I Love ToMI so far!
I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to Telltale and their team that works so hard on Tales of Monkey Island! So far I've been very satisfied with ToMI, and the first three chapters are, in my opinion, made in the best traditions of the classic MI games - not *exactly* like the classic games were, but keeping all the best traditions and building up on them to bring something new and fun! I loved the references to the classic MI series, classic MI activities (treasure hunting based on a map, swordfighting (even with the classic "insults" references!), mini-games (gosh, the "face-off" made me laugh hard, it's certainly one of the most hilarious mini-game-like activities so far!), and so on). I was also wondering if Murray is going to make it into the new series and I was sure happy to see him appear in ep. 3. Plus, everything related to Guybrush is there, including the "holding breath for 10 minutes", "I'm selling these fine leather jackets", and other classic jokes, gags, and references. ToMI, being an episodic game, feels much longer than any of the MI games I've played before - and it's obviously so, because each episode takes at least 3-5 hours for me to beat (given that I don't get stuck for days somewhere, which actually happened only once so far in ep.2, but it did happen ), if it keeps up like that till the end, 15-25 hours of relatively free ("non-stuck") playing time, and more than that if you get stuck often/very often, is an awesome result for a quest game, which is typically much shorter (but also usually more convoluted, so you get stuck more often and therefore play for a longer time). Also, ToMI is a game that makes you want to replay certain scenes over and over again, just to try out all the responses, find some hidden gags and references, and so on. For a quest game it sure has a good replay value, and it feels *epic* indeed. You guys sure weren't joking when you advertised ToMI as an epic-scale adventure!
One of the best parts of how ToMI is made, in my opinion, is the original cast of voice actors for most of the classic characters. Guybrush Threepwood just *had* to be voiced by Dominic Armato, I think any other choice would have been an insult to the series! At least it wouldn't have been the same Guybrush Threepwood we all know and love, that's for sure! It's too bad LeChuck, especially the episode 1 LeChuck in the beginning, wasn't voiced by the same person who vioced him in MI3, MI4, and MI1 Special Edition - the ep.1 zombie pirate version of LeChuck sounded somewhat inferior to me compared to MI3/4/1SE, but then again, I've come to totally *love* the voice of the nice Human LeChuck in episode 2, I think it's perfect!
I also like the concept of the online Treasure Hunt! I do find the concept a little counter-intuitive, it's not always clear how to get a new map and where to start looking for a new one, and even whether to start looking for it already or not, but then again, it only makes it more interesting since it's only been recently that I've discovered a map at the World of MI by accident. Good job!
Congratulations to the Telltale team for a successful revival of one of the greatest classic quest series of all times! I kinda hope that MI1 Special Edition (which I liked but not nearly as much as ToMI) and ToMI are not the end of the Monkey Island series... I sure think that if someone is up to the task of continuing the series onwards, it sure is Telltale!
Things I miss so far (and which I sure would like to appear in either ep.4 or ep.5):
- Stan! The overly energetic entrepreneur, no matter how mixed my feelings are towards him, is in my opinion one of the symbols of MI, a part of its atmosphere - kinda like Murray since MI3. He's one of those characters who really makes me say "Ok, it's Monkey Island alright!" just when he appears in the game. The same thing actually happened when I saw Murray appear in ep.3. Stan is one of those characters who's been around since MI1, and I'd miss him indeed if he doesn't appear in the epic-scale ToMI which seems to encompass much of the classic atmosphere of the series while introducing new characters, locations, and concepts. He's one classic element that, in my opinion, should not be missed. Not sure if I'm alone in this, but I sure hope Stan will appear, sooner or later, in the series.
- At least one dark episode! It's been covered elsewhere on the forums already (there's a topic called "Darkness" or something), but I mean a nighttime, atmospheric episode like Melee Island in MI1, Blood Island/Skull Island in MI3, etc. You get the idea. I really liked how CoMI (MI3) shifted from a bright daytime atmosphere of Plunder Island to a dark nighttime atmosphere of Blood Island, that was superb! It'd be nice if something like that happened to ToMI. Episode 2 was part-dark, and Episode 3 had a good deal of darkness to it, but it wasn't *that* kind of darkness... I think you know what I mean.
- Murray's comeback! I kinda liked the way Murray appeared later on in MI3 after his first appearance... So I hope we'll see more of Murray even though he was sent flying down the sea... again (but hey, he did fall down the sea in the beginning of MI3 as well, didn't he?). Who knows, but here's hoping that perhaps in ep.5, where some evil, dark schemes are to be unveiled, we'll see Murray again?... He's an incredibly funny character, "in a dark, demonic way".
