Share this story.If you took a classic Japanese-style role-playing game and stripped it of all the traditional gameplay mechanics—experience points, equippable weapons and armor, usable items, and even combat itself—what exactly would you be left with? And more importantly, could this-stripped down experience actually be compelling? In the case of indie game, the answer is surprisingly, yes. Though it can only loosely be described as a game—it's more of a long, mildly interactive cut scene— To The Moon's story and writing are so well done that it's still worth venturing through, even if you won't gain any experience points.Much like in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in the world of To The Moon there exists a technology that lets trained professionals alter memories. Only in this case they're not attempting to erase them, but instead tweak them to create new results. It's a form of final wish fulfillment. When someone is on their death bed they can ring up the memory people who can help them realize unfulfilled dreams.
Indie game To The Moon developed a cult following since its 2011 release, with the heartbreaking RPG earning kudos for its plot. Update: To The Moon 2 is in fact not real but a new game called A Bird Story, developer Freebird Games has announced. It's due out mid-2013.
In the case of To The Moon's Johnny character, his dream is, obviously, to fly to the moon.In order to help him realize that dream, you'll play as a pair of doctors who head into his memories in order to find a catalyst, that one particular event in his childhood that could convince young Johnny to become an astronaut. But first you need to understand him. And so much of the game is spent moving backwards through his memories and experiences, learning about the people and things that have shaped his life. As such, the story of his life is told in reverse, and as you move backwards in time you'll learn revelatory details that change the way you perceive him. Certain actions, or even small items that constantly reappear throughout his life, will take on new meanings.
Things that initially seemed insignificant will often prove to be very important. To The MoonThe story is well told and there are a number of genuinely surprising and touching moments. Even though To The Moon doesn't play like an RPG, it still maintains the feel of one in many ways. Not just because it looks like one, with retro 16-bit-inspired visuals, but because of the writing and the way the story unfolds.
It touches on some very serious subject matter, but isn't afraid to get silly. Often a heartfelt moment will turn humorous when one of the doctors makes a wisecrack.The game seems designed for those who play classic Final Fantasy or Lunar games exclusively for the story. Much of the game feels like those moments in an RPG when you're not exploring dungeons, but are instead left to freely explore a town or a castle. Venturing through Johnny's memories consists of little more than reading dialog and walking around.
Moving from one memory to the next involves a simple sliding block puzzle, which feels more like a concession to make To The Moon feel more like a game than anything else.So To The Moon isn't really a game. There are interactive bits, but they won't stifle your progression or provide anything resembling a challenge. But that's not really the point. Instead, it's a narrative experience using the classic RPG framework as a way of telling a story. And it's a story worth hearing, touching on universals such as death, loss, and memories. It also features a soundtrack that, had it been released 20 years ago, would be heralded as classic today.
To The Moon is an / designed by Canadian Kan Gao (of fame) and developed by The OST, also by Gao, features., Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr.
Neil Watts work for Sigmund Corporation, a company that is able to use technology to rewrite the memories of dying people to allow them to die happy, as a kind of for-profit foundation. The game unfolds as they attempt to fulfill the request of their latest client, Johnny Wyles. Johnny's in a coma, and his last wish is to go to the moon. Except he doesn't know why.
As Neil and Eva work backwards through his memories, the game reaches its emotionally affective core as true intentions are revealed.The game won accolades for its beautiful soundtrack, touching story, and entertaining writing, and received largely positive acclaim, although was sometimes criticised for its instances of, particularly concerned with the characterisation of Neil. It has frequently been used as an example in making the case for. The ending of the game confirmed that it was to be the first in a series, although the name of said series has yet to be revealed. A holiday-themed story named 'SigCorp', the first of a series of 'minisodes', was released in 2013, and details Neil and Eva's work life.
The second commercial instalment in the series, named A Bird Story, was released on the 7th November 2014 for $4.99. Taking place before Neil and Eva's time, the game is an hour-long interactive narrative, that focuses on a boy who will grow up to be their patient in the second episode of the series. The boy, who remains nameless in the story, comes from a, and lives mostly on his own, with his parents only leaving him notes on the door and fridge. One day, when walking home from school, he rescues a bird being chased by a badger, and begins to bond with it.A second minisode was released on the 18th February 2015. The minisodes are accessible in-game as free DLC. Episode 2, Finding Paradise, was released on December 14th 2017. Harry potter and the goblet of fire book cover. In this episode, Eva and Neil are tasked with helping a new patient named Colin Reed.
