Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Transistor
Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Supergiant Games
Genre: Action RPG
Number of Players: 1
Date of Release: 01 November 2018
Price: $19.99
Also Available On: iOS, PS4, Steam
Transistor is the second offering of Supergiant Games, coming off their highly praised game, Bastion. This game was originally released in 2014 and now it has been ported to the Nintendo Switch. The game combines awesome-looking cyberpunk aesthetics with unique gameplay and narrative style. In the game, you play as Red, a jazz singer who has recently lost her voice and got thrown into a whirlwind adventure where she has to traverse across the city of Cloudbank after the death of her lover and his eventual resurrection in the form of a disembodied voice trapped inside a mysterious sword, the eponymous Transistor. Together, they have to find a way to stop the Process, a force of evil robots commanded by a mysterious organization.
At first glance, you may see this game as your typical hack-and-slash game similar to the likes of Hyper Light Drifter or Phantom Trigger. It does share a bit of the same atmosphere and futuristic themes of loss and mystery, but as soon as you start playing, you see that this game is something else. While the other two games mentioned have no voice over narration whatsoever, Transistor has one in the form of Red’s lover. Throughout the game, he acts as the narrator, providing details about his and Red’s life together, as well as providing gameplay instructions. Short cutscenes with semi-static images are also show at key points of the game to further flesh out the story.
The gameplay is what really makes this game leagues apart from the two aforementioned games. Here, Red gets to equip Transistor with power-ups referred to as Functions. These Functions can either be an active skill, an upgrade to another skill, or a passive skill. As an active skill, a Function acts as either an attack or a movement type. As an upgrade, it can enhance another skill, like providing a bigger blast radius to or enhance an attack. As a passive skill, it can provide a buff that constantly run in the background, like having a faster speed or less time to wait to be able to attack again. Speaking of attacks, you can stop time and enter a mode wherein you can position Red on the screen and plan your attacks with the press of the ZR button. Pressing it a second time makes time run again and you get to execute your attacks or movements. This sequence of events is referred to as a Turn and after making one, Red will not be able to attack again for a short period of time as the turn gauge fills up. This introduces real-time strategy to the game and you have to be mindful of when to execute this mode as it may leave you vulnerable to attacks as you wait for another chance for a Turn. The Process consist of a good variety of robotic creatures and a lot of them hurt a lot. It’s up to you to carefully plan your attacks and then make a quick getaway from the enemies to minimize damage.
At any time, you can equip up to 4 skills, if your memory stack allows it (like how it was implemented in the more recent game NieR: Automata… I wonder what will that game hit the Switch, if ever?). As you progress in the game, you level up and acquire new Functions to use, additional memory slots, and other upgrades. You will also be able to unlock Limiters, debuffs that you can use to make the enemies stronger and hit harder in exchange of getting more experience points. You can uninstall any of these Functions and Limiters in the game through control panels located at strategic areas, depending on your play style and difficulty preference.
Overall, Transistor is one phenomenal game that looks, plays, and sounds really amazing from start to finish. The game can be beaten in about 6-8 hours, but there is a New Game+ that you can unlock to go through another playthrough. So take a plunge at this game and let the power of the Transistor take you on a wonderful adventure on your Switch. May your Turns be ever successful.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Top-notch stylish visuals that combine futuristic cyberpunk themes with classic, 50s-style aesthetics
- Unique gameplay elements that drive deep customization of your skills
- Awesome soundtrack
- Excellent level and character design
- Good use of HD Rumble
CONS
- The plot is almost strictly linear
- Very repetitive gameplay
- The customization system can take a bit of time to get immersed in, as the instructions on how to combine different Functions are not very clear
- Short length
- The voice over narrative can get a bit too overwhelming, that is, at some point in the game, you will wish that the narrator could just shut up; no, there is no option to turn this off
RATING: 4/5 jazz and cyber-slashes
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