An excellent article on the themes in Transistor, and an explanation of its ending [Spoilers!]

[TharsisRoverPets]

I found this article on Reddit:

http://nissacam.com/post/88005598503/finding-her-voice-reds-agency-in-transistor

Reading it gave me a new appreciation of this game. It's been a few months, but I still remember how the story struck me. After reading this article and some other discussion, I think it's because this game subverts a lot of the tropes in video games.




!!!SPOILERS BELOW!!!





We're meant to fight the nefarious bad guys. But none of the bad guys wanted to destroy the world. Sybil was just jealous. Royce wanted to save the world. Asher and Grant killed themselves before we could fight them, which threw me for a huge loop.

We're meant to save the world. Instead, all we manage is vengeance at best and understanding at worst. The world is left mostly blank without any survivors.

We're meant to be the main character. In most other games, you either choose the protagonist's dialog options or the protagonist is entirely silent. You control Red's movements for most of the game, but she writes her own dialog on the terminals. All the way up to the end, Red decides her own fate to our (and the Boxer's) shock and frustration.

I doubt any other ending could have subverted our expectations any better. I left this game with an itch of unsatisfaction. We got nothing we expected out of this game. And that's why it stuck with me. That's why this game is awesome.