I love this place. But I didn't at first. Not really.


What was your reaction to Moonside when you first encountered it, and... how old were you when you did?

I was about 7, it was late at night and I was pretty freaked out by it. I didn't go to sleep until sunrise.

My first reaction was that it was melting my brain. It was only two years ago when I first played Earthbound but I've matured a lot since then.

I just thought it was one of the crazy Earthbound moments back then but now I've changed my views on it. I really like Moonside. It makes me think of just how crazy the imagination can be when left untamed. The mind has ways of contorting reality and bending it into chaos.

Well said.

I like to look at Moonside as an escape, a haven where all of one's twisted ideas and views come to life and quite frankly, I wouldn't mind disappearing there.

I may lose my sanity in the process but who hasn't in Moonside, right?

Moonside really is a fantastic concept. I can't help but be reminded of the Silent Hill series. Silent Hill deals with the darker side of the mind but it is essentially the same as Moonside. I suggest you take a look at the series if you're interested.

Slightly unrelated but the enemy "Abstract Art" is almost like a Moonside in itself. Abstract art is an alternate reality put on canvas and Moonside is one as well but that of mind and even dream (I like to think)

To connect this to Silent Hill, Silent Hill was an alternate plane of reality created by the deepest fears and thoughts of the characters present all mixing together with the thoughts of others to create a nightmarish world. This, I believe, is a lot like the concept behind Moonside except a lot darker.

A good question to ponder upon would be "What exactly is reality"?

Silent Hill, huh. Never got a chance to play it. A few of my friends all say it's pretty good, I might have to check it out now.

The definition of reality is "the state of things as they are", but what exactly are they as? There's also the theory of "I think, therefore I am" raised by philosopher René Descartes.

In response, things are only as real as our minds tell us they are. In a true reality, we're probably blobs in a space of nothingness, portraying ourselves as people with names in societies. We may also be playthings of a much higher being, and everything around us was just fabricated for experimentation.

The denizens of Moonside were the "blobs in the space of nothingness" or avatars of a fabricated environment, and the only way for them to be free, or to see their reality as it truly is, which is to be nonexistant, is for an outsider from the same plane of the creator to "infiltrate their minds" so-to-speak, and destroy the core of their perception.

If you really want to go deep into it, you could imagine Moonside as a sinful world with no direction, and Ness's party as a Jesus allegory, whereas Giygas and his statue is Satan's influence on the world.

You should definitely check the Silent Hill series out. It has a lot of philosophical meaning and has pretty much shattered my perception of reality after reading the theories surrounding its seemingly nonsensical plot.

I've studied the Scientific Era and the Enlightenment a small bit and there are some great ideas presented then. I personally believe that reality is whatever one makes of the world around them as you have stated.

The people in Moonside have left what the majority of people believe is "true" reality and created a world of their own reality. This world is chaotic as it has abandoned all laws of our Earth. Left on its own it would have spiraled into complete disorder and everything in it would have slowly became more and more abstract.

Moonside was only recently created at that point and then soon destroyed by Ness. That is what I do not understand about it. I understand what you meant by Moonside being demonic almost but I don't see what is wrong with alternate perceptions of reality.

Well, think about it this way.

Giygas had successfully implanted his "seed" into Ness's subconscious, which had planned to feed on Ness's power, had he not gotten rid of it. The Mani Mani Statue is a seed to all of humankind, and Moonside is the gateway to that seed.

The citizens of Moonside were just there, not guilty nor innocent of anything that is going on with Ness's reality. They were in a chaotic reality, one that is the complete opposite of Ness's. In this anarchist state, it would only continue to expand before it compromises Ness's reality, until it completely envelopes it.

I don't think Moonside is wrong, it just couldn't coexist with our reality without completely enveloping it.

There's also the question of whether Moonside was really destroyed, or the door to Moonside (Mani Mani Statue) was closed permanently.

So you're saying Moonside was used by Giygas as a weapon against Ness?

Oh I see what you mean now.

It's hard to say exactly what Moonside is though. Is it another plane of existence or some other manifestation? I'm out of ideas.

I think it's safe to say that Moonside is probably an alternate reality that was abused by Giygas, and Ness set it free when he destroyed the Mani Mani Statue.

I'm out of ideas too. With multiple mid-terms taken today, I'm officially braindead for the day.

And that is a good Chrono Trigger custom title.

I think that's the best explanation of Moonside so far. I'm too lazy to think any further into it though.

Oh man. Mid-terms.

Oh heh I've actually never beaten Chrono Trigger before. My file keeps getting deleted.

DS. Or you could try other, maybe looked-down-upon methods...

quote JammerJaw

looked-down-upon methods

That's what I'm talking about. I should get the DS port. I really should.