POLL: What are your expectations for ReMI? (Last poll for a while, promise!)

[ThunderPeel2001]

I wanted to put these questions in the other poll, but it wouldn't let me... so two polls it is! (I won't do it again.)

Edited September 6, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[Remi]

I'll bet my left kidney it won't see higher scores than mid-seventies to mid-eighties from mainstream media. Left. Kidney.

[Garystu]

Its 2022 and people still care about review scores? Christ, they are such an outdated concept.

I hope at least some reviewers have interesting insights to make. To that end, I don't care about what score they give.

 

Monkey Island has never sold huge numbers. I do expect this to be the best selling MI game, in terms of initial sales. But that's not much.

[Wally B.]

Quote

I'm expecting a game better than Escape... hopefully on par or even better than Curse

But what if your favourite games are Escape and/or Curse??? In that case, isn't this the same answer as "I'm expecting nothing less than MI1+2 level greatness"????

 

1 minute ago, Guybrush Transmasc said:

Its 2022 and people still care about review scores? Christ, they are such an outdated concept.

I don't think we care about the scores, more like, we hope it gets high scores from critics because in the industry future projects in that game category/series will be judged not only on the game quality itself, but on how much it sells and how much is received. 

Anyways I'm really hoping the games gets high scores and sells well, I think reviewers could give it 90% and up only on reputation/name alone, it seems like the name "Monkey Island" is now finally being recognised as an historic "brand", but maybe it's just me. 

 

[ThunderPeel2001]

9 minutes ago, Wally B. said:

But what if your favourite games are Escape and/or Curse??? In that case, isn't this the same answer as "I'm expecting nothing less than MI1+2 level greatness"????

 

Those people don't exist... (to me)

 

Personally I LOVE Curse. It's probably the one I go back to the most, simply because it's just so damn fun. But I think the original games have such a special place in people's hearts that it's hard to compare. The first two games kind of exist on their own tier, no matter how much you love the others. 

 

16 minutes ago, Guybrush Transmasc said:

I hope at least some reviewers have interesting insights to make. To that end, I don't care about what score they give.

 

Well the poll isn't about if you care or not, just what you expect 🤷‍♂️

[Garystu]

27 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

Well the poll isn't about if you care or not, just what you expect 🤷‍♂️

Fair enough. I expect it to score three monkeys and a voodoo curse.

 

39 minutes ago, Wally B. said:

I don't think we care about the scores, more like, we hope it gets high scores from critics because in the industry future projects in that game category/series will be judged not only on the game quality itself, but on how much it sells and how much is received. 

Anyways I'm really hoping the games gets high scores and sells well, I think reviewers could give it 90% and up only on reputation/name alone, it seems like the name "Monkey Island" is now finally being recognised as an historic "brand", but maybe it's just me. 

 

I don't think so much hinges on the success or failure of RTMI. I would also like it to do well, if its good. And I really hope its good (and/or weird).

[BaronGrackle]

1 hour ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Those people don't exist... (to me)

 

Personally I LOVE Curse. It's probably the one I go back to the most, simply because it's just so damn fun. But I think the original games have such a special place in people's hearts that it's hard to compare. The first two games kind of exist on their own tier, no matter how much you love the others. 

🤷‍♂️

Funny thing is: Curse consistently wins on reddit polls. I think the "pixel era" vote gets split between Secret and Revenge.

[Toymafia88]

I have a lot of faith in Ron and Dave.

 

However...

 

Its better to expect less and get more than to expect more and get less.

 

I want MI1+2 level greatness

 

But I'm expecting a game better than Escape... hopefully on par or even better than Curse

 

 

But i must say that Thimbleweed Park is one of my favourite modern point and click games. For me it captures alot of the magic of mi1 and 2.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Toymafia88

[LowLevel]

1 minute ago, Toymafia88 said:

Its better to expect less and get more than to expect more and get less.

 

I would have liked to do that but Noah made it impossible.

[BaronGrackle]

3 minutes ago, LowLevel said:

 

I would have liked to do that but Noah made it impossible.

Let's remember that Noah has only raised our expectations for the first ten minutes of the game!

Edited September 6, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[LowLevel]

I would be fine with those 10 minutes matching what Noah said and the rest of the game being meh. 😛

[JacquesSparkyTail]

1 hour ago, Wally B. said:

But what if your favourite games are Escape and/or Curse??? In that case, isn't this the same answer as "I'm expecting nothing less than MI1+2 level greatness"????

