Looping
Looping is the main gameplay mechanic of START AGAIN: a prologue and In Stars and Time, as well as the event which puts the story of the games in motion. It allows Siffrin to repeat the same days as many times as he wants in order to learn new information and reach the top of the House unscathed. At first, Siffrin sees the time loop as a precious boon, but it quickly becomes a maddening curse that he is unable to escape from.
Gameplay
START AGAIN: a prologue
In Stars and Time
There are two ways for Siffrin to loop back in time: if he dies, or if they speak to the Head Housemaiden after beating the King.
When Siffrin dies, the player is brought to a Game Over screen with the option to START AGAIN or QUIT. Selecting QUIT will not do anything, but selecting START AGAIN will bring the player to the location selection screen, on which they can choose where to loop back. The player can go back to previous floors at no cost, but in order to loop forward to floors they have not yet visited during the previous loop, they have to spend five 
Memories of Skirmish per location they want to "skip". This means that if the player dies in Dormont, they will have to spend:
- Five Memories of Skirmish to loop to Floor 1.
- Ten Memories of Skirmish to loop to Floor 2.
- Fifteen Memories of Skirmish to loop to Floor 3.
- Twenty Memories of Skirmish to loop to the King.
The player can also spend an additional fee of five Memories of Skirmish to unlock all the doors of the floor they loop back to.
When Siffrin reaches the natural end of the loop and talks to the Head Housemaiden, the player will momentarily be brought to the Game Over screen before being forced to loop back to Dormont.
Death
Siffrin can die in many different ways, whether accidental or deliberate. Most of these deaths are a hindrance to the player, but others can be used to quickly loop back and save time by skipping unimportant sections of the game.
The Game Over text changes and Siffrin has unique monologues at the beginning of the next loop depending on how they die. As the player progresses through the ACTs, the text and monologues become more jaded and self-deprecating, showing Siffrin's gradual desensitization to his own death.
Siffrin can die in the following ways:
- Losing a fight against Sadnesses.
- Losing a fight against the King.
- Slipping on the banana peel in Dormont.
- Being crushed by the giant rock in the Death Corridor on Floor 1 (by forgetting to disarm it).
- Touching a Tear inside the House.
- Eating the pineapple slices during the second snack break.
- Using their dagger on themself.
Dying in every unique way will grant the 1000 ways to die achievement.
Accidental looping
Certain events can cause Siffrin to loop back in time in order to avoid distress or incoming death. This smaller-scale looping generally has no effect on actual gameplay, but it plays a key role in deducing the origin and cause of the loops.
Story events
- During Loop's hangout quest in ACT 3 or ACT 4: when Siffrin realizes that he left his friends to die at the hands of the King by hanging out all day with Loop, they loop back to the previous day to reset everything.
- During the fight against the King at the end of ACT 3: when Siffrin lowers their guard by talking to the King and Bonnie gets captured, he tries to force himself to loop back before Bonnie gets killed. They manage to loop back to Dormont right as Bonnie gets crushed in the King's grip.
- During ACT 4: when Loop asks Siffrin if something happens when he talks to the Head Housemaiden that causes them to feel like it's the end, he loops back to before the conversation started.
- During ACT 5: when Siffrin runs out of health while exploring the House, they loop back and fully heal themself.
Optional events
- During ACT 3: after approaching the Sadness Tutorial five separate times, Siffrin is sick of the repetition and brutally kills the Sadness in order to save time. The rest of the party is disturbed by his erratic behavior and Siffrin loops back to the moment before the fight. They then do their best to hold back their strikes.
- During the Promise Event: when Bonnie snaps at Siffrin and tells him that they hate him, Siffrin loops back to the moment before the conversation happened.
- During the Confession Event: when Siffrin realizes that he is manipulating Isabeau into confessing to them, they freak out and almost snap at Isabeau when he tries to touch him. They loop back to the moment before the conversation happened and interrupt Isabeau before he can confess anything.
- During the Bad Touch Event: when Siffrin kisses Isabeau and gets pushed away, he thinks that Isabeau actually hates them and loops back to the moment before the conversation happened.
- During the Ghost Event: after the party tries to interact with the Siffrin ghost, Siffrin loops back to the moment before they approach the ghost and pretends that they cannot see it.
- During the Suspicious Event: when Odile suspects Siffrin of being stuck in a time loop and confronts him, Siffrin loops back before they can face any consequences.
Story
START AGAIN: a prologue
In Stars and Time
ACT 1
The day before the time loop starts, Siffrin prays to the Change God statue for good luck and Isabeau encourages them to wish to the Favor Tree, which Vaugardians believe to be able to grant wishes. Siffrin does so, wishing to be able to stay with his friends and spend time with them even after their quest to save Vaugarde is over. He chooses a leaf from the tree, breathes his wish into it and folds the leaf to seal the wish away.
The next day, the party enters the House. Things go smoothly at first, but Mirabelle gets scared when they reach the so-called "Death Corridor", which is said to have killed many intruders. Siffrin checks for traps, but doesn't find any. He reassures the others that everything is fine before being crushed to death by a giant rock.
