Frustrating Showdown
Among all the praise for the game (it was briliant, I agree on that) is there anybody who also felt taken aback by the showdown on the ship?
That was artificial prolonging of gameplay at its best (or worst, as you like). Hasn't this type of bad design from the dark (Sierra)ages abolished a long time ago? What on earth is the sense of watching the same sequences of animations over and over again because you misclicked, or clicked one sec late, other than frustrating the audience? And especially the "scene" when Guybrush stands on the balcony. Nothing to do but to wait for another punch from LeChuck. Come on.
You can do better than this, in all other games where I suspected a tedious "try this n that for the umpteenth tim" puzzle was coming up, there always was a knack that made it playable (and not frustrating). Please keep to that and don't resort to this cheap type of game time expansion in the future.
That was artificial prolonging of gameplay at its best (or worst, as you like). Hasn't this type of bad design from the dark (Sierra)ages abolished a long time ago? What on earth is the sense of watching the same sequences of animations over and over again because you misclicked, or clicked one sec late, other than frustrating the audience? And especially the "scene" when Guybrush stands on the balcony. Nothing to do but to wait for another punch from LeChuck. Come on.
You can do better than this, in all other games where I suspected a tedious "try this n that for the umpteenth tim" puzzle was coming up, there always was a knack that made it playable (and not frustrating). Please keep to that and don't resort to this cheap type of game time expansion in the future.
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Then of course, if you take 3hours to complete that puzzle, yeah that repeats itself.
But then it's like picking up the same dialog lines over and over. It depends on what you want to see. I actually like to play in order to make the game more "realistic", I try not to make them repeat themselves...
I admit the last fast repeated itself a bit for the first time. But once knowing what you have to do, it's just great actually.
Bad design? It's no different from any other MI game showdown, once you know what to do its fast and flows easily, but if you don't, it repeats itself until you do. The only reason it might SEEM different is because you already know to use the root beer or how to make the voodoo doll, or to blow up the ice, etc.
MI1: the final fight was only picking up a bottle and use it on LeChuck.
MI2: ok the reasambeling of the Voodoo doll was nice but it was no "fight more a running away"
MI3: once again it had no tension and was solved to quick
MI4: KONKEY COMBAT!!!!!!
MI5: The Games was over right befor you confrontet LeChuck^^
ToMI: a Real Fight with Nice Puzzels and a fearsome LeChuck
But suddenly all the puzzle pieces got in place in my brain, with that happy catharsis when you think "so, THAT is what I was meant to do!". And from there, I did all the final showdown smooth as silk, with a great feeling of fulfillment for being capable to do it without any (external) hints. And the solution to the next puzzle, while quite obvious (you don't have THAT many things on your inventory, you don't have too many options or possible things to do) gave me the same feeling.
This, I replayed it before and the fight was fast:
- Tell Elaine to Fight LeChuck
- Grab the Keys
- Get knocked up the mast again
- Wait for LeChuck to throw you down
- Unlock the Barrels
- Use Broken Door with Barrel
- Use Hook on Rope
- Get threw down off the perch
- Tell Elaine to Light The Cannon
- Stand on Door
Done
Adding that makes the fight perfect and logical.
You don't have the same animations if you do what you have to do...
The point was though to make the fight fast, having Guybrush use the Hook on the Lock just makes him say "No Use, my Hook won't fit in this lock" adding no real point in the fight.
That only works when you know what you are doing, that's no good on the first-time through play, which we'll never be able to experience again. I'm going to have to agree with the original poster, having to go through the sequences again and again until you know what you're doing was irritating; I felt it detracted considerably from what should have been a climactic experience.
But, from the post I quoted anyway, is this different from the other games? In MI1 you'd just keep getting punched around Melee Island and back to Stans Shipyard, MI2 you'd be walking round those tunnels for a long time and just keep getting sent to another part when LeChuck arrives. in MI3 you'd just be seeing the same four screens over and over and just go to the next one every time LeChuck appears.
The only problem I have with Tales is that LeChuck can take his time, but this needs to be done to equal out the time it'll take you to ask Elaine to Light The Cannon AND get on the door.
