To the moon Review written by Henry 18/4/2015.
One of the most compelling poignant storylines that I have ever experienced, To the Moon in a nutshell is a 2d indie adventure role-playing game developed by
Freebird Games. The graphics appears to be almost identical to he 90s Gameboy Advance games such as Pokemon however, as much as it looks, the game has almost minimalistic fighting action and is mainly focused on interacting with other characters and objects to progress throughout the story.
There is an important moralistic issue we see, is virtual happiness better than reality? Is it by our own power that makes someone else happy even though it means making sacrifices? To The Moon follows 2 protagonists: Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene who are employed at a "wish-fulfillment" company that allows them to alter memories of people. They use this technology to help old and near-deathly individuals fulfill their own wishes in their memory so that they die a happy death.
Their services are ordered by a person named "Johnny" whose wishes is to go to the moon and it is up to Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene to make that wish come true, however a long the way they soon learn the sad backstories that unfold within Johnny's life.
This is one of those rare games where I saw a vast amount of depth and complexity in the main characters. Both Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene are as ever goofy and humorous but when things take a sad turn can play out the situation in a much more serious matter. Their "bumbly" duo-action is what makes the experience extremely enjoyable. In some moments, Dr Watts will often diffuse the situation by making witty remarks but is always shot down by his partner Dr Rosalene. But it isn't just them that makes the game so great, it is also the supporting Characters, the relationship between Johnny and his wife Rivers show a lot of different dimensions in the way that they interact and converse. River suffers from Autism and has trouble expressing herself in front of her husband and Johnny finds difficulty in understanding what she is trying to say, however their small detail in action clearly shows their strong love/bond towards each other despite these setbacks. Almost all characters in the context of setting seem perfectly realistic making understanding the situation a lot fluid and a lot more empathetic towards the characters.
The story follows a very complex nature however it is quite simple to understand. It follows the time traveling story system, instead starting from when Johnny's old all the way to his childhood, like reverse chronological. The characters then change a certain event within Johnny's life that then alters the future, all throughout the game the protagonists are constantly trying to figure out which important event in his life can they change will help him fulfill his wish. But as we look closer to individuals, Johnny's story is just one of thousands stories that will help shed tears to your eyes as you explore his memories. The one major like about this game is that it will have you thinking about different theories to why certain characters act a certain way or why a suppose event occurs. Thankfully there is an absence of plot holes and the story flows naturally well.
And what better way to bring out the emotions with some of the best original soundtrack. I can definitely say that the music in this game is nostalgically unique. The style of each piece of background music follows the 16bit music system but at the same time sounds modern as if more high quality modernized instruments were playing the tune. In fact the iconic music that many players love is "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara played in one of the tearjerking moments in the game.
Unless your a fan who loves stylized fighting action and expects a million lasers flying across their screens, this is probably not the game for you. In my opinion, this type of game is considered perfect. I've never seen excellent storytelling, characters with a lot of depth and a nice complimenting soundtrack to make the emotions roll out of your eyes like never before. This game can be considered to be similar to the Visual Novel genre. So if you want a story that is about a desperate tale of love and promises and what it takes to truly fulfill someone's happiness then definitely try it out because its a huge 10/10.
If you wanna buy the game, click
here!
