On one very boring day in 2019 I was walking home scrolling on twitter when I saw someone
posting a giant thread about how this game changed their life and going into some of the little moments that stood
out to them. Deep in the pit of my heart something felt off so I tweeted out (not at them just in general)
about how moon seemed a bit "overrated". I then proceeded to create a Youtube video on Shin Megami Tensei If... that
sounded like it was for a 9th grade class presentation. It's surreal finishing this game now because part of the journey of me finishing
it feels like having a conversation with my past self and thinking about where I am with it, how video games are discussed
on the internet nowadays, and maybe something else.

Moon is a game that I've grown to appreciate a lot over the years, even as someone who kind of showed up with an
eyebrow raised with how much the "anti-RPG" aspect is echoed around online I found a few interesting surprises as it's a game
that really isn't as cheap as that tagline sounds but a genuine artistic game that seeks to do more with the medium
as a whole and the past that it had whether it's critiquing or celebrating it (there's literally a slime and rainbow bridge here).

Just to throw this out for a general summary: moon is an adventure game specifically based on acquiring "love" to
progress. Rather than number crunching as a means to generalize player progression like in RPGs, moon is about managing
your time, observing, and exploring using adventure game mechanics like interacting and using items. You make your way
through moon by assessing the strange land you find yourself in while observing the clockwork movement of people, creatures,
and things. In fact I'd say my core issue with this game sadly boils down to the context of its release as someone
who played this on the Nintendo Switch and didn't necessarily think to look at the game manual at first because of
how many games nowadays are presented but I highly recommend keeping this manual handy.

With moon being a game about observing characteristics and interactivity, what really helps make it stand out to me
is how the world has so many small moments within it that you just really would never find in bigger titles. It's
very obvious as you dive further into it but moon very much was a title developed by a small team and it shows
with the unique characters, references that range from Yellow Magic Orchestra, Freddie Mercury, Blade Runner, etc.
and the game's core theme/action of "love" is about as broad and abstract as it sounds to the point that the ending
even pulled a surprise move on me. It helps also that in this game about observing that there's the unique addition
of a music player with actual specific artsits brought on to bring a variety of tracks, I'm almost certain that even
in 1997 corporations wouldn't even think to do something as (potentially) costly as that for a new IP but it's here
in moon and with characters and a deep love of music that's rooted in here why would it not be.

This game reminds me of a moment when I was playing through Earthbound Beginnings this year where I realized that the repeated phone
calls you got from your dad, although very annoying, were a small game design decision that most likely was related to
a subject this game specifically goes after and it somehow feels like a miracle that I was pleasantly surprised by
how this game handled it because it felt like it came from a group of people that meant it and just wanted to make
something.

Do you ever wish time would stand still? Being able to stay in your happy place for as long as you wished, without regard to any pressing obligations?

Room 302 is a purgatorial space that heals Henry not in spite of, but because of its drab decor, its perpetual stasis, its agelessness. I found the apartment to have an enchantingly banal quality to it, feeling like I’ve been in this exact place despite knowing this not to be true, a place I stop to admire for just one moment, and no more, in-between trips to the otherworld. Life is only observed at your leisure through the various peep-holes, not experienced, providing a much-needed relief from the constant stimuli of the world. It’s Freudian as hell, but it makes sense why Walter’s twisted perspective sees the room as his mother and is associated with fetal imagery - a place of protection and nourishment.

This quality ceases in the game’s second half when hauntings periodically invade the apartment, twisting the healing quality of the room into a draining one. But it’s not just for your own health that you must return to your quest, for poor Eileen is stuck in the otherworld fending for herself every moment apart from her until you make your return, gradually lowering your chances of getting a good ending, as the amount of near-invincible enemies pursuing you grow in number. The bliss initially offered by the room is only a fantasy - life happens whether we like it or not. A willful ignorance will allow the suffering of others to perpetuate.

The game’s low simmer in the first half can sometimes be a bit dull, but as these pressures are placed on you, 4 becomes the most anxiety-inducing of the main SH games, a mad rush to the finish increasing in tempo without care for the player maintaining rhythm. Frustrating in more ways intentional than not, I can’t say that playing this was as pleasant of a ride as 3, but when I got the best ending and watched the credits roll, my sigh of relief had a satisfying weight, for it requires a good amount of skill to create something that hits as many nerves as it does in a short period of time. In a good way, I don’t want to revisit this game for a long time.