Are you ever in the mood to cry and feel sad? I like an emotional sad story just as much sometimes as good horror movie for the scares. To the Moon is always a title that many people bring up for it's sheer emotional impact. It's been on my wishlist for years, waiting for a playstation vita port or a steep discount on steam. Finally broke down and bought it on switch because I was in the mood for this style of game. I was pretty pumped by the sheer number of positive praise I've heard. After playing To the Moon I am left scratching my head at what anybody sees in it. Let me assure you, this isn't a mentality of pride that this reviewer is so tough he can't cry and since he didn't the game sucks. Far from it. It's one of the most clunky story based games I've ever played. In terms of story and gameplay.
To the Moon is a game that was created in RPG maker so by default it's not a looker or smooth to play. In fact i found it to be very frustrating to play. For a game where you just move small 2D sprites and just click on things it should not feel this irratating. Barely any animations in the characters at all. Walking to and from places is slow and stiff. Then at times I felt like my characters would continue walking way after I've stopped holding the button. Constatly was stuck on items in the background and sometimes turning to face an object to examine it I would have to walk backwards and turn to that direction to get a prompt rather than just being able to press left or right on the Dpad when pressed up against an object. Normally I would not complain so much about controls in a visual novel style adventure game but you spend half the time walking around and collecting random "memories" before being forced into a dull sliding puzzle to trigger the next story theme.
Before I even talk about the story, the presentation of it is really off putting to me too. I don't even know if that the right way of wording it but I don't know how else to say it. All dialog is in small speech bubbles. Now that I think about it, it feels like a comic bubble. So bits of dialog is presented in small bits of a time by characters, which is kinda annoying to read in small text. It's not like a visual novel text box. Just have a few character portraits and text boxes would have helped so so much more. I don't know if it's an RPG maker limitation but either way, I hated it. Conversations never are very long or detailed. Everything is presented as a matter of fact in short bursts.
I was expecting a lot more to actually read in this game. I was expecting a lot more. Everything felt like the cliff notes version of the story and I was wanting more details and depth. I found it really hard to get attached to the characters becuase I feel like not much of anything actually happens to them. Everything about the story fell completly flat for me. There is no other way to say it. I was really expecting a big turn and some gut punches in the end but I was left saying "Wait it's over?" I don't need any M. Knight style of twists but I was expecting more weight given the high praise of people getting emotinal. I've cried over games before and game stories have made me sad but To the Moon was as one note as it gets. Once you see the direction in the first 45mins of the game it doesn't pivot or change from there.
I don't wanna be a contrarian compared to everyone else but I can not reccommened this game at all. I had RPG maker style mindset from the get go, so this is not a case of too high of realistic expectations. Everytime I have heard anybody talk about this game I never hear them say why they like it other than the fact it made them cry. Never any details or moments. I see that, that in and of itself is telling. There are much much better visual novel adventure style games that are worth your time than this title. Go play House of Fata Morgana instead if you wanna cry.
To the Moon is a game that was created in RPG maker so by default it's not a looker or smooth to play. In fact i found it to be very frustrating to play. For a game where you just move small 2D sprites and just click on things it should not feel this irratating. Barely any animations in the characters at all. Walking to and from places is slow and stiff. Then at times I felt like my characters would continue walking way after I've stopped holding the button. Constatly was stuck on items in the background and sometimes turning to face an object to examine it I would have to walk backwards and turn to that direction to get a prompt rather than just being able to press left or right on the Dpad when pressed up against an object. Normally I would not complain so much about controls in a visual novel style adventure game but you spend half the time walking around and collecting random "memories" before being forced into a dull sliding puzzle to trigger the next story theme.
Before I even talk about the story, the presentation of it is really off putting to me too. I don't even know if that the right way of wording it but I don't know how else to say it. All dialog is in small speech bubbles. Now that I think about it, it feels like a comic bubble. So bits of dialog is presented in small bits of a time by characters, which is kinda annoying to read in small text. It's not like a visual novel text box. Just have a few character portraits and text boxes would have helped so so much more. I don't know if it's an RPG maker limitation but either way, I hated it. Conversations never are very long or detailed. Everything is presented as a matter of fact in short bursts.
I was expecting a lot more to actually read in this game. I was expecting a lot more. Everything felt like the cliff notes version of the story and I was wanting more details and depth. I found it really hard to get attached to the characters becuase I feel like not much of anything actually happens to them. Everything about the story fell completly flat for me. There is no other way to say it. I was really expecting a big turn and some gut punches in the end but I was left saying "Wait it's over?" I don't need any M. Knight style of twists but I was expecting more weight given the high praise of people getting emotinal. I've cried over games before and game stories have made me sad but To the Moon was as one note as it gets. Once you see the direction in the first 45mins of the game it doesn't pivot or change from there.
I don't wanna be a contrarian compared to everyone else but I can not reccommened this game at all. I had RPG maker style mindset from the get go, so this is not a case of too high of realistic expectations. Everytime I have heard anybody talk about this game I never hear them say why they like it other than the fact it made them cry. Never any details or moments. I see that, that in and of itself is telling. There are much much better visual novel adventure style games that are worth your time than this title. Go play House of Fata Morgana instead if you wanna cry.
