Review: Bastion

Indie developer Supergiant Games makes a huge splash with Bastion, their debut release. This Xbox Live Arcade action RPG features amazing art, extremely polished combat mechanics, and killer ambiance. It also has something I’ve never really seen done before: a dynamic narrator. While I initially was skeptical of the idea of narration, like almost everything else in Bastion it exceeds expectations. Put it all together and you end up with a game that ranks near the top of the list of best XBLA titles, period.

In modern times, when you hear “action RPG” you probably think of a dungeon crawler in the vein of Diablo. But well before gamers were digging under Tristam, consoles had their own version of the action RPG. In the early nineties, Japanese developers released games such as A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana. This is the style of action RPG that Bastion draws heavy influence from.

One of the marquee aspects of those top SNES action RPGs was how refined their combat systems were. Every weapon or ability had a specific purpose, and it generally fulfilled that purpose extremely well. Bastion also does an admirable job with its combat system. There are ten different weapons that are slowly introduced as you progress. At any one time, you can only carry two of these weapons; to switch out what you’re using, you typically have to return to the titular hub town. While the game encourages you to use one melee and one ranged weapon, you can use whatever combination suits you.

With that many weapons, you might think there would be some redundancy. But each weapon feels like it has a distinct enough purpose. You can spam dual pistols, or take controlled sniper shots. You can bash enemies with a hammer, or poke them from afar with a lance. To help you better understand how to wield each weapon, there are small “proving ground” levels where you have to complete a particular challenge with that weapon. For instance, there’s one where you have to eliminate targets with as few bow shots as possible. When you complete a challenge, you will get a prize depending on how well you did. In order to get the top prize, you may have to try a particular challenge several times. This ends up being a fun way to train yourself with each weapon.

But selecting your weapons is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customization in Bastion. Each weapon also has five tiers of upgrades you can purchase, with each tier containing two mutually exclusive options. So you could, for example, cause your arrows to either stun enemies or knock them back. Then there’s the special ability slot, which allows you to map a powerful spell to the right trigger. These spells are often tied to what weapons you have equipped, but some of them can be used with any weapon. Furthermore, your character can go to the Distillery and utilize one alcoholic spirit per level gained. These spirits function as permanent buffs, and can do things like increase your health and damage.

But perhaps the cleverest bit of customization in the game is the way it handles the difficulty. By default, the game will only be moderately challenging to an experienced gamer. However, you can go to the temple and pray to different gods to increase the difficulty in unique ways. One god might make the enemies move faster, another might make them randomly dodge your attacks. Increasing the difficulty also increases the amount of experience and money you get on a percentage basis, so it’s a fair tradeoff. Enabling all the gods in the pantheon makes the game rather difficult, but enabling at least some of them may be worthwhile for more hardcore players.

None of the customization would matter if the combat didn’t flow well in Bastion. Luckily, it’s a great deal of fun when you’re fighting. Every aspect of the combat controls tightly, from the dodge rolling to the counter-blocking. The pace becomes frantic later on, especially if you enable the enemy speed increase deity. But you can definitely tell that a lot of time and effort was spent polishing these core combat mechanics. The only thing that’s really missing on the combat side of things is epic and unique boss battles, which were a hallmark of the SNES action RPGs. The few boss fights in Bastion are more like mini-bosses, and rely on the same core mechanics rather than any unique behavior. The one other thing I would’ve liked to see would be a few more complex puzzles thrown into the levels.

Artistically, Bastion is absolutely gorgeous. The art style heavily draws from anime, which is especially apparent in the character design. But what’s most impressive is the use of color, particularly in the environments. It is absolutely breathtaking as you walk around the levels and they literally form around you; the cities in the game’s story are in the sky, and are strenuously held together by magic of some sort. It’s not an exaggeration when I say that the art in Bastion, at times, rivals that of the anime legends at Studio Ghibli. I get the feeling that Jen Zee and the art team at Supergiant will be receiving quite a few accolades for the art in this game.

Then there’s the narrator who’s a consistent presence throughout the game. While it’s true that the majority of the story narration seems to trigger as you walk through a level, there are smaller pieces of narration that will dynamically vary based on what you do. Fall off in a particular part of the level (which only causes minor damage, as in A Link to the Past), and the narrator might comment about how the area is no longer up to safety code. Switch back to a favored weapon, and you might have the narrator note that you’re using your tried and true. This is managed without making the narration feel repetitive, particularly because it is generally well spaced. So it’s not like in a sports game’s play-by-play commentary where you hear the same canned phrase over and over.

This narration is actually an ingenious way to tell a story in a game, because there are essentially no cut scenes to interrupt the flow. Though it may not be the first game to utilize narration (one could argue that in Portal, for instance, Glados is essentially a narrator), Bastion has perhaps the best use of the device I’ve seen. In the context of the game world, it’s one of the characters you encounter that’s narrating the story to someone else. The narrator’s voice is brooding and largely fitting given the apocalyptic sort of setting. This also plays well with the memorable soundtrack to Bastion. While there are only a handful of themes, they will haunt you well after you’ve completed the game. Combine the sound with the art and you get an atmosphere that resonates.

As for the story itself, it’s very much a broad strokes post-calamity tale where you play the one kid that holds the future in his hands. There are some nuances to the story, but overall it’s more of a setting than an intricate tale. But as I’ve outlined in a previous feature on Game Canary, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The intent of the limited story in Bastion is to provide a purpose for the excellent combat, and a theme to hold together the audiovisual design. In this regard, the story more than fulfills its role.

Given that it’s a $15 downloadable title made by a team of 6 people, it’s not surprising that the length doesn’t come close to those epic, full-priced, action RPGs of yesteryear. However, it’s still a reasonable enough value given that it takes about 8 hours to complete on initial playthrough. There’s also the popular “New Game Plus” mode that, given the extreme customization, will tempt most players. I certainly recommend if you do play through a second time, you enable at least a few of the gods, or the game will be too easy with your maxed out weapons.

To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed the game – as soon as I finished it, rather than writing my review as I normally might, I immediately went back and played through a second time on New Game Plus. And I typically don’t immediately replay games, except in rare instances. Bastion feels like a love letter written to those of us who grew up playing Japanese action RPGs on the Super NES. Even if you’re too young to have experienced its inspirations first hand, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.

VERDICT: SINGING CANARY

Bastion is available now on Xbox Live Arcade. Its PC release date is TBA. Reviews appear every Friday on Game Canary. The Game Canary review system is detailed here.

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Bastion, PC, Singing Canaries, Xbox 360

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