episodic monkey island good idea?

i don't think they should have released monkey island episodic, because monkey island has always been visiting many islands including returning to previous islands (i think this is the case with curse of monkey island, can't remember escape.) anyway, episodic means that they will have to put in the island again if they want to return to a previous island. also, the item you currently hold, will they be lost? or will you be given the items you need automatically. anyway i'm just thinking, why not make it expansion style? wouldn't that be better? i don't know, telltale is really good, i just don't like the fact that sam and max season 1 is always starting in the office and wallace and gromit is always in wallabe street, i don't want monkey island to be limited like the games above, monkey island has always been huge.

Comments

  • edited July 2009
    telltale have said each episode will feel like a continuation of the previous one and I believe some inventory will be carried over. As far as I can remember, MI2 was the only game where u could move between islands. The other 3 progressed from island to island (except a short return to melee island in 1 and 4) so I dont see a problem with the episodic format and I think it works really well.
    Plus a new 20hr MI game would ruin my life right now (trying to revise uni retakes) so it works for me!
  • edited July 2009
    Also, each episode won't reuse the same assets.
  • edited July 2009
    As I remember, the Monkey Island games have been in 'chapters' in a way, so I don't think that this is such a great shift as people are making it out to be. While I do wish I could sit down and play it all at once, I can see why Telltale is doing this, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the game.
  • edited July 2009
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    i don't think they should have released monkey island episodic, because monkey island has always been visiting many islands including returning to previous islands (i think this is the case with curse of monkey island, can't remember escape.) anyway, episodic means that they will have to put in the island again if they want to return to a previous island. also, the item you currently hold, will they be lost? or will you be given the items you need automatically. anyway i'm just thinking, why not make it expansion style? wouldn't that be better? i don't know, telltale is really good, i just don't like the fact that sam and max season 1 is always starting in the office and wallace and gromit is always in wallabe street, i don't want monkey island to be limited like the games above, monkey island has always been huge.

    No. They haven't said for sure that no islands would make a comeback. In fact, I think someone hinted that this was the last time we'd see Flotsam 'for a while'. They're just focusing on new locations. Besides:


    In MI1 each chapter took place in seperate locations until part 4 which was a return to Melee.

    In Mi2 each chapter was also mostly seperate locations, it's just that the massive 2nd chapter was 3 whole islands (including scabb from part 1).

    In Curse of Monkey Island each chapter took place in a completely seperate location (not counting the cannon shop in the ship combat section)

    I haven't played EMI lately but I think it followed a similar pattern to the above games.

    So having each chapter take place in seperate locations is completely in keeping with the series.
  • edited July 2009
    well thats great. i just hope they do something similar to insult sword fighting and ship battles like in curse of monkey island. i loved that. i also loved the ultimate insult in escape in monkey island (although i can never remember what it is until i play it again, i like the mystery) i also liked monkey kombat like in escape, although i think they went too far in the end of escape. i hope they put in funny characters like hermin toothrot (escape) and the guy with the golden tooth (curse). that was one really hard puzzle.

    one thing i hate is the fact that the text you choose isn't said word for word. it's really funny when there is a ridiculous line and he refuses to say it, now he refuses to say pretty much anything.
  • edited July 2009
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    i hope they put in funny characters like hermin toothrot (escape) and the guy with the golden tooth (curse). that was one really hard puzzle.

    Don't you mean "Herman Toothrot (secret, revenge and escape)?"

    He appeared in the first two games as well.
  • edited July 2009
    Considering all the past Monkey Island games were broken up into chapters anyways, I think it makes a decent amount of sense.
  • edited July 2009
    Monkey Island is a perfect fit for episodic gaming since it was always broken into chapters!

    Also it's clear items from the last episode will carry over.
  • edited July 2009
    tredlow wrote: »
    Don't you mean "Herman Toothrot (secret, revenge and escape)?"

    He appeared in the first two games as well.

    i started playing from curse, graphics had evolved too much for me so i couldn't find myself playing the first 2. since the 1st one is coming out i may give it a try. the reason being that the graphics are similar, it's nice the fact that they wanted to keep it original but i don't like the limit of change so i'm on 50/50.

    i agree that MI is quite obviously, always been episodic style. i was just suggesting expansion, i know there is hardly any difference. i don't mind.

    what i do mind is the amount of exe shortcuts i have on my desktop. why don't they make 1 exe which when you launch, has links to the episodes. the ones you have are highlighted and the ones you don't are non existent or dull. don't you think that's a better idea? for example nero startsmart (a burning application) has links to several main applications.
  • edited July 2009
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    i started playing from curse, graphics had evolved too much for me so i couldn't find myself playing the first 2.
    I know children who can play modern MMOs and other video games that have also played and enjoyed Secret and LeChuck's Revenge, usually after watching someone else play it for awhile and wanting to know if they could try.

    I don't see why a fancier set of visuals makes the previous ones unplayable if they were playable before.
  • edited July 2009
    for fans - no
    Financially for developers -yes.

