Faye
2014
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.
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.
2013
I think Tomodachi Life excels best as a story generator. In that way, it resembles games like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld, though there's an entire universe of separation between them in gameplay. Tomodachi Life has no difficulty or "challenge" to it, as its focus is solely on putting your Miis into situations (or teaching you how to do so) and then making you laugh with the silly or surreal moments that come out of it. One of the best games the 3DS had to offer. I hope we get a sequel some day.
2017
2015
2018
2020
2020
2023
2022
2004
I played the heck out of this game back in the day. I was a life skills main with a puppetry backbone when I needed to fight. It was a great time, and I have many fond memories, but I would struggle to get back into it given how aged poorly a lot of its systems are. The rock-paper-scissors of its original combat system was amazing, though, and I hope one day we see a modern MMO take a crack at it.