Transistor is Supergiant Games’ follow-up to Bastion—not a sequel, and definitely not a rehash, but just as definitely an iteration, a more refined approach to the same set of themes and gameplay ideas.
This time, the the skill system is a dizzyingly intricate mutation of Materia, rather than a more standard weapon combination system. This time, the beautiful ruined environment is a cohesive cyberpunk maybe-machine world, rather than a catch-all ersatz frontier setting. This time, Logan Cunningham is talking to —well, spoilers follow.
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• Lucio refers several times to me interviewing Alx Preston of Heart Machine, and also to my conversation with Richard Terrell of Critical Gaming.
• I refer several times to Experience Points’ excellent Transistor debrief.
• For more on Apple-as-the-death-of-technoegalitarianism, look into the ignominious death of HyperCard.
• I didn’t know a damn thing about HyperCard until I read Anna Anthropy’s superb book on ZZT and the half-forgotten history of homemade videogames.
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“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.
“Impossible” from the Transistor Original Soundtrack by Darren Korb.