DLCIn Stars and Time ArtbookLoading store offers
In Stars And Time
The time loop gives In Stars And Time its distinctive pull: Siffrin learns from every pass, while memories strengthen the party in turn-based combat. If you want a story-led solo RPG with puzzles and conversation, ≈ $5.56 at 
Kinguin is a particularly good moment to pick it up. At $19.99 from Kinguin, In Stars And Time is at this site's recorded low; its looping puzzles and turn-based battles make it a strong fit for a patient solo adventure.
KinguinIn Stars and Time PC Steam CD KeyAll-time low ~ $10.99across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
Loading store offers
Wishlist price
Set a target to receive an email when an eligible offer in your selected region is at or below that amount.
Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $6.122026-07Current Low Across Stores~ $19.99Kinguinvs. Historical Low+227%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
DLC
01About In Stars And Time
In Stars And Time is a turn-based RPG adventure about Siffrin and a group of friends trapped in a time loop. A tragedy resets the same stretch of time. Each loop gives Siffrin new perspectives for solving puzzles and choosing what to say, while memories can strengthen the party in combat. Steam player rating: 96% from 7,937 reviews. Release date: November 20, 2023.
Credits
Developer
insertdisc5
Publisher
Armor Games Studios
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$6.122026-07-30 · KinguinBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | — | — |
| Japanese | Yes | — | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-21
02Before you buy
Play setup
The Steam PC version is listed as single-player and has full controller support.
Languages
English and Simplified Chinese are listed as interface languages for Steam PC.
03Frequently asked questions
What is the story about?
Siffrin and their adventurer friends seek to end an evil king’s rule, but a tragedy resets the same stretch of time.
What is combat like?
Combat is turn-based, with Rock, Paper, Scissors used against foes.
How do the time loops work?
Each loop gives Siffrin new perspectives that open different puzzle solutions and conversation choices. Memories can be equipped to strengthen the party.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
*Gets told that you're allergic to pineapple* Eats pineapple *Dies* 10/10 game In all seriousness, this game is incredible not just from a story-telling standpoint, but also a character writing standpoint, each of the main cast is 3-Dimensional and are a joy to get to know. This game needs more attention because it's the best story I've had the pleasure of playing through in a while.Show moreShow less
14.7 hours at review212 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Hoo boy. That "Not Recommended" looks bad next to the Overwhelmingly Positive reviews. Let me explain. First: If the art, characters, and humor of the trailer are what's drawing you to this game, this review does not apply. You will likely enjoy it! It's a very lovingly crafted game and the vibes of it are pretty obvious just from the trailer. Just stop reading, grab the game, and enjoy. There will be some mild spoilers just from context from here on; nothing to any degree of ruining actual content, but you'll probably prefer going in blind. There is one caveat, here, that I'll put in spoiler text before going on - just as mild as other spoilers, but it relates to the direction of the story. If you hate stories where everything could be solved by people JUST TALKING TO EACH OTHER, you will hate this one. But: if the appeal of this game to you was the time loop aspect, as it was for me... you may be disappointed, like I was. Having finished the story, I am pretty underwhelmed. So - there's generally two directions a time loop video game can generally focus on. One is in mystery: why is this happening? What's causing it? What can I discover by viewing events from different angles? These are your Zero Escapes, your Steins;Gates, etc. They usually work with the visual novel format best, because that lets them neatly divide into separate "routes." The second is experimentation-based. What are the possibilities available to me? How can I accomplish my goals using information and tricks I pick up from previous loops? These are your Majora's Masks, Deathloops, Returnals, etc. In Stars and Time seems like it'll be the "experimentation" type, but this is a misdirect. You get the basic idea if you've watched through the trailer: you're in a typical RPG party, at the end of your journey, but you start dying and looping. Gotta try things out, dungeon crawl, and determine a way to finish your journey! But after, say, 8 loops? You already know how to accomplish this. There are no alternative routes, there are just 5 or so roadblocks where if you make a mistake, you have to start over. Most of these are unavoidable your first time through, to teach you how to avoid them. For context, by the time I finished, I was at 53 loops total, by the game's standards. That counts fast forwarding and intentionally ending them early, but *far* beyond one run. So! Mystery focus, that's the actual direction. And here's where we run into our first main problem: our