Thoughts, ideas, and storyline for 2nd Season TOMI

[Griswald Goodsoup]

There seems to be a running tangent in other threads, which has devolved inevitably into arguing over continuity issues, and minor questions about who is likely to reprise as secondary characters.

This thread is for suggestions on a future TOMI season. So grab those thinking caps (not the dunce hat) and present Telltale Games with your suggestions.

[guitarsareboring]

Good idea that, keep it all in one place.

A really simple (and obvious) one - I think almost everyone here would like more interaction options in the next season either in the form of a verb-coin or something with a similar function.

[Griswald Goodsoup]

Many of us have been clawing for the Marquis de Singe; explanations for his anticlimactic death, and answers to his return.

And yes we've heard plenty on the issue of Pyrite parrots, Crossroads, and semantics of who can and who cannot go there.

I have not figured out a way for the Marquis' return though if he did, I imagined he'd somehow steal LeChuck's essence from the Voodoo lady (Science for the win), perfect his immortality elixir, and as all scientists do - inadvertently bring back LeChuck.

Perhaps the Voodoo lady can be forcibly removed from her NEW abode, charged on suspicion of overly spicy herbs, or failure to return Voodoo library book.Something inane like that. Besides for all her voodoo she has proven that she can be kept caged up.

[Reaper Lyn]

Wow. I didn't think I had a lot to speculate about, but... apparently I do. xD
What I want to see is: character development. To me, character drive the story, and Monkey Island has fantastic, likeable characters. You care about them, and that connects you to the story, which makes it more meaningful (or is that just me?).

Elaine, I think, is most deserving of character focus. I mean, let’s take a look. She was introduced and fairly fleshed out in MI1, was mostly uninvolved in the story of MI2 (even the party was only a small chunk of the game), was a statue for most of CMI, was around but didn’t do too much in EfMI, and was poxed and/or possessed for the majority of ToMI. Her lack of focus might be one of the reasons people had issues with the end of ToMI – her actions seemed to come out of nowhere. She’s a badass pirate-governor, she deserves more screentime!

Also Morgan. Oh, Morgan – I’m so attached to this character, it’s a little silly. I think it’s fairly obvious now that she’ll play some kind of role in the next story. Her development from Leviathan to Pirate God has been excellent, gradual, and believable, and I want that to continue. Her story isn’t over yet! The same could be said for Winslow (who is awesome in his own right) and the Voodoo Lady. ToMI has uncovered so many depths that need to be explored!

Another thing I’m curious about is locations. Should places like Melee and Monkey Island be brought back? It seems like it’d be something of a double-edged sword to me. It’d be lovely to see the locations again, but there’s always the worry that they’ll be brought back without a purpose. This is sort of how I felt about Murray’s cameo in EfMI – he was a loved part of CMI, but his appearance in EfMI was, well, rather pointless. I think locations should be brought back if they have a purpose. Then again, considering how TellTale handled Stan and Murray’s reappearances, I have full confidence they could revisit an old island and still have it seem like a new, original location, and not “that island from all the other games”.

This especially applies to Monkey Island. I think it’s one of the most important places of the series, and CMI and EfMI sort of… overtook it. I’d like to see how TellTale would handle any potential revisits. (Personally, I’d like to see a run-down, abandoned Carnival of the Damned. Or have a hurricane wipe the whole thing, I dunno. I just like the deserted island aspect of it all.)

[Lena_P]

Hmm, let me see if I remember how to write about things seriously. Okay, I'd honestly like to not just see more of Elaine, but have the next series be built around her. Not have her replace Guybrush as the PC, but have Elaine be the character who's development fuels the plot of the story. Not only is she an interesting character who hasn't gotten much screen time in the last few iterations of Monkey Island, but I'd also love to see a game where the P.O.V. character isn't the emotional center of the story. It's a device that's been used for great effect in movies, plays, books and the like, but I haven't seen it used that often in video games and I think it could be interesting. It might also help to keep things fresh in the Monkey Island universe. Guybrush got a little "cooler" in Tales, why not keep that maturity intact, and let him help Elaine out for once? You don't have to throw out the dynamic of their marriage, but Elaine's only human; she has to have a vulnerable side, just like anybody else. Who else is she going to show it but Guybrush? Just my, rather confused, two cents.

[Rather Dashing]

None of this is in any particular "order", just a sort of flow-of-consciousness deal.

