- Genre: Action Rpg
- Spoiler Free Review: Yeah.
- Time Played: 10 Hours
- Too Short/Long: About right, could have done with maybe a little more?
- Soundtrack: Like Bastion before it, this soundtrack is amazing. It's one I've listened to a lot before finishing the game.
- Why I played: I've picked up Transistor at least twice before this third time, started, went through the first few battles, etc. I just fell off because it's a bit slow moving in the start. I knew it was a game I'd enjoy, I just didn't stick with it before.
- Did I cry: Yes.
- Jank: It's not too janky. I'd say it could use a couple quality of life upgrades, like the UI for equipping/unequipping your skills, but it's not janky, per se.
- Difficulty: It can be pretty annoying/difficult at times. Overall it's not entirely difficult, but you either have to play with your strategies for battles a good bit or otherwise perfect your moves for many of the later fights.
- Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Transistor to anyone who played say, Bastion, and really like the style and music. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone who player, say, Pyres or Hades. Overall though, I'd say I'd recommend the other games first.
I do really like Transistor. I think all of Supergiant Games' games are great, but I do think Bastion and Hades are a bit more celebrated for good reason. Transistor has a bit of a weird mechanic that I don't think everyone is going to enjoy. It's a little light on the explanation, so it takes a lot of experimenting to figure out what works, what doesn't, and exactly what the perfect way to do things is. There are times it offers little tidbits on screen, but I think it could do a little better in that department. Even if it did, it's still and odd system, and an unfortunate aspect is - once you get to a certain point in the game, it's a system that is constantly trying to prevent you from using it.
Part of me thinks it would have been a little better if it leaned a bit more into the action, than the strategy of the combat. You're given this toolkit of pretty neat abilities to use, and various ways to use them and combine them, but so many of the enemies attacks and responses are trying to prevent you from using them. Additionally, you'll lose access to certain skills for a few battles should you perform poorly enough. I think less enemy moves specifically countering your abilities, and a health system that didn't take away your abilities would have made this game much more fun - and more accessible to the average player.
If this was a design decision to incentivize players to experiment with different abilities, I still don't think it excuses it. They have challenges that force you into different ability combos, they could have offered more of those that made players try new moves, and also offered another bonus like win X # of battles with this skill placed here. Which they kind of offer with lore, it's just one battle with each skill in each placement, but since these are just text biographies and such, I imagine many people will skip out on that, I didn't, but I'm a bit of a completionist.
That said, the combat is still interesting, unique, and fun. Every other aspect of the game is great too. The music, the art, the tone, setting, etc. The story is all a little vague, throwing you directly into a scenario in an extremely futuristic society far removed from our own, presumably the entire course of the game is one night, but it serves it's purpose for the experience and is fleshed out with the consistent voice overs.
Part of me thinks it would have been a little better if it leaned a bit more into the action, than the strategy of the combat. You're given this toolkit of pretty neat abilities to use, and various ways to use them and combine them, but so many of the enemies attacks and responses are trying to prevent you from using them. Additionally, you'll lose access to certain skills for a few battles should you perform poorly enough. I think less enemy moves specifically countering your abilities, and a health system that didn't take away your abilities would have made this game much more fun - and more accessible to the average player.
If this was a design decision to incentivize players to experiment with different abilities, I still don't think it excuses it. They have challenges that force you into different ability combos, they could have offered more of those that made players try new moves, and also offered another bonus like win X # of battles with this skill placed here. Which they kind of offer with lore, it's just one battle with each skill in each placement, but since these are just text biographies and such, I imagine many people will skip out on that, I didn't, but I'm a bit of a completionist.
That said, the combat is still interesting, unique, and fun. Every other aspect of the game is great too. The music, the art, the tone, setting, etc. The story is all a little vague, throwing you directly into a scenario in an extremely futuristic society far removed from our own, presumably the entire course of the game is one night, but it serves it's purpose for the experience and is fleshed out with the consistent voice overs.