In Stars And Time

I wish I could experience again isat I LOVED IT SO MUCH RRRAAH. I mean, like sif but instead of looping everything but myself, looping just myself so I forget yk yk

Ok, so I played this game diligently, patiently and seriously, I had no idea what this was about going in, and I didn't use any guide or walkthrough, and managed to find the majority of the story that way. My conclusion after over 100 hours invested, though, is that this game is pretty underwhelming. I wish that it took itself more seriously and stopped assuming I don't want to or won't engage with it. The first half of the game was very engaging and interesting, but sadly, I think I was enjoying my own imagination rather than that of the author. Seemingly significant writing choices turned out to be effectively meaningless and were probably just chosen because they sounded or looked cool. I hate to say it, but this story is a waste of time to close read. Maybe this could have used a critical eye pre-release, but it clearly didn't get one. As the story progresses, the consistency and attention to detail in the world decreases dramatically in a way that seems "extradiegetic." It leaves me wondering who this game is "for"... Some more specific points: - Without introducing spoilers to my review: the game assumes you play in certain ways when you may not have, you are frequently railroaded into choices that do not make sense in context even given the state of the protagonist, and there are gaping holes in the narrative that don't read as genius high-concept choices, and instead just seem sloppy and like the author didn't care about the world they created or take it seriously enough to think about it at length. - In other words, it is not a game that is designed in a way that is truly responsive to player choices. This is probably something you assume exists in a modern RPG, and is clearly possible through other examples using the RPGMaker platform. - I used the looping forwards system maybe twice. and the conversation skip feature even less, It didn't seem like it had a genuine use. Later, the game was essentially softlocked in a scripted way until I chose to use this feature. If I had used it more though, I think I'd be even more disappointed in the game; I had the most fun by exploring and noticing details in the world, but ultimately it didn't amount to anything. - The game uses points systems internally to flag certain accrued player choices, which I suspected, but I learned the ways in which these choices are cued to the player are misleading because the cue is also reused elsewhere. Trying as hard as I did, and actually understanding the underlying system correctly, only to find out the trigger was so poorly implemented mechanically was kind of shocking. - The combat strategy system is genuinely novel, but underutilised, and isn't upgraded as the game progresses. It could have been far more challenging. Instead, combat shortly becomes a chore. I guess I can believe that is part of the game's "emotional palette", but even if that were intentional, its contributions to the richness of the experience were minimal. I think I only ever died due to scripted events, but the game assumes I died more than that, which took me out of the story. - The story is very predictable. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was hoping it would twist, and get less, instead of more predictable. There isn't any twist at all if you pay attention the whole time, and the majority of the mystery is concentrated in Act 1 and 2. Things happening how you expect them to always feels pretty banal in games, and it feels like there was a large disconnect between the experiences of the protagonist and what I thought was happening. I just kept hoping for a real twist up until I saw the credits. - The worldbuilding in many aspects is disappointingly superficial. - Props for including a demo. If not for the demo I wouldn't have purchased. - The chronology is inconsistent in a way not accounted for by the story and is another loose end that is never tied. For someone bothered by their forgetfulness, the protagonist never actually asks to be reminded of anything in a way that could also be used to provide the player with more interest and detail. - Over the course of the game, the derealisation of the protagonist leads them to believe that the people around them are nothing more than characters when they themself alone are real. It might have been a sensible choice at the conclusion to tie this loose end. I was looking forward to talking to Claude the entire game, for instance, only to find she gets all of three lines in the epilogue. What gives? Can't I tell her I appreciated her efforts? Is she really, actually just a side character? The story fails to prove its own implicit statements with design choices like these. - Sometimes characters act in certain ways just to make the protagonist feel bad and for no other reason related to their established character. This is called "bad writing". - The game constantly plays disproportionately loud banging sound effects for comedy (though it's actually annoying and not funny), but turning sound effects off disadvantages your understanding of story cues. Lack of polish. - The central romance is one of the best executed parts of the story, and I appreciate its understatedness, pace, and subtlety. - I enjoyed exploring the effects of various souvenirs in various places. - The ending is poorly paced, awkward, and abrupt, and the hour it took was somehow more tedious than actually repeating the game area thirty times in the space of a week. Why is that? Because the midgame area is full of loving care and detail, and the ending lacks it. Was this rushed to release or something? You stand in front of your party members and repeatedly try to redacted yourself until you exhaust the scripted dialogue. Sorry, but how boring. - The story seems afraid to actually depict the protagonist as genuinely villainous for more than a few minutes at a time, even when it seems appropriate for the story beat; the edges are really filed off. - The depictions of the world's religions are genuinely novel, but only one has more than superficial details. - I wished I could have explored a post-story House of Change and was disappointed that it was omitted. - The art is interesting, but certain characters are drawn inconsistently, and some are confusingly drawn like children. Mirabelle looks like she's twelve years old when she's meant to be in her twenties. Her head is enormous and her hands are tiny. It's weird. - Why is Odile considered an "old lady" if she's in her 40s? That's a genuinely strange assumption that is never explained, and no other middle-aged characters are called old. - There should have been more Odile, because she's the hottest and most interesting character. I guess there are worse things to spend a week doing, but there are better games out there that respect the player more.

