I'm really confused about what is going on in Imposter Factory, most of the events don't really make sense to me.

First things first let me go over the plot from my understanding. Old Lynri wants to run a test, the original intention of the test is never explained, but it involves creating a copy of her ex-husband with no memories and putting it in a simulation of her getting accepted to Yu-Haynes Foundation.

All of this was obviously not planned ahead of time, but that isn't an issue.

Regardless of what the test was originally meant to achieve, 2 things happen that shouldn't. The first is that whenever a simulation within the simulation starts up the computer core in the basement is destroyed, and the second is that Dr. Yu and Dr. Haynes, and sometimes the other guests, keep getting murdered.

I have no problem with the setup so far, sure it's a bit odd that no one else in the world never ran into a situation where a simulation was created within a simulation, you think that would be one of the first things they test, but let's put the aside for now, perhaps Dr. Wattz and Faye did something to make that not happen.

The real question is why Lynri decided to send Quincy through a montage of her memories, what exactly did she hope to accomplish by doing so. Her excuse seemed to originally be to stall for time, but then she put his experience under time dilation, so that only a few minutes would pass from her perspective, which seems counter productive.

Second it's never explained what the murders accually are, we are told they are anomalies, but what that means isn't clear. They just sort of happen. It seems to me that they only exist for the sake of game trailers and could be removed from the game without changing to story in a significant way.

the only significant thing in the simulation is the fact that they can't create a second layer of simulations, that the core is always destroyed before it could be done, and knowing this Lynri's way of testing what is going on doesn't make sense. She knows that the computer core keeps being destroyed, yet she waits for so long to check why that is happening.

And for some reason she needs Quincy to do it, when she was shown to be able to see what is going on from outside the simulation.

Anyway, Faye appears and after a bunch of heavy handed exposition were we are shown a bunch of stuff we had already seen, Faye takes them to the moon where there is a bunch of other Lynri's and Quincy's from other simulations, they are then all then combined together.

I have no idea what that accually means, do they now have thousands of memories or something, what does combining them together accually accomplish.

They then enter a new simulation, one where all the bad things never happen. And while I really like the cut-scene that follows it is ruined by the fact that fake Quincy is the one experiencing it. This version of Quincy isn't the the same as the one Lynri was married to. He only ever saw a glimpse of his "real" self from Old Lynri's world, he has no memories of his life outside of the small pieces he saw from Lynri's perspective, and he has a set of unrelated "generic memories" the simulation gave him.

It is criminal that this discount Quincy is the one that gets to live happily ever after, when the one that accually suffered from Lynri's selfishness is destroyed along with the rest of the world.

I am so disappointed with this game. I really hope that I'm just missing something all there is some deeper meaning to this all that contextualizes everything, but I don't see it.

Towards the end of the game Dr. Watz has a big realization that helps him understand how they should help Colin. Before that moment they believed that in order to help him, they needed to remove all his regrets, they were even making a ton of notes for the different regrets he had.

But then he came to another conclusion, Watz realizes that what they really need to do is remove Colin's memory of Sigmund Corporation. But I just don't understand his reasoning.

Here is a direct quote of his explanation. “For Someone who had to fight just to let go of fantasy and embrace reality. Maybe our existence was merely an unwelcome amplifier. A reminder of the make-believe, the imaginary, and the endless possibilities that make reality seem less than what it is.”

I don't understand what that means. Every theory I have for it's meaning doesn't fit perfectly. What is being amplified? How does Sigmund Corp remind him that imaginary things exist and why does that matter. I'm confused.

Can someone explain this to me

I know that years ago there was an announcement that there will be a TTM anime. But since then I never heard anything about it again. So, was it canceled? Is it still in production? Does anyone know?

I'm playing finding paradise for the first time and I'm having a issue where the game rums fine except when there are any text boxes on screen. Is there anything I can't do to help this Thanks

I'm playing this game on PC and I've played plenty of RPGmaker games where "Z" key is interact and you hold Shift to run. Characters moves so slow. Is there a run command in this game?

