Jayel

Sometimes even when I'm not stuck on a puzzle, it feels like everything stops! I was playing The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 recently and I think 90% of my time was spent waiting for characters to walk slowly across the screen, do a little turn, do a little side step to position themselves, then playback interaction animation or whatever. It's so infuriatingly slow I wanted to claw my own skin off. And yeah I agree with PnC adventure games not being very cinematic. I might have said that this genre is the best vehicle for storytelling in games at one point. I don't know if I believe that anymore. I'm sure some of it has to do with production values, but traditional PnC games are just tiny figures standing in still dioramas and I can hardly read their facial expression or body language. it's like watching a community theatre from the back row - it asks just too much of me and I've been thoroughly spoiled by more accessible forms that require less imagination on my part.

I agree. Even if they're not gameplay relevant they make the world more tangible. I don't have numbers to prove it but I think LucasArts adventure games tended to have fewer interactable hotspots compared to games from other studios (for example, look at some of early 90's Sierra games where there isn't a single pixel in a room that doesn't have some sort of text description), perhaps to reduce players wasted time using everything on everything when they're stuck on a puzzle and don't know what to do next. Their worlds felt less rich as a result of it. Puzzles in adventure games aren't satisfying to solve for the most part - there's no out of the box creative problem solving like emergent sandbox games - so I'd rather that they stay on lite side and give as many interactable (or "look-at"able) hotspots/items as possible that are not tied to puzzles.

I had to resort to hint for this puzzle. Upon reading the solution, my reaction was neither "aha why didn't I think of that" nor "I never would've thought of that", but worse - it was "I tried that already!" I might have miscounted or did in the wrong order? It was perhaps my least favourite puzzle which is unfortunate because it's the very last puzzle and left the impression that it didn't quite stick the landing.

The controls were great. Probably the best implementation of gamepad controls I've seen in a point & click adventure. If I had one thing to nitpick, I never fully got the hang of inventory - I'm not sure how it could've been done better/differently, but every time I had to dismiss the inventory screen after grabbing an item, or cancel grab to grab a different item, I had to pause for a few sec and think about which button to press (or just mash B until everything is clear and start over). Also whenever I finished interacting with a hotspot, all the hotspot would disappear until I moved Guybrush, so I'd often have to keep wiggling the left analog stick if I'm near multiple hotspots, but I think that's just a bug.

I finally finished the game last night. My read of the ending was similar to what some of you noted already, in that it's mainly a meta thing. Not necessarily "Guybrush was in a theme park all along", but rather that it's the players that have been on a ride (called The Secret of Monkey Island). And each game in the series is different just like how your childhood favourite ride is updated and different each time you revisit as an adult years apart. Anyway I liked the ending, though it felt abrupt and not necessarily connected to the rest of the game. Yeah I thought this was what the entire game was going to be about. Like, the secret has something to do with the blind pursuit of (former) glory leading to lives ruined, big confrontation at the end, lesson learned, character arc resolved, etc. I don't know if it's an unfinished plot thread or maybe a meta reflection on the developers (or the players)...

I'm just glad that they didn't bring back Orson Scott Card to help with the writing.

If they're holding back release for marketing reasons even though the game is already done... ooooh I'm so mad.

Yeah curious about the Switch controls too because that's my preferred platform. I really hope it's not controlling the cursor with analog sticks. The last game I played that did that (Later Alligator) I wanted to throw the Switch against the wall.

I finally finished playing through Insecticide on DS and now I'm ready. That's what we all were doing, right?

This one gave me a small chuckle

Did Ron or anyone involved with the first game ever talk about how they decided which character would get the full portrait treatment? It's odd that it's so front-loaded starting with 3 very unimportant pirates in the Scumm Bar, then so sparse afterwards.

That's interesting! Brr Muda might be my favourite so far but for the same reason. It's clearly supposed to be a very hostile environment, and all the jagged edges and unstable angles are successful at reinforcing that feeling. The bear trap with severed human leg and dried up blood is also a nice touch. If I had one criticism of CMI's (and later games') background art, is that every location felt like they were sanded down and made child-proof - it was all so darn ...pleasant. I'm glad to see that there are locations in ReMI that gives me unease makes me feel unwelcome for a change.

Same. I remember it feeling like an open world teeming with stuff (though it's just an illusion). I also loved how each island felt very distinct: Scabb/Woodtick was cozy, Phatt was seedy, Booty was festive... I feel like in later games, all the locations kinda blur together (maybe that's my unpopular opinion!)

As the guy who did the header image for that article, I think ReMI looks great! Its art feels very much like work of an accomplished and technically competent artist going for a particular style (and it is - looking at Rex Crowle's previous works they're jawdroppingly good. Knights and Bikes in particular, you can really tell it was his passion project). No one's wrong to dislike it or disagree with it stylistically, but half the fun in appreciating art is engaging with stuff you don't like, wouldn't you agree

I thought I preferred Elaine's voice in EMI but I played through it last week (for the first time in 2 decades) and she sounds very different from what I remember. I think I was mixing it up with the Dainty Lady Figurehead's voice in my memory.