To The Moon (Steam sale finished now) Discussion

[Scorched_Cascade]

Request: Please spoiler spoilers, this is intended to pique people's interest in the game as well as begin a discussion of it, don't ruin the experience for others

[sub][sub]Okay, a disclaimer: A large portion of this is going to sound like shameless plugging and it pretty much is but I'm in no way involved with the game, just a big fan of it and want more people to experience it. Attempting to do it in a fairly self-aware way but if it comes across as a bit much then I'll happily tone it down a few notches. If you're a tl;dr kind of person and you've played the game before then skip to the bolded part or the final two bolded lines if you are in a real hurry.[/sub][/sub]

So, it's that time again, To the Moon is on steam sale and so I need to restart my preaching to the uneducated masses. (I'd like to add here that it's also available on GoG for those of you who like your games to be steam free)

Currently for £2.37 (or your regional equivalent) you too can own and play one of the best story driven games that I've ever had the pleasure of playing. My own words pale in comparison to the writing in this game and it's one of those games where pretty much anything about it, other than the synopsis you are given, is a spoiler (How do I explain why it?s brilliant without spoiling what makes it so?) so I'll cheat and quote the game description:

Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts have peculiar jobs: They give people another chance to live, all the way from the very beginning... but only in their patients' heads.

Due to the severity of the operation, the new life becomes the last thing the patients remember before drawing their last breath. Thus, the operation is only done to people on their deathbeds, to fulfil what they wish they had done with their lives, but didn't.

This particular story follows their attempt to fulfil the dream of an elderly man, Johnny. With each step back in time, a new fragment of Johnny's past is revealed. As the two doctors piece together the puzzled events that spanned a life time, they seek to find out just why the frail old man chose his dying wish to be what it is.

And Johnny's last wish is, of course... to go to the moon.

Now, you might think from that description that you know where the game is going to go. You think that it's going to be like one of those sappy movies where they play off the fact that someone is dying in an attempt to garner sympathy, you'd be wrong.

The emotional moments of the game are underscored by a beautiful soundtrack which heightens and adds weight to the scenes.

I would like to point out here for prospective buyers that this is a story experience so gameplay is a little lot on the limited side and that the game will last you approximately 3 hours (that's the time it took me) if you play in one sitting.

As for my personal experience of it: I picked it up while it was cheap in last year's steam thanksgiving sale having heard a lot of praise for it on these very forums. I've been singing its praises ever since.

The gameplay is/was very much on the "...eh" side but the story and the characterization was fantastic.

I'm not usually one for getting emotionally connected to game characters (Walking Dead didn't do much for me) but I'm not ashamed to say that I cried like a complete baby for pretty much the entire final act. The game music is currently on my music playlist and is still quite charged for me months after playing it.

I know from other threads (particularly the Crit-Miss one a while back where people were suggesting that Grey should play it) that a few of you have played it so I'm interested to hear what your experience of it was. Even (especially? Possibly) if it was negative.

If you pick the game up this sale (particularly if after reading this thread) then I'm interested to see what you thought of it too.

Edit: Editing in here to say that the sale offer has now ended (Well, it's currently still up but the timer has elapsed so it'll be gone soon) just in case the thread title doesn't update.

 

[RicoGrey]

That sounds so damn sad I don't think I can play this game until I forget how sad it sounds. I actually already own it since the winter sale, but have not gotten around to play it yet.

Jesus that sounds sad, can't quite take it.

 

[TrevHead]

I just thought I'd mention that Aquaria is half price too, not that I want to derail your thread but it's such a lovely game that rarely goes on sale.

About To the Moon I've heard good things about it but I've yet to play it.

EDIT Only 3 hours playtime? Actually I might be able to squeeze that in between Dragon's Dogma & Akia Katana

 

[Savo]

I thought To The Moon was a TINY bit overrated, but I'd still recommend it in a heart-beat, especially at that price. The game ultimately failed to make me cry, aside from getting teary at one moment, but it's still a great story and is a great way to spend a few hours.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I think To The Moon is a great example of how you can have great interactive experiences without really being games. Well worth playing, especially at that price.

