To the moon

[Ringhausen]

I finished this thing today and didn't enjoy it much, quite a letdown after Gemini Rue.

The story wasn't that good, it has wittle peeple :3 graphics, afwul anime humor, typically dull anime characters, basically no gameplay or interaction. And you can't sit back and just watch the scenes ala Dreamfal eitherl, have to furiously keep clicking just to see the dialogue. The music was nice though.





The plot for those who are curious:

Spoiler

Turns out that his dead wife was an aspie (srsly). He wanted to go to the moon cause in kindergarten he joked that if they're separated they can just "meet up at the moon, hehe". So it turns out there's no point in changing his memories since he actually just wants to die to reconnect with his wife.

Oh, but he also had a twin brother who died when he was a kid. So the doctors wipe his memory, make it so that his brother didn't die, he becomes an astronaut, hooks up with the chick and goes to the moon.

:/

 

[made]

Spoiler

Turns out that his dead wife was an aspie (srsly).

:/

Well, that at least explains why a certain demographic is so fond this game.

 

[Koplin]

I got this on the recommendations from this board-and...I don't get the appeal. I mean I liked HOW the game was put together, and I liked the retro graphics, but the humour was just way to hit and miss..mostly miss.

Not a horrible story, but probably would have worked better as like an interactive comic or something. I kept wanting to do 'game' things, and never got to do em.

Good story. but I don't get where all the fucking tears are coming from.

 

[malko_sundervere]

Good story. but I don't get where all the fucking tears are coming from.

Okay so... well... It's just that I'm a little bit of a softy, see?

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Well, if you don't get it, you don't and that's the long and short of it. I'm glad that I did.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Okay so... well... It's just that I'm a little bit of a softy, see?

You're not a softie, every normal guy not trying to sound like he's ultra-tough and ha ha ha I love "Wizard's crown"'s tactical combat (which he didn't play, only watched a youtube longplay) does indeed shed a tear while playing through "To the moon". It's possible that it's easier for someone a bit old (I'm in my forties) and aware of death, who switched past the endless derivative hopes of youth, to be really touched though. It's really melancholic.

 

[Ringhausen]

Some of the scenes are quite sentimental. Like when you see the wife on her deathbed and learn that they can't afford the operation without selling the house. And it turns out she was obsessively making origami rabbits, talking about some Anya, at one point it seems like she had a stillborn baby (nope she is autistic) - these were the goods scenes.

After that it gets romantic as hell, in the worst way. OH MY GOD, SHE KEPT THE PLATYPUS DOLL HE GAVE HIM AS A KID *bursts into tears* AND THEY BUILT THE HOUSE ON THE SPOT THEY FIRST MET AS 5 YEAR OLDS *bursts into tears* AND EVEN AFTER THE EVIL DOCTOR WIPES HIS MEMORIES THEY STILL MEET UP IN HIS BULLSHIT MEMORIES BEFORE HIS HEART FAILS *pisses blood*

Seriously, get out of the codex.

 

[felipepepe]

Finished the game today and was pretty much this, it started great but them goes downhill, and the humor is pathetic.

I mean, they had a really great life story, mixing hardships with nice moments. The doctor itself says that is best to just live the moments instead of getting attached to the ending, a very mature observation. But then they start this bullshit ending where they sacrifice like 15 years of relationship just so they can LITERALLY go to the Moon...simply awfull. They create a beatiful metaphor, and them ruin it by doing it literally.

 

[ChristofferC]

Whole first page of this thread sounds like a fucking sales pitch.

 

[villain of the story]

Hey don't associate me with this piece of shit. I was in a very vulnerable state when I played the game. I was quite fucked up, found some parallels with my own regrets in my life and let that piece of shit get to me. I agree with felipepe's take on it. Wasted potential and some of the humour gave me a "fuck this shit".

 

[Humanity has risen!]

http://freebirdgames.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=flmtcbo1hbgsqrpfrcv9es38c3&topic=3588.0

It looks like at least someone on their board didn't like the game amid all the "OMG I cried, best story ever made!!!"

If there's any philosophical lesson I learned from this game, it's not one pertaining to the Phillip K. Dick-esque ones of choices, destiny, loved ones, or any of the themes sloppily, sappily and incoherently touched upon in it. I caved in, but still I knew that when the whole Internet is singing the praises of something, it's a red light to beware and pay attention. Most likely, it's not a telltale sign of exceptional quality, of something deserving to stand the test of time. Rather, it's a sign that a particular lousy and vocal crowd has found especially titillating material (in that case, a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual/emotional videogame supposedly lending the medium its lettres de noblesse).

To come back to the lesson I learned, it's to steer clear of games made by hipsters who think it's funny to insert dozens of embarrassing Internet memes and other snarky fourth-wall breaking lines into a three hours-long game of slowly panning the camera around in unending and painful cutscenes, moving two of the most unlikeable and obnoxious videogame protagonists ever penned at the speed of a snail, and getting involved in pixel hunting more tedious and pointless than in the worst budget East-european point and click adventure game I've ever played, without any of the clever puzzles.

 

[villain of the story]

I raise my glass to that gentleman. Dispatch Abduction & Assimilation Recruitment Team immediately!

 

[Kum Kum Supreme Imperator]

Felipepe, I didn't like the third part neither. But the stargazing scene was so moving that I didn't give a damn about the weak ending. You can find this game too kitschy or rom-com, the "humour" can make you cringe sometimes but you can't deny that it's great. It's an incredible (the only?) story and it hits close to home for almost everybody. But well, you prefer your KKK and your cynism to the fact that it did move you (cf Villain of the Story: "no no no I hate this game, it just took me at a time when I was weak bwa bwa bwa", sorry but writing this flip-flop bullshit is in fact you being pathetic ), to each his own.
By the way I'm BCP the OP.