I think that Telltale does more or less fine in the storytelling department. I think they need to have writers and production work together better though, and realize what they can expect. Tales is their first episodic series with "serious" plot points, and it shows. There's tons of foreshadowing that ends up not being realized a month or two later, because something obviously got changed or cut before release. Now this could be due to a lot of reasons, but I think it's most likely a bit of a disconnect between what the writers write and what the technical side knows they can pull off in time. Not sure, though. Just fix the foreshadowing without a payoff issue, please.

I think we know we can combine items now. Mention the mechanic in the tutorial and then drop it, please. This is a really minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Can we please ramp up the puzzle difficulty a bit? I'm not even looking for LucasArts classic difficulty here, just Sam and Max Season Two difficulty. I want to get snagged on more than one or two puzzles during the course of an episode. This is really the biggest failing of recent Telltale adventures. I sort of solve it with a flow-of-consciousness sitting, when I remember playing each Sam and Max episode for a week, stopping several times per episode at a puzzle I just couldn't get yet. I don't think I've gotten any sharper, and in fact my acute puzzle-solving ability has gotten a lot weaker since Infocom and Sierra(and the industries around them) died and could no longer keep their vice-like grip.

To help the above, fill the world with more stuff. More believable stuff. Or make existing background stuff clickable. Have it do something, or let us pick up junk. I don't need the amount of stuff we had in the Monkey Island 2 ending, I just want to be able to not think that every single thing I'm holding is absolutely vital to something I will be doing in the next 20 minutes. As a side note, let us carry more stuff with us to the next episode and then let us do something with it. I loved that about some puzzles in Leviathan, with the eyeglass? That was great. I want more puzzles like that.

Also, kill D'oro. In a horrible, horrible way. And please, please do not ever do another game with the atmosphere of Episode 1. Thanks.

Keep up the good work on the camera angles and lighting. If the whole season looked as good as the finale of Episode 5, it would have been the best-looking Monkey Island game ever.

I'm sure this is nowhere near everything, and I'm sure I could have elaborated more on all points. Sorry for being unable to really competently articulate myself.

Originally Posted by Lena_P

...but I'd also love to see a game where the P.O.V. character isn't the emotional center of the story. It's a device that's been used for great effect in movies, plays, books and the like, but I haven't seen it used that often in video games and I think it could be interesting.

I think the reason for that is pretty simple: the medium of video games are inherently interactive, and it's easier for the player to attach themselves to the character that is essentially "them". Because you share and aid in their trials throughout, you are generally inclined to bond with them.

[Griswald Goodsoup]

I certainly agree with the points on character development as 'Reaper Lyn' expounded. Though like loveable peripheral characters, locations have been a big part of the MI franchise, many comprising unique personalities which have added to their overall memorable appeal.

Originally Posted by Reaper Lyn

"Should places like Melee and Monkey Island be brought back? It seems like it’d be something of a double-edged sword to me."

"This especially applies to Monkey Island. (Personally, I’d like to see a run-down, abandoned Carnival of the Damned.)

Yes, yes, and yes. For the real die-hard fans that take the MI series as if it were an eponymous character are surely scathing that Tales did not include the actual Island, which in itself has developed many intrigueing characteristics (mainly due to the SECRET, which btw, a giant robot monkey is not the secret
of MI and Tales should return to this particular facet.)

As for seeing the wrecked Carnival of the Damned again, I'd pay double the price to see. But I think Escape has left a huge scar in that department, in that Monkey Island was milked dry, especially locations like the Giant Monkey Head. (We can only assume LeChuck and Ozzie cleared the park.

But memorable locations like Plunder could be used, though not entirely, at least some of it. I had mentioned in another post that it would be interesting to return to some familiar locales like Plunder, or Melee, just to see their development given recent events. For example to see whether an Island like Jambalaya remained pirate-free; all cushy and commercialized. And in other instances, returning to places like Blood again (briefly) finding Goodsoup alone and hungover. The back-story could be: he did have a thriving return to business, but a disease now known as the LeChuckin pox killed off most of the tourists.

Something like that anyway.
I'm all for returning to Monkey Island.

[guitarsareboring]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

To help the above, fill the world with more stuff. More believable stuff. Or make existing background stuff clickable. Have it do something, or let us pick up junk. I don't need the amount of stuff we had in the Monkey Island 2 ending, I just want to be able to not think that every single thing I'm holding is absolutely vital to something I will be doing in the next 20 minutes. As a side note, let us carry more stuff with us to the next episode and then let us do something with it.

All this, definitely. I'd particularly like to be able to pick up or acquire things in one episode that are absolutely no use until a later one. Obviously they'd have to find someway to force the player to pick up the item so that people don't get to the next episode and think 'wait, I've never picked that up!'. I do also miss the useless inventory items - there were quite a few in the last episode of Sam and Max weren't there? That was a good thing. A yes, more clickable stuff that is literally just for Guybrush to observe. Having these things would make the game more difficult because at the moment you can solve most puzzles by working out what items you've already used in your inventory.

