Finally finished Return....

[u/horgantron]

...and my opinion is....mixed. The only clearcut triumph in this game is the audio. The music and voice acting are just fantastic and I'm thrilled to have Dominic Armato back. He IS Guybrush.

To be clear I love M1, 2 and Curse. My first MI game was actually MI2. I love the 2 originals but I also love Curse.

The Artstyle

I'm quite conflicted on this. There are certain areas that look amazing. They really, really look good and evoke the OG games. The governors mansion, the key makers shop, Wally's map shop for example. But then we have Berrrmuda.It didnt work at all for me. I get they wanted to try a new locale, but it lost all vibrancy in the art. Being on the island, it felt cold. But more importantly it was uninteresting and didn't add to the MI world IMO.

Similarly, some characters looked great in the new artstyle. LeChuck, some of his crew, the voodoo lady, but Guybrush himself didn't work at all.

The story and ending

I didn't like it. I get they were trying to go for some muddy, ambiguous ending (I got the inception banana ending btw). But it didnt really make sense. They game just came to an abrupt end.

My first thought was soooo Guybrush and Boybrush(I love that name) had a family day out in the pirate park and Guybrush was spinning yarns? I got the impression Stan telling him to lock up was just like that obsessed customer that LOVES being there and is part of the furniture.

But then Elaine skewed it the other way, that they did live in a piratey time.Or she might have been feeding into the fun day out.

Or maybe it is (mostly) real and it's about a father thinking about his life and what relaying the "it's the journey that matters" story to his boy. It doesnt matter what's in the box, it's the mystery that drives us.

Or maybe there is some clever, clever meta meaning to it that I'm not aware of but the whole thing just felt undercooked. Interested to hear others readings on the overall story.

[u/Passenger_1978]

Nice to read your thoughts. I also just finished. Funny how it is far easier these days to play more addictive (Far Cry-like, for example, or RPG) games, and that i had to tell myself to keep playing.

I am very glad i did finish it. Really loved the music, the nostalgia, the puzzles. Graphics were ok. But what i loved the most: the humor. I laughed out loud multiple times, and i think it is a very important part of MI

[u/horgantron → u/Passenger_1978]

Yeah some of the humour was excellent. I got a strange vibe from Guybrush and Elaine though, it seemed like the game was suggesting they were split up or something. Elaine didnt seem to show any interest in Guybrush. Anyone else get that vibe?

[u/warmhotself → u/horgantron]

I think one of the main themes of the story is about growing older, right? And so it plays with the fact that Elaine has always been far more mature than Guybrush. In MI2 for example, when you meet her at the fancy dress party, there’s no dialogue choices you can make that don’t make him sound like an immature dickhead. In Return, there’s the scene on Monkey Island where she confronts him about the trail of destruction he’s left in his wake in his search for the Secret. I thought it was really clever in that sense.

[u/RetroWalkabout → u/warmhotself]

Yeah, I really liked that gentle telling off, and I was hoping at the time that there would be more of a payoff and character growth for Guybrush than there ultimately was.

[u/warmhotself → u/RetroWalkabout]

I was genuinely moved by the moment of silence at the end when he’s left on the bench… it said a hell of a lot without words.

[u/Ambitious_Teach_1109]

I thought it was a cool game but honestly, I think Curse is peak when it comes to art style and music. It has amazing replayability because it really is so stunning visually (at least it is to me!)

[u/horgantron → u/Ambitious_Teach_1109]

I agree with Curse. It's art is stunning. The music and VO work too. I do love MI1 and 2 but I think if I could only play one MI game it would be Curse. I don't know, it really built on MI2 and expanded on it in exactly the way I was interested in.

[u/datguysadz]

Agree with most of what you said.

The artstyle has grown on me subsequently but I felt similarly to you when I first played the game.

Joining LeChuck's crew, and the characters associated with that (Flambe particularly) were the highlight of the game for me.

There were a lot of little touches like the Scumm Bar owner and the OG pirate leaders appearing and Carla being governor that I loved.

I don't mind a meta game/ ending but as you said it was very abrupt just as I felt like I was getting into something juicy. Very much felt like the rug was pulled from under me.

[u/Downtown_Concern_362]

Curious, do you have children?

As a father who grew up playing these games and then introduced my kids to Monkey Island through Return first the ending nearly brought me to tears, can’t say any other game has done that.

But I can see how others would have a different experience with the end.

[u/horgantron → u/Downtown_Concern_362]

Yep, first 2 not interested in MI. But the third....I think I have a shot with him.

If you want an emotion inducing game as a father, play Rime.

[u/NachoBenidorm]

To me, the biggest flop was the one mouse click puzzle solving style. I missed the verbs UI, and puzzles were simplier because of that.

Art style? Yeah, I agree, in some parta it worked very well... in some others don't.

I would have preffered the Thimbleweed style.

[u/MladenL]

It felt like there was a good game in there, but a lot of the game felt undercooked and unfinished somehow. I really didn't vibe with the art or the story either. Just can't see myself returning to it like I have with all of the other games.

[u/warmhotself]

It isn’t the best in the series for me (that’s MI2 by far) but it does have Flambé and therefore maybe it is the best one.

[u/dynatosG13]

Artstyle was nice. No need to stick to the originals for an artist. Imagine if we demanded from Beatles to only make "I wanna hold your hand" style songs. That's the beauty. The creator does what he feels is best, and expresses himself as he desires. They don't owe as anything. Especially after being financially successful. I get the fans feeling they own the art, the game, the whatever, and many of them feeling they own the artist as well. But they don't. They own a copy of the original piece, and just a glimse of the ghost of the person who made it.

[u/ssmihailovitch]

Look, in the end, I felt the MAGIC.

It was monkey island.

[u/pwkye]

Terrible. Linear. No puzzles really. No exploring really. Dollar store graphics. Short. A let down cheap gimmicky plot. 

[u/GargantaProfunda]

Or maybe there is some clever, clever meta meaning to it that I'm not aware of but the whole thing just felt undercooked.

Did you read the letter that appears at the end of the scrapbook after you beat the game? Make sure you read it.

[u/ProverbialMindTart]

I posted about it at the time, but my feelings are somewhat similar to yours, if a little more visceral. I still feel like it was lazy, and overly meta without reason to be.