The MONKEY ISLAND and other Adventure Games thread

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

Don't have time to check - is this trailer any different?

 

Same, I think. Same length, too, plus 3 seconds for the initial Switch logo.

 

It's wonderful to see so many familiar locations - and recognise them instantly, despite them having a new design and only being visible for a few split seconds.

[Jay 37,368]

I finally had time to watch the trailer and boy am I excited for this game!

Absolutely cemented for me that I need to replay the original 2 games before playing this which I will force myself to find time to do soon

 

I still am not a fan of the art style, but as stated it does look better in motion than in the screenshots on the website.  And I'm completely open to the fact I could end up loving it via playing the game.  We'll see!

Damn the music is so awesome

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Absolutely cemented for me that I need to replay the original 2 games before playing this which I will force myself to find time to do soon

 

I'm going to replay all of them.

 

Regarding the art style… because this has been coming up again a lot in comments since the trailer was released, I've been thinking about it myself. I like the new style, although I have yet to get used to it being paired with Monkey Island. Mostly because (as for at least some of the loudest critics), my favourite style (or styles) has always been that of the first two games (great though CoMI's style is).

 

I'd love for a new Monkey to recapture that original style - but I'm not even sure it's possible. Because the look of the first two (and especially the second) games was very much defined by being not pixel art (unlike much of its time), but being *reduced* to pixel-ish art by the resolution limits of the time. They have a quasi-realistic look (especially with MI2's gorgeous background paintings) that probably only seems so real because the pixels hide the fact that it isn't. Even the original cover design looks quite different from the actual in-game art. The closest high-res approximation of MI2's style is probably Steve Purcesll's original poster, but turning *that* into a fully animated game would be on a wholly different level than what most developers could even attempt:

 

To illustrate what I mean, just look at this scene from MI2, which I always found incredibly goofy looking:

 

Trying to recapture the original style in modern resolutions without having it look like this may just be almost impossible, and I think I prefer them going for something new and different (and certainly well made and distinctive) rather than trying to reproduce the original style and failing miserably.

[Romão 2,274]

I agree with pretty everything you wrote, Marian, although I still think MI2's art strays away quite a bit from being realistic.

 

I was on board with the art style from the very first announcement and as much as I loved the trailer, I must say what truly convinced me how well the art style works with the gameplay was the interaction you can have with Stan on the official website.

 

It feels like a proper Monkey Island game though and through

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Shameful.

 

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Indeed

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I recently played The Last Door:

 

I'd previously played the first couple of episodes in the browser version, but then somehow forgot to continue. I always meant to pick it up again at some point, so when Steam had it on sale, I took the opportunity.

 

The *very* low-res art style takes some getting used to and certainly isn't for everyone. It's not retro, I think, in that it doesn't feel like it's mean to evoke the golden days of point and click adventures, but more of inherently aesthetic choice - and probably a practical one, as well, similar to what I mentioned above regarding Monkey Island 2 - regarding @Romão's disagreement of my use of the word "realistic": It's perhaps not quite the right choice of words, but I think unlike e.g. MI3 and the Broken Sword games, which are clearly cartoons, the first two Monkeys have a style that, given the mindset of players of their time (who couldn't expect anything close to photo realism), their style allowed the games to "feel" real. That's definitely what The Last Door also goes for, as the whole story is very gloomy and very strongly Lovecraftian, and anything cartoony about it would likely work against this tone. Achieving the same atmosphere with high-res art would probably be much harder and certainly much, much more expensive (and since this was a Kickstarter project, likely more than they could possibly have afforded).

 

What the game lacks in resolution it makes up for with the overall art style (also, season 2 has some nice technical art improvements like moving fog and parallax scrolling) and especially very effective sound design and music. The combination of these elements can be very effective, and even delivers a few successful jump scares. Once you get past the rough look, it absolutely draws you into its world and gloomy mood - which is clearly and apparently intentionally the game's main draw, because on a basic gameplay level, most episodes are somewhat on the basic side, with puzzles often just meaning running around until you find the right object to use in the right context. A couple of times I used a walkthrough when the idea behind some of these "puzzles" was so obscure that I couldn't think of anything, and because the main character moves rather slowly, blindly trying to use everything everywhere can be tedious. A few puzzles also involve pixel hunting, which isn't too bad because the pixels are really big and the relevant ones usually stand out clearly. The later episodes have puzzles that feel more substantial, and at least a few proper, intricate ones, but overall, it's a series that should be played more for its story and atmosphere than for the puzzles. On a gameplay level, it's mostly rather basic, even compared to early point & click games, but as a whole it's still a striking piece of art that's worth experiencing.