I’m a ridiculous human being and my rankings go (from best to worst) 3,1,5,2,4. Because of this it’s pretty difficult for me to answer this question but i voted for the second option as the intent behind the options were pretty clear. 

[ThunderPeel2001]

7 minutes ago, JacquesSparkyTail said:

I’m a ridiculous human being and my rankings go (from best to worst) 3,1,5,2,4. Because of this it’s pretty difficult for me to answer this question but i voted for the second option as the intent behind the options were pretty clear. 

 

Fair enough. Sorry for failing with the poll options!

[JacquesSparkyTail]

2 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Fair enough. Sorry for failing with the poll options!

Lol not a criticism. Like i said the intent was clear and i voted accordingly. 

[BillyCheers]

1 hour ago, LowLevel said:

 

I would be fine with those 10 minutes matching what Noah said and the rest of the game being meh. 😛

 

I wouldn’t. 😅

 

Unfortunately, my hopes are preeeeetty high. With Ron and Dave I have the two creatives of the trio I prefer (not that I think, Tim is irrelevant or sth like that, but I can just connect more to the other two), the artwork is amazing and I really love everything I’ve seen or heard so far.

 

It's really rare that I’m so convinced by something beforehand (not that this means anything).

For my personal enjoyment I really don’t care if it’s received or sold well - but I’d love it to do well for the team and for possible future sequels. To me it’s clear, that they put a lot of love in that game, so I hope it pays off.  

[Toymafia88]

1 hour ago, LowLevel said:

I would be fine with those 10 minutes matching what Noah said and the rest of the game being meh. 😛

Might have missed this. What did Noah say?

 

[LowLevel]

23 minutes ago, Toymafia88 said:

Might have missed this. What did Noah say?

 

Oh, nothing special...

 

Quote

 

It’ll be worth the wait even if people are raving about parts they don’t like. Because this will certainly excite. There’s plenty in there to discuss for years to come.

 

I actually had a kind of a vision as I was looking at this and thinking about some of the elements of storytelling in it. That, at the Game Developers conference every year they now do a poster session for students who have been studying games and they will talk about a game and they, you know, are analysing it and I realized what they have done with Return to Monkey Island I fully expect will be the subject of Master’s and PhD thesis in times to come.

 

Just because there’re so many interesting ways of telling a story and exploration of what an interactive storytelling is all about that, you know, on a very serious scholarly level. Not to make this sound stuffy at all, but it’s just so deep that I think that people will find it fascinating for years to come.

[...]

And the thing that amazed me most I experienced in the first ten minutes of the game and I can’t talk about it because… Ron and Dave managed to do something I would have thought was impossible in terms of storytelling and they pull it off I think admirably.

 

Original interview:

https://youtu.be/r3Dbi1b8QDE?t=3392

 

Article that reported it:

https://www.thegamer.com/return-to-monkey-island-masters-phd-thesis/

Edited September 6, 2022 by LowLevel

[LowLevel]

In answering the survey, I tried to separate my emotional preferences from how I rationally think the game will be received by non-fans.

 

For me, RtMI will be a great game, regardless of its artistic quality. However, it's only fair to remind myself that I'm talking about a game belonging to a small niche, which is generally not immediately appreciated by those who are not already familiar with the genre.

 

Also, on the writing side, Ron has hinted at perhaps controversial ideas ("I think fans will be really excited and happy for what we did or totally angry about what we did." - Source) and in the past I have seen angry reviews and reactions to MI2 and TWP. So, I'm not sure even non-fans will love the game as well.

 

I'm convinced that I'll love the game, but that has nothing to do with commercial success. When it comes to numbers usually associated to sales (e.g. Steam wishlists/followers, which are proxies to sales and can be statistically converted into vague sales estimations) it's clear that even the best prediction is far from the results of "Cult of the Lamb", which was strongly promoted and sold one million units in the first week.

 

So, I am sure it will be a great game for me, and I can only hope for the developers that they will be pleased with both the critical reaction and the commercial results. 🙂

Edited September 6, 2022 by LowLevel
I can't write

[BaronGrackle]

1 hour ago, BillyCheers said:

and for possible future sequels

We are ideological opponents.

 

If Ron still loves doing this, and he loves everybody on this team so much that he wants to keep working with them, then I hope he starts a new story with a fresh creation that he owns fully (or a sequel to something he fully owns, like Thimbleweed Park).

 

He'd be able to tell his own stories without the baggage of entitled fans and prior expectations, and at the end of the day he'd own it - unlike other IPs like the Cave, which have brought him down.

