In the process of designing “Moonbow”, the ending has always been a challenging part. The ending not only determines how the player leaves this world, but also profoundly affects the aftertaste and emotional resonance of the entire story. Therefore, I have iterated the ending many times, from the initial direct fade-out to the current symbolic return of the music box, and this change also reflects the change in the creative thinking of the entire project.
Original ending: fade-out after conflict
In the original version, the ending is a confrontation between Ellie, Meilin and her mother. This scene is full of emotional tension and contradiction, but I don’t intend to provide players with the opportunity to choose here. For me, Ellie’s struggle between family affection and love is a complex and deep emotion. I hope that players can quietly feel this tension instead of manipulating the results through choices in the game.
In the original design, the scene fades out directly when the emotion reaches a climax, and the white screen symbolizes an unresolved confusion. Everything may not be able to get a clear answer in real life. Although this method is direct, it lacks some aftertaste of continued exploration and expression of emotions.
Iterated ending: the return of the music box
However, after user feedback and repeated thinking, I decided to add more symbolic expressions to the ending, making the story more emotionally complete and full of thought space. Therefore, the new ending reintroduced an element from the beginning – the music box.
The music box runs through the whole story and is a symbol of Ellie’s emotions. In the design of the ending, the music box appears again in the last scene, but this time it is different from the beginning. In this music box, there are not only Ellie and Meilin, but also the green bean cake groom and his boyfriend. The posture of the green bean cake groom Xiao Zhang is like trying to keep his boyfriend, which is silent but full of affection. Correspondingly, there is a little more distance between Ellie and Meilin.
Unfinished ending: open narrative space
This new ending does not give a clear answer. Instead, all emotions seem to be solidified in this unfinished wedding. The relationship between the groom and her boyfriend in Green Bean Cake is wavering in the process of retention, while the distance between Ellie and Meilin seems to imply some kind of change, but everything stays at the moment when the music box rotates, and no conclusion is given.
In this way, I want to leave more open space for players to think and imagine. Life is like this. Many stories do not have a clear ending, and many emotions do not have simple right and wrong. I hope that when players see this scene, they can recall their own experiences and feel the emotional struggle in the story, perhaps against the constraints of the family, or perhaps the exploration of self-identity.
The meaning of the ending: symbolism and cycle
The music box is not just an object, it is also a symbol of emotion. From the beginning, the rotation and rupture of the music box symbolizes the disintegration and loss of Ellie’s emotions; and at the end, the music box appears again, with the echo of multiple layers of relationships and emotions. The return of this scene is a cycle, and it also symbolizes the endless continuation of emotions. Just like many emotional experiences in real life, after rupture, reshaping and contradictions, there may not be a clear answer in the end, but the emotions still exist and still rotate.
The new ending is more poetic and symbolic, inviting players to understand the emotional world behind each character, rather than simply ending the story. It is open and unfinished, and may make people feel a little uncertain and regretful, but this is exactly the experience I hope to bring to players – imperfections and unresolved emotions exist in each of our lives to a greater or lesser extent, and this is part of life.