protagonist. They are, without question, the most deeply incurious character I have ever seen in a story like this. Their tagline once you've done something once is "Follow the script," and hoo boy does it show. You check out an obvious clue, they'll note that it's there, and not care at all or consider it. There is a story reason that explains that, once you're ~15 hours into the game or so - but that's well past the point where it becomes infuriating, from a player's perspective. There's two reasons for this: first, the obvious problem of the player's goals clashing with the character's, and that just being frustrating. But second, it creates extremely tedious gameplay. After you have finished your first run (which, again, happens very early), it becomes a pattern of doing the one thing the protagonist can think of, another character saying something that triggers them going "wait, haven't I seen something like this before?" and running through the dungeon back to the clue that you, the player, already noticed hours prior. Past the point where the dungeon crawling is any actual obstacle, this is the only gameplay loop. It is the worst parts of Phoenix Wright logic, on repeat, with little else. This train is firmly on the railroad tracks, and you may only investigate when Siffrin SAYS you may investigate, one clue at a time, good sir! Okay, okay. So maybe not the type of game that would attract people who are into time loop stories and the possibilities those stories create. That's not... great considering that's the thing the game is ostensibly about, but come on. Look at it. This is clearly a character-based, story-driven, RPG Maker game, the sort whose inspirations are kinda beating you over the head when you look at it. How does it measure up when you look at it from that angle? It fares a lot better from that perspective, obviously. There's a reason so many people love it. And hell, I love games like that too, even if it wasn't what I came in for. The thing is, though. I'm not sure if it actually delivers in that area, either. If I had to describe it... the best comparison I could find is fanfiction? That may sound weird for an original story, but: we start with a fully-formed cast of characters, with established relationships that aren't gonna change much, they'll just be revealed to us, and it feels like most of the sharp edges are filed way down. Everyone gets along for the most part, conflicts are the sort that can be hashed out in a brief conversation, and the characters fully have the reins of the story, not the player. It definitely has the vibes of something from Ao3 over anything else. There isn't much "role-playing" to do, and you don't get much in the way of choice. It very neatly could have been a web novel, or a comic, and might have been better for it. But it is a game, and compared to other games in this sort of genre (let's be clear, Undertale and OMORI), the railroading kills the direction the story is trying to take at the end. This is tough to write. I can tell the game is a labor of love. It just isn't a fun game to play, and it completely turned me off of its cast of characters based on the game's direction. It was not for me, and if you're reading this and any of these frustrations resonate with you, it might not be for you either.Show moreShow less
25.2 hours at review126 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
This is a bit of a tough recommend because while In Stars And Time is a extremely well-realized execution of its concept and philosophies, it mainly expresses this via 10 hours of making you chafe against every minor annoyance of its genre on purpose dozens of times in an effort to gradually drive you insane. It is in the Pathologic or Drakengard world of things where it is exceptionally good at putting you in the frame of mind of the character you're controlling, but the feeling it intends to inflict on you are mostly negative. I sometimes feel like this is a bit...too easy? As a piece of game design? Making a JRPG that's just ever so slightly too slow to be truly brisk and therefore a little annoying? It threads this needle pretty well but also it's not exactly something I haven't seen before, just most games don't do it on purpose? It's all in service of the broader themes, but I'm a little mixed on how clever I actually think it is. To move back to a positive, the writing is funny, sharp and the characters are likeable and charming, you'll spend your first five or so hours gradually growing to like your crew of the stupidest group to ever be an RPG party. You will then spend the remaining gameplay time growing to hate everything and everyone around you as you are made to notice every minor annoyance ad infinitum. Buff animations at the start of combat firing off one a time for every single combat, enemies in hallways that are just kind of too narrow to reliably avoid. It all gets in the way, it's all wasting your time, you've seen this before. Who cares, go away. This is the point, but it is a point that will divide people. Adding to this for me was some points of probably unintentional frustration where progression was gated by kind of silly adventure game-y nonsense like the lead just refusing to comment on something until something in the proper sequence had fired off did eventually have me just resorting to a spoiler-free walkthrough because my patience kind of hit a limit. A complicated game that leaves you with complex feelings. I think it's emotionally sincere writing, likeable characters and very textured and vividly expressed depiction of the lead's mental state wins out over the fact that it is, by design, sometimes just absolutely no fun at all. As a work of art, a resounding success, I can't say its vision doesn't come through in the slightest, it perfectly expresses itself. As a game that I want to enthusiastically recommend? That's....complicated. Fun to think about though.Show moreShow less
