awesome game aweosm,e art style i like siffrin
Gostei de jogar :0... tipo :0... meio repetitivo, mas achei de boas 0: gostei da história e dos personagens c:... quero muito jogar In Stars And Time ( T ^T)... que entre em promoção e tenha um desconto legal ( o uo)b
Great art style, characters, and music. The story is pretty cool with a time loop...
However, it is still very much a ln RPG Maker game. I have spent 500+ hours in that program, so all of the defaults they used and the battle system just seemed so bleh to me. Like they have custom music but didn't go for custom sounds? It annoyed me a ton..
Maybe I'll play the sequel. We'll see.
However, it is still very much a ln RPG Maker game. I have spent 500+ hours in that program, so all of the defaults they used and the battle system just seemed so bleh to me. Like they have custom music but didn't go for custom sounds? It annoyed me a ton..
Maybe I'll play the sequel. We'll see.
i've written this review multiple times and each time I've somehow lost my writing... it has been a few months spent enamored with baldurs gate three and audio dramas, but let's try a third time!!
a very cute little game with unexpectedly emotional moments! i quickly came to love (and worry for) its unique and entertaining characters. plus it was all wonderfully queer! it was fun to vibe with.
seeing the slight differences in the loops also felt satisfying. the effectiveness of timeloop repetition surprised me - while at times it felt a bit boring or frustrating, it puts you directly into sif's experience... so i think it still did what it set out to do. it's a cool way to emulate lived experience and there's an understanding of mental health that i didn't anticipate. it was well worth the four hour playthrough.
i don't know if i will pick up the full game, however. the short playtime felt perfectly suited to its message and i think repeating dungeons and dialogue for much longer would eventually lose my attention. ...i do have adhd, though. others might really enjoy it!
a very cute little game with unexpectedly emotional moments! i quickly came to love (and worry for) its unique and entertaining characters. plus it was all wonderfully queer! it was fun to vibe with.
seeing the slight differences in the loops also felt satisfying. the effectiveness of timeloop repetition surprised me - while at times it felt a bit boring or frustrating, it puts you directly into sif's experience... so i think it still did what it set out to do. it's a cool way to emulate lived experience and there's an understanding of mental health that i didn't anticipate. it was well worth the four hour playthrough.
i don't know if i will pick up the full game, however. the short playtime felt perfectly suited to its message and i think repeating dungeons and dialogue for much longer would eventually lose my attention. ...i do have adhd, though. others might really enjoy it!
Re:Zero but make it twee
Finally got around to playing this before starting In Stars and Time and im pleasantly surprised by how the game played out. The time loop idea was utilized really well during the loops you experience in the prologue. I thought the writing wouldve been the weaker part but I vibed with the characters, the researcher being a boss she is goated. High hopes for the full game as this prologue had me asking questions that i really wanna see answered!
For whatever reason I couldn't get the Mac build of this game to save, which accidentally ended up adding to the immersion.
Random technical problems aside (thank you RPGMaker, very cool), I love the concept of taking the mechanics of a generic, D&D-adjacent fantasy RPG game and using them to tell a time-loop story that digs into the cyclical nature of depression. The character writing and tiny worldbuilding tidbits are the real stars of this game, and do the heavy lifting in getting the player invested in trying to find a way out of the loops. There's a sense of a whole backstory that we're not clued in on as players, which adds to the storytelling about the main character forgetting details, hyper focusing on finding a way out. We become extremely familiar with the "correct" route through the castle, but the only extra details we get are the ones we choose to listen to. The genuine gut wrench I felt after getting the "true" ending speaks to the power of the tiny details in this game.
All of this makes me really excited for the full version coming out later this year, although I'm not sure how it will work in a full game format. However, if everything is as well-considered as it is here, then I have nothing to worry about.
Random technical problems aside (thank you RPGMaker, very cool), I love the concept of taking the mechanics of a generic, D&D-adjacent fantasy RPG game and using them to tell a time-loop story that digs into the cyclical nature of depression. The character writing and tiny worldbuilding tidbits are the real stars of this game, and do the heavy lifting in getting the player invested in trying to find a way out of the loops. There's a sense of a whole backstory that we're not clued in on as players, which adds to the storytelling about the main character forgetting details, hyper focusing on finding a way out. We become extremely familiar with the "correct" route through the castle, but the only extra details we get are the ones we choose to listen to. The genuine gut wrench I felt after getting the "true" ending speaks to the power of the tiny details in this game.