They are faced with the problem that Colin's final wish is not only vague in its wording, but also seems quite paradoxical in nature: he wants them to change something, yet change nothing at all.Episode 3, Impostor Factory, is set to be released at the end of 2020. The trailer can be viewed., produced by Chinese company Ultron Event Horizon. The film will be a Chinese-Japanese, and Gao will have input in the film as a script editor/advisor.It should be mentioned that the games are best experienced without spoilers. Read the spoilers below at your own risk.This game provides examples of. I've always thought they were lighthouses. Billions of lighthouses, stuck at the far end of the sky.' .: See and.: The creator posted a 'novelisation' of the first scene of the game on the Freebird blog which adds a few details, such as Neil preferring to go by Dr.
Watts because it makes him sound like a or super-villain, and recounts how he went as far as buying to avoid meeting the gazes of nosy strangers.: The fact that you may kill one of your children by accident is probably a fear most parents share and one that Joey and Johnny's mother experienced.: Once you review Johnny's life chronologically, you'll find that nearly all his life seen from his memories revolves around River, starts from his teenage years to her death. And then it's revealed that they actually met for the first time when they're really small children, long before they even become teenagers. This is even more evident in the new memory where River was moved from Johnny's teenhood and he's still able to subsconsciously call her back to his new memory. It's a wonder that Eva and Neil at first dismissed her as 'not their client' until they realize how important she is to Johnny's life.: The order in which Watts and Rosaline experience Johnny's memories.:. Most of what man aspires to achieve is done solely as means to reach another goal entirely. One should be careful to not sacrifice the end for the sake of means.
Case in point, the very reason Johnny thought he wanted to go to the Moon was his metaphorical promise to River, and, without the memory of her, literally going to the Moon was meaningless. Johnny's true aspiration was his devotion to River, not to become an astronaut, so when his memories were rewritten, his true end was actually sacrificed for the sake of means. Fortunately, Johnny's subconscious desire results in River coming back in his rewritten memories anyways, and the last thing he remembers is them together. Also, even if events happened long ago and were forgotten or followed by tragedy, it doesn't mean that those moments are meaningless or that they can't be appreciated. Although Johnny didn't remember his first meeting with River, it still resulted in their love and life together. Additionally, when Eva rewrites his memories to exclude River from his early life, Johnny still subconsciously wills her back, because he really cares for her more than the Moon.: 'Tell me what you see'.: Some beta-blockers, especially propanolol, are indeed used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (although the treatment is still considered experimental), but they usually do not induce amnesia (what they do is more in the line of allowing someone to relive a traumatic memory without experiencing the trauma).
That said, memory-loss is a rare but possible side-effect of beta-blockers; however, it's still a stretch that they were used in a deliberate and controlled way to cause the effect as the game implies.: From a symbolic perspective, Johnny and River. Johnny, the common guy who wants to stand out, has brown hair and brown eyes (the most common colours for those traits), while River, who hates standing out and wants to blend in, has red hair and green eyes (arguably the least common (natural) colours for those traits). Also applies to their clothes. Age of empires online emulator. Johnny tends to wear drab colours - typically browns, greys, and dark greens - while River prefers wearing brighter, more vibrant colours (blues, whites, and the occasional patch of yellow).: Everything's Alright.
'Santa, Easter Bunny, kangaroos.' .: Johnny asked River to go watch a movie with him on their first date, River interpreted it as watching the same movie, at the same time, in the same movie theater regardless of if they do it together. This comes into play during, as River likely used the same rationale to explain Johnny's absence the next year at the fair.: Many people in the patient's memory have their faces, bodies, and clothes blurred, to indicate that the patient can't properly remember them anymore.:. Johnny admits in his memories that he doesn't really remember much of his favorite childhood book series, The Animorphs, and doesn't really read them anymore. This can be attributed at the time to the fact that people's tastes do change. It is eventually revealed, however, that this is because he never really cared for the books. His brother Joey liked the series, not him, and he simply forgot due to the beta blockers.
The bunk beds in Johnny's room. Johnny's mother calling him Joey. Neil suddenly stepping out of sight to do something while Eva gets the roadkill makes more sense once you see.: Johnny and River met for the first time in a carnival when they were children, something he forgot because of his memory suppression. Deconstructed in that this causes a great deal of resentment in River toward Johnny.: One of the very last shots of the game, where Neil and Eva are standing on the bridge watching the shuttle launch, there is a quick montage of shots. In one of them, two Neils are visible, one standing close behind the other.
