In Stars And Time

"And even when it ends, it won't be the end." I started playing this game that had been sitting in my library for a while. I had originally bought it to satisfy my desire to find games similar to Undertale and Oneshot, which are my two favorite video games for many reasons. For a while, I didn't dare to start the game, perhaps out of fear of being disappointed or, on the contrary, of finding myself caught up in a universe that would haunt me for the rest of my life, as had been the case with the other two games I mentioned. And I must admit, in hindsight, I clearly find myself in the latter situation. In Stars and Time is a brilliant portrayal of an individual's failing mental health and its irreparable consequences on their social and physical environment. Indeed, the gameplay and ingenious narrative choice of the time loop is used as a parallel to our character's mental health: they are stuck in their misery while everyone else moves forward without noticing that they are unwell, and when they do notice, our character plays a role to hide their feelings. Add to this the emphasis on his memory loss, his blurred past, his frustration-induced mood swings, his dissociation during conversations he's already heard, his need to maintain clear goals so he doesn't give up on everything... These are all symptoms of depression and other mental illnesses that impact the brain (causing what is known as “brain fog”). Furthermore, throughout the entire game, we witness our protagonist’s catastrophic self-esteem and numerous suicidal tendencies, which reinforce this diagnosis. This is a theme that affects me personally, as I have suffered from depression since my early teens, and I must admit that I recognized a lot of myself in Siffrin's character. ISAT has managed to perfectly convey the type of self-destructive and uncontrollable thoughts that haunt the everyday life of people with these disorders. Act 5 horrified me. The storytelling was exceptional, and the horror elements were brilliantly executed. The atmosphere put me in a state of extreme anxiety. I must praise the work that went into gradually changing the tone of the game from act to act, which is very effective. The climactic confrontation against Siffrin's inner thoughts was bone-chilling and resonated deeply with my own history of intrusive thoughts. I had a very hard time finishing this act, which brought back horrible memories and sent me spiraling a bit. It does confirm how efficient it is quite frankly. The ending of the game was perfect, and the final battle left me speechless. I have no complaints; it was truly riveting. Beyond the main story, the game is rich with so many good ideas and awesome world-building. The concept of “Change” in the fictional society of ISAT is super interesting, and could be used as a metaphor for gender identity. The constant renewal of body and mind to become a new version of oneself. The game is very unapologetically queer, and that feels great. Imagining a society where transitioning would be so accepted and where we would respect the choices of people who don't impact us personally seems utopian today, though desirable. I appreciated the fact that Odile's birth culture went against this, allowing the subject to be treated realistically in relation to our reality, although I like queer works in which LGBTphobia does not exist. Anchoring the narrative in reality is always a big plus in making it tangible. The time loop is very well done and has a powerful emotional impact. The ability to continue conversations to reach a different conclusion from loop to loop is brilliant and really helps to understand each character's mindset. All of their personnal quests moved me deeply, whether through Odile's search for identity, Mirabelle's superb portrayal of religious trauma and aroace identity, Bonnie's childish guilt, Isabeau's struggles with self worth, Siffrin's internal trauma, his poignant identity crisis, and his ability to identify with each of his friends' stories... The attention to every little detail that changes from loop to loop blew me away, and I became so deeply attached to this little group, which perfectly embodies the found family trope that I am particularly fond of. The relationships between them are very well written and realistic. They all have their conflicts of interest and their dynamics within the group. Whether it's romance or friendships of varying degrees of closeness, it doesn't give an idealized view of social relationships, which is very nice. They clearly care about each other, and each has their own way of showing it, which is a very human aspect that is well demonstrated by the game. There are so many ways to love, and all are valid in their own way. Siffrin's guilt about using his powers and thus “manipulating” his friends is also very relevant. It's a fairly common reflection on manipulating space-time to suit one's desires, which remains very interesting from a moral point of view. I found the King's character extremely touching, and his shared grief with Siffrin so deeply depressing. I think their story, with their homeland lost to forgetfulness, is awful, and can easily parallel the reality of colonized peoples who were forced to forget their culture and language. I think it's a subject that lends itself to many very interesting metaphors. Originally, my only criticism was that some objects require you to repeat the same floors a dozen times, which drives you a little crazy and tends to be discouraging, but looking back, I think that's exactly what the game wants: just like the character we play, we gradually sink into frustration and confusion, loop after loop. It's up to us to hold on and persevere in order to break free. It's very clever. Overall, the game excels at making us feel what Siffrin feels, whether it's frustration at the beginning of each loop, doubt about the feelings of other characters, or cruel hope when he thinks he's found the key to escape. It's very powerful to be able to offer such an immersive narrative. The game also has great, sharp and truly charming humor, which gets really dark at times, like on the death screens. The balance of tones, from light and humorous at the beginning of the adventure to disturbing and morbid as Siffrin's mental health deteriorates, is a fantastic touch. From a more technical point of view, the combat system is very nice and easy to learn, the world-building is really intriguing, the storytelling is effective and engaging, and the graphic style is amazing. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the choice of black and white is justified in the game by the characters' inability to discern colors. The soundtracks are also really catchy. It was an incredible experience, and I think I discovered this game at the perfect time in my life. I'm a young adult, striving to become a better version of myself, and this pressure often overwhelms me with anxiety over the expectations I place on myself. Many of the lines in ISAT have left a deep impression on me and will probably stay with me for a long time. One thing is certain: I'm going to miss the characters dearly. This game is a gem of the indie gaming world and is definitely one of my favorites. Huge congratulations to the whole team for their phenomenal work!