Also, I want to make it clear that this "game" (and I use the term extremely loosely) has some of the best characters I've seen in any media. They're interesting, believable, and very, very well written.

I can't wait for the sequel.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That sounds so damn sad I don't think I can play this game until I forget how sad it sounds. I actually already own it since the winter sale, but have not gotten around to play it yet.

Jesus that sounds sad, can't quite take it.

It is sad, but it's a "beautiful" sad, as opposed to a "crushing" sad.

I have to admit I cried pretty hard though. Damn To the Moon!

 

[BrotherRool]

To The Moon is one of my favourite all time things. I listed it high in my top 20 games and I would list it high in my top 20 fictional works.

The character and situation is very unique, but also real and gives insight into a genuine and useful side of existence that I have very poor understanding of. It's heartbreaking and the more you think about all the events that occurred the more meaningful they become.

...yet there are a lot of nitpicks. Everything in terms of execution (except the music, which is fantastic and I was trying to play it for weeks after) is pretty bad in my eyes. But I want to reward excellence more than mediocre polish and this game has excellence that really did outweight everything, in fact it's a testament to the game that the following nitpicks don't change my top 20 rating.

I found a lot of the humour and the framing device, whilst funny, distracting
A lot of the actual dialogue was clunky
It kept saying stuff like 'how cheesy is this'. Which is a terrible thing to do, it's insulting people for loving whats going on. Either its bad and you change it, or its worth keeping it in and you don't need to call it awful.
I think there were gameplay elements solely there for the sake of it being a 'game'. We should stop caring about what a game is and just talk about how good whatever it is is, its leading to crud like this and Notch feeling like he had to add some random dragon in to make Minecraft a game.
It was a little too unsubtle about some things. In particular they're revealed to be about a specific phrase, when the general conversation and imagery in that conversation was absolutely fine.
The gameplay at the end was obnoxious.


But here's the non nitpick that I want to talk about. I didn't like the ending (although I still adore the game despite it). The rest has to be in spoilers, because you know-ending. The fact the game allows us to discuss stuff like this is a credit to it's themes though

Spoiler

To me the ending betrays everything in the game, that was his life, his highs and lows and replacing the real memories he had of his wife with fake ones, makes their love fake and unreal. It steals from him the one thing he really wanted and sort of invalidates his relationship. Replacing his wife with a displaced memory isn't good enough, thats not who she really is and who he loved and I don't think it counts as a happy ending

I was worried about the next freebird game because this one was so reliant on situation rather than execution, and you can only use such a brilliant situation once. But then I played Quintessence (a freeware RPG thats practically a sprite movie) and they came up with a siutation thats just as fantastic and intellectually satisfying there too. This guy can clearly just churn out beautiful music and siutations that get better everytime you think of them. (And he only taught himself music composing because his previous composer had to move onto other things! I can't believe that! The music is so enrapturing)

 

[The Wykydtron]

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

Spoiler

"What will we do if you get lost or can't find me?"

"Then we'll regroup on The Moon silly!"

Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh. Oh I see....

[sub]*sob*[/sub]

All of the other supposedly sad things were sort of glossed over by me, yeah Joey died but really I never knew him as a character and he's kind of just a plot device himself, River has her condition but I ain't gonna start crying over that now am I?

Then such a fucking stupid line makes me actually cry.

Well there's no reason to not buy it I guess. So buy it.

I still don't know whether the ending is supposed to be a happy one exactly. Sure he gets to The Moon (sorry spoiler alert but the game is called To The Moon) but i'm not sure it was worth it.

