Return to Monkey Island

[Toymafia88]

Dave Grossman : "Return to Monkey Island" is a game about Guybrush wanting to close something in his past that has been left unfinished. It's the same with us: we're going back to something we did a long time ago. I don't think we could have done Return to Monkey Island 10 or 15 years ago. The game as it is was only possible in the here and now.

 

This got me even more excited for the game 😁 I love how personal this game is.

 

I'm also still amazed that they aren't shying away from addressing the 'secret'. If i was making the game i'd be scared to address the 'secret'

[demone]

I really loved when Ron talked about making adventure games for kids. I played almost all of them as a kid growing up: Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, Freddy Fish and they are really where I found my love for adventure games. I was a huge fan of Ron before I even knew who he was. In fact, I only found out he made all those games about 10 or so years ago.

[BaronGrackle]

17 minutes ago, demone said:

I really loved when Ron talked about making adventure games for kids. I played almost all of them as a kid growing up: Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, Freddy Fish and they are really where I found my love for adventure games. I was a huge fan of Ron before I even knew who he was. In fact, I only found out he made all those games about 10 or so years ago.

Generational differences are funny. I played Ron's Lucas adventure games but was too old to follow Ron to Humongous Entertainment... when he left, I was still enjoying games at LucasArts.

 

I know some people started with Ron's Humongous games and then, when they got older, discovered his older work at Lucas.

[Threepwood4life]

On 9/2/2022 at 2:45 PM, Jake said:

At least on Steam developers can set the time, but also they can choose to launch manually. I don’t think Switch games all launch at a set time of day either. 

I was just thinking what time it would be released on Steam, as previously in the past with pre orders here in the UK they usually unlock them at around 6pm GMT. The last pre order on Steam i got was Sam & Max Season 2 Remastered last December and that was when it was unlocked. Ive booked the Tuesday off from work the day after release just in case

[Remi]

As for time, #MonkeyIslandMonday has consistently fallen on 8 am PDT, so that's my guess and I'm sticking to it.

[Aro-tron]

I had younger siblings who were just the right age for the HE! games while I was playing the later LucasArts adventures, so I got to play most of the Humongous titles even though they were slightly too young for me. It really is a shame that the company ended up being poorly managed once Ron and Shelly sold it, but I see that the titles have all been ported to the Switch recently, so I might see what my kids think about them.

[OzzieMonkey]

We're gearing up for the penultimate Monkey Island Monday, which means we're 2 weeks away from launch. I'm now more nervous than ever that a Largo review Embargo will lift, which means lots of spoilers from careless journalists  I don't expect an answer, but are Mojo staff going to get an early code? This is probably the only site I trust to give an impression without revealing too much. 

[Remi]

1 minute ago, OzzieMonkey said:

We're gearing up for the penultimate Monkey Island Monday, which means we're 2 weeks away from launch. I'm now more nervous than ever that a Largo review Embargo will lift, which means lots of spoilers from careless journalists  I don't expect an answer, but are Mojo staff going to get an early code? This is probably the only site I trust to give an impression without revealing too much. 

 

If we don't get a code, we'll probably just write something based on the screenshots.

 

But really, should we post something, we'll probably do what we've been doing over the last years -- an impression of the first two hours or so with minimal spoilers. (Then something larger a while later -- we're gonna milk this cow dry.)

[demone]

Just for fun, since I've already replayed all 5 previous games over the summer, I'm re-watching old interviews with Ron. There's one from 2009 PAX after he gave the keynote about how he would love to do another Monkey Island game. 13 years later, here we are.

Edited September 5, 2022 by demone

[Staple Remover]

6 hours ago, Remi said:

 

If we don't get a code, we'll probably just write something based on the screenshots.

 

But really, should we post something, we'll probably do what we've been doing over the last years -- an impression of the first two hours or so with minimal spoilers. (Then something larger a while later -- we're gonna milk this cow dry.)

I’m looking forward to the eventual (not to mention literal) secret history!

[LowLevel]

9 hours ago, OzzieMonkey said:

I'm now more nervous than ever that a Largo review Embargo will lift, which means lots of spoilers from careless journalists

 

I'm not very familiar with how these embargos work. Could some website publish a review before the release date/time/moment?

[KestrelPi]

Just now, LowLevel said:

 

I'm not very familiar with how these embargos work. Could some website publish a review before the release date/time/moment?

 

It varies from publisher to publisher and game to game, the best thing to do is see when Devolver have previously done.

 

Commonly, though, review embargoes go until the game's release. Sometimes they're a few days before. Quite often, a website will accidentally break the embargo.

[OzzieMonkey]

15 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

 

It varies from publisher to publisher and game to game, the best thing to do is see when Devolver have previously done.