This game is SO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GOOD that it changed my BLINDING VOCABULARY and I'm not even done yet, BUY IT. NOW. IF YOU HAVE MONEY BUY IT. IF YOU DON'T SELL STUFF TO BUY IT. IF YOU DON'T HAVE STUFF SELL YOUR SOUL TO BUY IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SOUL, SAIL THE SEVEN SEAS. Y O U M U S T E X P E R I E N C E T H I S G A M E AND REMEMBER STARDUST, DON'T. LOOK. AT. SPOILERS. THIS GAME IS SO PEAK THAT I FEEL LIKE THE SLIGHTEST SPOILERS WOULD BE A SIN.

Beautiful

This review will have spoilers so read at your own discretion. However, if you don't wish to view the spoilers. I will just say please, play through the game blind and expect a lot of emotions, it will genuinely make you feel awful. Please remember to always be open with your friends about how you feel, don't keep it bottled in. This may be my favorite indie game to ever have the fortune of playing, even if I did struggle at times I *felt* Siffrin's annoyance, their struggle with each loop. When I first went through the House I died a lot but I felt relief that "Oh, well since Siffrin can loop. They can just redo this until we win" and when I lost to the King 5 times (Yes I'm that bad) I kept getting annoyed and changing things with each loop to make things easier for me, grinding for my party members, grabbing different items and ignoring others to save time. It truly made me change how I thought to use my loops and it was only a few hours into the game. However, once I moved on to the next Act and had to figure out more things I did different things each loop but when I truly didn't know what to do I just went on a gauntlet defeating the King multiple times until I could find out what to do. I've spent so many of my loops just defeating the King over and over and over leveling Siffrin up so much that I *felt* his frustration at the tutorial Sadness when we destroyed it. I wasn't horrified at first when he started to demolish the tutorial Sadness, I was elated feeling "Yes. This stupid annoying Sadness, wasting so much of my damn time" but once I saw the looks of my party members I felt horrible just like Siffrin. I grew to feel for them, but despite that I was glad for the time saver nonetheless. Further with all this time, I spent a large majority of it in Act 4 just being confused on what to do. I've spent easily the most of my loops wandering around and I felt so in tune with Siffrin that sometimes I found myself just imagining how he'd react to things and he did just that. Like how he'd be happy if I kept doing everyone's personal quests and defeating the King multiple loops in a row which I did out of boredom since I wasn't sure where to go. Seeing how happy yet broken we were at doing it made me feel awful yet I didn't regret doing it for a second. Once Siffrin finally broke at the end of the game, I felt it with him. I was getting so frustrated after spending so many hours just wandering the halls of the House trying to figure out what to do because I refused to look up a guide. His anger, annoyance, sadness it felt so... real, and that was terrifying how much emotion was put into the dialogue of this game despite the lack of VAs. I went through that final time in the House with annoyance, I had such a habit built from going in and out the of the House that the swapped rooms messed me up for a bit but once I found a pattern I didn't think about it. It was just routine, grab the key, kill Sadness in my way, leave. And once we finally reached the climax, I felt... satisfied, not truly happy for it to end, but glad that Siffrin was finally free, that his feelings were finally all out there for his friends, no, Family Members. I never did do the Loop quest my first playthrough because I wasn't aware of it, but even then my first reaction was to walk out and try and talk to Loop because even if I didn't use his help too much unless I was *really* stuck, I felt he needed a friend to thank him. All in all, to summarize my favorite points throughout my blind playthrough. I loved how relatable Siffrin was, but it helped me realize some bad things I do with my life such as bottling things up. The characters all felt so real in their dialogue, and the use of sprites as well as the text box in itself gave so much emotion and feeling into the characters. I truly do love this game, and Siffrin will always hold a special place in my heart not because we play as them, but because they remind me of myself and how I can try to fix myself for the better, to not hate myself as much as I do. This game has changed me, and it will forever change me.

I connected with each, individual character more than I expected. This game does a phenomenal job of displaying each character's main issue, and I want to devote more time to them. Also, the art fills me with awe... GEHEHE!!!

This game is an emotional journey and I loved every second of it. All of the characters are amazing and the story is so good. So much thought was put into this game and so much of the design was intentional. If you haven't played this game and are thinking about playing it, please do. Despite you playing as Sif, the game makes it feel like you're both playing alongside him, and watching him go through the emotions at the same time. Everything you know, Sif knows, and everything you don't know that you think you'd expect Sif to know, they just so happened to of forgotten so your knowledge of the characters and world are the exact same of theirs until they're reminded. I love this game to death and is one of the few games I'd put on my small list of favorites.

honestly if you want to feel like you're actively going insane, play this with no prior knowledge beforehand, it's very immersive that way, trust me