I guess people could say the humour gets in the way of the supah srs bits but I like it. I found Clannad (anime version) to be exactly like that but much worse so To The Moon's partner shenanigans were nothing compared to that crap. Clannad let me just be depressed please, I don't want your shallow humour sections when you're already lining the next episode with another dose of bullshit tragedy.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

That sounds so damn sad I don't think I can play this game until I forget how sad it sounds. I actually already own it since the winter sale, but have not gotten around to play it yet.

Jesus that sounds sad, can't quite take it.

It's bittersweet rather than concentrated sad but it is one of those stories where the more you think about it, the more bittersweet it becomes.

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

*snip*

These are the parts that made me mist up:

Spoiler: massive story spoilers

Spoiler: double spoilered for safety

-The part you mentioned about why he wants to go to the moon

-Those fucking rabbits. He tells her on her wedding day that the first time they met was in high school because he's repressed the childhood memories. Her condition means she can't explain herself very well (at all really) so she starts making paper rabbits to try and remind him of their childhood meeting where they saw the bunny in the stars. She even makes one that resembles what she saw. She asks him time and time again what he sees and he gets frustrated because he can't work out what the meaning is that's she's trying to convey to him. This continues for the rest of her life. She's desperately trying to tell him and he has no idea. That made me mist up big time.

-The fact that the platypus doll toy thing that you've been following throughout the game (and the backpack for that matter) are gifts he gave to her when they were younger and she was alone

-As a twist the female scientist is actually dying and they are in her head and the male scientist is desperately trying to save her/give her happy memories before she dies, I saw this one coming though.

 

[klaynexas3]

That sounds so damn sad I don't think I can play this game until I forget how sad it sounds. I actually already own it since the winter sale, but have not gotten around to play it yet.

Jesus that sounds sad, can't quite take it.

It's bittersweet rather than concentrated sad but it is one of those stories where the more you think about it, the more bittersweet it becomes.

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

*snip*

These are the parts that made me mist up:

Spoiler: massive story spoilers

Spoiler: double spoilered for safety

-The part you mentioned about why he wants to go to the moon

-Those fucking rabbits. He tells her on her wedding day that the first time they met was in high school because he's repressed the childhood memories. Her condition means she can't explain herself very well (at all really) so she starts making paper rabbits to try and remind him of their childhood meeting where they saw the bunny in the stars. She even makes one that resembles what she saw. She asks him time and time again what he sees and he gets frustrated because he can't work out what the meaning is that's she's trying to convey to him. This continues for the rest of her life. She's desperately trying to tell him and he has no idea. That made me mist up big time.

-The fact that the platypus doll toy thing that you've been following throughout the game (and the backpack for that matter) are gifts he gave to her when they were younger and she was alone

-As a twist the female scientist is actually dying and they are in her head and the male scientist is desperately trying to save her/give her happy memories before she dies, I saw this one coming though.

*reading through spoilers, remembers them all fine and well, then final one comes up...* WHAT???

Spoiler

okay, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention to what was going on, but seriously, was that how it ended? I don't remember that at all. I really need to play the ending again just to find this out again.

Anyway, to anyone who hasn't played it, it is an amazing game. Granted, there is little gameplay, so it is closer to that of an interactive novel with small puzzles thrown in there for good measure, but it is the saddest game I've ever played. While it'd be hard to describe to any regular person, to any bronies, imagine My Little Dashie, but with plot twists and much longer, and that's how sad and good inside you will feel after playing this game.

 

[krazykidd]

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

Spoiler

"What will we do if you get lost or can't find me?"

"Then we'll regroup on The Moon silly!"

Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh. Oh I see....

[sub]*sob*[/sub]

All of the other supposedly sad things were sort of glossed over by me, yeah Joey died but really I never knew him as a character and he's kind of just a plot device himself, River has her condition but I ain't gonna start crying over that now am I?

Then such a fucking stupid line makes me actually cry.

Well there's no reason to not buy it I guess. So buy it.

I still don't know whether the ending is supposed to be a happy one exactly. Sure he gets to The Moon (sorry spoiler alert but the game is called To The Moon) but i'm not sure it was worth it.

