5/28/2023 0 Comments Transistor swordHis narration fills the space left by her missing voice throughout the game, and by reacting to events and commenting upon the rich scenery, he renders Cloudbank familiar to the player. He compels the player to move around as Red, calls out to her, and lays out an initial course of action: flee the city. In its place is the Transistor (voiced by the talented Logan Cunningham), the voice of her male companion who has been absorbed by the sword. Given this history, it can feel disheartening to find Red deprived of her voice from the very start of the game. When player characters do have a distinct personality and point of view, they are almost always male. Usually, this is a step up from the ubiquitous white male hero female protagonists remain a rarity, however. These range from whichever races occur in that particular fantasy world to a choice of preferred weaponry or battle style. One only has to glance at a list of the most popular speculative games to find customization options galore. Many games nowadays still reflect this in their development. With a silent protagonist, interactions with non-player characters and participation in game events aren’t sullied by a reaction from the player character that the player disagrees with. Meant to be ‘everyman’-type heroes that the ‘typical’ gamer can relate to, a silent protagonist allows for deeper immersion into a richly developed speculative world. In fact, he-and it usually is a he-is somewhat of a feature, especially within the genealogy of fantasy and sci-fi role playing games. The silent protagonist is nothing new in role-playing video games. Together, they go searching for answers from the Camerata, a shadowy administrative organization in Cloudbank. She is accompanied by the eponymous Transistor, her giant talking sword, which-surprise, surprise-she has also acquired under mysterious and tragic circumstances. Players take the role of Red, an unyielding singer-turned-heroine who has lost her voice under mysterious circumstances. The game is set in a gorgeously rendered futuristic city named Cloudbank, whose districts are being devoured by a strange technological force called the Process. It may be a cliché, but it definitely holds true with indie game developer Supergiant Games’ 2014 sophomore release, the sci-fi action role-playing game Transistor.
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