#personal isat playthrough

[3rd-shrike]

so i finally bought isat (+ stp!!!!! yipee!!!!!!!!) and nobody told me what happens when you choose to touch the tear the first time you see it, and fucking hell. i love this stupid fucking family

[all-my-ocs-are-evil]

[insert poetic title here]

fun fact: this did not start out as isat fanart

(rambling in tags)

[a-little-ray-of-fantasy]

Playing "In Stars and Time", and just met Loop.

...

They're giving me White Diamond mixed with Flowey vibes, which is an alarm by itself.

Should I be afraid? They seem, likable, so far? ^^

[pearl-crystals]

Hey there's this character in my copy of ISAT, looks family but I cannot place them. Anyone mind helping me figure out who this is? :?

LOOK AT HOW PRETTY THEY ARE I AM SO STINKING PROUD

[therantingsage]

Ok. People have called out two out of three reasons Loop responds Like That in the drabble. So I don't feel bad about talking about the third on my own.

Under cut for game spoilers cuz I'm still doing that heck

First reason, pointed out by @chronologically-challenged:

This is an awful situation to put the party in. Siffrin how dare you.

Second reason, pointed out by @cakes-isat-blog:

Mira just blatantly rubbing salt in the wound with her wording. "Golly gosh I'd hate to imagine him in THAT worst case scenario" she says to said worse case scenario.

Third reason which was honestly the one I thought was the most obvious:

....if that's Mira, really, then there isn't a shred of recognition. That, despite at this point presumably being a bystander to dozens of conversations with them, they still don't look at Loop and see them for who they are.

It's too much. It's too much for them to rationalize. It makes them yearn for something sharp. So they've decided the only option that keeps them sane is the one where Siffrin has just picked the most coincidentally painful prank imaginable.

....the irony is that that isn't even true: by this point both Isabeau and Odile have strong suspicions about Loop's identity. But Siffrin themself isn't convinced yet, and Mira doesn't want to treat Loop with unearned familiarity so she doesn't see any offense in starting from scratch.

Hey. The mind sharing takes away a lot of the plot's lack of communication so I have to invent my own. I think that's fair.

[dasnercaret]

8,9,10,15,17

8. squints. opens up isat to check.

....only 57!?!

9. i would wish for my lawn to be mowed because it's crazy overgrown! it sucks!! there's probably ticks and other bugs in there!!! it's all scruffy now (expertly dodges the question for the third time)

10. the universe assumes that i want my lawn to be Dead because if it dies i never have to mow it again. i end up with a big patch of yellow dead grass

15. sigh. siffrin...? he might be fun. i don't really like isabeau and mirabelle... (i've already answered odile and bonnie to this question i believe) i'm sorry... they just don't seem like people i would like all that much.......

(worth noting: i like them in that they're good characters they just seem like they would be A Lot to hang out with. isabeau is very tall and very loud. mirabelle is filled with anxiety and loves romance. i historically get along with Neither of these personality types)

17. of course <3 i proceed to get my ass beat by a preteen

[superrainbow06]

I BEAT IN STARS AND TIME YEATERDAY IT WAS SO GOOD!!

I didn't post about it cause I was overwhelmed. Very emotionally heavy story. Also I forgor. But it's very good, I think that anyone who wouldn't have a panic attack and or die because of the content should play it (PLEASE check content warnings on games before you play them, especially this one, so you don't have a panic attack and or die. Or if it just makes you uncomfortable its also cool to want to avoid it but I like being dramatic sometimes)

This is genuinely the best take on a time loop I have ever seen in any media ever. And the writing is incredibly good also, everything in it is so carefully constructed that it all feels very real and realistic, the characters actually feel like real people who are having conversations, the dialogue flows super smoothly and is very coherent, the overarching story is very good, and the worldbuilding, though not incredibly present in the actual game, the hints you get throughout the game of how the world works is soo good, really puts you in the place of the character.