I guess people could say the humour gets in the way of the supah srs bits but I like it. I found Clannad (anime version) to be exactly like that but much worse so To The Moon's partner shenanigans were nothing compared to that crap. Clannad let me just be depressed please, I don't want your shallow humour sections when you're already lining the next episode with another dose of bullshit tragedy.

I'm curious to why you don't think it was worth it?

Spoiler

The whole thing is an illusion, all the scientists did was affect his memory , by changing certain key elements . Let's face it , his life sucked . His reason for dating / marrying his wife was completly selfish. His mother hated him to the point that when his twin brother died , she pretended it was him . His girlfriend had a weird illness ( which i still don't completly understand ), he was struggling with bills , and making his wife happy . So yeah , he had every reason to want to change everything. Sure the reason he wanted to go to the moon was because a) he promised to meet her there when they got seperated and b) to be able to watch the lighthouse from the moon (?) . But i find the main character to be kind of pathetic . It's not real . And it doesn't really change anything since he is in a coma (?) . So technically he wouldn't even be able to remember these things if he wanted to . So really , what's the point? To have an illusion of being happy? I guess that's what the real underlying theme is . The fine line between , what is real and what you want to be real .

Through the game ( read : visual novel ) , i was thinking , you know , having your memories altered to believe in something that never happened takes away ones humanity . Life is a series of events z, good and bad , that defines a person . To renounce or alter that , changes who you are. Sure he made it to the moon , but at what cost ? His life is now a lie . Is it worth it to change the very foundation of oneself soley to have the illusion of being happy ?

Or you know , maybe i'm thinking too hard and completly missed the point . Although i won't lie my eyes watered when the end credits rolled . [small] Yeah i know , here take my man card .[/small]

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

It looks like I'm the only one who didn't like it. The story was so emotionally manipulative (and so was the music which sounded like it was generated by a computer set to "teary-eyed mode"), the characters I had to play as were too arrogant and smart-assed for me to like them and the graphics were terrible. All it did was consume an hour that I could have spent doing something else. An hour was all I could play and I think that's pretty generous amount of time to give to such a game.

 

[Judas_Iscariot]

I loved To The Moon, I played it with a twelve pack of beer and finished the game and 12 pack together. Cried several times.

Then I watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and got FURIOUS that To The Moon just blatantly ripped that movie off and turned it into an oldschool-rpg looking visual novel.

Seriously, it's almost a joke how directly they just converted that movie into a game.

 

[NightmareExpress]

Some of the writing (some of the humor) and the controls (particularly for movement) didn't click for me.
All in all, it's a pretty interesting experience though I've certainly been through better visual novels (which this practically is).

 

[Zhukov]

I liked it.

However, be warned that the gameplay is essentially non-existent. You just walk from one dialogue to another and solve the same puzzle at the end of each level.

Also, some of the humour is a bit hit-and-miss.

That said, the big moment where everything falls into place was well worth any frustrations that preceded it.

 

[Weaver]

I thought it was a great experience. I just played it in one sitting and really enjoyed it. I hope most people who haven't give it a shot!

 

[The Wykydtron]

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

Spoiler

"What will we do if you get lost or can't find me?"

"Then we'll regroup on The Moon silly!"

Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh. Oh I see....

[sub]*sob*[/sub]

All of the other supposedly sad things were sort of glossed over by me, yeah Joey died but really I never knew him as a character and he's kind of just a plot device himself, River has her condition but I ain't gonna start crying over that now am I?

Then such a fucking stupid line makes me actually cry.

Well there's no reason to not buy it I guess. So buy it.

I still don't know whether the ending is supposed to be a happy one exactly. Sure he gets to The Moon (sorry spoiler alert but the game is called To The Moon) but i'm not sure it was worth it.

