To the Moon is the fourth video game by Canadian designer/composer Kan "Reives" Gao and the first commercial production by his indie game development team Freebird Games. Released in November 2011, it is a role-playing adventure game designed using the RPG Maker XP engine. The game was originally released on the author's website and various digital download portals. On September 8, 2012, it was made available via Steam. On January 7, 2014 it was released for the OS X and Linux operating systems with the Humble Indie Bundle X.To the Moon was nominated for many awards, and was voted the best indie RPG of 2011.
Plot
The premise of To The Moon is based around a technology that allows the construction of artificial permanent memories. Sigmund Corp., a company that uses this technology, offers the notion of "wish fulfillment" as a service to people on their death bed. Since these artificial memories are permanent, it sharply conflicts with the patient's real memories soon after the person awakens, which is why it is only done on those without much time left to live.The story follows Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts (employed by Sigmund Corp.) as they fulfill the lifelong dream of the dying Johnny Wyles. Johnny's wish isn't that simple: he wants to go to the moon, although he doesn't know why. To accomplish this task, the doctors must 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 his mind, they learn more about the patient and what brought him to his current position in life. Upon reaching his childhood, the doctors attempt to insert his desire to go to the moon. The intention is that once the desire is implanted, Johnny's mind will create memories of a new life based on that desire, and he'll die believing he lived without any regrets.But not everything goes as planned. The two doctors find themselves with a heavy mystery concerning Johnny's desire, his past, and his deceased wife, River. With the clock ticking, Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts must unravel Johnny's complicated past and do whatever it takes to send him to the moon.
Ending
It is finally revealed that Johnny and River had met as children at a carnival, and had agreed to meet at the same place the following year, with Johnny promising that the two would "regroup on the moon" should he forget (or get lost). At that carnival, Johnny gives River a toy platypus which River then treasures for the rest of her life. Shortly after (chronologically - it preceded this scene in the narrative flow), Johnny's twin brother Joey is killed in an accident. Johnny's mother gives him Beta blockers to induce memory loss of the tragic event - with the side effect that he forgets his first encounter with River. While he later meets again, romances, and marries her, River only becomes aware that he forgot their first meeting later on, when he confesses that he approached her in school because she was different. She is, however, unwilling or unable to tell him directly about their first meeting, perhaps due to her condition (in one scene her doctor diagnoses her with pervasive developmental disorder, and offers a book by Tony Attwood, a real-life author on the subject of Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of PDD); instead, she tries to indirectly jostle his memories by cutting her hair and crafting paper bunnies, including a dual-colored one representing a constellation that they made up while stargazing during their initial encounter (a rabbit with the moon as its belly), as well as the blue and yellow dress she wore on her wedding day. She is unable to do so before her death, and Johnny is left with lingering guilt and an inexplicable desire to go to the Moon.Rosalene and Watts eventually succeed at implanting a memory sequence where Joey is still alive and becomes a popular author, and Johnny is not reintroduced to River until they start working together at NASA (though not romantically involved initially; subsequent cutscenes show they eventually get married, build and retire to the same house the real-life Johnny and River lived at). As a comatose real life Johnny begins to die, he imagines going on a moon mission with River. During the stressful launch procedure, River holds out a hand to him. The moon appears in the background through a window on the ship, and he takes her hand as his heart monitor flatlines.Back in the real world, Rosalene and Watts look to Johnny's grave, which was placed adjacent to River’s. They reveal that Johnny willed the house to his caregiver Lily in his testament. After Rosalene receives a call, the two begin moving to their next patient; however while Watts is leaving, he freezes up and the screen briefly flashes red -in the same way it did when Johnny felt pain. Watts takes out some painkillers from his coat and swallows a dose before continuing onward.
SoundTrack
The soundtrack of To the Moon was praised by many critics. It features a theme song by Laura Shigihara ("Everything's Alright"), with the rest being composed by Kan Gao. The soundtrack was released on November 4, 2011 on Bandcamp, and includes 31 tracks at a total length of 53:05 minutes.
Reception
To the Moon has received positive reviews which praised the story and music. The game holds an average rating of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, and 81.53% on GameRankings.In GameSpot's 2011 Game of the Year awards, To the Moon was given the "Best Story" award, which was won against Catherine, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Portal 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles. which were also voted in the same category. To the Moon was also nominated in the categories of "Best Music", "Most Memorable Moment", "Best Writing/Dialogue", "Best Ending", and "Song of the Year".It was also the highest user-rated PC game of 2011 at Metacritic.
Sequel
On August 22, 2012 Freebird Games announced a second installment of the To The Moon series. It will be about a new patient; however, some familiar faces will return, such as Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene. They also announced another short story in the series that would be released before the actual sequel, which can be seen as a prelude to the second episode. Though this story is set before the time of Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene, It has also been confirmed that the lead character in this story will become the patient in part 2 of the 'To The Moon' series. The title of the short story is A Bird Story.The game was planned to be released in late 2013, but was later revised to "Coming soon".A downloadable minisode was released on December 31, 2013, both as a standalone download and as part of the Steam and GOG.com releases. This episode centers on Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts and features a holiday party at their local Sigmund Corp. office.
Translations
Fan-made language translations are also available for the game - supported languages are: Chinese, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese, Dutch, and Turkish.
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