New Oddworld "Timeline"
 

Now that we know Soulstorm will re-write the story of Abe's Exoddus (and probably something about Munch's Oddysee) , i just wanted to open this thread to speak about it (after Xavier's suggest).

so this is what i think.

i take this thing in 2 timelines:

OLD TIMELINE: Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee (+Stranger's Wrath)

NEW TIMELINE (REBOOT): New N Tasty , Soulstorm , Munch's Oddysee "2.0" (the original one from Lorne's mind) (+Stranger's Wrath)

Now the only thing that we don't know is Munch's Exoddus. In the NEW TIMELINE , there are 2 ways:

1) or Soulstorm would probably have a big piece of story about Munch's Oddysee, so Munch's Oddysee will be "re-made" with the original story of Munch's Exoddus (so in short Munch's Oddysee will be Munch's Exoddus).

2) or Soulstorm will be the original "Abe's Exoddus" story only and then we'll have Munch's Oddysee "2.0" (original story without cuts) and Munch's Exoddus as apart.

Tell me what you're thinking about this.

Or tell me your possible version.

I'll copy what I wrote in the other thread:

The first one could be a pain in the ass for OWI, since they need to remake the entire series in this case. And I don't think they're really going to add Munch in Soulstorm.

The second one a pain too due to the same reason of before, but more reasonable and affordable.

Anyhow I believe Soulstorm it's gonna be more than AE. A plot rebuilded, a new game for real. And I have the feeling that this game it's going to be more dark than Exoddus and the other titles. Something that we OW Fans never seen before. It could be the start of something new too, but not tasty for sure. Indeed, something disgusting (in the good way).

Stranger’s Wrath is standalone and has very few ties to the other games, so it will very likely remain canon.

But for Munch’s Oddysee, that’s totally up in the air now. If Soulstorm differs significantly from Exoddus, then it might require an MO remake. But if it’s similar enough, they may just treat MO as canon and move on to a new game set after MO.

As much as I’d like to see MO redone properly, at this point I’d personally rather they just move to do a new game after Soulstorm. It’s been so long since we’ve really seen anything new in Oddworld, I’d like to get back to that.

Mmh yeah , i agree with that.

I have a feeling Soulstorm is going to stick to the main outline of Exoddus's story, but throw in some new twists. Tweak it a bit, flesh it out, make it darker.
I have yet to play New 'n Tasty, but from my understanding it's pretty much identical to Oddyssey, correct? In terms of overall story?

What I'm getting at is that I'd love to see this trend continue. New 'n Tasty was basically Oddyssey, Soulstorm will be Exoddus with a story overhaul. Third game? Potentially Munch's Oddysey but with an all new story with very few connections to the original. Maybe the barest of bare minimum.
(Stranger's Wrath can remain where it is as it has no ties to the other three.)

After the potential third game, I'd love to see new content. Finish up the story. After reading through Nathan's interview, it's gotten me really excited for what Oddworld could be and where things would have gone. Hopefully Soulstorm will prove strong enough to revive the franchise fully.

New 'n' Tasty! - Soulstorm - unknown.

The story in MO is so thin and gutted that it might as well not exist in the first place. AE got a remake because fans asked for it. MO should get a remake because it can't possibly be used to build story on. Especially after the shift to the incredibly dark tone of Soulstorm vs the overly comical setting of MO.

What we're going through right now is a proper reboot of the entire Oddworld franchise. The old games should be forgotten in terms of canon. At this point everything that happened in the old timeline is being re imagined from scratch (with the exception of Abe's Oddysee). Things might start to overlap and we are already seeing small elements from MO in Soulstorm. The Mudokon resistance was never even mentioned in AE and was only suggested in MO. But in the new timeline the resistance plays a main role directly after the events at RuptureFarms. That's already a huge change.

My expectation is that Soulstorm is going to throw out an amazing amount of new lore to play around with. And I agree that we should be looking at this in an 'old timeline', 'new timeline' fashion instead of trying to mix and match old and new games together.

Edit: Stranger's Wrath was essentially a spin-off. It could honestly fit in both timelines at this point unless Vykers somehow get retconned.

"Latamire"

"Song of Munch"

"Gabbiar"

"Sonar"

"Lungs"

I can think of those titles off the top of my head.

i've heard that Abe's Oddysee wasn't re-built with New N Tasty (i mean the story) because Lorne wanted to maintain it as the "iconic" game of the entire Oddworld's saga, and because it's the ONLY ONE game that has a complete story, so there wasn't the necessity to change it in NNT.

New 'n' Tasty was not re-built because they simply didn't have the resources to do it. There was not enough money or time to rewrite the story, much less to come up with new level designs and stuff like that. NnT is what gave OWI the means to go big with Soulstorm. Before that they were essentially broke.

Yeah one guy who I've known for a while now suggests that maybe Soulstorm may lead to a Abe trilogy.

I think you might be right, and I’m really torn because on the one hand, I’d rather just see more stuff instead of retreading old ground, but on the other the prospect of a completely revamped Munch game does sound very promising as a follow-on from Soulstorm.

