It's not hard to see why many would compare Moon to the Mother games, a series of titles that has been poking fun at the tropes and conventions of JRPGs, and videogames in general, starting at 1989, through the use of cute westernized cartoony aesthetics.
However, Moon stands out from those games by how far it goes along with its premise, making use of a subversive and unique game concept and design. By looking at the landscape of videogames in Japan at the time of it's release through the lens of a western adventure game, Moon examines what games are, how we play and perceive them, and what they could be.
3 years ahead of Majora's Mask, Moon presents a world with characters that exist beyond your presence and interference, and that asks you to to simply take a moment, look around, and take note of what you can see. What you will see from it will depend on how much you are willing to give to it, and it's an uncompromising experience that demonstrates the power of videogames, without having to pander to the basic instincts and urges from it's players.
All done through quirky and charming characters, creative and off the wall puzzles, an ecclectic and diverse soundtrack and inventive game design.
Playing Moon, the similarities with Undertale are obvious, and its clear where Toby Fox got a lot of his inspiraton from. And just like Undertale, Moon revels in the use of some of the best meta narrative ideas and conepts the medium has to offer.
But its important to note that Moon did it first. And arguably did it better.
However, Moon stands out from those games by how far it goes along with its premise, making use of a subversive and unique game concept and design. By looking at the landscape of videogames in Japan at the time of it's release through the lens of a western adventure game, Moon examines what games are, how we play and perceive them, and what they could be.
3 years ahead of Majora's Mask, Moon presents a world with characters that exist beyond your presence and interference, and that asks you to to simply take a moment, look around, and take note of what you can see. What you will see from it will depend on how much you are willing to give to it, and it's an uncompromising experience that demonstrates the power of videogames, without having to pander to the basic instincts and urges from it's players.
All done through quirky and charming characters, creative and off the wall puzzles, an ecclectic and diverse soundtrack and inventive game design.
Playing Moon, the similarities with Undertale are obvious, and its clear where Toby Fox got a lot of his inspiraton from. And just like Undertale, Moon revels in the use of some of the best meta narrative ideas and conepts the medium has to offer.
But its important to note that Moon did it first. And arguably did it better.