I guess people could say the humour gets in the way of the supah srs bits but I like it. I found Clannad (anime version) to be exactly like that but much worse so To The Moon's partner shenanigans were nothing compared to that crap. Clannad let me just be depressed please, I don't want your shallow humour sections when you're already lining the next episode with another dose of bullshit tragedy.

I'm curious to why you don't think it was worth it?

Spoiler

The whole thing is an illusion, all the scientists did was affect his memory , by changing certain key elements . Let's face it , his life sucked . His reason for dating / marrying his wife was completly selfish. His mother hated him to the point that when his twin brother died , she pretended it was him . His girlfriend had a weird illness ( which i still don't completly understand ), he was struggling with bills , and making his wife happy . So yeah , he had every reason to want to change everything. Sure the reason he wanted to go to the moon was because a) he promised to meet her there when they got seperated and b) to be able to watch the lighthouse from the moon (?) . But i find the main character to be kind of pathetic . It's not real . And it doesn't really change anything since he is in a coma (?) . So technically he wouldn't even be able to remember these things if he wanted to . So really , what's the point? To have an illusion of being happy? I guess that's what the real underlying theme is . The fine line between , what is real and what you want to be real .

Through the game ( read : visual novel ) , i was thinking , you know , having your memories altered to believe in something that never happened takes away ones humanity . Life is a series of events z, good and bad , that defines a person . To renounce or alter that , changes who you are. Sure he made it to the moon , but at what cost ? His life is now a lie . Is it worth it to change the very foundation of oneself soley to have the illusion of being happy ?

Or you know , maybe i'm thinking too hard and completly missed the point . Although i won't lie my eyes watered when the end credits rolled . [small] Yeah i know , here take my man card .[/small]

Spoiler

I know how it works and how it affects fuck all to the outside world but still, something about replacing EVERY memory you have in place of one huge, self-indulgent false life is just wrong on so many levels to me. Regardless of how crappy your life was in the end. Maybe my old "face the future" philosophy doesn't hold up as well as an old man with hours left to live though.

I mean, he changed it far too much. The entire reason he wanted to go to The Moon was made null and void by the replacement memories. That's going far too far in my opinion.

I guess the final question is, when your time comes can you either say "I had a good life" or "Yup my life was kinda shit but i'm ok with it" I suppose the type of people who employ the services of the memory people are those who can't stand the thought of how shit their life was and they can't do anything about it now.

Oh and River had Aspergers Syndrome I believe, they name drop a guy who writes books on Aspergers and they dance around the name but never say it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Don't worry, I had to look it up as well. I'm not the kind of guy who keeps a database of mental disorders either XD

 

[BreakfastMan]

Bought the game a while back on a GOG sale, absolutely loved it. Fantastic game, every effecting, much more so than that other, more recent tear-jerker, The Walking Dead. Loved how it tackled a number of ideas usuually absent in western storytelling. Really shows what story-telling in games is possible of acheiving when it puts its mind to it. Greatly looking forward to the sequel, whenever they decide to release it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Hey it's not *that* sad! I only cried once! And that wasn't even at the ending!

Spoiler

"What will we do if you get lost or can't find me?"

"Then we'll regroup on The Moon silly!"

Oh. Ohhhhhh. Oh. Oh I see....

[sub]*sob*[/sub]

All of the other supposedly sad things were sort of glossed over by me, yeah Joey died but really I never knew him as a character and he's kind of just a plot device himself, River has her condition but I ain't gonna start crying over that now am I?

Then such a fucking stupid line makes me actually cry.

Well there's no reason to not buy it I guess. So buy it.

I still don't know whether the ending is supposed to be a happy one exactly. Sure he gets to The Moon (sorry spoiler alert but the game is called To The Moon) but i'm not sure it was worth it.

I guess people could say the humour gets in the way of the supah srs bits but I like it. I found Clannad (anime version) to be exactly like that but much worse so To The Moon's partner shenanigans were nothing compared to that crap. Clannad let me just be depressed please, I don't want your shallow humour sections when you're already lining the next episode with another dose of bullshit tragedy.

