Another game I vowed to finish this year... But at what cost?
Transistor is SuperGiant's second game after their smash hit Bastion. I was a big fan of Bastion. I even have the soundtrack on CD signed by composer Darren Korb.
Overall, this game is a mixed bag. Everything is here to make this game great. A fantastic soundtrack, a great art style and intriguing combat and while all these parts are great on their own, they never really mesh well together.
There are a few factors that bog down the whole experience:
1. Linearity
The game is basically one giant hallway from beginning until the end. Linearity in video games isn't a bad thing, some of my favorite games are very linear.
However, it becomes a problem because of the next problem which is: repetitiveness
2. Repetitiveness
The game has a great combat system but it isn't enough when all of the encounters are the same and there aren't enough incentives to experiment with your playstyle.
The game consists of battles which you fight in peculiar manner. You can equip up to four "functions" which can deal damage to an enemy, heal or buff you or give you some other type of advantage like dashing. You can combine these functions with other functions for added benefits. Battles play out very fast and frenetic. To give the player some breathing room, you can stop time and plan your next moves which your character, Red, will execute immediately. All of this plays very well and it's cathartic to employ an approach that can decimate your foes. After every battle you will gain experience points, you will level up and more aspects of your kit will open up. You can gain more functions, you can earn more space to equip said functions etcetera. All of this sounds very good on paper because it's a tried and true reward system. Many successful RPG's employ this system to great success. The problem is that you're going to use the same tactic over and over again because the game doesn't do enough to encourage the player to experiment with different abilities. If you want to get the most out of the story, you're forced to use the ones you don't even like. In the interest of not spoiling the game if you want to play it for yourself, let's say that this is an element of the game's story.
The encounters are almost always the same, you will fight the same enemies over and over again and it gets very boring after a while. Even though the combat is great as I've described, it is not enough to save it from the arduous repetition.
And for the story, I honestly believe they dropped the ball very hard with this.
While the premise is intriguing, you are a singer and you have lost your voice. You find a talking sword (frankly the thing never shuts up), the whole city of Cloudbank goes to hell and back and the whole thing is orchestrated by the "Camerata", a sinister cabal of slick looking high ranking officials. There are a lot of different story beats, each interesting on their own, like a system of democracy which you can use to choose which weather you can have or how the city has an ever changing landscape. But again, there's a lack of a cohesive feel and a lot of things are mentioned once and are then never mentioned again. So the story is dependent on a few characters. There's Red, the main character who can't talk but can nonetheless communicate non-verbally with all the different artwork the game provides. There's the talking sword you're carrying, the titular Transistor who can talk and would be much more appreciated if the thing could shut up once in a while. The Transistor has to have a say about everything.
Every. Tiny. Inconsequential. Thing. Sometimes there's no room for a scene just to breathe before the Transistor comes in but another unwanted remark.
A great story comes with a great villain. In this case, there are four and they are not very exciting. They get a great build up, they are being purposely kept in the dark and their character designs are stunning. But ultimately, not much is done with them. They don't get fleshed out properly and one of them doesn't even get any spoken dialogue.
In the end I didn't want to write an overly negative and critical review of Transistor but as discussed previously, the game has certain aspects that bog down the entire experience. I still love the artstyle and the soundtrack is amazing, very imaginative and eclectic, Darren Korb never dissapoints. Somewhere I'm glad I've finally finished it after so many years just to get it out of the backlog. However, I judge a game on a certain merit and that is: "Do I want to play this again in the future" and the answer is 'no'. I replay games frequently to get the most out of them. I do the same with movies, just in case I missed something crucial to the experience. But with Transistor, I think one playthrough is enough.
Transistor is SuperGiant's second game after their smash hit Bastion. I was a big fan of Bastion. I even have the soundtrack on CD signed by composer Darren Korb.
Overall, this game is a mixed bag. Everything is here to make this game great. A fantastic soundtrack, a great art style and intriguing combat and while all these parts are great on their own, they never really mesh well together.
There are a few factors that bog down the whole experience:
1. Linearity
The game is basically one giant hallway from beginning until the end. Linearity in video games isn't a bad thing, some of my favorite games are very linear.
However, it becomes a problem because of the next problem which is: repetitiveness
2. Repetitiveness
The game has a great combat system but it isn't enough when all of the encounters are the same and there aren't enough incentives to experiment with your playstyle.
The game consists of battles which you fight in peculiar manner. You can equip up to four "functions" which can deal damage to an enemy, heal or buff you or give you some other type of advantage like dashing. You can combine these functions with other functions for added benefits. Battles play out very fast and frenetic. To give the player some breathing room, you can stop time and plan your next moves which your character, Red, will execute immediately. All of this plays very well and it's cathartic to employ an approach that can decimate your foes. After every battle you will gain experience points, you will level up and more aspects of your kit will open up. You can gain more functions, you can earn more space to equip said functions etcetera. All of this sounds very good on paper because it's a tried and true reward system. Many successful RPG's employ this system to great success. The problem is that you're going to use the same tactic over and over again because the game doesn't do enough to encourage the player to experiment with different abilities. If you want to get the most out of the story, you're forced to use the ones you don't even like. In the interest of not spoiling the game if you want to play it for yourself, let's say that this is an element of the game's story.
The encounters are almost always the same, you will fight the same enemies over and over again and it gets very boring after a while. Even though the combat is great as I've described, it is not enough to save it from the arduous repetition.
And for the story, I honestly believe they dropped the ball very hard with this.
