A Confusing Story

[Crispy Mustache]

Does anyone feel a little confused after their first play through. I so wanted to be sweeped up into this amazing world and story, but with Transistor . . . it felt like I'm missing something. Is everyone in the city singer? Why was Red's voice taken away? If the transistor was the tool that was gonna re-build the city, why did they chuck it at Red? There's just so many holes and I wish I could feel them. I'm going to be replaying this one until it all clicks for me. But I'm really dissapointed that I couldn't put it all together. I feel like the ending would have ment alot more if I fully understood it. Supergaint . . . I loved your writing in Bastion, but this feel so incoherent. I wanted to love it . . . I really did. What are you thoughts guys . . .

[matthew]

I have to agree, Bastion had an awesome story, because of the narration, so it sucked you in, told you why you were there and so on, but after a bit of playing this game, (not completed it yet) I'm starting to wonder about the story, it doesn't really grab me like Bastion did, granted the rest of the game is still great, but the story is becoming a major let down.

[JamesGG]

It all makes sense if you pay attention to the details and discover all of the lore. Please go through it one more time paying attention to that and come back to me. ( Ill be doing the same to make sure I get it all )

[Basic]

Originally posted by matthew:

but the story is becoming a major let down.

Despite all of it, we can't say the story was bad. Sure much of it was confusing, but I enjoy when things get hard to understand. I started to dig real deep into the extra-spot reading through the abilities you had. And as the story progressed, I was really paying attention to everything being said.

I was not that let down like you made it sound like. I was quite pleased with the fact that everything was not just thrown at you. You try to fill in the gaps yourself using the info you got. The art throughout the game also gives you a lot of hints, as well as Transistor's voice.

Long story short, I loved it. I loved the story, I loved the new battle system (in comparison to Bastion), and the outcome of it all.

[doomleika]

Originally posted by JamesGG:

It all makes sense if you pay attention to the details and discover all of the lore. Please go through it one more time paying attention to that and come back to me. ( Ill be doing the same to make sure I get it all )

I did, just finished 2nd playthrough and none of it made sense.

What's red's motive?(Revenge? Save the world? Get her voice and boyfriend back) What villians are trying to acommplish? What's process and the connection to transistor(and last minute cradle) Where did the last battle took place, why there are spells(people) in the can in the last battle?

Many question, no answer

[VolOpt]

For a game that was supposed to be so narative driven, the game really didn't do a good job pulling the story together. Yes there was a really simple arc that was conveyed in Red getting from point A to point C but the rest seemed like it was doled out in shreds that didn't really mesh and the bulk was left up to the player to draw their own conclusions.

[Eddie]

Originally posted by doomleika:

I did, just finished 2nd playthrough and none of it made sense.

What's red's motive?(Revenge? Save the world? Get her voice and boyfriend back) What villians are trying to acommplish? What's process and the connection to transistor(and last minute cradle) Where did the last battle took place, why there are spells(people) in the can in the last battle?

Many question, no answer

The answers are there, you just have to look harder. Red's motive was mostly getting her voice and lover's body back. The villians were trying to recreate cloudbank for the better by using the proccess to rewrite the city seeing as the entire city was digital and even the weather was part of the system. The proccess is a singularity. A program that learns and replicates itself and becomes out of control. The transistor is a device that was used to keep the proccess under control and doing what the villians wanted. The transistor also has the ability to collect people's souls/traces/memories w/e and use them as a basis for new creations or "Functions" hence why all your skills are based on people. The last battle took place inside the transistor and the people there were others the villians and even yourself collected into the transistor and are just how you are perceiving them within it's code. The cradle was the interface to the transistor that the villians created and how they controlled the proccess before it got out of hand.

[Gav]

Originally posted by doomleika:

The answers are there, you just have to look harder. Red's motive was mostly getting her voice and lover's body back. The villains were trying to recreate cloudbank for the better by using the process to rewrite the city seeing as the entire city was digital and even the weather was part of the system. The process is a singularity. A program that learns and replicates itself and becomes out of control. The transistor is a device that was used to keep the process under control and doing what the villains wanted. The transistor also has the ability to collect people's souls/traces/memories w/e and use them as a basis for new creations or "Functions" hence why all your skills are based on people. The last battle took place inside the transistor and the people there were others the villains and even yourself collected into the transistor and are just how you are perceiving them within it's code. The cradle was the interface to the transistor that the villains created and how they controlled the process before it got out of hand.

Pretty much what this guy said. As I was thinking about what I had experienced, that's how it all played out on my head.

Make sure you keep switching the functions around too because by decrypting all 3 stages of each one you get that person's entire history and how they ended up in the Transistor.

[VolOpt]

I'm really not sure I consider three paragraphs to be their entire histroy.

[Gav]

Originally posted by VolOpt:

I'm really not sure I consider three paragraphs to be their entire histroy.

