START AGAIN: a prologue (v1.7)

A compact fantasy adventure turns the familiar march toward a villain’s castle into a steadily more unnerving psychological spiral. You play Siffrin, a traveler who has already helped a small band of friends reach the King threatening their frozen country, only to die at the final confrontation and awaken back at the beginning. Every reset preserves Siffrin’s memories while erasing everyone else’s, giving even cheerful party banter and routine dungeon encounters a layer of dread. START AGAIN: a prologue balances playful character comedy with the loneliness of carrying an impossible secret alone.

The central loop has you guide the party through the castle, revisit rooms, face recurring enemies, and push toward another attempt at the King. Battles use an active-time framework rather than leisurely menu turns, so choosing attacks, guarding, and responding to the action order matters; a simple strength-and-weakness triangle rewards using the right tools against each opponent. Repetition is part of the design rather than filler, as familiarity with battles, routes, and conversations changes how you read the world alongside Siffrin. The campaign runs roughly three to five hours, making it a focused narrative RPG rather than a huge grind-heavy commitment, while key decisions shape several possible final-boss outcomes.

What stands out is how directly it treats the emotional cost of the time-loop premise: the party may be chatting about something ridiculous while Siffrin quietly unravels from reliving the same failures. Its pixel-art presentation and chiptune score keep the atmosphere approachable, but the writing gradually finds tension in details that initially seem harmless. Players who enjoy character-led indie RPGs such as Undertale, OneShot, or the more dialogue-heavy sides of classic JRPGs should find plenty to like, especially if they value mood and relationships over deep character-building systems. Newcomers can handle its readable combat, while veterans get the most from noticing how each repeat subtly reframes the journey.