4 Comments
@Tomiply Thanks for replying Tomiply! I would be happy to explain my style. First and foremost I really write and rate reviews for myself and my own benefit as a great tool to go back and read my thoughts of the games I've played. When anybody else reads or comments on them it's always an extra blessing. I totally can see why you think my reviews can look all over the place. I try hard to encorperate the full scale of 1-10. So when I rate things a 5 then that game was average to me. Not necessarily bad by any means but my total enjoyment of it. If I rated things a 2 then yes my experiance with the game was not the best but that doesn't mean the game was not functional or without any merrits just that it was something that I did not enjoy. Devil May Cry 2 is a definite 1 star game for me but I understand that it technically functions and isn't broken, it's just a complete disappointment to me and I deem it a total failure to my expectations.
When it comes to stuff like A Plagues Tale: Requiem 2 and a half stars equates to 5/10 which means I found the experiance to be average. It's certainly not a terrible game or even bad. Sure I may have given Mario Teaches Typing a similar score but I would never compare a small early era PC teaching game to a massive budget AAA title. It's more in relation to it's peers of the time and what it set out to do and how I reacted to it. Just because I give Batman NES a better score than Arkham City doesn't mean that Arkham City is somehow inferior to it. Batman on NES is being compared to it's peers of its time not a game that came out like 25 years later. Thats unfair. If someone argued To the Moon is better than Forespoken I would barely bat an eye at that. They are completly different experiances and expectations. Is Yakuza Infinite Wealth a 10/10? To me yes. Is it without flaws, absolutely not but my experiance with it was nothing short of legendary and it gave me feelings and was a complete non stop thrill ride that I won't forget. Sure I could have changed some things here and there but compared to other games in the series and games of this time it stood out to me more than many others. So that's why it's a 10/10. It's my experiance with it and expectations amongst it's peers. I enjoyed Haven much more than To the Moon in all honesty. I think that it's emotional beats, story and characters where much better than the experiance I had with To the Moon so why wouldn't I rate it much higher. I am not a professional reviewer or writer. I intened to catalog my thoughts and feelings so that ten years from now If I wanna look up my first impressions of To the Moon that I can go back and look to see how I felt about it. Has there every been a highly reviewed game that you simply didn't enjoy and despite it's merrits you didn't find it to be all that great either?
When it comes to stuff like A Plagues Tale: Requiem 2 and a half stars equates to 5/10 which means I found the experiance to be average. It's certainly not a terrible game or even bad. Sure I may have given Mario Teaches Typing a similar score but I would never compare a small early era PC teaching game to a massive budget AAA title. It's more in relation to it's peers of the time and what it set out to do and how I reacted to it. Just because I give Batman NES a better score than Arkham City doesn't mean that Arkham City is somehow inferior to it. Batman on NES is being compared to it's peers of its time not a game that came out like 25 years later. Thats unfair. If someone argued To the Moon is better than Forespoken I would barely bat an eye at that. They are completly different experiances and expectations. Is Yakuza Infinite Wealth a 10/10? To me yes. Is it without flaws, absolutely not but my experiance with it was nothing short of legendary and it gave me feelings and was a complete non stop thrill ride that I won't forget. Sure I could have changed some things here and there but compared to other games in the series and games of this time it stood out to me more than many others. So that's why it's a 10/10. It's my experiance with it and expectations amongst it's peers. I enjoyed Haven much more than To the Moon in all honesty. I think that it's emotional beats, story and characters where much better than the experiance I had with To the Moon so why wouldn't I rate it much higher. I am not a professional reviewer or writer. I intened to catalog my thoughts and feelings so that ten years from now If I wanna look up my first impressions of To the Moon that I can go back and look to see how I felt about it. Has there every been a highly reviewed game that you simply didn't enjoy and despite it's merrits you didn't find it to be all that great either?
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Are you chronically online or something? I mean, you answered me so fast with all that. Like, damn.
@Tomiply Ha Ha well if you must know, I was playing Dungeons and Dragons online and was browsing backloggd while waiting for my turn and saw I had a notification.
Tomiply
2 months ago
Looking through your review, it seems like you wanted more reading in the game. Seriously? I'm glad you weren't one of the developers for this game. So many walking simulators put notes everywhere in order to pad out their playtimes, and it's so annoying. Most of it isn't even remotely relevant. It just ruins the pacing most of the time, even in games where it adds more context.
It's weird, I also love games like Chrono Trigger, Yakuza and so on, but looking at some of your other reviews, I can't understand how you think. You gave A Plague Tale: Requiem two and a half stars?? That was widely considered as one of the best games of 2022, and it also focuses heavily on an emotional story. Heck, you gave Mario Teaches Typing the same score as A Plague Tale: Requiem? ...What. You also gave Forspoken nearly the same score and you rated it higher than To the Moon. Oh, but for some reason, you gave Haven a good score. It's also a game that focuses very little on gameplay and more on an emotional story while also having great music, like To the Moon.
I don't get it. You have a... special kind of taste. Reviews are so weird on this site. "I didn't vibe with this game: ONE star. Everything about it is bad." Strange.