"When a video game can make us cry," the saying goes, "that is when we will know that games are art." But what if a video game trailer can make us cry?
Test the strength of your stoic resolve by watching the painfully nostalgic trailer for Kan Gao's upcoming indie adventure game To The Moon. Fair warning: it's one of those trailers that kinda spoils a lot of big moments in the story, and regardless of what certain UCSD studies may claim, not everyone likes being spoiled.
Oh man, this game is going to pack an emotional wallop. On the Freebird Games site, Gao offers the following synopses:
This particular story follows Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts' attempt to fulfill the dream of the dying elderly man, Johnny. In their mission to do so, they traverse backwards through the man's memories, unfolding his curious life story before their eyes.
With each step back in time, a new fragment of Johnny's past is revealed. And as the two doctors piece together the puzzled events that spanned a life time, they seek to find out just why the frail old man chose his dying wish to be what it is.
And Johnny's last wish is, of course. . . to go to the moon.
They had me before I even watched the trailer—I still get wrecked thinking about those final moments of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and To The Moon's art looks so much like Chrono Trigger… yow.
So then the trailer begins and we've got a dying old man, a lighthouse, history rebuilding itself as his sepia-toned memories blend together... and then children meeting on a staircase, and then Plants vs. Zombies composer Laura Shigihara starts to sing… and the epic-needle hits ten as rooms around the world get a bit dusty.
It's not clear whether To The Moon will be more game or storybook, but I'll certainly be playing it when it launches on PC this fall. Playing it and, if this trailer is any indication, blubbering like a child.
You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.