I’ve played lots of games. RPGs, RTS games, FPS games, and MMOs. This
following game is by far the most unique game I’ve ever played. I don’t
even want to call it a game–it’s an interactive narrative. It was made
with RPG Maker, got a lot of buzz because of its heart-warming,
tear-inducing story, and ultimately got famous by word of mouth. The
game I’m talking about is “To The Moon”, by Freebird Games. Inspired
heavily by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Memento, and invoking an atmosphere similar to Inception
(NOTE: the game was made first, way before Inception hit theaters
worldwide), this instant indie-classic is a strong proof that games can
be used as an effective medium for storytelling.
You play either as Eva or Neil, changing between the two characters whenever the plot needs it. Eva and Neil are scientists whose specialty is granting the final wishes of dying people by changing their memories. They cannot, however, simply plant a memory to a client’s mind. They must make sure, that the memory to be implanted is directly connected to the client’s deepest memories and desires. In order to do this, they travel through the client’s memories in search of clues to make the process of implanting memories seamless with the client’s own memories.
In “To The Moon”. Eva and Neil are tasked to grant the final wish of a dying elderly man named John. Much to their frustration, John does not know why his final wish is to go to the moon. Eva and Neil soon undertakes a journey through the memories of Johnny (starting from the latest memory to the earliest ones), eventually uncovering long-forgotten memories, and towards the end, makes the player face the issue of whether changing memories is proper or not. Without giving away any more spoilers, it is pretty much safe to say that if you’ve watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you will feel at home in “To The Moon”.
“To The Moon” looks a lot like an SNES JRPG (Japanese RPG). The
graphics are highly similar to Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, and
other old-school RPGs. This is natural since the game was made through
RPG Maker (specifically RPG Maker XP). I have tried RPG Maker (RPG Maker
VX), and to be honest, even though the game looks so old-school,
creating a complete game with it, let alone a good one, is highly
difficult. This proves how much love was given to the creation of “To
The Moon”.
Going back, you do not really do anything in “To The Moon”. Aside from simple puzzles and fetch/fed ex “quests”, “To The Moon” is a point-and-click game at its core. The game is more about discovering the memories of Johnny. As a player, you have little to no power in affecting the game’s ending.
The game’s strongest point is definitely its story. The plot is a
mixture of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Memento. Johnny’s
love story drew inspiration from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
while his desire to go to the moon and the scientists’ quest to find why
are heavily drawn from Memento. The comparison with Inception is purely
coincidental, as the makers of “To The Moon” tried to rationalize the
processes of memory changing, eventually coming up with something like
this: trying to find the most basic desire and implanting it to the
client’s memory, but making sure that the new memory is highly coherent
with the existing ones. This sounds a lot like Inception, but as I have
mentioned earlier, this is coincidental since “To The Moon” was made
before Inception. The likeness of the two can be further attributed to
the fact that one of the game’s main inspiration, Memento, was made by
Christopher Nolan, who was mainly responsible for Inception. Christoper
Nolan’s works have highly similar undertones, which somehow explains the
game’s likeness to Inception.
Going back, “To The Moon” makes you cry. Right from the beginning, I knew there was something heart-warming to be expected from the game’s plot. I knew that I might eventually shed a tear or two, but the game really captivated me to continue on. The atmosphere of the game’s plot, plus the nostalgic graphics it has, draws you to finish the game, even though almost no gameplay can be derived from it.
Another thing that kept me going is its soundtrack. The soundtrack is extremely well done for an indie game. They also add a lot to the atmosphere. Play the game until the end and you will understand as to how the soundtrack helped make me cry. Haha.
Although the game has a very strong plot, I feel that the dialogue
created for it is mediocre. I have primarily two problems with the
game’s dialogue: (1) grammatical errors/translations, and (2)
unnecessarily rude comments from the scientists, specifically Neil. This
however, is only observable at the first half of the game. By the
game’s third act, you will warm up with Neil, as he has warmed up with
the memories of Johnny. My take on this is that Neil was made to reflect
the players’ attitude towards games like this. He is the character that
most of us will most likely relate to. In the game, he shows the most
progression throughout the story, and he has the most flexible and
believable personality, unlike his counterpart, Eva, who for the most
part, was cast a “professional” scientist (you will eventually warm up
to her, too, albeit much farther into the story).
You will never regret playing “To The Moon”. You start the journey
with a few clues, but by the end, when you have pieced together all the
missing puzzle pieces, the game transforms from a JRPG spoof to a
legitimate emotional journey that movies like “Big Fish” feature. “To
The Moon” is arguably one of the best games released in 2011, and I
highly recommend that you play this game.
Home Page: http://freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/
IGN: 7.5
Gamespot: 8.0
http://thedisorganizedmind.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/to-the-moon-the-first-game-that-made-me-cry/
You play either as Eva or Neil, changing between the two characters whenever the plot needs it. Eva and Neil are scientists whose specialty is granting the final wishes of dying people by changing their memories. They cannot, however, simply plant a memory to a client’s mind. They must make sure, that the memory to be implanted is directly connected to the client’s deepest memories and desires. In order to do this, they travel through the client’s memories in search of clues to make the process of implanting memories seamless with the client’s own memories.
In “To The Moon”. Eva and Neil are tasked to grant the final wish of a dying elderly man named John. Much to their frustration, John does not know why his final wish is to go to the moon. Eva and Neil soon undertakes a journey through the memories of Johnny (starting from the latest memory to the earliest ones), eventually uncovering long-forgotten memories, and towards the end, makes the player face the issue of whether changing memories is proper or not. Without giving away any more spoilers, it is pretty much safe to say that if you’ve watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you will feel at home in “To The Moon”.
"To The Moon" highly resembles 1990s SNES Japanese RPGs in terms of graphics and controls.
Going back, you do not really do anything in “To The Moon”. Aside from simple puzzles and fetch/fed ex “quests”, “To The Moon” is a point-and-click game at its core. The game is more about discovering the memories of Johnny. As a player, you have little to no power in affecting the game’s ending.
The game's strongest point is its story.
Going back, “To The Moon” makes you cry. Right from the beginning, I knew there was something heart-warming to be expected from the game’s plot. I knew that I might eventually shed a tear or two, but the game really captivated me to continue on. The atmosphere of the game’s plot, plus the nostalgic graphics it has, draws you to finish the game, even though almost no gameplay can be derived from it.
Another thing that kept me going is its soundtrack. The soundtrack is extremely well done for an indie game. They also add a lot to the atmosphere. Play the game until the end and you will understand as to how the soundtrack helped make me cry. Haha.
Although the story is good, the dialogue needs a lot of editing.
You will never regret journeying through Johnny's memories.
Home Page: http://freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/
IGN: 7.5
Gamespot: 8.0
http://thedisorganizedmind.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/to-the-moon-the-first-game-that-made-me-cry/
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