16.9 hours at review211 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I really want to leave a neutral review. Before I give my thoughts - please keep in mind this is my own experience, and I recognize that mine is very much a niche opinion. Nonetheless, I wanted to share it just in case, not as a way to dissuade people from getting the game, but to temper some expectations. First, the good! The artstyle is tremendous, and it is what pulled me into the game to begin with. The black and white monochrome makes for a really interesting visual style, and the character designs are all top notch. A lot to like in enemy design as well, especially with the rock paper scissors combat system. Which, speaking of - the combat system. I didn't get very far into the game before having to put it down, but the combat system is simple yet satisfying. It uses a simple rock paper scissors loop, with each character having its own type and types of attacks (Think Pokemon). Something that I didn't see other folks talking about is the ability to pass turns from one character to another, which really opens up a lot of tactical possibilities. The writing is very fun, and as someone who's played D&D and similar TTRPGs for over 10 years, reminded me of some of the best banter I've had with fellow players. Overall, the characters are likeable, funny, distinct and interesting - and the worldbuilding is very well done. This did have a slight knock-on effect in my mind, where the characters keep mentioning all these places and cultures and just...things, and we're stuck in effectively one location - or, I suppose, two - going through the same halls over and over again, rather than getting to see the locations like we would in an RPG like Sea of Stars. And here is where we get into the negative. Now, I need to preface this with an important disclaimer: I am the type of person who loves variety. I will hop from game to game, because I simply get bored doing similar tasks. It's a big part of what I love about indie games - each of them brings something unique to the table. As such, the game was a bit of a risk for me! And I recognize that. But I was curious nonetheless, and wanted to give it a shot. The time loop is a very, very cool concept, but in execution I find it somewhat frustrating and confusing to deal with. This might be because I had a chat to keep up with as well, but looping felt like a failure state to me - you died, go back to the beginning - in the same vein as roguelikes. The first thing that truly grated on me was a lack of agency. The game forces you to loop, for no other reason than explaining game mechanics, rather than letting you go as far as you can on one loop and explaining game mechanics when they become relevant. For example, at one point you run into a floating bit of water that is explicitly explained to be really, really dangerous, and will kill you if you touch it. You get the option to touch it or no, so I pick no - not wanting to stop this loop yet. Instead, through some admittedly funny antics, I get forced to touch it anyways. Oops, loop back. Later on, you are unable to find a key in the location where it is, because it's well hidden, and are forced to loop back just so the game can explain that "Hey, sometimes you'll get stuck!" To me, this is rather frustrating to deal with, because I'm forced to go through the same areas and fight the same enemies just so the game can explain something to me. It feels very railroaded, and takes me out of the game. It feels like the worst aspects of a roguelike, where you'll just run into an artificial wall to increase playtime. Now, the music (or sometimes lack thereof). Overall, I quite like the soundtrack! When it's there. During most of the dungeon-crawling, the music is either just not there or is very, very limited. During combat, a good track plays - but it's always the same track, without variation. By the end of my play session, I had to put the game down, because I was completely tired out. I want to like In Stars and Time, in the same vein that I want to like Hollow Knight. I know for a fact that there's a quality game here, and it breaks my heart that I simply didn't enjoy it. Perhaps it's just not my kind of thing, perhaps I'm just not in the right mindset for it. I'll be sure to give this game another shot in the future, and I'll let you know my thoughts then. Thank you for reading, and I hope this was informative! If you want more, feel free to follow me here!Show moreShow less
3.4 hours at review89 people found this helpful
Received for free
RecommendedSteam player
