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[Masterpiece]

Transistor is now available for pre-order.

For those of you uninitiated, Transistor is the second release of indie studio Supergiant Games, creators of the surprise success Bastion, which you can (and should) get here. (It's also available on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and Ipad/Iphone)

Bastion featured a wonderful world, engaging isometric hack'n'slash gameplay, a wonderfully created world with a story that will last on you for longer than you expect. And the soundtrack features songs that will definitely break your heart (especially if you know the back-story that led to those songs being sung in the first place! But I don't wanna spoil.) By the looks of it, Supergiant Games is about to repeat the same feat they did with Bastion with Transistor:

Transistor is slated for release in two weeks.
Some trailers for Bastion:

[LTK]

Really excited for this. Only the most scathing review is going to be able to stop me from picking this up at launch.

[RedWolf4]

Same here. Now if only Capybro's Below will come out. . .

[Masterpiece]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ONE DAY LEFT:

[ev4n]

Interested.  Will try to watch later.

Bastion touched me.  One of my favorite video games of all time, period.

[snalin]

But I have exams in two weeks!

My desktop background for the last months has been this. Pretty damn exited!


EDIT: fuck exams, it's downloading.

[Pilchard123]

Bastion touched me.

To the Yewtree-mobile!

[RedWolf4]

Crap, I forgot this was coming out. Now I have to wait until next pay, dammit.

[maxusy3k]

Grabbing this on Friday when I get paid but passing a LOT of my time by listening to the soundtrack. Supergiant have it available for streaming on the store page (digital copy also available) but they've also been kind enough to upload it to Youtube! Either track by track on their channel or in one long video (below).

(click to show/hide)

People have said the soundtrack contains spoilers. I haven't heard any myself (though it gives an indication this might be a much darker game than Bastion) but proceed at your own risk.

[Nikolai]

I've discovered, much to my chagrin, that my laptop does not possess a powerful enough graphics card to run Transistor.

Chalk up one more excuse to build a new desktop...

[Masterpiece]

The soundtrack contains HUGE spoilers. (I've finished the game.)

[RedWolf4]

Great, now I have to avoid music.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN'T RUIN, SPOILERS!?

*Shakes fist at the sky*

[de_la_Nae]

oh hey.

So...is it yay?

[Masterpiece]

My thoughts on the ending.

[ankhtahr]

I've discovered, much to my chagrin, that my laptop does not possess a powerful enough graphics card to run Transistor.

Chalk up one more excuse to build a new desktop...

My notebook didn't even run Bastion. Sadly I don't spend enough time at home to play it on my Desktop.

[Masterpiece]

I'm so hooked on the soundtrack, jeez Darren Korb, y u do dis?

[Nikolai]

So comparatively, would you say Transistor's soundtrack is on par with, or better than, Bastion's?

[Masterpiece]

I can't say. I really loved Bastions soundtrack to bits, and Transistor's soundtrack is no exception. There are some really cool instrumentals in there, more songs with vocals than there are in Bastion and they're all very well made (and are the ones I'm hooked on right now.)

But there's no equivalent to "Mother, I'm here", and in the right mood that song is so powerful it can make me cry.

[Schmee]

Just bought the game. It's super super cool.

[Pilchard123]

Bought this as a reward (aside from the - hopefully good - grade) for finishing my uni work for this month. Have to wait until tomorrow for the download to finish though.

[LTK]

I bought this yesterday in the middle of the night. It's like I wandered into an alternate universe where Dresden Codak makes videogames instead of comics. It's great!

I like that failure forces you to experiment with your loadout. I was on the verge of defeat in a battle where I had all my limiters active, and when it was over, it wasn't like I had to keep battling with the single function that I had. I found a save point and was forced to recombine my functions in a way I didn't do previously to compensate for the overloaded functions. There's layers of self-imposed challenge: you don't just hit your skill ceiling where you are killed and have to restart, but you are allowed to explore your limits and are able to recover if you overextend yourself, which simultaneously means being forced to broaden your skillset by using your functions in different ways, paving the way for allowing you to play at a yet higher difficulty level. Isn't that incredible?

[snalin]

There's also that you need to use every function as an active, buff AND passive in order to get their details. So you kinda want to do that all the time.