While the premise is intriguing, you are a singer and you have lost your voice. You find a talking sword (frankly the thing never shuts up), the whole city of Cloudbank goes to hell and back and the whole thing is orchestrated by the "Camerata", a sinister cabal of slick looking high ranking officials. There are a lot of different story beats, each interesting on their own, like a system of democracy which you can use to choose which weather you can have or how the city has an ever changing landscape. But again, there's a lack of a cohesive feel and a lot of things are mentioned once and are then never mentioned again. So the story is dependent on a few characters. There's Red, the main character who can't talk but can nonetheless communicate non-verbally with all the different artwork the game provides. There's the talking sword you're carrying, the titular Transistor who can talk and would be much more appreciated if the thing could shut up once in a while. The Transistor has to have a say about everything.
Every. Tiny. Inconsequential. Thing. Sometimes there's no room for a scene just to breathe before the Transistor comes in but another unwanted remark.
A great story comes with a great villain. In this case, there are four and they are not very exciting. They get a great build up, they are being purposely kept in the dark and their character designs are stunning. But ultimately, not much is done with them. They don't get fleshed out properly and one of them doesn't even get any spoken dialogue.
In the end I didn't want to write an overly negative and critical review of Transistor but as discussed previously, the game has certain aspects that bog down the entire experience. I still love the artstyle and the soundtrack is amazing, very imaginative and eclectic, Darren Korb never dissapoints. Somewhere I'm glad I've finally finished it after so many years just to get it out of the backlog. However, I judge a game on a certain merit and that is: "Do I want to play this again in the future" and the answer is 'no'. I replay games frequently to get the most out of them. I do the same with movies, just in case I missed something crucial to the experience. But with Transistor, I think one playthrough is enough.
It's like they mashed up a bunch of components designed to make me go wild but then forgot to cook it
Transistor was quite an undercooked experience to me. I loved the stunning visuals and the serene soundtrack, but the story lacked depth and the gameplay wasn’t engaging enough.
What was this game trying to say? It promised a lot, but it couldn’t live up to it since mid-game.
I still had my fun with this game and only had to pay four bucks, so that was a steal anyway.
What was this game trying to say? It promised a lot, but it couldn’t live up to it since mid-game.
I still had my fun with this game and only had to pay four bucks, so that was a steal anyway.
Um mundo atípico em um romance igualmente atípico para um jogo completamente atípico. Original, marcante, envolvente e muito sensível. Desde sua mecânica de turnos em tempo real até sua trama e personagens envolventes, Super Giant e Amir nos entregam mais um contexto apocalíptico. Novamente vemos nossa realidade ser tomada por um tipo de praga, mas diferente de Bastion, esta é uma história de Romance.
E que belo romance. Aqui já vemos a sutileza com que a Super Giant desenvolve seus personagens, um carisma que cresce à medida que você joga e, ao final das 4 horinhas, nos apegamos muito a uma cantora sem voz e seu cavaleiro sem corpo.
O mais incrível neste jogo é sua metalinguagem sutil, que me fez sentir parte da aventura. Ver a realidade do jogo se deteriorando é entender que no fim de tudo, talvez não haja escapatória da realidade que eles estão vivendo. A luta então é encontrar essa alternativa, essa solução, mas o jogo e os personagens entendendo sua realidade, tomam suas decisões finais, o que é um belo desfecho romântico para um casal lindo. Me fez nunca mais querer abrir esse jogo, não quero que passem por tudo de novo.
Transistor é paixão em um mundo apocalíptico, traduzindo-se em um combate envolvente e um mundo incrível, visto por pequenas janelas que nos fazem pensar "o que há além?" Felizmente, o pouco que eu vi do além foi uma imagem final que me deixou, para além da curiosidade, lágrimas nos olhos.
Excelente.
E que belo romance. Aqui já vemos a sutileza com que a Super Giant desenvolve seus personagens, um carisma que cresce à medida que você joga e, ao final das 4 horinhas, nos apegamos muito a uma cantora sem voz e seu cavaleiro sem corpo.
O mais incrível neste jogo é sua metalinguagem sutil, que me fez sentir parte da aventura. Ver a realidade do jogo se deteriorando é entender que no fim de tudo, talvez não haja escapatória da realidade que eles estão vivendo. A luta então é encontrar essa alternativa, essa solução, mas o jogo e os personagens entendendo sua realidade, tomam suas decisões finais, o que é um belo desfecho romântico para um casal lindo. Me fez nunca mais querer abrir esse jogo, não quero que passem por tudo de novo.
Transistor é paixão em um mundo apocalíptico, traduzindo-se em um combate envolvente e um mundo incrível, visto por pequenas janelas que nos fazem pensar "o que há além?" Felizmente, o pouco que eu vi do além foi uma imagem final que me deixou, para além da curiosidade, lágrimas nos olhos.
Excelente.
Un ensayo acerca de la importancia de lo lejos que estamos dispuestos a llegar por un ser querido y de lo malvada que es la programación
An absolute masterpiece. I listen to the soundtrack to this day still. One of my favourites of all time.
Loved this game so much that I played it twice to get my first ever PlayStation Platinum trophy. This is the game that made me a SuperGiant fan and is my second favorite game in their catalog behind Hades. I loved everything about this game from the music and art style that create the vibe, to the gameplay and story that deliver on it.
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 8 years ago:
Disclaimer: These are my brief thoughts based on my memory of playing this 8 years ago:
Thematically, Transistor had no right serving these perfect swings. From Gameplay to setting to style, it's conscious and masterful. It goes in the "must play" cabinet.
I went in blind not even knowing what genre it is, just the name and how it's acclaimed, and i'm grateful for it. I didn't fathom this experience coming from a tactical game, as i'm not the biggest fan of it. Although this mix of real/stop time loop accompanied by the vast number of combination keeps it fresh, and having this switching manner as a way of serving more of the world is brilliant.
If you feel it getting easier, you have limiters that buff enemies in various ways and in return increases your XP gains, allowing you to receive new skills and upgrades, and thus more writing.