i love traumatized queer people stuck in time loops while slowly going insane gotta be my favorite genreShow moreShow less
41.5 hours at review179 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
As a piece of art, In Stars and Time has a lot to say and excels at putting you in the headspace of the playable character, Siffrin, even before you reach the ending. As a game, it is a frustrating mess of oldschool adventure game-esque "gotcha" moments that force you to trudge back through dialogue (only some of which is skippable) and forced combat to return to your spot. I absolutely loved the cast of this game. The characters have such charm and there is a great deal of love and care put into writing their interactions as both natural and informative to the player (particularly about worldbuilding). In Stars And Time presents its cast and themes in such an exquisite way that I found myself wanting to push forward just to glean the next kernel of information. However, the moment-to-moment gameplay was repetitive at best and infuriating at worst. The game makes full use of its narrative theme of loops to the detriment of the play experience, overusing moments of forced backtracking through tens of minutes of content. As an example, I would espy a suspicious object, be unable to interact with it in a meaningful way, and then being later told that of course it's suspicious and that I should have searched more thoroughly was exhausting. Siffrin internalizes this frustration whereas I feel like I have had my time wasted. I was not allowed to interact with this thing I discovered by being thorough just because the game did not want me to until I passed a later trigger (in some cases, a literal note left on a door telling you to go back to that very same spot and try again). In Stars And Time presents an aesthetically pleasing and lovingly crafted world alongside themes of change and existentialism. But the desire I had to see its message through to the end was constantly eroded by the frustrations I encountered with the game. And now I no longer care to interact with it - which I feel is the most damning thing one can say about any piece of art.Show moreShow less
10.7 hours at review80 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Gay peopleShow moreShow less
10.4 hours at review148 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Indie gaming is entering its kitsch era. That's not to day In Stars And Time is kitsch, but it's part of a phenomenon beginning to plague gaming: a "that's the point" approach to defending fundamental failures in game design. In Stars And Time has a message for you, and the gameplay exists in service of that message. What your character is experiencing is an inescapable whirlpool of existential suffering, and if the game can make you feel that, you've connected to its themes and its characters. My issue is that I don't think capturing suffering is as cut-and-dry as that. You can convey a feeling of suffering without making gameplay itself suffering, AND you can make gameplay itself suffering without making the experience unenjoyable. I feel In Stars And Time misses both these marks. In the former camp, we have genre games which inspired this game's style. Omori understood that pain can be experienced alongside depth of environment; the consistently fresh and varied progression through plot and areas achieved suffering through the behaviour of the protagonist. Everhood understood that an excellent foundation of gameplay can guarantee a vehicle for whatever emotions you wish, retaining fun in the face of grim work. Undertale understood that if your gameplay and environments are not your draw card, you need alternatives to keep engagement - humour, novelty, and alternate options in combat. Sadly, In Stars And Time understands none of these things. Its environments and story progress are distressingly samey, with plot reached by pilgrimages of character interaction hoping to make us like the (admittedly likeable) cast, through the exact same hallways and rooms looking for keys. Its core gameplay showed promise, but immediately boils down to routine - see the hand type, choose the attack type. And in a game emphasising comedy, this core gameplay is sterile; no jokes, no interesting mix-ups, just the same approach to a different blob. Worse, these fights are then heavily pushed onto the player. Each time a room is entered enemies respawn, and once spotted the chances of avoiding them are slim. They can hit hard, requiring frequent use of heals or buffs that slow down these already stagnant fights. And above all, you get skills and stats through the shockingly slow levelling which are nigh-on required to progress, demanding grinding. On top of that, the loop is actually handled terribly in a gameplay sense. Unlike other frontrunners of time loop games, you are not discovering opportunities to loop back organically, you are stonewalled by set occurrences like your character missing something in a cutscene. It has some utility as a tool in finding little side-content, but its most common use is forcing you back when the game feels like it, not you. All of this is a shame because yes, the characters are funny, and the handling of the protagonist's attitude is refreshingly