#woe startiming be upon ye

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isat au except...

they're not even oomfies </3

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radiator springs touch

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hey so i was looking at french idioms/expressions for reasons and came across a. fun thing. that i didnt know about!

...

ME WHEN I FUCKING GET YOU

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pov youre trying to have lunch but some silly helpful star appeared u_u @entryn17

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sucking on an ancient coin - the making @entryn17

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I didnt realize the game was going to slam dunk me emotionally until it was too late

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On Spiraling

some other thoughts I had while playing ISAT that I've been sitting on for a bit. Im not good at titling things btw. Spoilers for everything!

Act 5 is one of the most fascinating sequences in the game, as it’s the prelude to the climax of the game. Exploring the house is easily one of the most unsettling moments, the entire section with the king too… But how about prior to it? In my own experience, when Siffrin’s sprites changed, alongside with how he was interacting with the others was the bit that shocked me more. It’s due to how Siffrin was leveling up throughout the game, I had a feeling there would be a sequence where they can essentially solo the house. Except, I never considered the circumstances to how it would lead up to that. His change in demeanor for act 5, after being essentially robbed of all hope in act 4’s ending was the catalyst.

Siffrin’s despair was a natural course of action in timeloop stories. It’s a natural course of action in this story too, because of how he changes subtly throughout acts 2-4. It can be noted even in his change of dialogue, or how with the more new dialogue they can have with the family, the more dialogue becomes skippable in the next loop. The loops themselves take a very negative toll on his mental state (which likely wasn’t at its best even in act 1 and prior), but because they’re repeating so many events, that change in mental state is the only thing that’s evolving.

When you need to restart a device, or want to make sure that song you’re listening to doesn’t change into the next one, you restart it, you loop it. The symbols associated with them are circles, as they repeat the same course of action. Siffrin’s loop makes a complete circle if they reach the head housemaiden. Spirals as a shape are circular, as they follow the same flow, but continue moving into themselves, eternally. And your mental state spirals if you’re stuck in a repeat of the very thoughts that have begun destroying you.

The thing with Siffrin’s spiral is that he doesn’t think he deserves his family forgiving him for the loops and actions/thoughts that he has had throughout them. But the thing I realized when I was playing that sequence of the climax was Siffrin was unable to understand why they’re being forgiven and why they’re offered love and tenderness at their lowest, at what they would define as their worst. For that, it’s needed to really visualize how the rest of the family saw Siffrin in that very loop. None of them were aware of the loops, or that Siffrin’s breaking point was a gradual buildup of the dozens or hundreds of loops being done. From their perspective, their friend suddenly acted abruptly out of the ordinary, said hurtful things, and then never showed up for dinner or sleep. The next thing they all knew, Siffrin had gone on a suicide mission through the house alone, without knowing if Siffrin’s able to make the journey alone. Remember how in earlier loops, having all of the party alive was essential?

When one struggles with issues that they repress and internalize, they forget that this leaves for very little to come out externally. Oftentimes, even the closest of friends would not be able to pick up on anything being wrong to begin with. They cannot read minds, they cannot predict what’s going on because it’s not being spoken into a reality where it can be heard. And with those who struggle a lot with this, there will be moments where they repress and isolate in a breakdown, thinking the worst of themselves when doing so. When these thoughts and feelings are known to their owner, they can forget that no one else knows. And they think they’re the worst person to their loved ones, whereas the loved ones only are puzzled and worried. The thing with Siffrin not thinking he deserves the love and kindness he receives is that they forgot that to their friends, everything remained unspoken and internalized. Even though they know his family will forget if he loops, this logic is discarded when they all appear to help him.

Another thing that Siffrin didn’t seem to realize at that moment was that they were pretty much done for after facing the king and becoming stuck against Mal du Pays. Had they never showed up, what would have happened to him then…? One can only speculate. But Mirabelle, Isabeau, Odile and Bonnie reaching Siffrin before any permanent external damage was done and asking for them to say what they’ve been avoiding to admit was key. Siffrin’s family reached out, instead of rejecting him entirely. Because one would want to reach out to their loved ones before it’s too late, even if they don’t understand what’s going on.

To conclude, it’s a result of the internalization of issues was the catalyst to both Siffrin’s spiral and subsequent forgiveness. In a way, you could probably even say that the loops are a representation of this internalization, especially with how no one but Siffrin (and Loop) are aware of it. However, I haven’t got much more to say on the topic as of now. I also assume it’s already been talked about…? Regardless, there’s a lot to say about all of this. Thank you for reading!

