Telltale Games ending Tales of Monkey Island with a cliffhanger was a terrible move

Now we have TWO cliffhangers in the Monkey Island series to drive us mad.

1. Ron Gilbert's - Monkey Island 2 cliffhanger

2. Telltale's - Tales of Monkey Island cliffhanger

Why did they do that if they weren't certain that they'd have the license for a sequel? Stupid move.

Since Lucasarts has closed down Tales of Monkey Island might be the final game... and it ends with a cliffhanger...

As much as I want to thank Telltale Games for making a new monkey Island game, I also want to kick them in the balls for the cliffhanger.

Comments

  • edited April 2013
    I totally agree...

    The main problem is that now Telltale wouldn't do a new Monkey Island even if they could get the license, they're not interested in old school graphic adventures anymore.

    Since Lucasarts is now a licensing company maybe they will rent the license to another company to do a new Monkey Island (the last one?)... I hope that Telltale will allow another company to use Morgan and Winslow for their game...
  • edited April 2013
    I totally agree...

    The main problem is that now Telltale wouldn't do a new Monkey Island even if they could get the license, they're not interested in old school graphic adventures anymore.

    Since Lucasarts is now a licensing company maybe they will rent the license to another company to do a new Monkey Island (the last one?)... I hope that Telltale will allow another company to use Morgan and Winslow for their game...

    I would love for Winslow to become a traditionally returning character like Stan or Murray. I really liked Telltale's take on Monkey Island and I really can't see any other company's that could make a quality Monkey Island game, except Double Fine.

    It really saddens me that Telltale seem to be backing away from the very thing that made their company special and so standout for me.
  • edited April 2013
    I agree with you but I think that if Double Fine could get a license from Disney/Lucasarts (and that's highly improbable) Tim would be more interested in Grim Fandango or Full Throttle than in Monkey Island.

    But I still think that the open ending from Tales need a closure... It sucks that the saga ended that way, it's like Star Wars would have ended after episode V. I don't know who else could do a good job, but the story needs an ending.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2013
    I don't feel like Tales ended on a cliffhanger any more than any other Monkey Island game. Monkey 3 ends with Guybrush and Elaine getting married and then cuts to LeChuck trapped under the ice.

    All we said at the end of Tales was that Morgan was going to be working with the Voodoo Lady now that she's a ghost. That doesn't actually have to mean anything. If anything we hoped it would mean that even in death Morgan felt like she had a purpose.

    LeChuck is dead at the end of every Monkey Island game, but more often than not the last thing we hear is him laughing from beyond the grave, or shooting lightning out of his eyes, or whatever.

    It could be the gateway to SWEET LORE CITY!! but I feel like it was designed to leave it open. If the next Monkey Island game wants to pick up directly after Tales, they can. If they want to just start a new adventure, the events at the end of Tales are more ominous than they are definite, so they can be treated as thematically relevant more than plot relevant with ease.
  • edited April 2013
    The Voodoo lady having the jar of LeChuck was the part that made me think there was defanity going to be a sequel since she obviously had something in mind for it.
  • edited April 2013
    Jake wrote: »
    Monkey 3 ends with Guybrush and Elaine getting married and then cuts to LeChuck trapped under the ice.
    The ending of Curse of Monkey Island is just a wink to the fans. Tales' climax (ep.4-5) isn't just a wink, it's a cross-eyed stare while jumping on one foot, a plain attempt to confuse us cats. :D
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yguwBnQ-eM

    I had no questions after Curse, I have a lot of questions after Tales. If this doesn't qualify for a sequel need, I don't know what does. ;-)
  • edited April 2013
    We still don't know if the Voodoo Lady is evil or not! That's not an open ending, it's something that hasn't been explained in the game!
  • edited April 2013
    Jake wrote: »
    If the next Monkey Island game wants to pick up directly after Tales, they can.

    THEY? :eek:
    Ehm... YOU can.
    Are you subliminally telling me Telltale cannot ask for "Monkey Island" license anymore?

    And, BTW, a mysterious ending could be ok, but... you derailed a little: it's not the ending itself, but the shadows on the narrative of the whole season that make the final plot foggy and incomprehensible to people.

