Maybe Ron doesn’t consider MI2 to be a sequel because yes, it’s a story about Guybrush and LeChuck that also has a strong tie with what happened - namely the beard - but it’s also something that can totally exist on its own. If you play MI2 without playing MI1, you don’t lose much. You’re already told what you need to know right from the start: Guybrush is a pirate looking for a treasure, and he killed evil ghost pirate LeChuck. You don’t need to know how it happened. You don’t need to know that you had to pass three trials, that Voodoo Lady was there (I mean, even if you played MI1 you could have missed her), you don’t even need to know who Elaine is - when they meet again, it’s just implied that they were lovers and things went downhill, no need to know that she was Melee’s governor.
Star Wars Episode V on the other hand makes little sense if you haven’t seen Episode IV. That’s for sure a sequel.
So, maybe in that sense, RMI will just be a standalone adventure that brings you to the needed knowledge right away - maybe they’ll replay the ending scene and cliffhanger - and then it’s a story on its own.
Given Ron’s comments about the game picking up directly from the ending of MI2, whilst not actually being a direct sequel to MI2 and his other comments about how the post MI2 sequels are still in canon with this new game, here’s what I think…
The game begins at the carnival from the ending of MI2 and Guybrush escapes back to the pirate world. Then the game does a time jump to many years later, after the events of Curse, Escape and Tales have taken place and the main plot takes place.
This theory would also explain Ron’s other comment about how Guybrush is a reflection of himself, as a developer, getting older and that Guybrush has a new career in this game. It would also explain how Murray is in the game. So, yeah; I’d be willing to bet money that the game timeline is this…
START OF GAME/PRELUDE CHAPTER - Guybrush is in the carnival. He escapes back to the pirate world.
TIME JUMP WITH ON SCREEN TITLE - “31 years later…” (or something to that effect)
START OF MAIN GAME PLOT - All of the previous Monkey Island game’s plots have occurred and Guybrush is now much older and a new Monkey Island sequel begins proper.
That would completely tally with all of Ron’s comments on the game and the canonical status of previous games within the franchise.
I’m thinking … if there is a strong connection to the first two games , or a strong revelation about something that was present in the first two games, this would mean you need to play the first two games after all.
Unless they have a recap in the beginning. But it would be either a very long recap (unlikely), or a very suspicious recap (reminding us of things that are of no apparent importance).
So it seems there can’t be a strong revelation about something in the first two games. And this means the Secret could be something that comes out of the blue; something that may surprise you even if you haven’t played the first two games…
My theory is that Guybrush never left the carnival and, in a way, imagine the MI2’s sequels.
They still exist, kind in a fantasy way, and he’s able to go back to them in a way or another, but he’s still a prisoner of the amusement park.
In Return, he’ll finally escape… but will also bring with him some of the characters he met in his fantasy world.
So, this way, the game would both be a sequel of MI2 AND Curse, Escape and Tales.
Now, what exactly is this fantasy world? What’s real and what’s not? I’m not sure yet. But I think it would make sense based on what Ron and Dave said, with the chronology being amorphous, and Return redifining numbering. Dave said himself that the chronology would not be important anymore.
Here the quote:
« I’ve seen speculation online where people think this will slot in between Monkey Island 2 and Monkey Island 3 , but then Murray, a character from the third game, is in the teaser. So how does the chronology work? When is it set?
Ron: How would you describe it, Dave? It’s kind of amorphous. It’s undefinable in a lot of ways.
Dave: And possibly not important, ultimately. Trying to assign specific numbers to the stories will become hard at some point. »
I feel like they would not have say that if the amusement park part was just a flashback. It seems much more complicated/crazy than that.
This is actually compatible with what Ron said lots of times, that is, the Secret isn’t that astounding. Something that players who didn’t play the first two games won’t care about.
Let’s suppose we have LeChuck say “I sailed to Monkey Island to discover its secret, I died while doing so, and all that just to find out that there are mushrooms in Hell!”, players who don’t know the first games will just brush it off as a joke, not even an inside joke, and we’ll be like “all these years for THAT?”
You are saying the secret could be such that players who haven’t played the first two games won’t recognize it as such? That’s not what I meant, but it could be.
This raises another question: how will we recognize it? if the secret can be such a banal thing, how will we recognize it’s the secret?
I don’t suppose some character will use the word “secret”. (why should they? Nobody ever talked about Monkey Island having a secret yet to be resolved. ). Unless in the beginning of RTMI someone talks expressly about a secret, like the Big Whoop in MI2.
Sorry, my memory could be rusty. Did some character give hints of a secret yet to be resolved in Monkey Island? I remember it was all about the Big Whoop in MI2.
If it wasn’t for Ron’s interviews, we wouldn’t even be expecting a secret, would we?
In MI1, at least these characters tell Guybrush about the fabled secret of Monkey Island:
Estevan
Stan
The captain of the Sea Monkey (in the logbook)
Herman Toothrot
The fact that a secret exists is also the reason why LeChuck dies and becomes a ghost: his ship sank while he was searching for the secret of the island.
Ok, so it might be that in RTMI characters start talking explicitly about a “secret of Monkey Island” that is still to be uncovered. And that’s how we recognize the secret when we see it: characters call it as such.
Is that how you expect it to play out? (Assuming Ron is going to actually tell the secret, which is not confirmed)
Did some character give hints of a secret yet to be resolved in Monkey Island? I remember it was all about the Big Whoop in MI2.