Characters and locations "recycling"?

Another thing I'm curious about: with S&M you guys have done a great job, but I confess I was starting to lose interest about it, and the reason is that too many locations were re-used with small changes (e.g. reality 2.0, which was a great episode, was simply located in the same places, but in a virtual view), and the same thing happened for characters. I'm lazy to count them, but you recycled a lot of characters and locations during 2 seasons. Now you can obviously answer "it's a series dude, it's normal and blah blah blah" but I think you understand what I mean: lots of times I had the sensation that some minor character or location was re-used due to budget/time issues.

What I'm asking you is this: will we have to do with 7-8 characters and "rooms" for the entire series of TOMI? Or will it be something bigger?

Will GB have his own "HQ", as Elaine's mansion, and almost every episode is starting from that room? Or will it be something bigger?

I really hope I won't feel "caged" within locations, MI always gave the player the sensation to be in the open seas, always made the player feel free.

Thanks for your time :)

Comments

  • edited June 2009
    If you read the following preview, it sounds like they will not be re-using locations/characters as much as they have in previous games.

    http://adventuregamers.com/article/id,1024

    Careful, there are a few spoilers for Episode 1.
  • edited June 2009
    Another big change is how few assets will be reused from episode to episode. There was some disagreement between Kevin Bruner (Chief Technology Officer of Telltale) and Dave Grossman about whether Tales features “zero” reused locations, or simply “very few.” In either case, as the series progresses, players will travel to several different islands, without a Sam & Max or Wallace & Gromit-style hub for a comfort zone. New characters will also continue to be introduced. In the scenes I saw, almost every character was completely original to the franchise.

    http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1024

    There are some spoilers in the article, so yeah. Don't read the whole thing, unless you're a nugget or somethin'.

    Edit: Too late. :rolleyes:
  • edited June 2009
    Fingers crossed!
  • edited June 2009
    If there are zero reused locations, with a high unique location count, I will be over the moon. That would completely wipe the one niggle I have with TT games in general.
  • edited June 2009
    Uhm, I'm a little worried too.
    By the way, nice to see you again my not-underscored brother! :D
  • edited June 2009
    I want to see a good mixture, going back to Melee would just have such nostalgic values, and then there are some great islands where you woner how the story has changed there.
    Some characters have to return aswell, like the Voodoo lady, as it just wouldn't be Monkey Island without them. But you need things unique to keep it alive, and after so many years now, something fresh would be unbelievably good.
  • edited June 2009
    If there are zero reused locations, with a high unique location count, I will be over the moon. That would completely wipe the one niggle I have with TT games in general.

    I reckon they will reuse a couple of locations, such as Pirate ships
  • edited June 2009
    That wouldn't be bad, really... even retail games have to reuse assets or entire locations. Though I'm glad to see it will be less noticeable this time around.
  • edited June 2009
    I like reused things! Reuse Recycle Rewind, that's what I say!
  • edited June 2009
    Actually, I'm guessing they might even re-use stuff more since the games have to conform to the 40 MB limit since they are also coming out on WiiWare...:(
  • edited June 2009
    I like reused things! Reuse Recycle Rewind, that's what I say!

    Me too, but in a reasonable way! In S&M it was TOO MUCH
  • edited June 2009
    Even though it seems that this game will just like the old ones, I hope the episodes are more continous than the Sam and Max games.

    The S&M TT games are good, but they were created as five different episodes that only related at the very end. I do not think they that sort of episodic formula works with Monkey Island and l assume that the episodes for this game will be like the chapters in the old IM game, wheras one chapter leads to the other
  • edited June 2009
    That's also addressed in the adventuregamers article linked to above.
    If you’ve played some of Telltale’s other episodic adventures, whether Sam & Max Seasons 1 and 2, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, or Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures, you may think you know what to expect from Tales of Monkey Island, but there are a few major differences that make this a very exciting project. One is that the episodes are not standalone “tales”, as the title might seem to imply, but actually “chapters” in a greater story. “Epic” was definitely the word of the day throughout our conversation. The team’s goal is to create an adventure so compelling, you won’t be able to wait until the whole thing is released before you play. Each chapter will have some sort of resolution of whatever sub-quest Guybrush is attempting to complete, but will also have a cliffhanger they’re hoping will keep fans excitedly speculating about until the next month’s release.
  • edited June 2009
    Actually, I'm guessing they might even re-use stuff more since the games have to conform to the 40 MB limit since they are also coming out on WiiWare...:(

    Hm, nope, that's not possible since you don't need to buy the older episodes to be able to download the new ones. So if anything the Wiiware limit might make the games a bit too short, but we don't know yet and maybe Nintendo has turned a blind eye to the limit because of the storage solution.
  • edited June 2009
    serweet wrote: »
    I want to see a good mixture, going back to Melee would just have such nostalgic values, and then there are some great islands where you woner how the story has changed there.

    I've always wanted to go back to Phatt Island, just to see how big Guybrush's wanted poster has gotten since then.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited June 2009
    "Zero reused locations" is not the right way to put it. Much like previous Monkey Island games, you do go back and visit old locations later in the story (eg: When you return to Plunder in Monkey 3, back to Melee in Monkey 1, or go back to Rubacava in Grim Fandango, etc, etc, etc), but there isn't a central hub like Sam & Max or Strong Bad. As Guybrush sets out on his quest it's a long string of adventures in new location after new location, and over time the story does send you back to some places you've been, mixed in with new places. The Adventure Gamers preview was right in that the structure of the overarching story is a lot closer to Monkey Island than you might initially think.

    This is one of those things that's a bit hard because without examples, some probably roll their eyes and say "suure, Telltale," but to actually give any examples of how the structure works would give things away!
  • edited June 2009
    I just want to know...Will there be insult sword fighting?

    Also in S&M 2, you had driving bonuses, and a special add on for those who got every decal in each installment. Do you have anything like that planned for this new Monkey Island Game?
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited June 2009
    LKefka wrote: »
    Also in S&M 2, you had driving bonuses, and a special add on for those who got every decal in each installment. Do you have anything like that planned for this new Monkey Island Game?

    There was some stuff like this in early designs, but it was mostly cut in favor of putting that effort and those resources into the main game. That said, for those who like that sort of thing, there are going to be some surprises around launch!
  • edited June 2009
    Jake wrote: »
    This is one of those things that's a bit hard because without examples, some probably roll their eyes and say "suure, Telltale," but to actually give any examples of how the structure works would give things away!

    Lol, I actually laughed out loud in front of the screen while reading this!
    That's because it's exactly what I did :p
    But just the fact that you put it this way makes me think that you're telling us the truth with no promotional purposes ;)
    To me, it is enough that the reusing of stuff is not going to look "forced" like in S&M.
  • edited June 2009
    This was also one of my main concerns. I was getting kinda sick of seeing Bosco's ugly face by Sam & Max's third episode, hopefully this won't happen with Tales (especially if it's Elaine's cute face :D).
Sign in to comment in this discussion.