All of this makes me really excited for the full version coming out later this year, although I'm not sure how it will work in a full game format. However, if everything is as well-considered as it is here, then I have nothing to worry about.
This review contains spoilers
Start Again as a game is very basic, very simple, and very rpg maker-y in a way a lot of games by art focused creators are. The rock-paper-scissors mechanic in lieu of traditional elemental weaknesses is cute but with the extremely small pool of enemies it doesn't make the strongest of impressions though the worldbuilding around this mechanic and "Crafts" (i.e spells and skills and apparently star signs??) is well integrated into the small piece of the world the player is allowed to see.
Much of the demo's pull is in the writing, the time looping concept, and the party themselves as the gameplay is just kind of there. Luckily everything else in this regard was good to ok. The art for the party and the handful of CGs was consistently charming up until the "final" loop where there were quite a few wonky frames and the banter amongst the party was homey in a way that a real band of traveling misfits turned pseudo family would feel like after months of harrowing journeying even if the main character is having like twelve breakdowns in the background of all the cute exchanges.
The looping itself along with the layout of the castle aids itself to making the player feel the protag's weariness over the repetitious nature of the whole thing B U T...I got the true loop on my second go aaaand i'm not sure if it was intended or not but it does undersell the idea a bit since, if you don't lose against the king (like I did...), you'll be done and miss a handful of fascinating little tidbits that would occur in extra loops like a whole section getting skipped over fast forward style without warning on the fourth loop (I thought that was neat.) and those itty bitty easy to miss scenes do add to the sort of psychological slow torture the hero has to endure.
The true ending was genuinely great in a sadistic way, it could have just been just a happy conclusion after a grueling ordeal but it kept going in a way I wasn't expecting which I love, love, L O V E D <3. The party members are fun and the worldbuilding intrigues me but all of this feels better as a self-contained, 1-2 hour thing than something longer. The only thing I can see benefitting from a full version is the gameplay and more time to learn about the game world.
Despite my wariness towards several more hours of time looping existential horror-terror I plan to try the full release anyways because the potential is there and I want to see what sprouts from it.
Much of the demo's pull is in the writing, the time looping concept, and the party themselves as the gameplay is just kind of there. Luckily everything else in this regard was good to ok. The art for the party and the handful of CGs was consistently charming up until the "final" loop where there were quite a few wonky frames and the banter amongst the party was homey in a way that a real band of traveling misfits turned pseudo family would feel like after months of harrowing journeying even if the main character is having like twelve breakdowns in the background of all the cute exchanges.
The looping itself along with the layout of the castle aids itself to making the player feel the protag's weariness over the repetitious nature of the whole thing B U T...I got the true loop on my second go aaaand i'm not sure if it was intended or not but it does undersell the idea a bit since, if you don't lose against the king (like I did...), you'll be done and miss a handful of fascinating little tidbits that would occur in extra loops like a whole section getting skipped over fast forward style without warning on the fourth loop (I thought that was neat.) and those itty bitty easy to miss scenes do add to the sort of psychological slow torture the hero has to endure.
The true ending was genuinely great in a sadistic way, it could have just been just a happy conclusion after a grueling ordeal but it kept going in a way I wasn't expecting which I love, love, L O V E D <3. The party members are fun and the worldbuilding intrigues me but all of this feels better as a self-contained, 1-2 hour thing than something longer. The only thing I can see benefitting from a full version is the gameplay and more time to learn about the game world.
Despite my wariness towards several more hours of time looping existential horror-terror I plan to try the full release anyways because the potential is there and I want to see what sprouts from it.
Missing a lot of the quality-of-life features that "In Stars and Time" would later have, but it's still an enjoyable game in it's own right!
good game, but definitely doesn't feel like a complete story
A great first chapter that makes me exited to start the full game. Also, I love the whole rock, paper, scissors weakness system here.