If the Munch remake was a completely different game and significantly advanced the story and the lore, then I might be OK with it.

I'm personally not that interested in seeing any form of Munch's Oddysee as the next game installment. It never captivated me that much when I first played it, and I just sort of have a sour taste in my mouth from it as well. Bear in mind I also bought the GBA version, which lowered my opinion of it even more haha :D I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised by a Munch remake with a full, engaging story though, but it'd have to be really good.

1st of all, it's my fault for a new Thread. Since the other Thread is for the ARG. But so many Guys was interested to talk about the Lore from SS, i asked the Admin for an extra Thread for it. Maybe this Thread goes Dead after the ARG goes on, but i'm full of hope it doesn't.
- - - - -

@Soulstorm: We have Blue-Ray Discs now ! So the Story of SS could go many, many hours! And i hope they fill it up! Since OWI told us, the Story will be darker than Exoddus was - the Story of Exoddus wasn't that dark for me. Bones aren't that cruel like killing Pals for Meat in OD/NnT. Maybe cause the Muds where blind, dunno. - so i'm fire as hell for the new Lore !
Also i want many changes in SS ! Give the Muds a hard Time, so the Gamers get the absolute feeling for free them all! The next thing what would be awesome, are they taking revenge on the Gluks? I hope so. Ugly Basterds! Just kidding, i like them. Lulu was the best.

@New Munch Lore: We know they managed to get the last Can of Gabbiar and Munch wanted to breed them in Ma Spa(the Pic.). That's all we know from ME. And my thought is, it should go on right here! Also Lady Margret(Queen of the Gluks & Chief of the Castel) needs new Lungs. The best Lungs fitting for her are from Gabbiar. So here i go on with the new Lore.
Lady Margret is mad as hell, since she is on a Lung-Machine now. And want the whole Gluks to find the Eggs, since Lulu don't have them anymore. Do the Gluks know about Ma Spa? They do! And they come to get the lil' tadpole's for their Mum. And Munch have to defend them. Here is something i lack on. Cause he can't do this all alone. Abe needs a comeback, but how?

Another Plan i have is; while Munch fights at Ma Spa, Abe & the Muds raiding the Castel for final Freedom. So u switch between them, playable. Wouldn't that be awesome?! What ya think?

Ma Spa:
http://img5.fotos-hochladen.net/uplo...chubkzspdq.jpg

This post is from the other thread, but I'll reply here:
That's the lore as of 2008. Previous to that it was said that all muds had their lips stitched to prevent any risk of chanting, but most of them removed them once they were freed.

But Abe can chant with a stitched Mouth. So this Theory don't really works.

It is indeed a possibility. Peter from OWI has said (basically) that the Quintology doesn't matter anymore.

i've spoken with Lanning on Facebook , he said that he hopes to finish the Quintology.

But i think he's not probably 100% sure.

The idea was that they loosened up over time. Personally I liked the idea that all enslaved Mudokons had them much better than some irrelevant story about Abe's childhood. It makes the enslavement part all the more grim, similar to sewing shut the eyes.

To be fair at this point I don't really care if they are going to do the full quintology, I just want to see the story move on in a satisfying way :)

he replied to me 2 weeks ago

Yeah, same here. Five games or 15, I’m happy as long as we get the full story.

And any side stories along the way are most welcome.

New 'n' Tasty.
Soulstorm

...

Gabbier? :fuzconf:

My personal opinion is that it'll be considerably clearer what the long term intentions are for things like the quintology post-Soulstorm.

As for getting the full story - Abe's full story - that's very much the plan.

You always tell us exactly what we want to hear, Alex. <3

I touched on this in the ARG thread, but I'll elaborate more here.

After playing through the swimming portions of Inside (from the team that developed Limbo; great experience btw) I couldn't help but think about how a 2D re-imagining of Munch's Oddysee would work and I honestly think if OWI were to ever go about redoing Munch, it would be much wiser and safer to keep it in 2D rather than going into full 3D "Oddivision". If they were to go 3D, it would potentially be best to stick with fixed camera angles, like in this beta visualisation.

I'm torn between the two options. On the one hand, going 3D is a great way to flesh out the world and make it feel more like a real place, but I can't help but feel that this style of gameplay is just better suited to a sidescroller point of view. All I know for sure is that if I have to collect Spooce shrubs to open a gate one more time, I might just go crazy.

Ah that's very good to hear. :)

For some reason this has me even more hyped for Soulstorm. :D

Alex, I think you've made all of our days! I love Munch, but I'm excited to see the games take a new direction, and expand the universe. I personally can't wait, to finally meet Sam and the Lady Margaret.

EDIT: Do you think we'll finally see all of the pieces to Molluck's trial with the executives?

We might have to wait a bit longer for that, my dear. :P

I'm not bothered as to what OWI do next; I could really get behind a revamped MO as it was meant to be, or something entirely new. I feel like with the way the franchise is going, MO is gonna have to be redone to reflect the developments of Soulstorm however.