 

Commonly, though, review embargoes go until the game's release. Sometimes they're a few days before. Quite often, a website will accidentally break the embargo.

I remeber there being a pretty huge breaking of the embargo for part 1 of Broken Age. In the documentary, Tim

was trying to figure out how to deal

with it and whether or not to let other journalists break it too. Messy stuff.

Edited September 5, 2022 by OzzieMonkey

[MurraySchull]

Hi all, has been an extremely busy month at my end and haven't had time to post about the newest developments of ReMI! Will just do a rundown:

 

- September 19th! Amazing! Congrats to all who predicted correctly. Logical deduction wins again!

 

- Jess Harnell as LeChuck... honestly isn't really doing it for me, but I think I can get used to it. Harnell is an fantastic talent and is excellent at comedic acting in particular, but Boen... his deep, gravelly voice just naturally lent itself to LeChuck, and he had the perfect blend of humour and dread that the character needed. As far as perfect casting goes, across any media, he's well up there for me. From the very small amount we've seen so far, this LeChuck just seems so... feeble by comparison. Where Boen felt natural, this feels like a performance, and I don't buy him as a threat yet. Forget the artstyle, I thought *THIS* would be the main reason for backlash if anything, but most people seem to be fine with it. Like I said, I think I'll get used to it over the course of the game, but I just can't help wishing that we could've got Earl back one last time, just to complete the ensemble if anything.

 

- BUT... Jess Harnell being in the game means that we'll almost certainly have him back as the storekeeper too. Same with Rob Paulsen, now that we've seen Bob on LeChuck's ship.

 

- Neil Ross is back as Wally! Excellent! It really looks like they've made an effort to keep the cast consistent from the rest of the series. I think that just leaves Otis now in terms of if the "main" returning characters have their returning actors. (It occurs to me that we haven't seen Meathook yet. Or Smirk. Wonder if they're still around being on Melee and all.) With both Ross and Delk, however, I can definitely hear the age in their voices compared to the older games, but of course, that's unavoidable, and I'd never consider recasting. (Also, does it bother anyone else that Murray doesn't make the "teeth-chattering" noise when he speaks? It was in all of the other games, so it feels strange that it's missing here.)

 

- Glad that we have Gavin Hammond as Stan back. Originally, I was thinking it would be better for consistency to have Pinney from MI1/2, but if the majority of the game does take place after Tales, as we're predicting, then him sounding as he did in Tales may be the best option. He was probably also the best blend of all of the elements of Stan for me, though I do really like Pinney as well.

 

- The interface looks amazing. I *love* what the context sensitive interface ended up being. The inner-thoughts are a fantastic addition, both in terms of the players' connections to the main character, and to provide additional context and background to the story.

 

- As far as canon goes, Ron recently stated (or perhaps tweeted) that the games that you need to play before ReMI are 1 and 2, and if you have time, Curse. Ron also said that those were the only games he played before working on ReMI. I really get the impression that they've made an active effort to keep Curse canon, and if the boot fits for EMI and Tales, great, but they aren't actively pushing to fit them into the mould of ReMI. Already going to predict that they aren't going to acknowledge any of the robot/grandpa stuff here.

 

- Finally... a few observations about a potential timeframe. Wally mentions that he spent "years in therapy" in ReMI, and at the beginning of Curse, Guybrush says to Wally "The last time I saw you, we were prisoners in LeChuck's dungeon" referring to MI2. Both of these add more weight to the idea that the majority of the post-carnival game takes place after Tales. Also, Stan being trapped in the coffin in MI2 and let out in Curse also makes me doubt his ReMI scenes, at least, take place in between those games.

 

 

That's all I can think of for now, but I am now officially in the process of replaying the original games! Will update the thread when I've finished them all. Two weeks to go!

Edited September 5, 2022 by fentongames

[KestrelPi]

More on review embargo: it looks like Cult of the Lamb was embargoed until the day before release, and Weird West was on the same day. So Devolver might not have a firm policy on when they embargo until, but it's probably around release day. If I had to call it I would say they'll embargo reviews until the 19th, release day (reviews won't go up over the weekend, friday would be a bit too soon, so might as well let them hit on Monday, with the game)

 

I'm not too worried, I'm not planning on reading any reviews (at least not in any detail) until I've played through the whole thing.

[LowLevel]

On 9/3/2022 at 6:46 PM, Remi said:

OK, consider this pretty much done (music addition may or may not happen (but probably may)): https://mixnmojo.com/countdown/

 

Thank you for all the work, the results are really [superlative praising adjective]!

 

I would like to propose a small change: I tried to share it somewhere and the title in the snippet was simply "The International House of Mojo", because that's the text in the "og:title" and "twitter:title".

