When asked whether I have ever experienced a “life-changing” game, these games would not have come to my mind. Therefore, the majority of this article is about Finding Paradise. There is a third game called Impostor Factory, which deserves its own analysis in a different article. I was more moved by the emotional core of Finding Paradise, but To the Moon definitely set the stage for the impact. What makes a life meaningful? What do we ultimately wish for at the end of our lives? Kan Gao, when making the first game, was inspired by questions of mortality from his grandfather’s life-threatening condition. The objective of both is simple: you act as a pair of memory “doctors”, changing the memories of a dying man in order to fulfill his dying wish. Although categorized as games, they would more fittingly be called movies, with vibrant soundtracks that rely mainly on the piano. They are made on RPG Maker by Kan Gao, aka Freebird Games (I still can’t forget that one fateful night in the beginning of quarantine when I found out he was also from Markham, my hometown). Finding Paradise is its sequel, with an interlude in between called A Bird Story, a short little game with no text. There’s this little game, called To the Moon, which takes less than 5 hours to complete.
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