[BillyCheers]

35 minutes ago, BaronGrackle said:

We are ideological opponents.

 

If Ron still loves doing this, and he loves everybody on this team so much that he wants to keep working with them, then I hope he starts a new story with a fresh creation that he owns fully (or a sequel to something he fully owns, like Thimbleweed Park).

 

He'd be able to tell his own stories without the baggage of entitled fans and prior expectations, and at the end of the day he'd own it - unlike other IPs like the Cave, which have brought him down.

I don't think we are ideological opponents. Maybe I'm just a bit more open to different possibilities?

I just think there are many, different ways to create something good. And future MI sequels are just one possible direction.

But sure, if Ron really feels like making more Monkey Island games (and they let him do it his way), I think that would be great - because I think something interesting would always come out of it.
But I would also love him to do other adventure games with a completely new story (I loved Thimbleweed Park, btw) - because that would probably be exciting as well.

 

Also, I never said that these future MI sequels had to come from Ron. That's just one possible way!  

[LowLevel]

I don't know how much I would be interested in future Monkey Island games.

 

My personal take on the whole franchise has been "an incomplete trilogy with additional nice spin-offs" and once Ron gives closure to that trilogy, I don't think that I would find future games attractive as Return to Monkey Island.

 

I'm not close to them, though, and I'm sure that I would purchase and enjoy future games as well, exactly as I have enjoyed Monkey Island games that were not designed to provide answers to the questions left open in the first two games. 🙂

 

Probably I would be interested more on Ron working on something different and new, something not necessarily linked to past games. But I would crave Thimbleweed Park 2. 😛

 

 

[BillyCheers]

23 minutes ago, LowLevel said:

I don't know how much I would be interested in future Monkey Island games.

 

My personal take on the whole franchise has been "an incomplete trilogy with additional nice spin-offs" and once Ron gives closure to that trilogy, I don't think that I would find future games attractive as Return to Monkey Island.

 

I'm not close to them, though, and I'm sure that I would purchase and enjoy future games as well, exactly as I have enjoyed Monkey Island games that were not designed to provide answers to the questions left open in the first two games. 🙂

 

Probably I would be interested more on Ron working on something different and new, something not necessarily linked to past games. But I would crave Thimbleweed Park 2. 😛

 

 

Always under the premise that the future games have good stories to tell, of course.

 

With TP2… i don’t know. As much as I loved the game, I have no idea how a good sequel could be like. To me it really felt like a one time story with a ‘final’ ending… 😅

[LowLevel]

5 minutes ago, BillyCheers said:

To me it really felt like a one time story with a ‘final’ ending… 😅

 

I agree with both how difficult it might be to write a good sequel and the quotes that you put around "final". 😛

[KestrelPi]

I think it'll be a good Monkey Island game, perhaps even a very good one. I think it'd be very unlikely if I rank it equal to 1 and 2, maybe even 3 just because especially the first two of those games were just so much part of my formative years that I find it very hard to disentangle how those games make me feel from who I am today as a person.

 

It's nothing against ReMI to say that I don't think it is going to sit easily alongside games that feel like an almost literal part of me.

 

But I have high hopes for it, because Ron and Dave are saying all the right things (moreso than I thought they would) and I love most of what I've seen so far.

 

I think it'll review decently but it's a niche genre and there are a limited number of reviewers who truly appreciate it. 8/10s from the average reviewer if it's as good as I hope.

 

It's not going to be the best selling Devolver game of this year. What are you TALKING about. Cult of the Lamb has just been a huge hit. Weird West did 400k in its launch window too.

[Wally B.]

I don't actually have that many expectations for the game. I already know I'll love it from the snippets that we've seen and from the interviews because it's made with LOVE. I have loved every Monkey Island game so far because they were always made with love and care, and even if they had things I could nitpick or plot twists that made no sense, they still had the spirit of Monkey Island. Even if I played the first two games last (before Tales came out) I do think of them as separate from the others, because they have this special atmosphere that the others don't really have, but that doesn't really mean that the others are less quality games.

I don't know if Return will give us back that magic feeling that the first two games give, I'm not expecting it to do so, but I'm not expecting it NOT to do so too, if that makes any sense. I do wish that it did, because it would be a dream come true if this could be the final chapter of the "Ron trilogy" everyone wanted, but if it's a different Monkey Island game like the others before, with its own atmosphere and its own special feeling I'll be happy too.