I understand it could hurt some fan, but still, this is what I feel, and I want to be honest about it. SPOILER ALERT !! Don't read below this point if you don't want spoilers! Return to Monkey Island starts as a great game. Enjoyable graphics, humor, many charachters with their side stories. The plot develops quite well, it was intriguing to me, kept me attached to the screen. Seems like the authors know their art. Then I get near the end. Guybrush is about to discover the secret, and of course, I'm curious to see how it turns out to be. How the secret affects the main characters, the side characters, the world into which the story is set. The gran finale of the universe into which I find myself as a player, for the courtesy of the author. And this goes in the same way I get myself inside the story of a movie as viewer, of a novel as reader. Even of a song as listener. All for courtesy of the authors. And then, surprise surprise, the storytelling interrupts. As audience of a story, so as videogame player in this case, I feel not respected. Because I've put my time into following the author's story, respecting him, and so I expect respect from the author. Respect from author towards the audience, means finishing to tell the story, consistently to how it was started and developed. So of course I want to understand the reason for this sudden stop. The reason advanced inside the game, about why the story stops being told, is because it's just a story. Quite silly reason, I believe. The metanarrative expedient is used. The story begins with Guybrush telling the story to his son, sitting on a bench. So we have metanarrative since the beginning. In the Intro we have metanarrative with retcon (retroactive continuity) to rework and "fix" the ending of MI2, and give continuity to the plot. So I know Guybrush is telling the story to his son, since the beginning, and it's ok. Because I would know anyway it is just a story. It has real world authors, who are the actual people telling the story, anyway. I knew it, I decided to buy the game, but above all I decided to put my time into playing the game. And the authors make me indeed play the story, in the game: when Guybrush started narrating to its son, as a player I started playing the actual story of Return to Monkey Island. And it's a good game to play. Then I'm pulled out of the tale, right before the end. So to stay in the field of metaphores, here we also have the metaphore of coitus interruptus applied to a videogame 😁. As author, you can switch me back to Guybrush on the bench, you can show me there is a theme park with the story of Monkey Island, whatever you want, but then if you respect me as a player, you bring me back INSIDE the story, and you make me play the end. When you have a hugely developed plot, the most difficult thing for even the greatest authors is finishing the story without ruining it. Without making it too silly or stupid. Metanarrative was used also other times in the history of storytelling, think to movies like "Synecdoche, New York" or "The Truman Show", but in each case, this approach was used to convey a meaningful message about the story itself. Here, we have metanarrative as an excuse to avoid finishing the story. Quite easy to finish like this dear R G. Same thing you've done with Thimbleweed Park: in that game, right before the end, the plot was so developed that it would have needed 1 or 2 sequels to finish it. But no need: surprise surprise, it was just a story, so we just close it with this metanarrative autocelebration. I feel disappointed. Not because of the money I've spent onto the game itself, but because someone brought me inside a universe he's built, and then squashed it all, with me being still inside. Traumatic experience. To be honest, I suspect narcissism is related to this attitude on the authors side. A pity for the story... it's not finished so it is de facto a draft. I will try another game. Thanks to anyone who has read this until the end. Cheers.