Transistor

A sort of top-down brawler/turn()-based strategy game. You take control of a duo consisting of a woman with no voice and a man who's only a voice to save your city from a grave threat. The combat is primarily realtime, with you having the ability to stop time and queue up actions, to deliver more precise blows or just to escape danger. You can use up to 4 different abilities for attacking at a time, chosen among a diverse pool, but you also have the option of attaching the rest to your active abilities for additional effects. This ends up giving you a nice selection of possible loadouts you can use to vanquish your foes. Your foes stem from a somewhat small but diverse enough pool, with different strengths and weaknesses, and you'll encounter stronger versions of them as you progress through the game. They each provide a decent challenge, though some will be more of a pain to deal with than others naturally, heheh. The game's story is told mainly by your voiced companion as you explore the city, and the backstories of some characters, central to the plot or only to the city's history are revealed as you make use of the abilities derived from then. Finding out more and more about the world and the people as you progress is intriguing. The game also has interesting theming, with a feel that can be considered cyberpunk and references to some mathematical and programming terminology thrown about. It also has good art overall. And its greatest strength is probably its music, which provides excellent, thrilling backdrops for tense combat, and emotional melodies to accompany your triumphs and tragedies. The vocal tracks in particular are some of my favourite songs. An amazing game overall, highly recommended for anyone who's looking for something with a futuristic or cyberpunk bend, intriguing and challenging combat, a subtle, intriguing tale or just a good excuse to listen to great music.

First off, this isn't really an RPG - it's more of an action-adventure game with level and ability progression. The story is extremely obscure and disjointed. The protagonist has no personality and there's scarce character interaction - you mainly just listen to a narrating sword, while fighting near constant hordes of enemies. On the positive side, the combat system is interesting and encourages experimentation by combining abilities to suit your play-style. The art is also interesting and the music is good. People mainly seem to enjoy this game for the art and music - keep that in mind before purchasing. I can't recommend this game except at a steep discount. If you're looking for a story-rich, complicated, mature, or deep game, look elsewhere.

Since I've played through it two times in a row and have collected all the info and skills as well as passed all the tests, I finally consider this game as finished. It actually was a lot like Bastion, even the whole calamity topic but with another more technocratic and actually romantic angle. First the negative things about it: - Completely linear, all the variety is in the fighting/skill system. - Although you can unlock many tracks from the soundtrack in-game and listen to it in the "sand box", you still have to buy it in order to hear it outside of the game That's about it, now to the positive aspects of the game: - The brilliant fighting/skill system: It's actually so good that it would deserve a multiplayer mode. It's a very good mix of real-time and turn based and once you get the hang of it, you'll just have to try all the different skill combinations and create different tactics - Graphics: 2D in high resolution with smooth animations and nice visual effects are exactly my cup of tea, I'd always prefer this to 3D objects when it comes to the isometric perspective. - Narrative: Having a voice talking to you in a calm way all the time was already used in Bastion but it's still working well for maintaining the immersion. - Soundtrack: Brillian. Bastion's soundtrack was awesome already but this was seems to have been made with equal effort and a great result. - Theme: The distant future of city life complete with the whole technocracy and trends resulting in ever changing environment with too few constants Conclusion: Highly recommended for everyone that likes tactical combat, isometric 2D graphics, a nice narrative, sci-fi, melancholy and some romance. I won't say much about the end in order to not spoil it, but it's something most devs and your average hero wouldn't do.

Stylish. Satisfying combat. Incredible music and art. Bittersweet feelings after the ending. This game will have a very special place in your heart, just mark my words.

Transistor, the follow-up by the makers of Bastion is an achievement in atmosphere and style as well an interesting, if not always successful gameplay experiment. You are Red, a famous singer who has lost her voice having survived an attempt on her life. Your partner is not so lucky as his mind is stuck within the very sword that was used to try and kill you. Together you'll make your way through a futuristic city to find his murderers. While the city itself is under attack from an artificial life form that seems to be connected to ones you are seeking. And while the plot remains told in broad brush strokes it is the atmosphere that drives the game. The art style - a mixture of cyberpunk and art decor with bold, bright colours - and the choice of a modern jazz soundtrack come together fantastically. Gameplay experiments with a mixture of real time and turn based combat. You move in real time dodging attacks until you can stop time and meticulously plan out the next actions, stringing together powerful abilities into devastating combos. The possibility to combine abilities with each other in increasingly complex ways allows for an extraordinary degree of improvisation. Combined with great visual effects and animations this leads to a satisfying moment to moment combat. However the over abundance of options is also an issue. The game throws so many at you in such short time, while also withholding more complexity for later, that the first playthrough is not enough to master the system. I had a great time with Transistor- with its setting and vague story, its combat and visual presentation - but while I understand that the developers want to prolong the longevity of their game I also feel that the result is an imbalance in the relationship between presentation and mechanics. After I finished the relatively short story I simply didn't feel the urge to return but knew that I would thus miss out on the depth of an still evolving combat system.