I don't think the ending had the impact on me it was supposed to, but I don't put any fault on the game for that. If anything it's almost frightening how similar some aspects are to something I experienced when I was a teenager that's become a defining moment for me.
Essentially, when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a very memorable dream. It was one where time was distorted and lasted over two weeks. I was abducted by something and awoke in this town I can't forget. All the buildings were colorful paper cutouts whose sizes were true to life set against a bright night sky. I found out the people there were under attack and I decided to help. We formed a resistance, but the enemy outnumbered us. We knew of a snake living on the moon, so we built a rocket to take us there and ask for help. Just as we were arriving, the enemy destroyed us.
I woke up and realized I had been dreaming. I started to cry as I realized I'd forget their names and faces, which I did, but vowed I wouldn't forget them or the feelings I had that morning. I remember thinking that death must be like a dream, waking up as someone else and forgetting everyone you've grown to love and care for, but maybe you could carry that feeling of love with you. I obviously don't know that last part, but I'm almost 30 now and it's something that's stayed in the back of my head. I try and treat every person I meet with some form of love because of it.
So here's moon. I think the big thing to take from the ending is not that you should stop playing games, but that people tend to obsess over a game and not take the themes it has with them after it's ended. Or that they keep playing the game to get better at it long after they've experienced everything it has to stay, thus stopping you from new experiences. This game is a blueprint of people you may meet in real life and what you can do to show them love. It's important that it shows love tied to levels will never be enough. Hence your avatar being too new to use the love to open the door. It needs to mature and sink in; exist outside of a game first.
This is a very 90s game. That's both something very welcome and a little off-putting. On one hand, you have the tone, the music, and the sheer creativity that the 90s brought. On the other, it feels like this game was made for boys. This is both a reflection of other RPGs at the time, since it's clearly trying to use the tropes of the genre, while failing to have some foresight about who is playing and enjoying games. Leaving the fallen child's gender in Undertale up to interpretation is one of its strengths. Tim Rogers said in a tweet to use your real name for moon, but the character will always be the invisible boy at the end.
I think most characters in the game have hidden depth and can appear off-putting or simplistic, but the game has issues when it comes to portraying women. It doesn't mean they're bad characters, and there's one in particular that sticks out, but you just need to take a look at the roles of men and what they're allowed to experience compared to the women. Almost all of them are portrayed as motherly in some way. This could be because it's the dream of the invisible boy, but there are characters like Bilby who experience pain from divorce and just wanting to be there for his child that your character probably doesn't get. Then there's Shambles who can remember the past and attend school with the birds, Lawrence who experiences multiple dimensions, and even the ghost who goes out of his way to protect the spirits of the animals even though he's stuck to the world because he remembers being hungry. The women are stuck to either being mother figures like Gramby, the westerner's wife, and the dragon's other half, off-putting like Femi and Wanda (who despite owning a bar as her main function, also seems to be Flora's mother.), or talking about boys, like Wanda again with Florence and Dalia and her lovely but fucking weird obsession with Perogon. Even Clis, despite having a fantastic quest, just wants to be an idol and is the typical waitress with dreams of being famous trope.
The one character that stands out to me is Lady Techno. She's not perfect. Early on you can find papers that show the Re-men Drones filing a report of slander against her for filing multiple reports of sexual harassment. As you go on, you start to piece together that the drones in the VIP are jealous of her because they believe they're going to be decommissioned and scrapped. At first, I thought the story was going to be she was confusing their looks of jealousy as sexual harassment, but those drones are from Group A, whereas the reports are about Group B. I went through a series of emotions with her. I started out thinking she was human and watching over the others. Then when the Re-men were talking with the mayor, they mentioned she was a robot. Finally, when talking with her, I had the gut-punch of a moment when I realized she didn't know. It was one of my favorite moments, and although she mentioned she didn't like the others because they have to recharge and not because, you know, sexual harassment, walking her through realizing she needs to charge which means she's also a robot, was moving and incredibly sad.
The Eco gang is a mixed bag for me. They are obnoxious in their HQ, but the game does a decent job of making the point that they are just as deserving of love as you. And they stole from the minister, who seems to have killed Gramby's grandchild to put them in the armor. So major props for that. I already mentioned Femi. I actually liked her after the lecture, but her later appearance was not nearly as flattering. The others were also mistaken about you, however, as Castle Town residents point out, "you" already existed, and "you" could have at least thrown the fish and cans back in the water. The tree was not you, though.
I really don't like that the only dark-skinned character was on an island with monkeys. And you leave him feeling like a failure. You're told by the dragon's other half that this motivates him, but you never see that. He's never mentioned again. And it sucks because the flight to the island is one of the best moments in the game and the monkeys themselves are adorable. I know Fred and Curio exist, too, for more representation, but only Fred stands out as "good". He's one of the best characters in the game for me, and endlessly endearing despite likely being the one that killed the hero, but it doesn't erase the racism.
So the game was a mixed bag. There are moments that are going to stay with me for a long time. Almost anything with Yoshida or forcing you to wait is in a league of its own. The characters and themes are good. I think this would be an amazing game to play for a kid. Right now? It has some issues that are hard for me personally to overlook, but it also scratched an itch that hasn't been scratched since Majora's Mask. And considering this came out before Majora started production, I think there's a chance that game wouldn't exist without this one.
And finally: Papas, the westerner dad, is going to forever haunt me. Jesus Christ, his neck.
