"wehh wehhh this game is so repetitive wehh wehhhh its frustrating doing the same stuff all over" THATS THE POINT. In Stars and Time, along with being an incredibly written story with a lovable cast of characters who have amazing chemistry as a party, also has the best depiction of the existential horror of time-loops that I've seen in a piece of art, ever.
Just finished playing this, so my thought aren't fully formed, but I absolutely adored it. I felt like I was going insane right alongside Siffrin, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Truly a gem of indie game design.
What makes In Stars and Time such a compelling story game is that it actually succeeds at doing something most of these indie RPGs fail at: being a GAME.
Don't let the Undertale pick in my top 5 fool you, the only bias I have towards "Earthbound inspired RPGs" is a pretty negative one, and it all comes down to pacing. I really can't agree with the excuse of "Oh, but it's supposed to be slow and monotonous because that's the theme of the game" because why would you ever want to recommend someone a game that's just straight up boring to sit through? You can get the point across that something is meant to feel dull in a way more succinct way than just making the actual gameplay dull. Too many people are willing to use this excuse to justify overly drawn out stories and it makes it hard for me to trust them when they tell me that the next indie RPG I play will finally be good.
ISAT is so refreshing because I don't NEED to use that excuse at all! Not sure what the reviews saying that the game is tedious are talking about, ISAT strikes a great balance of making situations feel repetitive without making them feel flat out boring. There are so many quality of life implementations that let you skip around to exactly where you need to be at any given time, and the game is shockingly great at directing you on what you need to do to progress. Timeloop stories need to strike a balance where the player can actually empathize with the character's emotions while also letting them enjoy playing something that isn't totally aimless and this game does it so well. Bad pacing will completely change my opinion on a story but ISAT is not guilty of it in the least.
I have a lot more that I would love to say about this, and obviously ISAT means way more to me than just being a playable game lmao. I'm not writing this review to try and convince people that this is the perfect indie RPG and all the others are totally worthless, I'm writing in the hopes that I'll convince the kinds of people who never would consider trying something like this to give this game a chance. It's one of the most beautiful stories I've ever experienced, bar none, and I'm so thankful that it was engaging enough to keep me playing through it all.
Don't let the Undertale pick in my top 5 fool you, the only bias I have towards "Earthbound inspired RPGs" is a pretty negative one, and it all comes down to pacing. I really can't agree with the excuse of "Oh, but it's supposed to be slow and monotonous because that's the theme of the game" because why would you ever want to recommend someone a game that's just straight up boring to sit through? You can get the point across that something is meant to feel dull in a way more succinct way than just making the actual gameplay dull. Too many people are willing to use this excuse to justify overly drawn out stories and it makes it hard for me to trust them when they tell me that the next indie RPG I play will finally be good.
ISAT is so refreshing because I don't NEED to use that excuse at all! Not sure what the reviews saying that the game is tedious are talking about, ISAT strikes a great balance of making situations feel repetitive without making them feel flat out boring. There are so many quality of life implementations that let you skip around to exactly where you need to be at any given time, and the game is shockingly great at directing you on what you need to do to progress. Timeloop stories need to strike a balance where the player can actually empathize with the character's emotions while also letting them enjoy playing something that isn't totally aimless and this game does it so well. Bad pacing will completely change my opinion on a story but ISAT is not guilty of it in the least.
I have a lot more that I would love to say about this, and obviously ISAT means way more to me than just being a playable game lmao. I'm not writing this review to try and convince people that this is the perfect indie RPG and all the others are totally worthless, I'm writing in the hopes that I'll convince the kinds of people who never would consider trying something like this to give this game a chance. It's one of the most beautiful stories I've ever experienced, bar none, and I'm so thankful that it was engaging enough to keep me playing through it all.
I won't lie to you, I haven't beaten the game yet. But this game has one of the best stories I've ever seen, along with being a wonderful game. It manages to be repetitive without turning boring, I feel like I'm losing my mind along with Siffrin in the best way possible. Also, Siffrin's thinking is way too similar to how I think at times, why are they me. It's actually a little terrifying. Every character is extremely well-written, the plot is super engaging, and I really need to beat this game but I had to review it now because I need people to know this game is amazing Look at my pfp