With the combo of voiding, decloaking and backstabing someone, you can get several thousand points of damage in one go. Equiping Jaunt() with Purge() is also craaazy - every time you Jaunt away from someone while waiting for Turn(), you spawn a thing that stuns and damages them. Neato!


I'm going to have to do the new game+ now. The limiters are much more forgiving than the tonics from Bastion, so grabbing new levels is pretty fast. The limiter that spawns the thingies with a shield, though, is just the worst thing.

[Schmee]

At level 20, my loadout normally looks like this, though of course it changes a lot:

1) Void() + Crash() + Purge() - AoE debuff to attack and defence, stun, slow, and damage over time.
2) Cull() + Breach() + Ping() - The heavy-hitter, with Breach() for extra range and Ping() to make it faster.
3) Jaunt() + Mask() - For mobility and extra damage on unmasking.
4) Some kind of weak attack that hits multiple enemies, like Bounce().

As passives, I keep another Crash(), as I like that damage resistance and not being slowed, and Jaunt() for faster Turn() regen, along with a few others I've forgotten. I think I have the one which boosts your health.

For big enemies, like a Man or a Jerk or a YoungLady, I can Void them, Jaunt to a good location for a backstab, then Cull them for >2000 damage. Smaller enemies fall prey to Void and Bounce.

[Pilchard123]

I'm going to have to do the new game+ now. The limiters are much more forgiving than the tonics from Bastion, so grabbing new levels is pretty fast. The limiter that spawns the thingies with a shield, though, is just the worst thing.

Help() with the explode-y(*) one as a buff helps a lot with those.

(*) The one introduced as "They got that loudmouth Tennegan. Figured he retired."

[Schmee]

Help() with the explode-y(*) one as a buff helps a lot with those.

(*) The one introduced as "They got that loudmouth Tennegan. Figured he retired."

Load()?

[LTK]

Hoo boy. I just beat the final boss with only three functions active. I had to finish the job with just Breach + Get,  without anything to follow it up with. I wouldn't have survived another second, I think.

Time for a second run!

[Masterpiece]

Just wanted to write this as a general rule of conduct: Let's write story spoilers under spoiler tags from now on. OK?

[Masterpiece]

(click to show/hide)

When I fought

(click to show/hide)

Royce,

I used Crash + Jaunt + Ping, Breach + Get + Flood, Spark + Bounce + Purge and Help + Tap. With that Crash combination, you can just spam the shit out of him, even when not in Turn().

[ev4n]

So glad I read those last few posts backwards!

[LTK]

Yeah, I noticed that particular combination is good for stunlocking. Used it a fair bit in the early game.

I've fought her twice now and I still don't understand what happened to Sybil.

[Schmee]

I think

(click to show/hide)

Sybil gets taken over by the Process. Those two Camerata guys killed themselves to avoid the same fate, I think.

[Masterpiece]

(click to show/hide)

Isn't it a spoiler that you have to fight Sybil?

Anyway, the fact that she got turned is a given. But what's more interesting in my opinion is that she's the reason Red got attacked in the first place. According to her files, she was infatuated with Red. Seeing as her advances just ricocheted off Red, mainly because she was together with 'him', she got furious and falsely convinced the Camerata that Red was an easy kill (Red already being on the Camerata list for her songs "Signals" and "We All Become" describing the true nature of Cloudbanks society ("I won't become a number in the system" and so on)). When Red got teleported away from the stage, Sybil stayed behind, wanting to face Red again. Somehow she knew she'd be back.

[LTK]

(click to show/hide)

What did you really know about Sybil prior to fighting her? I didn't know anything.

It was evident she merged with the Process somehow, got assimilated by it, but why? After the Transistor changed hands, the Process went out of control and started killing everyone, but literally no one else ended up like Sybil. So I'm thinking she didn't get attacked, she didn't die, something else must have happened. I can't imagine it happened on her own accord. She doesn't understand the Process - who does? - she doesn't have an unusual connection with it, and besides, it can't be reasoned with. I guess it's just an unexpected interaction. A glitch.

[Pilchard123]

Mask() + Load() is useful and somewhat OP.

I hate Fetches.

[Schmee]

Cheerleaders are the worst. Especially the Mk. 3, which has its own forcefield half the time.

Seriously thought, Cull() + Breach() is your best friend for pure damage.

[LTK]

Oh my god.

