Sea Of Thieves' Legend of Monkey Island spoiler-filled discussion

[Sopabuena]

i'm tempted to do a second run to get all the Murray lines and the Guybrush comments on certain locations, but I still don't know how checkpoints work. On a side note, the water in this game is awesome

[MurraySchull]

Okay, after all of my hassles in working out the interface, questbook and checkpoints, I FINALLY was able to get through the chapter! It’s rare that I struggle with a games’ interface like I have with SoT (maybe I took the SCUMM interface for granted all this time!), and maybe on consoles it’s fine, but it’s a pain on PC. Had a number of glitches that wouldn’t let me speak to characters too, which I would later find out weren’t gamebreaking, but still annoying.

 

BUT… the good stuff. Yeah, atmospherically this game is something else. It might even capture the “piratey” atmosphere in a way that many of the official games didn’t (save for perhaps Curse) and it absolutely has the production values to pull that off. Environmentally too, this was clearly made with love.

 

The music is wonderful too. If MI1 had more ambient music, it’d probably sound something like this. Wish there was a way to integrate the new music into SMISE.

 

Was also pleasantly surprised how many of the SMISE voice actors came back too (in particular the pirate leaders, who I THINK were recast for ReMI, but all keep their original VA’s here.)  And YES to more Jess Harnell as the storekeeper!

 

Kate Capsize’s voice was definitely recast but I wasn’t a big fan of her MI2SE performance anyway. Her SoT voice definitely seems like a better fit for her. Otis also had his ReMI voice actor again. I’d guess his original actor retired or was unreachable for these new games. I like his new voice but I did love his SMI/EMI voice more.

 

So I guess Corina was just messing with Guybrush in particular about her name all these years. Elaine knew it already! XD

 

Murray having a working body and being unable to keep it under control was hilarious!

 

In a strange way, it never really bothered me when Melee Island was redesigned in Escape (despite it being moreorless done for the sake of it than any narrative reason) nor when the majority of the side characters didn’t appear. But seeing them return in ReMI and this game, and keeping their designs and geometry intact, it does retroactively feel more important to keep those elements familiar when returning to them.

 

Also turns out there actually was a clever way that this could fit in alongside the series with this world being a dream-like state. In that sense, even when removing the “telling a story to my son” element, this plot could still work in the timeline.

 

And yeah, despite my grievances with the interface itself, once I found out what did what, it WAS fun to play. I enjoyed finding the different things I could do with the different object I had (i.e. the banjo and the accordion). I don’t know if I’ll ever have the time to play SoT for the main story but it’s a fun game to muck about in!

 

Yeah, very short and could probably be easily done in one sitting, but for a free DLC especially, I got exactly what I was expecting upon announcement. Looking forward to more!

[Jenni]

I finally finished Legend of Monkey Island. I liked it, mostly. I really like how it fits snugly in between Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island. I also love the idea of a curse that makes Guybrush, and presumably Elaine in future chapters, relive memories of past adventures that create a skewed version of whatever island is being remembered.

 

That accounts for the appearance of Murray. I really loved Murray in this one, especially after he gets a body. The animators deserve a raise for Murray's walking animation alone. As for the cursed captain, I hope it's not just a way to mash franchises up that is forgotten next chapter. If you talk to him after you pick up Murray, he remembers the Sea of Thieves and complains that no one believes him. That would mean he's real and somehow made it to Melee Island but got stuck up on the wall by the three pirates. There's a lot of potential for story there and I hope Rare doesn't squander it.

 

The Pirate Lord invited Guybrush and Elaine to honeymoon in the Sea of Thieves but at the end of the chapter, it's revealed LeChuck seeks his power and impersonates him to dupe the pirates in the Sea of Thieves. Presumably, it's LeChuck that invited them there, which would make perfect sense for him. But if he's real, then hopefully they explain how he's there and not stuck in ice, considering the timeline.

 

I also thought the puzzles were fun. I liked how they integrated the Sea of Thieves mechanics into the puzzles too. The sword, tankard, and lantern all were used fantastically. The crane puzzle, especially, was great. It was a head-scratcher, especially when the crane wouldn't lift it. I was stuck for a while before I jumped into the water to see what was going on and saw the frayed ropes. That puzzle was something that felt like it could have been in the series proper.

 

The music was also used well, with the Monkey Island theme popping up as you approached Melee, the familiar SCUMM Bar music that faded out in volume as you got further away from the bar, and Walt playing the skeleton ship theme on his violin. Bonus points for the name Walt, too. 

 

But there were things I really didn't like. Hunting for pieces of eight was tedious and not fun at all. At the end of the chapter, I searched all around for 200 pieces of eight so I could buy the history book. Corina the Voodoo Lady kept saying I still had to do more on Melee Island, but eventually, I just gave up and told her I wanted to leave with only 196 pieces of eight collected. The walk up and down the hill to get to the lookout and back wasn't fun, and he didn't have enough pieces of eight for the trouble. I kept jumping off early on the path down and losing health. Jumping down and getting hurt was worth it though, because it cut down on all the tedious walking.

 

I really hope the next chapter ditches the money collecting and long walks because it felt like artificially extending the time required to finish the chapter. I like the idea, but the execution is somewhat lacking so far.

[JacquesSparkyTail]

Looks like somebody’s broke out of the village and explored the entire fully rendered island. Spoilers for part 2 obviously.

 

 

[Thrik]

Haha! Well, it had to happen in today’s world of glitchmasters.