Posted Under: All Episodes

To The Moon is the first ever videogame I finished completely —in my entire life, at 26 years old. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my little brother. We did it all in one Sunday afternoon, livestreamed on Twitch. It took us 6 hours, and I loved every moment of it. My cat also thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon as I was 100% sedentary. She sat right next to the warm computer tower as my husband Thomas shuffled cups of warm tea every hour or so. The memory is incredibly special and nostalgic, and ironically provided me a sense of escapism and relief — the very sentiment the game seeks to critique. As the main character, John, heavily copes with life’s trauma using unhealthy escapism. John opts to take memory deleting beta blocker pills, that turn John into an empty husk of a man to mask his pain and discomfort. Though he doesn’t remember his childhood truama, he also doesn’t remember his desires, hobbies, or childhood friends.

Games usually give you an avenue in life where your actions within a game directly advances you toward a set of goals, wherein life rarely has that. And this is where “To The Moon” differs from most. There’s some nuance in our goals, and there’s failure in our mission because the game doesn’t focus on being winnable; but instead, “To the Moon” explores the real implications of changing your life’s direction, and the consequences and sacrifice that comes with life’s choices.

This game broke my heart. There is no real villain, hero, or true happy or sad ending. Everyone of these characters simply did their best, and it's a bleak reminder that's just how life is. And John reminds us that sometimes, life gets so painful, and you spent so much time just trying to cope, that you don’t even remember why you ever had a dream in the first place. John never finds what truly makes him happy, because he never had the motivation to live a content life, but he did have the ability to escape life’s discomfort through medicine, and we explore the consequences of those choices with the video essay below.

To the Moon is a wonderfully timeless simple gaming masterpiece that both non-gamers and gamers alike are sure to either fall in love with, or at least, appreciate it’s charm.

On a Personal Note:

In 2020 after graduating from my International Relations Masters Degree program, I found myself with tons more free time than I was comfortable with. After 5 years in school with the seemingly endless sleepless nights studying combined with the months crammed full of unpaid internships, I needed to find something to keep my mind busy after graduating, but this time, in a fun way. My little brother is super into gaming, so I asked him to give me some suggestions as I was never much of a gamer growing up. He suggested an old classic game; “To The Moon”. Not only did he say this game made him cry, but it had a cute 8-bit style similar to the older Pokemon games. I was easily sold on that description. I combined my newfound hobbies of gaming and content creation to make; AdventureWithMe.

This video marks my very first attempt at a video essay originally posted onto my HewwoReese YouTube Channel. A whole year before I started my AdventureWithMe YouTube channel. So, I oddly and very awkwardly uploaded a video essay onto a YouTube channel that was exclusively for gaming highlights— and it was a bad move, but I didn’t know it at the time. My video essay content on the original HewwoReese gaming channel amassed around 10k views in around 7 months, but my viewer—>subscriber pipeline was absolutely atrocious, and understandably so, as my channel was extremely confusing. There would be a meme review one week and an analytical breakdown of Bo Burnham’s “How The World Works” next. So I had to bite the bullet, take the loss, and separate the channel. Though it hurt to start out fresh, I’m glad to feel as if my content is much more organized. I finally had decided the seperation. On the HewwoReese YouTube & Twitch channel, we just play games.

On my dedicated AdventureWithMe channel we analyze them. On AdventureWithMe, we look at creations and experiences in art, popular media, music, & of course, videogames to explore exactly WHY we think the way we think, question what we believe, and learn something new. Media we consume undoubtedly impacts everyday life & interactions and that doesn’t necessarily have to be an inherently good or bad thing. What is important is that there’s an awareness that we have that our minds and in our hearts, that we are being affected by the media that we consume. I’ve always been supremely interested in human nature, what makes us tick, what makes us react, I want to understand what influences us. AdventureWithMe is my attempt to understand myself and others, just a little bit better.