Return to Monkey Island

[Alexrd]

5 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

What do we think of this?



Just marketing messing up?

 

More marketing mess up:

 

"Return to Monkey Island is an unexpected, thrilling return of series creator Ron Gilbert that continues the story of the legendary adventure games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge".

 

But according to some, it's not the third part of the story that started in MI and continued in MI2.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Alexrd

[Laserschwert]

10 minutes ago, Alexrd said:

But according to some, it's not the third part of the story that started in MI and continued in MI2.

Let it go.

[Alexrd]

I have.

[KestrelPi]

Me too.

 

*whistles*

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by KestrelPi

[MurraySchull]

I think it makes sense to end the series here. Ron's finally getting his third part made after over thirty years. The secret will be out. The majority of the cast and development team are returning while they're still with us. The opportunity is here to close a door that's been left open since Guybrush stepped into the amusement park. Creatively, I think ending the series here, providing it delivers, feels right.

 

Plus I feel MI works best with long gaps between games. The excitement generated by ReMI's announcement was electric. I don't think that would've felt the same if it was coming off the heels of MI2SE for example, nor would a ReMI2 for that matter if it was announced within the year.

 

If there were to be another Monkey Island game after this, I imagine it'd be further into the future and it'd moreorless be a complete reboot. (Not to mention, it would likely not have the original development team and would likely see more studio intervention from Disney.)

 

That being said, I'd be open to Curse, Escape and Tales being remastered if we're going to strike while the iron is hot! Hell, if they can work out a deal with Telltale (or whoever owns Tales nowadays!) I'd be open to those three games being bundled together into a single release and each given a moderate remaster. (i.e. console support, increased resolution, Curse/Escape in widescreen, Alexandra Boyd as an option for Elaine in Escape, Leilani Jones-Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady in Tales, etc.)

Edited June 29, 2022 by fentongames

[Aro-tron]

Longtime lurker (as in 20 years), but I just joined Mojo because I am so excited for this game. I thought you all might be interested in hearing about how the marketing has been received by someone who is a Monkey Island fan, but not a ... fanatic.

 

My wife played the first MI back in her childhood, but I don't think she ever played any of the sequels. It made an impression on her though, because she started jumping up and down when I told her that there was a trailer for the new one, and she wanted to see it immediately.

 

I was curious what someone who wasn't immersed in the discourse thought about the trailer and website. She really liked the interactive dialogue tree on the website, and immediately identified Stan as well as Otis ("that guy from your crew who was in jail!"). She read the little marketing blurb that refers to the original games and said "see, they just made two! why did you tell me this was number three?" ... so she really doesn't know about Curse or any except the first game.

 

She really the trailer and immediately watched it twice, and then showed it to our two young kids. No qualms about the art style. She did say it was too bad they couldn't do it like the original game, but acknowledged that time goes by and you can't go back. Has been humming the theme song in the kitchen and now I know she will be bugging me about when the release date is ...

 

Also: she asked me "would you have married me if I didn't like Monkey Island?" I said of course, since it's not really been a big part of our lives as a couple. She responded, "No, I don't think so, because if I hadn't played Monkey Island, I wouldn't be me."

[KestrelPi]

21 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

What do we think of this?



Just marketing messing up?

Aside from what I said before, there's also this...

 

 

So yeah, I don't think this is supposed to be read as 'last ever monkey island game' so much... Maybe there's a sense of finality to how it ends but it still leaves enough dangling that someone can still go in and tell their own monkey island story with that universe and characters, and pull on other threads that this game doesn't address. I like that.

 

Maybe for Ron this is his way of getting closure on what HE wanted to say about Monkey Island, and by getting to make another game in the series, he'll be ready to let go and say 'okay, it belongs to the world, now'. But I dunno. I'm not his psychiatrist.

[Laserschwert]

Tales was a good example of stories that could be told outside of the actual island of Monkey Island.

[KestrelPi]

2 minutes ago, Aro-tron said:

Also: she asked me "would you have married me if I didn't like Monkey Island?" I said of course, since it's not really been a big part of our lives as a couple. She responded, "No, I don't think so, because if I hadn't played Monkey Island, I wouldn't be me."

