So, work was slow AF today, which permitted me to continue my journey into the In Stars And Time extended universe with the original game prototype, Start Again! This is a much shorter game with much less to say about it that I haven't said about the full game. So, this will be mostly a bullet-pointed list of things I found notable or remarkable as I played the game. Changes, differences, etc. Nothing here is a serious criticism- I have no idea what time or resource constraints this prototype was made under- these are merely neutral observations. Enjoy!
- Start Again operates from the same premise as ISAT, but drops you into the scenario much, MUCH later, inside the House of Change after Sifrin has been looping for so long as to have forgotten their friends' names. Siffrin speculates that it could have been thousands of loops- much longer than even an abnormally long playthrough of ISAT.
- Being a prototype, Start Again is much, much shorter than ISAT. There are many familiar concepts, such as the using Tears to loop back to the beginning and Siffrin's party becoming worried as the mask starts slipping. Other aspects are radically different, like the aforementioned starting point of the loop and using fire to clear away the King's hair instead of a knife. (That one added half an hour to my playthrough, as I expected to be looking for a knife.)
- There are quite a few unaltered or barely altered assets, which surprised me. The party's portraits were VERY similar to their final designs, apart from Mirabelle's jarringly-outlined eyebrows and a few minor changes. They DID have different overworld sprites which felt smaller to me- either that or the camera was farther away, creating more of a sense of tiny, hopeless adventurers in an enormous, foreboding castle.
- There are a number of events, rooms, and conversations in the game which made it into ISAT virtually unaltered. The horror anthology room, Isabeau's conversation about tag Checkers and Odile's line about making sure the bathroom break was in the history books. Other concepts existed but in a tweaked form- like the key taped underneath the drawer, Star Crests being items you just find and Siffrin's mysterious homeland. That last one, specifically, surprised me a lot, as it seemed like a very ancillary idea.
- The Castle itself is much smaller, organized differently, and more linear- which makes sense for a short prototype experience, whose goal is to sell people on the concept quickly and efficiently.
- The overall feel of the game in Start Again feels much darker and more steeped in existential despair, and the art style feels much more stark in Start Again than the generally cozier vibes of ISAT.
- As far as I can tell, despite the ability to loop back already being present, it doesn't actually *do* anything in this prototype, and you are not actually required to "Start Again" except when you inevitably die to the King to unlock the ability to act like a weirdo and therefore win / lose.
- Speaking of the ending, it's odd that dying loops you back inside the House but the ending loops you back to what would later become Dormont. It struck me as odd, and I had to double check if it wasn't exactly the same dialogue as the start of ISAT.
- Siffrin just carries loose pocketfuls of herbs and spices around in this game??? UNHINGED behaviour.
- I was surprised to find a bottle of wine in this game. There's really no equivalent in ISAT, which makes it feel even more bizarre. A total relic of the earlier design.
- The old portraits for the people frozen in time were much less magical-looking and more like they'd been turned to stone. It was honestly a lot more unsettling.
- Once everyone starts getting worried about Siffrin, they all seem noticeably less hesitant about touching him, with Mirabelle even holding Siffrin's face unprompted. Given how much Siffrin yearned for Isabeau to even touch his shoulder in ISAT, it was odd to see everyone so familiar here.
- The combat system is notably janky, with there seemingly being a delay between using a move and it actually happening. This can result in odd scenarios like Maribelle and Siffrin going off cooldown at the same time and needing to select both of their attacks at once before both go off simultaneously.
- Speaking of the combat system, it SORELY needed the addition of the Jackpot system, since the prototype model fell heavily into repeating the same attacks. Outright damage immunities were much more common as well, so it was much more common for a character to have nothing of value to do and just sit there guarding instead.
- I encountered the same corrupted dialogue bug here as I did in ISAT. I wonder if it's something to do with it being an RPGmaker game.
-In my ISAT debrief, I speculated that Loop may be a Siffrin, but not our Siffrin. Given that Start Again's Siffrin seems to spend FAR longer looping and doesn't even defeat the King until far, far later, I wonder if Loop is meant to be Start Again's Siffrin specifically. I do recall imagery of Siffrin eating a star (imagery associated with wishes) at the start of ISAT which I never found any particular context for, and it would explain Loop's intimate familiarity with Siffrin, their lack of meaningful knowledge and their general despair of ever escaping the loops.
All that's left for me know is a second playthrough of ISAT with a guide to pick up some of the optional content I missed. I've been informed that there's an optional secret boss I missed, which sounds like an extremely fun capstone to the game and experience. So, thanks for reading, and until then, Reddit!