Although the creator has said that this is a glitch, the release of the second minisode suggests.: Eva and Neil mostly fill this role, particularly in the first half of the game as they go back in time observing Johnny's memories. They take a slightly more active role in the game's second half, but their main purpose from a literary perspective is to observe and provide commentary on the drama unfolding between Johnny and River.: River and Johnny. From the player's perspective, this actually happens backwards, as we see an aged Johnny and a newly-deceased River at the start of the game and their early relationship is explored as the game goes on.: In the memory of Johnny and River's wedding, they are shown spending their entire wedding night in the lighthouse with their silhouettes dancing.: Sadly zig-zagged. Though John and River clearly love each other, there are several factors that put serious strain in their marriage. John is at times frustrated with his difficulty to understand River because she's so aloof most of the time due to her mental illness. He even mentions that sometimes she just stares.
Meanwhile, River is upset that John doesn't remember their first meeting in their childhood and evidently remains upset for the rest of her life but in addition of not knowing John's supressed memory. In memories featuring them as married couple, we only see them arguing once which happens in the first memory showing elderly River (which, due to, is before we learned she has mental illness). As many real life couples would testify, the lack or even absence of arguments between married couple is clear sign that their life as married couple is not going well.: Johnny and River, in the game's reality. Eva forcibly removes River from Johnny's high school memories, only for her to return in his young adulthood.: Averted. They are both females and have managed to lead lives as fulfilling as a neurotypical person can be expected to. Note Skybird donated half of the revenue to autism research and treatment charity, so it's a case of the author knowing something of autism.: River fell ill prior to the events of the game, but declined treatment so that the money that would go towards her medical bills would instead go towards building Johnny's dream house.: River, which leads her to carry resentment when Johnny tells her otherwise.
She starts making the origami rabbits to remind him she once told him this when they met. Also deconstructed with Isabelle who states that while she may appear to be normal, it's just an act she has perfected with years of non-stop practice, and it's furthermore an act she does not wish to keep up. However, due to, and the 'fake' Isabelle being who other people know her as, she has lost the option to go back to who she really is.: Johnny. This is largely why Johnny becomes interested in River in the first place. At least, that is how he rationalizes his interest.
Takes on new meaning after it's revealed that Johnny is actually a twin (read: a copy) and his twin brother, Joey, was always the favoured one. After Joey's death, his mother treated Johnny as though he was Joey, expecting him to act the same way, have the same tastes, and even calling him by Joey's name. Johnny wants to be special because he has never had the chance to be his own person.: Pulled off between Eva and Neil near the end, regarding Eva's plans. It turns out that Neil was missing a step.
Eva thought that River would reappear in Johnny's new memories, just at a later time. Neil never considered this a possibility until he saw it happen.: River cuts her hair and starts folding paper rabbits to try and remind Johnny of their very first meeting as children, which Johnny can't remember.: The art teacher in Johnny's childhood though he might be joking. Teacher: Leonardo da Vinci trained by drawing eggs. Barrels are like very big eggs. Therefore, you will all be very big da Vinci-s!.:. Neil starts as a rather sarcastic guy who doesn't seem to take things seriously. Until the end, when he is confronted with deleting River from Johnny's memories.
He then shows how much he cares for Johnny and River's happiness, and is actually not so cynical. Eva appears to be an aloof killjoy who abuses her coworker (insulting him and forcing/tricking him into eating a foodstuff he hates), enjoys being cryptic to the point where she'd rather attack a man with computer-generated zombies than let him in on the full details of her plan, and takes a huge risk with her client's happiness in order to avoid a lawsuit. River: Describe it. What else?.: A couple of them actually. Johnny - the normal guy who wants to stand out and be different is given one of the English-world's most common names. This takes on an even deeper and more meaningful aspect when you realise that Johnny has forever lived in the shadow of his twin brother Joey, even after the latter's death, to the point where his own mother treated him like a copy.
River - the girl who hates standing out and just wishes she could be normal has an unusual and unique name to fit her status. There's also a Meaningful Nickname. Johnny's mother always calls him Joey, in what the player likely assumes is just an unimportant bit of character building.
It isn't.: The stuffed platypus. Johnny gave it to River at a carnival when they were kids. Ditto for the hacky-sack, which explains why River was so attached to it when Johnny threw it away (at her direction as a test).: When the doctors fail to change Johnny's memories, as they grow increasingly frustrated and desperate they start randomly bursting into various memories with lines pitching NASA or a trip to the moon, including a motivational routine at Johnny's high school. It is funny, but feels very out of place with the more serious and somber tone of the rest of the story. Several critics who disliked the game found much of Neil's dialogue to have this effect on the game in general.