Haha, this is oddly sweet, and I think about this a lot. It's not just that I played Monkey Island as a kid and enjoyed it, but it was formative. It made me want to try my hand at making games. It informed my comic style in some ways. The soundtracks definitely influenced how I write music. Following the careers of the people in the community and who worked on the games has had a noticeable impact on my life, so yeah - I would be a different person if I hadn't played Monkey Island in lots of important ways. You can't take the Monkey Island out of me.

[OzzieMonkey]

17 minutes ago, fentongames said:

 

That being said, I'd be open to Curse, Escape and Tales being remastered if we're going to strike while the iron is hot! Hell, if they can work out a deal with Telltale (or whoever owns Tales nowadays!) I'd be open to those three games being bundled together into a single release and each given a moderate remaster. (i.e. console support, increased resolution, Curse/Escape in widescreen, Alexandra Boyd as an option for Elaine in Escape, Leilani Jones-Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady in Tales, etc.)

You might as well give the first 2 games another crack (or at least a polish) and just bundle all 5 in a Switch remaster. I'd love if after Return comes out (or ideally, and this is a stretch, before?) we got a nice beautiful High-def widescreen collection of the entire series. Man....that'd be nice. I'd call it The Monkey Island Years: Remastered Collection, or something like that.

Edited June 29, 2022 by OzzieMonkey

[MichaelSon]

Just hope they make LeChuck sound right as the original voice decided not to return.

[Scummbuddy]

Put me down for expecting the game to release on Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ron has had an affinity for that day.

[KestrelPi]

2 minutes ago, Scummbuddy said:

Put me down for expecting the game to release on Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ron has had an affinity for that day.

Man, I hope so. Because I'm not expecting it until November at this point.

 

If it is gonna be released on that day then my theory is that they plan on just DROPPING it on that day without warning, or announcing it only very shortly before. Because if they already knew they were making that date, why else would they have left it out of the trailer?

[OzzieMonkey]

4 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

Man, I hope so. Because I'm not expecting it until November at this point.

 

If it is gonna be released on that day then my theory is that they plan on just DROPPING it on that day without warning, or announcing it only very shortly before. Because if they already knew they were making that date, why else would they have left it out of the trailer?

It's times like this that I really wish I had some insight into marketing and release scheduling so I could make informed, accurate predictions. Instead, I'll just talk out of my butt. It's possible that they'll wait a certain amount of time to see how the Wishlisting is tracking, and when they have enough, BAM! Shadowdrop. Altenratively, yes, Talk Like a Pirate Day makes a lot of sense, though even that date and November seems incredibly far away given the game seems so close to completion, but again, I have no idea what the development cycle looks like. Tales Chapter 1, SMI:SE and MI2:SE have all released in July, could we be THAT close? Or maybe during Gamescom in August? Idk, so many possibilities! I really wish we ended up with a date to go along with this trailer, but them's the breaks, you can't have everything, and if they're not ready, they're not ready.

[KestrelPi]

Hmm, on a closer look, it seems like these are the same locations:

 

 

But it seems like the environment hs changed somewhat by the time Elaine/Guybrush gets there. I'd guess this is somewhere in the Monkey Head, given the apparent lava, and that we know that Elaine does go there.

[Lagomorph01]

4 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

Hmm, on a closer look, it seems like these are the same locations:

 

 

But it seems like the environment hs changed somewhat by the time Elaine/Guybrush gets there. I'd guess this is somewhere in the Monkey Head, given the apparent lava, and that we know that Elaine does go there.

Everyone has their own way of descending, I guess. 😉

 

On another topic, how do you 'wishlist' (as you youngsters put it) something? I can't find a button like that anywhere!

[OzzieMonkey]

3 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

Hmm, on a closer look, it seems like these are the same locations:

 

 

But it seems like the environment hs changed somewhat by the time Elaine/Guybrush gets there. I'd guess this is somewhere in the Monkey Head, given the apparent lava, and that we know that Elaine does go there.

