How appropriate you fight like a cow

[Blount]

I'm more interested in LeChuck. I mean, you know he's just pretending to be a good guy now. But what is he after? Maybe a way to get united with the pox again?

Hooray for rubber trees.

[Opa-Opa]

So what was the stump joke anyway?

In some versions of the game, there's a hollow stump in the forest. If you look at it, Guybrush will say "Wow! It's a tunnel that opens onto a system of catacombs!". Then the game asks you to insert "disk #23," "disk #47", and "disk #114". Of course, those disks don't exist, so you just skip every prompt and Guybrush gives up entering the stump. Apparently Lucasarts got a lot of calls about the missing disks and took it out from the CD versions. You see that stump back in Monkey Island 3. Grim Fandango and Psychonauts make reference to that joke as well.


Ooo, just finished episode 2. Very nice, but still too short!

[Shadow Hog]

I'm more interested in LeChuck. I mean, you know he's just pretending to be a good guy now. But what is he after? Maybe a way to get united with the pox again?

I was under the impression that he legitimately is reformed, having been liberated from the pox - Guybrush is just naturally overly suspicious of him. I can already see where this is heading; despite LeChuck's genuine change of heart, Guybrush continues to not see it (or deliberately completely ignore it), to the extent that this prejudice inadvertently leads Guybrush to making LeChuck evil again. C'mon, you know it's gonna happen. Can't leave the main villain of the franchise a good guy from now on, now can we?

[Blount]

Precisely why I was thinking he couldn't have turned good, but I like your guess better on account that it would be much funnier.

Am I the only one who kept telling LeChuck the wrong answers to the puzzle? Fun! Try making him use a breath mint on himself.

[Shadow Hog]

Incidentally, I just randomly stumbled upon Monkey Island 3 while searching for Discworld (which I found the sequel for, but not the original :(). Cool! I didn't even know we had that. Guess that means I own all the odd entries of the series... just need to get the second, I guess. (I've been advised to not play the fourth for some reason.)

[Opa-Opa]

The fourth one is good, but not as good as the other ones. The controls are a bit odd (it's like Grim Fandango. I never could quite get that Resident Evil-esque controls), not as user-friendly as the other games. I never got around to finish it: I got stuck and I think walkthroughs are for sissies.

About Tales: I think LeChuck will turn evil again after Guybrush gets rid of the Pox. It's very funny how LeChuck is good, but he's a bit of a prick.

[Opa-Opa]

Just finished Lair of the Leviathan. It's very good, but too easy. I have to force myself to do the wrong choices so I can check out most of the dialog.

[Blount]

I wonder how this whole love triangle (rectangle?) is going to play out.

I missed Murray. Demonic skulls make everything better. Even credits.

[Blount]

This month's chapter features, among other things, the return of Stan and his unmoving plaid jacket.

It is so awesome. Go play it. Now.

[Shadow Hog]

I swear these episodes get harder and harder as you go on. I had to turn on the hint system (if only to the next-lowest setting) just to get through the fight between Elaine and Morgan halfway in.

Haven't beaten it yet, either (this six-course map for La Esponja is kind of tiresome), but... god damn was apparently killing off Morgan le Flay in the manner they did rather dark for the Monkey Island series.

[Blount]

I really liked the puzzles in this chapter. Challenging but never really nonsensical. The fact that it is so far the biggest chapter in longevity, dialogue and characters made it my favorite one as well, and it's going to be tough to top it. That and all the twists. Though I did see LeChuck pulling everyone's leg coming from a mile away.

And if you think that's dark, you're in for a surprise. At first I thought they could bring Morgan back to life with some jus de vie, but with DeSinge also gone, they're probably going to use something else. They're going to have to bring one person back to life (not saying who), so I'm assuming they'll do the same for Morgan.

Meanwhile, Winslow is nowhere to be seen. Hmmmm.

[Shadow Hog]

You mean Guybrush, naturally.

Yeah, just beat it a half-hour ago. Kind of a shame, what LeChuck was doing; I liked it better when he honestly seemed reformed.

[Opa-Opa]

Finished it yesterday. I started playing it by 3 am and couldn't find myself any will to sleep before I could finish it. It's very very good. Loved the twists and turns, fights, law related stuff and amazing jackets.

I thought it was actually very easy, beating it in one sitting without getting stuck at all. I don't know if playing these games since I was 7 makes me think more like Guybrush, but most puzzles seem very obvious to me. I understand that nowadays you can't have adventure games where you have to spend months trying to beat, like the old Lucasarts games, but I wish they left some more room for error. It feels like everything is too well placed for serving as solutions for the puzzles. Also solving Hardtack's case just by repeating "You lie" three times was very cheap. Funny, but cheap. Could be funnier, like the "Pretty please with sugar on top" from the first Monkey game. I wish there was more conversation during the trial, something like Phoenix Wright would've been a fun thing to see, a little minigame maybe.

I'm dying to see the end of the series. It's the adventure game of the century-y-y-y-y!

[Opa-Opa]

Final chapter is here! Why do I sense a slight Grim Fandango feeling in the air?

[Shadow Hog]

So, let's see how this ended.

• Guybrush lives once more! Even has his hand back.
• Elaine is once more by Guybrush's side - and apparently had knowledge beforehand of how to come back to life...?
• LeChuck is now contained inside some kind of urn thing. I think.
• Morgan LeFlay lives!... sort of. Ghost Pirate Hunter LeFlay. Well, it's a living.
• And... the Voodoo Lady may be friggin' Xanatos here. LeFlay was working for her all along to capture LeChuck and bring him to her. Thanks to Guybrush being ever the Xanatos Sucker, this has all been accomplished.
• Oh, and Sam and Max return 2010. I doubt that's going to be a plot point in the Monkey Island saga, although the way they presented it sure made me think it would be up until the reveal.

[Opa-Opa]

Well, it ended kinda exactely how I thought it would, except for the LeFlay working for the Voodoo Lady thing. Cool thing they didn't ditch her, she was my favorite character in the series (nice boobs too).

[Blount]

I preferred the previous chapter in just about everything, but it was still a nice finale that tied some loose ends (and created several others in the process). What irks me is that the ring somehow manages to fix everything in the end. Well, most things anyway. Even though you've been carrying it around for quite a while, it still seems like an ass-pull.

And... the Voodoo Lady may be friggin' Xanatos here. LeFlay was working for her all along to capture LeChuck and bring him to her. Thanks to Guybrush being ever the Xanatos Sucker, this has all been accomplished.

I guess this is their insurance for more "Guybrush versus LeChuck" in the future. With him under the Voodoo Lady's possession, all she needs is to erase his recent memories or something and resurrect him again... for some twisted reason that has been apparently happening in every game. I really don't think we'll ever know the answer to that, but that's what makes it intriguing.

Oh, and Sam and Max return 2010. I doubt that's going to be a plot point in the Monkey Island saga, although the way they presented it sure made me think it would be up until the reveal.

Seeing that put a huge smile on my face. I had a hunch they would return to that soon, but it was so unexpected to see it announced this way... and so soon!