[To The Moon] Dawn of the final day, 24 hours remain (now on Steam)

F-Zero_Racer

http://www.freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/
http://freebirdgames.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-moon-ost

Currently PC-Only and now on steam!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/206440/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

Website reviews/thoughts:
Wot I Think: To The Moon
Gamepro 100/100
Eurogamer 90/100

To The Moon is an indie adventure game/RPG made in RPG Maker. No wait, don't go! Even though it's made in RPG Maker, it has some high-quality spritework, an amazing OST and one of the best stories I've experienced in a long time. I'm a fan of games like Nier, and this was definitely up there for me!

The game is played like a classic adventure game: You have to explore various areas for places to investigate in order to go further. In-between sequences there is a short puzzle that involves flipping portions of a picture in order to make everything match up. These are generally not hard and are just a way to break up the game a bit. There is also the occasional minigame or two, but the bulk of the game is spent walking around and clicking on things.

The story itself is hard to talk about without going deep into spoilers. You play as Dr. Neil Watts and Dr. Eva Rosalene, scientists who give people their last dying wish. They go into their memories and rewrite them so that they can achieve whatever dream they may have and die peacefully. The patient you have to work with is named Johnny and, apt to the game title, his dying dream is to go to the moon. I will say this: considering the topics that the game manages to cover it did so very well.

There's a 1-hour demo on their website, and you can buy it for $12 dollars. It's a bit expensive, but despite that I thought it was entirely worth it.

chocobolicious

I bought this game and beat it all in one sitting. It took maybe 4ish hours? 5? I dunno, I wasn't paying too much attention because the game was absolutely captivating. I really can't say enough great things about this game. Even the sprite work is fantastic, particularly on River.

Thirith

After all the superlatives, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. It's definitely good and I don't regret buying it, but I don't think it quite lives up to all the praise. All in all, I think I was more moved by the way the relationship was built up than by the denouement (which is always a problem for me because I then experience the game, book, film, whatever it is as getting worse, even if it still ends well). In hindsight I kinda wish I hadn't read all these glowing reviews.

Morblitz

Is it possible to get this on an iPad or is it PC or xbox live only or something? I probably havn't looked hard enough but I havn't seen a specific system name that this is on.

F-Zero_Racer

Morblitz wrote:

Is it possible to get this on an iPad or is it PC or xbox live only or something? I probably havn't looked hard enough but I havn't seen a specific system name that this is on.

Sorry, I'll edit that into the OP. It's PC-only right now, but there has been talks of porting over to a different RPG Maker-esque engine that would be more multiplatform friendly, and they're trying to get it on Steam.

Morblitz

Thanks.
And damn. This looks like something that would work well on Ios. I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and I'm looking for some games with a certain amount of depth (that isn't just fucking angry birds) to take with me.
I'll keep an eye on this games progress though.

chocobolicious

Thirith wrote:

After all the superlatives, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. It's definitely good and I don't regret buying it, but I don't think it quite lives up to all the praise. All in all, I think I was more moved by the way the relationship was built up than by the denouement (which is always a problem for me because I then experience the game, book, film, whatever it is as getting worse, even if it still ends well). In hindsight I kinda wish I hadn't read all these glowing reviews.

In regards to what happens after the apex: I think thats kind of the point? I mean the game builds up a lot as its heading along and I kind of felt everything after the big reveal was more just to let you sift through the implications of what they are doing and the importance of peoples memories. Whether they know it or not. I mean the game was just rife with subtext and gave you a lot to mull over. The simple idea of what the rabbit actually meant seems to have so many varying opinions as to show that the game gives you plenty to read in to.

I think I'd have enjoyed it less if the ending was somehow made stronger. I think it ended as it should have. I mean, in the end, its just a job that they finished, right? No reason for it to be anything overly thrilling.

Now I want to play it again, so good. Hnng.

Thirith

I've been thinking a bit more about why it didn't work that well for me, and I think part of it is the Joey 'twist'. For me,

it fails because John has forgotten Joey, so there's no clue that his death affects the character we get to know. Accordingly, if John doesn't have any feelings about Joey's death, I find it difficult to have any feelings.

That whole bit felt more like a forced plot point than an organic development of the story we've seen to that point.

chocobolicious

Thirith wrote:

I've been thinking a bit more about why it didn't work that well for me, and I think part of it is the Joey 'twist'. For me,

it fails because John has forgotten Joey, so there's no clue that his death affects the character we get to know. Accordingly, if John doesn't have any feelings about Joey's death, I find it difficult to have any feelings.

That whole bit felt more like a forced plot point than an organic development of the story we've seen to that point.

I dunno....

