Reviews from

in the past


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 querem 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.

“You doin’ the dishes bitch?”

Yes Supergiant Games

Aq foi o segundo passo para a maior obra prima q venho alguns anos depois pelo estúdio, só fiquei meio puto com o final mas n descarta tudo de bom no jogo
Edit: Depois de rejogar e compreender melhor a história o final tomou outra proporção, poético, melancólico/feliz? aí vai de cada um, porém n deixa de ser emocionante

I don’t really like it when games utilize a “pause” mechanic in the middle of combat. It seems very crucial to use at the right moments in this game. And death is quite punishing, with entire abilities being temporarily disabled each time. I really loved the presentation though! I’m going to shelve this one for now and maybe return to it once I’ve got the right mindset.

nearly all of Transistor's cool ideas are a double-edged sword, just like the thing itself


Transistor is a phenomenal experience in every aspect. As per usual, Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett create and sing some of my favorite songs ever. The soundtrack as a whole is stellar, I truly love the futuristic theme, and the vocal tracks are some of the best Supergiant has put out. From Paper Boats to Signals to the Spine, the soundtrack has great range and masterfully sets the tone. As for Narrative, Supergiant once again hits home with a well written and constructed narrative and is bold by having our main character be mute, but still keeps the player clued in with the Transistor as our narrator. As for gameplay, I personally enjoyed it, but I understand it's not for everyone. It served it's purpose, but overall had some aspects that were a bit iffy, but I think it worked well regardless. To close, I love this game dearly. Supergiant games was a large part of my childhood and introduction to PC gaming, and Transistor is no exception. I highly recommend it to any type of gamer.

This game has been sitting in my backlog for almost two years and after finally finishing it, I kind of regret not having played it earlier. Transistor boldly throws you into its story and lets you figure out its world yourself. While it is a fairly short and linear experience, it never feels like the game holds your hand. The art, atmosphere, and soundtrack are evocative and simply stunning at times. Despite Red being a silent protagonist, she feels like a real character. After all, there are two “game mechanics” that simply exists to characterise her and do not add to the game otherwise. While I can see that some may find such details unnecessary, I really enjoyed them. Furthermore, the voice actor of Transistor (Logan Cunningham) does an incredible job at bringing his character to life. His voice is so emotive that I hung on his every word.

The combat system, however, took me a while to getting used to. It’s turn-based, but not really. You as player can enter a planning mode in which you can queue up attacks and/or movement, which Red will execute rapidly after you tell her to. Afterwards, you are vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks for a short time. Especially in the beginning, selecting enemies and figuring out attack ranges felt fiddly and imprecise using a controller. I bet this plays so much better with a mouse and keyboard. Moreover, I wish the skills were a bit better explained. The game very much expects you to figure it out yourself and mix and match them to see what they do. Don’t get me wrong, that approach can be fun, but made me feel like I didn’t get the system at first. This was very much a learning-curve for me.

Also, this may be nit-picky, but the German translation of this game is lacking. Some descriptions of skills are confusingly worded, some subtitles of dialogue are just incorrect, and naming an enemy type “Doofi” (which is called Clucker in English for reference) took me out of the experience a little bit to be honest.

Overall, I enjoyed Transistor very much. At its core, it’s a love story in a sci-fi setting that explores how our choices influence the world around us. I love Supergiant’s way of telling a story through environment and gameplay as well as traditional means. I almost wish it would have been longer, but then, it probably wouldn’t have been as a great experience as it was for me.

A fairly cool melding of top down action and basic strategic gameplay, accompanied by a haunting soundtrack and beautiful art. Another Supergiant banger

Entre esto y Hades el actuado de voz me vuelve bisexual👍
El gameplay es divertido y el apartado visual se nota que se le ha puesto cariño.

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.

I love the dreamy aesthetic of Cloudbank, and the excellent soundtrack extends that feeling. The story is engaging and the characters are all interesting. I like how you are offered a lot of customization with your moveset. I didn't love the combat, the real-time/turn-based mix is interesting conceptually but just doesn't quite work here.

Um jogo extremamente elegante, com uma soundtrack absurda e história bem boa também.
Sinto que Transistor passa por muita gente despercebido, entretanto ele é um jogo que mexe com a emoção do jogador com suas lindas musicas.

I think it was pretty average for a Super Giant game

uma das melhores soundtracks que ja tive o prazer de ouvir

Game so good, had to buy the soundtrack 3 times with the vinyl so that the developers get more money.

Transistor is known more for its story than gameplay, but the gameplay is insanely addictive. The chip mechanic and time stop ability allow combat breathers, and the tune changing to a hum each time is one of the best soundtrack decisions I’ve ever heard.

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.

best game you should play it right now drop everything and go play it it will ruin you and it will be so beautiful

90% of my personality was forged by this piece of media and to this day i am still in awe at how much everything in it clicked with me

I liked it, I didn't love it. The combat was actually really fun and I loved the sort of turn-based feature that lies at the center of combat. While the game looks great too, I wasn't a fan of the writing; I didn't quite get it fully. I'm glad I played it, though! I could see this being super fun on replays, too!

