This review contains spoilers
YoU wOuLdN't StEaL a girl out of someones memory in the name of capitalism
This review contains spoilers
To The Moon was one of those games I've heard about here and there before playing it, more than most other RPG Maker games I've been playing over the past few months. It makes perfect sense why: a well-made heart-wrencher of an indie game right at the beak of the indie boom is a recipe for acclaim. So here I come 12 years late to the party, thinking this is just some quaint story that handles autism well and seeing the game has spawned 2? 3? 4? 5 (kinda) sequels????? And one of them is called Im-im-IMPOSTER Factory??? What could be going on here! Frankly, I'm still not sure what's up with Imposter Factory, but To The Moon has left me very interested to find out.
Gonna be honest, my first play session was rough. The WASD keys did nothing and the game prompted me to click to interact with stuff... a point and click RPG Maker game? A lot of devs have wrangled a lot of different things out of the engine, but this I was really unsure about. Having to wait to see my character trawl across the screen had atrocious feel as opposed to just moving them manually. After about 20 minutes of playing, I put it down for the night, wanting to return but feeling unsure if I could stand the control scheme...
...then 2 minutes into my second session I realized the manual controls were mapped to the arrow keys. Oopsies!
Still, with all that said of my misleading interpretation of the game feel, it's not like there's much game here! Even compared to many of its RPG Maker contemporaries, the gameplay here is incredibly straightforward. Even during the short "exploration" segments, I don't think I ever had to double-back because I missed something, large in part thanks to the mouse cursor showing you interactable objects. There's a tile flipping puzzle repeating more times than really necessary, though one that's too brief to cause any pain, a sparse few segments that change up the gameplay a bit, aaaaand... thats about it. Everything here is laser focused on the story.
Which is perfectly fine by me, because the writing here is wonderful. It explores the relationship of couple John and River in a montage of memories spanning their entire lives. Each scene offers a unique perspective into their relationship with absolutely beautiful dialogue that manages to feel extremely real. Bolstering it is the incredibly novel way in which their lives are shown —reverse chronologically—watching the layers of their relationship slowly peeled back to reveal what brough them to where you saw them previously in the story. It's truly hard to overstate how well developed John and River feel, and how compelling it is find out more of the mystery behind who they really are in such a genuine way. My only real wish is that more time was spent with the older versions of the characters, which is by design the focus of the earlier portions of the game, but the stuff I felt was ultimately the most compelling. Peppered in is some commentary from the scientists scrubbing through these memories, which despite a select few bits of writing that feel distinctly early 2010s, remains charming and complements the emotional core well.
I know I added a spoiler warning for the review, but considering how much of a story focused game it is, I want to talk in depth about the ending from here on out. Second spoiler warning! It's genuinely a story worth experiencing and is on sale on Steam for like $2 if you're reading this within 4 days after I write this... or y'know... whenever there's a Steam sale... but you do you!
The reverse chronological playback of memories takes up the first act of the game's labeled three acts, which feels odd considering the second act lasts all of 15-20 minutes. As the game rockets towards its climax, it starts to focus more on the logistics and the ethics of tampering with memories. The emotional core is never lost, but I myself felt a bit lost as the game tried to explain some of its timey whimey (memory schmemory?) to me and it just kind of... mostly making sense I guess? There's a part towards the very end where one of the doctors suddenly starts making decisions without the input of the other doctor, and the game frames it as a heel turn of sorts. Of course, it ends up that she had a very specific plan of altering memories such that everything would turn out well. What was the plan? Um. Erm. Don't worry about it.
—Hi, Poochy about to post this here. Let me bundle my kinda-nitpicky comments on the game together by mentioning that for some reason the sole "beat the game" achievement simply does not seem to unlock. Weird! Good thing I don't care about achievements! Anyways—
Truly, don't worry about it. I wasn't worrying as the final scene played out before my eyes. Watching John and River fulfill their dreams of heading out to the moon, seeing their rocket pierce the gleaming sunset. Them getting their last moments of happiness together, at this point multiple lifetimes of memories. Hearing John's heart monitor steadily beep in the background, hanging on it its last moments out of sheer willpower. Everything is just as it should be.
Then, his heartbeat goes flat.
Then, credits.
Everything is just as it should be.
To The Moon demorou um pouco mas após um tempo ele me fisgou principalmente pela história que mesmo que simples te deixa interessado por como ela é contada, uma forma bem única, recomendo pra quem curte narrativa, foi uma boa surpresa.
To the Moon (2011): Horrible. Controles espantosos que se quedaban pillados incluso andando (en un entorno 2D!), o que tenía que pulsar varias veces para hacer algo, y una jugabilidad vergonzosa. Su punto fuerte es la trama, pero no es tan buena para compensar el resto ni es este el medio para contar lo que quiere contar (3,20)
Masterpiece
Goofy story about two goofballs that make you achieve your dreams. Not goofy? Well, maybe there's a bit shoehorned in here. It depicts the kind of het relationship queer people love: people who meet for 10 minutes and become entangled /j it's a basic hook with basic gameplay and that game engine. You do ride a horse once ; why can't we summon it at all time? You can in Elden Ring? Clear oversight. After the game itself took inspiration in Elden Ring and went through the trouble to be released in 2011 via artificial memory technology (Author's note: it doesn't work like that).
Lindo, simplesmente lindo.
chorei
should have been a visual novel
i wish i'd play it when i was younger
не особо игра, но до слез
Chorei muito, muito mesmo..