The repeated use of his 'nickname' yet his desire not to tell anyone indicates that part of him still seems to remember, if only vaguely. The same with how he reacts to his mother calling him Joey when he's going to school in the earlier memories.

I mean, the entire premise of the game is that he takes over Joey's life and doesn't even remember his own childhood, except in a vague way that attracts him to River and later fuels his desire to go to the Moon, even if he doesn't know why. While he doesn't show any overt emotion about it due to not remembering Joey directly, it definitely shapes a lot of what he later turns out to be.

course, again, open to interpretation at that point.

F-Zero_Racer

chocobolicious wrote:

Thirith wrote:

I've been thinking a bit more about why it didn't work that well for me, and I think part of it is the Joey 'twist'. For me,

it fails because John has forgotten Joey, so there's no clue that his death affects the character we get to know. Accordingly, if John doesn't have any feelings about Joey's death, I find it difficult to have any feelings.

That whole bit felt more like a forced plot point than an organic development of the story we've seen to that point.

I dunno....

The repeated use of his 'nickname' yet his desire not to tell anyone indicates that part of him still seems to remember, if only vaguely. The same with how he reacts to his mother calling him Joey when he's going to school in the earlier memories.

I mean, the entire premise of the game is that he takes over Joey's life and doesn't even remember his own childhood, except in a vague way that attracts him to River and later fuels his desire to go to the Moon, even if he doesn't know why. While he doesn't show any overt emotion about it due to not remembering Joey directly, it definitely shapes a lot of what he later turns out to be.

course, again, open to interpretation at that point.

That's how I felt too.

After John's twin died, his mother went a bit crazy. Constantly using the nickname of Joey on him had adverse affects even if he couldn't fully remember what happened, it caused him to feel like he was no longer unique. As a result, he was increasingly attracted to River because of this, in addition to his original meeting with her.

That's what makes it such a major tragedy with River as well, he forgot his first meeting and, when he mentioned how he soured his original meeting River knew something was wrong. She tried as hard as possible to make him remember but was unable to reach through.

F-Zero_Racer

Gamespot just recently did a 60 minute podcast on To The Moon. Some interesting ideas and stuff in there.

Hahnsoo1

Count me as one of the lucky folks who have bought and played this game. It drove me to sobbing tears. It was a beautiful story from start to finish. Bizarrely, I was laughing uncontrollably at the following line:

THERE ARE PONY RIDES ON THE MOOOOOON!

I also was yelling at the monitor "No no no no" when

Eva goes off to "remove" River from John's memories.

I saw the movie Hugo before I saw this, and I felt some of the storytelling elements are similar. There are all of these enigmatic elements in both that you think are going to lead to something along the lines of Fantasy (Alice in Wonderland or Narnia or something like that), but they turn out to be much more mundane and poignant. The story takes a LONG time to build up, and they spool out these tiny bread crumbs of details as you go along, leaving you wanting for more, for some sort of resolution. It lets you fill in the details, and when you get to the reveal, you are just blown away and stunned.

I cried at the opening sequence of "Up", and the relationship of John and River evoked the same feelings for me. An old (wo)man who is alone and lost because of the death of the spouse is one of the saddest things ever.

The game is one of those things like The Stanley Parable where the less you know going in, the better off you'll be. Unlike the Stanley Parable, this isn't about branching plot lines or bizarre tangents. It's told in an unconventional manner, though (cue "Memento" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" references here).

I don't think I'll look at the Moon, or rabbits, or platypuses in the same way again.

I'd like to briefly mention (since it's not in this thread) that some of the themes were written by Laura Shigihara of Plants Versus Zombies fame. And the soundtrack is another one of those amazing video game soundtracks that will probably take a permanent slot in your video game music playlists.

EDIT: Also, the actual video game elements are horrible and bland. But they are very minimal, and they don't matter. Like, at all. The story is just that good. Play it with the same mindset as an interactive novel and bring some tissues along. Unless you are a jaded gamer robot who doesn't cry, which is okay too, I guess.

chocobolicious

Even jaded gamer robots will shed a tear of bitter oil once the first refrain of Laura's song starts playing.

/Right then/. Like a baby. I will freely admit this.

F-Zero_Racer

Interestingly enough, Origin announced that 11 new devs would have games on there, and one of the names listed is Freebird Games. I'm guessing that means To The Moon will be on Origin.

Hopefully that won't hurt the odds of it getting on Steam too.

cooljammer00

The last time I trusted the internet's opinion on an "awesome indie game", I played Digital: A Love Story.

interrobang

well Digital had a really good story

just depends on how much you enjoy visual novels

Jars

cooljammer00 wrote:

The last time I trusted the internet's opinion on an "awesome indie game", I played Digital: A Love Story.