I've heard that there are more games in this series than just To The Moon, so I want to knw which order I should play them in?

Its been a few years since it was announced and i havent heard anything about it.

So this is kind of a follow-up post from my last one, having watched PewDiePie's playthrough of Finding Paradise earlier today. I hope it's okay to talk about this game in this sub.

Hopefully, it's not controversial to say that the opening didn't feel as strong to me, mostly it was just overwhelming with all of the sudden drops of mystery, so it just could've been paced better in my opinion. But everything after the explanation of the "decaying orbit" felt coherent and encapsulating, and after that point, I loved it a lot. Definitely on par with the first game.

I'm not sure if I just missed it though, but I didn't really feel the emotional bombshell at the Wish My Life Away cutscene. I mean, the song was beautiful and moving, expect nothing else from Laura! But I guess I couldn't really tell what had changed in the scenes until afterwards with Colin and Faye on the balcony. But even then I didn't catch onto the fact that the change was also removing Sigmund Corp from ever being a controversial memory until outside sources afterwards. But that could just be entirely me.

Regarding that though, I do kind of miss having the characters explain what something means like in the first game (ie "So this is why <insert>"). It helped me a lot as a neurodivergent as it's often tricky catching onto a story right away and I wish more games did that, but I can understand why the developers didn't want as much handholding. It's clear in this game that they tried to play more with ambiguity, and power to them, these games have some of the best writing out there! 🥹

Gosh though, it saddens me that Imposter Factory is then so underground that it takes quite a lot of digging to even find it exists because Finding Paradise ends on such a cliffhanger. I so badly want to know what's up with Neil and if he's okay, and why he's acting so suspicious. In To the Moon, he was so funny all the time, but this time we actually got to see more of his maturity and he's gone from local dork to most interesting character. I wouldn't be surprised if elements from Deltarune were inspired by Neil in this game honestly, Birdly kind of reminds me of him, lol.

I don't think I'd support Sigmund Corp if it was a real organisation, as I feel like truth and self-acceptance are so much more important. But I truly appreciate how Finding Paradise touches on that; the characters are actually hesitant and understanding and that just made for such a magnificent conclusion.

Overall, Finding Paradise is a masterpiece as is To the Moon, and I'm really thankful for these games. I think they really give you a new perspective on life. I always used to think of life and death as a really positive balance and I don't think I ever feared it, until in more recent times, where I think I'm just...afraid of unfulfillment, is the easiest way to put it. But to be honest, To the Moon and Finding Paradise have been teaching me to accept mortality again for what it is. Thank you for these wonderful stories, Freebird Games.

I finally sat down and watched Markiplier's playthrough of To the Moon yesterday, and there's something so special about this game. I made a Reddit account only a couple of days ago, so I guess what better way to use it than to ramble about something passionate?

Honestly, this game is just so powerful and it's sad that it's so underrated. I've never seen a narrative that so perfectly tells itself in the form of a game, let alone...backwards.

...The whole thing of knowing the character's fates before properly meeting them, too, will always be so bittersweet.

I don't understand this belief that people have of John being a bad person, though (most notably from here)... I think it's more that he can't accept the truth, but he and River genuinely did love each other. They were just...impacted by John's memory loss which was neither of their faults. I guess the thing about John is that he couldn't accept it until Isabelle really had to drill it into his head that this is who she is and this is her choice, and it really makes you wonder just how differently John would've taken everything had he remembered why lighthouses were so special to River in the first place. I guess at the end of her time, River gave up hoping John would remember, and instead entrusted the lighthouse to him in the hopes that he'd connect with it, with her, in his own time, on his own terms.

I think River is just a character I connect to a lot, being autistic myself. While I type alright, in person it's more than just shyness. With communication, it's like you freeze and hit a wall. Going off of my own experiences, River could probably just never find the right way to explain to John what their meeting was like and how much it meant to her.

