Hello, dear reader, I hope you’re having a good day. I’ve been playing Transistor on my iPad. It is also available on PS4 (PlayStation 4) and PC (personal computer). I have a Let’s Play series of videos, and tomorrow I’ll have video reviews, on Lunar Nebula LLC Gaming. I’m not being paid to write this blog, and it contains information based on my opinion after beating the game’s first playthrough. I think Transistor’s age rating is appropriate, yet I could see a reasonable argument being made for it to be raised to high school age. It’s 12+ on the App Store for infrequent/mild realistic violence and infrequent/mild profanity or crude humor. Several curse words do pop up in the game. The violence feels digital and unreal. Transistor is from Supergiant Games, LLC, the creators of Bastion. It has a similar brooding quality with a darker overall story tone. It starts with the Transistor impaling Red’s love interest. I was surprised it could be tastefully done, yet Supergiant Games pulled it off. The ending could also be controversial. Hopefully, I don’t spoil it, yet I would liken it to Romeo and Juliet. If you don’t think your kids are old enough for Shakespeare, you may want to keep them away from Transistor. Plus it gives you a great reason to take the tablet and play the game before they do. Just to check, of course.
Disclaimer: I’m not being paid by Supergiant Games, LLC or anyone else to write this review. The only money I could make would be through advertising on this site or on YouTube at this point in time.
Parents should know- As mentioned above, curse words do appear in the game. There are no f-words, it’s about TV-PG levels of curses. I don’t remember seeing any blood or gore. People do die. The setting is kind of apocalyptic and lonely. Once again, the ending is reminiscent of a less tragic Romeo and Juliet. There are no in-app payments. Pay once and play forever.
Life Lessons- Our loved ones can undergo tragic, life-altering events. We can find joy even after such a traumatic experience impacts our lives. Eventually, we can find a new way to see the world, adjust to life’s challenges, or find a way to rebuild after everything feels broken.
Story- It’s amazing. It can be hard to follow. There are lots of background stories hidden in the functions themselves. Think of it as an interactive movie, or a less dense, more streamlined Dark Souls with cool narrators. To summarize without too many spoilers, Red’s lover was killed by the Camerata and is now imprisoned in the Transistor, leading you on a quest for answers. The world is being destroyed by the Process in the background.
Gameplay- Transistor is a mixture of an action role-playing game and a turn-based strategy game. The game is designed to use both systems. I leaned heavily on the strategic aspect. The turn-based strategy comes from Red’s special ability to slow down time with the Transistor and to execute her moves while enemies are stuck. Some enemies will prevent you from using your Turn Planning ability. Just like Bastion, Transistor is also designed to be played more than once if you want to unlock everything.
TIPS- Several things new players should know: You can undo your planned moves in Turn(). Your combat forecast in Turn () can be wrong. The combat forecast does not account for enemies moving after you hit them. Some enemies should be defeated before others. Cheerleaders are usually the first you need to defeat. There are plenty of guides online like the following:
‘“Death isn't the end of things in Transistor... when you lose all of your HP, one of two things will happen: If your Turn() is charged up you will get an "Emergency Turn()", which lets you bypass that fatal blow and plan out an action turn. Very nice of them. If it isn't, you will get "Overload". What Overload does is takes your ability with the most memory use and then DELETES IT. You will then lose access to that ability and whatever upgrades were on it, but your life will be re-filled completely. This essentially gives you several life-bars as you only lose one ability at a time, although if you are losing multiple abilities in one fight something is definitely wrong! You know which ability has the most memory usage as it is the ability with the gold box around it. Or y'know... you could just see it in the Access Point... Still, once an ability is lost it isn't lost forever. Instead it is "locked out" and you'll need to visit a number of Access Points until it is ready to go again. A chance to try something new, perhaps? Good thing there are Access Points everywhere, but you'll still likely spend one or two battles without a number of abilities…”’
The quote above comes from a walkthrough at https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/707823-transistor/faqs/71516. I don’t take any responsibility for its content. Look out for spoilers in it. It contains every unlockable background description on the function characters.
Controller- Transistor fixed the issues Bastion had with controllers and menu access. It plays very well with a Nimbus controller. In fact, I prefer it! The touchscreen lacked accuracy compared to the controller.
Sound- The music is original, meshes with the story, and is available to purchase separately. The ending song is reminiscent of Bastion’s credit roll. Combat sound effects work, voices fade when you enter your Turn () planning, and add to the experience.
Price- This is a paid game on iOS and other platforms. There are no in-app payments. It is usually $9.99 on the App Store, but it’s sometimes on sale.
iPad notes- Transistor requires at least 2.37 GB of data available to download. It only works on third generation or later iPads and iPhones. Some sections of the game made me turn up the brightness on my iPad Air 2 to increase visibility. The game crashed several times in my playthrough.
Issues- I ran into several points in the game where loading screens would crash Transistor. This was not a fun experience. This required me to wait for the game to restart completely after crashing and play through several areas a second time. Thankfully, the crashes only ever happened once, and the game would load smoothly upon the second entry. Make sure to save and even backtrack to access points to avoid replaying the same fights. You can see this in my let’s play on Lunar Nebula LLC Gaming.
Other reviews- Transistor isn’t new. More reviews have been written. I don’t have any specific recommendation on who to watch. IGN, TotalBiscuit, and others cover the game. I do not take responsibility for their content.