I mentionted this to Glokidd on his stream dissecting the trailer, that this could be the potential for a great bit that shows off the differences in how Guybrush and Elaine handle a situation, with Guybrush just running (literally) head first into danger, while Elaine takes the practical approach in her descent. Of course, it also appears that these scenes take place at different times, unless Guybrush does something at the bottom that immediately causes lava to erupt from the depths...I wouldn't put it past him. 

[Vainamoinen]

In case we get to switch between Elaine and Guybrush at will, this could also be an incredible throwback to The Cave ... ?!

 

 

  

1 hour ago, Laserschwert said:

What do we think of this?



Just marketing messing up?

 

Oh no, marketing not messing up. Marketing promising the ultimate narrative closure is marketing doing their unholy task right. Right now, they can of course not say whether it will be the last part. Disney willing, we'll never get another one; Disney willing, we get one a year. The Last Crusade wasn't the last crusade either.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Vainamoinen

[KestrelPi]

Actually that Guybrush fall onto the rocks is another excellent example of how Rex uses 'unrealistic' animations for comic effect... Guybrush falls down to the lower rock, then somehow bounces all the way up to the slightly higher rock before continuing his descent. It's a really funny detail that really adds to the disastrous nature of the descent.

[Thrik]

2 hours ago, KestrelPi said:

Moving on from art, because I feel like there's SO much more to talk about here...

 

'reactive dialog trees'

 

what do we think is meant by that?

 

My first thought was something like - can you interrupt characters to respond to whatever they're talking about at the moment and press them on that? That sounds interesting, but potentially a bit counterintuitive as someone who doesn't want to 'miss' dialogue.

 

I think it's more subtle than that, probably but that's the only thing I can think of. In what other sense could the dialog trees be reactive?

Have you played with the new official site? There might be a clue in there, as the Stan dialogue is pretty extensive. But of course it’s also just for jokes.

[KestrelPi]

1 minute ago, Thrik said:

Have you played with the new official site? There might be a clue in there, as the Stan dialogue is pretty extensive. But of course it’s also just for jokes.

 

I've played with it, but I don't see anything that really elaborates on it. Did you have something specific in mind?

[Thrik]

No, I haven’t had chance. 😅 It took ages the first time and I can only get away with so much in the office!

[KestrelPi]

Slight change of topic for me: More Tales thoughts

 

* I played through a lot of Chapter 4, last night. At the time Chapter 3 was my favourite, and I still like it a lot, but taking the game as a whole I feel like I like Chapter 4 more. This just feels like a very 'monkey islandy' situation to me -hey, it's not the first time Guybrush has been in trouble with the law, and I think the puzzle conceit of switching between the courtroom and gathering your evidence is done well.

 

* The cartoonishly goofy Guybrush writing is still present, and I don't know how much I like it. I just don't think the Guybrush of MI1, 2 or even 3 would have comic conversations with himself as his own lawyer, or derail court proceedings quite to the extend that he's doing here. He'd stand and make snarky comments about the proceedings, and then probably slip up in some way that makes him seem more guilty.

 

* I'm getting a bit tired of the Pox of LeChuck. I don't think it's a particularly interesting plot point, or at least not in the way it's implemented. If it actually invited truly dark and evil impulses in a subtle way that might be a cool, creepy thing to bring into the game, but as it is is just make people rant angrily, sometimes, and have a bit of a cough. Eh.

 

* I feel like the game is finding its feet a little with the comic style. It's getting smiles out of me more regularly, and I think its finding its voice. I'm looking forward to getting toward the end of the story.

[Thrik]

13 hours ago, Rum Rogers said:

Heh, I found this one interesting/funny in one of the JS scripts of the webpage. I'm too lazy right now to breakpoint my way to the point that function is actually called and I can see what the input param contains besides the exports field. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Haha. Unfortunately this is just a React thing, as well as SECRET_INTERNALS_DO_NOT_USE_OR_YOU_WILL_BE_FIRED. We had a good ‘laugh’ about this at work once.

[madmardi]

I think I've watched the trailer a million more times since my last post.... waiting for the release date is going to be excruciating!