It took a surprisingly long time, but the fifth and final chapter of Guybrush's latest adventure has finally hit WiiWare. Every previous chapter has been building up towards this supposedly epic conclusion, so was the long wait worth it?
Considering this is the fifth and final part, spoilers for the series abound in this review.
If you think back to the ending of Chapter 4, you'll remember that the unthinkable happened to Guybrush. He actually died, after which LeChuck absorbed La Esponja Grande's power and made Elaine his demon bride. There's no other way around it – Guybrush must search the land of the dead for a way to come back to life and save the day once again.
He rather quickly finds out that in order to be resurrected, he'll have to collect a number of items for a special spell. Of course, you don't even know what items these are, because you're not told what the spell is, exactly. You'll have to explore the three distinct areas of the underworld, all based on certain aspects of pirating – swordfighting, treasure hunting and thieving – and ask the people there.
Once you've found what you need to assemble, things get more complicated. A number of rips appear across the underworld that link to places in the real world you've already visited. Guybrush will have to use these rips to cross over in ghost form in order to find his dead body and a way to permanently reunite with it. This proves to be rather annoying – the rips are scattered across all areas of the underworld, some of which are already far apart to begin with. This means you'll be taking very long walks the whole time while trying to figure out what to do.
Once that's done, however, it's still not over. You must find a way to shrink the enlarged La Esponja Grande, which weakens the power LeChuck gets from it and releases his hold on Elaine. After that comes something all Monkey Island fans will recognize: while getting endlessly smacked around from place to place by LeChuck, you'll have to devise a plan to defeat him. After that, Tales of Monkey Island comes to an end!
Conclusion
It's a bit disappointing the characters that made Chapters 3 and 4 so good, Murray and Stan, don't return for an encore, but at least you get to enjoy LeChuck in all his evil glory – and with his original voice actor this time, as well! Although the ending isn't quite as epic as it was hyped up to be, and the puzzles are still nothing special, this is still a very enjoyable conclusion to the Tales of Monkey Island story, and it won't disappoint anyone who's played through the rest of it.
Comments 17
good review!
when is chapter 5 it coming to europe?
I still need to catch up and play Chapter 4, but I look forward to it.
I love games like Another Code, and Hotel Dusk. Will I like this series? The humour is putting me off. I like my adventures to be serious.
@Gavin Based on that alone, i would say no. You are probably better off just waiting for the Hotel Dusk sequal, which should be out later this year, yay.
I did try the first episode of This series, and found it to be a bit silly, though for some reason i did like strong bad enough to get to episode 3. Monkey Island is a bit too silly if you are looking for a real "game" with a serious plot. Your type of game seems to be the more epic noir/mystery type, whereas Monkey Island is more like a saturday morning cartoon. Its not bad if the player is into that sorta thing. I might force myself into finishing Money Island ep. 1 and 2 (which i got free with that promotion), but i do like more serious games too.
I actually grew bored of Hotel Dusk and still haven't finished it, but that reminds me to go back and continue sometime. The tone here is certainly very different, and if the humor doesn't appeal to you, the whole game won't really work. I'd say that they did a fantastic job of keeping the sense of humor very close to that of the classic games, so if you've played any of the early Monkey Island entries, you'll know what to expect here.
@warioswoods yeah, i can see that happening with some people, but as for me i couldn't put Hotel Dusk down. I thought it was so well written, and the dialogue was amazing. Another Code was good too, but i'd have to saw that in my opinion, Hotel Dusk is one of the best written games. It would have to be, since the whole thing is basically a book.
hmm, wish there were games of that type on wiiware, the more serious novel-type story kinda of pot-boiler games. Though i can say that the Strong Bad games make me giggle a bit, but i just don't want to pay 10 USD per game. i already paid for the first 3, and i still have so many good games that I'm waiting for on Wiiware.
This is released yesterday? Why does it take so long for the Legends of Exidia review...?
@Tsuchinoko
You're my new best friend. I loved Hotel Dusk too, and started it again today, actually. Seeing as you're in Japan, I assume you have Last Window? If so, how does it shape up against Dusk?
As I said, I love Another Code, but I much prefer the sequel, AC: R. The music, and the atmosphere are beautiful.
I think I'd best skip this series then, as I didn't feel compelled to go past Episode 2 of Strongbad, and I didn't massively enjoy The Secret of Monkey Island on iPod Touch/iPhone, either, unfortunately. Thanks for your input.
No i did not get Last Window yet. the last game i bought here was Mother 3, which i haven't started yet. My japanese is just good enough to play through that just fine, but a text heavy game like Last Window would be really difficult. If there is an english release i usually try to get that if it would be too hard with my japanese. I've been struggling through the Nanashi no game series, but with my electronic dictionary i can sorta get through it.
@KillTheHaterzzz: We already played this on PC in December, so it was very easy to run through again and review quickly. The Exidia review should be up later today as well.
How does the technical end hold up on this one?
Hotel Dusk is one of my Top 20 favourite DS games. It's full of awesomeness. I'm sorry not everyone can enjoy it.
More on the lines of the review: Nice job.
Now that you summarized the story, how about telling us if the game suffers from the same frame rate issues as the other WiiWare games in the series? How are the controls?
I agree with brooks83. A major problem with these games on WiiWare is the often appalling framerate and audio issues.
Yeah, brook and Yoss got a point there. C'mon, Daz, you're slippin' man.
its coming out tomoro in uk SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pleased
GREAT GAME. Great ending. Well done TellTale!
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