A relação dos personagens (até onde eu lembro) são muito bem feitas.
E qualquer obra que fez a Laura Shigihara lançar a pedrada Everything's Alright pra esse mundo é 5 estrelas, poucas ideia.
E qualquer obra que fez a Laura Shigihara lançar a pedrada Everything's Alright pra esse mundo é 5 estrelas, poucas ideia.
It's a beautiful name
To The Moon regularly gets praise online for its story and seemingly everyone I've seen talk about this game cried at the end. Interestingly enough, 3 games made me teary-eyed over my lifetime, and I consider those to be the three best games I've ever played, so To The Moon would be in elite territory if it accomplished as much.
In all seriousness, the reviews set expectations for a short, walking simulator like, 2D indie pixel adventure game made with RPG Maker really high, almost unfairly so. I'm happy to say though that those expectations were met. I didn't cry, but the twists and revelations of the story did have an impact on me either way. Unfortunately, revealing nearly anything would rob you of the experience, so I'm going to refrain from doing so. The gist of it is that an old man has a dying wish: He wants to experience going to the moon. A special agency can dive into memories of their clients to grant them this wish by altering their actual memories into artifical memories, and two employees of this agency, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts, must uncover the clients (Johnny Wyles) backstory to be able to make the right changes to his memories.
It starts slow but gets going quickly and never really lets up from there. It's a very short and linear experience at pretty much exactly 4 hours, and that's perfect for what this game is. The story includes little to no filler and is told really well, with the two employees Watts and Rosalene making for a pretty funny combo to balance out the otherwise emotional ride the game's story is.
If you're looking for gameplay, you won't find much of it here. Gameplay doesn't go beyond walking to your target locations and doing a few very simple puzzles. I'm not the biggest fan of walking simulators or visual novels but I do enjoy the occasional one. If you feel similarly or stronger about these genres, you gotta play To The Moon.
no chão.chorando
This review contains spoilers
man that old dude just didn't even remotely get his autist wife.
Cara que jogo lindo, narrativamente falando.
Os controles são ok e pixel art simples, mas a sua história e trilha sonora é o que faz To the moon maravilhoso.
Além disso o jogo roda em qualquer PC e ser curto. Para meros mortais que não possuem PC Master race e para aqueles que não tem tempo de zerar um RPG de mais de 100 hrs de jogo.
Um último aviso, prepara o lencinho. Só isso mesmo.
Os controles são ok e pixel art simples, mas a sua história e trilha sonora é o que faz To the moon maravilhoso.
Além disso o jogo roda em qualquer PC e ser curto. Para meros mortais que não possuem PC Master race e para aqueles que não tem tempo de zerar um RPG de mais de 100 hrs de jogo.
Um último aviso, prepara o lencinho. Só isso mesmo.
screaming and crying
não posso pensar demais nesse se não choro
comecei a estudar piano por conta dessa porra
A pretty interesting idea that is wasted on a mid (at best) melodrama. I was going to give it a 6 but the ending was just the last straw. Idkw people love this game so much but there are so many things wrong with that conclusion...
When I completed To The Moon, one of the first things that I noticed was simply how underwhelmed a lot of people seemed to have felt with it. If such be from the puzzles being bad, or the story simply not being enough to touch them; and to those I can two things. First it is true that the story wont touch everyone, as while I thought is was a fantastically moving piece, I can understand some situations, or real life events/feelings that could lead an individual in a direction that this story will simple not touch. Things of which I believe are 100% okay, not everything is made for everyone and that is okay. The second point I have however is in the puzzles. To which I need to say that those are not the point. To The Moon does not need to have fantastic puzzles. If I am being fair I was suprised when the "puzzles" that are in the game came up, because I really did not expect anything like them at all. Something I can say because I believe that To The Moon should not be understood as a typical game perhaps, but a interactive book. A sentiment I can hold simply from one of the first thoughts I had when playing the opening section to the game. A moment wherein I stopped and thought "Wow, this game is almost like a visualisation of what it feels like to read a book, and imagine what I am reading in my head." Because it truly does, and I am not sure if this is perhaps just my own personal experience, but the design, colours, music, everything, perfectly recreated a non-imaginary feeling of thinking about what I books words would look like. With the only difference being that fact that I could control and characters in the book, and could use them as a outlet for my emotions regarding the path set out for me. A feeling even stronger then that of which I have had with any other interactive media ever. Regardless however, I do understand that not everyone will feel that same regarding this game as I did, which is fine. But as for my personal take, I think To The Moon is brilliant, and one of now two pieces of media in my life that have truly made my cry. I felt sew attached to its story, and hope that people who are hesitant just give it a try. For the soul reason that they may find one of their favourite games as well.
An interesting premise, and the puzzles were fine. Some of the jokes and the plot points didn't really land, but it was an interesting journey.
Super compelling story with amazing soundtrack. The game has very simple puzzle-solving tasks
Beautiful ass story. Among the finest examples of the heights of emotional storytelling in video games, especially for its length. One of the best OSTs I've ever heard in a game. Controls are kinda jank though and the attempts at humor can be kinda hit or miss, though they mostly don't detract from an otherwise great experience.
one of the best endings i've ever played, goosebumps everywhere.
Personally, Dr.Watts had better statistical odds of being right
A narrativa é incrivel, mas meio que é só isso que ele oferece, a história é linda a relação dos dois cientistas é ótima, mas jogo o jogo... sheeeeeesh
Cried