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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Possibly the best game ever made. An unbelievable triumph, perfection from every perspective. This is the best example of fitting all pieces together while still being experimental. The subversion of classic futuristic aesthetics is astounding. The chamber play aesthetics of the cast with depressing voices telling a grandeur story is also my favorite game narrative to date. The aesthetics, the aesthetics, the aesthetics are what makes it so great. And Red. You wouldn't believe how big of an effect the simple humming feature has.

All of this is done within the framework of a fairly normal game - if you're looking for something this good in a more avant-garde form, NaissanceE is what you're looking for.

On a more personal level, I love its themes of a city, its inhabitants and change. I love this game to death.

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.

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.

Really unique gameplay concept, I wish it was a bit faster paced or smoother (some of the targeting and enemies cloaking is weird), and bosses aside from the final are generic, but excellent experience aside from that. Surreal storytelling that took a turn I didn’t expect, and excellent visual and sound design. This was great. It’s short, but that’s due to the game’s commitment to its narrative, and wrapping it excellently. There isn’t a single bit of feet-dragging in that. I wish gameplay was more refined, though it’s still good and unique. This was great.

Transistor, o segundo título da SuperGiant Games, o título subsequente a Bastion, o primeiro título da empresa, que foi aclamado pela crítica especializada. A obra conta uma visual estonteante, um trabalho focado em um escopo bem definido, uma jogabilidade diferenciada e uma história fragmentada e emocionante.

A obra conta com uma câmera isométrica característico dos ARPG, porém a jogabilidade segue mais para um caminho de batalha por turnos, onde os turnos são divididos pelos momentos que o Turn()(a mecânica de desaceleração do tempo) está disponível. É possível seguir para um caminho de ARPG ao não utilizar essa mecânica, mas é inviável considerando que o jogo apela para o gênero de estratégia. A obra também conta com o gênero de aventura com a personagem Red como protagonista da história.

É exposto um caráter direto durante toda a obra, desde o começo até o final, o ínicio é prático, Red ao acordar ao lado de um corpo perfurado por uma espada percebe que perdeu a voz e a espada torna-se a sua voz durante toda a jornada, ao longo da jornada é possível perceber que a espada, Transistor, é capaz de absorver a consciência das pessoas mortas, e a voz e a consciência que comunica-se com Red é a pessoa morta ao seu lado no começo do jogo. O jogador é posto em ação a todo momento, há sempre batalhas acontecendo na cidade dominada pelo “processo” que eram os robôs comandados pela Camareta, a criadora do Transistor, que o utilizava para controlar toda a cidade onde as pessoas vivem.

A trama perpassa pela vontade de Red resolver o problema envolvendo a Camareta e o “processo”, já que essa perde o controle dos robôs que matam e expulsam os habitantes da cidade aos milhares, o objetivo é encontrar os culpados e fazê-los parar o “processo” utilizando o Transistor que está nas mãos da Red. Durante a progressão da história o jogador descobre que há também um sentimento de vingança que ronda a obra.

A palavra chave que guia todo o rumo da história é Controle, a Camareta é composta por 4 pessoas que tem como objetivo controlar toda a cidade, para isso é necessário os robôs e o Transistor como a chave para todo o “processo”. A ideia de controle não passa somente por controlar os aspectos físicos - no sentido de conter agressões -, o controle vai a outros níveis, inclusive de eliminar pessoas que possam atrapalhar o funcionamento do sistema, isso fica claro nas histórias disponíveis ao desbloquear os dados das habilidades, diversas figuras importantes da cidade que ao divergirem de pensamento ou atitude do status quo somem ou morrem. O autoritarismo é exacerbado e supervisionado pela tecnologia, inclusive sobre a personagem principal Red, uma exímia cantora que ao desafiar o poder vigente de alguma forma é perseguida e perde sua voz no processo.

A história é apresentada de forma fragmentada, ela está disponível nos terminais OVC, nas descrições das habilidades e nos diálogos com o Transistor. É necessário juntar as peças do quebra-cabeça para que ele faça sentido no fim, o ponto interessante neste tipo de abordagem é aumentar o nível mistério que circunda a obra, e isso é aumentado com a exposição direta a jogabilidade e a frequência com que ela ocorre.

Há um caráter bem intimista na obra, Red está sozinha a todo momento, seus inimigos são robôs descontrolados que atacam qualquer coisa que se mova, a única companhia é o Transistor que “conversa” com a cantora. Apesar de haver alguns personagens possíveis de se comunicar, eles são escassos assim como a comunicação com eles, isso acaba por criar um caráter melancólico e de solidão durante toda a obra, o mundo criado pertence a Red, Transistor e aos robôs, e somente um dos três está vivo, a solidão ronda a proposta e torna angustiante toda a jornada vivenciada por Red, o final é devastador e dá sentido ao sentimento vivenciado durante todo o jogo, é dramático, doloroso e bonito ao seu modo.

