For a right chunk of my young - grownup life , I was obsessed with the idea of creating my masterpiece . It ’s not even that I require to create a great piece of work of artistic production with something to say ; I felt I had to . My awe of death led me to consider that I want to bump a way to lead a go legacy behind , like the filmmaker and playwright I revered at the time . While that feeling dissipated in tardy years , it rectify as a unceasing imposter syndrome that I still grip with from time to time . There are moments where I feel that my writing or medicine is n’t well enough . At other times , I become bitter when a work I ’m proud of does n’t get the attention I like it merit . It ’s a vicious ouroboros that I shin to breach out of .
This may sound like a queerly striking way to introduceStarstruck : Hands of Time . If you await at the new PC game ’s Steam page , you ’ll find what looks like a wacky adventure that takes note fromEarthbound , Guitar Hero , andKatamari Damacy . While that ’s all true , the avant - garde adventure is veil something much more antic below its bubbly surface . It ’s a slow - bubbling anxiety attack , one that make for one of 2024 ’s most circumstantially life-sustaining games .
Spiraling out of orbit
Starstruck : Hands of Timebegins in a playful mode . An cosmonaut travels back to the past after the Earth of the future tense is overwhelm by a mysterious mildew . With the help of their pollyannaish robo associate , they head back to the past times to find the source of this sludge . That takes them to an unassumingly small town inhabited by a felicitous - go - lucky kid name Edwin . It ’s a normal , and very deceptive , pop out to a untamed four - hour odyssey that does n’t go anywhere you ’re wait .
In those early moments , Starstruck arrange the leg for a sorcerous suburban adventure about Edwin , a immature guitarist , trying to rise to stardom within his town . His first commission is to head to a local venue and toy a gig with his pals . It ’s a fresh start that right away callsEarthboundto judgment , a secret plan that ’s become an authoritative criterion for indie developer in late years . It makes sense ; Nintendo ’s classical RPG is one of the few games that really feels like it understand young the great unwashed and the personal struggles they present in everyday aliveness . In its most direct mention , Starstruck ’s character are exhibit as hand-crafted clay models that call back to the forcible figures used inEarthbound ’s original selling materials .
The more Starstruck ready up its story , the more weak - hearted it becomes . When I get to the venue for my show , I ’m introduced to an entire Guitar Hero - type musical rhythm game where I toy along to songs ( Starstruck is even compatible with some guitar controllers ) . It ’s a messy minigame due to some hard - to - parse guitar Riff and sloppy controller integration , but it ’s another recall that puts me into a time and place . I ’m once again in the mentality of a young adult inquire when my life is going to start in betweenFreebirdsolos .
Even then , Starstruck still has n’t play all its gameplay card . When Edwin has trouble getting into the venue , the astronaut observing them steps in to help by sending their mitt down to Earth . In a minigame reminiscent ofKatamari Damacy , I involve to smash as much stuff as I can around Ithiel Town until I can summon a hammer to pink an opening into the fence surround the locale . It ’s a bizarre visual , but another filled with a familiar vernal energy .
Things get much unearthly from there .
Only near its halfway mark , after going through those minigames a few times and meeting a few friends , does Starstruck show its hands . Edwin and his booster begin to let their different anxiousness skid . It turn out that the crew is suffer from unlike identity event . One charter shinny with imposter syndrome over her medicine ; another is desperate to be the center of attention and have his work celebrate . The more those belief add up out , the more the game itself corrupts .
There ’s no way to easily account what unfolds inStarstruck ’s back one-half ; you ’ll really have to see it for yourself to fully soak in its overpowering panic attack . A cute escapade veers into eldritch horror territory as each character succumbs to their anxiousness . The cheery visuals give way to avant - garde eeriness , in a turn that callsNeon Genesis Evangelion ’s outstanding midseason counselling shiftto mind . The deeply these characters get into their minds , wish they could be anywhere else than where they are in aliveness , the farther they reel away from Earth . There ’s nothing up there but shadow . It slowly swallows the entire escapade like a snake corrode its own tail .
If this all vocalise like a baffle good deal , it is at times . Starstruck takes some wild swings that do n’t always experience like they cleanly connect . Its personal story takes several detour to showcase the history of art thieving , delve into the history of the papistic empire , revisit the lunation landing , and more . Its gameplay can likewise feel unfocussed as it hops between ideas at a speedy - flack tempo . It ’s confounding , but in effect too . Starstruck feels like a mental crack-up in motion ; it ’s a pounding brain that ca n’t keep its focus as it coil deeper and deep into philosophic despair .
Despite how out there it is , Starstrucktells a down - to - earth story that ’s still mystify with me day after rolling credits . I can see myself in its insecure heroes , so desperate to be the center of the universe that they ’re left alone in the moth-eaten vacuum of quad . Maybe we take how marvellous it is to be a face in a crew here on this satellite for accord .
Starstruck : Hands of Timeis available now on PC .