This game was amazing, I can't believe I put it down 9 years ago and never finished it. I'm simply giving it a 4 based on my experience but I could definitely see this being a higher rating for others. Supergiant Games is always great at not only nailing gameplay but immersion and providing top tier audio tracks to go along with it.
My only knock was that the combat was a little strange for me when I first started playing it and when I came back to it the mechanics were hard to get a handle on. Mileage may vary on that part.

Maybe one day I'll play through it again start to finish without a 9 year gap to experience it as intended but I still had a very positive experience.

amazing art, soundtrack, and story, just wish it was longer tbh

I wanted to really like it, buuut idk the combat was pretty awkward. :( Cool aesthetic and ost tho.

Really beautiful game with great combat mechanic and artistic direction.

Oh, how I love the future-punk setting of this game. The little things that pull me right into Cloudbank. Red's singing, the combat, and the constant feeling of skirting despair. The sword is telling jokes, can't imagine that's a bad thing.

It's impossible to overstate how much I love this game. I played it when I was in a transitional period in life, where things were good but uncertain and suboptimal. The words of Mr Nobody struck deep. You can tell just how much he loves Red, and being the one to stand in Red's shoes for a bit, it was easy to love him back. I love a good tragedy, and the slow decline of Cloudbank is the perfect vibe for that.

A world you know and love is being torn down into nothing, and though you try to fight it, all your efforts amount to is a splash in the ocean. So you are forced to walk through it and watch, helplessly... I've always gravitated to tales like this.

Of course no review of Transistor would be complete without mentioning the audio. Sound design, perfect. Voicework, perfect. The music - my goodness, the music! This game takes part in my favourite trick among game OSTs: dynamic tracks. Every theme's percussion heightens when combat initiates, and then there's a dimmed version where Red's humming takes over for when you're using your Turn(). Of course, there's also a dedicated humming button, so that you can hear Red hum even outside of such dire circumstances. In addition to dynamic music, Transistor has several amazing vocal tracks featuring the gorgeous singing voice of Ashley Barrett. When I play this game I can't help but hum, or sing, along.

The last thing to mention would of course be the combat itself. It can get pretty deep if you're willing to look into it, and I like that more lore about the world is tied to experimentation so that you're incentivized to try different combinations of abilities. On a recursion this only gets more interesting, and the limiters add a nice touch of setting your own difficulty.

Transistor is a masterpiece. I'll be forever grateful to Supergiant Games for creating it.


Hey Red... We're not getting away with this, are we?

This review contains spoilers

Transistor was my first introduction to Supergiant games and while it is stunningly beautiful, mechanically innovative, and fun to play - it unfortunately glorifies suicide as 'the answer' which really put me off of supergiant as a whole since they seem to care far more about aesthetic than the harm such messaging can do.

The gameplay is clever and fuses a combination of turn based mechanics with hack and slash where the mechanics and features of your sword are customisable and combine different mechanics to create new effects far before bullet heaven games started doing it. This creates a pretty huge array of play styles and mechanics as you can switch up the way the game plays and feels on the fly and change tactics to better match the variety of enemies. Combat is sleek and fast feeling like an early prototype for Hades which says a lot about how good this game feels to play.

It's rare that I get into spoilers for my reviews, but I feel I have to here because I don't understand how everyone glosses over the implications of this story. Put simply, a singer's boyfriend is murdered using this very powerful sword / key to the city and his soul becomes trapped in the sword. Having lost her boyfriend and her voice she goes on a mission to get vengeance on the powerful individuals conspiring to take control of her world guided by the voice of her bf trapped in the sword. Honestly up to this point it's all well and good, a sort of cyber-noire with excellent character design and strong motivations all around.

However at around the half way point you feel the design team worrying about the budget as the protagonist suddenly decides 'we should go back to the start' as if they ran out of money to build more of the game. You return and fight the city itself as the changes the conspirators wanted to impose on the city grow out of control. The remaining minions kill themselves and after you stop the process, and defeat the big bad you go back to your bf's corpse, Realising she won't get her bf or voice back she decides to kill herself, where she's then reunited with him in a happily ever after.

Even for 2014 I thought this game handled the concept of suicide very poorly. Not only using it as a cheap way to write off two of the antagonists, but also as a lazy conclusion for the main character. The fact she kills herself is one thing, but to have a happy ending reunited with her bf in a beautiful sunny ever after sends a pretty disturbingly clear message that killing yourself is actually the solution to your problems. It gets the bad guys out of being held responsible, and it grants the main character everything she's been struggling for through the game.

The fact anyone could write such a grossly irresponsible glorification of suicide is irresponsible at best and outright harmful at worst. Somehow I seem to be the only person who cares though as this game has sold incredibly well and turned supergiant into an indie darling. Personally I still think this is abhorrent and I don't care how beautiful it looks and sounds, or how great the gameplay is when it exists to advertise how great suicide is. Supergiant should be ashamed of this title's core message.

Seconds march into the past,
The moments pass...
And just like that, they're gone...

The river always finds the sea,
So helplessly...
Like you find me,

We are... paper boats floating on a stream,
And it would seem...
We'll never be apart,

I will always find you,
Like it's written in the staaars...
You can run, but you can't hideee...
Tryyy...