Would I recommend Transistor on the App Store? It depends! Transistor is fantastic when it works. Hands down. The crashing issue can ruin the experience and pull you out of the game because the game takes several minutes to load when you restart it. I was frustrated with it, and I may have quit playing the game if not for the motivation to do videos and reviews on it. It takes a lot of space on your device and it’s not free. I enjoy the graphics, music, and gameplay from Supergiant Games. The story is captivating and Transistor feels like a piece of art you can play. If you have $10 to spend and can forgive a few tiny hiccups, then Transistor is another game to add to your collection!
by Brian Petrilli AKA Jalinon
Disclaimer: I’m not being paid by Supergiant Games, LLC or anyone else to write this review. The only money I could make would be through advertising on this site or on YouTube at this point in time.
Parents should know- As mentioned above, curse words do appear in the game. There are no f-words, it’s about TV-PG levels of curses. I don’t remember seeing any blood or gore. People do die. The setting is kind of apocalyptic and lonely. Once again, the ending is reminiscent of a less tragic Romeo and Juliet. There are no in-app payments. Pay once and play forever.
Life Lessons- Our loved ones can undergo tragic, life-altering events. We can find joy even after such a traumatic experience impacts our lives. Eventually, we can find a new way to see the world, adjust to life’s challenges, or find a way to rebuild after everything feels broken.
Story- It’s amazing. It can be hard to follow. There are lots of background stories hidden in the functions themselves. Think of it as an interactive movie, or a less dense, more streamlined Dark Souls with cool narrators. To summarize without too many spoilers, Red’s lover was killed by the Camerata and is now imprisoned in the Transistor, leading you on a quest for answers. The world is being destroyed by the Process in the background.
Gameplay- Transistor is a mixture of an action role-playing game and a turn-based strategy game. The game is designed to use both systems. I leaned heavily on the strategic aspect. The turn-based strategy comes from Red’s special ability to slow down time with the Transistor and to execute her moves while enemies are stuck. Some enemies will prevent you from using your Turn Planning ability. Just like Bastion, Transistor is also designed to be played more than once if you want to unlock everything.
TIPS- Several things new players should know: You can undo your planned moves in Turn(). Your combat forecast in Turn () can be wrong. The combat forecast does not account for enemies moving after you hit them. Some enemies should be defeated before others. Cheerleaders are usually the first you need to defeat. There are plenty of guides online like the following:
‘“Death isn't the end of things in Transistor... when you lose all of your HP, one of two things will happen: If your Turn() is charged up you will get an "Emergency Turn()", which lets you bypass that fatal blow and plan out an action turn. Very nice of them. If it isn't, you will get "Overload". What Overload does is takes your ability with the most memory use and then DELETES IT. You will then lose access to that ability and whatever upgrades were on it, but your life will be re-filled completely. This essentially gives you several life-bars as you only lose one ability at a time, although if you are losing multiple abilities in one fight something is definitely wrong! You know which ability has the most memory usage as it is the ability with the gold box around it. Or y'know... you could just see it in the Access Point... Still, once an ability is lost it isn't lost forever. Instead it is "locked out" and you'll need to visit a number of Access Points until it is ready to go again. A chance to try something new, perhaps? Good thing there are Access Points everywhere, but you'll still likely spend one or two battles without a number of abilities…”’
The quote above comes from a walkthrough at https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/707823-transistor/faqs/71516. I don’t take any responsibility for its content. Look out for spoilers in it. It contains every unlockable background description on the function characters.
Controller- Transistor fixed the issues Bastion had with controllers and menu access. It plays very well with a Nimbus controller. In fact, I prefer it! The touchscreen lacked accuracy compared to the controller.
Sound- The music is original, meshes with the story, and is available to purchase separately. The ending song is reminiscent of Bastion’s credit roll. Combat sound effects work, voices fade when you enter your Turn () planning, and add to the experience.
Price- This is a paid game on iOS and other platforms. There are no in-app payments. It is usually $9.99 on the App Store, but it’s sometimes on sale.
iPad notes- Transistor requires at least 2.37 GB of data available to download. It only works on third generation or later iPads and iPhones. Some sections of the game made me turn up the brightness on my iPad Air 2 to increase visibility. The game crashed several times in my playthrough.
Issues- I ran into several points in the game where loading screens would crash Transistor. This was not a fun experience. This required me to wait for the game to restart completely after crashing and play through several areas a second time. Thankfully, the crashes only ever happened once, and the game would load smoothly upon the second entry. Make sure to save and even backtrack to access points to avoid replaying the same fights. You can see this in my let’s play on Lunar Nebula LLC Gaming.
Other reviews- Transistor isn’t new. More reviews have been written. I don’t have any specific recommendation on who to watch. IGN, TotalBiscuit, and others cover the game. I do not take responsibility for their content.
Would I recommend Transistor on the App Store? It depends! Transistor is fantastic when it works. Hands down. The crashing issue can ruin the experience and pull you out of the game because the game takes several minutes to load when you restart it. I was frustrated with it, and I may have quit playing the game if not for the motivation to do videos and reviews on it. It takes a lot of space on your device and it’s not free. I enjoy the graphics, music, and gameplay from Supergiant Games. The story is captivating and Transistor feels like a piece of art you can play. If you have $10 to spend and can forgive a few tiny hiccups, then Transistor is another game to add to your collection!
by Brian Petrilli AKA Jalinon