I'm curious to why you don't think it was worth it?

Spoiler

The whole thing is an illusion, all the scientists did was affect his memory , by changing certain key elements . Let's face it , his life sucked . His reason for dating / marrying his wife was completly selfish. His mother hated him to the point that when his twin brother died , she pretended it was him . His girlfriend had a weird illness ( which i still don't completly understand ), he was struggling with bills , and making his wife happy . So yeah , he had every reason to want to change everything. Sure the reason he wanted to go to the moon was because a) he promised to meet her there when they got seperated and b) to be able to watch the lighthouse from the moon (?) . But i find the main character to be kind of pathetic . It's not real . And it doesn't really change anything since he is in a coma (?) . So technically he wouldn't even be able to remember these things if he wanted to . So really , what's the point? To have an illusion of being happy? I guess that's what the real underlying theme is . The fine line between , what is real and what you want to be real .

Through the game ( read : visual novel ) , i was thinking , you know , having your memories altered to believe in something that never happened takes away ones humanity . Life is a series of events z, good and bad , that defines a person . To renounce or alter that , changes who you are. Sure he made it to the moon , but at what cost ? His life is now a lie . Is it worth it to change the very foundation of oneself soley to have the illusion of being happy ?

Or you know , maybe i'm thinking too hard and completly missed the point . Although i won't lie my eyes watered when the end credits rolled . [small] Yeah i know , here take my man card .[/small]

Spoiler

I know how it works and how it affects fuck all to the outside world but still, something about replacing EVERY memory you have in place of one huge, self-indulgent false life is just wrong on so many levels to me. Regardless of how crappy your life was in the end. Maybe my old "face the future" philosophy doesn't hold up as well as an old man with hours left to live though.

I mean, he changed it far too much. The entire reason he wanted to go to The Moon was made null and void by the replacement memories. That's going far too far in my opinion.

I guess the final question is, when your time comes can you either say "I had a good life" or "Yup my life was kinda shit but i'm ok with it" I suppose the type of people who employ the services of the memory people are those who can't stand the thought of how shit their life was and they can't do anything about it now.

Oh and River had Aspergers Syndrome I believe, they name drop a guy who writes books on Aspergers and they dance around the name but never say it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Don't worry, I had to look it up as well. I'm not the kind of guy who keeps a database of mental disorders either XD

Spoiler

Pay closer attention to the ending sequence. The story directly addresses your criticism, and they change his memories in such a way that his reason for going to the moon remains intact. And he got his brother back, to boot!

 

[The Wykydtron]

It looks like I'm the only one who didn't like it. The story was so emotionally manipulative (and so was the music which sounded like it was generated by a computer set to "teary-eyed mode"), the characters I had to play as were too arrogant and smart-assed for me to like them and the graphics were terrible. All it did was consume an hour that I could have spent doing something else. An hour was all I could play and I think that's pretty generous amount of time to give to such a game.

Oh you want emotional manipulation do you? Watch Clannad. Seriously, NOTHING ELSE gets even close to the amount of bullshit they throw at you.

"Hey you like these characters right? Well written? Likable? Relatable? Pretty good humour? Yup, yup... OH FUCK YOU THIS CHICK HAS A STALKER! AND THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY A GHOST! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. OH AND WE'RE GONNA WRITE THE MOST DEPRESSING SECOND SEASON EVER!

EHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Anyway back to TTM! Ugh no, what a horrible abbreviation. back to To The Moon!


Your Teary Eyed Mode description of the music is pretty accurate, I like the music but I would never download the soundtrack for it. It's far too pretentious without the gameplay backing it up. Or would that be the *lack* of gameplay backing it up?

[sub]Zing![/sub]

Also I dunno why people are bitching about it being a Visual Novel. Were you expecting something else? I thought it was pretty obvious that was what it was going in. I actually like Visual Novels though so that's probably a personal thing.