I REALLY loved that they showed how differently bigotry would work in this new setting. It seems like a queer paradise at first glance, because transition is so accepted. So it hit me majorly hard to realize there was acephobia bubbling under the surface. And it makes perfect sense it'd happen, that a world that worships change would get stuck on bizarre ideas that anyone happy with being ace is just "not trying hard enough to change". I cried so much over Mirabelle's plot, it was so good to see this stuff talked about so openly in a game!
Whilst talking about the world building, I also appreciate the casual mention of how bonding earrings work for polygamous relationships. And I think it was a good choice to, instead of having Sif's advice be what Mira settled on, instead just have it be inspiration for her to find her own path. It was more important that they listened and opened up to her.
Oh yay more In Stars and Time! I love how this game ties its queer characters to both the setting of Vaugarde and the main themes of the story so seamlessly. ISAT just has absolutely brilliant writing throughout, really. Great video! Also, since you're in act three right now, here's a cryptic hint so you don't miss my fave secret in the whole game (after a few spaces in case you don't want hints): You might want to look at that coin you have as acts change, maybe even show it to Loop while you're at it? Something interesting just might happen ;)
I love this game so much and having two different canonically aspec characters with different experiences that talk about this and the way this interacts with cultural expectations for one of them and the thinking maybe you haven’t found the right person yet and need to force yourself to try even tho you don’t feel comfortable but that’s not it and this is just how you are was really important to me…
It's honestly just so good! I got so excited when I go to the exchange between siffrin and mira, the writing is so good and I could only imagine how happy it would make aspec people to see it! ^_^
Hearing someone talk about the normalization of Ace people makes my heart so happy I just want to cry. I'm only just now discovering community and its helping a lot of things feel better. Thank you for saying what you have.
I'm not at all normal about isat and its representation, I'm so glad people talk more about it cause it's really the best representation I've ever seen. Also I love how the game foreshadows these things and they're not something just thrown there for the sake of being inclusive, there are a lot of moments where we can see how the characters feel about certain topics for example isabeau with the diferent names or mirabelle with hate-crushes. The writing in this game is phenomenal
There's also a wonderful bathroom conversation between Mirabelle and Odile: Odile: You may not know this, but in some countries, two women together would be expected to talk about men, and love, and nothing else. Odile: Would you like to talk about the men in our lives, and love, and nothing else? Mirabelle: We've only got the one man, madame. Mirabelle: And also, ew. Both are aros, btw. Absolutely love that this game is packed with interactions about main characters' LGBTQ+ experiences. Literally all main characters are part of LGBTQ+ community and it's incredible. We are everywhere, we are many, and we deserve to be happy and free. ALSO I'm so happy you are talking about this game, because I hopped in your enby video with hopes of seeing ISAT. Was ecstatic when I saw it. Even more so now!!! Hopefully this convinces more folks to play the game. It helped me put some of my own feelings into words and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I didn't know about that conversation, that's amazing! I also didn't know Odile was aro, I honestly thought she was the token cis, straight, allo member of the party. I also hope I can get more people to play it. It's emotionally devastating and ruins my brain, but it's SO fucking good!
@WritinRealSlow she's definitely not confirmed aro, but she IS definitely a queer person- she doesn't care, and to me, it's implied odile has transitioned before in ka bue. You know, how she knows about body craft in ka bue despite it being illegal. ... and also the dev is like she's just queer. This party is not straight. Mirabelle is the only confirmed cis person lol
@@WritinRealSlowthe creator made a post saying odile is an elder queer but doesn't care about labels, so you can headcanon her as whatever you'd like. when asked about representation in isat they also made a joke post saying the main cast has "one ENTIRE cisgender character!!" (mirabelle) and that odile's gender is up to interpretation :3
@@WritinRealSlow Odile maybe could be cis. Dialog in Body Craft room implies that she may have performed some Body Craft. But, like usual, "I'll never tell". Our favourite mysterious lady. But yeah, as the commenter on top said, she doesn't really have labels which is also awesome. The main party consists only of 5 characters and yet they represent such a big part of queer spectrum including people who choose not to label themselves!
