Why do you love the "darkness" so much?
I get that pirates need to have a certain brutality about them, so I wouldn't be surprised if an MI game had keelhauling, but why is everyone so obsessed with the atmosphere being so dark? Is it because SMI and MI2 started out at night?
There's nothing wrong with sunshine and a bright atmosphere, or dark for that matter. You can do either and still retain that piratey feel.
Then you get something like "Chapter four made it good and dark.*" That's a quote, one of many. Why this obsession with dark? You end-up looking a lot like this:
(*I'm aware the thread refers to EMI, but it's the part in italics that matters.)
There's nothing wrong with sunshine and a bright atmosphere, or dark for that matter. You can do either and still retain that piratey feel.
Then you get something like "Chapter four made it good and dark.*" That's a quote, one of many. Why this obsession with dark? You end-up looking a lot like this:
(*I'm aware the thread refers to EMI, but it's the part in italics that matters.)
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I started playing Tales with no ideas or exceptions as to what it was going to be about, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was playing with certain moods and emotions that weren't tried in the series before.
Some may say that what happened was corny, cheesy, or what ever food related adjective you may want to use, but I found it believable within the realms of the series. (I mean, what's not cheesy about the game's storyline?)
But I digress.
I think that rather than a longing for "dark", we're looking for something new and exciting. Sunshine and happiness has been done, and done well mind you, but if you never at least TRY to explore outside that realm then you'll end up with the Land Before Time series/saga/couldn't care less.
I'm not exactly the best with explaining my thoughts, but I hope you at least get some of the things I said. >_>
It means the story has become deep, gritty and potentially frightening. Chapter 4 wasn't dark. it was just darker than most Monkey Islands which are usually the polar opposite of dark.
Exactly. It's another thing, completely...
This is going to be a really simplified explanation, but I'll try. A "darker" story, that, repeating, is'nt an emo or goth story
But now we're talking about psychology, and no more about TOMI
That being Said I am not EMO, or GOTH in anyway.
They were scary but were also funny as hell.
One of the things I didn't like about EMI was that it sometimes was just like bubblegum. All bright colours and non of the dark humour of the first games.
Tales is doing pretty well on getting 'The Darkness' as you put it.
Jambalaya was supposed to be extremely un-piraty. That was the point. It was chemically cleaned of all atmosphere, courtesy of one Ozzy Mandril. But if you ask me, that gave it a whole new atmosphere, and not a happy one. It basically said "This is the end of the line for pirates. You are being branded and resold as fun relics of a past that never existed. Your time is up".
Which was well acompanied by Knuttin Atoll.
I think a dark atmosphere has its, I guess charm, but sunlight and happiness do too. You could still have a story about pirates where the entire thing takes place on an island sooo beautifully bright and sunny you feel warm just looking at it.
I think some stories work purely in the dark. Oldboy, for example, is a very dark story, and it's so dark for a reason.
All I'm saying is, darkness does not a good story make. Or a Monkey Island game. More humour could be added to anything. Everything should be a little funnier, I think, but not to the point of self-parody.
I dunno. Flotsam was about as piratey as it gets short of pillaging and drunken buccaneers, and Plunder was a island run by pirates, through and through.
Well, letting the Dark Knight is deep bit slide by, I want to point out that I intentionally left my definition of dark ambiguous, since I have a sneaking suspicion that not everyone shares the definition, and wanted to see what they all interpreted this "dark" as: story, daylight, grimness, macabre deaths?
Except for Plunder Island. Guess you skipped the first third of the story?
I know what you mean, but if there is only one atmosphere throughout the game then it's kinda limited. Sunny climes have their place for me, and Plunder was no more tense and moody than Flotsam. There were specific differences, which I have written about elsewhere, but darkness can only be used to create a tense atmosphere. MI1/2 weren't all dark. Granted, MI1 was until Monkey Island, but Phatt Island/Booty Island/etc. were all bright and sunny.
