So, is this game's story not incredibily similar to the movie Inception?

[SuspectedCrab]

Instead of dreams, it's memories. A dream within a dream = traversing from an old memory to an even older one. Mementos = totem only with a different purpose. Don't know when writing for this game started, but Inception came out in 2010. It's hard for me to like such a story when it's unoriginal, but that I don't care so much about, it's just that it's so much like Inception's story, and adopts many aspects of it. I've only just started the game, but it sounds like instead of planting an idea into someone's head, you're changing or giving him a new memory.

Is it worth overlooking this if it's as emotional as people say it is? The soundtrack is great, I'll give it that...

[O Trovador]

Originally posted by chrisfailedea:

It's hard for me to like such a story when it's unoriginal

Originality is one of the bigger lies invented by modern age.

Every artistic work is inspired by something that was created before. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was inspired by Pyramus and Thisbe. Wolfram's Parzival is was based on Chretién de Troyes's Parsifal - which was based on a celtic legend. Tchaikovsky wrote his Andante Cantabile after he paid a visit to his sister: she hired a painter, and Tchaikovsky heard the painter singing or whstling a song, he wrote that song and then wrote the Andante Cantabile.

Here in Brazil, one of our most important novels, "Dom Casmurro", was inspired by Shakespeare's Othello, which was inspired by "Un Capitano Moro", written by Giovanni Giraldi.

The meaning that the word "originality" has today is really misleading.

I think Kan Gao used Christopher Nolan's films as inspiration for some plot devices. But he used them as inspiration creating something completely new. There's nothing wrong about that.

I believe that "To the Moon" has some common characteriscs with Nolan's Inception and Memento.

[Frankenstein's Raven]

TtM was in the making before Inception was released. So It is not really inspired by Inception. To The Moon was inspired by other movies though.

[stoneinfocus]

It reminds me a lot more of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind than Inception. But as others have said, nothing is original anymore; just different ways of telling things. And I do think it's worth playing for the story, but try not to let all the glowing comments set your expectations too high.

[Frankenstein's Raven]

Originally posted by stoneinfocus:

It reminds me a lot more of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind than Inception. But as others have said, nothing is original anymore; just different ways of telling things. And I do think it's worth playing for the story, but try not to let all the glowing comments set your expectations too high.

I do think Reives was inspired by Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. I heard him mention it as being an inspiration for TtM.

[Thunderbird]

What you describe is one overarching theme, like having a big space war or time travel.
It would mean that e.g. every sci-fi movie with a space war or time travel is unoriginal.

There are other overarching themes in TtM like mental conddition and the romance
and even if all overarching themes are the same, the smaller ideas can also add up to make a story different.

I've watched Inception and played TtM and don't think they are that similar at all. Depending on which aspects of the game you focus on, you might still think otherwise

[El Fuerte]

not even close

[SuspectedCrab]

Originally posted by ⚕ RED ⚕:

not even close

Uhhh... Thanks for the extremely useless and empty answer.

[SuspectedCrab]

Thanks to everyone else who cleared things up for me with intelligible responses. I'm aware that nothing is truly original, but there are things that are definitely "more" original than most.

There are coincidental similarities so there's no point in pretending there aren't like some people have done, but that wasn't really what I asked for and it came with some of your answers anyway. I think the key is to just play it instead of analyzing it.

I'll treat it as its own game. It's only a 3 hour game, right? No harm in seeing it through to the end. The other smaller plots you people mentioned sounds interesting. Thanks.

[Marquise*]

I would have gone with Total Recall and into original Phillip K ♥♥♥♥ earlier than 80 version... But I guess that hypnotism, Tech War and stuff always been around.

[SuspectedCrab]

Well, I beat it. I have to say that the floating houses was reminicent to the limbo in Inception. The getting damage while the memory is de-stabilized is reminicent of Inception in that you might go crazy and mistake reality for a dream, and a dream for reality.

If the story was written without the writer knowing anything of Inception, he is a genius. Otherwise, there are very well written, emotional moments in the story, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at them, and the deeper meaning behind it. Only 2-3 games have ever made me do that, and this gets added to that small list. The soundtrack is easily one of the stars of the game as well.

[Thunderbird]

Originally posted by chrisfailedea:

Well, I beat it. I have to say that the floating houses was reminicent to the limbo in Inception.

The floating houses are actually referenced to Laputa: Castle in the sky within TtM itself (one of Neil Watt's comments in this scene).
Inception didn't came up with all those things first.

The getting damage while the memory is de-stabilized is reminicent of Inception in that you might go crazy and mistake reality for a dream, and a dream for reality.

I cringed a bit at this point, too. Because it was totally unnecessary and reminded me a lot of the very commonly used "if something happens in there, you can die in RL" (Matrix, .Hack, Sword Art Online and way more)

[SuspectedCrab]

Originally posted by Thunderbird:

Originally posted by chrisfailedea:

Well, I beat it. I have to say that the floating houses was reminicent to the limbo in Inception.

The floating houses are actually referenced to Laputa: Castle in the sky within TtM itself (one of Neil Watt's comments in this scene).
Inception didn't came up with all those things first.

The getting damage while the memory is de-stabilized is reminicent of Inception in that you might go crazy and mistake reality for a dream, and a dream for reality.

I cringed a bit at this point, too. Because it was totally unnecessary and reminded me a lot of the very commonly used "if something happens in there, you can die in RL" (Matrix, .Hack, Sword Art Online and way more)

Oh well. I think the most important story, the one that spoke the most, was the story of love and loss. Those two aspects just aren't explored enough in games nowadays. It really makes you think and feel what those two in combination with each other, really mean to you as an individual. And I have to say, I HATE Neil. One of my most hated characters in a video-game/story, always killing the mood and saying things at the worst moments. So, the story of love and loss, and the soundtrack are easily what made the game IMO, overshadowing everything else. Interesting medium (game engine) to tell the story... Not my preference, but at the end of the day, if a story is good, I don't care.

[Marquise*]

Weird... I loved Neil because Eva kinda lead to arsh decisions and because if he wasn't a goofball there it would had been a tear mopping story.

(BTW, very first time I realize that I can't write Phillip K ♥♥♥♥ or ♥♥♥♥ Tracy on Steam. One being simply one of the most influent Sci-Fi author and the other an old comic book detective.)