Moon: Remix RPG Adventure

Last updated

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Moon - Remix RPG Adventure Coverart.png
Original cover
Developer(s) Love-de-Lic
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)
Artist(s) Kazuyuki Kurashima
Writer(s)
  • Yoshiro Kimura
  • Taro Kudo
Composer(s)
Platform(s)
ReleasePlayStation
  • JP: October 16, 1997
Nintendo Switch
  • JP: October 10, 2019
  • WW: August 27, 2020
Windows, PS4
  • WW: December 16, 2021
MacOS
  • WW: January 28, 2022
Genre(s) Role-playing, adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure [lower-alpha 1] is a role-playing adventure game developed by Love-de-Lic and first published in 1997 by ASCII Entertainment for the PlayStation in Japan. Moon is set within a fictional role-playing game where "the hero" has wreaked destruction, killing hundreds of creatures and looting homes. The player takes on the role of a supporting character in this world, attempting to undo the damage done by the hero. Moon has been praised by critics for how it parodies the conventions and tropes of role-playing games.

Contents

Although it was not officially localized for many years, it influenced Toby Fox for the design of his 2015 game Undertale . After speaking with Fox, original designer Yoshiro Kimura was inspired to localize Moon. [1] In 2019, Onion Games released a port for the Nintendo Switch, which was localized and published in Western territories in 2020, and later ported to Windows and PlayStation 4 in 2021, with a MacOS port arriving in early 2022.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot Moon Remix RPG screenshot.png
Gameplay screenshot

Time follows a set calendar that runs in real time. Solarday, a day-off, is the equivalent to Sunday. Crescenday is Monday, Blazeday is Tuesday, Tearsday is Wednesday, Leavesday is Thursday, Coinsday is Friday, and Echoday is like Saturday. The world's inhabitants (and the animal's souls, too) follow their own regular schedules each week. Hero leaves behind the corpses of the animals he has killed all over the world. Boy must catch the soul that manifests, whereupon the soul is whisked away to the Moon and the Boy obtains "Love". A soul appears during a certain time of day each week.

The player increases Boy's Love Level by discovering the secret wishes of Real Moon's people. Boy must then grant the idiosyncratic wishes of each person. Sometimes Love comes from readily apparent events, but there are secret and time-limited events Boy must fulfill. "Love" grows by levels. The player preserves progress by going to bed and entering a dream state. By leveling up Boy, the time he can exist in the world (his "action limit") increases. When Boy's "action limit" falls to zero, the player gets a game over. [2]

In the game, the player can change the background music at nearly any time. One can purchase or find "MoonDiscs" (M.D.), each of which grants one new song performed by commercial artists. Some locations, of course, have programmatic music. The player can also collect other special items. "Name cards" are cards featuring the in-game characters, which reveal information and hints about their background and wishes. "Chips" are integral to the game's story. They act as sacred texts that reveal the past, the present, and the future of Real Moon. The player must decide what to do based on the words and pictures featured on the chips.

Plot

Moon begins with the protagonist, a small boy, playing a new role-playing game (RPG) called "Moon" (a.k.a. "Fake Moon") on his "Gamestation". The game begins with the player controlling the Hero of Fake Moon in a 10-minute game-within-a-game, Fake Moon being something of a parody of Japanese RPGs (JRPGs) of the 16-bit era. [3] Convoluted JRPG stories are skewered by the minutes of a nonsensical backstory, which Boy skips through before the player can read it. Queen Aphrodite has been abducted and taken to the moon. The perpetrator, Dragon, will wreak millions of calamitous years upon the people of Love-De-Gard with her power. Yet, the people have produced a hero who must travel to Dragon Castle and destroy the beast. After playing through a few typical RPG scenes (random battles, an airship sequence, etc.), the boy is ordered by his mother to go to bed and obediently does so. However, the television on which he was just playing Fake Moon switches back on by itself, and the boy is sucked into the world of Moon, a land called "Love-de-Gard". Its people and its story resembles Fake Moon's.

