To the Moon - izigame

Game Info

Join Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts as they enter a patient named Johnny's mind on his death bed to grant his final request. Watch, interact, and change the past as Johnny's life unfolds before you and takes you on a magical journey inside one's head that asks the greatest question of all: "What if...?" If you had the chance to relive your life, would you change things? Would you try to achieve some grand goal? Could you find love? Fame? Fortune? Or would you realize that sometimes the past is meant to stay the same. Join Dr. Rosalene and Watts on their journey and travel To The Moon.

Name

To the Moon

Companies

Freebird Games

Released

11/1/2011

Platforms

Android, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, iOS

Engines

RPG Maker XP

Type

Point-and-click, Puzzle, Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Indie

Social Networks

0

izigame

members favorited

Reviews

Monday, February 26, 2024 4:29:53 AM

3 Steam users votes up

Son of a Lich

Steam user

A beautiful 4-hour game with the same emotional impact of similar games of the 16-bit era.
I got this game because I'm a sucker for the graphic design--it's reminiscent of the best RPGs of the 16-bit era, such as Final Fantasy 2/3 (or 4/6, depending on how you count them), Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. But what actually got me to play it was that I saw a YouTube video of "Terrible Games I Loved" (he defined "terrible" to include ones that weren't really games...possibly unfair but it got me to fire it up, so I'm happy) and decided to play it for the very reasons he said it was great but not much of a game: phenomenal story (made him cry), and more of an interactive story (I like to play those while I eat). It was mysterious at first, but it built into a phenomenal interweaving of story points across the game into a touching finale.
What I loved about the game:
-The visuals are up there with the 16-bit classics--most notably, Final Fantasy 3 aka 6. A fair scene is reminiscent of the beginning of Chrono Trigger. I loved the style.
-The music is gorgeous. Perfect compositions for the game. I heard this was "made by one guy using RPG Maker software"--so I expected everything to be canned and imperfect, do-with-what-they-had assets. I was wrong. Amazing graphics and music all around.
-The story is fantastic, doing a great job of keeping you in the dark as to what is going on and building it out over time. I am always amazed at stories that do that because of something called "the curse of knowledge" (once you know something, you can't know what it's like to not know it and learn it again for the first time). How they introduce new information to get a large number of people to have the "aha" moments at the same time, I'll never know.
-The twists along the journey are pretty fantastic. Yes, it requires tropes like the unreliable narrator and the amnesiac to pull them off, but it works so it doesn't matter how they get there.
-I loved the shout-out to RPGs by having a battle system pop up as a joke. Very well done!
Only the smallest of nitpicks:
-I found out about an hour in that the game does have a menu (I assumed it was a story game and not an RPG) and found out within the first hour about the puzzles included. Neither are much. It just shows the remnants of RPG-making software being used to be used (the menu lets you see what you've collected and see your "party", but none of it is useful to gameplay) plus adding some gameplay so it qualifies as a game. The latter was the less well-fitting of the two, though to their credit they made the puzzle make sense in the game since you were trying to assemble artifacts to continue along your journey. Still, it was unnecessary and could've just been the story--they even kind of abandon the puzzles in the last hour, and all you are is relieved that you can continue the story along faster.
-The story/plot itself suffers from a couple of minor imperfections. I won't spoil it, but play the game before continuing if you want to go in completely fresh. Some of the big reveals are really awesome, but there are two logical flaws that bug me. First is about something the kids say that cause the entire end-game to happen, but it doesn't make any sense because it was meant metaphorically referring to eternity and not literally. Creating some plot device that would've actually made it correct for some mistake directly (it's more of a downstream benefit from the real thing they changed) would've made more sense. Additionally, while many people said that the ending brought them to tears--and I agree, it was beautiful--it didn't make much sense because not only was what happened not what happened (you'll know what this means when you play it) but also, again, the thing they focused on wasn't the actual change the guy wanted. i.e., it wasn't the payoff and did not pay off a bunch of "problems" and such alluded to earlier that I thought were going to be resolved or addressed with the ending but never really were. So while I loved it, I feel like some logical tightening would've polished the end-to-end story up.
Overall, fantastic game. I'm so glad I gave it a chance after overlooking it for so long assuming it was just a really good fan-made pixel game (and it was--it was just a great one). I recommend it if you have 4 hours to spare and want to fit in a beautiful story that will stay with you for a while. It's worth it--especially if you're a fan of the 16-bit era of RPGs and even more especially if you loved everything about those games but the combat (since this has no combat).

Your review

Select a point

Storyline

Sigmund Corp. uses a technology that can create artificial memories. They offer this as a "wish fulfillment" service to people on their death beds. Since these artificial memories conflict with the patient's real memories, the procedure is only legal to do on people without much time left to live. Sigmund Corp. employees Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts are tasked with fulfilling the lifelong dream of the dying Johnny Wyles. Johnny wants to go to the moon, although he doesn't know why. The doctors insert themselves into an interactive compilation of his memories and traverse backwards through his life via mementos. With each leap to an important moment in Johnny's memories, they learn more about him and what brought him to his current position in life, including his largely unhappy marriage to his childhood sweetheart, River. Upon reaching his childhood, the doctors attempt to insert his desire to go to the moon. Supposedly, Johnny's mind would create new memories based on that desire, and Johnny would die believing he lived without any regrets. However, Johnny's mind does not create the new memories as planned. Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene must solve the problem to fulfill Johnny's dying wish of going to the moon. Eventually, it is revealed that Johnny and River met as children at a carnival. They looked at the night sky and made up a constellation: a rabbit with the moon as its belly. The two agreed to meet at the same place the following year, with Johnny promising that should he forget or get lost, the two would "regroup on the moon". That night, Johnny gives River a toy platypus which River treasures for the rest of her life. Shortly after, Johnny's twin brother Joey was killed in an accident. Johnny's mother gave him beta blockers to induce memory loss of the tragic event, also causing him to forget his first encounter with River. He later happened to meet her again, and eventually marry her, and River only realized later on that he had forgot their meeting at the carnival. (Johnny confessed that he approached her in school because she was different, and revealed that he thought that was their first meeting) River, diagnosed as an adult with Asperger syndrome (although never directly stated, the game references Tony Attwood, who wrote numerous books about Aspergers), did not tell Johnny directly about their first meeting; instead, she tried to indirectly jostle his memories by cutting her hair and crafting paper bunnies, including a dual-colored one representing the constellation they made up during their first encounter, combined with the blue-and-yellow dress she wore on their wedding. River was unable to make Johnny remember before she died, and Johnny was left with lingering guilt and an inexplicable desire to go to the Moon. In the present, Rosalene and Watts eventually implant a memory sequence in which Joey did not die, and lived on to become a popular author, and Johnny did not meet River again until they started working together at NASA. As the comatose real-life Johnny begins to die, he imagines going on a moon mission with River. During the launch, River holds out a hand to him. The moon appears through a window on the ship, and Johnny takes her hand as his heart monitor flatlines. In the epilogue, Johnny and River eventually get married, and build and retire to the same house where the real-life Johnny and River lived. Back in the real world, Rosalene and Watts look to Johnny's grave, which is placed adjacent to River’s. They reveal to the audience that Johnny willed the house to his caregiver, Lily. Rosalene receives a phone call, and the two move on to their next patient. While Watts is leaving, he stops and the screen briefly flashes red, the same way it did when Johnny felt pain. Watts takes some painkillers, then continues onward.

Videos 1