Also, for any depression havers out there, this game is very much centered on how a time loop would affect a person's mental health if it were to happen, and it DOES NOT HOLD BACK. It gets into all of the stuff normally presented in a game with depression as a theme (celeste, chicory, etc) but also goes in depth about the stuff people don't like to talk about with depression (so, again, check the warnings on the game before playing if you are interested) which I really appreciated. This game really manages to make you feel absolutely terrible in the best way possible. I am going to force everyone I know and love to play this game

Also please go check out @insertdisc5 they made this whole masterpiece of a game (excluding the music and sfx, but it's still extremely impressive) and I think it should be more popular.

[apple-onigiri]

hi can you talk more about your reading of siffrin and loop's relationship please. I'm so curious 👀

(omg hii i love your analyses)

well i guess now i gotta huh!! the demons (the people on my computer) are telling me to do it, do it, do it, so here it is!! most of it below a cut! because this ended up being really really long!

so! self-love and self-hatred play a big role in isat in general. the whole story is kind of about accepting that you are capable of being loved, and not, in fact, inherently repulsive so maybe you should open up, siffrin. imagine that. and i'd argue these themes crystallize into their final form with sif and loop and how they interact :) my ants. my mentally ill ants

(this sidesteps the curious meta element of how both the narration of siffrin to himself and loop addressing siffrin as they talk uses second person. it's very interesting but this is already gonna be long enough)

looking at all their interactions, especially through the lens of knowing who loop actually is, gives a pretty good idea of loop's attitude towards another version of themselves, and, by extension, their own self (this is a bit confusing because there are Too Many Siffrins Here)

the long and short is the resentment they feel towards themselves - because loop never went through the realization they're not unlovable - is externalized and often taken out on siffrin.

they are very condescending with how they interact with him. he's just a silly little stardust! so stupid, so naive! knows so little about literally everything. awww, let me help you out, stardust, before you hurt yourself.

on my first playthrough i actually initially distrusted loop a lot because of this. i saw it as the last thing siffrin would need when they already put themselves down so heavily; how they call themselves "stupid" multiple times for any and all mistakes they make and how unforgiving they are to themselves (especially the key hidden in the classroom exemplifies this). but with the knowledge of siffrin and loop starting out as the same person, it makes a stark amount of sense. when you have a mindset similar to siffrin's and loop's, no one will ever be more critical of you than you yourself.

it sometimes feels like loop's forgetting they're not talking to themselves internally and that this is a whole separate being they're talking to that they can't just externalize their own self-hatred onto, enough that they have to backtrack and apologize because hurting yourself in a way that resembles hurting someone else makes you think twice about what you're doing to yourself. there's a healthy dose of regret there, and guilt that they said something you can't easily erase from the mind of the person you said it to.

there is still care in loop's behavior. conversely to the previous statement, nothing will make you more sympathetic to your own plight than literally seeing it from an outsider's perspective and being able to acknowledge that you need help (sidenote, but kinda twisted of the universe to grant loop's wish in the most roundabout way possible. you want someone to help you? okay! help yourself! your other self, but hey, it counts, right?)

(cut here because this is getting out of control and i can't let it appear in unabridged form on anyone's dash, especially on mobile)

as acts go on and quests progress, loop gets these moments of honesty and empathy for siffrin more often. they obviously have been helping before but you know what i mean, don't you. those moments where loop's facade drops and we get a feeling that this isn't them acting, this is their true... shades, lol. examples!!

aftermath of touch therapy! of course they'd know what the root problem here is and how to best help. this is something acutely familiar to them and they're able to tell what siffrin needs to stop spiraling. and!! siffrin reciprocates this! haven't talked ab him and his attitude towards loop specifically a lot but this too is important. i'm rapidly becoming ill btw

forgetting the party's names upon waking up on the meadow and calling loop! it happened to loop before so seeing it happen to another version of you must make one feel... complicated. they patiently remind siffrin each name and make sure they're fine.

honestly, throughout the entirety of the story, but especially by the end of act 4, they find it very crucial to make sure they reassure siffrin they're there for him, that he's not alone in this. they know where feeling completely alone leads.

okay i can't take it anymore i gotta talk about this.