 

[felipepepe]

Felipepe, I didn't like the third part neither. But the stargazing scene was so moving that I didn't give a damn about the weak ending. You can find this game too kitschy or rom-com, the "humour" can make you cringe sometimes but you can't deny that it's great. It's an incredible (the only?) story and it hits close to home for almost everybody. But well, you prefer your KKK and your cynism to the fact that it did move you (cf Villain of the Story: "no no no I hate this game, it just took me at a time when I was weak bwa bwa bwa", sorry but writing this flip-flop bullshit is in fact you being pathetic ), to each his own.
By the way I'm BCP the OP.

I'm not being cynical, it did move me and I was really into River & Johhny relationship. That's exactly why I hated so much the ending! It's not "shitty bland hipster stuff", it's a game that apart from the annoying humor was doing everything right, but after the stargazing scene, instead of going for the mature & deep ending, it goes fairy tale shit! In a way so frustrating that it ruins the entire game.

I wanted an mature ending, Johhny remembering everything and being able to understand River again. Shit, I would cry if there were a scene of adult River asking what Johnny sees in the paper bunnies, and he replying "the Moon". That's whats this game should be about, not just throwing alway all their hard but beatiful life in favour of LITERALLY going to the Moon. It makes everything seems pointless and that either you have a perfect Disney "dreams come true" life or you will die unhappy...bullshit.

I wasn't playing for the graphics, humor or mini-games, I wanted the story. The story ends so horribly I feel cheated and disapointed, all the build-up is wasted, thus the game ends up being a bad game. I got so pissed I even registered at the games forum and asked the writer about it here, and I am still bashing his head on the wall trying to figure out why! He says that's because the real River is dead, and the contractual obligation the scientist have is to make Johnny be happy and go to the Moon, but clearly Johnny would be much happier metaphorically "going to the moon" (thus fulfilling the contract) and finally understanding his wife and how much she loved him. That would be a great life lesson, a great and mature game with a deep story. Sadly, it's not.

 

[villain of the story]

What he said. And I didn't say I hate the game. I enjoyed it for what it is but it's still shit. Take a great idea, riddle it with shit humour, non-existent gameplay and gimp the very idea itself with a poorly concluded story. It did move me alright despite everything. But at the same time, I initially overrated it. It's like going to bed with a gorgeous ONS and telling her how beautiful she is and waking up in the morning to find that she's one tacky ugly hoe and that it was the booze that made you see her gorgeous. The sex was still good for what it is, though.

 

[Gragt]

The title makes me think that Princess Celestia has something to do with this game.

 

[alkeides]

Finishing this after Gemini Rue last week, I have to say I prefer how Gemini Rue explores the same themes much more, plus it had more interesting gameplay. I felt cheated with the ending, agree completely with felipepe. I thought Johnny was reasonably happy on his deathbed actually -- the only thing was that somehow the blocked-out memories of his childhood resurfaced in a muddied way and he came up with the idea of using this service to go to the moon.

What was it that Johnny told her about their first meeting that caused her to go into rabbit-making mode anyway? That he didn't remember it or something? Was it actually said in the game?

 

[hoopy]

Doesn't sound like a game.

Sounds like what Japan has always done.

It lets people who belong in a movie industry make games, because they have no movie industry of note.

This is laughably incorrect, even if you exclude the great directors of old like Kurosawa and Ozu who made some of the most highly regarded movies of all time. Japan has a very strong movie industry.

 

[felipepepe]

What was it that Johnny told her about their first meeting that caused her to go into rabbit-making mode anyway? That he didn't remember it or something? Was it actually said in the game?

Yeah, that he approached her only cause she was different, so she understood that he didn't remeberer anything from that day and decided to make little bunnies to make him recall.

 

[Chuck Norris]

I've finished this last night and I have to say it was shit. I wasn't moved by the story and didn't give a damn about that idiot Johnny and his annoying wife river and what they went through at all and I am still mindfucked about the people who brag about crying playing this.
Lack of game-play, pathetic humor, Anime and JRPG settings are some of the things that made this a very unpleasant experience for me. The only good thing about it was the music.

 

[Terpsichore]

If you are going to play it, stop after the park moongazing scene.

 

[felipepepe]

The only good thing about it was the music.

I enjoyed the music too, but found it too smiliar to this one:

 

[J_C]

I finished the game yesterday, and I have to say, it was amazing. The gameplay is almost non-existent, but the story was wonderful. I admit that I was also expecting the "more mature" ending like felipepepe, but I will not bash the game and say that it is shit just to look cool on the codex because I was expecting something else. The story was still fantastic and touching, at least for me.

Also, don't you guys think it is retarded to say that "I liked several part of the game, but it is still shit just because I had some problems with it"? It's like the world is black and white for you.

Oh, and...

(cf Villain of the Story: "no no no I hate this game, it just took me at a time when I was weak bwa bwa bwa", sorry but writing this flip-flop bullshit is in fact you being pathetic)

Yeah, this kind of flip-flopping is also stupid.

 

[Random]

So basically it's a shit game that tries to pass itself off as something greater by using emotional bullshit.

 

[Ringhausen]

The emotional aspect is the only thing it has going for it. The dumb stuff that are thrown in to make the game bigger cheapen the whole experience.