    Boom problem solved, move on.
  • edited July 2009
    Telltale's policy is episodic gaming.
    Surrender to this.
  • edited July 2009
    Kenif wrote: »
    for fans - no

    I strongly disagree. I am a fan, and I think most people who enjoyed the game are too.
  • edited July 2009
    Unless my memory is going, aside from the return to Melee in Escape from Monkey Island and the brief return to Melee at the end of The Secret of Monkey Island, the only game in the series where you can decide when to travel from island to island is Lechuck's Revenge. It's not really that huge of an element of the series, so not being able to go back to previous islands in Tales of Monkey Island really isn't a change from the previous games.
  • edited July 2009
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    i started playing from curse, graphics had evolved too much for me so i couldn't find myself playing the first 2.

    I find it hard playing old games, but I think the first 2 Monkey Islands (especially 2) stand up pretty well even today.
  • edited July 2009
    Badwolf wrote: »
    I find it hard playing old games, but I think the first 2 Monkey Islands (especially 2) stand up pretty well even today.

    it may be good, maybe not, i don't know. i may play the remakes i don't know. i like monkey island but it's all them pixels, it would seem like playing space invaders in a graphical sense.
  • TeaTea
    edited July 2009
    Yes it is a good idea.
  • edited July 2009
    Well you can only buy the complete pack as of now, so maybe TTG will actually use content from the previous episodes somewhere near the end and keep the download size down since we already have it? Don't know how that's going to work on the Wii though :P

    Besides, the courthouse in chapter one makes it pretty clear that we return to flotsam island at least once.

    Also: MI 1 and 2 hold up to the test of time pretty well, I played both long after MI 3 came out and could still enjoy them. Of course I did grow up on the old Sierra adventures, so you could say I was used to worse both graphically and design wise.
  • edited July 2009
    All the other Monkey Islands may have been separated into different Acts/Chapters, but it was just ONE disc, and you could keep playing.

    I just dont like the fact I'll have to download each Chapter, so eventually I'll end up with 5 Desktop icons leading to each Chapter!

    Hopefully they'll allow a big joint .exe when they're all released, so if you wanna play through again- you're not gonna have to re-boot (basically) the game for every chapter.
  • DPBDPB
    edited July 2009
    Crystent wrote: »
    I just dont like the fact I'll have to download each Chapter, so eventually I'll end up with 5 Desktop icons leading to each Chapter

    Create a shortcut to the Tales of Monkey Island folder, that's what I did with the Sam & Max episodes.

    Telltale is only a small company, the game probably wouldn't have happened at at all if it wasn't episodic, they may not have the budget to create a full-length Monkey Island without splitting it up. They're self-publishing it - they paid LucasArts for the license, as opposed to the normal developer/publisher relationship where the publisher pays them to make the game.
  • edited July 2009
    i thought telltale was part of lucasarts or atleast the employees of lucasarts. lucasarts is so selfish. they should give telltale a proper budget. and besides, all lucasarts makes is starwars. nobody plays starwars now. mysteries of the sith was good. but come on, all out of ideas?!? i have never got a lucasarts game since monkey island and mysteries of the sith. i get EA (huge company many titles), rockstar games (need i say more). even Eidos (kane and lynch). but lucas?!? hopefully telltale would get rich enough to buy monkey island rights and leave lucasarts.

    (does anybody know where the sign out button is on this forum? :-P)
  • edited July 2009
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    i thought telltale was part of lucasarts or atleast the employees of lucasarts. lucasarts is so selfish. they should give telltale a proper budget. and besides, all lucasarts makes is starwars. nobody plays starwars now. mysteries of the sith was good. but come on, all out of ideas?!? i have never got a lucasarts game since monkey island and mysteries of the sith. i get EA (huge company many titles), rockstar games (need i say more). even Eidos (kane and lynch). but lucas?!? hopefully telltale would get rich enough to buy monkey island rights and leave lucasarts.

    (does anybody know where the sign out button is on this forum? :-P)

    Telltale are not part of LucasArts. They have many former LucasArts employees, but Monkey Island was licensed from LucasArts just like Wallace and Gromit was from Aardman and Strong Bad from The Brothers Chaps, etc. :)

    So actually Telltale did already 'buy monkey island rights', that is to say they paid LucasArts money in order to use the Monkey Island license to make this episodic series.
  • edited July 2009
    shoulda woulda coulda

    Stop whining
  • edited July 2009
    As a long-time adventure fan, I'm not crazy about having to wait a month between each chapter. But it was 1000 times worse having to wait 9 years for the next MI game. I'll take this situation any day.

    Plus, of all the old adventure game series to revive, this one was the perfect candidate to adapt to the new episodic format because its old games were already structured that way. When all 5 episodes are done, it should feel just like we played one big MI game instead of 5 independent small games.

    The only other Telltale series I've played is Sam & Max season 1. Each episode had no relation to the others, so it just felt like I was doing the same things over and over in each chapter with no bigger picture. So I had a hard time staying interested. Monkey island shouldn't have that problem, because it seems each chapter will have a cliffhanger that makes you want to play the next one.
  • edited July 2009
    As a long-time adventure fan, I'm not crazy about having to wait a month between each chapter. But it was 1000 times worse having to wait 9 years for the next MI game. I'll take this situation any day.