Yes!! I'm so happy to see someone else talking about the writing in ISAT, it's such an incredible experience and Isabeau's story especially hit me so hard. How can you not love this man. It's physically impossible Also taking breaks to process emotions is pretty much mandatory while playing this game. It's emotionally devastating, I don't think any other game has made me feel the same way
im so normal about isat (slow turn to the 2,000 hours i have on the game) and its writing. absolutely phenomenal and it changed my brain chemistry. so happy to see people talking about it
How could I not? I put off playing it for so long because of monetary reasons, and the moment I could actually play it I started gushing to my friends about how good it is! Emotionally devastating, but really good!
GRAAAAAAH IN STARS AND TIME MENTIONED! I WISH BODYCRAFT EXISTED IRL! WHAT THE CRAB IS BAD WRITING!? Act 5 spoilers upcoming Another really good scene I want to add is your interaction with Mirabelle in act 5 which makes a very important distinction. Basically you have to do all of these friendship quests again but because Siffrin is tweaking out after looping hundreds of times with seemingly no way out, he kind of botches them all up. Mirabelle is my favorite friendship quest in the whole game and hers in act 5 is probably one of the most memorable scenes in the game for me. Due to siffrin trying to speed up the quest they tell Mirabelle (paraphrasing) “just accept that you’ll never be loved” and Mirabelle replies (paraphrasing) “SIFF WHAT THE CRAB!?” And slaps him across the face. This scene to me displays a very important part of being aro/ace. It’s not that aroace people don’t want love AT ALL. Just not romantically or sexually. There’s a lot of different forms and ways to express love for someone and receive it, like platonically or with family, so saying aroace people don’t desire love at all is wrong, and Mira calls Siff out on this. This is also a great opportunity to say ISAT uses video games as a medium to tell a story very well because YOU have to say that to Mirabelle and select the dialogue option, there’s no other choice. Let me tell you I felt so bad when I had to tell my favorite character she’ll never be loved! Amazing video! I’ll definitely check out more of your content later!
When I did Mirabelle's friend quest the first time, I wanted to reach through the screen and hug the poor thing. I'm aro-spec and asexual, so seeing Mirabelle and Siffrin bonding over both being ace-spec and seeing Siffrin reassure her that she isn't wrong/a mistake for being aroace was really special to me. And like you pointed out, the game having more than just one aspec character lets the writing show the nuance and variety of being under the aspec umbrella. Seeing Mirabelle and Siffrin both be shown to be canonically and textually ace-spec made me so excited and happy - not one but two ace-spec characters, in with the representation that's shown across the rest of the game! The ending of the game legitimately made me cry, because of how strong the writing is. Even if I'm newer to the fandom, I'm glad I played the game. And I'm glad to see RPG Maker games come out and get recognition/praise from outside of the RPG Maker community!
Really loved your video, and I'm super glad to see it. As an aroace person, I love Mirabelle's quest, particularly as an aroace person who was told she should have no interest in shipping in fic due to not wanting to ever be in a romantic relationship.. In Stars and Time has captured my heart since last april. Though, one small clarification. Calling Siffrin touch adverse kind of minimizes the issue. He's touch starved, but has spent so much time not being touched that it cause him to flinch away. He expressed a few times he wants to be touched (especially in the actual secret Isabeau quest), but can't help his body's reaction to it. It's complicated, and I super understand why you didn't want to go into it in the video since it's kinda off topic, but it does give a bit of the wrong impression.
Summoned the isat fans! Jokes aside, isat is a game that resonated with me a lot in a way other pieces of media just. Hasn’t. When it comes to representation. Mirabelle’s friendquest made me cry in the best way possible Also, on your note on dual-pronouns in games… recently I’ve played Great God Grove, who has the he/they Click Clack!
Great video! I'm with you on everything you say pretty much, as a gay man with a transmasc little brother there's a lot of stuff with Isabeau especially that resonates with me, though Mirabelle's rep is also fantastic, I've never seen any media handle an aroace person so tactfully. I do want to give a slight correction though, Isabeau uses they/them to refer to his past self. It is clearly portraying a transmasc narrative but I think that's important to clarify, we don't actually know if he was AFAB. Given Bonnie uses they/them I'm actually more inclined to assume that children in Vaugarde just use they/them pronouns by default and change into what they want later in life, sorta like how the ghosts in Undertale are cis they/them but Mettaton is transmasc and Mew Mew is transfem, but that's entirely speculation on my end.
