To The Moon Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game:  To The Moon
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, iOS and Android)
Developers|Publishers: FreeBirdGames
Price: US $11.99| AU $18.00|CA $ 12.68|£10.79| €9.59
Age Rating: EU 3 | AU G| US E
Release Date: 16th January 2020

No review code was used, I bought the game myself

To The Moon is a story focused adventure, relatively light on gameplay. I learned about it from following  one of the game’s composers: Laura Shigihara. Eventually I bought a copy when I found a copy at a store. Unfortunately I no longer have a disc drive but with the release of the Switch port I saw fit to give it a go again. Doing so I learned that while I knew it was a touching tale I only remembered a few moments of the journey. To be fair I did play it over five years ago.

Why The Moon?

In To The Moon you play as Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene, whose job involves granting their client’s final wish. This is done artificially by editing their memories, which made me wonder what the point was, given it’s a lie. Probably to give them peace of mind in their final moments. Using specialised headsets they are able to enter and adjust memories.

This night’s client, John, wishes to go to the moon but doesn’t know why. Game play largely revolves around finding memory links so that they can leap further back in time. Once done they can transfer the desire to childhood to make it come true within a believable vision.

In these memories your player characters walk over to objects to find memory links. Once five in each area are collected you can use them to break the barrier protecting the waypoints. Once that’s broken a small puzzle section opens, where you have to flip panels by columns and rows to make them all right side up. Thankfully it’s quite easy and you can go over the best turns, but this time around I had no trouble doing them. Perhaps last time I was just lazy. You also have a notebook. Doing different activities or coming across certain scenes will give you these. Such as “Johnny and River are not afraid of heights”. With the exception of some mini games that’s all you really do. This game is about witnessing the story of John and River.

Moon River

You learn that John’s wife River passed two years earlier. When going backwards through his memories you persistently see her as a key figure in most all of them. Following the story you learn the mystery of why she folded paper rabbits almost incessantly. I can’t say much more without spoiling the whole experience but To The Moon is a love story played in reverse. During which the player characters add some comedic dialogue to the whole affair. The bar scene was one I particularly remembered.

One thing I found very interesting was the representation. Especially in that they never outright say what River’s condition is, instead hinting at it. I was always of the impression that River has Asperger’s Syndrome. This time I confirmed it as her psychologist recommends a book by Tony Attwood who is noted for his work on the subject. River is not the only character with it, as Isabelle, one of their friends also has it. Which makes for better representation as you can see it affecting people differently. Moreso for having two female characters, as often women are under diagnosed for neurological “disorders”. I just find it a shame that they didn’t at least name the syndrome as it would have been a great way to get people interested in being aware about it.

Piano Scores

Because of the very little gameplay I’d compare it to a visual novel, though you still have to walk around. While the visuals aren’t exactly a key point, the focus on telling his life’s story is.

It seems that the visuals have had an upgrade, with much smoother looking floors and buildings. Yet the few images that appear sometimes look worse for wear. Being much more pixellated compared to the originals. The UI has also been updated for better or worse, as now all the text is done in a pixel style. Something fine for me but it can easily annoy others. That all said it still has RPG Maker graphics which might be a turn off to some.

(Don’t look at the comments on the video if you haven’t played/watched the game!)

For me the soundtrack was a selling point of the game. Being done by the game’s producer Kan Gao and Laura Shigihara. The latter of whom did the most emotive of tracks, “Everything’s Alright.” that plays at a very climatic part of the story. Most all of the music is done with pianos. Some of the early tracks may have lulled a certain someone I know to fall asleep! There is no voice acting but given the presentation of the game I didn’t expect any.

Overall

It ran fine either handheld or docked but they recommend it be played with headphones. I found as long as there wasn’t much noise elsewhere both options were fine. There are quite a lot of loading screens, they aren’t too long but considering the graphics I wish they were faster and less frequent. Controls work good, although you still can’t move diagonally. The story takes around four hours to play.

To The Moon is still a great story and as long as you understand the gameplay and graphics are not a high point of it, I’d recommend it to anyone interested. It also has a sequel called Finding Paradise which is available on PC. No word yet on if that will get ported on Switch. I myself have yet to play it.

Final Verdict: I like it a lot!