MOON. is a game that I seriously respect and that I'm glad to have played despite it being a very, very rough run. Coming from the background of a "classic era" Key fan, someone who was brought into visual novels by the likes of CLANNAD, AIR and Kanon, I wasn't expecting something like MOON. from many of the same minds. And yet, here it always was, their grittiest, ugliest story with some of the most heady themes of self-analysis and redemption in their catalogue. Interesting in particular to come to this after finally completing Subarashiki Hibi, a game with some very similar themes and agreed-upon explicitness of presentation of tragedy.
Well, one of the differences between a game like Subahibi and a game like MOON. is having about a decade and a half of foresight. I haven't played the original Tsui no Sora but I have to imagine even then, there was a lot more clear "purpose" to much of the dark imagery and subject matter than MOON. really has to offer. I do like the Elpod sequences in concept, the protagonist essentially shifting from a self-chastising abuse session of recounting her past behaviors to an acceptance and embrasure. That remains maybe the only sequence in which I felt the sexual and taboo aspects of MOON. began to mean something. With that said though, this game released early still into the golden age of PC eroge, so I'm absolutely willing to believe Tactics may have just been excited to be able to push boundaries in the stories they could tell. I get that.
And for what it's worth, I think MOON. experiments a lot and it's honestly pretty cool when it does. The soundtrack combined with the weird, almost early Megaten like dungeon-y aesthetic provide an experience clearly like nothing else in the team's catalogue. While I do feel that the movement mechanic, in which you select options on the VN's choice menu to navigate around was often more trouble than it was worth, I do have to applaud a few specific uses of it later in the story that felt immersive and genuinely a little off-putting in the intended way. There's also some very cool denpa-like imagery in the last few bits, some of which felt straight out of Tsui no Sora (not to mention the lingering influences of Evangelion all over the game as a whole), and I felt better walking out of that last hour than I did about the game as a whole prior. Wraps up nicely both in emotional resonance and thematic necessity.
So, yeah, take the lower score as my admittance that I don't think the game is very good, nor would I even especially recommend it to visual novel fans at large, but know that I did enjoy my time by and large and walk away excited to check out the other smaller works I missed from these guys prior to finally tackling Rewrite.
Well, one of the differences between a game like Subahibi and a game like MOON. is having about a decade and a half of foresight. I haven't played the original Tsui no Sora but I have to imagine even then, there was a lot more clear "purpose" to much of the dark imagery and subject matter than MOON. really has to offer. I do like the Elpod sequences in concept, the protagonist essentially shifting from a self-chastising abuse session of recounting her past behaviors to an acceptance and embrasure. That remains maybe the only sequence in which I felt the sexual and taboo aspects of MOON. began to mean something. With that said though, this game released early still into the golden age of PC eroge, so I'm absolutely willing to believe Tactics may have just been excited to be able to push boundaries in the stories they could tell. I get that.
And for what it's worth, I think MOON. experiments a lot and it's honestly pretty cool when it does. The soundtrack combined with the weird, almost early Megaten like dungeon-y aesthetic provide an experience clearly like nothing else in the team's catalogue. While I do feel that the movement mechanic, in which you select options on the VN's choice menu to navigate around was often more trouble than it was worth, I do have to applaud a few specific uses of it later in the story that felt immersive and genuinely a little off-putting in the intended way. There's also some very cool denpa-like imagery in the last few bits, some of which felt straight out of Tsui no Sora (not to mention the lingering influences of Evangelion all over the game as a whole), and I felt better walking out of that last hour than I did about the game as a whole prior. Wraps up nicely both in emotional resonance and thematic necessity.
So, yeah, take the lower score as my admittance that I don't think the game is very good, nor would I even especially recommend it to visual novel fans at large, but know that I did enjoy my time by and large and walk away excited to check out the other smaller works I missed from these guys prior to finally tackling Rewrite.