Game News Sci-fi Action RPG Transistor Released

[crawlkill]

Whole movies have worked only because Morgan Freeman was in them. Are we gonna call those bad movies now?

are you going to call an otherwise shitty movie good or ok just because morgan freeman is in it?

I mean, if he were in every scene and killing it? Many movies have been worth watching just for the prominent performance of one actor, yes.

I played an extra 2 or 3 hours last night, putting me about 4 hours in. The narration is gross in that it's way too frequent and I don't like this guy trapped in my sword pervin' on my character with his creeper voice. The locations didn't really change, either - it's basically all the dumbest parts of Midgar at the beginning of FFVII but for 4 hours, aside from a small netherbeach that has trials and a beachball that doesn't drop any items no matter how many times I kick it. Also no I'm not Jay Wilson.

It's true that the whole city kind of looks like itself. Even as I know that I'm Going For the Stage or Climbing the Tower or whatever, I don't really see those facts confirmed visually. Even the indoor/outdoor distinction is pretty weak.

Also pretty clear the sword and the main character were fucking even before he turned into a vibrator, so.

 

[BurritoGoblin]

Also pretty clear the sword and the main character were fucking even before he turned into a vibrator, so.

This is true - it's just distracting. I mean I'm fighting robots and shit I don't want to hear this fucking sword confessing his love every 10 seconds. What are you even gonna do with your weird digital ghost peen? Super disinterested in that aspect of the story.

 

[crawlkill]

Also pretty clear the sword and the main character were fucking even before he turned into a vibrator, so.

This is true - it's just distracting. I mean I'm fighting robots and shit I don't want to hear this fucking sword confessing his love every 10 seconds. What are you even gonna do with your weird digital ghost peen? Super disinterested in that aspect of the story.

I don't really like romance of any kind, especially the breeder variety, but if you're going to have a romance in your story, I'd vastly prefer it be one that was already ongoing before the story started and that was largely implied on-screen than have it be some bullshit "I met you 30 hours ago and now we are in larv" deal. It's not something you see often in video games, characters (much less main characters) who are already romantically involved from before scene one whose weird love fantasy we don't have to watch playing out, but instead whose support structures we can watch in action. I like it more the more I write here. If anything, I think it'd work better if they were more intimate. I think the best scene in the game I've seen so far is where the chick (Red?) talks to the sword through the comments section on a terminal when he's fading.

 

[BurritoGoblin]

Also pretty clear the sword and the main character were fucking even before he turned into a vibrator, so.

This is true - it's just distracting. I mean I'm fighting robots and shit I don't want to hear this fucking sword confessing his love every 10 seconds. What are you even gonna do with your weird digital ghost peen? Super disinterested in that aspect of the story.

I don't really like romance of any kind, especially the breeder variety, but if you're going to have a romance in your story, I'd vastly prefer it be one that was already ongoing before the story started and that was largely implied on-screen than have it be some bullshit "I met you 30 hours ago and now we are in larv" deal. It's not something you see often in video games, characters (much less main characters) who are already romantically involved from before scene one whose weird love fantasy we don't have to watch playing out, but instead whose support structures we can watch in action. I like it more the more I write here. If anything, I think it'd work better if they were more intimate. I think the best scene in the game I've seen so far is where the chick (Red?) talks to the sword through the comments section on a terminal when he's fading.

That's true I did like that. The silent protagonist having some words to share was p. nice. Fine fine you are convincing me to be okay with it.

 

[SuicideBunny]

if you're going to have a romance in your story

the thing here is that the romance isn't in the story but actually is the story, and that's really fucking annoying if you don't like romances.

 

[crawlkill]

if you're going to have a romance in your story

the thing here is that the romance isn't in the story but actually is the story, and that's really fucking annoying if you don't like romances.

I disagree? How much of it have you played? The story isn't the romance at all, it's just that it's told from the perspective of someone talking to his girlfriend when both of them are critically damaged (/already dead).

The story IS really basic, though, as far as I've gotten.

 

[SuicideBunny]

The story isn't the romance at all, it's just that it's told from the perspective of someone talking to his girlfriend when both of them are critically damaged.

Spoiler

the attack happened because sybil set them up after becoming jealous once they fell in love with each other. the main theme of the game is the whole duality thing about red being a body without voice and swordguy being voice without body. there is a lot of effort put into animating red's arms when interacting with the transistor, especially all the hugs, and those little cutscenes out of normal life with the sword in place of where the guy would be in a given scene, like eating the delivery in red's appartment or the breakroom scene. plus at the beginning before you learn anything you can safely assume that red only fights to get even for what they did to her boyfriend.
then there's the implied stuff about the city possibly just running inside the transistor itself and the swordguy being kind of oddity and possibly the transistor's last authorized user which implies that the romance itself is weirdly recursive (kinda like grant saying at the end that looking inside the transistor is like looking at the sky and swordguy telling red at the beginning that when he looks at the sky all he sees is her).
last but not least p. much everything that happens besides combat is their direct interaction with each other... just like the ending, but nooo, the romance isn't the story at all.

 

[crawlkill]

a spoilertag

you're further than I am! I'm only unlocking the tower shortly after the Spine now.

the animation points are good, and you're right that there's a slice of life thing going on with the one-off art that has the sword sitting around being her boyfriend. but I dunno, it really doesn't bother me. when have you ever seen this kind of story in a game before? how can you be tired of it already? I can't think of a single game where a preestablished romantic couple is the focus of the whole thing. usually if there's a pregame romance then one member (generally a straight couple with the chick being the victim) needs to be rescued. I don't know if we've ever seen a game narrated by a damaged/dead already-boyfriend who's present (and weaponized!) the whole time. you're saying you don't have the patience for ONE story told that way? the first one ever?

actually the thing that most bothers me in the game is that Red doesn't have a voice but still shrieks when she attacks. is that addressed at some point?

 

[SuicideBunny]

she can't speak but she can make sounds. did you miss the entire humming thing you do at the beginning?

 

[crawlkill]

she can't speak but she can make sounds. did you miss the entire humming thing you do at the beginning?

and in fact every time you hit L1, now I connect those two thoughts. quite right!

 

[crawlkill]

actually the thing I least like about the game so far is the shittiness of the lyrics of what was presumably meant to be Red's song that plays when you get to the club

 

[SuicideBunny]

http://mundetiam.tumblr.com/post/60332578876/we-all-become-full-lyrics
those? yeah, they are bad and spoilerish.

 

[crawlkill]

http://mundetiam.tumblr.com/post/60332578876/we-all-become-full-lyrics
those? yeah, they are bad and spoilerish.

man they're so bad

you didn't address my main point, though, about how I don't understand how you can find this kind of storytelling tired when as far as I can think it's the first of its kind in the medium. that's not to defend the overall narrative, necessarily, but the way it's told seems pretty original to me. I guess I should finish the game myself--if it all ends with their living a normal compu-life together again, I'll be pretty disappointed. but even so, it will be a disappointment I arrived at by an uncommon path.

 

[SuicideBunny]

because i have zero interest in romance stories and it comes at the cost of gameplay. with that much effort going into all these little details of said romance, while the main strong point of the game is totally underplayed thanks to mostly filler combat and no puzzles beyond the first and only switch that you have to hit in turn() mode. this game is a prime example how hipster game design can ruin pretty neat gameplay ideas.

 

[DashiDMV]

When I look at the videos, the world looks like it came from that old anime Big O that used to be on Cartoon Network. Like others have said, it's not my favorite genre but if I saw it for a couple dollars or in a bundle with other stuff I liked, I would check it out.