The Tales, a little too easy?

[ezzetabi]

Please explain your reasoning if possible.

In my opinion the tales were a little too easy.

The first chapter was very nice with it non-Euclidean maze based on sounds so I think it was OK about difficulty (nice also the cheese puzzle to fix the idol).
I found a little unfair that you cannot see easily all the faces of the voodoo wind device to solve the DeSinge idol, but it is not a big deal however.

The second chapter was really easy, for me the only difficulty was finding the ocean at the end... Doh.

The third chapter was also fairly easy, but with few intriguing puzzle there and there like the voodoo course and the locket.

The fourth chapter had only one really difficult puzzle: walking on the carpet few times to charge the shock. The maze was easier than the first episode, but funnier. And the bugs attracted by light and sugar water put some challenge. I think it was the hardest chapter, yet nothing compared to the classic games.

Maybe it is the experience from the first chapters, but the last is extremely easy (there is nothing hard at all! The final puzzle might be the most interesting, but you simply cannot go wrong).

TellTale! Go harder next time!

So, a part of the past. I was wondering: in this kind of games, what is challenging yet fair?
Putting illogical solutions is of course hard, but surely not fair.
On the other hand if the solution is obvious from the players experience the game becomes too easy.

[Secret Fawful]

I found most of the games puzzles to be pretty hard. I'm easily stumped. I think you've just played too many adventure games and become way too used to the formula.

[jp-30]

A quick glance at the Help forum shows plenty of people found parts of the games difficult. Everyone's mileage will vary.

[Olaus Petrus]

Tales wasn't particularly difficult, but then again so aren't most of the other recent adventure games either. It had few puzzles which took longer time to figure out. Previous Monkey games weren't particularly difficult either.

In some old adventure games I usually got stuck because:

A) Puzzles were badly designed and I had to try to use everything to everything to solve those puzzles. Even after solving them the puzzles didn't make sense.

B) I had missed some object or hotspot, because game didn't change the look of the cursor when it was over hotspot.

C) Deadend. I had done something wrong two hours ago and couldn't go past certain point because of that.

[Friar]

Tales was designed to cater for newcomers aswell. People just don't have the attentions spans they used too. I personally liked the difficulty, although i would have loved an unlockable extra difficulty setting (a few extra puzzles), to add to replayability.

[Ashton]

Originally Posted by ezzetabi

I found a little unfair that you cannot see easily all the faces of the voodoo wind device to solve the DeSinge idol, but it is not a big deal however.

... Use the Weather vane on the idol (top?) and it will spin to show you the face... I missed it too on the first idol.

personally, I liked the difficulty. I had trouble with a few puzzles (mainly 1-per-eppisode, though several in the finale) likely ecause I simply think in different circles than the designers.

I liked the way it worked. I enjoy games that make me think, but in the end have a fairly obvious answer that only requires a few minutes of scratching your head. S+M S1/S2 was another story entirely! I had several puzzles in EVERY epp that I couldnt solve!

[LeChuck1986]

The difficulty was fine imo.
Although it would be cool if season 2 (when/if it gets greenlitted) gets the classic "Mega Monkey Mode" from Curse Of Monkey Island (I think MI2 also had a higher difficulty mode).

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Ashton

... Use the Weather vane on the idol (top?) and it will spin to show you the face... I missed it too on the first idol.

They meant the one with the Marquis de Singe. That you solve with sounds, not a visual.

I found the game easy, too. I played Tales and Sam & Max Season 2 at the same time, and Tales was definitely easier.
I got stuck a few times, but never for long. The last episode I just did in one go without getting stuck, same with episode 2. Episode 4 I was stuck only once at the part you mentioned. 1 and 3 I think took a bit longer, but 1 was monstly due to the time it took me just to go from one place to the next (I hadn't figured out you could run yet).

I'm not usually great at adventure games. I get stuck for days and days. I can't think of any game I haven't been stuck in several place. So I don't think it's that I'm "too good" or whatever. I do think it was simpler. However, it might be due to it being the first MI game Tales did.
It's also possible that it's due to different people thinking of different things. My husband is playing Sam&Max 2 right now, and he's figuring out stuff that took me ages in no time, but is stuck on stuff I never even realised were supposed to be puzzles since they were so obvious to me. So it definitely varies some for one person to the next.
(This being said, what changes there is /where/ we get stuck, not /whether/ we get stuck).

[Falanca]

Originally Posted by avistew

I found the game easy, too. I played Tales and Sam & Max Season 2 at the same time, and Tales was definitely easier.

THAT~ may be caused by the bizarre-ness of Sam and Max, and not the other way around.

[Lady of the Thread]

Hmm… I found Tales of Monkey Island to be easier than the older Monkey Island games. I think it was largely due to the chapter format and the 15 item inventory limit. With the limited locations and items in each part, you weren’t likely to have many items that were no longer useful or that you wouldn’t need for a long time.

I’d usually get stuck on some things and look for walkthroughs on the older games. But in Tales, the only place where I really got stuck and needed to check a walkthrough was for some of the Feast of the Senses items in Chapter 4.

