In Stars And Time

It has been an age since any video game has made me [b] *feel* [/b] as much as the experience of playing In Stars and Time. The game begins slowly and unassuming, its RPGMaker roots made starkly evident in its simple menu, controls and combat, as well as the seemingly run-of-the-mill, already-in-progress RPG plot of a ragtag group of fighters collecting MacGuffins to open the door to God and beating him with the power of friendship. Its true colours dance and shine, however, when the protagonist is suddenly made to repeat the same day again, and again, and again, and gradually, the player can whittle away at the backstory of the party, their nuanced relationships and history with each other and, eventually, the deeply bedded trauma of the main character. Recent indie games have provided plentiful examples of compelling, well-written protagonists, but I would not be able to name one that begot as much wincing, knowing sympathy from me, or pulled tight as many cold metal hooks around my heartstrings, as ISAT's Siffrin [i] [last name redacted]. [/i] Surrounded by friends and allies that appreciate them through thick and thin, Siffrin is constantly on a knife edge of self-esteem, ever seeking new ways to blame himself for the slightest of missteps and berating himself for not fitting a self-imposed mould. This insecurity is exploited to perfection when time begins looping and Siffrin, having encountered several situations that were impossible to solve without such a phenomenon, begins to believe himself totally useless without this apparently universe-gifted ability. In the increasingly aggravated search for a way to escape the time loop, heartfelt character moment after heartfelt character moment gradually fades, crumbles and is subsumed into Siffrin’s ever-expanding routine of steps to get the information or behaviour he needs from his oblivious friends, roping the player into his uniquely painful state of mind. The deliberately repetitive nature of the core gameplay perfectly compliments the blunting repetition of the time loop’s story beats, both working in tandem to corrode the satisfaction and meaning from every fight, and the emotional weight from every conversation. Through what should be deadening tedium, however, progress is still made, and the player can gradually uncover Siffrin's deepest seedbed of emotional trauma: [spoiler] sudden, forcible memory loss at every imaginable level, from a sense of general forgetfulness in short-term memory, to a need to be reminded of how he lost his own eye, to the inability to remember his country of origin, his original friends, his family, even his own full name. [/spoiler] The way in which this aspect of his past is revealed to the player, in small, melancholy stings rather than in one big ghastly twist, helps to convey how badly this has affected Siffrin, and the desperation with which he has sought to bury it. Little hints here and there from his allies about [spoiler] his forgetfulness [/spoiler] serve as the first few scrapes of the shovel against the soil containing this contorted coiling root of agony; from there, layer by layer, the multifaceted ways by which the howling void of his past torments him are unearthed. Out of a rabid desire to hide this trauma from his allies, as well as the merry hell the time loops are playing with his already fragile mental state, Siffrin spirals yet deeper, with ever more twisted conviction that he needs to protect them from seeing his struggles, that they are all somehow the true victims, that his trauma makes him inexplicably, irredeemably evil. Speaking personally, the genuine, distilled emotion, and distinctly varied personalities that are intricately woven into ISAT's narrative and character writing, radiated out of it in shimmering, blazing sunbeams. The supporting cast are a cornucopian wellspring of jubilance, brilliant humour and touching sadness, with each and every interaction being memorable in its own way, no matter how many times I revisited it, and every deuteragonist has their own singular, delightful relationship with Siffrin that runs the entire gamut of positive feeling. I have heard fair criticism of the repetition of the core gameplay loop, and was initially disappointed at not quite getting all of the answers by the ending, but I can ultimately respect insertdisc5's narratively effective design decisions, as well as the decision to leave several story elements ambiguous and ripe for fanfiction. My experience with the gameplay loop was further improved by the absolutely fantastic soundtrack that creates a central leitmotif and focuses it through every possible emotional and instrumental lens. In Stars and Time yielded genuine, raw feelings from me that I have not found from the experience of playing any other game, and the exquisite art, character writing and music compel me to rank it among my all-time, all-media favourites.

inspired me to finally make my own game ive been sitting on for 3 years

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Amazing game and i cry evert time i watch or play the ending

THIS GAME IS SO ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL THE STORY AND EVERYTHING IS GENUINELY AMAZING PLEASE PLAY IT!!!!

I KEEP FORGETTING ABOUT THE ROCK AUGH

Woek game 11/10 incredible, must play