    What secrets holds the Vodoo Lady?
    Why Morgan's body disappeared?
    What's written in the Vodoo Lady's diary?
    Why Elaine is still dressed in black at the end?
    Who's Galeb?
    Why Le Chuck's belt didn't work on Elaine?
    What's hiding Elaine?
    How did she knows that Guybrush will need the ring?

    I can go on, if you want. And these unresolved question just adds to those of MI2. Does the series really need to be entwined further?

    That could be a result for A)a messy writing or B)a bigger scope for a sequel. I hope for the second option. Or tell me if there are any other. :P
  • edited April 2013
    THEY? :eek:
    Ehm... YOU can.
    Are you subliminally telling me Telltale cannot ask for "Monkey Island" license anymore?

    And, BTW, a mysterious ending could be ok, but... you derailed a little: it's not the ending itself, but the shadows on the narrative of the whole season that makes the final plot foggy and incomprehensible to people.

    What secrets holds the Vodoo Lady?
    Why Morgan's body disappeared?
    What's written in the Vodoo Lady's diary?
    Why Elaine is still dressed in black at the end?
    Who's Galeb?
    Why Le Chuck's belt didn't work on Elaine?
    What's hiding Elaine?
    How did she knows that Guybrush will need the ring?

    I can go on, if you want. And these unresolved question just adds to those of MI2. Does the series really need to be entwined further?

    That could be a result for A)a messy writing or B)a bigger scope for a sequel. I hope for the second option. Or tell me if there are any other. :P

    I was about to write a response to Jake but you've perfectly summed up everything I want to say and much more. Cheers :D

    Glad I'm not alone with my thoughts on the way the series ended. I doubt Telltale will ever make another classic old school adventure again.
  • edited April 2013
    Oh yeah, the whole Tales plot was about some epic, important and mysterious "Voodoo Lady plan" started before "Secret of Monkey Island". At the end this plan remains secret, LeChuck is in some strange bottle, the Voodoo Lady can suddenly make the ghosts come back from the Afterlife, and the plot now is totally nonsense, but sure, no sequel needed...

    ... or let's just say that the Telltale totally disappointed the fans that obviously were hoping for a new season that could finally give a sense to the whole plot. And that if you weren't totally sure to end the story, you should have done a totally different game, with a TRUE ending.
  • edited April 2013
    There isn't an ending that would satisfy everyone anyway, so why bother trying?

    Tales' ending made as much sense as MI2 which is regarded as a classic.
    Glad I'm not alone with my thoughts on the way the series ended. I doubt Telltale will ever make another classic old school adventure again.

    They never made old school adventures, they've always embraced the currently technology. They took some style and theme choices from older series and used them to influence their development but it cannot be said that they are of the same kind. Not that it means Telltale's games are inferior, just different.
  • edited April 2013
    You know when you think about it, Its sorta ironic. The likely reason we didn't get season 2 was that TTG could not get the licence or a sequel but now that Lucasarts closed and there is a small chance of games like Monkey Island getting licensed but TTG are not interested in it it seems. Now I could be wrong but I'm just saying it seems they are focusing on TWD and Fables. Don't get me wrong it could happen. I hope it happens and we get a Monkey Island sequel (Along with TF2 unlocks :D )
  • edited April 2013
    There isn't an ending that would satisfy everyone anyway, so why bother trying?

    That's not a matter of opinions. There are endings that objectively give a sense to the game, like happens in Mi1, Mi3 and Mi4. And games which plot totally don't make sense because they don't have a real ending, like Tales of Monkey Island. That's the point.
    Tales' ending made as much sense as MI2 which is regarded as a classic.

    That's exactly the same mistake: leaving the ending open without being sure to make a sequel. Repeating a mistake doesn't make it a smaller mistake.
    Actually, Ron couldn't make his own Mi3, while Telltale doesn't want to make a sequel to Tales, so the Telltale is even much more guilty.
    However, today we could also forgive the Mi2 mistake because the plotholes and the open endings are (almost) all fixed by now. But we should not forget that, at the time, it needed many years and an hard work to fix it. Furthermore, it made the plot of the whole MI series much more twisted and inconsistent (as we can see from the whole LeChuck resurrection story).
    So, the real question is: did we really need this mess to happen AGAIN? Do we really need it to happen TODAY? Because we're no more in the golden age of the adventure game, and we're not even sure if other developers are interested in hard-working for fixing other people's mistakes and open endings!

