Moonlight Walks - Review

Originally sent in a PM to Py'Tom in Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:43 am (altered)

Just remembering Moonlight walks already brings very fond, and somewhat nostalgic feelings within me, as it was my first Ren’Py game (my first English VN being Tales of Lemma) and it was a very good beginning in my opinion.
First, the presentation: Py'Tom really used many different features of Ren’Py to enhance the game, which is appropriate since it was supposed to be a demonstration of Ren’Py, but none of the effects feels wasted or awkward. They all were really well used, and added a certain uniqueness to the game. The menu, the textbox, everything fits the wonderful, and slightly melancholic, atmosphere of the game.
Which brings me to the second point: the atmosphere. It’s simply one of the best ever in all the VNs I’ve ever read. The sound of waves fits the theme of the game. I think the sound of waves in the background actually enhances a feeling of silence in the game. Even so, when the waves stop (in the sunrise scenes) you feel the difference in the atmosphere, a certain tension that fits well with the mood of both scenes. The pan from the night sky to the moon and ocean at the introduction of the game is brilliant and the artwork, while no masterpieces, worked very well. I think the backgrounds were especially well done and the change in Mary when it’s almost sunrise is a very nice touch indeed. Artwork, music and writing: all help creating the wonderful atmosphere of the game: a feeling of loneliness and at the same time hope, with a bit of romance and tragedy for good measure. The heartbeat soundtrack at the “Together, into the light” ending works wonders, especially when it stops and there is a moment of silence… And you know the character is dead. But that brings me to one very important statement: of all the paths the best, and most cohesive one, is without a shadow of doubt the fourth one (Together, into the light) and all the other endings pale in comparison to it. But that is for topic number 3.
The story. And here comes one of my most heavy criticisms of the game: the other endings. The first two endings are basically a variation of “bang, you’re dead” endings. They were fairly ok, since they finished with tentative hooks that left the player wanting to see the real ending of the game, but they didn’t add anything to the story. Now ending three is, in my opinion, the biggest defect of the whole game (actually this is some kind of praise, since I usually find many other, much more serious, in the average game). The third ending is, at best, an interesting alternate ending, and at worst a distraction and a “mood spoiler”. Let me explain: When I first played Moonlight walks I got endings 1, 2, 3 and 4 in exactly that order. When I reached ending three the mood lightened up considerably, loosing some of its wonderful atmosphere for an “easy way out” ending and, worse of all, closed the story for me. When I reached the ending, even knowing there was still another ending to go, I said to myself “Okay, this story’s finished.” In a more-less subconscious way. I actually stopped playing to do something and decided afterwards to go back and play ending 4 from a saved game. That’s when I was blown away. That’s when the story REALLY revealed itself fully to me. I’ve just played it again before finishing this review and path 4 really carries the whole mood of the game from beginning to end without faltering one bit. It’s complete, in a sense. But I understand why Py'Tom put the choices there, and here we arrive at one of the big dilemmas in game-making: do we sacrifice the impact of the story ( both in mood and in quality ) to give the player more choices, more challenge and more freedom? Or do we concentrate only on the paths that really matter, even if that reduces us to only one path and effectively turns our game into a story, or a Kinetic story in VN language? I shall leave the question hanging in the air, shall I? Every game maker should decide the best answer for them, but I still hold the view that ending three could be cut out with little impact to the rest of the game (and the impact would be mostly positive, in MY own very biased opinion).
Well, that pretty much covers the whole game… Moonlight Walks will always hold a special place in my gallery of played games, being one of the first and one of the best. It was a big encouragement to me in both seeking the other games of the Ren’ai archives and making my own game and its author deserves congratulations for creating this wonderful game entirely by himself.

Review by Mr. E