Pre-game preamble (May 1, 2025)
I just bought the game a little earlier today, thought for a bit, then started building the playlogz page. I coulda jumped right in, but I didn't feel like I was quite ready yet, so I'm doing this now.
In Stars and Time has been in my peripheral for a while. It's pretty popular in the corners of the web I lurk in, but I didn't start looking into it until a couple weeks ago when Holly Hollowtones played the prologue game. I found myself very endeared by the characters and their interactions with one another, and that was enough to hook my sappy self. As it turns out, Holly Hollowtones is busy this month won't be playing In Stars and Time itself until June, and I don't feel like waiting so long to see what's next for these funny fellers, so I decided I'd play it myself.
I don't know too much about the game itself despite the amount of fanart I've looked at, which is a welcome change of pace. I've seen pictures of some spoilery characters, but I don't know what their deals are and don't remember most of their names either. I know Loop. Who's Loop? Couldn't tell ya. I'll meet them soon enough, though.
I'm excited to jump in. This game seems like it's right up my alley, and I can't wait to take a big bite. It feels like it'll be a very rich experience that I'll enjoy a lot.
This playlog will definitely not be spoiler-friendly. For that matter, none of my playlogs will be, probably. I should put that at the top of the playlog page. I dunno how it'll turn out, since this is only supplemental to the experience of playing the video game, and I don't want to work too hard on this lest it become unfun. But I'm keeping in mind the people who've already played the game and would like to see someone new experience it.
I think I'll start playing tomorrow morning, so let's look forward to that!
Session 1 (May 2, 2025)
I'm already having an awesome time with this game. I played for almost three hours and it was great.
I knew going in that this game would be cute and lovely, but I wasn't ready for it to be this cute and lovely! So many moments made me smile, like getting the drawing from the drawing kid and all the sweet and funny interactions between our main fellas. Sooooo cutes.
It is my absolute treat to look at everything in my pockets and in Dormont. I might be crawling through this game slow as a turtle but I'm having a great time doing it.
All the flavor text about little statues and drawings animated by Craft was real interesting to see. Such a fun way to integrate magic into a setting. I'm well curious to see if we see Body Craft and Time Craft in practice later in the game. Well, Time Craft we've probably already seen plenty of if it's how the King is freezing things in time, but I've no clue what Body Craft could be. Surprises ahead! Exciting!
The dynamics between all the party members make me smile so big. I think it's neat that our player character was a later addition to the party instead of the first one. We don't play through the party forming, so that period of time has no need to adhere so strongly to usual RPG staples. It's good. I love stuff like this.
The big detailed tutorial was good. I don't play very many video games, and I play even less RPGs, so it was nice to have the tutorial.
I'm excited to see more of what this game has to offer, because it's really speaking to me so far. Now I will put some of my favorite screenshots I took.
I'd love to play more right now, but I should probably pace myself and also do the other things I need to do today. So I'll go do that.
Session 2 (May 2, 2025)
I couldn't stay away. The fights are too fun, the story too enthralling. Ough. I've played more than six hours now. My head hurts.
The characters and their interactions continue to charm me to smithereens. This game is too doggone cute, it'll be the death of me. Siffrin was so happy about the malanga fritters. Everyone was so nice to Mirabelle. Too damn cute!
I think I'm actually done for today, because I'm going to go to bed soon. I stopped right before the King fight, so that'll be fun to tackle first thing in the morning. Have a few more screenshots I like.
Session 3 (May 3, 2025)
This time I woke up, got dressed, and went directly to my computer to keep playing this game. It's sure got a stranglehold on me.
I knew that there was no chance of beating the King the first time, but I was surprised that he just KOs everybody three turns in. Very rude of him. Also, everyone telling Bonnie to run away and demanding that the King doesn't hurt them? Oh babey that hurted! And I hear there's way worse down the line, so. Preparing to shed real actual tears because of this game.
Using the loops to go back and grab stuff Siffrin missed is a real cool mechanic to me. Being able to open doors I didn't know how to open and pick up stuff that didn't seem too important before is a neat way to keep the floors from feeling too repetitive.
Once I got the shields, the fight against the King was pretty neat. Aside from his time powers, I wonder if he has some sort of mind Craft ability? His debuffs were all about making the party feel weak, or not want to fight or defend themselves. It really makes a critter think. Mirabelle's big attack was very cool.
Ah, the cruel twist that I had a feeling was coming. Siffrin's reaction to being sent back even though he defeated the King was truly painful. I feel like I'm gonna be using those words alot from here on - "hurt" and "pain". I can't wait! This game will absolutely put my heart through the smasher, and I'll only be able to admire it for that.
Siffrin's word for the party changing from "friends" to "allies" is ominous. They seem to be getting more impatient now, too. Oh, Siffrin. There's much worse ahead of you, isn't there?
Session 5 (May 4, 2025)
I'm starting to get really fast at getting from the start of the loop to the King fight.
Doing all the quests did change some interactions and gave everyone an extra ability, but in the end the loop is merciless, isn't it? Ah well. I loved the new interactions, as usual.
Learned a bit more about Time Craft and the King today. The King is only able to use Time Craft like he does because the Universe shoulders most of the burden, otherwise it would've killed him frame one. Very intruiging. If the King is able to do all this because he made a wish, what does that mean for Siffrin? Is it because of the wish they made at the very beginning, or was there a different one? I dunno. Excited to see, though.
Time Craft smelling like sugar is real interesting. I wondered about that, since the King told Siffrin he could smell weird time stuff on him. I'll have to see if there's more to this.
The end of the loop changed. That there's a puzzle. Will that happen again if I don't do the quests? If I do? We'll see, we'll see.
Also, Memory of Family. yeag
Session 6 (May 4, 2025)
I'm actually writing this the morning after session six, because it went on pretty late and by the end I was real tired and just wanted to go to bed.
The reason it went on pretty late is that like a lot of stories I enjoy, I had trouble tearing myself away and ended up clearing Act 5. Yep, one night I was having so much fun with all the adorable quests, and the next night I met Mal Du Pays. Hough. I don't want to gloss over all the other interesting stuff that happened, so I'm gonna go down the list.
Puzzling out all the stuff about Time Craft and Wish Craft and the forgotten island was very, very fun. I felt very enriched figuring it all out. All the little details hiding in plain sight suddenly slotting together and painting such a big picture? Such a good time.
Now I can talk about the Pain! Hoh boy, the fight where the King kills Bonnie? That hurt! Siffrin freaking out in the meadow after looping back? That hurt too! Siffrin freaking out even more because he thinks they're trapped in the time loop for all eternity? That hurt even more! Goodness, this game has real good writing.
Nearly all of Act 5 was painful, but it was also really freaky. As in scary. Maybe it was helped by the fact that the sun was down by the time I made it there, but the background music changing and glitching and the House being all messed up and wrong and Siffrin being so damn scary and lost really put me on edge. It was fun! Felt a bit like I was playing a creepypasta, in a very complimentary way.
Everything being brought right back around to Adorable Town at the end was very lovely. There were some very cathartic moments that I enjoy a lot too. I feel like I don't have very many smart words to say about the end, I just like it.
I do hear that there's some extra stuff after the end of Act 5, which I'll do later. Feel like I should take a while to ruminate on all the stuff I just smashed right through last night. This time around I really tried to be frugal with the screenshots I show off here (I like to mind how much storage I use here on Neocities), but even still, there's a lot of them since I did so much stuff.
