In Stars And Time

In Stars And Time is a role-playing video game developed by insertdisc5 in RPG Maker MV and published by Armor Games Studios in 2023. It’s based on a set of webcomics named START AGAIN by the author, which were written in 2017 to 2020 and it received honorable mentions for the Nuovo Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF 2024 (20240609203145).

I played the entire game on stream: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (20240609201908)

I found the game really tedious and I thought it dragged on for much, much longer than it needed to. There are many backtracking-heavy fetch quests throughout the game and you’re prevented from progressing just because Siffrin doesn’t know what to do yet. This led to me feeling like I didn’t really have any agency as a player and made me feel like the writing was bad, at first. There were a few moments that I really liked. I really related to Odile’s estranged relationship from her culture, seeing Siffrin understand their subconscious desires, and Loop’s conversation with Siffrin at the end of the game (20240609201908).