loop so doesn't want siffrin to use the dagger on themselves. it's genuinely heartbreaking to see their distress about the idea

they even try to dissuade siffrin from it later on, when you first attempt to use it, and are very very upset still afterwards

they care about siffrin!! they don't want to see him hurt! they don't want siffrin to befall the same awful fate they met where self-destruction melts into the natural state of being and you just spiral spiral spiral! they don't hate him, and seeing them fall so far from okay that they're fine with stabbing themselves to save time in a time loop where literally no time is wasted because it loops back anyway is awful for them.

this is where loop transforms from the voice in your head pointing out your deepest flaws to one that can tell what you're doing is self-destructive and bad for you and you really, really should stop. the, pardon my wording, tug on your stomach, like the one you get when you're standing over the ledge and looking down. and when you get the stupid thought how easy it would be to fall, your brain reacts by jolting you away. loop is the jolt.

loop is the inner instincts of siffrin personified at many points of the story. sometimes they're hurtful towards him as instincts of a self-destructive person are wont to do, which is justified with them just wanting that other version of themselves to Be Better, Get Better. and sometimes, it's self-preservation they depict; feeling at home with your self and expressing empathy towards yourself and your own awful situation.

when act 5 comes, loop is clearly crushed about not being able to help siffrin out, about not being able to get them out of their despair.

then, just like he's done with everyone else, siffrin rejects loop too. when siffrin shuns loop here, it's out of anger for being kept in the dark, yes, but it's also a rejection of any positive thoughts they might have about themselves.

siffrin's rejection of loop isn't only rejecting one last person they're close to like they did with their family members. it's a rejection of any and all instincts to care for himself and his well-being. it's the same thing that allows him to use crafts with no cooldowns. it's the same thing as memory of emptiness that lets him loop to the point where he died and just keep going. it's what lets mal du pays take form.

this refusal of loop's help is, in my opinion, the ultimate act of self-hatred in isat.

okay depression time over act6 twohats happy times yayy!!!

after a little bit because loop is - kinda justifiably - upset at how their suffering amounted to nothing and now this siffrin gets their happy ending. and they don't!! how is that fair? we have to keep in mind a lot of what we've learned was news to loop too. they spent so long in the loops, not knowing why, to the point where they begged the universe to get them out and help them.

their roles from act 5 essentially swap here. here loop is the one self-destructing and rejecting any help at all, and projecting the hell out of themselves onto siffrin, just like siffrin did in the "friendquests" in act 5.

so i haven't talked a lot about siffrin's outlook on loop before now (when his psyche is not literally split into tiny pieces, that is) but my little pet theory is that, just like they really hate repeating their lines, being all fake, and only do so because they feel they have to, they're often annoyed by loop because they can kind of sense the front they put out. if you hate the way you pretend, these feelings are most likely gonna transpose to another version of you doing the same thing.

but in this fight, the siffrin in it is not the one still trapped in the time loops. this is a siffrin tentatively learning that maybe it's okay to not hate yourself. so, just like act 5 is the greatest act of self-hatred, the ending of this fight is the ultimate act of self-love and self-acceptance, regardless of how it ends but with some caveats to both outcomes.

if siffrin wins, he refuses to hurt loop, stating outright that they don't hate themselves enough to do so. he won't do it even if loop is literally begging for it.

if loop wins, they cannot bring themselves to hurt siffrin. they feel too much empathy towards them. it's impossible to hate him - and themselves - the same after seeing the struggle from outwards.

regardless, they both exhibit the kind of care only you yourself can give yourself after fighting tooth and nail to prove to your own self-esteem that you're worth it. siffrin wouldn't be satisfied with killing loop because it would mean a rejection of some fragment of themselves.

siffrin went through a capital-C Change due to the loops (the theme of change in isat is another thing i could write on and on about), and part of that Change was having a version of you, your past self, still stuck in how they used to be and the situation that made them so. a healthy type of growth means changing for the better, yes, but also learning to love and respect who you used to be. if you met your younger self, would you resent them? or would you want them to know that all their struggles weren't for nothing? Change means leaving something behind but not forsaking it, letting it rot and fester unacknowledged

(insert rant about how isa's Change was actually kind of partial because he decided to completely sever ties with who he used to be instead of being appreciative of the aspects of himself he seems to still like, like being smart, and him resorting to hiding it instead WE DON'T HAVE THE TIME RIGHT NOW ASK ME LATER IF U WANNA but tl;dr actshually isa Change doesn't need to be full-on destruction because the eggshell is still there the Change God told me okay enough of this)

this. this is love. self-love given form. to me.

