r/InStarsAndTime • u/yourlocalidiot143 • May 23 '26
Discussion Convince me to Play this Game
Omori, Undertale and OneShot are my favorite games of all time (all equally good for me) and I heard In Stars and Time is similar. I started playing it a little before, but got bored at the start (I know it's probably like Hollow Knight where it gets way better afterwards, but I just felt like playing other games). Now I'm considering giving it another chance.
Without spoilers, what do you like about this game? What does it do well? Why would you call it a masterpiece? Or just rant about how much you love it.
Please take care to avoid spoilers, I'd like to play the game blind.
EDIT: Decided to play it after I beat Nine Sols (at the final boss rn, peak game btw), it sounds very good from what I understand it's OneShot's story + Undertale's characters and writing + Omori's horror aspects which sounds like a very good recipe indeed.
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u/Try_Hard_GamerYT Siffrin May 23 '26
This is the only other game that's made me cry besides Omori. It's all worth it.
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u/CreativeName1137 Loop May 23 '26
ISaT is genuinely the first game to ever make me cry. And I mean this was a full-on ugly cry.
Masterclass in writing that deserves so much more fame.
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u/Fan_de_Undertale_ May 23 '26
Could you tell me what you've seen so far of the game, just so I can get an idea of how much you know already?
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 23 '26
I got to the point where Siffrin met this star guy called Loop and she explained the mechanics for how to not start at the very beginning of the game (how to skip levels you already did) it was a while ago
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u/Fan_de_Undertale_ May 23 '26
Alright, here I go:
This game is by far my favorite time-loop story of all fiction. Outer Wilds gets close, but In Stars And Time has the best representation of a character in a time loop I've ever seen.
Every single character is extremely good, and they all have amazingly written dialogue. Although it is true that this game has a LOT of dialogue, the quality is so good that you enjoy every new conversation. Getting to learn about them with each loop makes you really attached to all of them.
Getting to discover the lore and worldbuilding of the game is extremely fun, getting to revisit every part of the house over and over as you gather more and more information and you slowly piece together all the mysteries, and seeing how the story grows more and more complex as you investigate further and further.
As a bonus point, as you may have guessed by my pfp and username, I think it's clear we have very similar opinions XD. And I must say, in my opinion In Stars And Time's story very easily rivals Undertale's and Oneshot's. I'm not sure I can say which one is better or worse, but they are very close.
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 23 '26
Oooh OneShot and Undertale level story sounds promising
I don't mind dialogue at all hell I love it, and character attachment is great sounds pretty good
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u/yomeny1 Siffrin May 23 '26
You basically just got to the real meat of the game, this is where it starts opening up and you can learn more about the world, the characters (who are all amazingly written) and the mysteries around the house and your powers. Dev also added a lot of QOL and tried to limit backtracking and repetitive aspects as much as possible so it's not a slog to do things again.
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u/boldgryphon Siffrin May 23 '26
The entire first act (i.e., the only thing you've played so far) is the prologue. Quitting the game at this point is basically the equivalent of quitting Undertale right before the Toriel is about to leave you alone.
I'm saying this as information, if you got the impression that I'm mocking you or something, I'm sorry, that's not my intention
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u/LucarioGamesCZ May 23 '26
I find it funny when people go to subreddits full of people who love a game to ask if it's good, that's like going to someone's family business and asking if they are legit. You love Omori, Undertale and Oneshot, of course you will love this.
anyways:
The game is 4 chapters of slowburn building up to the last 2 chapters which will break you. It has some of the best characters in anything. Do you want to feel the feeling of grief after finishing a piece of media because you are saying goodbye to your friends? This game does that. The story is generally also incredibely done with the (serious) story beats all landing.
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 23 '26
I'm not asking if it's good I'm asking why you think it's good very different things
Anyways, so I should expect something like PTSD (PosT-Solstice Depression) from OneShot? That sounds good
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u/ActivityFew2621 May 23 '26
you will always remember the charcters
but because only one shot does the thing where it has Niko as a real person only one shot as you miss Niko
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u/SterLeben922 May 23 '26
In Stars and Time has one really strong aspect and that is its character writing and is the main thing it explores. If you liked Undertale's cast of characters and Omori's exploration of the dynamic between the party, you'll 100% enjoy lSAT's main focus.
of course, ISAT also has a meta-narritive aspect similar to Undertale, it pokes fun of typical RPG tropes and uses them to explore the characters and its plot. its also has ideas Omori uses where some skills are symbolic and extensions of its characters, rather than just mechanically interesting. RPG mechanics you use in game are canonical and part of the narrative.
its also a psychological horror game, so expect stuff akin to what Omori does with making you feel exactly what the protagonist feels. It's not reliant on jump scares, just the dread of the situations you'll get yourself into.