- Last but not least... maybe some more world map/overhead map interaction? I liked the "sea battle" activity in MI3 very much, and I liked how you fought with pirates (with insults) in MI1 by finding them on the world map... I'm not sure if anything like that is planned for ToMI or not (maybe not exactly a sea battle or a sword fight of course, just something similar that takes place on the overhead map), but it'd be nice to have some kind of an activity like that... the closest we've had so far was the island map in chapter 2 and the siege scene... of course, I do realize that with episodic content where the game is split into several smaller parts, each taking place on a relatively small area, it's hard to incorporate an activity like that, so I'm just making a note to self that something like that would have been nice - after all, we do have a map on the Screaming Narwhal, and it was even used for traveling in ep.2 already... But hey, I guess I'm starting to dream of things too much... So, perhaps this is a good idea not even for ToMI, but for another season of the Monkey Island series, if that will ever be made.
Overall, thanks a lot, Telltale! ToMI is a great return of the classic series, I love you guys! So far it lives up to the highest of my expectations as a long-term MI fan, and I'm happy that my favorite quest is not forgotten and is in good hands!
One of the best parts of how ToMI is made, in my opinion, is the original cast of voice actors for most of the classic characters. Guybrush Threepwood just *had* to be voiced by Dominic Armato, I think any other choice would have been an insult to the series! At least it wouldn't have been the same Guybrush Threepwood we all know and love, that's for sure! It's too bad LeChuck, especially the episode 1 LeChuck in the beginning, wasn't voiced by the same person who vioced him in MI3, MI4, and MI1 Special Edition - the ep.1 zombie pirate version of LeChuck sounded somewhat inferior to me compared to MI3/4/1SE, but then again, I've come to totally *love* the voice of the nice Human LeChuck in episode 2, I think it's perfect!
I also like the concept of the online Treasure Hunt! I do find the concept a little counter-intuitive, it's not always clear how to get a new map and where to start looking for a new one, and even whether to start looking for it already or not, but then again, it only makes it more interesting since it's only been recently that I've discovered a map at the World of MI by accident. Good job!
Congratulations to the Telltale team for a successful revival of one of the greatest classic quest series of all times! I kinda hope that MI1 Special Edition (which I liked but not nearly as much as ToMI) and ToMI are not the end of the Monkey Island series... I sure think that if someone is up to the task of continuing the series onwards, it sure is Telltale!
Things I miss so far (and which I sure would like to appear in either ep.4 or ep.5):
- Stan! The overly energetic entrepreneur, no matter how mixed my feelings are towards him, is in my opinion one of the symbols of MI, a part of its atmosphere - kinda like Murray since MI3. He's one of those characters who really makes me say "Ok, it's Monkey Island alright!" just when he appears in the game. The same thing actually happened when I saw Murray appear in ep.3. Stan is one of those characters who's been around since MI1, and I'd miss him indeed if he doesn't appear in the epic-scale ToMI which seems to encompass much of the classic atmosphere of the series while introducing new characters, locations, and concepts. He's one classic element that, in my opinion, should not be missed. Not sure if I'm alone in this, but I sure hope Stan will appear, sooner or later, in the series.
- At least one dark episode! It's been covered elsewhere on the forums already (there's a topic called "Darkness" or something), but I mean a nighttime, atmospheric episode like Melee Island in MI1, Blood Island/Skull Island in MI3, etc. You get the idea. I really liked how CoMI (MI3) shifted from a bright daytime atmosphere of Plunder Island to a dark nighttime atmosphere of Blood Island, that was superb! It'd be nice if something like that happened to ToMI. Episode 2 was part-dark, and Episode 3 had a good deal of darkness to it, but it wasn't *that* kind of darkness... I think you know what I mean.
- Murray's comeback! I kinda liked the way Murray appeared later on in MI3 after his first appearance... So I hope we'll see more of Murray even though he was sent flying down the sea... again (but hey, he did fall down the sea in the beginning of MI3 as well, didn't he?). Who knows, but here's hoping that perhaps in ep.5, where some evil, dark schemes are to be unveiled, we'll see Murray again?... He's an incredibly funny character, "in a dark, demonic way".
- Last but not least... maybe some more world map/overhead map interaction? I liked the "sea battle" activity in MI3 very much, and I liked how you fought with pirates (with insults) in MI1 by finding them on the world map... I'm not sure if anything like that is planned for ToMI or not (maybe not exactly a sea battle or a sword fight of course, just something similar that takes place on the overhead map), but it'd be nice to have some kind of an activity like that... the closest we've had so far was the island map in chapter 2 and the siege scene... of course, I do realize that with episodic content where the game is split into several smaller parts, each taking place on a relatively small area, it's hard to incorporate an activity like that, so I'm just making a note to self that something like that would have been nice - after all, we do have a map on the Screaming Narwhal, and it was even used for traveling in ep.2 already... But hey, I guess I'm starting to dream of things too much... So, perhaps this is a good idea not even for ToMI, but for another season of the Monkey Island series, if that will ever be made.
Overall, thanks a lot, Telltale! ToMI is a great return of the classic series, I love you guys! So far it lives up to the highest of my expectations as a long-term MI fan, and I'm happy that my favorite quest is not forgotten and is in good hands!
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I have a feeling that at least some of your wishes for the final chapters may be realised.