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 Moon is on Switch (exclusively for the moment), IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME, OUT NOW for $18.99 USD.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FClNYk5Pbdw Moon, or Moon: Remix RPG Adventure as some of you may know it (subtitle added to beat SEO), was a cult RPG/Anti-RPG/Adventure/Love-de-Lic-like/Who-Even-Knows-For-Sure released in 1997 for the Playstation in Japan only, developed by the legendary and now defunct studio Love-De-Lic (more on them below). It got rereleased digitally on October 10th last year on Japan's Switch eShop, beyond any belief of it happening. This Switch port—neither a remake nor a remaster, almost entirely the same game from 1997—was handled by Onion Games, a team with key Love-De-Lic employees that had previously worked on the game back in the day. The game did crazy good, outselling Dragon Quest, the series it satirizes, on Japan's eShop for the month it was released. That the creator of Undertale (which also did well in Japan) claimed to be inspired by Moon's concept must've helped generate interest for an earlier game that played with RPG conventions that didn't sell great in its time. NOW, beyond even more belief of it ever happening, this version of Moon was brought to the West with an official English translation, handled by Tim Rogers (yes that Tim Rogers), that came August 27th. After unfinished attempts at fan translations over the years, and with the original creators' blessing no less, this is the first time the game is fully playable in English. So far it is exclusive to Switch eShop, available for $18.99 USD.  GREAT BUT WHAT IS MOON? From the official site at https://moon-rpg.com/en/ (includes a manual for the game which I recommend reading before playing): quote:Have you ever played an RPG and wondered…  As you can probably guess from reading that, Moon is a game that parodies and criticizes the RPG genre. This is nothing too new in this day and age, but in 1997 it was incredibly novel. BUT ALSO, more than simply being a "subversive" RPG we've come to expect that makes you feel bad because you the player used its combat system, Moon largely rejects traditional design of the genre, and practically invents a unique type of gameplay onto itself. This is why Moon is labelled as an "anti-RPG". Basically, there are no battles for experience points, and instead you increase your "love level" by learning about the people of Moon as they go about their daily and weekly rituals, based on an in-game clock, to figure out what their problem is and then solve it for them. Levelling up does not mean getting stronger enough to take on harder enemies, but increasing your stamina before you need to sleep. You are gated more by your ability to travel before your stamina runs out than anything else.  It's more than just the gameplay too that's unique. A charmingly hodgepodge visual style, a humorous and sincere writing style courtesy of the guy who'd go on to write Chulip, a really, REALLY amazing soundtrack, with contributions from indie acts and composers under pseudonyms, which you can play much of on your Moondisc player (like a CD walkman) as you walk around the world. Simply put, Moon is a very singular and eclectic experience, like no game before it and like few after, as if it's from a surreal alternate timeline for a direction RPGs could've taken from 1997 on.  ABOUT LOVE-LE-DIC Love-De-Lic was a studio started in 1995 by former Square and Konami employees, whose most significant previous experience includes Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. With shifting personnel, they made three of the most unique games released for consoles of their time: Moon in 1997, UFO: A Day in the Life for the Playstation in 1999, a game in which you take pictures of invisible aliens hiding in an apartment complex, and L.O.L.: Lack of Love for the Dreamcast in 2000, a game in which the goal is to survive and evolve through symbiotically helping other species, with a soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchaestra fame. All three are very much worth playing, if possible for you to do so. Despite being a game with little language barrier, LOL got a fan translation earlier this year! UFO does not have a translation yet, but is largely playable without one. But Moon is the one that's arguably the most important in the historical sense, as the game is the only time a veritable super group of cult game developers would all work on the same game together. After Moon, they would split up into different teams and companies to continue a legacy of unconventional games, sometimes partly reunited but carving their own paths. This is part of the reason "Love-de-Lic like", or "Love-de-Lic legacy", is used to refer to games that came after Moon, either directly from its design or just from its spirit of doing things different. This makes it the most representative game of what Love-de-Lic was.  LOVE-DE-LIC ALUMNI AND THEIR GAMES Below are the most notable people that made Moon, as well as some of the games they've worked on before and after it. It should be noted that their contributions with Moon especially were more fluid than one single role should imply, and I'm simply putting it as they were credited. Hopefully some of these names and games will be familiar to you, despite many of their projects not having English releases and universally not selling well (a sad pattern with LDL games unfortunately). And maybe you can get a feel for what they brought to Moon and other games they specifically worked on from seeing this, too.
 WRAPPING IT UP Of all the games that hadn't been translated from Japanese to English, Moon is by miles the one I believe deserved it the most, both for its eccentric-ness and its overlooked place in history, and I'm very excited to play it properly. Keep in mind it is a game from 1997 and a somewhat demanding one at that; the design is kinda obscure and slow paced at points (often intentionally so), meaning some patience is required for this one. But I hope you can give it a chance, because a game like this somehow came out on a home console in 1997. It's a special one. Also, if you're having some trouble with the early game (many do) some general advice I have that may help you:
Flac fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Aug 31, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 21:31
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Yeah currently have boxes to go through after moving in, so the timing of this is pretty good. The game is pretty lengthy for what it is too, took me about 20 hours or so? And I'm a real slow player.
