I can understand the way you experienced MI1 and MI2, because I felt in a very similar way and I’ve observed that, predictably, other people perceived completely different atmospheres.
That surreal, dark and sometimes unsettling vibe has accompanied me all the way, especially in Melee.
Personally, I wouldn’t try to read too much in other people’s opinions about how sincere or deluded some fans are. That’s the step before the “an objective truth exists so let’s move the discussion from games to highlighting faults or negative traits of other human beings” phase.
And again, I’m not saying the way I see it is the right way.
I understand that some fans have other expectations about it. There were five Monkey Island games before this one, and each game is very different from the other, so it’s understandable that fans have different visions about what Monkey Island should or shouldn’t be.
Having said that, it feel good not being the only one that experienced MI1 and 2 that way.
I’ll tell you more: my feeling that in Ron’s games there was an untold dark story behind all the bells and whistles has transformed along the years into an expectation of something dark happening in the next game by Ron.
That’s why I’m torn about what story I desire for RtMI. A part of me would like the story to proceed along the lines of a simple tale told to children: closing the initial story and revealing the secret without going into details that I associated to a darker meaning. Another part would instead like a story that evolves in that, more surreal and darker direction.
That’s also why I want to wait for the game to understand how well the art style matches the tones of the story. I can see connections between a story going towards more abstract topics and a graphic style that serves that kind of narration.
LowLevel => I feel exactly the same way. That’s why I’m trying my best to not theorize too much about what will happen in the game at this point. I want to stay open-minded about it.
Frenzie => Thank you! I’m glad if what I said made sense. I struggle with my words in English - which is frustrating as I’m a writer in my native langage, ha, ha. .
Ok, just checking because I did not want you to think I came up with such poor design all by myself.
One may find the graphics in that game equally dated, but at least they’re so simple you could grasp the totality of the screen in a second which is a quality you prefer. That’s why I gave it as an example.
In every MI game there was at least one occasion in which I missed the visual clue to a puzzle element and spend a long time being stuck:the nail in CoMI, the dry-cleaner note, the nails and half of the stuff in the antique shop in MI2, the feet of the ghost pirate and a bunch of other stuff on the ghost ship in MI1.
There’s even people who missed the Voodoo Lady in MI1 because of poor room composition.
And don’t get me started on Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango! Two games otherwise considered as the pinnacle in the genre.
All I’m saying is: it’s ok, we’ll survive screens that may need some time to process and decipher. And I for one, didn’t like any of those games any less for it. If nothing else, being able to wander around when you’re stuck on some puzzles and revisiting other rooms with more details to discover was a good thing?
Again, I don’t want to start a useless discussion about tastes and personal appreciation- by all means, feel exactly about it like you want- I only tried to give some counterexamples that there are no set rules or magic formulas. But it’s hard to have a normal discussion when you only react to me with short and snarky replies.
It’s nice of you to provide an alternative explanation to me missing a key character in MI1 other than the one that I’ve accepted serenely for thirty years (which is that I’m an idiot).
As a non-native speaker, I still don’t get the puns of Melee and Scabb. What are they? Booty I think I get (literally treasure a pirate steals, but also “ass”, referring to Elaine?).
A Bud Spencer & Terence Hill movie is full of mêlées. Unless I’m missing something deeper, I’ve always simply interpreted it as Fight Island (i.e., where you insult sword fight, where you fight LeChuck, etc.).
The scab presumably refers to a certain similarity in looks, although I’m not really sure how it’s different from any other island.
When playing for the first time MI2, I assumed that it referred to the skin disease, which I associated to low pirate hygiene.
The word has also other meanings, that I learned only later.
By the way, according to all the public texts currently shared by the developers for RtMI, it’s no more “Mêlée”, it’s simply “Melee”, now.
To me, that’s not the real issue. The real issue was to create a completely optional character, meaning that she doesn’t contribute in any way to the puzzles that need to be resolved.
Had she been a functional character, I would get stuck and I would have searched more carefully for missing “pieces”.
That depends on the game version IMHO. The C64 version for example has still its own style and charm - like the C64 version of Zak. And regarding the puzzles: what @Sushi said.
Why is this an issue? She is a “living” hint system: If you discover her, she will reward you for your search and exploration with hints (and the game with a bonus character).
Well, she is an extremely interesting character that does contribute to advance the story, even if that happens only by acting and not by contributing to puzzles.
So for the player it’s a pity to miss this piece of the story and what she reveals to Guybrush about his future.
I could consider it a puzzle, but given all the other optional but unimportant things that can be done in the game, in my opinion not solving this specific “puzzle” deprives the player of something too important for the story.
My guess is just an instance of poor room design. I didn’t have a problem finding the voodoo lady, but the very last room of Sam n Max I faced the same challenge and it’s the only time I ever called the help line. As I recall, the last room was in a resort or something near a pool, and I didn’t realize the room scrolled and had to have the helpline assist me with that simple shit, fuck I was frustrated. I think I had a similar problem on Grim, but don’t recall where.
One thing I noticed from the Return screenshots we’ve seen is that they seem well aware of such issues and give better clues in terms of scrolling rooms. One reason I think the idea of the backgrounds being poorly designed to be another grand exaggeration:
Anyway, judging by the size (dialog lines and amount of animation), I’d say like he got at least twice the budget of TWP, which eventually was about 1.5 million IIRC.