I played Recettear: an item shop story

TychoCelchuuu

cooljammer00 wrote:

The last time I trusted the internet's opinion on an "awesome indie game", I played Digital: A Love Story.

"Played" is a generous way to describe the tedium that the "game" puts you through, but I think I'm better for having experienced it. I mean, yes, that was annoying, but the emotional payoff was more than negligible.

EVOL

F-Zero_Racer wrote:

Interestingly enough, Origin announced that 11 new devs would have games on there, and one of the names listed is Freebird Games. I'm guessing that means To The Moon will be on Origin.

Hopefully that won't hurt the odds of it getting on Steam too.

I think the fact that it's made in RPG Maker squandered any chances it had with making it on Steam. It's a pretty stupid reason, but from what I heard getting on Steam is pretty hard.

F-Zero_Racer

EVOL wrote:

F-Zero_Racer wrote:

Interestingly enough, Origin announced that 11 new devs would have games on there, and one of the names listed is Freebird Games. I'm guessing that means To The Moon will be on Origin.

Hopefully that won't hurt the odds of it getting on Steam too.

I think the fact that it's made in RPG Maker squandered any chances it had with making it on Steam. It's a pretty stupid reason, but from what I heard getting on Steam is pretty hard.

Gemini Rue was made in Adventure Game Studio which is a sort of similar circumstance. It had a long road just to get on steam, but I think all the positive press helped it. That's why I'm optimistic for To The Moon.

cooljammer00

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

cooljammer00 wrote:

The last time I trusted the internet's opinion on an "awesome indie game", I played Digital: A Love Story.

"Played" is a generous way to describe the tedium that the "game" puts you through, but I think I'm better for having experienced it. I mean, yes, that was annoying, but the emotional payoff was more than negligible.

It's just that I saw it on so many GOTY lists, especially the guests they had on Giant Bomb. They talked about how it was heart wrenching and "to talk about it anymore would be to ruin the game" etc etc.

edit: Also didn't help that they all vastly understated the length of the game. I stayed up all night cause I thought it was going to get good, and then it sort of...never did. So I was tired and disappointed.

F-Zero_Racer

cooljammer00 wrote:

TychoCelchuuu wrote:

cooljammer00 wrote:

The last time I trusted the internet's opinion on an "awesome indie game", I played Digital: A Love Story.

"Played" is a generous way to describe the tedium that the "game" puts you through, but I think I'm better for having experienced it. I mean, yes, that was annoying, but the emotional payoff was more than negligible.

It's just that I saw it on so many GOTY lists, especially the guests they had on Giant Bomb. They talked about how it was heart wrenching and "to talk about it anymore would be to ruin the game" etc etc.

edit: Also didn't help that they all vastly understated the length of the game. I stayed up all night cause I thought it was going to get good, and then it sort of...never did. So I was tired and disappointed.

I played Digital: A Love Story and found it to be okay, but I wasn't a fan of the message nor writing as it approached the end. To The Moon hit me much harder and the writing was tighter, especially in regards to the ending where it doesn't cheapen out. It's also about fourish hours long, so it's easily completable in one sitting.

SkyTurnsRed

This was one of my favorite games last year. Tossing my hat into the fandom this game has received.

F-Zero_Racer

http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/

To The Moon among other great indie OSTs like Tower of Heaven are in this bundle!

Jam Warrior

Holy crap.

I've been playing this for near three hours straight and if it wasn't 2am I'd still be going. Goddamn weak human need for sleep keeping me from finding out what happens next.

Holy crap!

Jam Warrior

Finished it up today. Extremely engaging story and perfectly happy to say I teared up a few times. Delightful. Thank you so much for bringing it my attention @F-Zero_Racer for my life experience is now richer.

I assume:

The whole addicted to pain killers thing was a hook for a future game and not some optional thing I missed.

F-Zero_Racer

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Finished it up today. Extremely engaging story and perfectly happy to say I teared up a few times. Delightful. Thank you so much for bringing it my attention @F-Zero_Racer for my life experience is now richer.

I assume:

The whole addicted to pain killers thing was a hook for a future game and not some optional thing I missed.

I'm glad I was able to get more people to play it!

And as far as I know, yes.

Kambing

I don't care if this is a thread necro. Since it got announced it was coming to steam, I finally tried the demo. I was initially put off because $12 is a bit of cash.

But goddamn. I ended up buying the game and just played through it. And guys, what are these droplets of moisture coming from my eyes. I can't stop them.

F-Zero_Racer

http://store.steampowered.com/app/206440/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

It's been a long time, but it's finally up on Steam for $7.99 (9.99 with OST), if you were waiting to give it a shot now is your chance!