- look at sail and hear that the Rip is direkt behind it
- get pushed down
- talk to elain an tell ehr to fight lechuck when he is in the rip
- look at canon
- get pushed up on the mast
- use hook with sail
- look at the barrels
- get under water and see the keys
- wait till you get thrown up and down the mast
- tell elaine to fight lechuck
- grap keys
- wait till you get thrown up and down the mast
- unlock the barrels
- Use Broken Door with Barrel
- Use Hook on Rope
- Get threw down off the perch
- Tell Elaine to Light The Cannon
- Stand on Door
Sorry if this sounds like a silly observation but that made me think.
Yes, as much as I love it as the latest Monkey Island game I do feel the same way. It was obnoxious and your movements were so restricted. Similar to being stuck on a roller coaster in MI-3. :rolleyes:
It was obnoxious. Still it was a great game all together.
I think the puzzle itself was very good. However, I got kinda depressed by the end, poor zombie Guybrush was taking such an insane amount of beating, and just enduring, enduring. It was kinda sad after the 3rd round, really...
Stay away from the brilliant ending sequence, one of the few AMAZING shining moments of Tales that brought back that old Monkey Island spark. Because it's EXACTY what a LeChuck confrontation should be. It was brutal, it was scary, it was LeChuck in his best voiced appearance EVER. Everything from the
So no, I didn't think it was "cumbersome" and "frustrating" and "waaah too hard ;_;".
Steady on buddy, no need to get uncivil over it. You like it how it is, that's fine, but no reason to insult dissenters.
Yes it was horrible. I kept thinking to myself 'is this actually fun?' It wasn't.
The only thing I would have done differently is have there be a way to "initiate" the LeChuck attack. Perhaps being able to yell an insult at him. Because otherwise you do end up standing around for a bit if what you need to do is on the other location.
theres still good inside him he had second thoughs about pumling guybrush
I love reading your posts sometimes.
Waiting around for Lechuck to beat me and throw me to the location I needed to go to was annoying. Why couldn't I just WALK to the other side of the deck, or CLIMB the ladder on the mast? By the time I figured out where everything was and what I needed to do, I had to wait around for Lechuck to finish clobbering me before I could do any of it.
TLDR:
The puzzle was great, it was logical and well constructed. Navigating the puzzle was annoying.
Nah, truth hurts.
I have to say I took quite awhile to solve the last puzzle and it killed me to see Guybrush get beaten like a pinata. I actually felt my throat getting tight, and my brain started racing trying to figure out how to solve the puzzle so I wouldn't have to keep watching him suffer. I've never reacted so strongly to a video game character. Books, movies, cartoons etc. yeah, but not to a game. I think it was a pretty amazing puzzle to get that kind of reaction out of me, and to be able to sustain it through my half an hour of blind fumbling as well.
A tad strong, perhaps, but I agree pretty much entirely.
I'm a grown man, playing a point 'n' click game (am I the only one irritated by the omission of point-click interface?), and I got a little rush once or twice when LeChuck came into
The final sequence was astonishingly beautiful. The ship, the deep reddish tinge to everything, zombie-Guybrush,
It's true. Though, I can't say I'm happy with it.
How so?
Feeling the urge to help him defeat LeChuck was the needed part to get to the end.
I also like that it sparks controversy, btw. The fact that some of you don't like it because it makes you feel SAD ABOUT A CHARACTER is probably the best compliment a game designer can get.
Well, that showdown part is what I call a "special" aspect where the game sets a new rule (which oftenly restricts you) and you have to solve a puzzle in that condition (examples being the last meeting with Conroy Bumpus in Sam and Max: Hit the Road where you can't go anywhere, or the showdown in MI2 where LeChuck is tracking you and makes it harder for you to make a voodoo doll of him). The thing is, those "special" rules are mostly set to give a "final boss part" feeling into the scene. Problem is, a game that tests your reasoning abilities should put a really hard puzzle at the very end of the game, and because of that "special rule" there is something that doesn't go in your favor which makes it even harder for you to beat the game. So, those parts are generally hated by players because it takes away too much time even for someone who knows how to solve the puzzle, and it just gets frustating for someone who tries to know how to solve it.
It's a rare condition that a "special" scene like that is the most appreciated of all other puzzles. I can come into that conclusion: The other puzzles in the episodes are really weak and easy compared to that showdown. It's a letdown for me, so I'm unhappy about it.