What's A Colour?
Jun. 19th, 2024 11:08 pmI'm currently in act three of In Stars and Time! Here is a rambling and incoherently structured entry of my thoughts so far.
In Stars and Time is an indie RPG set in a time loop. It opens just before the final battle, when the party have already spent a long time travelling together and they're nearing the end of their quest. It's an interesting place to start an RPG; it's something I haven't seen before!
I've played a fair few games about time loops. I think, more than anything else I've ever played, In Stars and Time manages to capture the frustration of being caught in a time loop.
This has its advantages and drawbacks! I really feel I understand Siffrin's growing despair and apathy. But also, unsurprisingly, being caught in this game's frustrating time loop is, well, frustrating.
( Spoilers for In Stars and Time. )
I find In Stars and Time frustrating to play on occasion. Sometimes that's by design; the protagonist is frustrated, and the game wants to impart those feelings to you. Sometimes the frustration comes about as a result of unintentionally frustrating game design. Game, you can't expect me to remember the location of seemingly unimportant things I saw sixteen hours of gameplay ago! You've included a character with the role of giving me hints; would it kill you to have Loop say 'you should check out those articles; didn't you see something like that on the first floor?' rather than just 'you should check out those articles; maybe check the places you've already been'?
Overall, though, I'm enjoying this game a lot! I like the art (although it took a while to get used to playing a game in black and white!); I like the battle system; I like the character writing; I like watching Siffrin increasingly fall apart. I look forward to seeing how the rest of it plays out!
In Stars and Time is an indie RPG set in a time loop. It opens just before the final battle, when the party have already spent a long time travelling together and they're nearing the end of their quest. It's an interesting place to start an RPG; it's something I haven't seen before!
I've played a fair few games about time loops. I think, more than anything else I've ever played, In Stars and Time manages to capture the frustration of being caught in a time loop.
This has its advantages and drawbacks! I really feel I understand Siffrin's growing despair and apathy. But also, unsurprisingly, being caught in this game's frustrating time loop is, well, frustrating.
( Spoilers for In Stars and Time. )
I find In Stars and Time frustrating to play on occasion. Sometimes that's by design; the protagonist is frustrated, and the game wants to impart those feelings to you. Sometimes the frustration comes about as a result of unintentionally frustrating game design. Game, you can't expect me to remember the location of seemingly unimportant things I saw sixteen hours of gameplay ago! You've included a character with the role of giving me hints; would it kill you to have Loop say 'you should check out those articles; didn't you see something like that on the first floor?' rather than just 'you should check out those articles; maybe check the places you've already been'?
Overall, though, I'm enjoying this game a lot! I like the art (although it took a while to get used to playing a game in black and white!); I like the battle system; I like the character writing; I like watching Siffrin increasingly fall apart. I look forward to seeing how the rest of it plays out!
