TO THE MOON [A STORY WORTH LISTENING TO]

November 26, 2012 · by elaine1123hk · in [ GAME ]

TO THE MOON [ A story worth listening to ] 

To the moon is an indie RPG-adventure game produced by Kan Gao. I wouldn’t talk much about the background information, its easy to search online -> Official site / Wiki

Spending almost 5 hours for this game, its totally worth it. I am very grateful meeting this game and listened to its story, it takes me quite a while to get away from the world that Kan Gao has created… Kan is a genius in terms of story telling, he brings us back into Johnny’s life step by step, slowly we discovered the truth behind the veil. Honestly, the first bit of the game was kind of creepy, the music and atmosphere are all very mysterious. However some parts of the game are  humorous, sometimes it gets me laughing sometimes it gets my tears.

The music are the main reason that brings me into the characters’ world, simple but so touching. I did not cry for the game but it gives me something much deeper, it gets me think about…about life.

The most interesting thing of this game is its ending, seems like there is only one ending but there can be actually more than 3 interpretations of the ending. I couldn’t get the game out of my mind after playing it so I crazily went online and searched for information of it. I was stunned that there can be a second ending! Not literally but there can be alternate ending due to your own interpretation! How amazing is that? That’s totally what a good story required, a story that can keep people thinking and interpreting.

However, there are some minor criticisms. This game would be beyond perfect if there are more interactions involve between the storyline and players’ choices. So far there are not much we can do while we’re in the game. All we can do is to follow the tracks and simply watch the story, I personally would prefer more actual “gaming”. A game with good storyline doesn’t have to be less playful. Like those classic games “Final Fantasy 7″ & ” Kingdom hearts” are my all-time favourite since they have this exceptional storyline and interesting interactions between player and the game itself. For “To the moon”, the players are only the player who sit behind the computer screen.

Before having spoilers, below are some snapshots from the game.

 - Really simple puzzles for each scenes, pretty unnecessary

 - There is a life bar throughout the game for us to keep track which stage of Johnny’s life we’re at

 - A scene while Johnny chatting with old friends

—————————————Below includes spoilers—————————————————————————–

So, the most arguable points of this game is definitely the endings. My first impression of the story is just simply what the game is showing. Joey is the one who died and Johnny survived, Johnny’s mom gave him betablockers to erase his tragic memories thus he forgot he ever had a twin brother and he thought he has never met River. However, to my surprise, there can be more interpretations!

2) The other ending is…the one who died is actually Johnny (in the last scene where Johnny’s memories are all mixed up, the little boy who were hit by car said ” Hi, I’m Johnny.” ) So Joey took the pills and thought himself as Johnny, he took Johnny’s memories and shared his beloved. In fact, there are some clues that support this theory. Like, Joey is the one who loves pickle while Johnny hates them. But in the game, the “Johnny” we know loves pickle which means in high possibility, the one survived is Joey.

3) This ending is about Dr. Eva Rosalene, someone stated in fact Eva is actually in a coma while the car crashed, so the whole game is actually in Eva’s head. Dr. Neil Watts is only there to help Eva achieve her dream, which is to help Johnny and other patients. This ending is supported by the ending scene where Eva and Neil are under the lighthouse. When Eva ran off the screen, Neil looked at the lighthouse and paused, then there is a red light flashing, exactly like the red light while Johnny was in near death.

All those endings are very interesting and seems correct, however no one knows if there is a real ending or not. I personally like the second one, it would be absolutely a big twist if its correct. I always loved a big surprised ending. Anyways, I believe there can be many more different endings and that is exactly the reason why this game is so successful. Now I even looking forward to a movie if possible ” To the moon—coming soon!”