But also, the song... Everything's Alright. I knew that song since Mark's 6 million subscriber milestone, but never had the time to actually sit down and binge the series until now. At first, I interpreted the song to be about depression and support, but now I see that it's really River's inner thoughts, the things she wants to say but can't. "When the stars fall down, they empty from the sky...but I don't mind, when you're with me, everything's alright." I feel like this is a metaphor for the lighthouse(s) going out, but River takes comfort in their first meeting, knowing it's still the same John deep down, and it's just...it's just sad. The true villain of this game is John's mother for overdosing him on those beta-blockers and severing such a crucial piece of character development from John's life, which I guess goes without saying, the favoritism she exhibited is never okay. Just to be completely honest, I think John was the one who needed some major therapy.

I feel like the ending of the game has such a powerful message of life isn't perfect, you know? You rewrote someone's entire life so they die to a happy lie, and like how River wanted the truth of their finances, sometimes it's just better to know how things really are. Things can't go exactly how you want, but if it goes any differently it's no longer you. The thing about To the Moon is that you really want to feel happy for the characters when John finally achieves his dream in the end. But then you remember that it's all a lie, River will never have known of this same experience, and it eliminates the reason why John was even motivated to go to the moon in the first place.

I just have to really show my appreciation to the writers of this game, because they did an exceptional job, and not many games feel as personal and emotional as this one these days. I have yet to see the sequel(s), but I will eventually and I look forward to it. Apologies for the text wall, I just wanted to talk about it.

So I've really wanted there to be an official to the moon discord server but as far as I I there isn't one. I felt this was the best place to confirm that info, so I am simply asking if that is the case. I am aware of fan servers, but I would personally only be interested in an official one. This game means more to me than one could belive and I'd love to have an official community.

I have not included To the Moon, because I actually have not played/re-watched it played in a long time, but I have watched and rewatched both FP and IF played by different people, like 5+ times now (I don't know why, it's a weird hobby, like I really like seeing people play and react to either game lol)

I'm mostly hoping to put down my observations and see if people have observed the same, or have seen similar things in To the Moon, since that's the one I'm least familiar with.

*Three Truck Convoy - At the beginning of Finding Paradise, during the Squirrel evasion sequence, Eva's car nearly runs into a truck while swerving, before it comes under control. Most people would be focused on the car, and miss what the heck is on those trucks entirely.

There are 3 trucks in almost a convoy, the first is marked "Explosive" which is usual, probably just fuel, (though it's usually marked as "Flammable," not explosive") The next truck has a very secure looking transport van, with Biohazard marked on it. That's not just a nuclear/radioactive symbol, that's full Biohazard (you can tell the difference in the sprite, google what the biohazard warning label looks like), and the third truck is a truck carrying 4 cylinders of marked Radioactive! Radioactive waste!

Why are there 3 trucks in a row that are carrying all these dangerous and volatile materials?! I'm of the opinion that Freebird put these trucks on purpose, because otherwise, they could've just put any other old 8-10 wheeler without any warning labels, but they probably intentionally put these guys there.

*Lady in a Brown dress - Probably widely known, said by Potato in Finding Paradise if you don't get her bear back from the pond. Her bear will be retrieved by (paraphrasing) a woman in a brown dress swooped into the pond and got her bear (swooped being a verb usually associated with birds), this is super implied to be Faye, but, we're (supposed to be) in Base reality at that point, not a simulation. Faye's existence means it is a simulation or something way weirder is going on

*3:00 - easily spotted in Impostor Factory, at the beginning, when Quincy enters the manor, if you look at the standing clock to the side by the entrance, you can see 3:00 or close to it, and also the clock above the fireplace. Sometimes either will say "a bit past 3". Seems just a time to keep track of for the timeloop red herring.

Now, in Finding Paradise, there are clocks as mementos throughout Colin's memories. Mementos give a picture of the item, so we see the clocks and what time they're currently on. Every single clock memento in Finding Paradise points at 3:00.

This could potentially just be a coincidence by the team, but, it could also be something. The clocks in To the Moon, are they also pointing at 3?

I'll probably come back and add to this list if I spot anything else when I inevitably rewatch someone else's playthroughs again lol