Thyroid

Monkey Island 2: SE

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I am starting a MI2 playthrough after probably... a good twelve years since I last played it. I expect to not remember anything from the puzzles. Looking forward to meeting Largo LaGrand again!

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Finished!

Last night I managed to get through the rest of the Dinky Island segment and most of the way through the final LeChuck voodoo torture puzzle. I finished off the puzzle today and finally saw the credits roll. In case Rodi has forgotten some of this, I'll put the rest in a spoiler.

After being led to the dinosaur bush I realized I would need to feed the parrot another cracker to get further. I came back to the pond and tried using my shovel on the box (along with a few other items) and saw that I wasn't yet able to open it, although I was able to get the rope. I decided to head back to the beach to see if I had missed anything and got sidetracked when I noticed I hadn't gone left just inside the jungle entrance. So I took that path and at the end I found a bag hanging from a rope. It was out of reach and there didn't seem to be any way to get it with the items I had. After trying a few more things I gave up and went back to the beach.

From here on out the rest of the game clicked amazingly for me. I went over to the still and just happened to be looking closely enough at the screen to see that there was an empty bottle right on the shoreline. I picked that up and quickly found that I couldn't open it. I used a few items on the bottle and discovered that my shovel was the solution. I spent about another minute looking around and noticed that I had also missed a crowbar sitting right next to the still. I immediately assumed that I could use that to pry open the box and figured there was also a good chance that I could use the broken bottle to cut open the bag. I was very happy to find out that both assumptions were spot on and netted me cracker mix and dynamite. The cracker mix needed water so I went back to the beach and used the martini glass in the ocean to get the water I needed. After seeing that the water was too salty I thought "Duh, fucking still" and was able to get my crackers after distilling the water. From there, the parrot led me the rest of the way through the path where I promptly used my shovel to dig down to the cement and used my dynamite with a match to blow through the cement.

After the scene with Elaine, I fell down into the hole and landed in a hallway where I met up with LeChuck. I ran around to all the rooms, got most of the items and spent a little bit of time experimenting. By the time I quit playing last night I had obtained the gloves, balloon, hypodermic needle, doll, root beer, dad's skull, and LeChuck's underpants (it took me a bit to realize I could interact with the coin return on the grog machine). After looking at all of that stuff I was pretty sure that I needed to make a voodoo doll somehow but hadn't quite figured out exactly how that would work.

I thought about it some more at work today and became pretty convinced that I was on the right track with the voodoo doll thing. I figured his underpants were "something of the thread", my dad's skull was "something of the dead" (since we were apparently brothers that would make my dad his dad), and that I still needed to find a way to get "something of the head" and "something of the body". I thought his beard was probably "something of the head" but was having trouble thinking of a way to cut it off. I couldn't get close enough to him and I had nothing in my inventory that would cut a beard. So I started thinking about the different rooms and whether or not there might be some item in them that I could use and eventually landed on the elevator. That door seemed to close with quite a bit of force and LeChuck's positioning was right near the door so I thought "Holy shit, I bet I can close the door on his fucking beard".

Once I had that revelation I moved on to thinking about how I could obtain "something of the body". I thought about Largo and how I obtained his spit for his voodoo doll and figured that I would probably need something similar from LeChuck. My mind pretty quickly went to my clean, white hankie that I had spent so much time thinking about when I was stuck on the drinking game puzzle. I wasn't sure how I would get close enough to use it but at one point thought "You know, it wouldn't be outside of the realm of possibility for Guybrush to just give him the hankie and ask him to wipe his mouth off or something". There had been some other humorous exchanges between Guybrush and LeChuck so it seemed plausible at least.

After I got home from work today I booted up the game and was thrilled to find out that I was right on both counts. I finished the game after putting everything in the voodoo bag with the doll (which took me a little bit to figure out) and playing the final segment. Those were some amazingly well designed puzzles at the end. More than any other part of Monkey Island 1 and 2 I think those puzzles were the most logical and well thought out ones. Having those "Aha" moments today had to be my favorite video game thing in awhile.

I really liked the ending too. I assume based on what Elaine says during the credits that LeChuck put a spell on Guybrush to make Guybrush think the whole thing was a dream or just him and his brother playing pretend or something. The fact that the brother also has that evil look right before the credits tells me that it is really LeChuck tricking me. Fucking awesome game and those Star Wars references were FUCKING PERFECT!!!

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So I started thinking about the different rooms and whether or not there might be some item in them that I could use and eventually landed on the elevator. That door seemed to close with quite a bit of force and LeChuck's positioning was right near the door so I thought "Holy shit, I bet I can close the door on his fucking beard".

 

Haha, I completed that one on accident, because he was freaking me out and I was trying to escape him in the elevator. I already had the balloons blown up ahead of time just because so I didn't realize I had solved a puzzle. I love that that part has a "safe" area for such a freaky sequence.

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I have no shame in admitting that I used to SHIT myself during that sequence as a kid. The music combined with the constant terror of LeChuck appearing... oh god.

 

Now I really, really want to play MI1–3. I won't jump on the bandwagon and say that MI4 was a bad game, but for me the original trilogy is the definitive Monkey Island series that stands head and shoulders above most other games ever. MI4 is an enjoyable romp that slightly misses the mark its predecessors nailed, something that I'd also say about Telltale's series.

 

I know a lot of people say MI3 isn't what Gilbert would have done, but frankly considering how awesome it is in every way I'm glad things turned out the way they did. I dunno, it's probably nostalgia too but MI3 has such a good atmosphere and the references/tie-ins to its predecessors are a stretch at times but very well done. But I'm going into 'silly reminiscing' territory now.

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I'd rather have had Ron Gilbert's (and Schafer's/Grossman's) MI3, and then if the ending allowed have the rest of the games come after that.

 

On topic, I preferred the original graphics in both SEs and found that a lot of the dialogue didn't work spoken and a lot of the acting was either miscast or just bad. Good to hear Earl Boen do another great LeChuck

-in-disguise

voice though.

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Since I just purchased the two special editions I might go full hypocrite and play them again with the updated graphics at some point (and maybe even with the voice work). I didn't have any interest before but now that I see them right there in my Steam library I am super tempted. Plus my daughter has been saying she wants to play through the first game again.

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So after seeing Zeus talking about this game I feel like going through Monkey Island 1 & 2. I have both of the Special Editions on Steam and already downloaded/installed.

(I would also continue on with Curse and Escape, but those I have the actual disc copies of, and the discs currently reside at my parents house)

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