I want to leave this a neutral review, because I really did enjoy the story it had to tell and the characters are so so lovable, and I genuinely was brought to tears several times. But Act 3 and 4 are a complete slog. I am a completionist, and I really wanted to experience everything this game had to offer, but it feels like a 10 hour game somehow turned into a 30 hour one. The story takes too long to progress. The pacing is just off, and "time loop" doesn't make up for it. I really loved the narrative, but I hated running around pressing buttons to complete it. As much as I would love to be in Siffrin's headspace, I can do that on my own without being forced to spend 4 extra hours savescumming mysterious "ghosts" of myself that smile weird, making my party suspicious of me, and reading every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ book on the planet, backwards, so I can progress the story. I think there just needs to be more guardrails for speeding things up. The most annoying thing is that there are several parts of this game that require you to complete a run from start to finish without looping forward, which is one of the biggest timesavers. Unfortunately, looping forward is pretty useless after Act 3 due to the constraints the game places on you.

I want to leave this a neutral review, because I really did enjoy the story it had to tell and the characters are so so lovable, and I genuinely was brought to tears several times. But Act 3 and 4 are a complete slog. I am a completionist, and I really wanted to experience everything this game had to offer, but it feels like a 10 hour game somehow turned into a 30 hour one. The story takes too long to progress. The pacing is just off, and "time loop" doesn't make up for it. I really loved the narrative, but I hated running around pressing buttons to complete it. As much as I would love to be in Siffrin's headspace, I can do that on my own without being forced to spend 4 extra hours savescumming mysterious "ghosts" of myself that smile weird, making my party suspicious of me, and reading every goddamn book on the planet, backwards, so I can progress the story. I think there just needs to be more guardrails for speeding things up. The most annoying thing is that there are several parts of this game that require you to complete a run from start to finish without looping forward, which is one of the biggest timesavers. Unfortunately, looping forward is pretty useless after Act 3 due to the constraints the game places on you.