    And do we really need a Devil's Advocate, or should we just, as Monkey Island fans, STATE an objective mistake by the Telltale?
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Who's Galeb?
    It's stated in the game. He's the pirate afterlife's keeper of the crossroads (the gate between the mortal world and the afterlife). He's essentially the pirate version of Papa Legba (further adding to the connection, Galeb is an anagram of Legba).
    Why Morgan's body disappeared?
    That was foreshadowing the after credits ending. The Voodoo Lady took it so she could contact Morgan's spirit. We know she has the power to summon the dead, due to her mixing a potion for Guybrush that let him momentarily raise Rapp Scalion from his coffin in Monkey Island 2. We also know that she can't do those kind of voodoo spells without the body (or remnants of the body), so she had to take Morgan's corpse to do it.
    How did she knows that Guybrush will need the ring?
    This one doesn't really need any further explanation. She knows that a bond of love is a powerful protection against voodoo (we know she knows about voodoo because she made her own voodoo root beer in Monkey Island 1).

    She didn't know Guybrush was going to die, but she knew he'd need all the help he could get.
  • edited April 2013
    There isn't an ending that would satisfy everyone anyway, so why bother trying?

    Tales' ending made as much sense as MI2 which is regarded as a classic.



    They never made old school adventures, they've always embraced the currently technology. They took some style and theme choices from older series and used them to influence their development but it cannot be said that they are of the same kind. Not that it means Telltale's games are inferior, just different.

    I think you know what I meant though. I don't mean a full on, hardcore, classic, 2D point and click game, with an extra helping of unforgivable puzzles. But games that... hmm how would I define it? Although they are different they are games that were targeted at fans of old school point and click games. I personally see their Sam and Max and Tales of Monkey Island as legit sequels to old school point and click games. Modernized or not. I also see Back to the Future Game (although much easier) comparable to IP old school point and click games like Fate of Atlantis and Blade Runner game.
  • edited April 2013
    It's stated in the game. He's the pirate afterlife's keeper of the crossroads (the gate between the mortal world and the afterlife). He's essentially the pirate version of Papa Legba (further adding to the connection, Galeb is an anagram of Legba).

    This has been stated in interviews and/or in forums and was never stated in-game.
    That was foreshadowing the after credits ending. The Voodoo Lady took it so she could contact Morgan's spirit. We know she has the power to summon the dead, due to her mixing a potion for Guybrush that let him momentarily raise Rapp Scalion from his coffin in Monkey Island 2. We also know that she can't do those kind of voodoo spells without the body (or remnants of the body), so she had to take Morgan's corpse to do it.

    Like before: a conjecture, also if it's a good and consistent conjecture, is not an in-game explanation. And so, has totally no value in the context of the whole plot.

    Oh, I agree with the explanation about the ring. However, I'm afraid that answering to one question still doesn't make the whole game less foggy, incomprehensible or "open"
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited April 2013
    This has been stated in interviews and/or in forums and was never stated in-game.
    It actually was stated in-game. At one point Galeb says he's Nor Treblig, the keeper of the crossroads. Galeb lies a lot, but he also tells the truth sometimes, since we learned about the shred of life and other things from him. We can tell that, since he's standing guard at the crossroads the whole time we see him, in this instance he's telling the truth (and it is backed up by real life voodoo legend, and like you said, it's also backed up by forum posts and interviews).
  • edited April 2013
    Well, Galeb also says he's the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, so i quote myself:
    A conjecture, also if it's a good and consistent conjecture, is not an in-game explanation. And so, has totally no value in the context of the whole plot.

    In other words, your posts surely make sense, and you could be right, but the only fact that we're discussing about it, means that there was a poor or a messy writing in the game. Or, as Eugene said, everything was kept foggy because a sequel was needed.

