Return to Monkey Island

[Jake]

The EGA closeup portraits look really damn close to the box art for Monkey Island 1, and the way the Monkey Head and LeChuck’s ship look are also a close match. Monkey 1 and its box art do look very similar. The box art was drawn by one of the primary background and character artists on the game. It’s closer to a Struzan-style poster for a movie (imagining a heightened moment that doesn’t exist and/or a dreamlike collage), than to Mega Man (wildly and wholly unrelated), to me. I think the aftermarket VGA portraits have forever made the MI1 box and the game feel misaligned, but they aren’t.

 

With Monkey 2 things start to separate more, for sure. 

[Udvarnoky]

25 minutes ago, Lechuck said:

While pixel art may leave a lot to the imagination, Steve Purcell's box art painted a pretty clear picture of how those worlds and characters were supposed to look.

 

This seems dubious to me. The box art strikes me as more of an exercise in hypothetical movie poster art than anything else. Ultimately, the only safe interpetation of how the game "should" look is how it actually looks.

[KestrelPi]

1 minute ago, Jake said:

The EGA closeup portraits look really damn close to the box art for Monkey Island 1, and the way the Monkey Head and LeChuck’s ship look are also a close match. Monkey 1 and its box art do look very similar. The box art was drawn by one of the primary background and character artists on the game. It’s closer to a Struzan-style poster for a movie (imagining a heightened moment that doesn’t exist and/or a dreamlike collage), than to Mega Man (wildly and wholly unrelated), to me. I think the aftermarket VGA portraits have forever made the MI1 box and the game feel misaligned, but they aren’t.

 

With Monkey 2 things start to separate more, for sure. 

 

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't intend to say the box art is irrelevant to the art style. More that we probably shouldn't overthink the intent behind having painterly box art for a game in the early 90s.

[Pinchpenny]

Howdy, fellow Monkey Island fans! I've been lurking this thread since page one and have thoroughly enjoyed all the discussion and speculation. Thanks for the fun.

 

I just want to say that I am so unbelievably happy that we are getting another Monkey Island game. I've grown up with the series and they're my comfort games. I'm preaching to the choir here, but there's something so incredibly enchanting about every single aspect -- the writing, the voice acting, the music, the locations... I plan to retire to Plunder Island.

 

I'm currently working my way back through the games (for the umpteenth time) and they never get old. There's always something new to discover or appreciate. I love them all. Yes, even Escape!

 

And the fact that we're getting another entry in the series? Helmed by some of the original creators? It's honestly a dream come true. My heart was literally racing when I saw the announcement. I never thought this would happen. I cannot wait to play Return. It's a shining light in a maddening world.

 

It makes me so sad to see that Ron isn't going to post about the game anymore and that he and the team are being personally attacked. What an ugly situation. I don't think anything is perfect, and there will be things I like and dislike about Return (hopefully much more to like!), but there's a way to kindly express your opinions. Or to just... not. Some things you can keep to yourself and/or not direct at the people creating the game. It reminds me of the pathetic 'outrage' following the Sam & Max remaster.

 

Anyway, I'm just another internet rando, but if any of the team happen to read this, know that I appreciate all your hard work, I'm so excited to play Return, and thank you for keeping Monkey Island alive. Please don't let the vitriolic vocal minority get to you (easier said than done, I know). My life is greatly enriched because of the series and you are responsible for hours upon hours of joy.

 

And now back to lurking!

[Staple Remover]

I am very appreciative of the Mojo team for putting out this tweet, it’s a great way to promote the positivity and adoration for this game!

[Vainamoinen]

I'd like to now appreciate the trailer's rats, the squirrel, the bunnies, the snail, the parrot, the owl, the peacock (?), that other bird, and of course the bowl of chicks (not the deer head or the frozen eagle, of course).

[maritzac]

I love it all but I think my favorite part about it is Elaine. 😍

[maritzac]

Also, say whatever you like about the art style, but the colors are AMAZING

[Jayel]

My only complaint is that there's no release date

[Asterothe]

 I don’t want to talk about the art since so much is said about it but after having seen the trailer I wonder still about if Guybrush is a kid or not. Why there’s scrapbook with his name on it? So that all the games are his imagination and pages on the scrap book?

Edited June 30, 2022 by Asterothe

[Staple Remover]

9 minutes ago, Asterothe said:

 I don’t want to talk about the art since so much is said about it but after having seen the trailer I wonder still about if Guybrush is a kid or not. Why there’s scrapbook with his name on it? So that all the games are his imagination and pages on the scrap book?

I didn’t even think of that before! Now I’m speculating even further about it. 

[maritzac]

Plot twist: It's an illustrated book he made for his and Elaine's child.

[Knight Owl]

My favorite shot has got to be the lookout on Melee. The colors are so gorgeous and the shapes feel so three dimensional while also closely adhering to this game’s style. It looks almost like a Pixar color script or something.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Knight Owl

[ThunderPeel2001]

I think if we're going to compare artwork then you have do it using the ORIGINAL versions of the games... namely the EGA version of SOMI. The VGA version already started to make moves away from the EGA artwork, which the original team were intimately involved with.

 

Ron famously doesn't like the VGA portraits, for example. So you can't hold those up and say THIS is Monkey Island! It's actually the subsequent team's interpretation.

 

So, if you ask me, anyone who wants to complain about the art style through out the series has to start here.

 

Monkey 1 (1990)

 

Monkey 2 (1991)

 

Curse (1996)

 

Escape (2001)

 

Tales (2009)

 

Return (2022)

Edited June 30, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[MurraySchull]

2 hours ago, maritzac said:

Plot twist: It's an illustrated book he made for his and Elaine's child.

 

Guybrush and Elaine's son, Herman. Named after HT Marley!