"you matter. your suffering mattered. it helped me become who i am right now. nothing was in vain. it hurt, and might still hurt for a long time - but it was never for nothing." that's what i got from this scene.

anywayyyyy i warned you!!! that this would be long!! if you let me yap! it's yap central over here. if you got all the way down here, thank you for enduring. have a cupcake :)🧁

[entryn17]

love being the type of person to completely ignore story clues and red herrings because during my first playthrough of ISAT i implicitly believed loop when they said they were a star sent by the universe or whatever it was they said. like, in the most literal sense

[doodlesofapinetree]

Ykw. Ford-dile. Ford if he was Odile from In Stars And Time. Why not!!

I’ve been so nervous to post stuff when I realise I actually should anyway

it’s not ab if it’s like. Properly gravity falls or not, it just has to be vaguely gravity falls related

Anyways I got into ISAT, I’ve been watching play playthroughs and trying to somewhat replicate the art style because that’s what I do with things I like for some reason!!

I wanted to draw this bc I’m really interested in how craft n stuff works, and it’d be cool to see the Pines use it. Ngl, the Pines using any kind of magic is cool. I personally think Ford would def be paper n Stan would be rock, but I’m not sure about the younger twins just yet.

[hackgamex294]

[ISAT ACT 4 SPOILERS]

"Stagnant ⏸" — ISAT-ober 2024, Day 3

My third day of @darlnyan's ISAT-ober prompt!

I never knew the definition of "stagnant" up until this drawing prompt. But after learning the word, I have many ideas in my mind on what I should illustrate, since ISAT has so many moments of being still, motionless, and lifeless on many situations of the game.

But I remember during my playthrough, at the end of ACT 4 is where I felt severely heartbroken from the idea that Siffrin's work and effort to break the time loops is all for naught, which hits me personally in other contexts. With that, I felt redrawing the ending of ACT 4 was the best decision for my illustration.

Trying to redraw the artwork from the game wasn't easy as I thought, my art skills to draw more diverse and interactive illustrations isn't enough to recreate it to my own style, but I did my best to put in every detail from the original art. I did apply my current shading style and background to further express Siffrin's mental deterioration. (siff...)

Additionally throughout this artwork, I did have to clutch to make this artwork as not only I had an errand that takes extensive time, but I became super exhausted that I took a nap, with only a few hours to spare to start and finish this drawing...

Regardless, I hope you all enjoy it! 💜

[pillowspace]

can you explain in stars and time to me? Is it a story you made or based on something? Is there a masterpost?

Nope, nothing I made! In Stars and Time is a turn-based RPG about its main protagonist Siffrin being trapped in a time loop!! :D Siffrin has to save the country by defeating the King and break the curse that's freezing people in time, alongside their companions Mirabelle, Isabeau, Odile, and Bonnie. But whenever he dies, he wakes back up in the meadow, and nobody else remembers what happened except for him. Then comes Loop, a star and the only other one to be aware of what Siffrin's experiencing.

It starts out nice then slowly turns into the saddest game I've ever had the honour of being emotionally crushed by, I had a REALLY good time playing it. Apparently the expected playtime is 20-30+ hours, but my first playthrough took 80 hours?? I didn't tend to take many shortcuts personally

Here's the trailer if you want to see:

(Note: you can look up the rest of the content warnings for more information if needed, but ISAT contains themes of death, mental illness, and violence)

The game is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. I have it for the Switch

As for a masterpost... sort of? Insertdisc5, the game's developer, has a pinned post. I have the links to my liveblogging in my profile bio, but those are filled with spoilers.

It's a nice game. I like it <3 a lot <3 a very not normal amount <3

Overwhelmingly positive ^ as they should be ^

[curly4830]

Finished ISAT last night, this game was an emotional rollercoaster from start to end, tbh. I've got a lot of thoughts about the game and they're all pretty short, but I'd like to list some of them here.