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Aug 27, 2020 00:20
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https://twitter.com/yoshiro_kimura/status/1298893198505304064?s=20 Extremely late because I wasn't expecting the game to be out as soon as last night, but the game's here!!
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Aug 27, 2020 16:21
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Inferior Third Season posted:Just started playing. I'm about an hour or so in. Really liking it so far. It feels like a mix of Majora's Mask and old Sierra adventure games. That is definitely how the early game goes. What I did is have some safety cookies on hand, and once I started to get tired I popped some and IMMEDIATELY went home. Playing Chulip before this game, which is also punishing early on, but more because everything in that game wanted to kill you than any worries with stamina, kinda prepared me for how this game would treat you at weaker levels. It becomes a non-problem as you play more and more.
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Aug 28, 2020 00:30
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Junpei Hyde posted:I walked around and then I walked slow and I died, I assume theres stamina I need to keep track of? Right here:  Made by someone else, I'll probably add it to the OP. The devs have straight up said you should read the manual for this game, it is a PS1 game through and through.
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Aug 28, 2020 00:59
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Unlucky7 posted:Some spoiler free tips that I sort of wish I knew when starting out. I probably should've mentioned stuff like this in the OP, I'll put this up there. And I'm glad people are enjoying moon for the most part! Got some time in yesterday to play but been fairly busy today. I really love how much detail is packed in this game; caught Bilby (one of my favs) doing something I had never seen him do in my previous playthrough, which is kick the town news sign on his way back from the bar.
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Aug 29, 2020 02:21
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It's worth looking into alternate versions of the MDs on youtube (they're confusingly labelled as the "Moondisc version" on the channel with all the music from the game, when those versions came straight from an official soundtrack rather than being ripped from the game), as some of them can be WAY different from the in-game version. This is one of the clearest examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drykZCS2004 And I think a few of the MDs in the Switch version are actually remixed in some ways from the original Playstation game too?? Namely Killah Blues, Pop May Day, and especially Bubble Star. I don't know why that is.
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Aug 29, 2020 13:44
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Al-Saqr posted:I’m thinking of picking this game up soon, just a quick question, something that’s holding me back a little is that it’s a Japanese RPG from 1997, so my question is how ‘penetrable’ is this game? Because I really dont want it to be one of those types of games that requires to read a walkthrough to make heads from tales on what needs to be done to progress, so I’m just wondering how approachable and understandable this game is and it’s progression if it makes sense. There may be some places where you'll have to look it up or ask what to do to progress, but I don't think it's as frequent as say, 90's point-and-click adventure games. A lot of what you can find out in this game, especially with the castle town residents, can be found by doing a bit of detective work with asking around, or just being patient and seeing what they do. And I suggest if you find something and it's not clear what to do, save it for later. There will probably many other things you can be doing, and you may find something to help with it later. What Jato says is true too, reading the manual makes the early game mechanics much less mysterious: https://moon-rpg.com/en/sub/manual.html Also should say that if you find certain parts of the game too frustrating, you don't have to 100% it, though I think going for that should be given a shot, especially for catching all the animals. Beating the game has certain requirements for things you need to do, but past that point, you will only be missing out on opportunities for more love, and you don't necessarily have to maximize your love level. ketchup vs catsup posted:Any chance limited run or someone makes a physical version? They're taking preorders for a really nice Japanese physical version releasing in October, details here: https://www.gematsu.com/2020/06/moon-for-switch-premium-edition-launches-october-15-in-japan. It hasn't been officially confirmed, but I feel pretty certain that the cart can be updated with the English translation, based on the SKU being the same between Japanese and English versions. I'm really really hoping this version can be localized, but NOA doing jack to promote the game (especially weird when Nintendo announced the game in a direct in Japan, which yeah moon has nostalgia going for it to build hype on over there but like, c'mon) makes me feel uncertain about that. They will probably do a Limited Run release, at least. Flac fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 14:25
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Xingiskan is really bad and I don't blame anyone for skipping out on it. Same with the fishing tourney which is even worse in my opinion. Both give you 1 pt of Love. 100%-ing the game and getting full Love Level is just it's own reward, and you won't get anything special (though you should get up to a level that will let you last more than 5 days, I think, before you finish the game). If you're still gonna go for it, best of luck... Flac fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Aug 31, 2020 |
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Aug 31, 2020 20:08
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ThisIsACoolGuy posted:It's funny how this game has no danger in it outside the time limit, and yet I can't help but feel really stressed out that I'm missing things all the time and the genuinely unsettling atmosphere of it all. You can't miss anything major in this game! The weeks can go by and you'll still be able to get love from all the characters. It's only over when you've met the requirements to end the game and you wish to do so.
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Aug 31, 2020 21:25
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One possible way to make the fishing tourney SLIGHTLY (only slightly) easier is to eat the Kirikiri Bug Sautee at the restaurant the day before. I'm not certain of that but the game seems to imply it helps, and I feel like my luck was worse when I tried without it. It still sucks a lot either way lol
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Sep 1, 2020 03:53
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^^That could be true. I got trash CONSTANTLY the couple times I didn't do it, but that's not a thorough test.FruitPunchSamurai posted:This game has the worst version of simon says I've ever seen. Do you mean Robi? Pretty bad normally, but can be exploited.