Development

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure is the first of three games developed by Love-de-Lic, a game developer made up of former members of Square. After leaving Square, the group worked on the game ambitiously for over two years. [3] It was first previewed in Weekly Famitsu on May 23, 1997. [4] Moon was co-directed by Yoshiro Kimura, Taro Kudo, and Kenichi Nishi. [5] The game's backgrounds and maps were designed by Akira Ueda. Character and monster designs were handled by Kazuyuki Kurashima.

Music

The soundtrack to Moon was composed by over 30 independent Japanese musicians, perhaps the most prominent of which is The Thelonious Monkees, Love-de-Lic's internal name for its sound team, headed by Hirofumi Taniguchi. He would later compose music for Love-de-Lic's other games, as well the games from its spin-off companies. The game's musical score is a wide mix of genres ranging from pop music to traditional Japanese koto music, as well as having both instrumental and vocal tracks. One of the gameplay mechanics of Moon called the "MoonDisc" (MD) player even allows the person playing the game to arrange their own soundtrack with up to 36 pieces of music, for certain situations during the story. [6]

The first of Moon's soundtracks was released on a single disc in 1997 alongside the game itself, but many of the MD tracks were absent, most likely due to legal issues from the many artists that composed the music. [6] In December 2002, a three-disc set titled The Sketches of Moondays: We Kept Our Promise To You was released by Sten Och Flod and Underground Liberation Force Records. The set contains all of the game's music in a total of 63 tracks. [6] One of its tracks, "Promise", was remixed for the 2001 Melody of Legend: Chapter of Love compilation disc. [7] In 2006, Olio Music, an online music store, re-published both albums, as well as releasing two compilation albums: one containing arranged music from the game, and one containing new music composed by the "MoonDisc" artists. [8] [9] [10] [11]

Release

The game was first released for PlayStation on October 16, 1997, and was re-released as part of the PlayStation the Best line on November 5, 1998.[ citation needed ] A companion book titled Moon: Official Book was also released by ASCII. Another book titled Tsukiyo No Aho Dori: Moon Side Story was released by Jugemu Books. It features a story by Yoshiro Kimura and illustrations by Kazuyuki Kurashima. [12]

Moon was featured prominently at ASCII's E3 booth in 1997 with plans to release the game internationally the following year, but ASCII canceled localization plans later that year. [13] [14] English fan translations were attempted but never completed. [15] [16]

Modern port

In the Japanese Nintendo Direct in September 2019, Yoshiro Kimura's development studio Onion Games announced a Nintendo Switch port of the game, which was released in Japan on October 10 of that year. [17] Afterwards, the studio said via Twitter that this version would receive an English localization, to be released in Western regions some time after the Japanese release. [18] Tim Rogers, formerly of Kotaku, was a writer of the English translation. [19] It was released worldwide on August 27, 2020. [20] This version was later released worldwide for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 on December 16, 2021, [21] and MacOS on January 28, 2022. [22]

Reception

In 2000, Famitsu listed Moon in its top 120 PlayStation games of all time for scoring 32 out of 40. [30]

Legacy

Moon was praised for its innovation breaking the norm of conventional role-playing games, parodying many aspects of the genre itself. [2] [3] [31] It has been described as an "anti-RPG" for the way it subverts RPG tropes. [32] The premise of Moon is considered to be ahead of its time. It is an early example of the Isekai genre of Japanese fantasy fiction, with its plot involving the protagonist being sucked into the fantasy-themed virtual world of a role-playing game. [33] The game's designer and writer, Yoshiro Kimura, went on to create Chulip (2002) and Little King's Story (2009), and founded the indie game studio Onion Games. [32]

Indie developer Toby Fox cited Moon as a major inspiration behind his 2015 role-playing video game Undertale . While he had not actually played the game because it was in Japanese, he was inspired by the game's concepts. He noted that Moon was "an adventure game where you enter the world of an RPG where a 'Hero' has caused havoc" and "the point of the game is to repair the damage the 'Hero' caused and increase your LV" (Love Level) "by helping people instead of hurting them". [34] [35]