I could go on for hours about the writing, the themes included and how tactful they were handled in Transistor. Art direction that accentuates familiarity and alienation simultaneously, and a lovely soundtrack not to forget.
I went in blind not even knowing what genre it is, just the name and how it's acclaimed, and i'm grateful for it. I didn't fathom this experience coming from a tactical game, as i'm not the biggest fan of it. Although this mix of real/stop time loop accompanied by the vast number of combination keeps it fresh, and having this switching manner as a way of serving more of the world is brilliant.
If you feel it getting easier, you have limiters that buff enemies in various ways and in return increases your XP gains, allowing you to receive new skills and upgrades, and thus more writing.
I could go on for hours about the writing, the themes included and how tactful they were handled in Transistor. Art direction that accentuates familiarity and alienation simultaneously, and a lovely soundtrack not to forget.
Transistor is a interesting one, in one hand you have the combat that becomes repetitive and has it's problems, the confusing world building story and the lack of a more cohesive game overall.
However, it shines on the pillars of what would eventually become supergiant games blueprint, a gorgeous looking world, amazing musical set pieces and two very odd but interesting protagonists. Even though it's not all made of rights, transistors stands tall as a important mark on supergiant trajectory.
However, it shines on the pillars of what would eventually become supergiant games blueprint, a gorgeous looking world, amazing musical set pieces and two very odd but interesting protagonists. Even though it's not all made of rights, transistors stands tall as a important mark on supergiant trajectory.
I am so saddened about this one. I couldn't finish it. The primary culprit was the combat system, which I just did not enjoy. I tried to power through it and gave it a few good hours, but it didn't get any better.
The combat system was slow, awkward, and didn't flow very well. The primary stopping-of-time system was a neat idea, but every time you used it you were punished by not being able to attack for a few seconds (which is a long time in a game that wants to be fast paced) and it didn't sit well with me that the defining system in the game punished you for using it. Mixing the abilities to alter what they do was kinda cool, I guess, but they all felt incredibly underpowered so I found myself just spamming the same attack over and over to kill enemies optimally and that just wasn't fun.
It wasn't completely without merit, though. As always with SueprGiant games, Darren Korb delivered a fantastic score with a few tracks I will be saving down. It also had appealing visuals throughout, another thing SuperGiant excels at. The story had some intrigue, but my god the Transistors voice was so dry it was putting me to sleep and he never shut up. Like literally he felt the need to comment on every little thing I was doing. The narrator in Bastion was much better.
Ahh well. I'm still glad I gave it a shot. This doesn't make me lose any respect for SuperGiant and I'm still excited to give Pyre a shot.
The combat system was slow, awkward, and didn't flow very well. The primary stopping-of-time system was a neat idea, but every time you used it you were punished by not being able to attack for a few seconds (which is a long time in a game that wants to be fast paced) and it didn't sit well with me that the defining system in the game punished you for using it. Mixing the abilities to alter what they do was kinda cool, I guess, but they all felt incredibly underpowered so I found myself just spamming the same attack over and over to kill enemies optimally and that just wasn't fun.
It wasn't completely without merit, though. As always with SueprGiant games, Darren Korb delivered a fantastic score with a few tracks I will be saving down. It also had appealing visuals throughout, another thing SuperGiant excels at. The story had some intrigue, but my god the Transistors voice was so dry it was putting me to sleep and he never shut up. Like literally he felt the need to comment on every little thing I was doing. The narrator in Bastion was much better.
Ahh well. I'm still glad I gave it a shot. This doesn't make me lose any respect for SuperGiant and I'm still excited to give Pyre a shot.
One of the games of all time.
I bought Transistor to see what all the hype was about amongst my circle of pals and general internet at large. After greatly enjoying Hades, a game in a genre I'm generally uninterested in, and not enjoying Bastion, I didn't know exactly how I'd wind up with Transistor.
There are things I like about Supergiant that they seem to knock out of the park each time: the music (thanks Darren Korb) and an isolated experience with an incredible art team supporting what's going on the screen.
What I don't like about Supergiant is after continuing to play their games is just about everything else within them. Hades, Bastion, and now Transistor have left me wanting a lot more in the combat of their titles. Transistor relies on intricate comboing of powers within a melding of real-time and turn based action, giving the player in theory agency as to how to set up engagements and take out the field in front of them. Where Transistor went wrong for me was exactly where Bastion also went wrong, a recycled and generally monotonous field of enemies that were barely improved or made more difficult throughout the game. This in addition to me discovering (through a direct recommendation) an "optimal" power combo made it so I could perma-stun entire fields of enemies and simply hold down the attack button to win. I wasn't struggling per se beforehand, but fights were taking a little longer than they should have... but why wouldn't I just look for the strongest combo and use that? I feel like this an intrinsic issue with the game, the way the combat is structured is that its more or less made to be broken, and the fighting in Supergiant games is already basic enough that this doesn't really do much for me.
There were several other elements of the loadouts and combat that I didn't like. The first being that you lose one power set temporarily when you die, having to come across checkpoints to grant you these back. I just... kinda hate this? It felt like an even worse take on the Fromsoft punishment formula, why am I being penalized even further for losing than having to retry a zone, why are you reducing my firepower as well? Secondly, I felt like Transistor does a generally poor job explaining literally anything in regards to mechanics or combo ability.
Outside of the fighting, I felt like the narrative was remarkably difficult to buy in to or give really any care about. The game stars a pair of lovers in peril, a woman named Red in love with a sword who apparently used to be her betrothed? I played this game for a live studio audience and had to ask a lot of questions for that to make sense. I don't know, and maybe its a general problem with how I consume media, but it's extremely hard for me to feel sorrow or buy in to the romantic plight of characters who I've barely known or were present before the events of the story took place. Why should I feel bad for these characters of whom I have never seen demonstrate love? Why should I demonstrate pity for a sword who was once a man that I've never met and never will meet outside of vaguely narrating the plot of the game? Sword-kun simply did not strike me as an empathetic entity within the game and I feel like the runtime and cold open played a significant part in that. I even got to the final boss and kept asking questions about the narrative would go, not knowing that the game had abruptly ended and I was viewing the credits.
