Moon: Remix RPG Adventure ~ a meditation

 I finished a very special game.

I am walking to the catchy beat of a stereo. Hip, experimental grooves accompany me across tracts of forest and desert. Eventually, I stumble upon a man perched on a cliff side. He is holding a guitar. I place a bet: 50 yenom for a bluebird. The man strums a sullen chord and I sit down beside him. We wordlessly monitor the sky, waiting for a single bird to pass by.

*

I am friends with a bird in town named Yoshida who invites me to a distant island. I am told that the journey will take roughly a day and a half. I clamber into a human-sized birdcage and am lifted upwards, charioted through the sky by a flock of birds tied to the cage by string. I anticipate a short cut-scene before arriving at my destination -- but no. I retain control of my character within the snug cage; I can barely move. The clock continues inching forward at regular speed. The wait is long, serene, pastoral even. Yoshida forecasts the weather and points out constellations as evening subsides into night.

*

There are few games that demand patience like Moon: Remix RPG Adventure. Moon often incentivizes waiting and marveling. It asks players to deny immediate gratification, instead opting for a more dutiful and attentive approach. To play Moon is to delight in a long, uneventful walk while listening to music. To play Moon is to amble through your own bewilderment.

Originally released for the Playstation in October 1997 (Japan only), Moon: Remix RPG Adventure has gone on to inspire games like Undertale. It has also implicitly shaped subversive game design (the "anti" RPG). Moon finally made its way to the west over 20 years after its original release, in September 2020, translated by the sesquipidallian Tim Rogers. While many of the game mechanics are outdated now, this is a perfect instance of "better late than never!"

What Moon lacks in action, it more than makes up for in absurdity. The setting is expansive, lush, and surprising. Ghostly animals occupy the landscape, separated from their bodies. You are tasked with bringing them back to life, undoing the death caused by a stereotypical RPG hero. This is where the "anti" RPG originates. You still gain levels, but these are earned through acts of kindness rather than violence.  

What's more, Moon's Playstation-era graphics complement thematic underpinnings. The quirky, putty-textured characters emphasize wonderment. Creature designs range from stylized humans to absurd monsters. Everything from the plodding day-night cycle to the lulling piano music in Granny's cottage fosters a sense of nostalgia, like being drawn into a warm embrace. 

These feelings persisted even as I watched a rocketship propel itself through the dark, slow pulse of nothingness. I finished Moon: Remix RPG Adventure in January, but I'm still thinking about it six months later -- just as I reflect on the long gone comforts of childhood.