Notes

  1. ↑ Japanese: ムーンリミックスRPGアドベンチャー, Hepburn: Moon Rimikkusu RPG Adobencha

Related Research Articles

Square Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game development studio and publisher. It was founded in 1986 by Masafumi Miyamoto, who spun off part of his father's electronics company Den-Yu-Sha. Among its early employees were designers Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu and Koichi Ishii, artist Kazuko Shibuya, programmer Nasir Gebelli, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. Initially focusing on action games, the team saw popular success with Final Fantasy in 1987. A role-playing video game, it became the first in a franchise of the same name. Later notable staff included directors Yoshinori Kitase and Takashi Tokita, designer and writer Yasumi Matsuno, artists Tetsuya Nomura and Yusuke Naora, and composers Yoko Shimomura and Masashi Hamauzu.

<i>Final Fantasy IV</i> 1991 video game

Final Fantasy IV, titled Final Fantasy II in its initial North American release, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1991, it is the fourth main installment of the Final Fantasy series. The game's story follows Cecil, a dark knight, as he tries to prevent the sorcerer Golbez from seizing powerful crystals and destroying the world. He is joined on this quest by a frequently changing group of allies. Final Fantasy IV introduced innovations that became staples of the Final Fantasy series and role-playing games in general. Its "Active Time Battle" system was used in five subsequent Final Fantasy games, and unlike prior games in the series, IV gave each character their own unchangeable character class — although at a few points in the story, a dark knight will choose the path of a paladin, or a summoner will evolve to a new tier of spellcasting.

<i>Super Mario RPG</i> 1996 video game

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a 1996 role-playing game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was the final Mario game published for the SNES. The game was directed by Chihiro Fujioka and Yoshihiko Maekawa, produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, and scored by Yoko Shimomura.

<i>Mana</i> (series) Video game series

The Mana series, known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu, is a high fantasy action role-playing game series created by Koichi Ishii, with development formerly from Square, and is currently owned by Square Enix. The series began in 1991 as Final Fantasy Adventure, a Game Boy handheld side story to Square's flagship franchise Final Fantasy. The Final Fantasy elements were subsequently dropped starting with the second installment, Secret of Mana, in order to become its own series. It has grown to include games of various genres within the fictional world of Mana, with recurring stories involving a world tree, its associated holy sword, and the fight against forces that would steal their power. Several character designs, creatures, and musical themes reappear frequently.

<i>Secret of Mana</i> 1993 video game

Secret of Mana, originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 2, is a 1993 action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sequel to the 1991 game Seiken Densetsu, released in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure and in Europe as Mystic Quest, and it was the first Seiken Densetsu title to be marketed as part of the Mana series rather than the Final Fantasy series. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to prevent an empire from conquering the world with the power of an ancient flying fortress.

<i>Dragon Quest</i> (video game) 1986 video game

Dragon Quest, titled Dragon Warrior when initially localized to North America, is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released in Japan in 1986 and by Nintendo in North America in 1989. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest video game series. Dragon Quest has been ported and remade for several video game platforms, including the MSX, MSX2, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, mobile phones, and Nintendo Switch as of 2019. The player controls the hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. Dragon Warrior's story became the second part in a trilogy, with several spinoff anime and manga series.

Kenji Ito, also known by the nickname Itoken (イトケン), is a Japanese video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work on the Mana and SaGa series, though he has worked on over 30 video games throughout his career as well as composed or arranged music for over 15 other albums, concerts, and plays. He learned to play several instruments at a young age, and joined Square directly out of college as a composer in 1990 at the advice of a professor. He worked there for over a decade, composing many of his best-known scores. In 2001, he left Square to become a freelance composer, but has since continued to collaborate with the company.

<i>SaGa Frontier</i> 1997 video game

SaGa Frontier is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation. The game was published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEA) in North America on March 25, 1998. It is the seventh game in the SaGa series, and the first to be released on the PlayStation. It is also the first in the series to be released under the SaGa brand outside Japan; previous overseas releases had used the Final Fantasy brand instead. A remastered version featuring additional characters, events and features was released on April 15, 2021 for Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows.