adaptive. But their bonds and development are the only rewards for a gameplay loop bereft of well-paced plot progress. The bulk of your time will be walking through the exact same dark hallways, trapped into fights that all feel that too-simple-same. It's an existential dread, but one we know already as distinct from the game's message. Every time you've had to reload a save after losing, had to play through that part you hate again. And as a player your end point isn't "how much more can I fight for the people I love", it's "why am I still playing this waste of time?" This game is not even close to the best use of a time loop - its claim to fame, if any, is the best encapsulation of the pain a time loop would be like. Outer Wilds and The Forgotten City are both exceptional merges of gameplay with time loop, and I strongly recommend checking them out if that's your thing. As for this game, I'd recommend asking yourself: do I care if I'm not having fun as long as it's for a reason? Some will love this game, which is great, and I respect that opinion, just as the above is my opinion. But defending frustrations of gameplay as part of the message, as "the point", is just as much an opinion. I get it, the suffering is the point. It just doesn't excuse that it's not fun.Show moreShow less
2.5 hours at review62 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
In Stars and Time is a game i can only recommend on the condition that the player knows what they are getting in to. I was gifted the game by someone who loved it very much. Someone who spent more than triple the amount of time in the game i have, just to find all the little details and secrets within. I could never do this because my patience is thoroughly worn out. In Stars and Time loves to waste your time. It loves to repeat events, enemies, music and puzzles over and over and over and OVER again. All of this to find the one extremely well hidden thing to progress. You begin to forget things and places where things are due to the repetition which wastes even MORE of your time! While the game is great fun the first time you go through these things, by the 5th or 30th or 80th time you've done it in a row it completely loses its charm and just becomes infuriating and exhausting to get through. This is all for a purpose though. Siffrin, the main character, is stuck in a Groundhog Day like time loop. In Stars and Time purposefully irritates or angers the player on purpose because that is EXACTLY how the main character feels if not worse. The game is absolutely brilliant because this causes every little advancement to be rewarding and every single story beat to resonate with the player as they know exactly how Siffrin would be feeling. It puts you in Siffrins perspective and emotional state completely. I have never seen a game do this in all my years and it truly is clever game design. That's why you need to know what you're getting into before you try In Stars and Time. It's such a huge red flag because a lot of people simply will not have the patience to play through something that actually wastes your time on purpose even if it is for a very good reason. Lord knows i almost got annoyed enough to quit at times..... but then something would keep bringing me back. The story is simple on the surface but packed with detail and emotional moments with a beautiful ending that left me emotionally worn out. The characters are charming, funny and genuinely well written so nothing they do ever feels contrived or out of place. Special mention to Bonnie for being the best written child character i have ever seen in a game: someone who is immature and overly emotional but never annoying or too stupid. The combat, although repetitious on purpose, actually has moments of genuine challenge that surprised me and made me want to keep going. The "representation" for LGBTQ is very tactful, feels like genuine parts of their character and most importantly: felt completely natural and not pandering at all. In Stars in Time is a really good game in all parts. Just with a massive asterisks next to an otherwise glowing recommendation. In some ways it's actually a better piece of art than a game because a lot of the time it is just not fun. The important questions are: Do you have the patience for it? Is it all worth it in the end? I barely had the patience to finish In Stars and Time. It drove me up the wall at times. In the end though? It was absolutely worth it and has left me with the sinking feeling that i will never be able to play it again and feel the same way i did playing through it the first time. It's a trying and emotionally draining experience but something truly special.Show moreShow less