ACT 2
To Siffrin's surprise, he wakes up back in Dormont, totally unharmed. They quickly deduce that the previous day is repeating and that they have effectively went back in time. When they go back to the Favor Tree, they are greeted by Loop, a star-like being who claims to want to help them throughout the loops. Despite his initial suspicions and Loop's taunting personality, Siffrin progressively warms up to Loop and engages in many conversations with them.
At first, Siffrin is thrilled by his time loop ability, which he thinks was granted to him by the Change God in order to help his friends beat the King and save Vaugarde. They use it to their advantage to make things right with their friends (such as saying different things so as to not upset Mirabelle when she tells them about the sleepover), avoid traps and dead ends in the House, as well as find items which they should not know about under normal circumstances (such as the key taped to the top of the drawer in the Head Housemaiden's office or the key inside Marc's Super Awesome Great Amazing Super Duper Cool Notebook in the classroom). However, they never talk about this power to the others.
Through trial and error, Siffrin and the party manage to beat the King and reach the top of the House, where they are congratulated by the Head Housemaiden. However, the celebration does not last: when Siffrin talks to the Head Housemaiden, she suddenly becomes distressed, saying that he will go back to when everything started and that something is broken, rotting. Siffrin notices that the air smells like burnt sugar and feels a tug on their stomach. The Head Housemaiden tries to apologize for what she thinks is her fault, but her apology is cut short and Siffrin loops back to Dormont.
ACT 3
Siffrin realizes that they're stuck in the time loop and has a panic attack. He goes to Loop for answers: they say that they already knew that beating the King wouldn't stop the time loop, but that they did not have the heart to admit it to him. Siffrin is disheartened by this turn of events, but he decides not to give up and to look for what may be causing the loops as well as a way to break them.
From this point, the loops gradually loose their helpful allure and instead become a trap which Siffrin needs to escape from: he becomes more easily frustrated by events he has already seen (such as killing the tutorial Sadness on his own or snapping at his friends when he bumps into the kitchen counter on Floor 1) and behaves more erratically in the hope of finding a way to break the loops (such as asking unprompted questions about Time Craft or deciding to speak to the King instead of fighting), which often arouses suspicion from the others.
First, Siffrin notices that his friends need help with their own personal problems and takes this as a cue to spend more time with them. Now that their bonds are stronger than ever, Siffrin wonders what will happen if they manage to reach the end of the loop. However, when he does so and talks to the Head Housemaiden, nothing seems to change. Their friends notice their distress and try to reach out to them before they loop back, to no avail. Siffrin wakes up in Dormont, disappointed.
Then, Siffrin tries to talk to the King to get some answers. The King says that he is not the one responsible for Siffrin's predicament, despite them having similar powers. Siffrin also learns that the King can freeze people in time thanks to something called Time Craft, which gives the user the ability to control time itself. However, Time Craft requires an extreme amount of power, which neither Siffrin nor the King should possess under normal circumstances. When asked how he is able to use Time Craft without dying, the King says that the Universe helped him and that "he only had to wish for it".
One day, Loop asks Siffrin to hang out with them for a whole loop in order to "test a theory". Siffrin is hesitant to leave his friends at first (since they usually go to the House together), but he accepts and sneaks out of the clocktower in the early morning to find Loop on top of the Favor Tree. After some time spent talking, a bright flash of light is seen coming from the House: Loop says that it is the King's first attack and Siffrin realizes with horror that his friends have gone through the House without him and got wiped out by the King. Feeling guilty and distraught, he loops back to the previous day and asks Loop why they made him do this if they knew this would happen. They say that this allowed them to learn that Siffrin does not only loop whenever he dies, but also during specific distressing events.
After learning the King's true intentions, Siffrin stops fighting and tells him that even though they understand his pain, he should not freeze Vaugarde in time because of it. The King realize the errors of his ways and accepts to give up the fight. He asks Siffrin to lend him some of their power to help him unfreeze Vaugarde, but when Siffrin approaches him to do so, he freezes everyone in time. He tells Siffrin that he knows about his time loop ability and that he can smell the power of Wish Craft on them. The King then decides to punish Siffrin by forcing Siffrin to watch him kill Bonnie with his bare hands. Siffrin panics and tries to loop back, but only manages to do so after Bonnie is crushed to death.
ACT 4
Achievements
| Icon | Name | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
|
One! | Loop 20 times. | Loop 20 times. |
|
More! | Loop 50 times. | Loop 20 times. |
|
Time! | Loop 100 times. | Loop 100 times. |
|
Best idea you've ever had! | Hidden. Snack on some pineapple slices. | Choose the pineapple slices offered by Bonnie during the second snack break. |
|
1000 ways to die | Hidden. Die every way possible. | Die in every unique way. This includes the King, Sadness, tears, banana peel, pineapple, giant rock, and by dagger. Siffrin must be crushed by the rock again after the first time. |
|
Your favorite play | Hidden. Get to the end 5 times. | Defeat the King five times. |
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