 

Also, man, poppa Guybrush. Wouldn't that be closure!

 

"There were pirates when I was a boy..."

[MurraySchull]

Honestly, I think all of the games did a great job with the visuals and the budgets that they had at the time.

 

Monkey 1 came off the heels of Loom and was comparable, if not an improvement, visually with it's DPaint backdrops. Monkey 2 had stellar paint/marker backgrounds which were compressed/converted into pixel art. Monkey 3 had fantastic artwork which by todays' standards is limited only by it's VGA resolution. Even Escape looks good in its' own right, despite early 2000's 3D (which pretty much the entire industry adopted before it looked good) getting the better of it, it still has good background designs, visual layout and colours. Tales is moreorless of a similar vein, but is far more dynamic in its use of cinematic camerawork and custom character animations. It clearly had a budget to work with and it's definitely showing its age now, but the ambition of it compared to Telltale's earlier works was a vast improvement. (The visual design of Rise of the Pirate God in particular being easily one of the best looking games of Telltale's earlier library, in my opinion.)

 

ReMI seems to be moreorless doing something very different. I think the most divisive issue in regards to the artwork, from what I can tell, seems to be the character models. I think the colour palette is stellar, the backgrounds have both a retro and modern feeling at the same time, and the dynamic camerawork, background animation and atmosphere all help the world to feel alive. As great as the other games are, that's something they didn't always succeed with in that department to the same degree.

Edited June 30, 2022 by fentongames

[Scummbuddy]

43 minutes ago, fentongames said:

 

Also, man, poppa Guybrush. Wouldn't that be closure!

I thought it was Poppa Peeshew

[Knight Owl]

I think even though each game’s art style is very different, they do all give off similar vibes, which isn’t something that can be said for the Zelda games, for instance (which I think is awesome btw). And I think for some people the new art style understandably makes it harder to get those vibes for ReMI since it is so abstract, which is valid, but for me seeing the new visuals puts me right back in that world.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Knight Owl

[Romão]

If there's one good thing to be had from all the barrage of nasty stuff we all witnessed in the last few days, is how a great part of the community banded together in defense of a creator's right to fulfill his own creative vision.

 

In a way, all this negative stuff might've ended creating even more goodwill for the game.

[OzzieMonkey]

1 minute ago, Romão said:

If there's one good thing to be had from all the barrage of nasty stuff we all witnessed in the last few days, is how a great part of the community banded together in defense of a creator's right to fulfill his own creative vision.

 

In a way, all this negative stuff might've ended creating even more goodwill for the game.

It's great to see fans come out in droves to express their love. That's the thing right? They were always there, but people who like stuff don't feel the need to shout it from the rooftops, and are offen scared off by all the fierce negativity. 
 

I've seen some concern from people that the game could be cancelled because of this; I don't think so. Even if Ron was remotely thinking about it (again I don't think so, it's clear he's immensely proud of the work he and his team have done), this isn't simply his decision to make, he has Disney and Lucasfilm to answer to, and there's no way they would can a near-complete game they've sunk money into.

[madmardi]

5 hours ago, maritzac said:

Plot twist: It's an illustrated book he made for his and Elaine's child.

 

Even bigger plot twist: It's actually LeChuck's child.. but Guybrush doesn't know that....

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by madmardi

[demone]

1 hour ago, OzzieMonkey said:

It's great to see fans come out in droves to express their love. That's the thing right? They were always there, but people who like stuff don't feel the need to shout it from the rooftops, and are offen scared off by all the fierce negativity. 
 

I've seen some concern from people that the game could be cancelled because of this; I don't think so. Even if Ron was remotely thinking about it (again I don't think so, it's clear he's immensely proud of the work he and his team have done), this isn't simply his decision to make, he has Disney and Lucasfilm to answer to, and there's no way they would can a near-complete game they've sunk money into.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is zero chance Ron would even consider that. It would be a complete disrespect to not only himself but to his entire team and all the voice actors. Ron has shown how proud he is of not only the game, but his team as well. Beyond that, releasing the game without any pressured changes would be the ultimate win over these toxic people. The disrespectful and toxic can wallow in their own self-pity while Ron releases the game he wanted to make.

Edited July 1, 2022 by demone

[ThunderPeel2001]

4 minutes ago, demone said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is zero chance Ron would even consider that. It would be a complete disrespect to not only himself but to his entire team and all the voice actors. Ron has shown how proud he is of not only the game, but his team as well. Beyond that, releasing the game without any pressured changes would be the ultimate win over these toxic people. The disrespectful and toxic can wallow in their own self-pity while Ron releases the game he wanted to make.

 

Exactly. The idea that the game isn't going to be released because of a negative vocal minority, when it's months away from completion, makes no sense at all. You may as well be concerned that Ron is going change the protagonist into Leisure Suit Larry, then quit the game industry by sprouting a pair of wings and flying to Mars, never to be seen again.

 

Worse than that though, I find that kind of speculation quite belittling and insulting towards him. 

[OzzieMonkey]

15 minutes ago, demone said:

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is zero chance Ron would even consider that. It would be a complete disrespect to not only himself but to his entire team and all the voice actors. Ron has shown how proud he is of not only the game, but his team as well. Beyond that, releasing the game without any pressured changes would be the ultimate win over these toxic people. The disrespectful and toxic can wallow in their own self-pity while Ron releases the game he wanted to make.

I really want it to do absolute gangbusters too, just be the absolute triumph for him

and the series to finally see it become the financial hit it wasn't in the 90s.

[Knight Owl]

When Stan says on the website that he's in jail for "marketing related crimes," I laughed it off as a non-canon joke for the website, but the game's description also mentions this. I think this means there's a very real chance that Stan is actually going to be in jail for selling NFTs like he says on the website, and the thought of that is almost too amazing to fathom.