Hello!

I didn't know how to pose this question. It's not even a question really. I was just curious enough to want to create this utterly pointless thread. I'm so sorry :(

Why does Ben hate the monkey? What's the problem? I think the character is cool. It fits so well. The arrogant, loud mouth con artist monkey, clearly in his late teens or early twenties if he were a human. He knows he's good at grifting and he takes the piss. Imagine if the character was just polite and friendly. Okay, that could be funny, but it wouldn't make sense. And it would be dull.

I thought we were past the days of being offended by swearing? (unless you're a middle class, clean soul, boring Christian.... or old, I guess). It just seems like a weird thing to be hung up over.

Also, if you hate the monkey... don't come to London. You'd hate it here too :(

(Not that we're particularly popular right now).

Why does it matter to you why he doesn't like it?

It totally turned me off the game as well, and I LOVED the first one.

I don't think anybody who doesn't enjoy the swearing is actually offended by it. It just comes across as lazy writing in my case, a few f-bombs are fine, but when it's like, 10 in a 3 minute trailer it just seems like the writers don't know how else to make their dialogue punchy or entertaining, so they go for the easy thing... multiple times, in rapid succession.

It's not that he swears, it's the obnoxious in-your-face attitude. Well, I can't really speak for Ben, but that's why I didn't like him. And there is a middle ground between "polite and friendly" and "bang bang, motherfuckers".

I dont know about Ben but I got less of a londoner vibe and more of a general chav vibe. Not a fan of them myself but to each his own, what does it matter?

'Tude is prettttty lame.

It was one game of what felt like many at the Ubisoft briefing that prominently featured profanity in place of clever writing. By the time BGE2 debuted, it was already tired. Cuss Monkey just piled on and fully exhausted any enthusiasm for profuse swearing.

Oh shit now I'm back in. I'm crazy for Chavs.

That's a very personal question about an extremely traumatic story that Ben will tell when he is ready. Suffice it to say he has very good reason to hate the cussmonkey. THE CUSSMONKEY KNOWS WHAT HE DID!

I love the swearing monkey and do not know why there is a subset of people hating him he is a good boy

It makes sense for the character but some people immediately equate swearing with laziness, failing to understand that different cultures and subgroups have different patterns of speech. At the same time, people are allowed to dislike what they want and like what they want. I know people who out-swear this monkey on a slow day and I can't say I'm crazy for the game but my issues have nothing to do with the cuss monkey.

I was convinced dizzee rascal was in this or something.

The monkey came across as forced. It's not offensive, just corny. Made me think of Poochie.

It seems kind of lame. It seems like such a damn departure from the first game that it's weird they're trying to piggyback back on this goodwill that somehow still exists. Beyond Good and Evil wasn't necessarily a children's game, but it wasn't introducing itself with animals chanting "fuck" like they're in one of the good Guy Ritchie movies. It just seems like such a forced ass way of telling people they didn't want to make something tame. I'd be fine with that, but it just doesn't seem like there's anything else there that's thematically adult.

I mean, the first game was rated T. I know it's been a while and that we've grown up a little since then, but I'm not sure if Edge Monkey is the way to bring maturity for such a long awaited game. It's not like Jak's transition between Jak & Daxter and Jak II was Hatred's level of edgelord, or two Shadow the Hedgehogs stacked on top of a Reaper.

I must've missed his input on the game. For me, the swearing monkey and a lot of what was presented seemed to basically have the complete opposite vibe of what the 1st game was going for. Aesthetically, the original game was more in line with the mascot platformers of the era, tonally earnest, and thematically a bit more matured than it's look.

This seems a like a complete reimagining of the world that they might as well just named it Beyond Good & Evil without the 2. The 1st game had a cliffhanger and now they seem to be making a game narratively totally removed from it yet still attaching a 2 on it. I just don't understand who they thought it would make happy. I guess we just have to wait and see 'cause they really haven't shown anything but from what they've said and presented, I came away confused.

"Note: fuckin' Cuss Monkey fuckin died on his fuckin' way back to his home fuckin' planet"

All the swearing in that trailer was super lame and didn't work at all. The monkey in particular was obnoxious and the risk of writing an obnoxious character is that people will actually just get turned off by it as opposed to finding them spunky, sassy or whatever else they are supposed to be.

That monkey alone initially turned me off of the sequel. We all know how cool that monkey is because he swears. My initial reaction was that I would probably try to shoot that monkey like the hologram kid in ME3. Thankfully the game sounds like it could be cool if what they're pitching ever actually happens.

...

...

... i like the cuss monkey...

...

I canceled my preorder because of the monkey.

I liked the monkey (chimp?), but I could see him wearing on me if he's overused in the context of the game. And I am a bit worried about needlessly turning BGAE2 into a mature game when the original wasn't that. Although I have a feeling it will be darker because of the themes of slavery and such. If a game earns a mature tone beyond having a cuss ape, I don't necessarily have a problem with it.

Although.... It's hard to say at this stage, but I think I'd prefer to keep it tonally in line with the original game rather than make yet another dark and edgy game to appeal to teenagers who think all other games are for babies.

While I can't speak to Ben's mindset, the cuss monkey annoyed me because it was such a huge tonal departure from where the first game was at which pretty much just compounded my annoyance that this game wasn't a sequel. A fairly large part of the reason why I wanted a BGE2 in the first place is because of that cliffhanger ending to the first one so them giving me a game that looks like it'll be completely removed from the first game in both gameplay, story and tone is just disappointing.