There were simply no moments within Transistor in which I wanted to care about Transistor, which is as much of an indictment upon a title that I can give. Perhaps its me being spoiled by narrative driven games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Nier: Replicant in which the long party exposition sort of forces the player to care about those around them, but Transistor had none of that. I had no reason to care about the characters, no reason to care about the world, no nothing. Between this, combat that left a plethora of things to be desired, and my least favorite Darren Korb composition to date, I can't recommend Transistor to anyone.
I bought Transistor to see what all the hype was about amongst my circle of pals and general internet at large. After greatly enjoying Hades, a game in a genre I'm generally uninterested in, and not enjoying Bastion, I didn't know exactly how I'd wind up with Transistor.
There are things I like about Supergiant that they seem to knock out of the park each time: the music (thanks Darren Korb) and an isolated experience with an incredible art team supporting what's going on the screen.
What I don't like about Supergiant is after continuing to play their games is just about everything else within them. Hades, Bastion, and now Transistor have left me wanting a lot more in the combat of their titles. Transistor relies on intricate comboing of powers within a melding of real-time and turn based action, giving the player in theory agency as to how to set up engagements and take out the field in front of them. Where Transistor went wrong for me was exactly where Bastion also went wrong, a recycled and generally monotonous field of enemies that were barely improved or made more difficult throughout the game. This in addition to me discovering (through a direct recommendation) an "optimal" power combo made it so I could perma-stun entire fields of enemies and simply hold down the attack button to win. I wasn't struggling per se beforehand, but fights were taking a little longer than they should have... but why wouldn't I just look for the strongest combo and use that? I feel like this an intrinsic issue with the game, the way the combat is structured is that its more or less made to be broken, and the fighting in Supergiant games is already basic enough that this doesn't really do much for me.
There were several other elements of the loadouts and combat that I didn't like. The first being that you lose one power set temporarily when you die, having to come across checkpoints to grant you these back. I just... kinda hate this? It felt like an even worse take on the Fromsoft punishment formula, why am I being penalized even further for losing than having to retry a zone, why are you reducing my firepower as well? Secondly, I felt like Transistor does a generally poor job explaining literally anything in regards to mechanics or combo ability.
Outside of the fighting, I felt like the narrative was remarkably difficult to buy in to or give really any care about. The game stars a pair of lovers in peril, a woman named Red in love with a sword who apparently used to be her betrothed? I played this game for a live studio audience and had to ask a lot of questions for that to make sense. I don't know, and maybe its a general problem with how I consume media, but it's extremely hard for me to feel sorrow or buy in to the romantic plight of characters who I've barely known or were present before the events of the story took place. Why should I feel bad for these characters of whom I have never seen demonstrate love? Why should I demonstrate pity for a sword who was once a man that I've never met and never will meet outside of vaguely narrating the plot of the game? Sword-kun simply did not strike me as an empathetic entity within the game and I feel like the runtime and cold open played a significant part in that. I even got to the final boss and kept asking questions about the narrative would go, not knowing that the game had abruptly ended and I was viewing the credits.
There were simply no moments within Transistor in which I wanted to care about Transistor, which is as much of an indictment upon a title that I can give. Perhaps its me being spoiled by narrative driven games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Nier: Replicant in which the long party exposition sort of forces the player to care about those around them, but Transistor had none of that. I had no reason to care about the characters, no reason to care about the world, no nothing. Between this, combat that left a plethora of things to be desired, and my least favorite Darren Korb composition to date, I can't recommend Transistor to anyone.
Perhaps the game is not so good in technical terms, however, it is unique due to the feelings and emotions that you experience while playing. Excellent visual style of the game, awesome soundtrack.
Actually beautiful. The gameplay is good enough, sure, but the story of Red and her blade-bound bae wrapped up in line-y cyper-punk noir hell and fantastic vocals isn't enough to pluck your heartstrings even a little, you might need to consult a doctor.
Transistor was a game that I don’t think I really understood, to the point where I feel a little uncomfortable writing a review. I’m not entirely sure if it's a game I really want to understand either. I think you need to have a certain mindset to fully appreciate Transistor, which I just don’t have. It’s a short game with an extremely vague plot that’s mainly told through flavor text, and a combat system that on the surface doesn’t really seem much to write home about, but has the potential for a lot of depth.
Transistor is so short that I think it was meant to be played multiple times, so that you can unlock all of the flavor text and experiment with the abilities provided by the functions (which is what this games “spells” are referred to as). It has what I feel are the basic building blocks of a rougelite game in terms of its mechanics, but I’m not exactly motivated to play through the same levels and experience the same unchanging sequence of events again in order to fully appreciate all that the game has to offer, because it’s quite clear that you don’t get that on a single playthrough.
Playing this game only once left me feeling really confused and unsatisfied. Maybe playing the game again with the functions all unlocked in NG+ would allow me to appreciate its combat more, but during my playthrough, I felt like I was able to just slop my way to victory. I found a set of function combinations that worked well and I didn’t really deviate from them all too much. I did experiment a little bit with what I had, but when I found certain functions to not be particularly useful, I didn’t feel the urge to experiment with them much at all.
This likely impacted my impression of the story as well. I’ve never been the type to sit down and read extensive in-game lore entries, especially if they’re ones that I need to unlock. I think that’s a boring way to tell a story in a video game, but to understand what’s going on in Transistor’s story, it’s essentially a requirement. I think it’s up to the individual whether or not that’s a good thing, but for me, it’s just not my cup of tea.