Highly recommend. If you're even remotely on the fence about playing this, hop off the fence and play the game. I bought this ages ago and it took me a while to finally sit down and play, but once I picked it up I couldn't put it down until I finished. I'd say this is a game best enjoyed going into blindly, but be mindful of the content warnings as it does get heavy at times. I might relate a little too hard to Siffrin to not be biased in my review: he/they pronouns? ✅ bad memory? ✅ gets through life with puns and stupid jokes? ✅ [spoiler] left their country and feels like they don't have a place to belong, while struggling to figure out their place in friend/family dynamics? [/spoiler] ✅✅✅ hides their emotions and doesn't like to talk about things, shoulders everything themselves? ✅✅✅ The thing that stands out the most to me in ISAT is the believable/realistic character portrayals in various situations, and the execution with the varying character sprites/SFX/music to convey heightened emotions or lack thereof. Plenty of RPG maker games fall flat with just giving you text to read and maybe a sound effect or two every so often, but ISAT does a great job providing a varying combination of visual and auditory effects in appropriate situations to enhance immersion. There is a portion of the game in the middle when you're trying to piece everything together that can start to get tedious or monotonous, but this is [i] part of the immersion into Siffrin's state of mind [/i]. I also might have spent a little too much time going through every nook and cranny blindly and repeating actions/reading the same things over and over to look for any variation and rejog my memory (did I mention I have a bad memory?). Near the end of the game, I was really feeling the [spoiler] worn down aspect of looping so many times and doing the same thing over and over and over and over again that Siffrin went through, but also the mental breakdown and immensely relatable critical inner monologue had me in tears. Hit way too close to home, caused some introspection on my part. [/spoiler] That aside, I only missed 10 achievements that I will go back to explore more, probably with a guide to nudge me in the right direction. Great game, great execution. Simple mechanics for battles as a means to an end to get you through the storyline, which is by no means a bad thing but just enough to get annoying the more battles you go through -- again, part of the immersion into Siffrin's state of mind. Overall 9/10. Needs more puns.

好玩，分享一下汉化链接

Woke, 10/10 (also just a good game)

Bought it on sale. I should have paid full price

Siffrin :3

my mom gifted me this game, according to her she saw 3 seconds of the trailer and knew id like it. she was right. im glad she bought this for me, i would never have played it if she hadn't. and now im giving you the courage! buy this game, its worth it.

One of the best RPGs I've ever played, behind only Deltarune for me. If you like games where you'll have to replay, over and over and over and over and over and over again AND STILL FIND NEW STUFF, this is your RPG. (My first playthrough from start to end took me 3 days!) This is not a game you sit down and finish in one sitting unless you know what you are doing. In case you are the kind to buy the game and the soundtrack (Like me) The soundtrack is pretty good! It comes both in WAV and MP3, but no metadata sadly. But nothing audioranger can't fix. DON'T OPEN THE SOUNTRACK BEFORE YOU FINISH. THE TITLES HAVE SPOILERS. The Artbook comes in a PDF and has a lot of fun details and lore pieces too! But don't go reading it until you finish the game aswell (I got spoilered on accident about a important part of the game, I never threw my phone away so quick in my life lmao) Again 9/10 - Only reason it is not a 10/10 is because due to how lost you can be without guides and outside sources. But I suppose that matches how Siffrin must be feeling during the game itself lmao