The last episode ended up living up to its title quite well, with Guybrush quite clearly dying as the credits rolled. This chapter picks up shortly after that, with the Mighty Pirate now in the afterlife while LeChuck seems poised to succeed in his fiendish plot. But Guybrush isn’t totally dead, just close enough that the afterlife took his spirit in anyway; there is a way out. Thus, Guybrush navigates the islands that make up the realm of the dead, intent on getting back to the real world to set things right.
Things get off to a great start, with most of the storytelling, humor, and puzzles executed well. The first few puzzles are relatively easy and get your mind started, ramping up in difficulty as you proceed. There are even some fun nods to previous Monkey Island games, and series fans will be quite entertained. Much of what happens along the way does a good job of bringing the season’s loose story threads to a good close, too.
It’s only half-way in to the episode that any major problems come up, and these aren’t in the form of excessively clever puzzles... but rather bad design choices and sometimes outright missing clues. Some puzzles revolving around a dog come to mind; the dog will do what you expect, but the visual cues you’re given make it look like he’s still in the area you used him. It turns out this isn’t true on both occasions, as the dog has instead moved to other islands. Not realizing this, I wasted several minutes pixel hunting and believing he had instead run to a part of the room I couldn’t see properly. Similar problems come up with non-obvious important items during the next to last puzzle, and a few room exits as well. These are not crippling problems, but nonetheless sad to see in the season finale.
Despite the morbid theme of this episode, it’s carried out with Monkey Island’s usual brand of silly comedy. The lighting and music may be rather dull and subdued, but the major themes of this episode are humor and bringing the story to a dramatic close rather than trying to make the player depressed. That it does this so well is a testament to the unique feel of the Monkey Island series, and says a lot in this episode’s favor.
All told, the finale is another two to four hours of adventuring fun and its problems are able to be tolerated. It does a satisfying job of bringing this season to an enjoyable finish, and as far as I’m concerned it seals the deal. If you’ve been holding off from purchasing Tales of Monkey Island’s first season because you wanted to be sure all the episodes were good, rest easy; they are, and they’re worth the $35 price.
Important: Stick around after the credits! There are two bonus scenes that fans will be glad to see.
