Tactics MOON

[Leo_Otaku]

I haven't been able to find much information regarding this game. Does anyone have any information about it? (man I sound like such a noob >.< sorry if I'm annoying)

[AstCd2]

Originally Posted by Leo_Otaku

I haven't been able to find much information regarding this game. Does anyone have any information about it?

Moon. was a late 1997 game by Key founders Maeda Jun, Hisaya Naoki, Hinoue Itaru and Orito Shinji while they were still working at Tactics, right before they went on to make the more popular One.

The plot's been described as a 'psycho-mystery' detailing a young woman's initiation into a cult named FARGO in search of the reasons for her lost mother's death, the people she meets, and the secrets she discovers on the way. It wasn't a big hit by any means, and you'd be hard pressed to find many fans familiar with it today, but it sold well enough to warrant republication as a DVD player game with voice a few years back, so you can still get a copy if you're curious.

Some earlier discussion about Moon. can be found here.

Originally Posted by Leo_Otaku

(man I sound like such a noob >.< sorry if I'm annoying)

Hey, you never learn if you never ask =P

[Carl]

I have MOON.

I actually like it's story more than Kanon and ONE [*writes will*]. The game, however, is extremely vulgar and the sexual content is completely unenjoyable (brutal rape, psychological torture, etc). If memory serves, the only [somewhat] consentual sex in the game happens during hallucination sequences.

Storywise, it tells the story of a women (Akemi) who joins a secret organisation called FARGO, whom her mother was once part of (and whose agents one day killed her mother) to find out why her mother was killed. The organisation subjects women to trauma (not to mention sexual abuse) to bring out their latent powers so as to use them as weapons. The use of trauma and memories is pure Jun Maeda storytelling, but is in a much cruder form here than his later works.

The distinctly Maeda-esque writing style, and the key focus on a single female protaginist, makes it more reminisent of AIR than ONE and Kanon are. Prehaps Naoki-san had only a small part in it? The story is much more multilayed and complex in it's foreshadowning than ONE and Kanon (though not better writen per se), and the overall impression is of something fairly deep but very narrow, almost in perfect contrast to ONE, IMHO.

The big thing to me is that you can actually see the writing get better and better as the game progresses. The early part of the game is completely forgettable unimagniative tripe set out to do nothing more than objectify its characters and go for cheap psudo-traumaticity, whereas the ending parts had me on the edge of my seat in a state of emotional wreak. Well, this isn't entirely new as AIR similarly is pretty dry and pointless feeling initially before it gets up to speed (of course, AIR is much, much better in every single conceivable way, and never objectifies its characters). In any case, for those who want to watch the genesis of Maeda-sensei's writing style this is a must-play, even if you don't really enjoy the game itself. It's quite fascinating.

The game gets quite experimental near the end, complete with live-action backgrounds and total mindfuckiness, and reminds me a lot of Jean Luc Goddard's Alphaville, especially with the whole onmipresent Moon thing.

The female cast is generally pretty likeable, especially Yui. The male characters, except prehaps Shonen, are all complete arseholes or the highest order. The only pairing I really wanted to see was Akemi/Yui, and that's pretty much the only pairing that doesn't happen in the game :(

Musically, it's very much in tune with Orito-san's style. It's more hit-and-miss than the other Tactics era games, with a couple of excellent pieces, and several completely forgettable "dark and moody" trance tracks. It's certainly a big step up from Dousei, and it's best tracks are a touch better than the best tracks on ONE's soundtrack, but the mean quality would be lower than ONE's. Kanon, AIR, and CLANNAD are all miles better.

The art quality is closer to ONE than Dousei, and you can see how Hinoue-chan's art has progressed in it. The character art uses closer-up shots than ONE, and coupled with the huge eyes make for an interesting, but not entirely unpleasant look. Mikipon and Shinory's CGing doesn't hold a candle to their work during the Key era. Backgrounds are, like ONE, pretty blah, but with a good amount of detail.


For those who want to see the evolution of Key's style, or a Jun Maeda fan of such calibre that you can quote lines from Hibiki no Mahou verbatim; I highly recommend you play MOON.. For those who just want to play a good visual novel; there are plenty of better games out there.

[cyborg_alberto]

Well, I still NOT understand why I'm posting here, once I've stopped playing "dating sim" games by a loooooooooooong time (The only I have is Kanon, but I prefer a Fisrt Person shooter like Unreal Tournament or Quake 3)

Besides, I don't know anything about MOON... except a little thing you can make in the game: You can patch it for use another audio-CD music or use mp3 files to listen in the game instead the original game musics. You can see how you can do it clicking here

Another Tatcs game can be patched. You can see MOON and ONE titles in this screenshot
(Sorry, my PC uses window$ 98 and it doesn't have japanese language support. ^_^;)

I hope it can be useful for you.
If no, no problem.

See ya!