the premise and art style sold this one, as well as what I knew about the gameplay. in practice, I found that, despite the quality of the artwork, music and ambience that the writing let the game. I did not find the writing bad but merely not good enough. overly basic characters and setting. the gameplay also frustrated me a bit in that I found it hard to drag the dice to the exact location where they belonged. also, minor niggle: you don't get to visually customize or name your character.
I think that this game will only work for some people. it really, really did work for me. I would like you to warn you might find the final "puzzle" (unintentionally so) initially impossible to figure out, so that I had to go online and look at videos to figure it out, so depriving me of the surprise at the end of the game. (again, the game-makers would not have intended this as an actual puzzle.) since I think I have exhausted my eloquence on the TRANSISTOR review, I will just say that the game meant a lot to me and that it had me in tears more than once. again, you might not get a lot from this game, but if you do, you will get a lot out of it.
granted, I only came to gaming relatively late in my adult life. regardless, I can barely say enough good about it. it does have a few flaws as far as inconsistent tone. you have an elegiac, serious atmosphere, almost a tragic one, and then some silly enemies or music or bit of business throws off the tone. this does not happen often. the flavor text for the character biographies, fails, hard, in that the writer appears to have difficulty with writing prose. so, ironically, the two things which tend to matter to me the most, namely atmosphere and writing, fail, and yet I still love this game. you get the feeling that this world exists (tonal weirdness notwithstanding) and that for the duration of the game. I feel doubly blessed, though, because the game has not had sequels, spin-offs or tie-ins to reduce the novelty of it. your imagination can fill in the gaps. oh, and I forgot to mention the music. best music in any game I have played so far. have I made clear how much I like this game?