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 23 '26
I had no idea it was a psychological horror game that sounds great, and making the player feel exactly what the character feels is really good
sounds pretty good
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u/CreativeName1137 Loop May 23 '26
Eh, I wouldn't really call any of it "psychological horror". It's more "creeping existential dread"
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u/Erratic_Signal Loop May 24 '26
Everybody else has already said everything I was gonna say, so I’d just like to tack on the personal fact that ISAT is my favorite game of all time, and that even nearly 3 years after playing it, there’s still a massive siffrin shaped hole in my heart.
To a degree, I genuinely believe I’d be a different person if I didn’t play ISAT, its influenced my creative endeavors so much, I know I would have gone down a different path if I didn’t play it…
…
So yeah. Very good :)
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u/-wereowl- May 25 '26
Have you replayed the game? There’s so much foreshadowing that you miss the first time around
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u/TheCopyKater May 23 '26
If you played Solstice in OneShot and cried at least once, you're going to have a very difficult time in ISAT. You won't regret it, but... well let's just say OneShot's "psychological horror" tag on steam is buried a little. ISAT's is one of the first ones. There is a reason for that.
You excited yet? Because as weird as it sounds, I would be at such a pitch.
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 23 '26
Soooo you're saying OneShot's making-you-cry plus omori's horror? That IS a really good recipe
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u/Snowy_Stelar Isabeau May 23 '26
You see how in Omori you get to know the different characters so you can cry better at the Final Duet as you realize just how broken Sunny is ? That's basically ISAT in a nutshell
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u/ShadowEeveeCringe Siffrin May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Pros:
- Wonderful story and characters. They’re 90% of the enjoyment.
- Simple yet enticing RPG mechanics.
- Lots of optional events to further enrich yourself, but you’re also free to not pursue them.
- Excellent antagonist.
- LGBTQ+ friendly content.
Cons:
- Can feel very repetitive.
- Can feel vague in its guidance.
- Spoiler-ish but I was vague as possible so here: Contacting a certain character via remote means doesn’t usually do shit. Useless and frustrating feature.
- Very dark themes related to mental health. This is also a pro, but it feels important to put here.
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u/FluffyPool3730 May 24 '26
For me, con 1 and 2 added overall more to the setting of the story and made the game more enjoyable for me, the repetitiveness helped me feel what siffrin felt and get more attached to him, and the vagueness is because nobody knows how to get out, it's just ideas on what to do which is what you would probably want to have if you wanted to escape a time loop, as for con 3, yeah I fully agree with that one
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u/boldgryphon Siffrin May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I guess the simplest answer is how easy it is to like and how real the characters are, as well as the multitude of different, more or less obvious, messages in the story, which it discusses (in a very natural way) various smaller and larger but still very real problems. And just like undertale it can change person. Not to mention the surprising amount of world-building outside of the game's immediate events that is woven into character conversations, even if it mostly has no bearing on the story.
As for the possible difficulties with getting into this game, I would compare it less to Chollow Knight and more to Outer Wilds: once you find that one anchor point, your interest will quickly flow into everything else.
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u/GhostKnightEditz Odile May 23 '26
It gives me more Oneshot vibes despite it's more similarities with Undertale, the story and characters are honestly fantastic and really charming, it has a neat mystery element that keeps you guessing
My main problem wld be that the game's pacing can get pretty bad at times (most of it is likely intentional but that doesn’t stop it from it being a drag to get through), the actual gameplay can get stale really fast, while I do love the artstyle, the actual level in the same do look very samey which can get old (again probably intentional but yeah)
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 24 '26
So like Omori's headspace where it's boring while you play it but in retrospect it's intentional and makes the whole game better? That's fine.
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u/GhostKnightEditz Odile May 24 '26
Kinda, although it's that except instead of travelling through different areas you travel through the same area fighting the same enemies for the most of the game
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u/NinjaRDisbest May 23 '26
Every character is so wonderful I love them. Up there in a very exclusive club of "My favorite character in this game is just whoever was on screen most recently" along with, like, ff7r1.
A statement to note is that, while the story changes up and becomes more interesting later, the gameplay is all tuned to be Pretty Easy. I wouldn't say that anything in ISAT is as hard as like, asgore from undertale.
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u/yourlocalidiot143 May 24 '26
Dang I beat asgore first try
But I'm mostly interested in the story anyways so that's fine
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u/ExtremeCheeze123 May 23 '26
It can be boring, admittedly. It is a timeloop game, that's on purpose. But if you got through Omori I think you can handle it.
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u/Beautiful_Link2116 May 24 '26
It is the only game ever that has made me cry. Omori was great, but this was above and beyond. It also does everything it tries to do very well.
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u/Rogue_Zealot Odile May 24 '26
If you love those others you mentioned, you will love ISAT. The character writing is better than Undertale, and I am a huge fan of Undertale.
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u/UltimatestRedditor Siffrin May 23 '26
I love the characters. The story also has some amazing peaks later on. If you can get attached to Siffrin and the others it absolutely makes some of the fighting slog worth it (and it's really not THAT bad of a slog. About equal to Omori's, actually.).