It's implied that Neil has seen so many morbid and depressing stories that he's developed the same love of that a lot of doctors, policeman, and other people who see traumatic scenes develop. Given that he seems to be ill or even dying, his morbid demeanor and apathy may be a coping mechanism. The game sometimes substituted silly words like 'corncob' for curses for no apparent reason.: In a non-traditional appearance. Namely, Johnny and River see the clusters of stars above and below the moon as the rabbit's head and feet, and the moon itself as its body.: Neil mentions a particularly difficult patient called Nora who caused them some trouble in the past. That's all we get, though.: River, justified because of her condition.: Eva, several times.
Including once when it's very mood-inappropriate.: Eva and Neil. Neil: ( upon finding the key in the book). During John and River's real first meeting, River's first line is 'You're in my spot'. Considering River's condition, it may be a reference to a from.: Rosalene and Watts's job. The technology they use alters people's perception of the past. But since doing so carries a lot of very troubling implications and has many possible ways it could be misused, it is only legal to use on people who are dying.: All over the place. Eva: I suppose now.
We know what we must do to send him to the moon.: A suppressed memory is just a white void.: The words 'autism' or 'Asperger's' are never uttered. Autism spectrum disorder is always referred to in-game as either 'the condition' or 'it'.: At one point, you are asked what David's main morph was in, and you can speak to a character nearby to get the right answer. This is simple enough, but it becomes a problem if the player is familiar with the books and knows the answer because the game gets it wrong.
The expected answer is a cobra, but David's actual main battle morph is a lion. Marco is the only one who ever morphed into a cobra (although incidentally he acquired the morph from David's pet cobra).
This was likely changed to keep people from solving the puzzle too early. Although, it does dwell into when you consider that Johnny wasn't particularly interested in the story; Joey was. Minisode #1: SigCorp Holiday Special.: It's more of a fun holiday special than an important part of the canon storyline. The only point that is established to the canon at the end of the game is that SigCorp's work is more controversial as we thought, as the episode ends by showing the protest group outside of SigCorp.: Neil makes a video game based on the events of the main game. All characters are represented by disembodied heads, the scenery is extremely pixelated (one pixel of the scenery is the size of one RPG Maker tile) and story is extremely vague, being told by Neil getting items from various characters and placing them elsewhere to open doors.Minisode #2.: Neil tries to be one.
He wants to stay in the Sigmund Corp HQ by claiming that he would enjoy living in that 'mansion' by himself. He, of course, has his own reasons. See below.: The minisode drops quite a few of these moments between Neil and Eva.: Lily from Episode 1 makes a cameo with her two children.: Eva's big sis, Traci.
It's her idea to host a dinner together with Eva, Lily and her children, Dr. Winters (one of Sigmund Corp scientists) so Neil won't be left staying alone in the building.: Surprisingly enough, yes, despite being a minisode!
See and for details.:. Neil appears to be hiding something for himself. He calls someone with his cellphone, but he doesn't talk at all despite whoever he called keeps calling on him. It appears to be his family. Neil has another one, after Eva and other scientists of Sigmund left the building, he's trying to use the memory machine, which he secretly hides in his office, for an unknown reason.
Eva is definitely doing something suspicious too, given at the very end, it is implied that the whole episode is a memory that she has altered.: Eva's sister is married and has a son. And if the intro sequence is any indication, the McMillans are this, being quite.: The bird and the kid play fetch with a paper-airplane he makes.: The boy is forced to set the bird free, and everything becomes bleak to him, as even though he has become popular at school, he still misses the bird. However, when the bird returns to him and shows him its new friend, he realises that the bird will be where it belongs, and although the two say their final goodbyes, the boy is happy that the bird will be able to live its life, and stops throwing paper airplanes for it to bring back.: There's a bizarre and hilarious sequence where the teacher and the vet chase the kid through a number of. He even pretends to be following a passing duck as one of its chicks at one point. It's like something out of.: The boy has no friends, and at one point sits on one side of a see-saw with no-one on the other side. He ends up befriending the bird instead. Averted near the end of the game when he becomes well known and has people happy to acknowledge and play with him after bringing the bird to show-and-tell.: The creator has gone on record as saying this isn't intended to be as complex or as much as a as the original game.
It's a simpler story with a fair bit of humour, though it does still have a few sadder moments.: You won't see a word after you click 'begin'. Even the note the kid finds is obscured, and when characters speak the content is implied or represented by an icon in a speech bubble.: Since Colin's wish is to fix several of his biggest regrets, most of the moments Neil and Eva witness are those regretful incidents, rather than his happiest moments. Neil eventually lampshades this when he notices the open photo album in the living room.: Much to Neil's chagrin, he and Eva are not the best employees of Sigmund Corp that their boss mentioned. It's and, instead. While doesn't seem to care, this realization turns into somehow.: It's okay to have regrets as long as you can still be happy with the life you've led.:.
