Tales of Monkey Island, briefly

It's over. The last installment of Guybrush and company is over.

Chapter 1 was a breath of fresh air. After being in a Monkey Island drought since MI3 (MI4 was like drinking sand), the first episode, though not the greatest, was serviceable. It had some funny lines, satisfying moments, and new characters that were palatable. It was an above average hit that made the series get started on the right foot.

Looking back, I was probably a little harsh on Chapter 2. The repeating models were annoying, and the lack of environments was a drag. The merfolk turned out to be kind of funny in retrospect, especially after it turns out that the bland Wally replacement named Winslow is in a romantic relationship with one of them. LeChuck was fun, but underused since he was only in that 1 section on top of the cliffside.

Chapter 3 is still the best chapter in my opinion. Murray is a great character, and it was good having him be back with the original voice actor. All of the three new characters were fun as well, and the character models were different! The jokes were fun, the tone of the episode lighthearted and in congruous with the entire Monkey Island series, and it was a satisfying middle chapter in the arch of Tales of Monkey Island.

With that in mind, Chapter 4 couldn't be anything but a letdown, which it was. Stan was awful. The voice actor was not the appropriate choice considering that all of Stan's lines were spoken so slowly and without the gameshow/salesman inflections. With the fantastic return of Murray, Stan's return is just aggrivating. Moreover, the death of Morgan LeFlay was in poor taste and not appropriate for a Monkey Island game. This type of drama is not intended for the series. It was a mistake on the part of the writers. On the positive, the puzzles in this chapter were probably the best and most fun to solve.

And, lastly, we come to Chapter 5. Having to wrap up a story that has taken months to tell is a difficult task, and the chapter did its best. I don't want to spoil it too much since people are still playing or waiting for the disc release, but of course everything is returned to normal - sort of. Elaine and Guybrush are back together, but Morgan is still.... And that's probably the most frustrating thing with this series. The story is a mess. People play and enjoy the Monkey Island series for its puzzles and jokes, not for plot twists and cliffhangers.

If you make a good game, people will play the next one. It is that simple. However, Telltale thought they needed to make things convoluted and drawn out. Guybursh and Morgan didn't need to die in Chapter 4. The "final" ending of Chapter 5 doesn't need to set up the sequel. This is poor writing because it is not in tune with what Monkey Island is. Sure, people can note that MI2 had a strange, ambiguous ending, but it wasn't setting up for a sequel. Even if MI3 turned out what the originals wanted it to be, it wasn't ever going to be a direct sequel to MI2. Telltale made their ending short and brief to wrap up things hamfistedly with Guybrush and Elaine, but then it makes another turn to set up Sam and Max 2010 and another Tales of Monkey Island game.

Still, it's nice hearing Guybrush speak again. I just hope the storytelling isn't as cheap next time.