I just don’t think that Transistor is the type of game that appeals to my ADHD ass, and I don’t know if I can really say whether or not it’s good or bad as a result. As far as my single playthrough is concerned, I found it to be rushed, confusing, and unsatisfying. Maybe investing time into another playthrough might change my opinion of it, but I can’t really say that I’m motivated to do so.
Transistor is so short that I think it was meant to be played multiple times, so that you can unlock all of the flavor text and experiment with the abilities provided by the functions (which is what this games “spells” are referred to as). It has what I feel are the basic building blocks of a rougelite game in terms of its mechanics, but I’m not exactly motivated to play through the same levels and experience the same unchanging sequence of events again in order to fully appreciate all that the game has to offer, because it’s quite clear that you don’t get that on a single playthrough.
Playing this game only once left me feeling really confused and unsatisfied. Maybe playing the game again with the functions all unlocked in NG+ would allow me to appreciate its combat more, but during my playthrough, I felt like I was able to just slop my way to victory. I found a set of function combinations that worked well and I didn’t really deviate from them all too much. I did experiment a little bit with what I had, but when I found certain functions to not be particularly useful, I didn’t feel the urge to experiment with them much at all.
This likely impacted my impression of the story as well. I’ve never been the type to sit down and read extensive in-game lore entries, especially if they’re ones that I need to unlock. I think that’s a boring way to tell a story in a video game, but to understand what’s going on in Transistor’s story, it’s essentially a requirement. I think it’s up to the individual whether or not that’s a good thing, but for me, it’s just not my cup of tea.
I just don’t think that Transistor is the type of game that appeals to my ADHD ass, and I don’t know if I can really say whether or not it’s good or bad as a result. As far as my single playthrough is concerned, I found it to be rushed, confusing, and unsatisfying. Maybe investing time into another playthrough might change my opinion of it, but I can’t really say that I’m motivated to do so.
I’m a big fan of SuperGiant Games and this is the title that got me hooked. Very fun combat mechanics, interesting story with excellent characters. It’s the perfect length and plays terrific on Switch.
She got a sword, and over a long period of time loved that sword. She became attached to that sword like no other sword ever. Then when she loved that sword most it got a massive tumor and she cried and then banged herself.
That voice. That hushed, clipped, cloying voice. Every phrase so full of import and adolescent conspiracy. I thought we were adults here.
There’s no escaping him. He talks over the music, dominates the game. Icky execution aside, how is a voiceless woman with a sword-lover who will not shut up a good idea? Why even care about the gorgeous (but samey) art and modular (but samey) combat when the narrator won’t let you get a reaction in edgewise? When he spoils the mood with his constant swordsplaining?
I appreciate that Supergiant wants to experiment with narration. But sometimes experiments fail.
There’s no escaping him. He talks over the music, dominates the game. Icky execution aside, how is a voiceless woman with a sword-lover who will not shut up a good idea? Why even care about the gorgeous (but samey) art and modular (but samey) combat when the narrator won’t let you get a reaction in edgewise? When he spoils the mood with his constant swordsplaining?
I appreciate that Supergiant wants to experiment with narration. But sometimes experiments fail.
This review contains spoilers
Let's get the big positives out of the way first: Speaking on a visual and audio level, Transistor is amazing. The game features stunningly beautiful backgrounds that give the city setting impressive life merely from appearance. There's lots of little touches that look quite nice in the game, like the sparks as Red drags the Transistor around for example. This is combined with some very nice 2-D portraits and art with a distinctive and strong style, all of which is what drew me to have a lot of interest in this game!
On top of that this game has a beautiful soundtrack that is entirely worth jamming to even without the game, with Ashley Lynn Barrett providing some great vocals on certain tracks (including my favorite in the game, "Paper Boats"), in addition to some great instrumental tunes. For the instrumentals, I am particularly partial to the final boss theme "Impossible" which is a pretty funky techno-beat that kinda makes me think of a very modernized style of Mother 3 songs. It is well worth more than just one listen!
But once we get past the spiffy visuals and into the meat of the game, that's where it began to lose me. The combat system is actually really cool: All of your moves are "Functions" and therefor can be put into your 3 slots (Active, Upgrade and Passive) in any combination. This offers a lot of uses and combinations, which can be pretty fun to tinker around with. On top of that, you have access to the ability "Turn()" which lets you stop time to move and plan before performing hyper-accelerated options. All-in-all, the base customization and combat has good potential. But the game suffers from very easy difficulty: Turn + Crash + Spark, which are all abilities you will start with or get early, can slaughter the entire game without much hassle and so hurts your desire to customize because you can run through the game so easily that trying weird combos doesn't feel rewarding. From what I know, the combo I primarily used isn't even that strong. You're going to be slaughtering a lot of the game regardless of what you pick if you just abuse the basic mechanics, with the possible exceptions of the challenge rooms that force you into using very specific abilities (usually because they are intentionally abilities not meant to be well put together).
I only died twice in the entire game and neither were because of my opponents killing me outright, but because I only had two attacking moves on the final boss without thinking and so when I lost my first health bar (you have 4 health bars and each time you lose 1, 1 of your Functions overloads: The one with the most stuff on it specifically) I didn't have enough damage to finish them off. I simply made an ability I never even used that would overload first and won casually. Even aside from game overs there were only a few times the entire game I lost even one of my four health bars, I wasn't even being particularly challenged. It was hardly the worst combat system for this, but I didn't find myself particularly engaged outside of the challenge rooms and to an extent the final boss. My brief foray into Recursion didn't make the game particularly tougher or style changing, nor did the fact I had multiple Limiters on by the end.
