Hades

The latest title from Supergiant retains their trademark gameplay and narrative design but moves it all into the structure of a roguelike.  But does this change provide a path to another successful action-RPG experience, or is it simply a misstep for a well-regarded indie studio?

Supergiant is a relatively young indie studio, but despite that they have become a very well-known and respected name in the field.  All of their previous releases - Bastion, Transistor and Pyre were all praised for their stylish anesthetics and polished design, particularly in their dynamic narrative that would adapt to the player's actions in real time.  Hades looked to be another in that trend, this time incorporating a lot of roguelike elements into the mix.

The combination proves to be quite an interesting and well-executed one.  As in most every game of this type, you play as a single character (Zagreus, son of Hades) and start with only the barest minimum of a loadout - a single weapon, a relatively low HP total, and a handful of basic moves.  The sword, for example, has a slash, a charging stab, and an area-of-effect power hit.  You'll also get an evasive dash and a basic ranged attack called a "Cast" that deals damage and sticks to an enemy for several seconds after the fact.  Bonus damage is inflicted by attacking enemies from behind, and they can be stunned for a good bit by knocking them back against a wall.  Various traps throughout the dungeons can also be turned to your advantage, but can damage you as well, so some caution is required when using them.

As you venture through the game, you'll earn semi-random powerups from the gods of Olympus, which in turn will grant various upgrades to your abilities.  Zeus can add electrical damage to your attacks or cause an electrical burst when you dash, Ares will add a "doom" effect in similar fashion or turn your Cast into a whirling blade that deals continuous damage, and Aphrodite will apply a Weak effect, causing enemy attacks to deal less damage.  You can also unlock a Call ability that summons a god for an effect - typically dealing damage - with greater effect achieved after you fill the bar to maximum.

It's certainly possible to beat the game with just that, but definitely not easy; particularly as in many action-roguelikes health restoration is rather tough to come by and battles only get faster and more intense as the game goes on, so simple boosts will only get you so far.  This is where the roguelike element comes into play.  As you venture through the dungeon, you'll collect three other types of currency alongside the standard gold for shops - Gems, Darkness and Keys.  Gems let you purchase "remodels" for the dungeon, which add things like more shop rooms, urns that give you gold when broken, or fountains that will restore some of your health (as well as remodels for Hades' castle - mostly just cosmetic, but a nice customization element).  Darkness purchases a litany of upgrades for Zagreus, from extra health to having more Casts to getting up to two extra chances (refilling your health to the midpoint once it hits zero).  Keys in turn unlock more of these, as well as granting you more weapons to utilize - a shield, spear, gauntlets and even a gun are eventually unlocked via keys, and these can be upgraded even further by collecting boss-specific items.  Basically, the game is built around you dying so you can power up your character or try a new weapon for your next attempt, until you eventually you've got enough to finish the story.  Per Supergiant standards, the game also subtly encourages experimentation with each of the different weapons, giving one a random 20% bonus to any Darkness you earn each time you return to the weapon chamber.  Zagerus's room also has a list of "prophecies" to fulfill by selecting various upgrades during your runs, and completing one will earn you a large bonus of one of the three resources, making it worth your while to try every option you're offered.

Unlike many roguelikes, Hades does carry quite a strong story too, and the constant death and resurrection that make up the central focus of the gameplay tie neatly into its design.  Each time you return to Hades' palace, there will be new interactions; some merely humorous (Hypnos poking fun at your recent method of death), while others will gradually reveal more about all of the players in the plot - Zagreus himself, of course, but also more about Hades, the underworld in general and what led it to its current state.  Seeing all of these personalities interact is a treat in itself; the top-notch voice acting from all involved, paired with Zagreus's suave and smooth-talking personality, makes him one of the most fun protagonists in recent gaming memory.  More interactions are also earned by collecting Nectar in the dungeons and gifting it to the various gods, which results in more dialog but often also nets you a gift in the form of a Keepsake.  These in turn can be equipped to gain a bonus for your next run (everything from more HP to bonus damage to having a higher chance to get rare upgrades), and each has three tiers of upgrades that are unlocked through subsequent use.

To be brief, Hades is a triumph; not just another well-executed action game from Supergiant, but a seamless integration of narrative, real-time combat and roguelike elements into a thoroughly enthralling experience. The design is addictive and rewarding enough that you don't mind dying to the challenging obstacles time and again, aided in no small part by the excellent writing and voiceover for all the characters involved.  Those just in it for the story have much to enjoy (and can enable God Mode to experience it with significantly fewer deaths and restarts), but those in for a true test of skill can experiment with all of the various loadouts available and see how far they can get.  Probably the cleverest implementation of story elements into the roguelike format made to date.

Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Supergiant Games
Platform: Windows, macOS, Switch
Released: 2020
Recommended Version: I have only played the PC version but all of them seem to be the same.

Transistor

Transistor is the second outing from Supergiant games, an indie company that made their name with the action dungeon crawler Bastion, a game noted for its atmosphere and dynamic narration.  But does Transistor prove to be a worthy followup to their first hit, or is this cyberpunk RPG just one to be left behind?

Supergiant Games has become a bit of a fan favorite among fans of indie games for their distinct style, with storytelling that's often left vague and open to interpretation, but nevertheless kept engaging by having a narrator tell the story, reacting in real-time to decisions the player makes while playing.  This lent a unique edge to their first major release, Bastion, and gets carried over into Transistor, which is a very different style of game in terms of gameplay but is undeniably built on the same paradigm.

