every once in a while I watch a letsplay and yeah, it holds up

the art's especially good (I know I need to catch up on the studio's other games) but I also like the inventiveness of the storytelling -- information about the world and situation comes from Unknown's dialog and the occasional news terminal, but also the Traces' backstories, which are decrypted the more they're used in battle

and Red being a literal silenced protagonist is mitigated by making choices Unknown didn't expect

they go back to her place for flatbread and she props the sword up at the table wearing his coat while she eats, and then as they leave he goes "You locked yourself out. How are you gonna... oh."

she's not stopping until this is over.

(the end gives me some :/ but it's a stylistic choice which is effective even if I don't personally enjoy that kind of ending.)

(there's some good fic out there about it though.)

also her body language and expressions make it pretty clear that alongside all that determination she's just as much of a dork as he is

the difference between them is that she's willing to risk them both for a chance at fixing what's gone wrong in Cloudbank, and he would have turned right instead of left.

which is not a horrible choice, though neither of them knew the outcome for Cloudbank wouldn't have changed

it's a different set of priorities.

your honor one of them probably has the braincell but it's anyone's guess as to which.

i love transistor. that ending always guts me.

i also love Hades, which is by the same studio. i actually recently learned how to play some of the music from it on ukulele

it is very gutting

eee that's awesome!

transistor is still my fave out of all the super giant games

I played it over a holiday trip at my parents and it consumed my soul

I have so many prints and things of Red and the Boxer

it's so beautiful! the visuals and music work so well together

it definitely lends itself to visual merch

One bit of lore I've been unable to find is what Unknown says about the ambush if Red orders a Harvest Garden flatbread

in each instance he's annoyed that they left themselves open to attack for "a _ flatbread", with the description changing according to what was ordered

I'm pretty sure most people order the Sea Monster on his recommendation, and some people order something else on principle, but I've never seen anyone order a Harvest Garden

(the funniest one is if they order a Mystery Jan's; when they get to the apartment, Unknown describes it as "topped with... stuff"

)

Red's txting, with the starting a sentence and then deleting it several times before posting an unrelated third comment, is very relatable. I wish they'd had her use text to communicate with Unknown more often, but the scarcity did make the one time she did it super effective.

I'm going to find the thing that's doing this and I'm going to break its heart.

And then she did.

UuuuUUUUUUuuuuugh Royce is such a pathetic two-bit Kujen wannabe

heeeee~

I would want it a lot more if it were a single piece instead of having an easy-to-lose cover, but this does make it look like the Transistor itself has been inserted into one's device as it appears to be used in the game. Very cute.

Oh that's neat!

Isn't it?

heee, it's also cute when the letsplayers get the programming jokes<3

someone pointed out how the Function names end with (), which indicates executing a function, and then got all happy when Unknown goes "hello world"

That's so cool!

(I haven't played Transistor, but I've heard good things!)

^^ I haven't played it either (I have it but my computer wouldn't handle it back when I tried), but I've watched lots of letsplays because it's just so pretty.

pfffft when you queue a move that does more damage than it needs to to destroy an enemy, it's tagged "overkill," and if you keep queueing overkill moves the tag eventually changes to "do you even read"

Oh, alas!

Oh my gosh, that's great, lol

how cute is this anniversary art from the character designer/art director

source
Jen Zee's art is so good

she gives Red such a mischievous expression sometimes

Unknown: goofy golden retriever
Red: THE MISCHIEF

Jen Zee (@0jenzee0) on Xoh cool, concept art for the Transistor! Stuff like this reminds me how many iterations of a thing concept artists do before the canon version is selected.