i'm neurodivergent and i relate to siffrin really bad, especially with how he refuses to tell his friends what's going on until it breaks him. they continue to pretend they're fine and don't even consider telling the party about the loops, and the acting metaphors used later like "BACK TO THE STAGE." hit hard with me as being about masking. it can be very internalized that you can't act naturally to the point where even being with a group who will accept you, you're still on guard as if you're going to be hated for being yourself. also, while it's only a single joke line, "who are you. if not the funnyjokespun person." hits unusually hard with me too, because it feels like the only way i can be accepted by a group is by being "the funny one" and committing to a bit. sorry for the wall of yapping about siffrin's masking. one more thing tho (act 6 somewhat spoiler) i like the symbolism of siffrin losing his hat at the end of the game. it's the thing that's covered them this whole time, and finally they've been open with their friends and don't have to cover themself anymore. he can stop masking because he's with people who truly love him.
I REALLY loved that they showed how differently bigotry would work in this new setting. It seems like a queer paradise at first glance, because transition is so accepted. So it hit me majorly hard to realize there was acephobia bubbling under the surface. And it makes perfect sense it'd happen, that a world that worships change would get stuck on bizarre ideas that anyone happy with being ace is just "not trying hard enough to change". I cried so much over Mirabelle's plot, it was so good to see this stuff talked about so openly in a game!
It shows some amazing attention to detail!
This game has so thoroughly changed my brain chemicals, with how badly I can relate to Siffrin and their story
"You're crying about the time loop game?"
"The power of hope and love in the face of despair and stagnation really got to me, okay?!"
Whilst talking about the world building, I also appreciate the casual mention of how bonding earrings work for polygamous relationships. And I think it was a good choice to, instead of having Sif's advice be what Mira settled on, instead just have it be inspiration for her to find her own path. It was more important that they listened and opened up to her.
it was a really good moment
Oh yay more In Stars and Time! I love how this game ties its queer characters to both the setting of Vaugarde and the main themes of the story so seamlessly. ISAT just has absolutely brilliant writing throughout, really. Great video!
Also, since you're in act three right now, here's a cryptic hint so you don't miss my fave secret in the whole game (after a few spaces in case you don't want hints):
You might want to look at that coin you have as acts change, maybe even show it to Loop while you're at it? Something interesting just might happen ;)
ooh, that IS cryptic!
I love this game so much and having two different canonically aspec characters with different experiences that talk about this and the way this interacts with cultural expectations for one of them and the thinking maybe you haven’t found the right person yet and need to force yourself to try even tho you don’t feel comfortable but that’s not it and this is just how you are was really important to me…
It's honestly just so good! I got so excited when I go to the exchange between siffrin and mira, the writing is so good and I could only imagine how happy it would make aspec people to see it! ^_^
And being able to reassure her was so important to me
@ It wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well without that part.
Hearing someone talk about the normalization of Ace people makes my heart so happy I just want to cry. I'm only just now discovering community and its helping a lot of things feel better. Thank you for saying what you have.
Of course! I'll always be in your corner!
I'm not at all normal about isat and its representation, I'm so glad people talk more about it cause it's really the best representation I've ever seen. Also I love how the game foreshadows these things and they're not something just thrown there for the sake of being inclusive, there are a lot of moments where we can see how the characters feel about certain topics for example isabeau with the diferent names or mirabelle with hate-crushes. The writing in this game is phenomenal
It really does just have phenomenal writing
There's also a wonderful bathroom conversation between Mirabelle and Odile:
Odile: You may not know this, but in some countries, two women together would be expected to talk about men, and love, and nothing else.
Odile: Would you like to talk about the men in our lives, and love, and nothing else?
Mirabelle: We've only got the one man, madame.
Mirabelle: And also, ew.
Both are aros, btw. Absolutely love that this game is packed with interactions about main characters' LGBTQ+ experiences. Literally all main characters are part of LGBTQ+ community and it's incredible. We are everywhere, we are many, and we deserve to be happy and free.
ALSO I'm so happy you are talking about this game, because I hopped in your enby video with hopes of seeing ISAT. Was ecstatic when I saw it. Even more so now!!! Hopefully this convinces more folks to play the game. It helped me put some of my own feelings into words and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I didn't know about that conversation, that's amazing! I also didn't know Odile was aro, I honestly thought she was the token cis, straight, allo member of the party.
I also hope I can get more people to play it. It's emotionally devastating and ruins my brain, but it's SO fucking good!
