Game

START AGAIN: a prologue

2021

0Score

Low Cash-Grab Risk

The sourced concerns are substantially offset by delivered value.

What counts as a cash grab?

Commercial extraction prioritized over meaningful consumer or creative value. Profit, popularity, adaptations, sequels, remakes, high budgets, and normal marketing do not count by themselves.

Why?

START AGAIN: a prologue is an indie PC story driven turn based RPG by insertdisc5 released August 18, 2021, distributed on itch.io and Steam where the store page lists a $10.99 base price (often discounted) and an estimated playtime of three to five hours. The developer describes the project as a prototype that was later expanded into the full release In Stars and Time. Official storefront pages show optional artbook and soundtrack DLC. Public developer posts and many player reviews document ongoing updates and active support.

Official storefronts list a standard upfront price and optional artbook/soundtrack DLC, there is no storefront evidence of microtransactions.
Steam shows a $10.99 regular price and an estimated 3-5 hour playtime, which is a concrete price and length disclosure.
The developer describes the title as a prototype and later expanded it into the full game In Stars and Time, indicating genuine iterative development.

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High user ratings and multiple postrelease updates are documented on the store and itch.io, which indicate active support and substantive craft.

Score factors

Direction	Factor	Evidence	Impact
Against	Strong user reception and postrelease updates	Steam shows overwhelmingly positive user reviews and the itch.io devlog and comments record multiple updates including a v1.6 release, indicating active maintenance and community engagement.[1][2][3]	-16
Against	Prototype later expanded into a full game	The developer describes START AGAIN: a prologue as a prototype and documents using it as the foundation for the later full game In Stars and Time.[4][6][5]	-15
Against	No predatory monetization on storefront	Steam and the game's itch.io page list a one-time purchase and optional artbook/soundtrack items, there is no evidence of live microtransactions or subscriptions on official listings.[1]	-12
For	Price and estimated playtime disclosed	The Steam store page shows a regular price of $10.99 (often discounted) and lists an estimated playtime of approximately three to five hours.[1]	+12
Against	Artbook and soundtrack DLC present	Store and database records list an artbook DLC and soundtrack sold alongside the game, and the game appears in bundles with the later full title, which are documented on Steam and SteamDB.[1][7]	-6

Confidence: High · Official storefront listings, developer devlogs, and public release records provide direct evidence about price, playtime, prototype status, and postrelease support, the main gap is internal sales/revenue data and developer intent which are not publicly disclosed. · Researched 2026-08-28

Sources reviewed

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