Transistor, new game by the creators of Bastion

well, is the city just "the future" or is the whole thing a simulation in a computer? The process was either nanites which facilitated the ability to more or less rebuild the city , and this a grey goo scenario, or again, whole thing was a program? Yet, the transistor, and process was sortof implied at one point to be otherwordly. handheld transistor, vs giant one? what the hell was up with going inside it to fight the end guy? why did he have one? why where they all over the place there? what was with the farm and the people in the containers in the farm? "when you go to the country, you don't come back." was that supposed to be a death metaphor? Ending up on a farm seems to have tied in there..

I haven't unlocked everything quite yet but just beat it the other night. There's multiple references to "going to the country" throughout the game, at first it just sounds like death, yes, but then it starts to seem more literal the more it gets brought up. That final fight, the reaction caused by returning your Transistor into its cradle sucked/blew both you and Royce into the country, which still isn't clear if it's literally just country or another state of being.

The obvious theme throughout the game is computing, all your abilities are named like programming functions, everything in the OVC terminals is measured precisely, the backstories you unlock by using the abilities gives a lot of credence to the "inside a computer" theory, but it could just as easily be a computer-like society. Despite the computing theme, the people and citizens still clearly feel emotions and differently than one another, but everything is tabulated considerably more than currently possible in our society. It could be a social commentary on where we're headed with things like big data.

The people inside the cubes at the last fight I feel like were people that got absorbed by the Transistor (or possibly other Transistors from other places or times). The typical "death" appears to just be the country, where Red and Royce end up, free and able to act. When the Transistor absorbs someone, they get isolated, removed from the usual flow of things, but still exist to some extent as themselves. When Royce said he looked into the Transistor, it looked like he saw the sky... the forms inside the cubes give the appearance of looking up, into the sky, so it could be he was seeing through one of their eyes.

Things definitely are very fuzzy and abstract for a society that appears very structured and rule-bound. I never felt like the game wasn't giving me enough though, quite the contrary. I felt like it was way more fleshed out than Bastion ever got to. You find out exactly what happened in Bastion (racists blow up the world) just as you do in Transistor (powerful, bored, rich white people want to control everything but their tool gets out of hand), but the world of Bastion never really gets fleshed out even as much as Transistor. Things are vague but I imagine that's to avoid contradictions or unneeded stupidity that could come out of getting too specific.

I liked the ending, especially with the montage of Red and the Narrator being a couple. Red really wanted to get him out, but the player didn't know why. In the end, she transports herself into the Transistor to be with him in 'the country'. Besides, she can't bring people back to life, so what's the point of remaking the world if there's no one left in it, especially since the Transistor effectively creates worlds.

The two things that kinda bother me are that the Narrator doesn't remember who he is and that Red can't speak. Both serve to tell the story, so I can give them a pass, but both happened before the story ever begins. Storytelling wise, if Red could speak, then we'd know why she was going on this journey and if the Narrator knew who he was, then it would spoil the reveal at the end. So like I said, both issues make sense storytelling wise, I just wish there was more explanation on why.

There is no "country." If Cloudbank is the application, then the Transistor is where all of the assets are stored. That's why it can make the world whatever the wielder chooses. Inside the Transistor is everything you need to make another Cloudbank. Inside the Transistor IS another Cloudbank.

The recursion is actually canon to the story. It's an endless loop. This is sort of hinted at in the lyrics of Paper Boat (which Supergiant has confirmed does contain spoilers). Paraphrasing, it's about how Red and Mr. Wonderful will always find each other, and "[they] can run but they can't hide" is in reference to the Process and the fate of Cloudbank.

Also, Asher isn't white.

So this was, for me, the hardest thing to nail down, but there is evidence to suggest exactly what it does. At one point while he's "drunk," Mr. Wonderful says "The Spine... the closer it gets, the farther we grow apart." This doesn't really mean anything significant until you consider that it implies the inverse as well: the closer Red gets to the Transistor, the faster the Spine breaks.

The Spine is literally the backbone of the Process. We know that the Process is interested in self-preservation because it fights to stay alive, and the Process is also capable of "responding" and evolving to threats, so it stands to reason that the Spine was created by the Process as a way to check the Transistor. (It's also figuratively a backbone because it's the Process "taking a stand" or "standing up to" the Transistor.)

Metaphorically speaking, the Spine also represents so much more. It's also a representation of Red's will and her desire to keep moving forward. In the song, this is evidenced by "I know it's mine/twisted and tied." Her will is breaking as she progresses, especially when she finds Grant and Asher dead. (This could partly explain why she did not hesitate to jump from the window, or that could be a coincidence.) After seeing what happens to the Empty Set (or whatever her music hall is called), however, her Spine briefly reappears, enough to drive her to find Royce and drive off the Process for good. Yet once Royce and the Process are gone, her Spine disappears, and so does her will to live.

Mr. Wonderful never loses his memory, he just doesn't talk about himself. And why would be need to? Red already knows who he is. The reason why he asks Red if the data file for Pierce() says anything about him is because Cloudbank always considered him unimportant. Think about Cloudbank society: every citizen chooses a profession and also explains why they've chosen that path. For Red, it was music, for Grant, it was civil service (I think, it's all in their data files).

At one point towards the end of the game, Mr. Wonderful reveals that he finally found his purpose, which was to be the Transistor for Red. While he was alive, Mr. Wonderful never chose a profession. He was undecided, which made him unimportant to the city of Cloudbank and also affected his own opinion of himself, which DEFINITELY contributes to the reason why he took the Transistor hit for Red: he only lives through her. The pre-credits pictures evidence this enough. We see both Red and Mr. Wonderful, but while she is either singing or doing something in the limelight, Mr. Wonderful is only seen doing her hair, bringing her flowers, or putting his coat on her. His life was about being the best partner he could possibly be for Red, and Cloudbank not being able to recognize that as a profession affected him psychologically and led to him accepting his new life as the Transistor.