I would. What else do you want to know? What school they went to? Where they buy their socks? It tells you exactly what you need to know to understand who that person is/was.

[VolOpt]

Originally posted by Gavin:

Originally posted by VolOpt:

I'm really not sure I consider three paragraphs to be their entire histroy.

I would. What else do you want to know? What school they went to? Where they buy their socks? It tells you exactly what you need to know to understand who that person is/was.

For starters I would have liked to have seen significantly more character development for Sybil and the rest of the Camarata. Being a picture in the opening cutscene, a quick boss fight and three paragraphs really doesn't seem fitting for one of the primary antagonists of the game.

[Mandragore]

The lore is a lot like Dark Souls in its execution. It's unengaging at first, but starting to piece things together is a game in itself. Please keep in mind that the following is half interpretation based on facts, half stuff told through lore and story. So it's not all 100% sure.

Red's motives are all of the above, but most of all it's about getting her loved one out of the Transistor, I think the ending made it pretty clear (as soon as she learns he can't get out, she gets in without a thought, without even trying to "paint" the world and restore it). Oh, and she's also responsible for what happened, to some extent, so guilt plays a part too.

The "villains" are not really villains. They're not bad men, just geniuses who can't stand seeing their world go to waste - the Camerata chief is even described as benevolent, generous, wise and kind in his function (which is, unsurprisingly, a healing one). Basically the city is ridden with social and historical issues, and they feel like it's going to be everyone's doom. So they try to preserve it by incorporating parts of it into the Process, a numerical framework / ecosystem.

The Camerata then proceeded to gather people they consider valuable for their cause, that could help them assert their new world order : architects, artists, politicians, fashion designers, etc. Here, one thing is unclear to me. Do they intend to trap those people into the transistor, which is why it's considered the key to controlling the Process, or will they let join as corporeal human beings ?

I have a feeling the big masterplan is about storing everyone in the Process to abolish inequalities, need for a political system, and, well, death. They didn't plan for the city to become infected.

When they try to enlist Red, they discover her lover is with her, protecting her. They "kill" him using the Transistor, a weapon they crated, causing his "soul" to be transferred into it. What they didn't expect was Red stealing the sword, causing the Camerata's grasp onto the Process to falter. They manage to partially incorporate Red into the Process (her voice), but it's unclear how.

The Process then starts to "drip" into this physical dimension, contaminating, incorporating the city into its own ecosystem. It's not bad or evil, not more evil than fire ; it's just meant to absorb everything it touches. It's not even aggressive in itself, only trying to eat more and more. In the end, most of the Process units aren't even hostile, and you get a glimpse of their breeding methods.

It really is an ecosystem parallel to ours, only with different rules. Unfortunately, the number one of those rules is : what's alien to the Process is an anomaly, and must be rectified. In short, the Process is pretty much like Agent Smith from the Matrix, only completely devoid of emotion.

As far as the Cradle is concerned, they seem to be somehow inside the Transistor, and the cans are the numerical souls of everyone you captured with the sword.

That leaves some questions unanswered, any theory is welcome :

- What exactly happened with the Transistor ? Why is it the key to controlling the Process ?
- Is Red's boyfriend the first one to be trapped inside ? He seems to, somehow, not be trapped in a can like all the others.
-- What happened with Red's partial incorporation ? I have a feeling there's something huge behind that question that could shed a new light on the whole plot.
- What is the Cradle ? What did Royce mean by "looking into the Transistor ?" Why are there so many other Transistors inside ? How did Red get out ?
- What is the Spine ? What's its role in all this ?

[VolOpt]

- Is Red's boyfriend the first one to be trapped inside ? He seems to, somehow, not be trapped in a can like all the others.

I would go with no he wasn't the first there were others before him, the ones you unlock access to as you level up. The reason he is conscious is likely because his data was corrupted.

- What is the Spine ? What's its role in all this ?

I've sorta assumed since their whole game had a computer theme to it that the Spine was somehow analogous to a network backbone. What I was never really clear on is why the guy in the transistor went all wonky whenever it was near by. Was it because the Spine would have represented significant server load or?

[Mandragore]

It seemed to me like the Spine is some kind of antithesis to the Process, an ancient biological being (hey, the full name is "spine of the world") who's very, very mad to see the universe get all...computerized.

[TotesAdorbs]

Prior to fighting Royce, he says something akin to "...And if you listen closely enough, you can even hear the voices of some of those trapped inside, providing you knew them before of course." Which is why the only voice we can hear is "his" I believe.

[The Comedian]

I'm just disappointed you have almost zero interaction wth Camerata for like 90% of game. Grant seems like a pretty cool badass guy. 3 paragraphs of lore, oops, he is dead. What a shame.
Supergiant should have definetely used the fact that initially you view them as evil and sinister group and threw in more information about those guys in the first half of the game.
I expected more in terms of story from Transistor. Bastion is better for me here. In other aspects, I liked Transistor more.