This is a game I've owned for over a decade now (I checked! XD), after buying it ages and ages ago after hearing it was great, but then just never getting around to playing it. However, my wife recently played through the latest entry in this wider series, as it so happens, and we decided it'd make a fun date night for her to watch me finally play through this first entry myself (and it was~ ^w^). It took me about 4-ish hours to play through the main game, and then the two post-game mini-episodes took about half an hour or so each. I played the game in English with an Xbone controller on my PC.
To The Moon is a story about Niel and Eva, two doctors who work for a company that specializes in helping near-death patients greatest wish come true. They go into the memories of the individual, and they basically give them new memories that result in fulfilling that greatest wish. This particular story, as the title suggests, involves fulfilling a dying man's wish to go to the moon. The two post-game mini-episodes are just little glimpses into the larger world that they live in, and the main game is where the really meaty storytelling lies.
To The Moon may be just an RPG Maker game made in 2011 (and it sure looks like it too), but it's an incredibly well told and heartfelt story about grief, regret, and the complicated, flawed people that tragedy and trauma can nonetheless turn into people you'd never guess have a thing abnormal about them at all. This is the sort of game you could easily write an essay about the greater and smaller themes of, which I'm not going to do here, but I will conclude this section by saying that this game is a masterclass of drama in a limited medium. It accomplishes what it sets out to do spectacularly, and I'm honestly glad I waited this long to play it, because I don't think I would've had the perspective (or narrative analysis ability <w>) to really appreciate everything this game goes for had I played through it right when I bought it at age 17.
Gameplay-wise, there's honestly not a ton to talk about. There are some very light puzzle mechanics here and there, and there's a joke battle relatively early on, but despite being an RPG Maker game, this is much more a straightforward adventure game than anything else. That's fine, and honestly the game uses its medium very well to give you just enough interactivity in what's going on to help you get that much more invested in the story, but this is much closer to a visual novel in actual content than it is to another notable RPG Maker game like Lisa: The Painful is.
Aesthetically, this game obviously oozes the whole RPG Maker style if you even so much as glance at it, but it's a deceptively meticulously put together experience regardless. There are some nicely done CGs, the music is excellent (particularly the vocal track), and I found so many little subtleties in the original character designs that I just loved. How a character moves their hands, looks their eyes to the side, tons of little things that inform about the people these characters are with all the deft you used to see in old SquareSoft 16-bit games. It's all excellently done, and it compliments the storytelling beautifully.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you're a fan of narrative-focused games, you've honestly probably at least already heard of this series, if you've not played it yourself already. Regardless, if this has somehow slipped your notice, you owe it to yourself to be like me and finally get off your butt and play it. Despite what the very RPG Maker graphics may suggest otherwise, this is an incredibly well told and constructed story, and easily one of the best bite-sized narrative experiences I've played.
To The Moon is a story about Niel and Eva, two doctors who work for a company that specializes in helping near-death patients greatest wish come true. They go into the memories of the individual, and they basically give them new memories that result in fulfilling that greatest wish. This particular story, as the title suggests, involves fulfilling a dying man's wish to go to the moon. The two post-game mini-episodes are just little glimpses into the larger world that they live in, and the main game is where the really meaty storytelling lies.
To The Moon may be just an RPG Maker game made in 2011 (and it sure looks like it too), but it's an incredibly well told and heartfelt story about grief, regret, and the complicated, flawed people that tragedy and trauma can nonetheless turn into people you'd never guess have a thing abnormal about them at all. This is the sort of game you could easily write an essay about the greater and smaller themes of, which I'm not going to do here, but I will conclude this section by saying that this game is a masterclass of drama in a limited medium. It accomplishes what it sets out to do spectacularly, and I'm honestly glad I waited this long to play it, because I don't think I would've had the perspective (or narrative analysis ability <w>) to really appreciate everything this game goes for had I played through it right when I bought it at age 17.
Gameplay-wise, there's honestly not a ton to talk about. There are some very light puzzle mechanics here and there, and there's a joke battle relatively early on, but despite being an RPG Maker game, this is much more a straightforward adventure game than anything else. That's fine, and honestly the game uses its medium very well to give you just enough interactivity in what's going on to help you get that much more invested in the story, but this is much closer to a visual novel in actual content than it is to another notable RPG Maker game like Lisa: The Painful is.
Aesthetically, this game obviously oozes the whole RPG Maker style if you even so much as glance at it, but it's a deceptively meticulously put together experience regardless. There are some nicely done CGs, the music is excellent (particularly the vocal track), and I found so many little subtleties in the original character designs that I just loved. How a character moves their hands, looks their eyes to the side, tons of little things that inform about the people these characters are with all the deft you used to see in old SquareSoft 16-bit games. It's all excellently done, and it compliments the storytelling beautifully.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you're a fan of narrative-focused games, you've honestly probably at least already heard of this series, if you've not played it yourself already. Regardless, if this has somehow slipped your notice, you owe it to yourself to be like me and finally get off your butt and play it. Despite what the very RPG Maker graphics may suggest otherwise, this is an incredibly well told and constructed story, and easily one of the best bite-sized narrative experiences I've played.