    Ok, sure, you could reply that not everything has to be explained in a story, and that's true, but we're not talking about a game that has one or two foggy points to have a more dramatic and mysterious plot... we're talking about a game which story is totally based on a lot of mysteries that were never revealed, like the "secret master plan" from the Voodoo Lady that should give a sense to the whole plot. And this further makes me think that there is no escape from the "very poor writing or sequel needed" subject.
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Well, Galeb also says he's the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, so i quote myself:

    In other words, your posts surely make sense, and you could be right, but the only fact that we're discussing about it, means that there was a poor or a messy writing in the game. Or, as Eugene said, everything was kept foggy because a sequel was needed.
    The difference is you can't work out that he's LeChuck in the game (but you can work out that he's the keeper of the crossroads by watching how Galeb spends his time), and of course Galeb being LeChuck isn't backed up by real life legend, whereas legend does back up Galeb being the keeper of the crossroads.

    In Galeb's case, he wasn't mysterious because of poor or messy writing, but because he was meant to be that way, since he's based on actual legend. He's actually the combination of two legends: Papa Legba and Eleggua, who are both said to be the keeper of the crossroads in their respective religions. The difference is Eleggua was the trickster, and we certainly know that Galeb was one.
    Ok, sure, you could reply that not everything has to be explained in a story, and that's true, but we're not talking about a game that has one or two foggy points to have a more dramatic and mysterious plot... we're talking about a game which story is totally based on a lot of mysteries that were never revealed, like the "secret master plan" from the Voodoo Lady that should give a sense to the whole plot. And this further makes me think that there is no escape from the "very poor writing or sequel needed" subject.
    It is explained though. The secret master plan is simply that she keeps LeChuck and Guybrush alive to keep the balance between good and evil (she even mentions this in-game). LeChuck is as evil as Guybrush is good, so they both have to remain alive to make sure the scale doesn't tip towards the good or evil side.
  • edited April 2013
    Oh yeah Jennifer. Five years ago a friend of mine said to me his theory about the original secret of Monkey Island by Ron Gilbert. So why should I wish for a Ron Gilbert's Mi3A? My friend said everything about it!

    (I was ironic, of course. I'll repeat this just one more time, because maybe that was not clear enough: the fact that you have good theories about the missing points of the plot, doesn't mean that these things shouldn't have been explained better in the game or in a sequel. Your answers are just YOUR answers, and not the ultimate answers to the question that the fan have been making in the forums since the end of the game. So, if you like that, continue writing your theories, they are a good starting point for discussion between you, me, and other fans, but they still don't prove that the game has a complete and well-written plot, or that it doesn't neeed any sequel. Expecially the Voodoo Lady one: if I could also agree about the Galeb fact, your explanation of the Voodoo Lady Master Plan is a big, full work of fantasy. I had my theory about the Voodoo Lady too, and I also wrote a fan-fiction about it, but I'm not trying to say that I wrote my theory because "everything was explained in the game")
  • edited April 2013
    There are many plot points that aren't explained properly.
    But still, the BIGGEST, the Voodoo Lady plan, hasn't been explained AT ALL.

    You can't tell me that her plan wasn't meant to be revealed in a sequel! If that's true it means that Tales had a horrible writing and Telltale was cheating on the Monkey Island fans!
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Please keep it civil. Debating is fine, but don't degrade the topic by resorting to insults.
    Expecially the Voodoo Lady one: if I could also agree about the Galeb fact, your explanation of the Voodoo Lady Master Plan is a big, full work of fantasy.
    I'll admit that I remember the quote as being more absolute, but she does still allude to it in the game. When confronted by Guybrush over the fact that she's been orchestrating the battles between LeChuck and Guybrush over the years, she says that she's just "playing [her] role in a much larger game".

    If you look back on her role in Monkey Island 2, you'll find that she does have a sixth sense in regards to the balance of good and evil. She knows that Wally's in danger because she can sense the shift of balance when he's kidnapped by LeChuck.