 

And well... it doesn't explain to the casual viewer what the thing is. What about changing "title", "og:title" and "twitter:title" to "Mixnmojo's Return to Monkey Island countdown!" or something similar?

 

And maybe even writing a description?

 

Sorry to bug you again, but it worked before.

[Remi]

15 minutes ago, LowLevel said:

 

Thank you for all the work, the results are really [superlative praising adjective]!

 

I would like to propose a small change: I tried to share it somewhere and the title in the snippet was simply "The International House of Mojo", because that's the text in the "og:title" and "twitter:title".

 

And well... it doesn't explain to the casual viewer what the thing is. What about changing "title", "og:title" and "twitter:title" to "Mixnmojo's Return to Monkey Island countdown!" or something similar?

 

And maybe even writing a description?

 

Sorry to bug you again, but it worked before.

 

Good catch, fixed, thanks!

[BillyCheers]

Nice that we’ll have closeups from time to time.  

Edited September 5, 2022 by BillyCheers

[Jake]

Wouldn’t be the SCUMM Bar without closeups. 

[Wally B.]

22 minutes ago, BillyCheers said:

Nice that we’ll have closeups from time to time.  

It's nice to see that Ron finally warmed to the close ups and will never have anything bad to say about them ever. 

Anyways, it's odd to see the pirate leaders actually being kind of important. I always figured they were the pirate leaders just by name and that they just sat at the Scumm Bar drinking grog and not really doing anything. I mean, I thought Guybrush could have gone pirating without asking them and it would have been fine, only he was super naive and thought that he really did have to ask.

 

4 hours ago, fentongames said:

- As far as canon goes, Ron recently stated (or perhaps tweeted) that the games that you need to play before ReMI are 1 and 2, and if you have time, Curse. Ron also said that those were the only games he played before working on ReMI. I really get the impression that they've made an active effort to keep Curse canon, and if the boot fits for EMI and Tales, great, but they aren't actively pushing to fit them into the mould of ReMI. Already going to predict that they aren't going to acknowledge any of the robot/grandpa stuff here.

I think it has more to do with the fact that the game starts right after MI2 and the story will probably address the first two games in a big way, seeing that the seeds to figure out the Secret of Monkey Island(tm) are in those two games. Seeing how Curse is set right after Guybrush escapes from Big Whoop and then there's that whole exposition dump with LeChuck at the end, it seems natural that they'd have to be careful not to screw up with that game. Everything after Curse would be very easy to deal with story-wise, to be honest.

[BaronGrackle]

18 minutes ago, Wally B. said:

Anyways, it's odd to see the pirate leaders actually being kind of important. I always figured they were the pirate leaders just by name and that they just sat at the Scumm Bar drinking grog and not really doing anything. I mean, I thought Guybrush could have gone pirating without asking them and it would have been fine, only he was super naive and thought that he really did have to ask.

Right? I sort of felt like their story was over when they fled LeChuck toward the end of Part 1. I'm surprised Guybrush has much reverence for or even memory of them. They certainly weren't around in Escape days, nor did anybody expect them to be! 😆

[Toymafia88]

Am i the only one a little nervous about the humour in the new game.

 

One of my favourite things about Monkey Island was picking the silly dialogue choice but going by the recent clip the dialogue options all seem very tame with no wacky answers.

 

For example when they ask Guybrush who he is, that's a perfect moment to have a choice of silly dialogue. 'I'm... etc etc'

 

Compare this to when the pirate leaders ask 'what do you be wanting, my boy?' In Secret of Monkey Island.

 

Just a concern of mine.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Toymafia88

[LowLevel]

Ron has said that there will be a physical copy of the game:

 

I'm not a collector, but I've purchased the boxed version of Thimbleweed Park because it felt the Right™ thing to do.

[Joe monsters]

At this point, I’m pretty sure the young leaders represent the video game industry, that don’t care much about adventure games. They never heard of Guybrush and they don’t want to give him money for his adventure.
That’s interesting…

[KestrelPi]

24 minutes ago, Toymafia88 said:

Am i the only one a little nervous about the humour in the new game.

 

One of my favourite things about Monkey Island was picking the silly dialogue choice but going by the recent clip the dialogue options all seem very tame with no wacky answers.

 

For example when they ask Guybrush who he is, that's a perfect moment to have a choice of silly dialogue. 'I'm... etc etc'

 

Compare this to when the pirate leaders ask 'what do you be wanting, my boy?' In Secret of Monkey Island.

 

Just a concern of mine.

 

It's true that I haven't seen a lot of the 'here's 4 jokes, pick one' style of dialogue in evidence yet. I adore MI1 + 2's dialogue trees. I think the only game that has matched them is Grim Fandango. They're a perfect blend of well-written, silly, subversive and I'm really hoping we see a bit of that here. I think we will. We've only been shown a little.