[sharper]

Originally Posted by Mermaid

So I was all in the mood and expecting some dark, dramatic evil scene there which actually did follow, but one thing I really found irritating was the dialogue between Guybrush, LeChuck and Elaine which, in my opinion, just didn't fit in there at many moments.

I agree that the particular dialog chosen didn't exactly strengthen the scene. When LeChuck tries mentioning Morgan to Elaine I couldn't help but be bothered by the lack of reaction from Elaine, or the fact LeChuck didn't even try to elaborate on the situation to break the couple apart.

However IMO Elaine's dialog was the weakest. And the voice acting I found especially irritating, if not jarring, since it didn't matter if cannons were firing, if there was hell on earth, or if she was in a tropical paradise drinking lemonade, she always had a similar awkwardly content tone in her voice. Even when she was supposed to sound scared or worried for Guybrush in this last episode, I found the acting far less than believable. Especially in such direct comparison to Armato.

Originally Posted by Mermaid

I still found Earl's voice to be missing that punch he used to have for LeChuck's voice (different subject).

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that thought this. That missing punch use to give LeChuck his character, I still don't understand what happened to it.

Originally Posted by Mermaid

LeChuck starts acting extremely cruel, weakening Guybrush with every punch, leaving him hardly enough strength to keep himself on his feet, let alone walk. While I kinda liked the brave comebacks Guybrush has at LeChuck, after a while I found them, say, unrealistic. We've never seen Guybrush in such a fragile, pitiful and suffering state, it just didn't match with his responses to LeChuck.

Something I always liked about the original games (1-3, I ignore 4) was that no matter how bad a situation was in the game, you could still laugh in the game cause the humor had concise in timing and was witty enough to bring light to the situation. Here, I found that the comebacks had no meaning because the scene left me so distraught that my childhood hero was being tortured I couldn't find it funny. Especially since the fumbling controls made this part take 10 times longer to finish than it should have been.

Originally Posted by Mermaid

The bigger problem I had was the acting / dialogue between LeChuck and Elaine, though. To start off with, it seems that by now, LeChuck's lost all of his certain "evil, but yet gentleman" qualities. Which is: he's come down to hitting and killing women.

I couldn't help but notice Rather_Dashings response to this, and it made me realize just how divided fans are between Monkey Island 2 and Curse of Monkey Island. I myself feel CMI was the peak of the franchise, and feel the evil but gentleman quality was much more interesting and fresh than the typical thick skulled brute portrayed in every other series you can name. I was thrown off when LeChuck hit Elaine. While yes he was being stabbed, I would have thought he would have tossed her once and have her tied up. He did it easy enough it seems in the first episode, but I guess her looking like the statue of liberty made her too much to handle in the neutralizing department.

Originally Posted by Mermaid

Don't get me wrong: There's a reason Monkey Island has been done and kept in a cartoonish style and the last thing I'd want to miss about this series is the humour that prevents the story from becoming all TOO dark. (Even I missed Murray in the finale!) But I kinda didn't like the combination of both, humour and evil, in that finale scene.
After all, there was no humour in Morgan's death scene, for instance, either, which is actually why it was appreciated so much.

This is where I disagree completely. This is my personal preference, but to me Monkey Island has NEVER been a game series about drama, and from the end of episode 4 onward I felt like the series was derailed into a realm that MI shouldn't be taken. Don't get me wrong, I could accept if MI had sad points and tension, but humor has always primarily defined the franchise from other games. There are few games out there that will make me literally laugh out loud anymore, and I appreciated games like Monkey Island for that. If Tell Tales wanted a game to go down this type of road "Full Throttle" would have been absolutely FANTASTIC for it. Where as MI should always be fun and entertaining, before it becomes a soap opera or and action thriller movie.