The coin is interesting! I think mechanically it's a good way to check Siffrin's internal monologue of the same thing, regardless of area/party status. But story wise, it's a whole other thing to me. Loop and Siffrin have their own kind of Heads/Tails duality, and Odile's coin flip makes me think that it could have/might have been Loop in our Siffrin's place instead, if things had gone just a little differently. Siffrin's forgetfulness being both a foreshadow to his home country AND the potential years worth of time stuck in the loops. and the player's forgetfulness, that too. Another angle I'd like to explore in the future is Siffrin's sprites, and the (possibly intended) idea of taking the growing space covered in shadow on his face as a loss of humanity/the concept of self. It helps take the idea of Siffrin seeing himself as an actor to the next level for me. You could extend this to the Mal Du Pays/Bigfrin sequences being the total loss of self, Siffrin being sent over the edge(and subsequently grounded by his party members). But he made it back! and that's really what matters, isn't it. It's very in line with the literal context of the scenes but I appreciate that the lines are there to be read between, even if not everybody cares to. i definitely think about faces/the self a normal amount, you can trust me i swear. Siffrin clearly did not have enough problems on his own so I had to push my whole faces/sense of self thing on him too. Loop. oh god Loop. I have a lot of thoughts about Loop and their Identity, and it's going to take a while to figure out! but i'm totally fine with that. is it morally wrong to feel a deep kinship to loop?? i don't know!!! i'm gonna find out though. i was actually just recently thinking about how i don't like using the term kinning for characters because it feels very intimate and I can't say i've felt the same thing other people who kin characters feel. BUT. i think loop gave me some kind of disease i think i'm not well I just couldn't do most of the Dagger dialogue. It was too much for me personally. I did it once and it made me feel bad enough to return it and swear off the idea. until i go back to finish achievements, that is. Fucked up, though!! The loops and their infinite catharsis started to mean nothing at all until they make the even more fucked up mega catharsis. I thought Signalis and it's ending hit me hard but this game reduced me to a crying mess by the end. And lastly I'm very appreciative of @usefulnt0409 for being there to help me through the entire game. I like sharing my first playthroughs of things with people that enjoy them. Having them around to help with mechanical stuff I'd never pick up on(Loop dialogues and the conditions associated with most of them) and when I'd accidentally skip a dialogue just made the experience very special. I don't think I'll soon forget this game, it was an incredible experience even through the gas leak 5am vcs. I think they made it better.

[kosmical]

alr i'll bite what's isat

Omg thanks for opening pandoras box! You will regret this

In stars and time is the recent food source of my brain eating amoeba and it Will Not Leave. before i get into why im rabid about it though ill give a brief synopsis . putting a read more here because i suspect this post will get LONG.

its a game about a classic rpg party on the last two days of their quest to save the country from The King who is freezing everything, including people, in time. the main character, Siffrin, is the party's rogue who, upon going into the House of Change (the game's dungeon so to speak) and promptly dying, finds out that they're trapped in a time loop. they're the only one who remembers repeating the last two days- aside from a star named loop who helps him try and figure out whats going on, why, and how to break out.

Now personally ive never been invested in a time loop story?? Im not sure if thats because i havent consumed much media thats implemented it before as its main premise or if i just havent been interested but i think in stars and time meshes the two different genres a time loop story can fall into really well (the mystery and the emotional conflict).

The mystery is what drives you through the game (and there are other questions unrelated to the timeloop about siffrin's origin and the world itself that i think handle a variety of themes like loss of culture and personal transformation really well but thats a different tangent) but the emotional parts are what really got me. You have to watch almost in the backseat as Siffrin is like. Slowly depersonalized from the people they care about. All while refusing to tell them anything about their misery because they don't want to burden them or drag them into his suffering. Even happy moments that Siffrin doesnt mind repeating become tainted because it becomes a matter of acting so that the "scene" doesnt stray from its path and his party doesnt become suspicious.

and yet they still DO, both in regards to Siffrin's World Alteringly Terrible Case of the Mondays and the actual time loop. they notice how tired and fake he seems. one of my absolute favorite scenes is one where you interact with a closet and it provokes a conversation about where Siffrin got their cloak from and how long they've had it, because its really one of a kind. it has temperature regulatory magic imbued in the stitches and is made to grow with him. And siffrin just cant fucking remember. not only because hes been looping so long that its created a haze over his mind but because he has no true "identity." and as he's scrambling to fill in an answer for this hole in his head, a gust of wind hits his face because one of their friends, isabeau, flapped his cloak while inspecting it to ground him. and he disguises it by commenting on the thickness of the cloak.

