To the Moon

 Switch
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 68
  3. Negative: 10 out of 68
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  1. Breikzer
    Mar 15, 2020
    9
    Increíble historia, el juego por si solo es algo lento y tiene muy pocas oportunidades de Gameplay verdadero, pero si eres del tipo de gamer que no es ansioso o no le gustan puros juegos de acción definitivamente te recomiendo este hermoso juego. En verdad vale la pena.
  2. Daitya
    Apr 4, 2021
    10
    No sé cuantas veces he llorado con este juego. Es una historia emotiva acompañada de música que te hará caer las lágrimas aunque intentes contenerte. De los mejores juegos que he jugado y también de los más cortos. Son 5 horas pero menudas 5 horas, hasta terminarlo no vas a poder dejarlo.
  3. Poliuyeras
    Mar 31, 2020
    10
    In my personal opinión, this game gave me a good moment, i cried around 4 times cause the history really made me feel like doing so and it has an unexpected end that at any way could have been better, the only problem would be the time of the game, but its an RPG maker game and also is a 2011 game. Even so my opinion is a 10/10
  4. acousticnic
    Jun 10, 2020
    9
    OMG this is amazing! Obviously the usual comments like I cried. Maybe I am a sucker for narrative driven 'games' (visual novels) but the way this game deals with time and ageing is clever. We are just memento-carriers and precipitates of our past; equally, our past dreams burden us with their weight. This has such pureness and is surely the least cynical game in the world. In the abundantOMG this is amazing! Obviously the usual comments like I cried. Maybe I am a sucker for narrative driven 'games' (visual novels) but the way this game deals with time and ageing is clever. We are just memento-carriers and precipitates of our past; equally, our past dreams burden us with their weight. This has such pureness and is surely the least cynical game in the world. In the abundant days of offhand sarcasm and stilted nonchalance, this game is just pouring with passion and sentiment. Love it but the gameplay is a bit crappy.… Expand
  5. benrg11
    Jul 7, 2020
    9
    Great story with an amazing soundtrack, if you want a truly impactful narrative experience this is the game you will want to play.
  6. SuperkenGaming
    Aug 20, 2021
    9
    To The Moon
    Here comes the tears.
    To the Moon is a 4 and a half hour long narrative adventure about a man who loses his wife, a couple years have passes, he is now on his death bed, and he has one final wish.. to go to the moon. He cant remember why, but this is all he wants.. so he hires an agency to come in and help him do just that.. and to do that they go into his memories and slowly    To The Moon
    Here comes the tears.
    To the Moon is a 4 and a half hour long narrative adventure about a man who loses his wife, a couple years have passes, he is now on his death bed, and he has one final wish.. to go to the moon. He cant remember why, but this is all he wants.. so he hires an agency to come in and help him do just that.. and to do that they go into his memories and slowly go back in time one memory at a time to push him on the path to joining nasa… here youll be reliving Johns life through the eyes of these two agents.. Niel and Eva.. aand their banter is hilarious, theres tons of humor here to be found across this emotional journey, theyre here just doing job, but you cant help but get attached to the love store.. unplaying out right infront of your eyes, from his last moments with his wife River, to their marriage, their first date.. the story telling here is amazing.. in each memory you have a goal, find mementos.. items that can take you deeper and deeper into Johns memories, once you find 5, you can then solve a simple picture puzzle to use that item and go back.. over and over and over, until you can finally get to the right moment to put him on his path to going to the moon..
    If to the moon a little too drawn out thouh? Yeah.. I wouldn’t cut too much from this game, but there are definitely moments here and there that could’ve been tightened up, and going through the larger memories in general just isn’t really enjoyable.. the hcarcters move pretty slowly, and youre not realy sure what you should be interacting with, youre kinda just going up to everything in sight, wondering what is it im missing, to make matters worse, though rare.. there are a couple of items where you have to be in the perfect spot to interact with it… for example the table in the beginning, he elevator towards the end.. or even walking of the stairs to the liht house in one sequence..
    Negatives aside, To the Moon is a beautiful game made even more beautiful with updated visuals, and a story guaranteed to make you cry at least twice..
    I give to the moon
    an 8.5/10    … Expand
  7. Diablo4
    Jun 13, 2020
    10
    Nice pixel-art

    + Beautiful music (though only MIDI) - Terrible, clunky controls. You constantly get stuck on objects, you can't move diagonally, your character doesn't go up stairs normally, you can't exit screens if you're not in exactly the right spot etc. etc. Seeing as walking around and looking at stuff is basically the whole game, this is pretty terrible. - Absolutely    Nice pixel-art

    + Beautiful music (though only MIDI)

    - Terrible, clunky controls. You constantly get stuck on objects, you can't move diagonally, your character doesn't go up stairs normally, you can't exit screens if you're not in exactly the right spot etc. etc. Seeing as walking around and looking at stuff is basically the whole game, this is pretty terrible.