(click to show/hide)

Humming the vocals to an instrumental song played from the music player in the sandbox.

That hits the feels way harder than any combo.

[LTK]

Huh. Okay, recursion finished.

(click to show/hide)

After the first time I finished the game, I was convinced there was an alternate ending I'd missed, wherein Red doesn't absorb herself in the Transistor. The Goodbye() achievement seemed to refer to this: I thought "recurse through the story" meant that, like Bastion, there was an in-universe reason for everything happening again. So when I got to the end a second time, and found no interaction points other than the stranger's body, I thought I must have missed something, that maybe getting defeated by Bryce made something different happen (I'm still not sure?). But you don't have a choice.

I guess it's the only way, Cloudbank is a ghost town by now, it doesn't really matter if you put everything back the way it was. Red's the only one left alive.

(click to show/hide)

I still can't honestly say that I understand what the Camerata really wants. I get that they want to end the recursive cycle of change for the sake of change - though as to why, I'm still baffled - but exactly how they go about achieving that is a mystery. When Asher Kendrell said "How could we achieve this with just our four voices?" he was apparently being literal, but I still haven't seen anything that indicates the people whose traces are recorded in the Transistor are actually capable of something other than unlocking Functions to fight the Process.

And, anyway, if the Transistor was keeping the Process in check before they lost it to Red, what did they do before they invented the Transistor? Bryce explained that it took a lot of work before he stumbled on the idea that would lead to the Transistor, but he also claims that the Process is what makes the changes to the weather and stuff in Cloudbank, and as far as I can tell this is not a recent development. It's just another way in which everything changes, and nothing changes. The only way that this would make sense is that the invention of the Transistor also allowed Bryce to mold the Process into something physical, something material, when it was just an abstraction before. Presumably that would also make it more useful to the Camerata.

(click to show/hide)

So that leads me to wonder what kind of a city Cloudbank actually is. Remember how, in Bastion, you got all these hints and clues toward a far larger and elaborate world from Rucks' stories? Transistor is almost the exact opposite. There is only Cloudbank, and the only hint at there being something else is "the Country", which just has to be a euphemism. Cloudbank is big, and there's just as much potential for storytelling, but by all appearances it seems that the world ends with the city. When the reporter gives her last news report among the survivors, she says that beyond the border there is nothing, and that they decide not to abandon the city. What if they just can't?

On the other hand, there's still the stranger's suggestion to 'skip town'. He suggests this twice, and the first time Red decides to do the exact opposite. The second time... well, you know what happens. So that kind of throws a spanner in my theory, but still, the stranger is an outsider. He's not a Cloudbank citizen, even the Camerata didn't know who he was. He's a total mystery. So we don't know where he came from, but is it possible he might not know? That Cloudbank is all there is? He definitely knows a lot about the city, so it does seem unlikely, but it never seemed like leaving the city was actually an option for anyone.

[de_la_Nae]

So I guess it's settled: I'm buying it eventually.

If only so I can come back and read the spoilers.

(like we didn't know it was sort of a foregone conclusion anyway)

[ev4n]

Did finally buy it.  I am playing through it now.

[LTK]

Any chance someone knows where to find the lyrics? Having trouble understanding a lot of the vocals.

[Masterpiece]

There ya go (SPOILERS!)

[LTK]

Thanks, that makes things a bit clearer. I still don't know what In Circles is supposed to convey, though.

[de_la_Nae]

Geometry maybe?

[Masterpiece]

[Schmee]

Great, now I'm imagining the entire game, only with Claire instead of Red. THE PUNS.

...I think I should go to sleep now.

[ev4n]

Question - how close am I to the end?

(click to show/hide)

I just found 2 guys dead near some whiteboards.  only 1 left....

Been too busy to play anything lately, but if I know I'm close, maybe I can fit the time in...

[Pilchard123]

Pretty close.

[Masterpiece]

Still got a major twist coming.

[Pilchard123]

Oh yeah. Probably best to wait until you have a fair bit of time to appreciate it.

You mean the bit where

[Use this post in an upgrade or passive slot to learn more]

[ev4n]

I'm telling myself I won't work until 9pm tonight so I'll have time to play.  Of course, I say that NOW.

Ok thanks for the feedback.  Will try to sit down with it when I have time to give it my undivided attention.