@WritinRealSlow she's definitely not confirmed aro, but she IS definitely a queer person- she doesn't care, and to me, it's implied odile has transitioned before in ka bue. You know, how she knows about body craft in ka bue despite it being illegal.
... and also the dev is like she's just queer. This party is not straight. Mirabelle is the only confirmed cis person lol
@@WritinRealSlowthe creator made a post saying odile is an elder queer but doesn't care about labels, so you can headcanon her as whatever you'd like. when asked about representation in isat they also made a joke post saying the main cast has "one ENTIRE cisgender character!!" (mirabelle) and that odile's gender is up to interpretation :3
@@silliest-astro huh, neat.
@@WritinRealSlow Odile maybe could be cis. Dialog in Body Craft room implies that she may have performed some Body Craft. But, like usual, "I'll never tell". Our favourite mysterious lady. But yeah, as the commenter on top said, she doesn't really have labels which is also awesome. The main party consists only of 5 characters and yet they represent such a big part of queer spectrum including people who choose not to label themselves!
Yes!! I'm so happy to see someone else talking about the writing in ISAT, it's such an incredible experience and Isabeau's story especially hit me so hard. How can you not love this man. It's physically impossible
Also taking breaks to process emotions is pretty much mandatory while playing this game. It's emotionally devastating, I don't think any other game has made me feel the same way
You know, I can't think of any other game that's forced me to do that either. I'm glad it's a more common experience than I thought.
im so normal about isat (slow turn to the 2,000 hours i have on the game) and its writing. absolutely phenomenal and it changed my brain chemistry. so happy to see people talking about it
How could I not? I put off playing it for so long because of monetary reasons, and the moment I could actually play it I started gushing to my friends about how good it is!
Emotionally devastating, but really good!
i been saying in stars and time is SO PEEEAKK it needs a bigger fanfom
tell people about it then; word of mouth is the best form of advertisement.
GRAAAAAAH IN STARS AND TIME MENTIONED! I WISH BODYCRAFT EXISTED IRL! WHAT THE CRAB IS BAD WRITING!?
Act 5 spoilers upcoming
Another really good scene I want to add is your interaction with Mirabelle in act 5 which makes a very important distinction. Basically you have to do all of these friendship quests again but because Siffrin is tweaking out after looping hundreds of times with seemingly no way out, he kind of botches them all up. Mirabelle is my favorite friendship quest in the whole game and hers in act 5 is probably one of the most memorable scenes in the game for me. Due to siffrin trying to speed up the quest they tell Mirabelle (paraphrasing) “just accept that you’ll never be loved” and Mirabelle replies (paraphrasing) “SIFF WHAT THE CRAB!?” And slaps him across the face. This scene to me displays a very important part of being aro/ace. It’s not that aroace people don’t want love AT ALL. Just not romantically or sexually. There’s a lot of different forms and ways to express love for someone and receive it, like platonically or with family, so saying aroace people don’t desire love at all is wrong, and Mira calls Siff out on this.
This is also a great opportunity to say ISAT uses video games as a medium to tell a story very well because YOU have to say that to Mirabelle and select the dialogue option, there’s no other choice. Let me tell you I felt so bad when I had to tell my favorite character she’ll never be loved!
Amazing video! I’ll definitely check out more of your content later!
Wow, I've got a lot to look forward to then.
When I did Mirabelle's friend quest the first time, I wanted to reach through the screen and hug the poor thing. I'm aro-spec and asexual, so seeing Mirabelle and Siffrin bonding over both being ace-spec and seeing Siffrin reassure her that she isn't wrong/a mistake for being aroace was really special to me. And like you pointed out, the game having more than just one aspec character lets the writing show the nuance and variety of being under the aspec umbrella. Seeing Mirabelle and Siffrin both be shown to be canonically and textually ace-spec made me so excited and happy - not one but two ace-spec characters, in with the representation that's shown across the rest of the game!
The ending of the game legitimately made me cry, because of how strong the writing is. Even if I'm newer to the fandom, I'm glad I played the game. And I'm glad to see RPG Maker games come out and get recognition/praise from outside of the RPG Maker community!
It's such a good game! From the writing to the gameplay, you can just feel the love that went into it!
7:17 - This made me want to cry. So, thank you, I think?
You're very welcome
I think you just sold me in this game.
Nice! Be warned, it gets VERY emotionally heavy.
It should!