    - Absolutely unacceptable load times for very small and simple 2D environments! I'm talking several seconds just for entering another room in the house!! Are you f**king kidding me??

    - As other people mentioned, this seems to have been poorly translated into English. I first thought the problem was with the German version and switched to English, but that wasn't any better unfortunately. Sadly, I can't speak Japanese or whatever language this game was written in...

    - Cringe-worthy writing in general. All the dialogue and story just comes across like a teenager wrote it, working with a 15-year-old's idea of how people talk and behave, emotional "depth", tragedy, mental illness, sarcasm and humorous banter, just everything. The two protagonists are deeply unlikeable tw*ts. The male character especially was probably the writer's idea of a quickwitted smartass, but just comes across like a total a**hole.

    Seeing as this is a very story-driven game, the last point is basically the nail in the coffin. Save your money, everybody. Collapse    … Expand
  8. DahGecko
    Mar 10, 2020
    10
    If you enjoy heartfelt stories, twists, like-able characters, and a beautiful OST, you will enjoy the time you spend with To The Moon. It's as simple as that.

    Not sure what some of the other reviews are talking about in terms of translation. The game was written by Kan Gao in English and was translated to other languages. On top of that some of the "dated references" are due to the face    If you enjoy heartfelt stories, twists, like-able characters, and a beautiful OST, you will enjoy the time you spend with To The Moon. It's as simple as that.

    Not sure what some of the other reviews are talking about in terms of translation. The game was written by Kan Gao in English and was translated to other languages. On top of that some of the "dated references" are due to the face that this game came out in 2011 and this is simply a port.    … Expand
  9. SuperConan
    Feb 10, 2020
    10
    a heartfelt pixelated tale. this is a great top down pixel story adventure. Kan Gao really did wonders with this one! this game definitely gives you "the feels"!
  10. jfranklin
    Jan 20, 2020
    4
    I had high hopes when I heard about To the Moon, but unfortunately I found it rather disappointing. It has a great ending, but getting there is a slog - mostly due to the poor pacing, dull gameplay, and cringe-worthy dialogue (the author or translator does not appear to be a native english speaker, and most of the "jokes" are dated references that fall flat and keep getting repeated).I had high hopes when I heard about To the Moon, but unfortunately I found it rather disappointing. It has a great ending, but getting there is a slog - mostly due to the poor pacing, dull gameplay, and cringe-worthy dialogue (the author or translator does not appear to be a native english speaker, and most of the "jokes" are dated references that fall flat and keep getting repeated).

    The experience is salvaged by some story beats towards the end, and a nice soundtrack, particularly the song "Everything's Alright" played over an emotional sequence. But the overall game, especially with the bugginess of the Switch version, was a chore to get through, and I can't recommend it.    … Expand
  11. B-Bog
    Feb 2, 2020
    1
    + Nice pixel-art

    + Beautiful music (though only MIDI) - Terrible, clunky controls. You constantly get stuck on objects, you can't move diagonally, your character doesn't go up stairs normally, you can't exit screens if you're not in exactly the right spot etc. etc. Seeing as walking around and looking at stuff is basically the whole game, this is pretty terrible. - Absolutely    + Nice pixel-art

    + Beautiful music (though only MIDI)

    - Terrible, clunky controls. You constantly get stuck on objects, you can't move diagonally, your character doesn't go up stairs normally, you can't exit screens if you're not in exactly the right spot etc. etc. Seeing as walking around and looking at stuff is basically the whole game, this is pretty terrible.

    - Absolutely unacceptable load times for very small and simple 2D environments! I'm talking several seconds just for entering another room in the house!! Are you f**king kidding me??

    - As other people mentioned, this seems to have been poorly translated into English. I first thought the problem was with the German version and switched to English, but that wasn't any better unfortunately. Sadly, I can't speak Japanese or whatever language this game was written in...

    - Cringe-worthy writing in general. All the dialogue and story just comes across like a teenager wrote it, working with a 15-year-old's idea of how people talk and behave, emotional "depth", tragedy, mental illness, sarcasm and humorous banter, just everything. The two protagonists are deeply unlikeable tw*ts. The male character especially was probably the writer's idea of a quickwitted smartass, but just comes across like a total a**hole.

    Seeing as this is a very story-driven game, the last point is basically the nail in the coffin. Save your money, everybody.    … Expand
  12. Crobi
    Jan 17, 2020
    6
    To the Moon has a good story, but the game itself has a few major immersion-breaking and badly designed elements. it's a good story in a badly made game. First off, I don't know if this game was translated into English or was written in it originally, but there are a fair amount of times when there are common phrases said wrong, or dialogue between characters doesn't fully make sense. OneTo the Moon has a good story, but the game itself has a few major immersion-breaking and badly designed elements. it's a good story in a badly made game. First off, I don't know if this game was translated into English or was written in it originally, but there are a fair amount of times when there are common phrases said wrong, or dialogue between characters doesn't fully make sense. One example (spoiler-free) was when the old man and his wife were talking about "her" and immediately after the playable characters reference "her" by her name and mention how the couple did, despite it not happening. I also personally wasn't a fan of how they handled a condition of one of the main characters. One of the player characters often references "people with that condition" and it comes off as a bit tone-deaf and against what the game is trying to say.