I mean... that monkey swears about the regular amount for a Londoner. I don't see a big deal.

These two combined nail the issue for me. You might be thinking of Poochie, because that whole storyline is about a large company desperately and poorly trying to market an edgy new character, because they think that's what their product needs to sell. Meanwhile, what the actual fans really only care about is what they already know and love. We know you wanted to see how that whole cliffhanger ending turned out, so here's a game that we're calling Beyond Good and Evil 2, which of course is a prequel set long before the birth of either of the two main characters from the first game. But isn't this edgy monkey cool?

No, and fuck you! Fuck you, and your fucking stupid shitty fucking fuck you to your fucking fans that is this fucking sequel.

I hated the monkey. And as you may have guessed, it had nothing to do with me being offended by profanity. As awkward and silly as the profanity in Bulletstorm could be sometimes, cuss monkey felt about 100 times more inappropriate and poorly conceived to me.

In closing, when are they going to get to the fireworks factory!?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Everything about that cinematic trailer was so over-the-top and goofy, I loved it. Occasionally very aesthetically striking too.

Monkey doesn't fit the tone of the original game, basically underlying how much of a departure the sequel is going to be. That could be a good or a bad thing, but in general I don't especially think a swearing monkey is that cool.

They wanted to make it very clear that this game will not be rated T. I did not mind it but it was a bit on the nose. I bet there will be a lot less of that in the actual game.

@retrometal: Honestly it doesn't matter that much actually. I was just curious, that's all. I'm not having a go at Ben!! He's cool.

I guess, if for any reason, it matters to me, it's because he's one of the guys that fronts the only website I actually love on the internet and visit every day.

I did apologise and say this was stupid to ask lol. But I think enough people have commented to not make this completely pointless, maybe... I thank you very much.

EDIT: I understand the tonal conflict with Beyond Good & Evil 1, now that everyone has mentioned it :)

I was a bit surprised as well, because to me it just sounds not that unusual? Hell, this is fucking Giant fucking Bomb, where the only person who didn't swear was Drew Scanlon. It came across as more funny to me than edgy. It felt different to me than when that demon boss in the new Devil May Cry did it, that was rough.

Except it isn't edgy in any way. That monkey talks like an everyday person from London would.

Monkeys are gross and weird

Ben likes anime and playing Smash Bros so I wouldn't really concern myself too much with what he thinks about cuss monkey.

@raviolisumo: This.

I don't like cuss monkey for the same reason every guest on the E3 live shows had to ask "is it ok to swear?", no, it's not ok, i learned as a child that as much fun as it can be to swear, you can be far more creative and intelligent instead.
Also chavs.

At this point who knows how much of the Cuss Monkey or any of what we've seen so far will actually make it into the game? It's so far from release I can't bother forming an opinion either way.

Like other have said, while BG&E wasn't completely whimsical, this seems very different in tone from the first one. Are there people that talk like this irl? Sure, but not in the first game. It just comes off as lazy and forced to pack that many f-bombs in the span of 45 seconds. When "why is there so much swearing?" is one of the most common reactions to the trailer you've probably overdone it. And there's the fact that cussmonkey's general attitude got old in about 30 seconds doesn't help.

Honestly the actually product probably won't resemble this at all, it just a weird way to announce a long awaited sequel.

Because it's a really immature way to seem cool and 'adult.'

Like people already said, the cussing was probably a little too overdone. I personally didn't mind it as much that the monkey was cussing all the time, but if there was a problem that I had with the movie Logan, it was the fact that every sentence out of Logan and even Charles' mouth had to include "fuck" in it. It's just a dumb way to talk that only colors your character so much.

I don't like him because he seems like a bad Guy Ritchie character.

It feels like they just decided that excessive swearing makes the game more adult. Maybe it will all come together when the game is more fully realized and the world supports a grittiness of sorts, but for now i'm not interested.

I thought it fit the character completely, and I thought he was quite amusing actually. But I guess some people just don't like that type of character, which is perfectly fine.

I'm with Ben. Cuss Monkey was fucking stupid. And I love cussing when it's done right. Accurate to how Londoners talk or not, it felt like it was written by a 12-year-old. I don't think anything I saw from E3 felt more forced… except for maybe the t-shirts.

I think some people are taking it tude and edge and others are taking it as bants Interestingly, I might be generalizing and I will amost certainly get shot down for it but I find British people seem to be largely postivie on the monkey and americans don't seem as high on it... maybe it's a cultural thing?

I really liked the Cuss Monkey. Ya'll are crazy.

I think cuss monkey is trash so I agree.

People have such sensitive alarm bells when it comes to forced attitude "Poochiness" that false alarms are prone to happening. It's the immediate assumptions that are made when a written character starts swearing more than it is the actual writing.

If I had to take a guess I'd say people that grew up in the 80's and (especially) the 90's tend to be more sensitive about this sorta thing, being what the media was in those decades.

I curse all the time in normal speech, but excessive cursing in media (especially games) often comes off as lazy writing.

@lv4monk: It made me cringe, then roll my eyes. Didn't really affect me anymore than that. Hearing that the game itself is a prequel was more upsetting, but I'm going to wait and see.

Fuck the haters, I'm way down with Chav Monkey. Felt like the right amount of stupid to me.