    Plus, of all the old adventure game series to revive, this one was the perfect candidate to adapt to the new episodic format because its old games were already structured that way. When all 5 episodes are done, it should feel just like we played one big MI game instead of 5 independent small games.

    The only other Telltale series I've played is Sam & Max season 1. Each episode had no relation to the others, so it just felt like I was doing the same things over and over in each chapter with no bigger picture. So I had a hard time staying interested. Monkey island shouldn't have that problem, because it seems each chapter will have a cliffhanger that makes you want to play the next one.

    yes but now you'll have to wait a month every time you accomplish the main objective :-P
  • edited July 2009
    As a long-time adventure fan, I'm not crazy about having to wait a month between each chapter. But it was 1000 times worse having to wait 9 years for the next MI game. I'll take this situation any day.

    Exactly! ;)
    I think the bagpipe would have had a different tone if all the whiners knew that they had to wait 6-12 months before they could once again be a pirate and rule the sea

    I certainly wouldnt have had the nerves to wait 6 months until i could buy the whole game like some people here have mentioned they will. Just reading through forums and reading reviews is enough to make me crazy for the next chapter
  • edited July 2009
    Exactly! ;)
    I think the bagpipe would have had a different tone if all the whiners knew that they had to wait 6-12 months before they could once again be a pirate and rule the sea

    I certainly wouldnt have had the nerves to wait 6 months until i could buy the whole game like some people here have mentioned they will. Just reading through forums and reading reviews is enough to make me crazy for the next chapter

    i know what you mean. long wait+painful wait
  • edited July 2009
    I posted this somewhere else, but if it's' okay I'll give my opinion here as well.
    As a mostly console player, I've never even heard of a game being released like this. I gotta say that I think I like it. It's gonna be fun playing an episode and then getting on the forum and chatting about it. Of coarse just waiting for the next episode builds your excitement and adds to the fun. I really think i'ts neat.
  • edited July 2009
    sorry I posted in the wrong thread ignore plz
  • edited July 2009
    cole wrote: »
    I posted this somewhere else, but if it's' okay I'll give my opinion here as well.
    As a mostly console player, I've never even heard of a game being released like this. I gotta say that I think I like it. It's gonna be fun playing an episode and then getting on the forum and chatting about it. Of coarse just waiting for the next episode builds your excitement and adds to the fun. I really think i'ts neat.

    your lucky to even have a console!
  • edited July 2009
    I finished the first chapter today, just a few hours ago. I thought the chapter itself was very faithful to the classic Monkey Island games, and it's been said already, but since the games were always divided into chapters anyway, an episodic series of Monkey Island is actually a pretty good idea, at least that's what I thought.
    Hee Ho Ho wrote: »
    yes but now you'll have to wait a month every time you accomplish the main objective :-P
    True, but how is that not better than waiting for something that will most likely never happen?
  • edited July 2009
    Flip86 wrote: »
    Besides, the courthouse in chapter one makes it pretty clear that we return to flotsam island at least once.

    I think we will see again flotsam island (because of the courthouse), in Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood.
  • edited July 2009
    When I first heard that Monkey Island was being released this way I thought it might not work out so good.

    But it really seems like Telltale have thought it through quite well, with the story progression through each chapter etc, and I have to admit despite my initial misgivings to actually liking this format for a few reasons:

    - being able to play it as soon as each bit is released. For MI3 and MI4, I had to wait six to eight weeks for my copy to ship from the United States, which was painful.

    - the anticipation with the cliffhangers etc - I really like being able to try and guess and come up with theories as to what will happen and discussing them on this forum is really fun.

    - the opportunity to provide input back to telltale about the game - a good example of this is the voodoo lady library as influenced by the private pirates forum.. how often do you get to influence one of your favourite game series? plus, the opportunity to provide feedback on the puzzles, graphics etc are going to make the next ones even better.

    - the fact that the chapters are released a month apart is also good, since it means playing time is more spread out.. so no need to disappear off the face of the earth for a week while playing a new game.

    But regardless, Monkey Island is Monkey Island, and I'd probably buy it in any format it was released in :)
  • edited July 2009
    +1 to what meander said.

    Exactly how I feel.
  • edited July 2009
    Eh, episodic gaming and full length games are two different mediums. I for one lament the loss of a lot of things which are not possible in episodic games, however the reverse is also true with stuff possible in episodic games not possible in full length. While I may have a personal preference for full length games and would love to see a new MI game done as a full length game, I admit the serious is perfectly comfortable in both mediums.
  • edited July 2009
    larys wrote: »
    I think we will see again flotsam island (because of the courthouse), in Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood.
    And there is a chest in the voodoo shack which Guybrush won't open in the first episode.

    Now I play the chapters 1-4 in monthly bites and to the release of the fifth chapter, I will probably play all the 5 chapters in one session.
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