This is the official Transistor thread for the MBLC.
Talk about your progress, the story, post a video of you playing, etc. If you want to talk about spoilers, do this: [spoiler]spoiler text goes here[/spoiler]
Have fun!
I played about an hour and change this past night, and my first two thoughts are: holy shit this game is pretty, and the soundtrack is amazing.
The combat system is already getting a little bit overwhelming, although I do really like it. There’s just too many attack combinations for me to dig through, and I can see myself just picking a couple and sticking with them the rest of the game (unless of course they stop working).
So far, I’m having a lot of fun.
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I just started playing this game for an hour or so. This game is indeed super pretty and the audio (soundtrack + voices) is super nicely done.
I have the same issue with the battle system. It’s a little bit overwhelming indeed, mainly the way you can combine and modify the different attacks. I have no clue yet wat some modifications are actually doing, but at the same time it isn’t that hard to defeat the enemies at this point.
Progress: I’m currently going to stage 3 after I just defeated Sybil.
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About 3 hours in. I keep feeling like my choices in attacks are terrible. It shouldn’t be so hard! :V Maybe I am just bad.
I am liking it though. Highly stylized 
worried the voice is going to get to me in a few hours but we’ll see.
Red losing her voice : schadenfreud
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So I just beat the game and am starting on Recursion (new game+)
The last boss is pretty easy. I ended up using Help() with modifiers Mask() and Flood(), and then Spark() with modifiers Purge() and Void(). Other passives like Jaunt() and Breach() let me go first on each turn, so Roy never got a chance to attack. Some of the limiters are insane. Overloading functions whenever you uninstall them? Losing MEM in the middle of battle and getting your functions uninstalled? The shielded bad cells one is annoying. I usually have on Superiority, Abundance, and Efficiency
I really wish (like I think most games ought to do) they had an endless dungeon I could delve through. The game was fun but rather short. It must have been maybe 6 hours? Probably shorter. I will see what the second playthrough yields.
The backdoor missions were alright. They were a pretty cool way to teach the player how to use different combination functions. The last Planning one being especially important. Comboing Void() Crash() and Mask() to backstab a jerk for over 3k dmg in one turn? Pretty cool~
I don’t see a whole lot of replay-ability without something like a mission room arena or an endless dungeon. Especially on a game like this which is kind of mostly storytelling. I didnt really care too much for the ending. Even after playing as Red for awhile I kinda didnt care that she decided to kill herself. She doesn’t really seem to have any emotions or motives of her own so I kinda felt like it was an empty death, and didn’t really mean much. I guess she must have done that so her and the dude in the transistor can be together? But how well do they know eachother really? The entire time the guy’s voice gave me the creeps. I dunno if they were lovers beforehand or if he was just a stranger who stood in the way of the transistor before it hit her? It’s weird that the guy doesn’t have a name. Also, they took away her voice but she never really tries to communicate anything so it seems meaningless to me. Having not shown the difficulty of not having a voice, it makes her seem even less of a person. At least the game play is fun for the few hours it is worth.
Played another (small) chunk. Wow, I have a hard time getting into this game. I like the idea, I like the style and concept, but it hasn’t really clicked with me yet. I think I didn’t pay enough attention while they explained the combat system, because I don’t really understand the customization yet and I think I’m almost at the end second boss after high rise. I feel I’m just freezing time, backstabbing enemies and warping out again. Rinse and repeat.
I tried not to use the Turn() powers for the most part like you said it kinda makes the game easy. Most of the game I was using Spark() with Crash() and Purge(), and trying to figure out other ways to fight without using Turn(). Help() helped. 
After you figure out a good pattern of functions the game gets very simple. Recursion (New Game+) brings up the difficulty but lets you keep your progressive powers. After you have obtained all function types, they will also let you choose from functions you already have, allowing you to use them twice as both a main function and a modifier or a passive. Example : Packet() with modifier Packet() will make larger more devastating packets than normal. Or you can use Packet() as a main function while having Packet() equipped as a passive as well, randomly dropping packets every 10 seconds as well as on command.
Finally sat down with it for a while. Not long enough to have formed a useful opinion yet, mind you.
The Supergiant touch is very visible, and yeah, the game really is gorgeous. I have a suspicion I’ll be hit by a truck full o’ feels during the playthrough, though. I’m scarily susceptible to melancholy during the winter and I get a feeling this will feed into that.
Just got past the second boss. The ‘active pause’ is really interesting, but even without using it I feel like I’m just bruteforcing most of the encounters. Really love the atmosphere, though.
So I finished Transistor today.
I’m not in love with it. It looks gorgeous, the audio is amazing, but it somewhat boring.
The story didn’t really click with me, I think I didn’t pay attention on my first play through to understand all the details (not that they really matter). I finally understood the whole customization of your moves/skills. It’s a pretty interesting system and I wished I put some more time figuring out what cool combo’s and modifiers are. That being said, in the end it didn’t feel much different. I was able to use more or less the same set of moves on the same kind of enemies over and over again. The enemies didn’t really pose a threat and everything felt pretty repetitive.
I probably give it another run since it is so short, see if the experience is different given that the really offer it as a recursive() option.
Amazing looking game, interesting combo/moves system, repetitive and somewhat boring gameplay. 
3 out of 5 stars 
The one thing this game definitely has going for it is its style. I don’t know if I understand what’s going on with the story too much, but I like looking at the environments. I think I’m about 2/3 finished so far. I just beat the spine of the world, which is also an awesome song on the soundtrack.
The game overall is starting to lose favor with me. You seem like you just run from area to area and fight the same kinds of enemies over and over. I’m not too good at it, and I lose my moves too often it seems like. I think I’m having more fun with the challenge rooms than the actual game.