I wouldn’t have minded if it was a little bit harder but I thought the difficulty level was okay. It was nice to be able to make it through most of the game without looking for hints.

[Hassat Hunter]

Originally Posted by avistew

They meant the one with the Marquis de Singe. That you solve with sounds, not a visual.

Huh?
I don't know how you solved it, but I used the weather device (just not on the machine like the others) and inserted the signs that were showing at that moment. As all others in this thread apparently... I would like to know how you could have done it on "sound"

I found the game easy, too. I played Tales and Sam & Max Season 2 at the same time, and Tales was definitely easier.

Yeah. Throughout the whole game I only had to look up a walkthrough once, lowest ever in an adventure game (I am not good at them...)

[Avistew]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Huh?
I don't know how you solved it, but I used the weather device (just not on the machine like the others) and inserted the signs that were showing at that moment. As all others in this thread apparently... I would like to know how you could have done it on "sound"

Well, you complicated your life.
If you turn the wheel, the Marquis makes noises. Noises of pain if it's the wrong feature, moanings of... pleasure if it's the right one. So you don't need the wind thingie at all for the last idol, and I don't think they even meant for people to solve it the way you did.

[Ashton]

Originally Posted by avistew

Well, you complicated your life.
If you turn the wheel, the Marquis makes noises. Noises of pain if it's the wrong feature, moanings of... pleasure if it's the right one. So you don't need the wind thingie at all for the last idol, and I don't think they even meant for people to solve it the way you did.

I think it may just be an alternate way to solve hte puzzle. Though I agree it should have been based on the Doc's pain/pleasure only (of cocurse some of us likely would never have figured it out --- or atleast taken a LOT longer if that was the only method)

[Bloody Eugene]

Originally Posted by jp-30

A quick glance at the Help forum shows plenty of people found parts of the games difficult. Everyone's mileage will vary.

That's not true:
to really have a fair percentage of people who found it difficult you have to do:

[(total number of people who ask help / total number of people who bought the game)*100]

If even 100 people asked help but they sold 100,000 copies, it would be only 0.1% of people who found the game difficult.
But given that TT never gave the numbers of sold copies, we'll never know.

BTW I found the chapters 2, 3 & 5 easy too. Stemmle was a genious in chapter 1 & 4, he found the perfect difficulty to me.

[Mermaid]

I also found them pretty simple which made every episode lasting no longer than some hours for me. That is also because I couldn't stop playing once I had installed a new chapter, of course.

It's hard to say whether the difficulty was moderate or not, seeing there are adventure veterans in here as well as newbies.

I think what really "helped" making the puzzles look easier was the fact that there was little items in the scenes that you could interact with but had otherwise no use to the solution to a puzzle itself.
Thinking of Monkey Island 2, which, I think most will agree, had one of the most complex puzzle styles ever, Tales hardly ever misled you or had you standing in a new place spending the first 30 minutes or so to find out what you could actually pick up or combine as there would be a) so many clickable things around you and b) so many stuff in your inventory (just think of the Antique Shop in MI 2 as a comparison!)

Plus, the simplified"click to interact" interface really made things a little too easy for us. That's how I see it.

[ezzetabi]

I agree, while some older games had really too many verbs: `pull', `push', `give', `use'... the tales went too far in the other direction.

[harald]

Telltale's games have all been on the easy side compared to most other adventure games and I was against this at first, but I've come to realise that the puzzles aren't the most important part of a good game. The story, writing, music and atmosphere in their games outdo almost all contemporary adventures. And we get a broader audience for the genre as well, which is hardly a bad thing.

I wouldn't mind some more difficult puzzles - my favourite Tales episode was the fourth one partly because of this - but TTG seems to be more or less happy with their current design formula so I'm not sure it could happen. I'm staying a loyal fanboy either way.

[Ash735]

Originally Posted by ezzetabi

I agree, while some older games had really too many verbs: `pull', `push', `give', `use'... the tales went too far in the other direction.

I'd agree with this to, the Verb Coin style used for Curse and Full Throttle seems a nice balance between them both, plus you got funny comments when you tried to make Guybrush Talk to or lick objects.

[jmm]

I agree on "the coin is a nice compromise" however I'm reluctant to hear
"I won't put my lips on that" or "No!". After awhile it will get old and tired (plus that mechanic combined with point and drag... probably not good)

I'd like a "simple" (in my eyes at least) change: extend the "Examine" action to be available globally (not just for the inventory)

So you'd have "Interact" (Talk, use using the standard click) and "Examine"

I'll repeat myself from another post/thread just to give an example:

Examine Elaine->Guybrush: "My plunder bunny - tied up"
Examine Elaine->Guybrush: "She doesn't look happy tied up like that"
Examine Elaine->Guybrush: "I'd better untie her soon"
Action on Elaine (Click)->Guybrush talks to Elaine

[Steverin0]

Wow some great replies here, food for thought, nothing to add though but thanks for interesting read.