But the story and character aspects were the main areas of major disappointment to me, in part because Transistor just has a pretty cool setup with this sprawling city of creative stifling, a constantly changing landscape and world due to widespread direct democracy (hard to get more direct than the very first OVC terminal giving you a 51/49 result on the weather while your sword-boyfriend complains there were only two options), with mysterious disappearances due to the Camerata, a mysterious group of four people who believe the constantly changing state of the city is terrible and seek to change it. Sounds really cool, right? Congratulations, that's all of what the game has to offer there!
Yeah that's my biggest issue, the game has a great setup but ultimately shoves it aside because the events of the game are not only essentially in the middle of the apocalypse, but also shove you specifically away from situations that could give much interesting insight, with the exception of Royce from the Camerata (who is still sadly too brief). The Camerata all have these really slick designs and could have a lot to them, but for example Grant (their leader) never gets any dialogue at all and just some light hints from other characters, Sybil (who is really great design-wise) basically just ends up in the psycho lesbian archetype without any other real personality traits. The backdrop of this lush city setting with its own unique culture, a governance we get some privy too, and all of that falls to the wayside extremely quickly in the game and basically just serves as window dressing. Quite frankly I was far more interested in all the stuff the game didn't let me see or wasn't interested in exploring than the main plot, which is rather thin. And while I do appreciate the gay / bi representation here...it amounts to a character whose entire status is basically being a crazy, lovestruck lesbian and tragic suiciding gays, I can't say I'm a big fan. Especially since there was a lot of interest in "city that stifles individual expression and seems to stress conformity vs. group made up 3/4ths of LGBT people seeking to oppose it".
It primarily ends up being a character focus on Red and her stuck-in-the-Transistor boyfriend Mr. Nobody, but this does lead to a somewhat awkward bit of story pacing where because Red is mute (something I wish the game explored more: I really feel like this game wanted a prologue or segments in the city before it all goes to shit!), Mr. Nobody serves as the primary vehicle for Red's character or ultimately makes it about him, which feels kinda odd to me? Red gets some pretty obvious stuff, I mean she's a singer who's been made mute and the world is going to hell around her the depression isn't hidden, but it ultimately comes across as rather surface level and largely brought up some by some stuff like the music...but that wasn't enough to elevate it THAT strongly, it is no Metal Gear Rising in terms of music adding to the story (largely because the story isn't strong enough to hold the music up rather than the other way around).
There's just a lot of interesting stuff that the game doesn't seem interested in, and it makes me sad. Royce ends up being the stand out character, with his amazing voice acting work by Sunkrish Bala being a big factor. I really want to see some more characters with this style of voicing. He probably has the most developed character in the game, he definitely has the best fight in the game, I really wish we got to see more than like 20 minutes of him in total or that the rest of the Camerata actually got something close to just letting him...talk and have dialogue or any form of insight with him (as with the Limiters' dialogue or reading his terminals). The characters you can learn about via the Functions are neat, but 80% of their stories boil down to the exact same format (they're an exceptional individual, they Do a Thing, it causes them to meet the Camerata and be killed) which makes them a bit...predictable and eh.
Overall, Transistor is a game with a vivid and lush feel, look and sound, but it lacks an equally vivid story that drags it down, and an interesting gameplay basis ended up being a more mediocre experience to me due to not really playing into the customization enough. It's worth a try if you're enamored with some part of the game (visual, audio or otherwise), particularly when it is on sale from its 19.99 price, but I would temper expectations when heading into it. For me, it was an average game I enjoyed slightly but which left me feeling disappointed at the end.
On top of that this game has a beautiful soundtrack that is entirely worth jamming to even without the game, with Ashley Lynn Barrett providing some great vocals on certain tracks (including my favorite in the game, "Paper Boats"), in addition to some great instrumental tunes. For the instrumentals, I am particularly partial to the final boss theme "Impossible" which is a pretty funky techno-beat that kinda makes me think of a very modernized style of Mother 3 songs. It is well worth more than just one listen!
But once we get past the spiffy visuals and into the meat of the game, that's where it began to lose me. The combat system is actually really cool: All of your moves are "Functions" and therefor can be put into your 3 slots (Active, Upgrade and Passive) in any combination. This offers a lot of uses and combinations, which can be pretty fun to tinker around with. On top of that, you have access to the ability "Turn()" which lets you stop time to move and plan before performing hyper-accelerated options. All-in-all, the base customization and combat has good potential. But the game suffers from very easy difficulty: Turn + Crash + Spark, which are all abilities you will start with or get early, can slaughter the entire game without much hassle and so hurts your desire to customize because you can run through the game so easily that trying weird combos doesn't feel rewarding. From what I know, the combo I primarily used isn't even that strong. You're going to be slaughtering a lot of the game regardless of what you pick if you just abuse the basic mechanics, with the possible exceptions of the challenge rooms that force you into using very specific abilities (usually because they are intentionally abilities not meant to be well put together).
I only died twice in the entire game and neither were because of my opponents killing me outright, but because I only had two attacking moves on the final boss without thinking and so when I lost my first health bar (you have 4 health bars and each time you lose 1, 1 of your Functions overloads: The one with the most stuff on it specifically) I didn't have enough damage to finish them off. I simply made an ability I never even used that would overload first and won casually. Even aside from game overs there were only a few times the entire game I lost even one of my four health bars, I wasn't even being particularly challenged. It was hardly the worst combat system for this, but I didn't find myself particularly engaged outside of the challenge rooms and to an extent the final boss. My brief foray into Recursion didn't make the game particularly tougher or style changing, nor did the fact I had multiple Limiters on by the end.
But the story and character aspects were the main areas of major disappointment to me, in part because Transistor just has a pretty cool setup with this sprawling city of creative stifling, a constantly changing landscape and world due to widespread direct democracy (hard to get more direct than the very first OVC terminal giving you a 51/49 result on the weather while your sword-boyfriend complains there were only two options), with mysterious disappearances due to the Camerata, a mysterious group of four people who believe the constantly changing state of the city is terrible and seek to change it. Sounds really cool, right? Congratulations, that's all of what the game has to offer there!
