Transistor: Story discussion

[Jeivar]

I just finished this game a second time, and I find myself very intrigued by the setting and the characters, largely because we know so little about either. And I know I'm late to the party (it came out in 2014), but I still wanted to see if anyone is willing to share their thoughts on this strange little masterpiece.


I find Sybil the most interesting character of Transistor; partly because of her warped love for Red, partly because it's her one mistake that kicks of the plot (and the apocalypse), and partly because we never get her thoughts, save incoherent ranting once her mind has degenerated. I find myself wondering just what her plan was.

Okay, apparently she wanted Red, and blamed Mr. Nobody for Red's distance, deciding that he had to be poisoning Red's mind against Sybil. She wanted him out of the way, and so lied to the Camerata that Red would be alone at the Empty Set, correctly assuming that Nobody would leap to Red's defense and take the Transistor hit for her.

But... then what? Are we to assume that Sybil was actually delusional enough to think that Red would look down on the impaled body or her lover and go "Oh, he's gone. What a fool I was, you're the only one for me, Sybil. I love you, let's make out!" And that the rest of the Camerata would just go "Oh... so you DON'T want us to integrate her? Fair enough, we'll just leave you to your canoodling."

Or did she want Red in the Transistor, so Sybil would literally have her in the palm of her hand... as a giant USB key, not exactly prime canoodling material? (and also marks Sybil as even more twisted)

I have to wonder what Sybil meant by shouting "I saved you!" during the boss fight. Yes, her mind was a shredded mess by that point, but... "saved" her from Nobody's influence? Saved her from the Camerata somehow?

Also, what are we to make of the setting? The nature of Cloudbank, the Country, the Transistor and whatnot?

The Country seems to function as Cloudbank's afterlife, and people fully accept that it exists, to the degree that "retiring to the Country" is seen as perfectly acceptable. And yet murder exists as a concept, and is clearly illegal. We do see Red and Mr. Nobody in a lovely countryside in the end, but does that mean the Transistor is, among other things, a gateway to the Country, or are they just sharing a personal pocket universe within the Transistor? I think one personal interpretation of the whole absorbing-souls-into-USB-key, and the weird containers we see during the Royce boss fight, is that each person absorbed is put in their own personal Matrix universe, but possibly Red and Nobody were able to be together due to Tru Luv.

I do like to think that the general population of Cloudbank made it to the Country rather than being simply erased from existence. I also like to wonder what the Camerata encountering Red and their other victims would be like.

"Um... hi. So... I realise that some mistakes were made..."

And finally, going more into personal opinion than interpretation, what do you think of Cloudbank society and the Camerata's plan? After my first playthrough I felt the game told a terrible tragedy; Cloudbank was an incredibly beautiful city (props to the game designers), and a city built around unlimited creativity certainly is an intriguing concept. There's also something intensely perverse about stealing a singer's voice.

But on my second playthrough, I did feel that I noticed some cracks. If NOTHING was ever safe from being voted out of existence by a fickle public used to being able to do just that, then yes, Cloudbank's beauty wouldn't have meant a whole lot to the average person. Everything was basically reduced to fast food. And I find it somewhat suspicious how the early news reports after the Process starts taking over seem to just be trying to placate the public by telling them that everything is fine.
There's also the issue of Red's songs, on the soundtrack. There's a morose tone to them. They seem to have a fairly anti-Cloudbank stance, or at least against the status quo. At the very least she doesn't seem happy with life in the city, and that apparently was enough to cause violent anger among some listeners.

Still... I wouldn't say any of that justifies the Camerata resorting to serial murder just to fulfil their personal vision of what Cloudbank should be. Especially if the Transistor is indeed a pocket universe, and those trapped inside never make it to the Country.

Thoughts? Sorry this got so long, but then this game is rather special.