Getting this scene by accident on my playthrough made me feel so many feelings dude like . Siffrin isn't the only one trying to hide things. Their friends care about him so much and they try to disguise how concerned thwy are and its just. Im . Im Normal.

its not just about that though . Like if you start finding shit a little too fast they'll start catching on to whats happening. a little sound effect will play whenever you know something you shouldn't know and the others notice and whenever it happened i was like. Twisting in my seat waiting for them to call me out.

it all builds up into this really fucking painful emotional climax that i will not talk about because i don't want to spoil more than i already have but omg. I was writhing. It was. Hhhggnngh.hfg. Glass shards in ym mouth yummy

On the topic of shit i cant talk about: My favorite character is this fucking thing

I have held off from talking about loop's role in the story because i cant describe to you why they make me so ill. Not because i dont know Why but because it is something you should experience yourself. They're really charming and funny and their dialogue is fantastic. Of course that's part of the reason i lauve them but theres also the underlying secondary mystery of why they're here/who and or what they are/etc. And when u know. Its. I Cant Tell You. BUT ITS REALLY GOOD. ITS REALLY REALLY GOOD. Just know that if you get to the end and are still confused about them. That theres more than the main ending . AND IT IS PROBABLY WHY I AM SO INSANE ABOUT THIS GAME HONESTLY. I LOVE YOU FOREVER LOOP . im ok

In short: In stars and time is a game that is good and you should play it :) Im pretty sure its on sale right now on steam so yeah go get that.

if you made it through this fucking dissertation length post on isat CONGRATULATIONS ! heres some miscellaneous doodles ive done of it in the past month since ive played it love love

[onenightbreak]

what do you think of combat in isat? i feel like i'm running circles around the same handful of ideas, so i want to hear other people's thoughts on it🎤

personally:

overall, i think battles getting laughably easy in the late game is a good bit of ludonarrative (you don't need to think, Just Attack.), but i wish combat in the earlier parts of the game were harder and less simple.

i don't think a primarily story-based game like isat should aim to kill the player, but the only time i died in combat during my playthrough was the first, shieldless fight against the king where you're scripted to die; later i lost to a random sadness b/c i was intentionally throwing for research, and i couldn't lose in any reasonable timeframe to the secret boss even when i threw (thanks, regen memory).

making a puzzle of every random encounter gets old pretty quick, but i still wish battles weren't quite as simple as which type is the enemy -> use the right attack on the enemy, especially for the floor end bosses. odile is a really good example of this particular issue with combat: the only time her craft break skills are useful are against calamité and bourdon, and the friendquest version doesn't synergise with the rest of the flow of combat (you'll never need to break all three resistances, b/c not only do most enemies not have three resistances, you want to be using the same type of craft repeatedly anyways for jackpot).

[snickerpuffs]

insertdisc5 has gone on record (on multiple occasions across several interviews) stating that the only canonical events of "In Stars and Time" are what you personally experience during your own playthrough.

There is a single bathroom in the game that is entirely optional to enter. If you do, then your character will state that they "don't really need to go", and instead reflect on your current progress. And there's several unique monologues for multiple important parts in the game!

The reason I mention this is because there is exactly ONE instance where your character can enter the bathroom and, instead of monologuing, does "what needs to be done".

And!!! It's pure random chance!!! And you can only get it during the earliest sections of the game!!! It's very easy to miss, even if you enter the bathroom multiple times!!!!

In other words, for nearly every single ISAT player, Siffrin using a bathroom for it's intended purpose is entirely noncanon, and I think that's hilarious.