To The Moon OST

4.5 hours of gameplay, 31 tracks and about 3 boxes of tissues.

I finished this game in a single sitting. I planned to only play for around ten minutes or so - you know, test the waters - but then the music happened. All of a sudden I was watching the end credits roll, allowing the piano to wash over me and openly shedding tears of manliness. When the final song ended, I remember leaning back in my seat, running a hand through my hair and thinking to myself (in a deeply introspective way): "what the fuck just happened?"

To The Moon is an indie RPG adventure game created by Kan "Reives" Gao and his small development team at Freebird Games. Released in November 2011 it shocked the gaming world, rising to internet fame in a matter of months. Bombarded by a number of awards such as "Indie Game of the Year" and Gamespot.com's "Best Story" (beating massive titles like Portal 2) it swiftly became the highest user-rated PC game of 2011 at Metacritic - a momentous achievement for such a small company. The soundtrack, composed by Gao himself, also found itself flung into the spotlight being nominated for highly prestigious awards such as "Best Music" and "Song of the Year". It's safe to say this game and its humble score are phenomenal in all senses of the word. 

It really came out of nowhere for me too. I was recommended it by a friend who didn't tell me anything but that 'it would change me' - whatever that meant. Having already perused some in-game screenshots and read the game bio I downloaded it with a clear set of expectations: it seemed like your standard cute little RPG developed on a cute little budget with a cute little story. However, from the moment the opening music started up I knew that this game was going to be something different.

The scenery and the music work hand in hand to deliver an atmosphere unlike any game I've ever played before.

Gao's piano emerges cautiously over the light house scenery; soon, encouraged by the tentative progression of soaring strings and emboldened by a gentle cymbal crescendo, it flutters into life alongside dreamlike pitch-bent synths and the childish twinklings of a distant music box. This harmonic succession, the lo-fi minimalist snares punctuating it and the subtle use of reverberation give the song a spacious, emotionally poignant character; it perfectly encapsulates the character of the game itself - cheerful, inspirational but somehow reclusive... somehow lonely. Gao manages to grasp something most composers often hint at but never quite achieve on such an honest level: a feeling of sadness which builds out of happiness, of pleasure blooming in pain. The kind of feeling I would imagine a parent has when their child leaves for school for the last time. In short, it provides the perfect musical stage for a game of such breathtaking emotional depth as this one.

Now don't get me wrong, Gao is as much a one dimensional composer as To The Moon is a is a one dimensional game. As soon as our two science-savvy protagonists make their grand entrance (crashing their car into a tree after running over a squirrel) Gao introduces us to the playful side of the score with the aptly named track Between a Squirrel and a Tree. The pizzicato violin hops around the almost melancholic strings and woodwinds with a very odd effect. The tone is at once humorous and mysterious; it straddles gamesome frivolity with a looming sense of mystery - the sort of music you'd hear in detective comedy. Well, a large part of the game is actually just that; with the track Bestest Detectives in the World we see this more than ever. The pizzicato is plucked to a carnivalistic time signature (om CHA, om CHA... - if that makes any sense at all) while the deep brass and piano staccatos provide the comic structure of the groove. When placed in context, surrounding the detective duo's witty banter or tongue-in-cheek insults, Gao's music really becomes the life of the party.  

In true post-modern fashion To The Moon is the haunting story of one man's life... told backwards.

Another interesting fact about his score is that it is sometimes actively vital to the comedy itself; there are certain jokes which simply cannot be executed without his accompanying music - something I don't think I've ever heard of in a game before this. Take Teddy for example... what is the first thing that comes to your mind listening to this? For me it brings back memories of long grasses blowing in the wind, of childhood strolls through nature and A WILD PIDGEY APPEARS. Teddy leaps at you with the force of a hundred past RPG games and while I don't want to spoil the joke (hint hint go play the game) it caught me off guard and had me buckled over with laughter.