Yeah that's my biggest issue, the game has a great setup but ultimately shoves it aside because the events of the game are not only essentially in the middle of the apocalypse, but also shove you specifically away from situations that could give much interesting insight, with the exception of Royce from the Camerata (who is still sadly too brief). The Camerata all have these really slick designs and could have a lot to them, but for example Grant (their leader) never gets any dialogue at all and just some light hints from other characters, Sybil (who is really great design-wise) basically just ends up in the psycho lesbian archetype without any other real personality traits. The backdrop of this lush city setting with its own unique culture, a governance we get some privy too, and all of that falls to the wayside extremely quickly in the game and basically just serves as window dressing. Quite frankly I was far more interested in all the stuff the game didn't let me see or wasn't interested in exploring than the main plot, which is rather thin. And while I do appreciate the gay / bi representation here...it amounts to a character whose entire status is basically being a crazy, lovestruck lesbian and tragic suiciding gays, I can't say I'm a big fan. Especially since there was a lot of interest in "city that stifles individual expression and seems to stress conformity vs. group made up 3/4ths of LGBT people seeking to oppose it".
It primarily ends up being a character focus on Red and her stuck-in-the-Transistor boyfriend Mr. Nobody, but this does lead to a somewhat awkward bit of story pacing where because Red is mute (something I wish the game explored more: I really feel like this game wanted a prologue or segments in the city before it all goes to shit!), Mr. Nobody serves as the primary vehicle for Red's character or ultimately makes it about him, which feels kinda odd to me? Red gets some pretty obvious stuff, I mean she's a singer who's been made mute and the world is going to hell around her the depression isn't hidden, but it ultimately comes across as rather surface level and largely brought up some by some stuff like the music...but that wasn't enough to elevate it THAT strongly, it is no Metal Gear Rising in terms of music adding to the story (largely because the story isn't strong enough to hold the music up rather than the other way around).
There's just a lot of interesting stuff that the game doesn't seem interested in, and it makes me sad. Royce ends up being the stand out character, with his amazing voice acting work by Sunkrish Bala being a big factor. I really want to see some more characters with this style of voicing. He probably has the most developed character in the game, he definitely has the best fight in the game, I really wish we got to see more than like 20 minutes of him in total or that the rest of the Camerata actually got something close to just letting him...talk and have dialogue or any form of insight with him (as with the Limiters' dialogue or reading his terminals). The characters you can learn about via the Functions are neat, but 80% of their stories boil down to the exact same format (they're an exceptional individual, they Do a Thing, it causes them to meet the Camerata and be killed) which makes them a bit...predictable and eh.
Overall, Transistor is a game with a vivid and lush feel, look and sound, but it lacks an equally vivid story that drags it down, and an interesting gameplay basis ended up being a more mediocre experience to me due to not really playing into the customization enough. It's worth a try if you're enamored with some part of the game (visual, audio or otherwise), particularly when it is on sale from its 19.99 price, but I would temper expectations when heading into it. For me, it was an average game I enjoyed slightly but which left me feeling disappointed at the end.
Transistor's combat system is kind of a treat, a strange blend of real-time and turn-based combat that derives a decent amount of tension from leaving you in control of when you jump from one to the other. This system isn't anything amazing, and dwindled in interest for me towards the end of the game's modest runtime, but it feels innovative and overall I had quite a bit of fun. I particularly like how your health is tied to your abilities this putting an ability out of commission for your next battle if you take too much damage, and in doing so organically forcing you to tinker with your ability set-up and experiment with new combinations.
The aesthetic here is fantastic, the game's style and vibe being low-key enchanting at times, but gosh I wish I liked the story more. As it is I just felt very detached through much of the narrative, which despite being a huge focal point of the game is often very cryptic as to what is actually going on. There are games where I enjoy this approach of obliquely hinting at the true nature of the game's world, where you can realistically finish the game without knowing all the details (think Hollow Knight, or Dark Souls), but these are not games that dedicate nearly as much time to talking as Transistor does.
The aesthetic here is fantastic, the game's style and vibe being low-key enchanting at times, but gosh I wish I liked the story more. As it is I just felt very detached through much of the narrative, which despite being a huge focal point of the game is often very cryptic as to what is actually going on. There are games where I enjoy this approach of obliquely hinting at the true nature of the game's world, where you can realistically finish the game without knowing all the details (think Hollow Knight, or Dark Souls), but these are not games that dedicate nearly as much time to talking as Transistor does.
i think more video games should have sword boyfriends and/or girlfriends.
One of my favourite games of all time. Everything is so well crafted, between the strange, almost cyberpunk semi-dystopia utopia of Cloudbank, the wonderful interactions between Red and the Transistor, and the most incredible video game soundtrack I have ever heard bar none. There are so many small details that serve to elevate this story and world to another level that I can only be appreciated on repeat playthroughs and the ending is just perfect. I like the combat a lot, but it isn't the highlight, and everything else overshadows it though it is still designed well and used in interesting ways, especially when you bump up the difficulty.
Transistor is home to the best video game soundtrack of all time.
Literally the only thing I didn't fully vibe with was the combat, despite how unique and cool it is. Otherwise Transistor is perfect: everything from its artstyle, music and storytelling comes together to create something truly outstanding.
Apesar de não ser a experiência perfeita que eu imaginei que teria com esse jogo (isso que dá ter muita expectativa pra jogar qualquer coisa), finalmente depois de muitos anos procrastinando terminei Transistor. Não tenho nem comentários pra descrever a trilha sonora espetacular e o combate que beira a perfeição. Esses dois fatores por si só já levam o jogo a um patamar bem acima da média, e mesmo se todo o resto fosse ruim e mal feito, ainda assim Transistor seria um excelente jogo porque a trilha sonora e o combate carregariam todo o resto.
