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Siffrin, the main character of beloved indie title In Stars And Time, has been going through it. In 2017, Siffrin was featured in various webcomics from creator Adrienne Bazir (also known as insertdisc5), which happened to be the first time the at-the-time unnamed traveler would be exposed to the time loop concept. Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lonely atmosphere it had created, 2021 would see the release of Start Again: A Prologue—a short game that would see Siffrin and fellow party members once again trapped in a time loop of what would be akin to a typical final boss fight.

A completion of that game's true ending would send Siffrin and pals back to the beginning of the day prior, thus setting up the story's 2023 denouement, the aforementioned In Stars And Time. Suffice it to say, after seven long years of being the subject of time loop stories, seemingly unable to escape his current situation no matter the medium, Siffrin has gone through their fair share of suffering and tedium—feelings that In Stars And Time is all too keen to share with the player.

In Stars And Time is primarily described as an RPG, but it's probably more accurate to describe it as a visual novel with RPG-like elements; you have equips, skills, and the like here, but it's clear that the focus is on the narrative. This would normally be fine—after all, how much depth can you expect from a combat system based on rock-paper-scissors?—with a limited implementation, but ISAT expects you to spend way more time fighting than there's gameplay to facilitate. Its exceptionally simple battle system is overly tutorialized and repetitive; each encounter takes far too long.

You are practically never at risk, and avoiding enemy encounters in the castle's narrow hallways is a chore for most of the game. Worse yet, you're actively encouraged to keep fighting—even as the exp system is quickly demonstrated to be pretty pointless—as the only way to loop forwards (thereby saving you time) is to gather memory currency from random battles. One way or another, In Stars And Time always feels like it's stretching the game's completion time out for no other reason than to bother the player.

It's unknown which aspects of the game are specifically designed to feel tedious and thereby help you relate to Siffrin, and which are just a result of questionable game design. This is a story about a character stuck in a time loop, of course. How is this feeling communicated to the player? First, by a series of "gotcha" moments, gating your progression with traps you didn't check or keys you didn't find (even if you looked for them).

The first few times it's excusable enough. But when you're 30-some-odd loops in and you find an object that you, the player, can tell is significant, only for Siffrin to dismiss it out of hand...until later, when you're told that yes, your initial suspicions were correct, and now you must loop back through the castle again just to interact with it again? Frankly, it borders on infuriating. ISAT strictly discourages exploring anything more than what you are directly told to look at. Progression is ultimately exceedingly slow and (intentionally?) monotonous, and any gameplay moments that are not directly in service of the plot feel like time wasted.

To its credit, In Stars And Time has a quite enjoyable cast (main character notwithstanding), and the moments where you bond with them demonstrate the game at its most charming—Act 3 has some delightful and touching character moments in particular. ISAT's queer representation is well-placed, and the chemistry between them is quite good—appropriate to the setting, it does feel like you're joining them right at the end of a long adventure. Sure, the dialogue could probably have used an editor, and the game's fondness for ellipses and the caps lock button is a bit much, but it's mostly just the right side of quirky to make it work.

This makes the game's conclusion all the more disappointing, though, as the overly sweet ending plays it safe the entire way through, unable or unwilling to address any complicated feelings that the game's story hinges on. The fact that the game concludes with a simple case of miscommunication and The Power of Friendship (a trope it ironically lampshades about halfway through, only to play straight at the very end) is both unsatisfactory to the weight of the topics at hand, as well as reinforcement of the feeling that the player has had their time thoroughly wasted. The game's worldbuilding suffers a similar fate, and most of ISAT's most intriguing mysteries remain unsolved.

In Stars And Time has something to say. It desperately wants you to connect with Siffrin, to empathize with their struggle as they repeat the same events again and again and again. It very clearly wants to demonstrate the importance of communication and self-worth. And it's content with shredding every potential enjoyable aspect of gameplay and player fulfillment in order to accomplish that. It's true that a large chunk of this review can be dismissed with a simple "That's the point!" The very creator commented that the game "had to be frustrating" and that art "should be annoying sometimes." It's a valid statement—art is meant to be subjective, after all. So if In Stars And Time's goal was to feel like a 20-hour exercise in futility? Well, it passes with flying monochrome.

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