[Gryffalio]

First of all, i'm well aware there are four more installments to go. The first episode was a nice re-introduction to the franchise and was, overall, quite a nice game. That said, it still felt a little bit empty for me (possibly because it's only probably going to be used for a fifth of a game, as opposed to Melee in MI1 or 4 which were about 1/4-1/3).

Originally Posted by turingmachine604

Anyway, the main constraint in the size of the island is the episodic format. We'll never see something like in MI 2 where we could sail between the three islands, in Tales.

Yep, I think it hits the nail on the head. The three islands on MI2 took up much more of the time in the development. It also had the input that a handful of guys sitting at really crappy computers making a game will have, which I don't think can be captured in the digital age, where computer games are so mainstream.

Originally Posted by Marduk

To me it seems like Flotsam has many locations as Melee island [...], if you don't count the idols. Remember, there was melee town and all the places you could enter there as well as Stan’s, Meathook's house, Carla's house, the sword trainer's house, the circus and Troll Bridge and possibly more, I can't remember.

If anything there were fewer locations on Flotsam the locations there including; the main town, "Big Gut's" hut, the shrine in the jungle... Include all the idols and that's all I can think of. You might want to include the ships from the opening scene, though, as they were playable. (But then you might want to look at the troll bridge as somewhere comparable to the idols and there are almost no puzzles at all at the sword trainer's house).

I'm not sure what you meant, possibly because of a typo at the beginning of your post? Are you saying there's more in Melee, or less?

I think it's certainly a case that Melee is bigger. It was the main focus of about half the game, though, so that's an explanation.

Melee Island:
- Melee "town"
+ Governor's Mansion
+ Jail
+ Church
+ Shop
+ Alleyway
+ Clock-Tower Street
+ Voodoo-House
-Melee "dock"
+ Underwater Puzzle location
+ Scumm Bar
+ Walkway (where people should die daily when big waves come... or am I just pedantic? )
- Melee Lookout Point
- Melee Maze
- Meathook's House
- Smirk's House
- Fettucini's Circus
- Stan's Previously Owned Ships
- Swordmaster's Shack

and probably more

Flotsam Island:

- Flotsam "town"
+ Flotsam dock
+ Screaming Narwhal
+ "beach"
+ De Singe's Lab
- Flotsam Gateway
- Flotsam Maze
- Deepgut's Shack
- 3-4 Idols
- Weather Control device


You also add to this, the opening of the game on the ships but that really isn't much.

This shows there is more in Melee than Flotsam, but not necessarily that this is a good thing. I suppose it will depend on personal preferences. Do you prefer to go to a city and go on a guided tour, through the main places, or do you prefer to see things yourself, and get more immersed in the local culture? Melee provides the latter, and Flotsam the former. Or, I suppose you could say, SoMI offers to latter, and ToMI the former.

Personally, i'd prefer more to do on each location and less locations overall. But that's just my preference.

Originally Posted by Onemanandhisdroid

Playing a little bit of devil's advocate here: On the one hand I was totally expecting to be able to enter at least Club41 at one point in the game and I thought the courtyard would play its role as well. On the other, well let's not forget that Flotsam "Town" is pretty much a makeshift settlement of stranded SCUMM o' the seas, it's not even an actual town or anything.

Yet I wouldn't focus entirelly on this township thing quite yet - only time and upcoming episodes will tell whether there's a place for bigger islands in this format and schedule or not.

I think there's not. By the feel of it, I think we're going to be racing around. Short, sharp adventure for the 21st century's population, the entirety of which apparently has ADHD.

In the words of Neil Hannon: "Your concentration span's too long; It's longer than this song, that's not allowed; Dumb it down"

Originally Posted by onemanandhisdroid

But then not every episode has to play on some kind of island, now does it? That's so cliche. I could imagine one episode playing entirelly on the Narwhale and thereabouts,

No, that's not cliche at all!
... apart from having already been done in SoMI.
Then again, I can see what you mean... That was very brief, whereas what you're talking about is a more in-depth, story-focussed thing. The problem is, I don't think you can really confine yourself to a ship for two episodes or something. Especially given each ship has probably only the space for a hold, a captains cabin, and a small walkway. I don't think TTG's take on MI is right for such a thing, even if it wouldn't have been massively out of place taking up a properly-sized Act in the originals.