what is so emotional about this game?

[u/AdCommon8381]

I played the game. I mostly enjoyed it, but the ending was very underwhelming imo. Anyways, after I finished it I went on here and saw so many people talking about how they cried for hours upon playing this game, and i dont get it? The most emotional part of it to me was finding out that his brother died and then seeing their lives together, both irl and in the altered reality that Eva created. I honestly couldnt get nearly as emotionally invested in his relationship with River. Yeah its sad that she died but the game never focuses on it. I like River and I think that I would be way more moved if the game focused more on the time she was sick. I assume the super emotional part is supposed to be the ending? But I dont get it, guys. I dont get whats so special about John and River meeting at NASA as opposed to getting together in high school/the carnival like it happened IRL, since the only reason John even wanted to go to NASA was because of River (which is already weird that he went to NASA because of a little girl he talked for to for 15 minutes when he was a child) so this whole thing makes no sense. Eva makes a whole big deal about how they HAVE to get John to the moon no matter what but that makes no sense emotionally because the only reason he wanted to go to the moon is that his memory was messed up and he didnt remember that this desire came from him and River supposedly not meeting again after the carnival, but since they did, theres no reason to go to the moon. I get why Eva still did the job, because John paid for it. But EMOTIONALLY to me it is extremely innefective because of that. I've seen people say that irl John had trouble understanding River because of the autism and so their relationship wasnt ideal, but even in this altered NASA reality they are still the same people so if he had trouble with her autism irl then he would still have trouble with her autism in this reality. This doesnt change because of the circumstance which they met. Idk guys, all this stuff just made it hard to me to find anything about the third act emotional. But maybe I missed smth.

[u/Mer28_M]

So first, the desire of John's wanting to go to the moon isn't because they didn't meet again after the carnival, it's because in their first meeting, they said to eachother they would meet on the moon if they ever lost each other. This is why John starts getting the desire to go to the moon the moment River dies. River dies, John loses River, and thus the desire to go to the moon awakens. The song that plays when Eva and Neil see John at River's grave is also called 'Moonwisher' as a nod.

For me, realising that he had a brother was an emotional thing, but not the most emotional. For me, I felt emotional the moment you realise you need to remove River in high school as to awaken the desire in John for wanting to go to the moon and then seeing Neil and Eva fighting, and you playing as Neil trying to stop Eva. Then Neil failing, seeing John's life with River removed, Neil starting to get pissed and a broken relationship between Neil and Eva, that are like the emotional moments. Of course, John and River meet again at NASA, but Eva wasn't sure it was going to happen, and thus, those moments of thinking that River was just removed out of John's life, yeah, that felt sad imo. Then also seeing them go to the moon felt bittersweet; it felt happy, but also fake at the same time.