What I like MI for, is that each game during it's playthrough is becoming progressively darker yet still maintaining flashy humor. I think this what makes MI special. MI1: cannibals, Caverns of Meat, freaky ghost ship and a deserted Melee town, or MI2: dark tunnels and even grim jungles (and let's note: it takes place during the day and I still think it has this dark atmosphere) with almost no company but a kind of lone parrot remembering his old master, Captain Marley
So, it's not only the drama, in my opinion, it's the atmosphere mostly. And I think ToMI takes this dark tint thing further than any of previous MI games (I mean, really the only ToMI chapter that HADN'T any kind of darker tint is the first one, in ToMI, and the amount of it is raising more and more with each chapter...), while still remaining funny and witty and whatnot, and I like that (and I think THIS is what's making Monkey Island game a real Monkey Island game). The only thing is, right now, everything depends on Chapter 5. It may as well be a flop, like CMI/EMI endings... or, at last, we'll get a good and satisfying ending.
But, well, all of that is just my opinion and point of view.
I kept the definition of darkness ambiguous, intentionally. I just put that up there to sum-up what the people clamoring for darkness all make themselves look like.
Well, to you, perhaps
I agree with the other comments that you must have more than sunny joy-of-joys in every episode. Though it's important to reiterate each time that we don't see MI1/2 as some blockbuster adventure! (because I think some do)
Because all this clamoring for darkness - "it's so much cooler" - is exactly that, the emo/goth stereotype. Since the comic was made to make fun of the people demanding Diablo III be "darker", this only seemed appropriate.
Like locking a man inside a coffin or a nightmare turned into a skelton dance show, or spitting your way out of a torture chamber.
And that is smart, and i love smart games.
Now that you make me think about it...
I think that "dark" also implies the idea that the story is taking itself more seriously. CMI and EMI were pretty much parodies, whereas I've always thought that SMI and Revenge managed to balance the nonsense with a real sense of mystery and wonder. Maybe the low-resolution graphics helped this sensation, but regardless of the reason generating the sensation, the feeling of something between crazyness and drama was there for me.
Funny is good. I like funny stuff. I like the sun shining on my life.
Unfortunately, my imprinting with the Monkey Island saga lies within that (unintentional?) balance in SMI and MI2.
One thing is certain: Telltale is looking for that balance intentionally. The results may not be exactly the same, but they're trying to achieve something along that lines.
And I'm happy with that. :cool:
If it's a problem of mine, I'll get psychiatric help from Penny Arcade or Yahtzee.
I could agree with you on Blood Island general "mood", but all the characters in CMI felt just plain funny, including Minnie and the Cannibals.
No Morgan in CMI.
BTW, I don't want to turn the thread in a Curse bashing, because I think the game was great. I like TMI more, but I guess it's subjective.
Absolutely they were'nt ! Day of tentacle can be like so, or Sam & Max Hit the Road, not Monkey Island.
the voodoo doll fight with LeChuck and Guybrush was very cartoonie
There's dozens of other examples.
You can me show dozens and thousands of cartoon art styles in Monkey Island. But remains that Mi is a game in which story and characters are in the middle way between cartoony and dark-reality. You can't say to me that was full-cartoony games, because neither Gilbert or Grossmann think this thing about THEIR CREATION...
SoMI/LCR weren't S&M style, no, but they also weren't epics written by Alighieri. Cartoonyness and an element of darkness aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. The cool thing about MI is that it's been able to spend its time (when it hit the money) getting across a serious story and an element of danger for the character, whilst still making it a comedy at heart.
I've already told that this may be unintentional due to graphics limitations of the time, which made the graphics looked more "serious" than it was intended.
Anyway, it LOOKED more serious to me.
And I've NEVER EVER been scared by CMI and EMI as I was in the MI2 finale.
That's a fact.
I wanted that sentation back and Telltale is at least trying to recover it through the screenplay.
And if you never found the end of MI2 to be scary, then you have probably never played it when you were young. Doom was piece of cake compared to running away from LeChuck....
Monkey Island's strength in my opinion was the ability it had to be downright silly and witty and at the same time, or moments later serious and "dark and gritty". I'm sure people are sick and tired of posting details and examples of the opposite of what you mean as well. Play the game again, and look past the low resolution and cartoon graphics.
People posting old screenshots and saying: "Look, it's cartoony and it is low res! It didn't look anything like *insert modern shooter here*", doesn't really understand the magic of games and good stories I guess.