<i>Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure</i> 1998 video game

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the PlayStation. Released in 1998, it is the first installment in the Rhapsody series. A version for the Nintendo DS was released in Japan and North America in 2008, and in PAL regions in 2009. The game was released for Nintendo Switch as part of the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 compilation in western regions, and for Windows as a standalone game worldwide in 2022. The game's story focuses on a young girl named Cornet as she seeks to rescue a prince after being turned to stone by a witch.

<i>Dragon Warrior Monsters 2</i> Role-playing video game

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, known in Japan as Dragon Quest Monsters 2, is a role-playing video game published by Enix for the Game Boy Color. It is the second Dragon Warrior Monsters game for the Game Boy Color and features two different versions of the same game, Cobi's Journey and Tara's Adventure. Both games were remade in 2002 for the PlayStation in a compilation game called Dragon Quest Monsters 1+2 and released only in Japan. The Nintendo 3DS version combined both games into one and was released only in Japan in 2014 with the title Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca's Marvelous Mysterious Key. The 3DS version was later brought to iOS, Android on August 6, 2020, in Japan.

The music of the video game Final Fantasy IV was composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu. The Final Fantasy IV Original Sound Version, a compilation of almost all of the music in the game, was released by Square Co./NTT Publishing, and subsequently re-released by NTT Publishing. It was released in North America by Tokyopop as Final Fantasy IV Official Soundtrack: Music from Final Fantasy Chronicles, with one additional track. It has since been re-released multiple times with slight changes as part of the Final Fantasy Finest Box and as Final Fantasy IV DS OST. An arranged album entitled Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon, containing a selection of musical tracks from the game performed in the style of Celtic music by Máire Breatnach, was released by Square and later re-released by NTT Publishing. Additionally, a collection of piano arrangements composed by Nobuo Uematsu and played by Toshiyuki Mori titled Piano Collections Final Fantasy IV was released by NTT Publishing.

Kenichi Nishi is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).

Love-de-Lic, Inc. was a Japanese video game developer created by Kenichi Nishi in 1995. Many of its personnel were former Square employees. The firm folded in 2000 after creating three games. Many employees went on to work for other small and independent gaming businesses, including skip Ltd., Vanpool, and Punchline.

<i>UFO: A Day in the Life</i> 1999 video game

UFO: A Day in the Life is an adventure puzzle game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment for the PlayStation exclusively in Japan.

<i>L.O.L.: Lack of Love</i> 2000 video game

L.O.L: Lack Of Love is an evolutionary life simulation game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Corporation for the Sega Dreamcast. The game was released only in Japan on November 2, 2000. The game was never exported to the West but it received a fan translation in 2020.

The Mother series is a role-playing video game series created by Shigesato Itoi for Nintendo. The series started in 1989 with the Japan-only release of Mother, which was followed up by Mother 2, released as EarthBound outside Japan, for the Super NES in 1994. A second sequel was released in Japan only, Mother 3, for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. The music of the Mother series includes the soundtracks to all three games; the first game was composed for by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, who were joined by Hiroshi Kanazu for the second game, while Mother 3's score was written by Shogo Sakai.

While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia have come from Japan, many video games have also arisen in China, developed in South Korea, and Taiwan.

Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child named Frisk who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Deltarune is a role-playing video game developed by Toby Fox. The player controls a human teenager, Kris, who is destined to save the world together with Susie, a monster, and Ralsei, a prince from the Dark World. During their quest to seal the Dark Fountains prophesied to end the world, the group makes both friends and foes. The combat system is turn-based and uses bullet hell mechanics. Similar to Undertale, enemy encounters can be resolved peacefully or through violence.

<i>Undertale Soundtrack</i> 2015 soundtrack album by Toby Fox

Undertale Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Toby Fox, released in 2015 for the video game Undertale.