This is an amazing game and all should see it
fiiiiiiiiiiine you convinced me next time that In Stars and Time is on sale I'll buy it and play it XD
You really know how to sell a game!
Just be warned, the emotional storytelling gets REALLY heavy.
Really loved your video, and I'm super glad to see it. As an aroace person, I love Mirabelle's quest, particularly as an aroace person who was told she should have no interest in shipping in fic due to not wanting to ever be in a romantic relationship.. In Stars and Time has captured my heart since last april.
Though, one small clarification. Calling Siffrin touch adverse kind of minimizes the issue. He's touch starved, but has spent so much time not being touched that it cause him to flinch away. He expressed a few times he wants to be touched (especially in the actual secret Isabeau quest), but can't help his body's reaction to it. It's complicated, and I super understand why you didn't want to go into it in the video since it's kinda off topic, but it does give a bit of the wrong impression.
yeah, I'm still on act 3, so I haven't gotten far enough to know that that. The reading I got so far was that he was touch averse but working on it.
Bonnie is such a fun little creature, love 'em
they're great
I can’t wait to watch this but for now I’ll add it to my list of ISAT videos for when I’ve actually played the game.
that's fair
This game has changed my brain severely
This was my extreme hyperfixation for 2 months
You are correct that it is peak
I am often correct
@WritinRealSlow indeed
Wow i really want to play this game now!!!!
It really is very good!
I have to play this game. It is lovely from what you are telling me.
It's also very emotionally heavy, so be warned.
Summoned the isat fans! Jokes aside, isat is a game that resonated with me a lot in a way other pieces of media just. Hasn’t. When it comes to representation. Mirabelle’s friendquest made me cry in the best way possible
Also, on your note on dual-pronouns in games… recently I’ve played Great God Grove, who has the he/they Click Clack!
ooh, I haven't heard about that game before. What's the genre?
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ISAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE WHOLE CONFIRMED CIS CHARACTER 🔥🔥🔥
revolutionary
Great video! I'm with you on everything you say pretty much, as a gay man with a transmasc little brother there's a lot of stuff with Isabeau especially that resonates with me, though Mirabelle's rep is also fantastic, I've never seen any media handle an aroace person so tactfully. I do want to give a slight correction though, Isabeau uses they/them to refer to his past self. It is clearly portraying a transmasc narrative but I think that's important to clarify, we don't actually know if he was AFAB. Given Bonnie uses they/them I'm actually more inclined to assume that children in Vaugarde just use they/them pronouns by default and change into what they want later in life, sorta like how the ghosts in Undertale are cis they/them but Mettaton is transmasc and Mew Mew is transfem, but that's entirely speculation on my end.
ISAT LETS GOOOOOO
As someone else has said, go check out that coin of yours while in town! And after seeing a certain flashback, show it to loop!
also. Single writer/dev. :3 adrienne is so cool
thanks for the advice
Between being ace, touch averse, and some of their reactions, I can't help but think Siffrin is neurodivergent in some way.
It's very easy to read them that way, yeah.
i'm neurodivergent and i relate to siffrin really bad, especially with how he refuses to tell his friends what's going on until it breaks him. they continue to pretend they're fine and don't even consider telling the party about the loops, and the acting metaphors used later like "BACK TO THE STAGE." hit hard with me as being about masking. it can be very internalized that you can't act naturally to the point where even being with a group who will accept you, you're still on guard as if you're going to be hated for being yourself. also, while it's only a single joke line, "who are you. if not the funnyjokespun person." hits unusually hard with me too, because it feels like the only way i can be accepted by a group is by being "the funny one" and committing to a bit.
sorry for the wall of yapping about siffrin's masking. one more thing tho
(act 6 somewhat spoiler)
i like the symbolism of siffrin losing his hat at the end of the game. it's the thing that's covered them this whole time, and finally they've been open with their friends and don't have to cover themself anymore. he can stop masking because he's with people who truly love him.
IN STARS AND TIME MY BELOVED!!!!!!!
OUR beloved
@@WritinRealSlow truly
When get the money I'm def playing this game my sis omggg !
Yeeeesssss, dooo eeeeet!
Yippie!
Yahoo!
It’s so stunning and really is a great game overall!
it really is!
HELL YEAH ISAT
HELL YEAH!
What an amazing video, :)
aw, thank you :3
Me 🫴❤ ISAT
so true