zeldona
2014
This game has been sitting in my backlog for almost two years and after finally finishing it, I kind of regret not having played it earlier. Transistor boldly throws you into its story and lets you figure out its world yourself. While it is a fairly short and linear experience, it never feels like the game holds your hand. The art, atmosphere, and soundtrack are evocative and simply stunning at times. Despite Red being a silent protagonist, she feels like a real character. After all, there are two “game mechanics” that simply exists to characterise her and do not add to the game otherwise. While I can see that some may find such details unnecessary, I really enjoyed them. Furthermore, the voice actor of Transistor (Logan Cunningham) does an incredible job at bringing his character to life. His voice is so emotive that I hung on his every word.
The combat system, however, took me a while to getting used to. It’s turn-based, but not really. You as player can enter a planning mode in which you can queue up attacks and/or movement, which Red will execute rapidly after you tell her to. Afterwards, you are vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks for a short time. Especially in the beginning, selecting enemies and figuring out attack ranges felt fiddly and imprecise using a controller. I bet this plays so much better with a mouse and keyboard. Moreover, I wish the skills were a bit better explained. The game very much expects you to figure it out yourself and mix and match them to see what they do. Don’t get me wrong, that approach can be fun, but made me feel like I didn’t get the system at first. This was very much a learning-curve for me.
Also, this may be nit-picky, but the German translation of this game is lacking. Some descriptions of skills are confusingly worded, some subtitles of dialogue are just incorrect, and naming an enemy type “Doofi” (which is called Clucker in English for reference) took me out of the experience a little bit to be honest.
Overall, I enjoyed Transistor very much. At its core, it’s a love story in a sci-fi setting that explores how our choices influence the world around us. I love Supergiant’s way of telling a story through environment and gameplay as well as traditional means. I almost wish it would have been longer, but then, it probably wouldn’t have been as a great experience as it was for me.
The combat system, however, took me a while to getting used to. It’s turn-based, but not really. You as player can enter a planning mode in which you can queue up attacks and/or movement, which Red will execute rapidly after you tell her to. Afterwards, you are vulnerable to the enemies’ attacks for a short time. Especially in the beginning, selecting enemies and figuring out attack ranges felt fiddly and imprecise using a controller. I bet this plays so much better with a mouse and keyboard. Moreover, I wish the skills were a bit better explained. The game very much expects you to figure it out yourself and mix and match them to see what they do. Don’t get me wrong, that approach can be fun, but made me feel like I didn’t get the system at first. This was very much a learning-curve for me.
Also, this may be nit-picky, but the German translation of this game is lacking. Some descriptions of skills are confusingly worded, some subtitles of dialogue are just incorrect, and naming an enemy type “Doofi” (which is called Clucker in English for reference) took me out of the experience a little bit to be honest.
Overall, I enjoyed Transistor very much. At its core, it’s a love story in a sci-fi setting that explores how our choices influence the world around us. I love Supergiant’s way of telling a story through environment and gameplay as well as traditional means. I almost wish it would have been longer, but then, it probably wouldn’t have been as a great experience as it was for me.
The beautiful pixel art and heartfelt story set in Indonesia make this game worth playing in my opinion. Overall, A Space for the Unbound has a lot of heart and charm. The ending especially is great and concludes the narrative in a satisfying way.
To make it hit harder, however, it probably should have been one or two hours shorter. The middle parts suffered from pacing issues and dragged on for a bit too long. The puzzles are fine, nothing too challenging, and the main game mechanic, called space diving, is quite compelling. Only the fighting (implemented as sequenced quick time prompts) felt uninspired at times. Moreover, I wish a chapter select option were unlocked after finishing the game in order to complete some of the sidequests you may have missed during your first playthrough, especially since checking them all off rewards you with a lovely bonus cutscene in the end.
Despite some of its shortcomings, I enjoyed my time playing A Space for the Unbound and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-driven games with laid-back gameplay.
To make it hit harder, however, it probably should have been one or two hours shorter. The middle parts suffered from pacing issues and dragged on for a bit too long. The puzzles are fine, nothing too challenging, and the main game mechanic, called space diving, is quite compelling. Only the fighting (implemented as sequenced quick time prompts) felt uninspired at times. Moreover, I wish a chapter select option were unlocked after finishing the game in order to complete some of the sidequests you may have missed during your first playthrough, especially since checking them all off rewards you with a lovely bonus cutscene in the end.
Despite some of its shortcomings, I enjoyed my time playing A Space for the Unbound and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys story-driven games with laid-back gameplay.
This game is such a gem! The art style and animations are absolutely charming, the dungeons are intricate, but not frustrating, and the overworld is filled to the brim with secrets.
While the story is certainly not the most innovative, the core mechanic of the game makes more than up for it in my opinion. Shrinking down and exploring the world as a minish feels great and I especially liked the many interconnected puzzles in Hyrule Town. Moreover, I enjoyed the fact that Ganondorf isn’t featured in this game at all, but a mage called Vaati instead. The boss fight at the end felt challenging and the end phase took me a while to figure out.
