Compatible emulators

Synopsis

Sigmund Corp. uses technology that creates artificial memories. She offers this service to people on their deathbed in order to make their wishes come true. Because these artificial memories conflict with the patient's real memories, the procedure is only legal for people who do not have much time left to live.

Eva Rosalene and Neil Watts, employees of Sigmund Corp., are tasked with making the dream of a dying Johnny Wyles come true. Johnny wants to go to the moon, but he doesn't know why. The doctors insert themselves into an interactive compilation of his memories and retrace the course of his life through memories. Each time they travel to an important moment in Johnny's memories, they learn more about him and what brought him to his current position in life, including his unhappy marriage to his childhood sweetheart, River. When they reach Johnny's childhood, the doctors try to insert his desire to go to the moon. In principle, Johnny's mind would create new memories based on this desire, and Johnny would die believing he had lived without any regrets.

However, Johnny's mind does not create new memories as expected. Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene must solve the problem so Johnny can realize his final wish, to go to the moon.

Eventually, it is revealed that Johnny and River met at a carnival when they were children. They looked at the night sky and invented a constellation: a rabbit with the moon for a belly. They agreed to meet up at the same place the following year, with Johnny promising that if he forgot or got lost, they would "reunite on the moon." That evening, Johnny gives River a stuffed platypus, which River will treasure for the rest of his life. Shortly after, Joey, Johnny's twin brother, is killed in an accident. Johnny's mother gives him beta blockers so that he loses his memory of this tragic event, which also makes him forget his first meeting with River. He later met her again and eventually married her, and River only later realized that he had forgotten about their meeting at the carnival. (Johnny admitted that he approached her at school because she was different, and revealed that he thought it was their first meeting) River, diagnosed as an adult with Asperger's syndrome (although it is never said directly, the game refers to Tony Attwood, who has written numerous books about Aspergers), did not speak directly to Johnny about their first meeting; instead, she tried to indirectly shake up his memories by cutting her hair and making paper bunnies, including a two-tone one representing the constellation they invented when they first met, combined with the blue and yellow dress she wore at their wedding. River failed to make Johnny remember before dying, and Johnny was left with lingering guilt and an inexplicable desire to go to the Moon.

In the present, Rosalene and Watts end up implanting a sequence of memories in which Joey did not die and became a popular author, and Johnny did not see River again until they began working together at NASA. As the real-life comatose Johnny begins to die, he imagines going on a mission to the moon with River. During the launch, River extends her hand. The moon appears through a porthole of the ship and Johnny takes her hand as his heart monitor stops.

In the epilogue, Johnny and River eventually get married, build the house where Johnny and River lived in real life, and retire there. Back in the real world, Rosalene and Watts visit Johnny's grave, which is placed next to River's. They reveal to the audience that Johnny left the house to his caregiver, Lily. Rosalene receives a phone call and the two men move on to the next patient. As he leaves, Watts stops and the screen briefly flashes red, the same way it did when Johnny felt pain. Watts takes painkillers, then continues on his way.

Comments (0)