    You'll also find clues towards her helping LeChuck in Monkey Island 2. The box of snakes is sent to LeChuck's fortress from the Voodoo Lady's swamp shack.
  • edited April 2013
    Just gonna say this but The Voodoo Lady has a history of lying and misleading people like how she takes credit for Guybrush killing Lechuck before became a zombie. So it is really that hard to think she told Guybrush 1 lie which her true intensions. After a pirate brings the entire world to its knees and the hero gets the crap beaten out of him and only for him to return after showing he will do anything to stop Lechuck and The Voodoo Lady just decides ''Ya know what, i don't care, i'll let him roam free again. Not like he tried to hunt me down or anything'' Plus why would Voodoo lady have a evil smile and laugh at the end?
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2013
    The Voodoo Lady claiming to Largo that she was the one who killed LeChuck, and the Voodoo Lady delivering supplies to LeChuck's fortress, both in Monkey 2, have always fascinated the heck out of me as little plot details which nobody picks up on. Tales may have played it too big, but it's also too interesting a thread to not tug.
  • edited April 2013
    On the topic of The Voodoo Lady lying in MI 2, Didn't she also say she was the one who made the voodoo root beer?
  • edited April 2013
    I wouldn't assume TT ever had a specific story in mind for a 2nd season. Just because TT raised some intriguing questions about the Voodoo Lady's motivations, doesn't mean the team ever actually thought of the answers.

    I'd bet that the game designers introduced the Voodoo Lady twist because it was interesting, shocking and yet also not contradictory to the series (see Jennifer and Jake's post).

    As far as the specifics of how she was manipulating the forces of good and evil or what she and Morgan's next moves would be, the writers perhaps were just going to make those up when they had to: if they decided to create another game.
  • edited April 2013
    Imho, however, there is no argument or point of discussion that can change the fact that TOMI was clearly made and written with the intention to make a sequel that could continue the story and explain some unexplained point of the plot. And if some fan has his own explanation of these points, or think that "it's not necessary" to explain them, the facts still don't change.
    There are many points in the writing that show that the game was written to have a sequel (first: the cliffhanger. Because if we're talking about the same game, it clearly ends with a cliffhanger.), and I guess that now the TT don't want to make it simply because they changed their plans. And surely not because "the TOMI plot didn't need it", "that's not a cliffhanger" or "there was never meant to be a sequel".
  • edited April 2013
    It was a nice ending. I never really liked stories that try to explain every loose end, I feel that kind of storytelling to be forced and unrealistic. I also wouldn't call it a cliffhnger.

    Anyway I hope we'll see a sequel someday and I really hope that TTG won't use up the success of TWD in a stupid way like making games just like that: standing on one foot always leads to a big fall. ToMI was a successful game, TWD was a successful game, I don't see why we couldn't see more from both of those genres.
  • edited April 2013
    The one thing by the way I just now got is this.

    Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

    Ghost Privateer LeFlay.

    Also, LeChuck, from what I heard here, was allegedly killed by the Voodoo Lady.

    LeFlay was killed by a man of science.

    DeSinge was evil, so, if we go by this, the Voodoo Lady actually is GOOD.

    And she's going to die by the hands of Guybrush.

    Actually, the first part, LeChuck being a ghost pirate and LeFlay being a ghost privateer was the thing I just figured out. The rest I pieced together just now.
  • edited May 2013
    GaryCXJk wrote: »
    The one thing by the way I just now got is this.

    Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

    Ghost Privateer LeFlay.

    Also, LeChuck, from what I heard here, was allegedly killed by the Voodoo Lady.

    LeFlay was killed by a man of science.

    DeSinge was evil, so, if we go by this, the Voodoo Lady actually is GOOD.

    And she's going to die by the hands of Guybrush.

    Actually, the first part, LeChuck being a ghost pirate and LeFlay being a ghost privateer was the thing I just figured out. The rest I pieced together just now.

    Morgan wasn't killed by De-singe (man of science)
    Remember it was actually Le Chuck...
  • edited August 2013
    Jake wrote: »
    Tales may have played it too big, but it's also too interesting a thread to not tug.

    Nah I think it pulled it off well since the games theme was about who can you trust and even if she has been using you can you still trust her, the part where he yelled I still trust you but she had left the dead seagul was a good moment.

    Everything about her is a mystery from her name to her motives and she has followed you everywhere almost so it makes she is more then someone like Stan who just happens to get caught up.
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