The only thing that didn’t click with me was collecting mysterious shells for the figurine gallery. However, since it is optional, I pretty quickly just ignored Carlov and his figure-dispensing machine of doom altogether.
Overall, I really loved playing this game. It has easily become one of my top five Zelda games.
While the story is certainly not the most innovative, the core mechanic of the game makes more than up for it in my opinion. Shrinking down and exploring the world as a minish feels great and I especially liked the many interconnected puzzles in Hyrule Town. Moreover, I enjoyed the fact that Ganondorf isn’t featured in this game at all, but a mage called Vaati instead. The boss fight at the end felt challenging and the end phase took me a while to figure out.
The only thing that didn’t click with me was collecting mysterious shells for the figurine gallery. However, since it is optional, I pretty quickly just ignored Carlov and his figure-dispensing machine of doom altogether.
Overall, I really loved playing this game. It has easily become one of my top five Zelda games.
Finally took the time to play it on NSO as my family never owned a copy back in the day.
I loved the free exploration, the scattered secrets and items in the overworld, as well as the music of course. I never quite realised how many staple features, iconic songs (such as Zelda’s lullaby) and enemies in the series were first introduced in this SNES game. That really surprised me and made me smile. Most of the dungeons were indeed well designed, challenging and felt mostly satisfying to solve.
However, the game shows its age somewhat in my opinion. Some of the solutions to puzzles are pretty obscure, the hitboxes of enemies felt frustratingly inconsistent at times, and there is a fair bit of backtracking involved, especially if you didn’t pick up a certain item at the right time. Honestly, I’m thrilled that I was able to use save states, so the latter point wasn’t that much of an issue in the end.
I enjoyed it overall and I’m super glad to finally have crossed off such an iconic game from my backlog.
I loved the free exploration, the scattered secrets and items in the overworld, as well as the music of course. I never quite realised how many staple features, iconic songs (such as Zelda’s lullaby) and enemies in the series were first introduced in this SNES game. That really surprised me and made me smile. Most of the dungeons were indeed well designed, challenging and felt mostly satisfying to solve.
However, the game shows its age somewhat in my opinion. Some of the solutions to puzzles are pretty obscure, the hitboxes of enemies felt frustratingly inconsistent at times, and there is a fair bit of backtracking involved, especially if you didn’t pick up a certain item at the right time. Honestly, I’m thrilled that I was able to use save states, so the latter point wasn’t that much of an issue in the end.
I enjoyed it overall and I’m super glad to finally have crossed off such an iconic game from my backlog.
2021
Really enjoyed my time playing this game. The art is gorgeous, the character designs are unique and the music is consistently fantastic. Moreover, the puzzles and dungeons are well thought-out and just challenging enough in my opinion. The cooking mechanic is also quite fun and encourages you to experiment with the many ingredients you can pick up at various stores in order to find all the recipes. The combat is decent, but sometimes frustrating, and definitely not the game’s strong suit.
Where it shines, however, are the characters. Sam is a charming lead who worms herself into your heart fast. She is talkative and full of life, but naïve and trusting to a fault at the same time. Hence, she complements the other main character, John, in a great way, as he is the silent, weary type with a heart of gold and distinctive protective streak. The side characters are pretty great too and feel alive with their own background stories and motives. Overall, the game is extremely narrative heavy and expects you to read a lot of dialogue. So if that’s not your thing, this game is probably not for you.
There is one chapter in the game that feels somewhat out of place (Once Upon a Time in Monkollywood). It really slows down the pacing of the story and features an exasperating stealth section. Otherwise, I enjoyed the story overall and its bittersweet conclusion. Although, I think the ending may probably be too vague and open-ended for many.
Sadly, the game crashed seven times during my entire playthrough. It mostly happened right after or before loading cutscenes. I never lost any real progression as the autosave feature is super solid. Still, it was a little annoying. So as others have already pointed out, probably play the PC or Xbox version instead if you have the choice.
Where it shines, however, are the characters. Sam is a charming lead who worms herself into your heart fast. She is talkative and full of life, but naïve and trusting to a fault at the same time. Hence, she complements the other main character, John, in a great way, as he is the silent, weary type with a heart of gold and distinctive protective streak. The side characters are pretty great too and feel alive with their own background stories and motives. Overall, the game is extremely narrative heavy and expects you to read a lot of dialogue. So if that’s not your thing, this game is probably not for you.
There is one chapter in the game that feels somewhat out of place (Once Upon a Time in Monkollywood). It really slows down the pacing of the story and features an exasperating stealth section. Otherwise, I enjoyed the story overall and its bittersweet conclusion. Although, I think the ending may probably be too vague and open-ended for many.
Sadly, the game crashed seven times during my entire playthrough. It mostly happened right after or before loading cutscenes. I never lost any real progression as the autosave feature is super solid. Still, it was a little annoying. So as others have already pointed out, probably play the PC or Xbox version instead if you have the choice.