24.3 hours at review140 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Quite possibly one of the most heartbreaking games I’ve ever played. Not because I cried, but because of how deeply disappointing this ended up being. People pitched this game to me as this ‘super ludo-narrative psychological thriller’ but it isn’t that. It’s actually a feel-good story about the power of friendship with hints of a ludo-narrative psychological thriller. And they do not play that angle well. Most of the writing has this fluffy 'tumblr-ite' sheen on it that is best described as an annoying lack of subtlety. For example, there's this running theme of change throughout the game, many of your party members’ character arcs center on this. Whether that be struggling to *change* into a different person, being under pressure by society to *change*, or *change* via growth or destruction. And the villian’s motivation of being scared of the world being *changed* for the worse. All of this dovetails nicely with the premise of the universe being in a state unable to *change* and Sifferin, the protagonist, *changing* into a more callous because of this. They call the main deity the ****ing change god. Or how when I was going through the motions of another loop, I saw a ghost of myself from a previous loop. That was a genuinely cool moment... for all of five seconds until a Steam achievement popped up saying "Did I see a ghost??????" When the game is trying to be silly, it just ends up falling flat. Like they are well structured jokes but have punchlines that are too much of a groan (looking at you "nyaaa"). There’s also this weird unwillingness to explore to emotional horror of it’s premise. The most egregious example of this is the ending. It raises a lot of interesting questions about the world, the characters' dynamic, and the protagonist. But the game decides to ignore all of that to have a saccharinely sweet ending that just left me feeling bitter. I’m not even asking for it to be hyper depressing or whatever, just to actually commit to the drama that they were telling. Like I said, this game has hints of something darker and more interesting, and they are best parts of the game. A lot of the rules of the time looping felt arbitrary and confusing at first, so much to the point where I unironically used the e-guide to keep track of them. But then they started to interrogate those rules they had on a story level, like hey why can you sometimes reset without dying. I was really excited to see how they would contextualize the rest of the looping mechanics, but they just don’t. And the game drip feeds you interesting details about Sifferin’s mental state as he throughout the game. But only in its last moments does it actually fully explore the nihilism and apathy that would come about from being stuck in the time loop. In a vacuum it's all well executed, but it's too little too late so it feels like it comes completely out of nowhere. The game becomes too avant-garde for a simple wholesome game about friendship, and too sickly cloying for an dramatic psychological horror. The story so desperately wants to be as dark and evocative as its contemporaries such as LISA or Omori, but it just simply doesn't have the guts to simmer in its existential dread for more than mere moments at a time. Oh what about the rest of the game? It’s fiiiine. The battle system, while not being that in depth, is actually pretty engaging. I had fun optimizing the fastest way to kill the king despite him posing no threat past the first third of the game. The portrait art is absolutely phenomenal. I am so-so on the character designs, but the portraits are slick and bubbly in a way that absolutely sells them. They do a great job of making the castle an interesting place to explore. Despite it being a black void with one tileset, it really did feel like a living breathing place in the midst of a collapse. The same cannot be said for the main town Dormont. Which is quite possibly the blandest hub area I’ve ever seen. Possibly because of the singular repeating asset-pack level house, and possibly because of the unimaginably dull NPC’s and quests that populate it. I could not name a single interaction there that I had more than neutral feelings about. The side characters are above average, they are decently fun and have these big emotional moments that are great but are unfortunately done a bit dirty by the game’s blunt writing style. The stand out character is Loop, they are this smug bastard that is your only oasis from the script you are forced to repeat, with them having unique dialogue almost every loop. Their rare moments of vulnerability or even callousness makes them so much more intriguing. That look Loop gives during the ‘theory’ is so good and is probably my favorite moment of the entire game. Soundtrack is neat, can’t really say much besides its what you would expect out of an indie jrpg. I guess the mini boss theme is a bop? As some other reviews noted, the pacing is umm... tedious to say the least. I personally didn’t have much of an issue with it during my playthrough and thought they pulled the ‘player feels like they are losing their mind too’ card well enough, but I started using a guide halfway through, so take that as you will. I really did want to love In Stars and Time, but it just ends up being so much less than the sum of its parts. I would rate this a thumbs side if I could, as I can’t deny it does most of what it does well. There were a lot of cool (and some annoying) moments that I didn't mention here because this review is already long enough. If it looks like the game would interest you, definitely pick it up. You’ll probably enjoy it more than I did. 5.5/10Show moreShow less
18.1 hours at review57 people found this helpful
Received for free
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.