Made me tear up at the end.
Any complaints I have about this game are basically just me being put in Sif's shoes so it's like Lol the narrative working as intended. At any rate even though I enjoy the concept it was very repetitive to keep skipping the same dialogue which I KNOW...! IT'S THE POINT. But it just got me a bit bored. Luckily it's not a long game so it's not that big of a deal.
The writing was slightly hit-or-miss for me and I wasn't into it at the beginning but it really got me engaged by the end. All of the characters are really unique and solid, their personalities are great and fun to read. The Researcher is goated btw.
Excited to get to In Stars And Time.
Any complaints I have about this game are basically just me being put in Sif's shoes so it's like Lol the narrative working as intended. At any rate even though I enjoy the concept it was very repetitive to keep skipping the same dialogue which I KNOW...! IT'S THE POINT. But it just got me a bit bored. Luckily it's not a long game so it's not that big of a deal.
The writing was slightly hit-or-miss for me and I wasn't into it at the beginning but it really got me engaged by the end. All of the characters are really unique and solid, their personalities are great and fun to read. The Researcher is goated btw.
Excited to get to In Stars And Time.
This review contains spoilers
I know people say time loops as metaphors for depression are overdone but i say people should keep doing them cause i like them.
anyway I thought this game was really well done. I enjoyed the ways in which it leaned into RPG staples, and poked fun at the genre in an appreciatory way with the rock paper scissors mechanics. I thought that looking in the art to determine an enemies weakness was a genuinely really cool idea. I found myself impressed by how fun this game was, without having too much of a difficulty curve (which I fully expected by entering at "the end of a save").
I can't wait for the sequel to break me more :)
anyway I thought this game was really well done. I enjoyed the ways in which it leaned into RPG staples, and poked fun at the genre in an appreciatory way with the rock paper scissors mechanics. I thought that looking in the art to determine an enemies weakness was a genuinely really cool idea. I found myself impressed by how fun this game was, without having too much of a difficulty curve (which I fully expected by entering at "the end of a save").
I can't wait for the sequel to break me more :)
friend recommended to me, im going to give it a try
Time Loop games still work for me. Its a genre that's maybe been overused, but it works because the very act of a video game is a loop. Building information, gaining knowledge, determining your pathway. For that narrative to remain entertaining, the gameplay has to remain compelling enough to keep player retention.
I'm wary of Start Again expanding into a larger release, because the two hour "prologue" tells me so much already. There's a sense of a vast history we aren't privy to, a whole life to these characters that's locked off to us. They've finished their arcs and are off to fight the final boss. Sif's narration even notes this idea. "This is where the hero has their darkest moment and doubts themselves. You know that's what you're going through. But if you can't keep the smile on your face, that proves you're not supposed to be the Hero at all."
I think more than the time loop narrative, I'm interested in the recovery narrative it suggests. Sif is already broken by the loop, most memories outside this dungeon lost to time. What life waits for them if they can even escape this nightmare? How can they explain to their friends that the 30 minutes was a thousand years? Its that emotional complexity that pulls me in, that makes me willing to wait for the devs' full game.
As long as there's a good emotional core, these kinds of stories can still work. Making each moment of the loop mean something is where the spark comes in.
I'm wary of Start Again expanding into a larger release, because the two hour "prologue" tells me so much already. There's a sense of a vast history we aren't privy to, a whole life to these characters that's locked off to us. They've finished their arcs and are off to fight the final boss. Sif's narration even notes this idea. "This is where the hero has their darkest moment and doubts themselves. You know that's what you're going through. But if you can't keep the smile on your face, that proves you're not supposed to be the Hero at all."
I think more than the time loop narrative, I'm interested in the recovery narrative it suggests. Sif is already broken by the loop, most memories outside this dungeon lost to time. What life waits for them if they can even escape this nightmare? How can they explain to their friends that the 30 minutes was a thousand years? Its that emotional complexity that pulls me in, that makes me willing to wait for the devs' full game.
As long as there's a good emotional core, these kinds of stories can still work. Making each moment of the loop mean something is where the spark comes in.