[Jerec84]

No more characters with purposefully annoying voices. Like that newspaper guy in Chapter 1. The voice is just so grating. Kinda like the Soda Poppers... it makes me want to skip any conversations with the character.

[mightypirate]

I think that the telltale made a great job in TOMI. The next MI chapters must absolutely be done by themselves. But if I must think to some advices for the next one, here are mine (sorry for the horrible english):
-Try to avoid the character models the more possible. And if it's necessary to put a fat one, please make it different from Winslow!
-Put a character from old games that is a surprise. Murray and Stan are always expected, but a return of Largo, the men of low moral fiber or Wally would be AWESOME
-Fix somehow the continuity problem with Big Whoop. I'd like to hear an official explanation in the game for that
-If you need to put a plot that involves all the caribbean like in the last chapter of tales it would be great to hear in dialogue or show in some cutscenes what's going on the islands that we visited in the other games, like Melee, Scabb or Booty.
-More Winslow. I absolutely want more Winslow

[guitarsareboring]

Originally Posted by mightypirate

-More Winslow. I absolutely want more Winslow

You've seen the Christmas card, right? How much more Winslow do you want?!

[mightypirate]

Originally Posted by guitarsareboring

You've seen the Christmas card, right? How much more Winslow do you want?!

I can never have enough Winslow

[Bas]

Different character models for each separate character would be a definite plus for me.

As for season 2, the only thing I'd really like is seeing Elaine become a more interesting character. Morgan finally added an interesting female character to the franchise, even though Elaine has been a staple of it since the beginning. But since her characteristics are not much more than being Guybrush's wife, being almost supernaturally resourceful, and in CMI and EMI, being extremely violent, there's not a lot to go on. There could be some good stuff in there though. The whole megalomania thing when she was demonic was pretty cool, maybe they can go there or explore some as of yet unseen characteristic of Elaine.

[lecharles]

I need more Morgan, and more Elaine.
Now that Morgan is a ghost pirate hunter in the living world, and has shown some affection for Guybrush, and now that Lechuck is gone, maybe some role reversal here.

Guybrush vs. Lechuck becomes Elaine vs. LeFlay

I'm not saying Elaine should become the person you play as (though that could be cool), but maybe sill play as Guybrush, but from Elaine's point of view. Setting up such a big plan to accomplish a goal, and near the end of every chapter, meet up with Elaine to find some random, commical plot developement between her and Morgan.

I think there's already some conflict between them. i would be like a continuation of the fight from ep. 4

[Friar]

I would love to know what became of guybrushes decapitated hand. There must be some significance to it running off into the jungle...

[Bas]

Originally Posted by Friar

I would love to know what became of guybrushes decapitated hand. There must be some significance to it running off into the jungle...

The voodoo lady has it. You can see it on her table in the scene after the credits where Morgan's ghost gives her LeChuck's essence.

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by Rather Dashing

I think the reason for that is pretty simple: the medium of video games are inherently interactive, and it's easier for the player to attach themselves to the character that is essentially "them". Because you share and aid in their trials throughout, you are generally inclined to bond with them.

Which is exactly why I'd like to see Telltale try it. Everybody knows Guybrush and they love the mook, but a lot of people don't see why he loves Elaine. Show us! Not to mention what I've described is basically what they did in Secret. Think about it, Guybrush wanting to become a pirate dominates the first chapter, but then it's about saving Elaine. But by the end you realize she was doing fine without you. Essentially, you're a young kid watching from the sidelines while Elaine and LeChuck are involved in their conflict. You could argue the "main" story is actually Elaine's dealing with LeChuck's unwanted advances, and Guybrush just happened to get involved.

So in a way, it'd be bringing the series back full circle to stick Elaine in the center of things again.

[Kenif]

Don't flame me for this but I reckon this could happen...

LeChuck is back from the dead and he's gonna try and take over the carribean/world at the same time as marrying Elaine.

[Brian, Mighty Pirate]

after seeing The Princess and the Frog last week, i would love to see a new charater similer to the vilian in that movie, mabye like a rival to the voodoo lady

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by Kenif

Don't flame me for this but I reckon this could happen...

LeChuck is back from the dead and he's gonna try and take over the carribean/world at the same time as marrying Elaine.

How could you ever suggest such a ridiculous, non-canon, totally unforeseeable type of thing like that?! You, sir, must be mad. Flame flame flame, flame, flame flame.