 

[karelm 2,914]

On 29/06/2022 at 7:27 AM, Jay said:

I finally had time to watch the trailer and boy am I excited for this game!

Absolutely cemented for me that I need to replay the original 2 games before playing this which I will force myself to find time to do soon

 

I still am not a fan of the art style, but as stated it does look better in motion than in the screenshots on the website.  And I'm completely open to the fact I could end up loving it via playing the game.  We'll see!

Damn the music is so awesome

 

Hey, I worked on this one!  Excited to play it too after seeing it in action!

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

On 04/07/2022 at 2:05 PM, karelm said:

 

Hey, I worked on this one!  Excited to play it too after seeing it in action!

 

Tell us more! What did you do?

[Romão 2,274]

Indeed, @karelm, tells us more. Sounds awesome

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Begun this Monkey Island replay has.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I'm playing the classic VGA version patched with the voice and music assets from the SE. I'd gotten tired of insult swordfighting^TM years ago, but with voice acting it's a new highlight.

[karelm 2,914]

12 hours ago, Romão said:

Indeed, @karelm, tells us more. Sounds awesome

I was/am on the music team.  The series original composers are back but this time, we have live instruments!  The original two games were early 90's midi.  The original composers are LucasArts originals and legends I'm so honored to be working with them all because I'm huge fans of them.  They are Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian.  They are exceptionally talented and awesome people!  I don't know anything about the story other than I worked on music related to locations and cinematics.  

[Romão 2,274]

13 hours ago, karelm said:

I was/am on the music team.  The series original composers are back but this time, we have live instruments!  The original two games were early 90's midi.  The original composers are LucasArts originals and legends I'm so honored to be working with them all because I'm huge fans of them.  They are Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian.  They are exceptionally talented and awesome people!  I don't know anything about the story other than I worked on music related to locations and cinematics.  

 

That's awesome, congratulations. Anything you can tell us about the quality of the music for the game? Returning themes? How was working with those three giants?

[karelm 2,914]

11 hours ago, Romão said:

 

That's awesome, congratulations. Anything you can tell us about the quality of the music for the game? Returning themes? How was working with those three giants?

Fans of the series will be very happy, and the music was of consistently high quality.  It was an enjoyable experience.  

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

Not at all surprised to hear! The music for the SE games was incredibly well done, gorgeous instrumentation and crisp recordings. Can't wait for the new one, we need that release date already!

[Romão 2,274]

On 10/07/2022 at 1:35 AM, karelm said:

Fans of the series will be very happy, and the music was of consistently high quality.  It was an enjoyable experience.  

 

Great, can't wait

 

 

And the title card for the first chapter of the game is revealed:

 

 

[Jay 37,368]

Interesting that the imagery chosen for the Part 1 title card doesn't directly reflect the carnival ending of MI2

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

8 hours ago, Jay said:

Interesting that the imagery chosen for the Part 1 title card doesn't directly reflect the carnival ending of MI2

 

Perhaps that's handled in a prologue? Even the first game didn't open with the title card to the first chapter.

 

Anyway, it'S good to see Gilbert posting about the game again.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Here's a looong interview with Dominic Armato:

 

I've only watched the first 10 minutes so far, but I find it extremely surreal, because he looks (at least to me, from the webcam POV) almost exactly like a work colleague of mine, and his normal speaking voice sounds (to me at least) almost exactly like Ben Folds with a little touch of Guybrush.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

 

…yet when he takes his glasses off near the end he looks like John Rhys-Davies.

 

This is a brilliant interview. Armato is incredibly excited and enthusiastic (and it helps knowing from Twitter that he seems to be one of the kindest and most sincere people on the planet). His retelling of how Ron Gilbert told him about Return is gold.

[Romão 2,274]

First gameplay footage

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jay 37,368]

I dunno, I'm still not warming up to the artstyle, but that somehow doesn't dilute my excitement at all

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I eagerly follow all the news and teasers and interviews, but I think I'll skip the actual gameplay reveals.

[Jay 37,368]

its just 10 seconds of guybrush walking from left to right on one screen, in a location from the first game, and that's it

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I knew there were some parts of the Monkey Island scores that were based on traditional/existing songs (aside from stuff like the whacky Chopin quote and several Wagner allusions, apparently because Land is a fan). I was also sure that there are several I didn't know about.

 

These two I was not familiar with:

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Onwards!