References

  1. ↑ Klepek, Patrick (August 31, 2020). "A Game Without Killing: The Story of Moon's 22-Year Journey to Leave Japan". www.vice.com.
  2. 1 2 3 Lipschultz, Thomas (May 14, 2006). "RPGFan Reviews - Moon". RPGFan. RPGFan Media, LLC. Archived from the original on May 14, 2007. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 Bruno de Figueiredo. "LOVE-de-LIC". GameSpy.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Weekly Famitsu ~ May 23, 1997 ~". NCSX.com. May 23, 1997. Archived from the original on November 20, 2006. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
  5. ↑ "伝説のRPG『moon』20年目の同窓会──ラブデリックメンバーが語る、ディレクター3人という奇跡のような開発スタイル…そして「あのころ」の始まりと終わり【座談会】". Denfamico Gamer. October 30, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Wyrdwad. "RPGFan Soundtracks - The Sketches of Moondays: We Kept Our Promise To You". RPGFan.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Melody of Legend ~ Chapter of Dream". Chudahs-Corner.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  8. ↑ "close up #005 Moon Sound Track "Mburrn"". Olio-Music.jp. Archived from the original on February 19, 2007. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
  9. ↑ "close up #007 Moon Sound Track "Mburrn" vol. 2". Olio-Music.jp. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
  10. ↑ "close up #009 Moon Sound Track "Mburrn" vol. 3". Olio-Music.jp. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
  11. ↑ "close up #011 "Mburrn" presents Ten Years After". Olio-Music.jp. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
  12. ↑ 月夜の阿呆鳥―Moon side story (じゅげむBOOKS) (単行本). ASIN   4889914994.
  13. ↑ IGN staff (October 7, 1997). "Ascii Drops RPG". IGN.com. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  14. ↑ IGN Staff (August 4, 1997). "Ascii Speaks". IGN.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  15. ↑ Sgeos. "Unofficial Moon Translation Project". Sennue.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure PSX Translation". Archived from the original on January 9, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  17. ↑ moon [Nintendo Direct 2019.9.5], archived from the original on September 5, 2019, retrieved September 5, 2019
  18. ↑ @oniongames (September 4, 2019). "It's true! Onion Games is bringing the cult-classic 'anti-RPG' MOON to the Nintendo Switch" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ Kohler, Chris (September 16, 2019). "22 Years Later, A Major Milestone For RPGs Is Finally Coming West". Kotaku. Archived from the original on September 16, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2019.
  20. ↑ Romano, Sal (July 29, 2020). "Moon for Switch launches August 27 in the west". Gematsu. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  21. ↑ "moon for PC launches December 16". Gematsu. December 15, 2021.
  22. ↑ "HEY APPLE FANS: Have you been wanting to Experience the Love?". Twitter. January 28, 2022.
  23. ↑ "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure". Metacritic . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 5, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  24. ↑ Andriessen, CJ. "Review: Moon". Destructoid. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on September 5, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  25. ↑ "'97年 - MOON". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 379. ASCII Corporation. December 26, 1997. p. 137.
  26. ↑ Kemps, Heidi. "Moon Review – The Bright Side". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  27. ↑ Vogel, Mitch (September 5, 2020). "Review: Moon - This "Anti-RPG" Shows Its Age, But Is Still Worth A Look". Nintendo Life . Nlife Media. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  28. ↑ Ronaghan, Neal. "Moon Review - Review". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  29. ↑ Parsons, Isaac (October 28, 2020). "Moon (Review Platform: Nintendo Switch)". RPGFan. RPGFan Media, LLC. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  30. ↑ "Top 120 Famitsu". Gaming-Age.com. June 2000. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  31. ↑ Klepek, Patrick (March 3, 2003). "Giftpia Preview for GameCube - Gaming Age". Gaming-Age.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2003. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  32. 1 2 "Remix RPG Adventure moon revived for Nintendo Switch after 22 years, for the first time in English!". Gamasutra . September 5, 2019. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  33. ↑ Kim, Matt T.M. (September 5, 2019). "Cult Classic PS1 'Anti-RPG' Moon Is Coming to the Nintendo Switch in English". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  34. ↑ Oxford, Nadia (August 28, 2020). "The Story of Moon, the "Anti-RPG" That Inspired Undertale". USgamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  35. ↑ Fox, Toby (November 17, 2017). "I want to mention another inspiration for UNDERTALE". Twitter . Archived from the original on September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.