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im sure its been talked about already but what i particularly love abt isat is the way it incorporates culture and language with one's sense of identity. theres honestly a LOT i could say on that matter mostly because i take interest in depictions of fictional languages (even if they are not directly shown to the player) but i think ill hold back from going full-rogue with those thoughts now. i think its so fun to see a fantasy video game that indicates the existence of more than 1-2 languages (where in some cases the second language is some ancient one too) it feels extremely refreshing to be directly told there are multiple languages, as well as acknowledging the existence of accents!

from what i understood while playing, everyone shown in game is speaking in vaugardian. there exist dialects of it, given mirabelle and isabeau's accents differ from bonnies. in turn, this confirms to us that odile and siffrin are bi/multilingual. and i dont know, but the way talks of language and accents was presented in dialogue made me feel really excited because its just something that was treated so casually in the text. again its not often you encounter this stuff in video game stories! not to mention pulling this off without even needing to invent a fictional language to show the players!

and of course my favorite aspect of this is the way language affects siffrin in particular. (spoilers & some speculation under cut)

i dont think i need to go into detail how the disappearance of their country affected siffrin. however, the loss of language is the aspect that especially grabs me because there is an implication that the party, and siffrin especially, are not aware of.

you know how they forget words sometimes? his native language got deleted from his memory, so this means he would have trouble working words out together. thats mostly because ppl generally think in one language without being aware of it.

and even if siffrin picked up on vaugardian quickly, keep in mind that they would probably never know vaguardian the same way they knew their native language. and that's because i think his brain unconsciously is still "thinking" in the forgotten language. for example, if you cant recall the word for "stuffed animal" in your native language, what are the chances of remembering it in your second language, which you had to pick up on in the wake of being alone and with no memory of your home? it's actually notable when you try to interact with certain objects in the pottery room in act 5, for example! (does not help that they are also having a really bad time)

sif's case is unique as a bilingual speaker, so i sadly dont feel equipped talking more on it. however, i want to specify that i dont think the loss of language is the ONLY factor contributing to sif's memory problems. moreso that its one of the multiple ingredients that got added in his brain as a result of the country being deleted, essentially

anyway dunno how much this makes sense! ive been awake for a while so sorry if ive phrased myself badly at certain places lol

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when i first finished isat i quickly realized that a particular aspect of the game occupies the same headspace as something that cat in the box did (i never really mentioned to anyone that i really like this game too), except that in the latter it was much more pronounced. but because that game is more niche it feels much harder to explore anything you dont catch when experiencing it

THATS SUCH A VAGUE WAY OF PUTTING IT. but i dont want to directly say what makes the games connect in my brain. if you know please do come in through the window for a chat

anyway it makes me wanna revisit cat in the box. what a fucked up little game (delighted)

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its too late now!

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ITS FFYCKING JOEVER

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kinda obsessed with how this page in my notes looks because of the surprise isa doodle i did mid-exercise earlier

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sasasap thought (spoiler)

i cant overstate how many times i had to retry the perfect ending run bc i would keep missing things. i literally drew a map with notes of things. i had to follow a guide TWICE to get it right. got the random chance of skipping a portion of the floor to ahead bc siffrin zoned out and it wasnt in my control. i accidentally went true ending route on my second run! you have to go out of your way to do the perfect ending!

and yet the game was ACTIVELY trying to make me /not/ get this ending and every time i got either of the "normal" ones it felt like siffrin was getting impatient and no longer giving enough of a damn about keeping up appearances

and then i finally GOT the perfect ending! and...its arguably the worst one! the most violent one. the least rewarding one. i was kind of shocked by how abruptly it hits you! the perfect ending punishes you for the effort. im not sure how to really describe it besides recalling the wording that went along the lines of "you remember why you stopped doing that"

AND I FUCKING LOVED THAT. it was so messed up. oh my fucking god

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im playing isat and

>get told siffrin has a pineapple allergy

>"ok!"

>a few hours later bonnie asks to pick a snack

>"i already had the fish head so why not pineapple :)"

>i select it.

>I REALIZE HES ALLERGIC A SECOND TOO LATE. I STARE AT THE SCREEN.

>siffrin dies

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YOU KNOW THE ISAT PLAY SESSION WENT GREAT WHEN YOU GET A "YOU WILL HEAR FROM ME LATER" AND THE CALL ABRUPTLY ENDS

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WAHOO LOOK WHO FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!