    Onto the gameplay itself. First off, I noticed often (I didn't notice this on pc, but it was an issue on switch), the player character would randomly move on its own. I thought this was my joycon drifting, but I tried 2 different joycons as well as a pro controller and it happened with all of them, but when I closed to the Nintendo Switch home menu it didn't happen proving that it was an in-game issue. There was also a lot of times where a character would stand still and could not be moved. Usually, this happened after an event, but it took a good second or so before the character could move again. These pauses were a fair bit longer than any other rpg maker game I've played and it messed with the pacing of the game. Also if you loaded a chapter, sometimes a character would slide across the screen to their where they're supposed to be. Another thing is if you walk all the way up to an object you can't change direction, you have to walk away and walk up to it again in the correct direction. i've never seen this happen in an rpg maker game before and made selecting objects a bit weird.

    Another issue with the game design itself is where you colled some sort of orbs? They light up at the bottom of the screen and then they fill up a bar in sections at the bottom. The issue is that the orbs are different colours and have a set order, so if you collect the green one and it's third in the order it will light up, but the first section of the bar underneath the first orb will light up. it can make it confusing as when you look the last orb will be lit up, but the bar won't be full and it just makes it confusing.

    The worst issue of all though is that for me at least, the game crashes after the credits and before the scene at the end. It's happened three times (I restarted my switch and redownloaded the game) and it still happens. I had to look up a youtube video to see the ending of the game.

    Overall I'd give the story a 7.5/10, but the terrible controls (which I believe are a switch only issue as I don't remember this happening on pc) and the fact I am unable to see the end of the game make me give the game a 6/10.    … Expand
  13. prettykitty100
    Jan 24, 2020
    1
    Normally, I like games that are story-centric, even at the cost of gameplay. And To The Moon is one of those story-centric games. But this game blows. The story sucks; it's really schmaltzy. The gameplay was minimal and tedious. I spent the whole game (which lasts several hours) wondering when it was going to get good. I'm very puzzled by the positive reviews this game has gotten. It wasNormally, I like games that are story-centric, even at the cost of gameplay. And To The Moon is one of those story-centric games. But this game blows. The story sucks; it's really schmaltzy. The gameplay was minimal and tedious. I spent the whole game (which lasts several hours) wondering when it was going to get good. I'm very puzzled by the positive reviews this game has gotten. It was totally unenjoyable for me.… Expand
  14. autumn77
    Jan 27, 2021
    2
    Just watch a playthrough on 1.5x speed. The controls are clunky, and their minigame attempts at making this something other than a walking simulator just make it more miserable to complete. Objectives are unclear, with no visual indication of what arbitrary objects (most of which contribute nothing to the story) you're supposed to click to progress the story. Cutscene art is blurry andJust watch a playthrough on 1.5x speed. The controls are clunky, and their minigame attempts at making this something other than a walking simulator just make it more miserable to complete. Objectives are unclear, with no visual indication of what arbitrary objects (most of which contribute nothing to the story) you're supposed to click to progress the story. Cutscene art is blurry and dominates the game yet somehow managed to be the best part of the experience. This should've been a film.… Expand
  15. Turbotegs
    Oct 16, 2020
    1
    Terrible clunky controls and truly awful object collision detection spoilt the experience.
  16. Nintendist
    Jun 29, 2022
    0
    this game has a terrible gameplay. the soundtrack is very frustrating. why this game sounds like these
  17. JHarley17
    Nov 1, 2021
    10
    Absolutely loved this game, I call it crying in reverse. The ending could have been a bit better but overall the story was great. If your not a story driven person, maybe not for you. Or if you are a young pup expecting intense graphics. The game is phenomenal for what it is. And the soundtrack is fire
  18. Legrand
    Jun 30, 2021
    10
    Gran juego 2 creado con rpk maker, una gran historia y una bso espectacular, con poco se puede hacer mucho

Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Best Switch Game of 2020
61
#61 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 16, 2020
    90
    After 9 years, To the Moon still brings tears to our eyes.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Feb 18, 2020
    90
    I may be some nine years late to this party but I’ll reiterate the opinions of countless reviewers before me – To the Moon is a writing excellence and most of all – a truly unique experience. [03/2020, p.64]
  3. Noisy Pixel
    Feb 12, 2020
    90
    It could have easily punched below the belt with some of its themes but was able to stave off dreariness in favor of a heartfelt story that has you think about the moments in life that matter. The only question left is if they can find paradise? Oh, wait, that’s the sequel.
    Read full review
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