(Took me some time before I started the second game. I had a pre-bundled archive of the original MI1 with the SE sound & music files that I was able to run in ScummVM, but no such thing for MI2. Now I finally looked up how to install the MI2 SE in Linux, and that seems to be running just fine in classic mode with voices & the new soundtrack)

[Jay 37,368]

Now that I'm almost done with Hollow Knight maybe I'll replay these next

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Well, I was mistaken. It doesn't have the new soundtrack in classic mode, but a sampled (?) version of the old MIDI stuff that seems to sound worse than what I get with the original in ScummVM, and with worse iMuse support as well. And sound effects seem to be missing, too. I guess I'll have to try and bundle a hybrid version of the original SCUMM game with the voice stuff from the SE after all.

[Romão 2,274]

For the past few weeks, on every Monday, Ron Gilbert and David Grossman have been sharing some gameplay footage from the new game. I haven't shared it here in the thread, as I assume most of you, like you, would rather go in blind, but it's on their Twitter, if you're interested

2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Well, I was mistaken. It doesn't have the new soundtrack in classic mode, but a sampled (?) version of the old MIDI stuff that seems to sound worse than what I get with the original in ScummVM, and with worse iMuse support as well. And sound effects seem to be missing, too. I guess I'll have to try and bundle a hybrid version of the original SCUMM game with the voice stuff from the SE after all.

 

I would love to be able to do this too. Although I must say, I am very fond of the SE treatment of the Monkey 2 soundtrack

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

17 hours ago, Romão said:

I would love to be able to do this too. Although I must say, I am very fond of the SE treatment of the Monkey 2 soundtrack

 

Absolutely. But ingame, I'd much rather have the original soundtrack with proper iMuse blending than the newly arranged/recorded score without. iMuse is even one of the first things Gilbert & Schafer mention in the commentary track, as soon as we get to Woodtick.

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I've been avoiding videos and screenshots (beyond thumbnails) for a while now, but judging from recent posts, RMI will again make extensive use of iMuse-style music transitions between locations:

 

[Jay 37,368]

Excellent! 

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Just announced at gamescom: Return to Monkey Island release on International Talk Like a Pirate Day - 19 September.

 

And I'm still at the beginning of CoMI. I've got to speed up.

[Jay 37,368]

Oh snap that's a month away

 

I gotta START my replay!

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

Here's the full preorder trailer:

 

For those who (like me) have never heard of horse armor before:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/horse-armor

[Jay 37,368]

Nice, it's on youtube too

 

 

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

It's a shame they didn't get the Stan voice actor from Curse back, I really liked him best. I'm a bit anxious to hear LeChuck without Earl Boen too, the replacement they had for the first Tales episode was... underwhelming.

 

Still, so pumped for this game!

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

This is the new voice of LeChuck:

 

[Jay 37,368]

I mean, when I think of Jess Harnell, I think of this guy first

 

[Romão 2,274]

On 25/08/2022 at 12:20 AM, Docteur Qui said:

It's a shame they didn't get the Stan voice actor from Curse back, I really liked him best. I'm a bit anxious to hear LeChuck without Earl Boen too, the replacement they had for the first Tales episode was... underwhelming.

 

Still, so pumped for this game!

 

 

I must say I was never fond of Stan's voice in Curse. Too slow. Too smooth-talking. 

 

Stan was inspired by Cal Worthington (even down to the hat):

 

 

I feel from all the three actors to have played Stan thus far, the from Tales and now RTMI was the closest to that spirit

 

Bod Odenkirk would be perfect in a live action adaptation, of course

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

On 26/08/2022 at 11:14 AM, Romão said:

 

 

I must say I was never fond of Stan's voice in Curse. Too slow. Too smooth-talking. 

 

Stan was inspired by Cal Worthington (even down to the hat):

 

 

I feel from all the three actors to have played Stan thus far, the from Tales and now RTMI was the closest to that spirit

 

Bod Odenkirk would be perfect in a live action adaptation, of course

 

Thanks for sharing, I didn't know about the inspiration for Stan!

 

And man, imagine Odenkirk in live-action.... We can only dream!

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

He'd need a CGI jacket though.

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

 

[Jay 37,368]

Damn, this game comes out tomorrow and I haven't even started my replays of the original games... 

[Romão 2,274]

Cannot wait to play this thing tomorrow. I will take my time with it, I hope to eventually get stuck and resist the urge to use the hint book 

[Jay 37,368]

Yea I will play with no cheating

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

I finally finished Escape from Monkey Island on Friday and have spent almost the entire weekend on Tales, but I'm still somewhere in the second half of chapter 4 (of 5). I probably won't finish that until Tuesday or so, so Return will have to wait a bit.

[Jay 37,368]

What are your like, one sentence per game thoughts on each game from your 2022 perspective? 

[Marian Schedenig 8,198]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

What are your like, one sentence per game thoughts on each game from your 2022 perspective? 

 

I'm planning on posting a bit more than one sentence (though hopefully not *too* much) once I'm through.