Return to Monkey Island

[KestrelPi]

10 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

When you say "everything", what are you referring to?

 

• Monkey Island Mondays. Do we really think they're planning to do this for 20 weeks?
• There's just... not much left to do on the game, as far as we can tell. It's been fully playable for a long time, and the voices are in, and they're pretty much bug squishing now and have been for the past couple of months if the tweets are anything to go by.
• The September placeholder on Devolver at least suggests that's around when they thought it would be ready in April, and they could have very well stuck to that (and there's been nothing to suggest it's slipping, they've always said 2022 with confidence which I don't think they would have done if it was already slipping to Nov/Dec)
• Talk Like a Pirate day is just inherently a plausible hypothesis, I think.
• Gamescom. Some sort of gamescom exclusive reveal would be much more impactful if the release was imminent and not actually a few months away still.

 

None of these things are killer reasons on their own, but if I were to put my thumb in the air and try to figure out which way the wind was blowing I'd say it's still blowing septemberwards, regardless of anything else.

Edited August 15, 2022 by KestrelPi

[LowLevel]

As I said in the first post, my conclusion is that whatever they put in that data field is not reliable and can't be used to estimate anything.

 

I think that this is especially true for Return to Monkey Island, because its production has behaved in peculiar ways, like deciding to reveal the existence of the game on April 1st, just because it was funny to do so.

 

So, when Devolved Digital created that page and the date of September 1st was put in that data field, there is no way to know if it was just the usual vague estimation that they put there for every game or if the date was influenced by Ron targeting again some funny event, like International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th) or Fight Procrastination Day (September 6th, expectedly).

[OzzieMonkey]

1 minute ago, LowLevel said:

or if the date was influenced by Ron targeting again some funny event, like International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th) or Fight Procrastination Day (September 6th, expectedly).

Ok..that's funny and would be pure Ron Gilbert. Release a videogame on the day you were supposed to get things done, damn youuuu 😜

[ThunderPeel2001]

20 minutes ago, LowLevel said:

As I said in the first post, my conclusion is that whatever they put in that data field is not reliable and can't be used to estimate anything.

 

Yep, I agree. The developer who wrote that code probably had to put something, and so made a wild guess. I have to do similar things all the time... and release dates fluctuate even if such dates were accurate when the code was written. Basically, everything points to that date being completely unreliable.

 

Of course, I want to be wrong! I really hope it is September!

[KestrelPi]

I'm just saying the fact that some other games came out later than their dates really doesn't say anything.

 

If that september date in the metadata was the only thing we had to go on, I would definitely agree, that it doesn't tell us anything. But I think, as I said, there are also lots of other reasons to think the game is coming out sooner rather than later. None of them are completely compelling on their own, but I think taken together they make it at least a decent chance that we're looking at September.

 

But if I had to pick, I think by far the most persuasive thing is the Monkey Island Mondays. I don't believe they were planning to start and stop these months before the release. I also don't believe for a second they were planning for a series of ~20 or more of these ahead of a November/December release - I might be proven wrong on that one but I really don't think we're getting 20 ReMI clips before this comes out.

 

So to me the most logical guess at the moment remains september, and all the other stuff around it (Talk Like a Pirate day being after the 10th Monkey Island Monday, gamescom being about a month before that, the fact that it seems like the game has been substantially finished for a couple of months now, with audio implemented and voices in the bag) doesn't prove anything, but it does seem to me very compatible with the actions of a company planning to release a game in mid-september.

 

Let's revisit this next month. Or, well, we might not have to wait that long to know. 😉

Edited August 15, 2022 by KestrelPi

[ThunderPeel2001]

51 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

• Monkey Island Mondays. Do we really think they're planning to do this for 20 weeks?
• There's just... not much left to do on the game, as far as we can tell. It's been fully playable for a long time, and the voices are in, and they're pretty much bug squishing now and have been for the past couple of months if the tweets are anything to go by.
• The September placeholder on Devolver at least suggests that's around when they thought it would be ready in April, and they could have very well stuck to that (and there's been nothing to suggest it's slipping, they've always said 2022 with confidence which I don't think they would have done if it was already slipping to Nov/Dec)
• Talk Like a Pirate day is just inherently a plausible hypothesis, I think.
• Gamescom. Some sort of gamescom exclusive reveal would be much more impactful if the release was imminent and not actually a few months away still.