The game is replete with intertextual comic material such as this (and it is all awesome) but it also important to note that it finds the time to make fun of itself. With tunes like Too Bad So Sad and Warning (AKA best track ever) Gao rips off the game's own sensationalism... the funny thing is that he really hits the mark. To The Moon and the high-strung orchestral lamentations which propel it are, in some cases, undeniably melodramatic and in-your-face. However, by making fun of his own work (both in music and in dialogue) Gao practically immunizes the game against such ridicules - a stroke of genius, or an unwitting bonus... you decide.

If you went with the "stroke of genius" answer you win one free internet. Gao is a clever composer; we see this again and again. This is most apparent, I think, in the fact the way he avoids simply superimposing the score onto story or violin over the visuals - one of the hardest things for a soundtrack to do; rather he blends them into a single cohesive whole and it is this which gives the game such character. For instance, the way his violin blends into the exact tonal note of Johnny's (main character) beeping heart monitor. The most beautiful scene of this nature was (for me of course) one where River, the love of Johnny's life, learns to ride a horse for the first time. Her caution quickly turns into delight as the horse takes off, galloping through the trees and flowering bushes of an abandoned park. Take Me Anywhere beautifully collaborates with the scene, encapsulating the thrill and freedom of it all not only through melody but the clever use of rhythm - that of a horse's gallop.

Reliving the memories of a dying man... sounds cheesy doesn't it? Well this is some seriously delicious cheese.

However it's not all fun, games and riding horses backwards (just play it already!)... To The Moon is, as Goa himself describes, a tragicomedy and as such the story and the music can become pretty heavy in some places. In the refrain of For River, which is written by Johnny himself, we find the first subtle hints of sadness (during gameplay) hiding in amongst the beautiful melodies of a love song. The sadness is faint and subdued but it is, I think, most definitely there - just as it is in the opening song. With Once Upon a Memory's pretty guitar work we find this sadness again peeking out from behind the score's romanticism. However, as the story becomes more overtly dramatic this well-crafted emotional duplicity breaks down; what we are left with are heart-rending, heavily reverberated piano pieces such as Born a Stranger and Once Upon a Memory (piano). It's songs like these that really kicked the story (and my lacrimal glands) into overdrive. By now Gao had me right where he wanted me: on the edge of my seat, ready to pull it out from under me.

It was Launch that did me in. I'm not going to explain how the song fits into the game (though it may be obvious) as it may give the story away. Suffice it to say that the awesome dancing of those frolicking strings, the simple but evocative guitar work and the combined crescendos of drums, chimes, cymbals and gongs all add up to a musical and emotional climax of unforgettable magnitude. And then, as if not quite satisfied with the internal upheaval of his audience, Gao turns back to the piano with a mellifluous vengeance. The scenery it accompanies seems to melt at his musical touch (either that or it was just impossible to focus through the tears) as the denouement heralds the most powerful of meanings through the softest of melodies; It is with this awful but oh so beautiful finality that the score sinks into the dark, silently dragging the game along with it.

The best thing about this game is that there is going to be a sequel. I can't wait.

I think you might've realized by now that this is as much an appeal as a review. In fact without anything bad to say beyond the self-negated criticism of "hurr it was melodramatic sometimes" it's safe to say this isn't even much of a review at all. Well, I tried my best but ultimately there was very little I could fault him for; Gao has become, in just 4.5 hours, one of my all time favorite composers (not to mention game developers) and I really think he deserves most if not all of the praise the internet has heaped on him these last few months. This review, whilst attempting to offer a clear personal perspective on his work, has really only grappled with the music in isolation - to truly grasp the beauty of the score and the narrative power it holds this is simply not enough. As with all good soundtracks you cannot divorce it from its foundations and expect it to amount to much - after all, what is icing without a cake to rest on?

The game and the bundled soundtrack can be purchased either from Steam or from his website for a measly 12$ and 50c. Whats more, half of his already limited proceeds (thanks to steam and the low sales price) go to directly to charities for autism. So, if you clearly have the time to go through the whole shlep of reading this bloated 'review' then surely taking 4.5 hours out of your life (and some pocket change out your wallet) is not going to do you any more harm - I implore you to go out and buy this game and the soundtrack. Artists as wonderful as Gao are not easy to come by and really deserve all the support they can get. In the end my friend was right - this game did change me. And now I want it to change you.

Personal rating: 9/10