To the Moon

To the Moon for PC, AND and iOS is an indie adventure game in which you have a chance to get inside the memory of a dying man. The title has been designed by Freebird Games, a studio with several similar projects under their belt.

Freebird Games is an independent developer studio founded by Kan “Reives” Gao. The company employs more than 10 people, including composer James Q. Zhang. Apart from To the Moon the developer created three other titles: Do You Remember My Lullaby?, Quintessence: The Blighted Venom, and The Mirror Lied.

In To the Moon you play as two doctors: Eva Rosalene and Neil Watts, who work for Sigmund Corp. The company offers dying people a chance of revisiting their memories in order to “relive” their life, enabling them to think they have managed to realize their biggest unfulfilled dreams. This time the two doctors visit an ill old man named Johnny Wyles, who had always dreamed of flying to the Moon.

Elements of the real world and the memories of dying Mr. Wyles interweave constantly throughout the story of To the Moon. The doctors dig deeper and deeper into Johnny’s memories, in search for a potential turning point. As they progress, the two of them discover new, moving details of the man’s life.

The player’s main job is to carefully explore visited locations (like the lighthouse or Mr. Wyles' house) and gather special orbs that symbolize key memories. To this end, you have to talk to the characters you meet and collect various items that give you access to deeper layers of Johnny’s memories. On the way the player has to solve numerous uncomplicated puzzles.

To the Moon for PC, AND and iOS combines a not so small dose of humor with a gripping drama. By means of cut-scenes and hilarious conversations the developers parody various elements of popular culture, e.g. video games, especially the jRPG genre and fighting game characters. On the other hand, there are plenty of sad, moving scenes, mainly from Mr. Wyles’ life.

The title has been designed using RPG Maker. Similarly to other games from Freebird Games studio, it features characteristic graphics and audio, which bring connotations of a typical old-school RPG released on the SNES console. The game is enriched with an emotional soundtrack composed by James Q. Zhang.

Last updated on 07 October 2024