A young American college-bound man decides to visit his aunt and uncle at North Sand Island, a small barrier island along the Atlantic shoreline. One night, while taking pictures of the full moon, he spots a mysterious girl in a long white dress walking alone along the beach. Normally, only other stargazers are out at this time, but it doesn't look like she's particularly interested in the night sky. Intrigued, the man decides to go talk to her...
Moonlight Walks is a freeware Visual Novel created by amateur gamemakers American Bishoujo in Ren'Py, and unlike many other games of this format, it is an English-language original. The player fills the role of the unnamed young man, and the game largely deals with his efforts to find out more about her past.
The game itself is rather brief—one can easily play through it in a single 30-minute session—but it has four different endings that can keep the player amused by finding all of them. The plot is a little predictable at times, but all in all it's rather enjoyable for an amateur work. The game can be downloaded for free from American Bishoujo's website here
.
This game provides examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: All 4 of the endings qualify in their own way:
- Ending 1: The protagonist attempts to snap some photos of Mary, but her ghostly form doesn't show up on the film. Since he never learns her name or history he has no way to stay in contact with her and soon moves on with his life.
- Ending 2: The protagonist learns Mary's name and some of her history but because he never found out how to meet up with her again he never figures out that she only appears during the full moon and doesn't see her again.
- Ending 3: The protagonist decides to help Mary move on and begins studying the occult. He helps her fulfil her desire to get married and her restless spirit passes on peacefully. He never sees her again but manages to fall in love with and marry a girl he met while looking up occult books at the library.
- Ending 4: The protagonist decides to spend the rest of his life with Mary and gets a home on the island so he can visit her every month during the full moon. When he finally passes away decades later as an old man he is reunited with Mary permanently as they depart for the afterlife together.
- Cute Ghost Girl Mary, who died during the late 1700's in an epidemic.
- Dead All Along: Mary
- Ethereal White Dress: Mary wears one. It's similarities to a wedding dress are highlighted in ending 3 where the protagonist marries her to free her soul.
- Meaningful Name: Mary. Her main goal in life was to get married and have children, making her name a cruel reminder of what she could never have. Luckily, the protagonist can free her spirit by proposing to her via a common law marriage ceremony at the beach where they first met.
- Missing Reflection: Choosing to take photos of Mary instead of talking to her results in the shots of her coming up blank. It's an early clue that she's actually a ghost.
- Multiple Endings: Four in total, though all of them are pretty bittersweet.
- Mystical White Hair: Mary has this. It's yet another indicator that she's really a ghost.
- Together in Death: Ending 4 has Mary and the protagonist depart for the afterlife together after he passes away due to old age.
- Unfinished Business: As it turns out Mary had a very strong desire to get married and have children one day but died long before it could happen due to an epidemic sweeping the island. If the protagonist decides to propose to her and give her the wedding she always wanted her spirit will finally be freed and move on, though the protagonist will never see her again once this happens.
- Updated Re-release: The first version was released in January 2005. The current version, 2.0, was released in June 2009 using a more up-to-date version of Ren'Py (6.8.1 as opposed to the original's 4.4.2) and also features new character artwork.
