Wait...

I don't have to replay the whole game, do I?

I can just play the 5 levels that have the stars and get them, and I'd still get the extra ending, correct?

Oh god, you're killing me here.

Does it send you back to the overworld with your progress intact? I didn't remember that. In that case if you got the missable overworld star you won't have to replay it.

As much as I liked the game, this was the one thing that irritated me the most. The story is purposefully vague as heck, and the developer is pretentious about the whole thing.

+1billion
You did. :D

Got all of them. That feeling of "Yes! Finally!" was worth it, especially in case of 4-7. The ending itself, not so much.

So I do have a question, (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) - any post after this one might contain spoilers. You have been warned.














...after getting all the stars, I discovered extra hidden text in epilogue, and ended up finding all the hidden text on every screen. However, I'm not sure if this text wasn't there even before the stars. So is the extra text what you get for getting the stars, or was that there from the beginning, and the only extra thing the stars give you is the "constellation" picture. Or have I missed something else altogether.

You can spoil me now.

Well, those levers in the final level became unaffected by time manipulation allowing you to finally reach the princess. Then she blew up. And the text at the end says the Oppenheimer quote: "I have become death, the destroyer of worlds". So the princess was a metaphor for the atom bomb, and Tim, the main character, was supposed to be a scientist in the Manhattan project, I guess.

I told you it wasn't worth it.

Ah, that... I did that to collect the last star.

Where does that text appear? Don't think I saw it.

Also, there was a footnote (1) towards one of the later texts. And a later text that says something like "Now we're all sons of bitches." Is that from the Manhattan project too?

Yes.