To The Moon: An Unexpected Sledgehammer, Right To The Effing Feels

Kan Gao's "To The Moon" first came to my attention for being a game made with RPG Maker - one that's beautifully crafted and people actually seemed to like, for a change. RPG Maker games, you see, get a bad rap for being SPECTACULARLY BAD - a testament to how easy the program is to use.

Without giving up or spoiling anything - I'd hate to do that - To The Moon is (very, very roughly) a story about two people travelling through a dying man's memories Inception-style, and changing them so make his dying wish "true"; grant him a memory of going to the moon.

According to Steam, I purchased it sometime back in 2014, played it for, like, 20', and never touched it again. Now, three years later and after having seen it mentioned in a gazillion different game narrative articles, I decided to finally give it another shot.

Three minutes in, I remembered why I dropped it in the first place: To The Moon is not a game, per se. It's 95% narrative, 5% walking around and solving easy puzzles. There's not much to "do", as a player. Not that it's something bad - mind you. It just starts off a bit slow, that's all.

(That said, I still finished the game in one go - putting it down was just out of the question!)

The other reason I was initially negatively predisposed was the dialogue. (Writing dialogue for SNES-looking games is really, really hard, actually, especially for a game that tries to be both deep and funny, like To The Moon does at times).

Half an hour into the game, however, when the story gets really rolling, I was totally immersed.

At this point, there's not much to say without spoiling the beautiful experience To The Moon is. I'll just tell you one thing: THE GODDAMN THING MADE ME CRY LIKE THE LITTLE BITCH I AM DEEP DOWN INSIDE.

That's right. See the beautiful, SNES-like pixelized pictures? Don't let them fool you - they'll brutalize your tiny heart. Of all the games I've played, books I've read, films I've watched, To The Moon is easily in the 5 most emotional ones.

More importantly, it doesn't happen just once during the rollercoaster of emotion the To The Moon is. In the approximately 4 hours it took me to finish it, I broke down 3 or 4 times (and that's not something I often do).

At the time, I thought that the emotional resonance was To The Moon's the strongest asset. Looking back at it, however, I realize that this isn't the case. Above everything else, To The Moon is well-planned storytelling. From foreshadowing future events, to having the player guessing at things, it's every bit as good as things like Inception or Memento are.

...

I could go on for hours, but truth is, you have to see To The Moon for yourself. Think of it as watching a long movie, or maybe grab a friend to sob together with. I promise you it's worth the time and money.

Above all else, however, To The Moon is an inspiration for people like me - wannabe writers and / or indie game developers. Kan Gao & Co did very much with practically very little - a shining example of the fact that passion for what you do CAN trump most limitations.

I'll leave you with a link to the trailer - do yourself a favor and watch it!