Posted by The fabulous Nathain at Time to Loot is hosting a play-along of To The Moon, a game that follows two doctors as they try to grant a dying man’s wish to go to the moon (roll credits), although they aren’t quite able to discern why he wants to go to the moon.
There are unmarked spoilers below for the second act of To the Moon, so proceed at your own risk! Check out our spoiler-filled responses for Act I here,Act II here and Act III here!
I’m woefully behind with these posts, but let’s start with the questions posted concerning the Minisodes 1 and 2..
1) Protesters. Perhaps not too surprising to find they exist in this world. Many of us were not entirely comfortable with the concept of what Sigmund Corp does. What did you think about getting a look behind the curtain as it were, and seeing some of the responses of the employees?
I didn’t think this was a particularly enlightening or moving look at their lives. It seems reasonable that the people who work for a corporation believe in what they do. Any other feeling toward their word would make them unethical, at the very least. Why would you disagree with erasing or modifying people’s memories and then do it for forty hours per week? I never thought the people who worked for Sigmund Corp were monsters who needed redemption, so I suppose seeing them as “people” didn’t have much of a profound impact on me.
Regarding them having to deal with the protesters throwing tomatoes at them… Of course no person deserves to be harassed for doing their job. But I think without more context it’s hard to say whether I think the protesters’ actions are justified. Having said that, I also think if your company is doing something that causes people to get so angry that they have resorted to rioting, it’s worthwhile to take a step back and examine what you’re doing.
The minisodes seemed to touch on this with a glancing blow, as Eva mentioned that it’s only the dead who appreciate what they do, but then this is never grappled with again. I think if that was supposed to be the big Moral Dilemma, the gravitas was missing. Instead, the minisodes seemed to focus on Neil and Eva’s relationship, with a little bit of world-building behind it to either give flavor or set up for something in the sequel.
2) For how short these two (aptly named) Minisodes were — we were given a LOT to wonder about, from Ghost Eva on the road, to Neil’s mum or dad on the phone, to what on earth he was doing with the memory unit in his office to… whatever it was that happened post-credits. So, yeah… My extended version of the ‘WTF?’ question is: What do you think is happening? Speculate wildly!
I have a few scenarios that came to mind regarding this. They both involve Eva using the machine to manipulate memories. In one scenario, Eva is using the machine to re-write her own memory, in order to make herself feel better about leaving Neil alone at work on Christmas. The second scenario is that Eva is using the machine to manipulate Neil’s memories, so he would remember Christmas being surrounded by people to care about him.
But why?
Between his headache during the main game, and that there is something he is not able to talk to his parents about, and his decreased health during the RPG-style squirrel battle, I’m tempted to say that he has some sort of terminal illness that he’s dealing with. What would be very interesting to me is if he agreed to have Eva (or anyone) go in and mess about with his memories, or if Eva has gone rogue and is just – as her company touts – doing what’s best for the dying individual.
Another scenario has to do with Neil’s comments about wanting to test what appeared to amount to a single-user version of the machine and program. Could it be that he wanted to alter his memories, or allow other people to alter their own memories? Or maybe he wanted to create a machine that enabled individuals to relive certain memories, either with or without alterations. The possibilities are endless when delving into the foundations of how we remember and interact with our world.
What did you think about the minisodes? Is Eva up to something? Is Neil? Is one of them sick? Or full of regrets? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon!
~ Athena
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