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Sep 1, 2020 05:02
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FruitPunchSamurai posted:Yeah. I tried it about 20 times or so and gave up. From what you're saying I guess there's probably some part of something that I'm missing that would make things easier. The second thing, what I did, is basically cheating but you might as well do if nothing else works: exploiting the Switch's replay function to more easily figure out the sequence of lights.
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Sep 1, 2020 13:55
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I mostly agree with Psycho, it's more than my interpretation is different here and there. I basically see Real Moon as a dream of the kid, with his own interpretation of the world of Fake Moon. I think the thoughts the boy might have about the game he was playing, i.e. why does an RPG hero get to do stuff like this, is filtered through this dream, along with possible reflections of himself and his life through the more detailed lives of Real Moon's characters (for example I think you can interpret the castle guard being estranged from his son who he wants to do something good for as possibly relating to the boy's relationship with his own father, but that is speculation on my part). It being a dream does not necessarily mean none of it mattered; the game deals with a theme of imagining a better and kinder world, and I think that the boy imagines this kind of world in the first place says something, both about him and about how we interact with games as a whole. That last part specifically is also part of why the game ends with essentially saying Fake and Real Moon are too similar, with what Psycho is talking about. Moon definitely doesn't want you to get too involved with itself in a certain sense, but it's also a broader question than just Moon I think. This is a game made by Squaresoft employees who genuinely love and appreciate RPGs (Nishi has said Dragon Quest 3 is his favorite game), but they also made this game as an attempt to reimagine the RPG form to move away from the quantitative, combat strategizing gameplay of the genre, as well as their hero's journey type narrative, to emphasize the worlds and character interactions that those games hinted at. But Moon itself deals with having a quantity of something to "win the game" as well, with Love Levels, which in some sense would muddy the message to say "now you are a hero too, for collecting all this love to become strong enough to fix everything". Like Psycho said, I think they wanted to put the focus not on what happens, but what you've come to understand about everyone's stories /from/ getting their love, it's more about what is implied through them all than what is obvious. This is my second time seeing the ending of the game and I actually appreciate it more, especially with it in mind as I replayed. It is still really poignant to me with all the history attached to this game.
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Sep 2, 2020 21:31
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lets hang out posted:what do I need to do to get noge back together with his dad? the hint guy won't point me at anything else. i've shown him a gamestation. Yeah that one is kinda weird and not very intuitive, like a few lategame things. See what he does on the weekend (Echoday and Solarday). Then, if something happens and a certain person gets mentioned, follow that person the next day. e: Also you need Bilby's and possssibly Minister's love first, not totally sure about the latter though. Flac fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 07:19
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Share Bear posted:the echosday thing is probably also a pun with the onomatopoeia for rumbling/quaking (ドドド) so maybe quakesday or shakesday or something would be closer I did know about the reference to Japanese days of the week but Echoday always confused me, I had no idea that's what it's referring to! Thanks for clarifying!
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Sep 3, 2020 15:29
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I think one thing you can do for the fishing contest is sleep at your house on the morning of Echosday, get the sautee, then go to the contest before it's too late on Solarday. It seems the RNG is set in stone once morning of Solarday comes, so this is a way to savescum if you wanna go this route. Alternatively, maybe you can get the sautee FIRST on Echosday morning and then go to sleep before night comes?
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Sep 5, 2020 13:43
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Fancy Hat! posted:So I found the Minister in his bedroom, then I'd read a guide that mentioned he's looking for a book, and I'd grabbed it early, but now...The Minister is like, nowhere to be found? For the minister the latter may be true, check as far back into the castle as you can. For getting past Rainbow Rocks, check for another one of those Shyrocks in the area. Other than the one that moves aside when you first enter the area, and the one to the east that doesn't embarrass easily and won't move, there should be one more you can find. If you already know about that Shyrock and did the thing in that part of the map correctly, then that eastern Shyrock saw something truly embarrassing and moved aside.
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Sep 5, 2020 17:27
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Where the gently caress is the black myshroom? Check one of the mushrooms with multiple bridges connecting to it, it might be a yellow one. Most of the other myshrooms can be found at dead ends but I think this one is the exception?
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Sep 6, 2020 13:47
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The caps are also completely sold out last I heard!! Remember seeing that even Kimura couldn't secure one 
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Sep 7, 2020 01:59
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Sakurazuka posted:Follow the bird at night but make sure you have lots, I mean lots, of time left before you go travelling And also, once you do that, try talking to Yoshida at night again another time! I don't think the game tells you you can, but you definitely should.
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Sep 10, 2020 18:02
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The end of the game is definitely taking a big risk on seeing if you would get what it wanted you to do immediately, and it could backfire really bad. I think it's partly because the cursor starts on "YES", so some people don't hover over "NO", which would make the connection with "Open the door" and that choice more clear. So I guess my advice for others getting to the ending would be "when you have to make a choice, don't make it too quickly, and think about it carefully".
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Sep 23, 2020 15:22
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