With that being said, I really like the idea of a hypothetical MO_2.0 being somewhere between the archetypal 2.5D platformer a la NnT, and full on 3D game such as SW. If it's going down that route, I think fixed "swivelable" cameras and platforms that aren't always obviously platforms would be a good medium to portray gameplay.

i'm happy to see that this topic is still going on :D

That's the Spirit! Abe's Story deserves to be told. Also Munch is a part on Abe's way. So, i'm looking forward meeting him again. :3
Happy about it too! Can't wait to get some more Information about Soulstorm, so we can fantasize more about the Lore.

I know it's pedantic, but isn't that what the scene at the end of Exoddus was alluding to?

From my understanding, Abe set off for Necrum immediately after escaping RuptureFarms - he is greeted by Big Face, farts, is knocked off the platform where he meets the Weirdos, and then embarks on his trip through the desert with his small crew.

The point I'm making is, Exoddus already is (sort of) the story of the Mudokon resistance, but the timeline is so brief, it wouldn't have made sense for an organised uprising to occur the day after the slaves were rescued.

It's not until the end of the game where he says there are more Mudokons out there, and announces "we're gonna find 'em".

This also makes me wonder if there will be a larger gap between N'n'T and Soulstorm like there is between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Will Abe be a serious revolutionary figure or will he still be a hapless chump who's way out of his depth?

What do you guys think?

To me the Mudokons as a group have always acted as a bunch of goofy guys with good intentions, wanting to free a few friends but not much else. Abe always seems to go with what others tell him and those others rarely, if ever, have actual long term plans. With the introduction of Soulstorm we see a side of the Mudokons we have never seen before. A serious, revolutionary, almost threatening side that actually resembles terrorism if one were to look at it from the Glukkon's point of view (which fits Abe's title as 'terrorist' much better).

I assume this idea was originally meant to be part of Exoddus as well, but was never fleshed out in the slightest. Which is why ended up with a rather light hearted and almost comical depiction of enslaved Mudokons. The scene at the end of Exoddus is what I would describe as a depiction of hope. Whereas I have the strong suspicion that the final scene in Soulstorm is going to be depicting something much much darker.

@Havoc

There is definitely an element of hope in the ending of Exoddus, but as the camera pulls back and reveals a legion of Muds all saluting the sky, I always got the impression they were becoming organised. Obviously, the game was so hastily made, nothing more than that made the cut, so it's only really hinted at, but I always thought it was the first stirrings of armed resistance.

That said, Soulstorm doesn't look like guerrilla warfare, but an underground revolutionary movement, full of spies, intrigue and covert tactics. This, to me, is much more in the spirit of Oddworld than the Mudokon resistance in MO, which seemed a little whacky and under-developed. It also lacked the art-style that gave the Slig Barracks, Bonewerkz, etc. such a haunting, creepy quality (one of my favourite things about Oddworld).

In many ways, it was frustrating that MO lacked the narrative element that made the first two games so great. Without it, I've always felt the Oddworld timeline never advanced, and has relied too much on telling parallel stories instead. So I'm really glad OWI have gone back to the source and are expanding on it. I really can't wait to see what they've come up with.

I’ve always hated the disconnect between the ending of AE (“but we knew there had to be more of us out there … and we were gonna find ‘em”) and the events of MO (schlepping around in nameless industrial microbusinesses to get a can of tuna).

Despite its fairly minimal addition to the story, AE established this sense that Abe and co. were getting organized and preparing to fully take on the industrialists, with Abe assuming the role of their guide. But that never came through into the story of MO, and that’s just another strike against MO.

I think a lot of this hinges on how organized the "Spirit of 1029" group is, and how it's organized.

The name itself hints that the members were inspired by Abe's success in bringing down Rupture Farms (facility 1029, the "biggest meat-processing plant on Oddworld"). However, Abe wasn't alone here; he was helped by the scattered remnant natives (presumably Mudomo and Mudanchee) based in the Monsaic Lines, who managed to infiltrate the heart of the facility to help Abe.

That's not bad in terms of organization. Yet, it seems like they have no tangible connection with the Spirit of 1029, based on how the ARG makes it feel like Abe and co. are completely in the dark about Molluck's other business ventures (among them a vertical monopoly in the creation of Soulstorm Brew). It seems like Ed plays the role of a whistleblower who caught wind of Abe's escapades (through Magog On the March, perhaps?), and figured he'd be the perfect guy to topple the whole thing.

This gives me the impression that Spirit of 1029 is a loosely-organized group of a few (likely ex-slave) Mudokons, each of whom were "employed" somewhere along the Soulstorm Brew production process. This would allow them to collaborate to complete the puzzle (almost like WikiLeaks). Tapping into long-distance communication would certainly help, and Ed seems particularly tech-savvy (although how our friends at the Monsaic Lines are getting any intel is another story).

Off-Topic: Speaking of "Magog On the March," OI should totally make some MOM newscasts as promotion for Soulstorm.

That would be probably be the best PR campaign Oddworld has ever done.