Transistor spoilers. I thought that the ending to Transistor was touching. Red lost everything, and you knew that from the beginning, it only get's more clear as time goes on. In the end she chooses to be with her love for eternity instead of being the ruler of an empty world.
I'm not really a fan of tragedy or horror. To me, they defeat the purpose of going through the story at all. Like, feelings are good, but slapping on an "everyone dies/is trapped" reeks of "everything you did was for nothing". That being said, I've never played Bastion; I can't comment on it.
Nihilistic - you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means ;) The endings were far from it, Bastion's escape ending is actually quite positive in a sense. I mean both games had a lot of tragic backstories, it ain't going to be suddenly happy-sappy in the end.
I will admit though, pyre looks like a game where in the end everyone loses their soul to pass the world on or something.
But it's so weird and interesting!
I find it interesting that the ending ruins your entire experience with the game. Your interpretation of the Bastion ending is interesting because you consider the choice to be destroying the old world rather than salvaging what's left and moving on
In transistor everyone was already dead so...
I loved both games, with Bastion being the better one.
I saw Transistor's ending coming from a mile away, what with the memory of people being stored, everyone being dead and all that.
And Bastion's ending is not that bad, you get to live in a rad flying island with people you forged bonds with.
Personally, I loved Bastion's story and ending. The entire point of the ending was "You can't stop what has already happened, all you can do is make the best of what you have at the moment. Live in the now, don't dwell over what might have been."
@???: That's a fair thing to say, but it's certainly a semantic choice to bring it up. With limited characters, the turn of phrase was a much more succinct way of stating what I wanted to say. :)
3/x of a world fallen apart, or to move forward into the unknown, despite the fear of losing everything you loved being a perfect metaphor for relationships that you need to end.
Transistor: I cannot hear the ending theme without crying.
From a gameplay perspective, I and two different -
For me, Pyre is an instabuy. Neither was nihilist to me. Yeah, they were both tragic, and heartbreaking, but they gave me some of the best moments of my gaming career.
Bastion: When you meet the singer again when you play through for a second time (Or... just pick the game up again), it 1/x
I never finished the game. Grew tired of that sword, always telling me that everything is bad, even though I've just won a battle. Congratulate me, you prick! I'm fighting for us both!
I don't want more bad ends in videogames for the same reason I don't want netorare - it's effing depressing. I want to win, not to ponder on how life is meaningless. I wanna be the goddamn hero. Screw bad ends.
For example:
I loathed FFXV ending. Long story short and spoilerless, you're destiny's lil' bitch, even though "happy" ending. In Bastion you might be screwed over regarless of choices, but the kid carves his own path regardless, you're recognized for your efforts, and the characters are likeable.
I don't like "hurr durr" bad endings either, but I really loved Bastion. Of course, I didn't choosed the time-loop ending though, everything was effed up, but the kid, narrator, the girl and the priest were all alive. It was satisfying enough to me.
@Censuur there was discussion about that in steam community, but the one who posted his thoughts about this and virtual reality... said Red didnt really leave the virtual world, only went into another layer of it that was located "inside" the transistor
There are millions of games that let you save the world and get your generic happy ending.
Why the fuck would you want another one? Don't you have enough of them? Games like Transistor are a freaking breath of fresh air and much more realistic if you ask me.
@NONE: Not sure where you got all that nonsense about a "virtual world" and "the country" is a euphemism for the afterlife, not some "real life outside the virtual world"
That said, the game basically ends telling the player they have a pretty much blank canvas they can fill in as they see fit.
Transistor had a positive ending if you ask me. Everyone out of the virtual world and finally living in peace in the normal one. Red and her bodyguard are finally together. I fail to see this as sad ending.
Witcher has heavy atmosphere. Transistor, depending on how you view Cloudbank, either morbidly tragic or educational and normal. And the game makes much more sense if you view Cloudbank as virtual reality, so... Good job making something feel completely different, Supergigant Games.
bastions end was less directly bad, more there's no way of knowing which ones worked out. you start the time loop again and maybe humanity doesn't f*ck up this time, or you kill the loop and maybe the world recovers, there's no way of knowing for sure.