 

Well, here's each one of your reasons (just because there's nothing else to talk about until later in the day when we get a clip of Elaine).

 

1. They'd only need to do 10 (in total) to take us to October. And they can stop MIM any time they want. I don't think this "points to September".

2. I hope so! This seems like the strongest indication. But still Devolver will make a decision based on more than "the game is ready"

3. True. Or it could be a guess by the dev...

4. I just can't tell what Ron thinks about such things. Would he like that, or would he hate that? Tricky to tell. Either way, bigger forces are more important than that alone.

5. GamesCom would be a good reveal for the release date (Aug 24 - Aug 28, 2022)... not necessarily pointing to September being the release date, though.

 

I'd say the above point to: September/October (barring any unforeseen behind the scene shenanigans). 

[KestrelPi]

1 hour ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Well, here's each one of your reasons (just because there's nothing else to talk about until later in the day when we get a clip of Elaine).

 

1. They'd only need to do 10 (in total) to take us to October. And they can stop MIM any time they want. I don't think this "points to September".

2. I hope so! This seems like the strongest indication. But still Devolver will make a decision based on more than "the game is ready"

3. True. Or it could be a guess by the dev...

4. I just can't tell what Ron thinks about such things. Would he like that, or would he hate that? Tricky to tell. Either way, bigger forces are more important than that alone.

5. GamesCom would be a good reveal for the release date (Aug 24 - Aug 28, 2022)... not necessarily pointing to September being the release date, though.

 

I'd say the above point to: September/October (barring any unforeseen behind the scene shenanigans). 

 

10 in total takes us to mid september, not october. Today is #6, #10 would be 12th of September. #11 would literally be on Talk Like A Pirate day, and I can't believe nobody involved hasn't noticed that and isn't thinking of doing SOMETHING special that day.

 

They CAN stop before the release but that would be a REALLY odd marketing plan. 'We're gonna do a series of marketing videos every week, then just... stop that for a while so everyone can forget about it, then release the game.

 

If we're guessing based on what Devolver would do, well - they just released a game, so giving it about another month before they released another seems plausible. That seems about in line with what they've done before. Not releasing during the heaviest release period of late september through october also seems plausible. So I agree if it's not coming out mid-september the next most likely is November, I just don't think we'll be waiting that long.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by KestrelPi

[LowLevel]

I don't know if this confirmation has already been shared here in the forums, but for the opening night of  Gamescom (Aug 23rd) they will show a new trailer of the game:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1561373149?t=4m23s

 

I assume it will  be one of those trailers that reveals the release date; in this case Flamber the 37th.

Edited August 15, 2022 by LowLevel

[KestrelPi]

here we go

 

 

[demone]

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

[JacquesSparkyTail]

And with that i believe we’ve seen the entire town. From lookout to mansion. 

[Toymafia88]

Skipping this one, i wish they'd stop spoiling Melee Island. 

 

 

[KestrelPi]

Stray observations

 

• This voice doesn't sound quite the same as either the CMI voice OR the one he did for MI2SE. Sounds a bit older, to me. Deliberate, perhaps? Hard to say. Not quite sure on some of these line reads but Dmnkly is on point as usual
• I like the little animation details during the dialogue. Guybrush lowering one arm, then the other, occasional little glances off to the side, it's just nice how alive it makes things look.
• I wonder what a 'map to the secret of monkey island' means.
• Wally's last name is of course 'feed'
• Voodoo shop seems to be going out of business.
• No sign of men of low moral fiber
• It's still 10pm but there's another weird hand and symbol (at about 4:30) on the clock... hmm!

 

 

They're probably continuing to show Melee island because it's the early part of the game and so the easiest to show without giving too much away about where the story is going. Also, since we already know what the location is like, it sort of limits the amount of things that can be spoiled.