Foi uma ideia genial a possibilidade de testar diferentes combinações de skills que você vai desbloqueando à medida em que progride e o modo "Turn()", que pausa o combate e te deixa planejar como utilizar as combinações de ataques que você definiu, é extremamente satisfatório. As composições musicais são, literalmente, de arrepiar. Além da própria jogabilidade em si, progredir no jogo escutando as faixas e músicas é uma experiência à parte. Junte tudo isso com gráficos, ambientação e estilos visuais encantadores e uma história que é muito instigante e motivadora pra seguir no jogo até a conclusão, embora, confesso, eu estivesse esperando bem mais dessa trama.
Infelizmente, a movimentação da personagem é um dos pontos que o jogo peca bastante, e se você tiver jogado Hades antes (pra mim, segue sendo o melhor jogo da Supergiant Games, GOTY fácil de 2020), você vai sentir muito essa diferença. As sessões de treinamento também são um porre, e chegou um certo ponto que eu nem entrei mais nas cabines de treinamento, mesmo que isso fosse me recompensar com mais XP pra desbloquear mais habilidades.
Em resumo, Transistor tem muito mais pontos positivos do que negativos, me deixou interessado em todo o tempo em que passei jogando (apesar de que ele é bem curtinho) e é o segundo melhor jogo da Supergiant pra mim. Mas eu não posso ser injusto com esse jogo e deixar de mencionar algo: por mais que tudo aqui tenha sido evoluído de maneira incrivelmente melhor em Hades, Transistor tem um charme e peculiaridade que o torna único e que vale muito a pena jogar, mesmo depois do seu sucessor estrondoso.
Foi uma ideia genial a possibilidade de testar diferentes combinações de skills que você vai desbloqueando à medida em que progride e o modo "Turn()", que pausa o combate e te deixa planejar como utilizar as combinações de ataques que você definiu, é extremamente satisfatório. As composições musicais são, literalmente, de arrepiar. Além da própria jogabilidade em si, progredir no jogo escutando as faixas e músicas é uma experiência à parte. Junte tudo isso com gráficos, ambientação e estilos visuais encantadores e uma história que é muito instigante e motivadora pra seguir no jogo até a conclusão, embora, confesso, eu estivesse esperando bem mais dessa trama.
Infelizmente, a movimentação da personagem é um dos pontos que o jogo peca bastante, e se você tiver jogado Hades antes (pra mim, segue sendo o melhor jogo da Supergiant Games, GOTY fácil de 2020), você vai sentir muito essa diferença. As sessões de treinamento também são um porre, e chegou um certo ponto que eu nem entrei mais nas cabines de treinamento, mesmo que isso fosse me recompensar com mais XP pra desbloquear mais habilidades.
Em resumo, Transistor tem muito mais pontos positivos do que negativos, me deixou interessado em todo o tempo em que passei jogando (apesar de que ele é bem curtinho) e é o segundo melhor jogo da Supergiant pra mim. Mas eu não posso ser injusto com esse jogo e deixar de mencionar algo: por mais que tudo aqui tenha sido evoluído de maneira incrivelmente melhor em Hades, Transistor tem um charme e peculiaridade que o torna único e que vale muito a pena jogar, mesmo depois do seu sucessor estrondoso.
About the truly oppressed: straight people.
Veredito: bonitasso e competente.
Gira em torno da relação entre uma cantora que perdeu a voz e o seu amante, cujo espírito habita a espada que você carrega o jogo inteiro, numa cidade distópica com conspirações políticas. O combate é excelente, a história é super bacana, e as músicas e direção visual são lindíssimas. Como eu poderia reclamar?
Jogos (e arte em geral) devem ser julgados não pelo que esperamos deles, mas pelo que são no fim das contas. E pela experiência que temos com isso que eles são.
Transistor é diferente do que eu esperava. Falavam que era um puta jogo fodão pra caralho, e achei que fosse ser algo de outro mundo, com uma história que me fizesse chorar horrores. Mas não. É só um RPG muito bem feito. E tudo bem.
Gira em torno da relação entre uma cantora que perdeu a voz e o seu amante, cujo espírito habita a espada que você carrega o jogo inteiro, numa cidade distópica com conspirações políticas. O combate é excelente, a história é super bacana, e as músicas e direção visual são lindíssimas. Como eu poderia reclamar?
Jogos (e arte em geral) devem ser julgados não pelo que esperamos deles, mas pelo que são no fim das contas. E pela experiência que temos com isso que eles são.
Transistor é diferente do que eu esperava. Falavam que era um puta jogo fodão pra caralho, e achei que fosse ser algo de outro mundo, com uma história que me fizesse chorar horrores. Mas não. É só um RPG muito bem feito. E tudo bem.
One of those games that I feel like I need to play again to fully grasp the story. Art and soundtrack are gorgeous.
Combat took quite a while to click for me, another reason to replay. Still not as good as Hades in my opinion, but the mood and themes place it above Bastion.
Also, Switch version has some performance issues near the endgame.
Combat took quite a while to click for me, another reason to replay. Still not as good as Hades in my opinion, but the mood and themes place it above Bastion.
Also, Switch version has some performance issues near the endgame.
Sir, its my emotional support artificial beach segment.
When I look into my soul, I have to admit that I liked the game even more than Bastion. I actually love the more tactical combat system, the music and the vibe of this cyberpunk world a little more than in its "predecessor". The story is also convincing. I have the feeling that this game is often overlooked when it comes to Supergiant and it doesn't deserve that, great game.
Transistor is the atmosphere and sound design queen.
I still listen to the OST every now and then. Masterful.
I still listen to the OST every now and then. Masterful.