Em relação ao desenvolvimento da personagem principal, ele é defasado propositalmente pela fato de ela se tornar muda, é difícil conhecer Red e entender o que passa por sua cabeça, a não ser em momentos pontuais onde é possível escrever comentários em comunicados nos terminais OVC, através do texto escrito pela personagem é possível conhecer algumas características de sua personalidade. Esse distanciamento da personagem traz para o primeiro plano da obra a relação entre ela e Transistor, toda a construção e revelação da relação entre eles, que vão dos momentos passados rememorados até as ações e conversas do presente, acabam por enfatizar ainda mais o final corajoso que a SuperGiant Games apresenta.

A jogabilidade é um elemento importantíssimo é muito bem trabalho pelo devs, essa mescla de uma ARPG com uma batalha por turnos traz desafio em graus moderados para obra, que inclusive conta com um nível satisfatório de dificuldade, nada demasiado para retirar o foco dos outros elementos que tem sua relevância, como a história, música e todo o visual. Achei fantástico a ideia das habilidades, tudo, da forma como são combinadas e utilizadas, do fato delas revelarem parte da história do jogo ao serem utilizadas de diferentes formas e inclusive do nome que possuem, a nomenclatura como funções de programação como Bash(), como se estivesse sendo chamado uma função para ser executada é fantástico, já que essa habilidade é utilizada pelo Transistor que a grosso modo é um chip. A utilização dessas habilidades também são geniais, sem precisar de grandes quantidades delas a SuperGiant Games consegue uma gama realmente gigantesca de possibilidades de builds, as habilidades sendo possíveis serem equipadas como principal/ativa, como secundárias com efeitos adicionais a principal ou como passivas abre um leque gigantes do que é possível fazer e como é possível fazer. E por fim, é fantástico a ideia ser possível descobrir sobre a história de quem aquela “função” pertencia ao utilizar a habilidade das diferentes formas: ativa/secundárias/passiva, pois isso instiga ao jogador a tentar diferentes builds simplesmente para conhecer toda a história da obra.

Um elemento de extrema relevância em uma obra de um cantora que perdeu a voz é a trilha sonora, e meus amigos, Transistor dá uma aula sobre isso, é simplesmente fantástico o que chega aos ouvidos de quem joga, estou viciado na música “The Spine” que toca ao encontrar o mural da Red pela primeira vez, a música é simplesmente maravilhosa, é um trabalho excepcional da desenvolvedora.

Esteticamente é tudo de tirar o fôlego, os cenários são lindos, muito bem trabalhados, as personagens são bonitas com características marcantes, é um banquete visual para quem consome a obra.

Concluindo, Transistor é mais um primor produzido pela SuperGiant Games, em aspectos técnicos é quase impecável, uma trilha sonora maravilhosa, um visual estonteante, uma jogabilidade diferenciada e uma história impactante. Mais uma vez a empresa mostra como utilizar os elementos da obra para reforçarem um aos outros, todos trabalham em conjunto para passarem a atmosfera ideal para a história ideal, é vivenciado uma melancolia, distanciamento, mistério que vão sendo corroborados ao longo do percurso da obra e por fim chocam positivamente o jogador.

The first game I have ever played made by Supergiant Games. At the time I tried it I didn't heard of this studio and the future reputation they will later get thanks mostly to Hades.

And I got really surprised. This is a really great hidden gem, with an incredibl presentation and a cure for details that is common from the works of these developers.

It presents an incredible futuritic world, which is a joy for both the eyes and ears thanks to the featured designs, a soundtrack that you want to always sing along (also covered in multiple instances by our main protagonist Red) and a grimmer story narrated indirectly via news articles, journals and via interactiosn between Red and her incredibly written sword ally.

The gameplay is also really interesting: it takes the combat of Bastion and twists it to create what could be considered a puzzle-like combat system, where you gotta plan out your resources and your ability of time manipulation to strategically overplay the menacing enemies you find on your way. It is really creative and even leads to an incredible amount of customization.

My main nitpick with the title is.... the overall lenght. I get that the studio was rather small at the time, but I feels like the adventure turns out to be too short, with a lack of more interesting set pieces and a story that in my opinion could have been expanded way more.

And speaking honestly, I kinda got mixed feelings towards the ending. WHen I forst got it it left a kind of bitter taste in my mouth, and I was kinda disagreeing with the direction the characters presented went for. It is withot a doubt memorable though, and Paper Boats is an amazing song to close up the already incredible OST of this title.

But that is probably just a bad take of mine: Transistor is an objectiely amazing title. Something that fans of indies and Supergiant's other projects will be able to enjoy without a doubt. A short, but incredible experience that I highly recommend despite my nitpicks.