Indeed, Transistor couldn't be more different in terms of setting, taking place in a futuristic city rather than a fantasy world.  Things start off even more vague, with the protagonist (Red) seeing someone impaled on a strange weapon, and in the next scene, controls her as she flees from an unseen attacker, said weapon in hand.  This weapon turns out to be sentient and speaks to her throughout the game, offering commentary on events and reminiscing about their past together, hinting that the personality within the weapon is someone she knows, but little else is elaborated on until much later in the game's runtime. Things get stranger still when it's revealed this weapon has the ability to absorb the recently deceased, apparently preserving their consciousness within some kind of virtual world, while also granting them new special moves and profiles on the movers behind the game's events.

Combat in the game is a unique take, too.  While the game is mostly set in real-time, combat offers the player the ability to use "Turn()" to pause the action and plan out several moves in advance, shown at the top of the screen on a time bar.  Movement and actions alike deplete this bar, but once one plans out their moves, they will activate them in quick succession, moving at much greater speed than their enemies, slightly similar to the VATS system from the newer Fallout games.   This proves extremely useful throughout the game, as many foes move faster than Red and cover in fights is often sparse, meaning one's only option to avoid damage in many cases is to spend Turn() wisely.

Some more twists emerge in battles too.  Attacking enemies from behind or while invisible grants a 1.5x "backstab" bonus multiplier, which does prove very useful, especially with programs like "Jaunt" (which lets you quickly zip around the field) and Mask (temporary invisibility) can also grant the player a tactical advantage.  Enemies are also not simply removed from play once defeated; instead, they spawn "Cells" which must be collected within a few seconds after dropping, or the enemies will respawn and fight anew.  Weaker enemies generally only drop one or two, while larger foes can drop many; thankfully, each missed one won't spawn a larger-scale enemy, but instead just turn into "Bad Cells" - weak but annoying foes.

Health is somewhat oddly handled, too.  While you have a health bar, it being depleted is not immediate death - instead, one of your primary Functions will be broken, robbing you of some of yoru combat options until you visit "Access Points" to repair them, with more powerful ones requiring more unique Access Point visits to fully repair.  However, if at any point you have all four slots empty or broken, you will die and be sent back to the last checkpoint.

Functions are a unique mechanic in their own right.  As mentioned, they serve as your attacks in combat, but they have several other uses as well.  Each of your four function slots has a secondary slot (with a second for each being unlockable over the course of the game), and equipping a function there will grant some properties of that function to the primary one.  For example, equipping Crash in the secondary slot of Breach (a piercing attack) will cause the attack to stun and inflict additional damage over time to anything it hits.  Equipping Mask onto Jaunt will make the player briefly invisible after a dash, while equipping Ping (a weak but quick and Turn-efficient attack) to most any action will reduce the amount of Turn() bar it requires to execute.  Each function also can be equipped in one of four Passive slots to grant the player small bonuses, such as spawning copies to distract enemies after sustaining damage, bolstering the amount of Turn() bar they have, dealing extra damage with all Fuctions, or simply taking reduced damage from all sources.  Each Function takes a certain amount of "Mem" to equip, which the player has a limited supply of but which, like most things, can be improved by leveling up.  This system is highly versatile and allows for many different possible combinations of player loadouts and Function setups, encouraging experimentation to see exactly which combinations will prove the most useful against a given challenge.

Another odd turn for this system is the fact that Functions actually provide a large amount of the game's backstory, unlocking profiles for major players in the plot as they get used.  However, one must use each function in each of the three slot types - active, secondary and passive - in at least one battle each to fully unlock a character's profile, which is a subtle but creative way of encouraging more experimentation on the player's part.

Going even further with this theme, leveling up grants the player Limiters.  These are optional disadvantages one can enable during combat to make their enemies more dangerous, but also grant them greater experience rewards should they successfully win a battle.  These can range from doubling enemy damage output to reducing the amount of available Mem for Functions to giving Cells shorter respawn times to doubling the number of Cells that enemies drop, with each granting a varying experience bonus.  Multiple Limiters can also be stacked, furthering rewards but making things substantially harder for the player.  Moreover, each Limiter also unlocks profiles and tips about the various enemy types, adding a further layer to the game's lore and encouraging the risk-versus-reward element in a clever way.

Supergiant is a company known for their beautiful hand-painted visuals, and Transistor certainly doesn't disappoint there.  Transistor's city is a gorgeous one, with neon lights, statues, structures and decals throughout providing a lot of eye-catching detail, and the animation on Red herself is fluid and graceful, really drawing you in to the energy of the scenario.  Music in the game is mostly low-key but effectively moody, adding to the tense but beautiful atmosphere and providing some genuinely heart-rending moments as the story unfolds.  A surprising amount of it comes with lyrics too, which only draws the player deeper into the world and gets them invested in unraveling the game's mysteries.

In the end, Transistor is another success for the minimalist RPG format, taking a small handful of ideas and using them to their fullest.  Its sparse narrative, revealed only in parts, still manages to be captivating as the player slowly pieces everything together, its characters are relatively few but the ones that are there prove complex and captivating, and its gameplay, while one-note compared to many RPGs, is addictive and enjoyable, letting the player experiment freely with a huge variety of attack types and put their skills to the test via challenges and Limiters that unlock more rewards.  The story itself is rather brief (clocking in at around 10 hours), but Transistor stands as proof that a short, highly-polished amount of content can have so much more to offer than a game that's 100+ hours long just for the sake of being so.

Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Supergiant Games
Platform: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, tvOS, Playstation 4, XBox One, Nintendo Switch
Released: 2014, 2015, 2018
Recommended Version: All versions seem to be identical, but I have only played the PC version personally.