Edited August 15, 2022 by KestrelPi

[Vainamoinen]

1 minute ago, Toymafia88 said:

Skipping this one, i wish they'd stop spoiling Melee Island.

 

I do hope they keep spoiling Melee Island, because they have to spoil SOMETHING, and it'd better be from the very beginning part of the game. 😔

 

But, yeah ... enough with the spoilers, can we haz game nao?

[Marius]

Gosh, the music. All of the Mêlée Town score sounds like a sequel to Woodtick. I'll probably spend the first hour just walking around the environment. 😍

[Laserschwert]

8 minutes ago, Marius said:

Gosh, the music. All of the Mêlée Town score sounds like a sequel to Woodtick. I'll probably spend the first hour just walking around the environment. 😍

The music gives me Blood Island vibes too. This is gonna be so good!

[OzzieMonkey]

It's like coming home...so good! Just inject this game into my veins already!

More credence given to this being mostly post-Tales given Wally says he spent YEARS in therapy, abandoned feels like a reference to being left on the rollercoaster in Curse, too. The animations on Guybrush are so good, and of course Dom is absolutely killing it with his performance: I'm so glad Neil Ross is back too. Nice to see that it's still 10 o'clock in the town. I'm curious to see what exactly triggers Guybrush to go properly looking for the Secret in this game. Voodoo Lady's going out of business is interesting, my girlfriend said "of course she is, she doesn't have a good business model" 😂

[KestrelPi]

1 minute ago, OzzieMonkey said:

 I'm curious to see what exactly triggers Guybrush to go properly looking for the Secret in this game.

I'm starting to feel like this is a mid-life crisis kind of moment. He never found it, he's bored, and so he decides to go back to where it all began and try to recapture his youth.

 

Also... Elaine's been conspicuously absent from all the Melee Island material, hasn't she?

[OzzieMonkey]

1 minute ago, KestrelPi said:

Also... Elaine's been conspicuously absent from all the Melee Island material, hasn't she?

I'd imagine she isn't even there, probably off somewhere else and we bump into her on another island. So many questions, I'm absolutely dying for this game to come out!

[Garystu]

Looks like the shop across the way is in trouble.

 

 

(Screenshot taken during the video fadein, which is why its so dark)

[demone]

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

Edited August 15, 2022 by demone

[Toymafia88]

29 minutes ago, Vainamoinen said:

 

I do hope they keep spoiling Melee Island, because they have to spoil SOMETHING, and it'd better be from the very beginning part of the game. 😔

 

But, yeah ... enough with the spoilers, can we haz game nao?

I do agree i'm just worried that they've spoilt all the locations on Melee Island.  I'd like them to leave some locations for us to explore.

 

If Melee Island is just the locations from the lookout to the governers Mansion then we've pretty much seen everything.

 

We've already seen:

The lookout

Outside Scumm bar

Inside Scumm bar

The key shop

The fish shop

map shop

The clock tower street

Voodo lady's shop

Jail

Inside the governer's mansion

Edited August 15, 2022 by Toymafia88

[LowLevel]

3 minutes ago, OzzieMonkey said:

I'd imagine she isn't even there, probably off somewhere else and we bump into her on another island.

 

I'm not surprised of her absence on Melee, because I assume that she lives in the same island where the Marley Foundation is.

[Laserschwert]

1 minute ago, Toymafia88 said:

 

 

If Melee Island is just the locations from the lookout to the governers Mansion then we've pretty much seen everything.

 

 

That's a bit of a stretch. No Stan's, no Circus, no Carla's, no Meathook's, not the outside of the mansion, nothing of Melee forest, no bridge. Plus, they could easily add more places for this.

[Toymafia88]

2 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

That's a bit of a stretch. No Stan's, no Circus, no Carla's, no Meathook's, not the outside of the mansion, nothing of Melee forest, no bridge. Plus, they could easily add more places for this.

I just think where we've only seen locations from the lookout to the governers mansion (which can all be explored without going to the map) that its likely we won't explore those areas that are from the map.

 

Maybe i'm wrong but i really doubt we can fully explore Melee Island.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Toymafia88