I want to start off by saying, I actually really enjoyed the art. It looked bad and cheap in trailers, but seeing it in actual gameplay it was really good.

Just wanted to get that out of the way.

Major spoilers below

Not only is it the worst Monkey Island, but I also kind of think it makes it a bad game just in general.

Guybrush is unnecessarily cruel and remorseless. He's going through the game literally wrecking everything, other than the scurvy pirates the only characters he's actually nice to are literal villians: LeChuck's crew and Stan. Yes, Guybrush tends to screw things up but he always owned them and fixed them. Curse was all about that, but that was completely an accident with the ring and he set off on a quest to fix it. Even Tales he started out trying to end LeChuck once and for all.

Something between LeChuck's new voice actor to his plainly written "frenemy" dialogue makes him seem completely out of character.

And Elaine? She's not even close to any Elaine we've ever seen. She is so unabashedly supportive of Guybrush it's awkward. Seriously, in previous Monkey Islands it's always been a struggle for her to be patient with Guybrush and was one of the main sources of drama between them. Now she treats him like a kid.

But the biggest thing was just dropping every single narrative strand. Guybrush being cruel is picked up several times, and there are multiple implied comparisons to LeChuck. Even Elaine being odd seems to be emphasized.

You're led to believe that there is something more going on. Like, LeChuck isn't as evil as Guybrush thought. That maybe Guybrush is the villain.

But that doesn't fit anything. Not old Monkey Island's, not greater Monkey Island story-telling, and not even in this game (especially when Tales did this 10000000x better). The game keeps bringing up over and over that the secret is probably nothing, and Guybrush keeps going further and further into cruelty to the point of destroying a whole island's government and leaving Wally stranded...

As if it was setting up for some reveal. Some sort of manipulation or fun narrative twist. At the very least a reason why Elaine has been so understanding with Guybrush, does she know something the player doesn't? Or some sort of connection to Guybrush and LeChuck, which has been hinted at since MI2.

But nope, nothing. Just drop all the plot threads and do a rehash of Big Whoop and another themepark.

What makes it worse is Tales of Monkey Island already did all this. Tales of Monkey Island was a deconstruction of Guybrush. His mistake made him start becoming LeChuck, and his evil pox moments was an actual plot point (never cruel though). Hell, they made him to go court and die. He literally comes back as a ghost and zombie, completely going full circle to make comparisons with him and LeChuck. Only he actually was still trying to fight for good through that deconstruction.

Even the Elaine out of character and strained relationship was covered in Tales. He thinks she left him and cheating on him, making him question everything. But in the end, she was playing the part because she trusted Guybrush, basically saying that she knows she's not the best at communicating but is with Guybrush because he is surprisingly grounded and consistent. This actually adds depth to their relationship, showing through story-telling that even in their most strained moments they rely on each other instinctively.

Return to Monkey Island gave nothing new narrative wise, and even had recycled locations for half the game (at the very least, do new art angles. Even Escape from Monkey Island made Melee Island and Monkey Island seem new).

I don't care it's a story, or that it's meta. But Return used that meta idea as a crutch and lazy way out saying "nope, not going to resolve anything we brought up. Here's a shirt, the end".

Oof.

Big oof.