Whether or not the owner of the private airport where Colin trained to be a pilot is a. Eva and Neil believed. Keep in mind that it was Faye who first suggested that he might be a mafia, and Faye never even existed to begin with. When Neil goes to the car at night to find his painkiller pills, he meets. Someone, who looks at him suspiciously while riding on a bike and their face is under their helmet.
Not too long after he noticed them, without even saying a word, they immediately leave on the bike, confusing him. While Neil makes a that he only paid attention to the mysterious person's, it begs a question of who the person was: Faye? The apartment manager? The bully girl?
Or just a?.: Even worse than with Johnny, as Neil and Eva skip from Colin's most recent memory to his earliest memory, for reasons revealed at the climax of the game.: Colin has birds, as in A Bird Story. Birds are often around in his memories, he feeds the ducks at the pond as an old man, and Faye sports a giant pair of bird-wings when fighting Neil and when saying goodbye to Colin. It's implied Faye is the bird from A Bird Story, at least in Colin's mind, as indicated by her saying that he'd already said goodbye to her 'a long, long time ago.' Owner: Yet you come here, on the day of 's flight exam. To request my hospitality, to make use of my facility without an offer.: Colin's parents were never around, and nobody played with him at school. It wasn't until Faye showed up that he actually had someone other than his toy dog to talk to. Because he.: Colin and his wife Sofia have been trying to set up their son with a friend's daughter for this reason.
Flavor Text: The imaginary dog is being questioned and ceases to exist.: The medical doctor is the same guy from To the Moon.: Almost all of Faye's actions and interactions make more sense after.: Faye was just Colin's. One that's not too happy to be erased.:. Neil literally turns into when he got angry at the realization that he and Eva are not Sigmund Corp's best employees that their boss mentioned. You can find a book on Colin's bookshelf titled. At one point, Eva and Neil are stuck on a separate balcony from Colin. Neil's solution is to use a to try to get across, and while using the hookshot, he yells out,.
The battle against Faye in form may be one to the of,. And, as mentioned under, Colin watched as a child, and later imagined his boss to be a mafia don. The tutorial that introduces the spaces that add and remove memories from the grid in the memento preparation minigame reads:.: During the memory of Colin's first flight, Neil, and then Colin himself, express their dismay with the situation using the exact same phrase.: At their aquarium date, Colin and Sofia both sketch a clownfish. Sofia's sketch is rather lovely, but.: with Eva. When you explore Colin's house before you enter his mind, you can enter the bathroom in the lower floor to examine a toilet paper not being put at the right place. If you're controlling Eva, she will get irritated seeing it and immediately put it to the proper place.
If you're controlling Neil, he will quip that Eva is going to like this and call her via his cellphone, where Eva impatiently tells him to put the toilet paper at the proper place.: When Faye is eventually defeated, Eva and Neil finally have the opportunity to change what Colin remembers, to comply with their contract. However, Neil has second thoughts, feeling that maybe what Colin actually wanted wasn't what the contract stipulated.
Eva.Well, actually.: Due to Neil messing with the system, the game sometimes shifts to a shoot 'em up, a fighting game, and a turn-based RPG.:. The boss of Sigmund Corp finally makes an appearance. Unfortunately, it's only in Colin's memory, and Colin can't even remember. All we know is that the boss is male. This episode sadly doesn't explain the nature from the second minisode. (see above). The player never learns what Colin wrote with invisible ink in his seemingly-blank journal, despite the question being threaded throughout the game.
The context implies it was intended for Sofia anyway.: Colin. Lampshaded by Neil.
Roxie: The thing is, not only is there no plane crash, there's nothing else to her record either.: If you choose Neil to confront the bully at the start of the episode, you'll later run into Potato, who will thank you for getting rid of her. She'll then rather pointedly mention that 'a woman in a brown dress' retrieved her teddy bear from the duck pond, all without even touching the water. This woman and this event are never explicitly brought up again. There's a decent chance this woman is supposed to be Faye, as she is always seen wearing a brown dress, but she doesn't exist outside of Colin's head and Neil's backup. Which raises all sorts of other questions and seems to suggest this detail is a subtle.: Colin's parents, though both seemed largely oblivious to it.
shows them giving him the Rudog plushy while he slept, along with a score of other happy memories that Neil and Eva never got to encounter due to the nature of his desire.