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The incredible success of a little gem called Hades has propelled supergiant games into the spotlight. What was once a relatively niche indie studio has become one of the biggest names in the indie scene.
But the success of hades didn’t just come out of nowhere, they’ve got a back catalogue of a few other games. It’s not many, they’ve only made 4 games in total, Bastion, Pyre, Transistor, and Hades.
but having a small back catalogue of games means you can really see the growth of the studio from one game to the next, and how they changed and improved over time So I decided to play every single game they’ve ever made, all 4 of em.
and I only gave myself a week to do it.
Their first game in their back catalogue came out more than a decade ago. And it’s their first project as a studio, which means they’re trying to make a fantastic game with a less than fantastic budget.
So lets see how it holds up
0:00 Intro
0:50 Bastion
12:48 Transistor
25:49 Pyre
25:25 Hades
46:22 Outro
source
imagine catching an Htwo video 2 minutes after upload LMAO couldn't be me
yes yes YES YES *YEEEESSSS*
12:00 the gap between a trihard reviewer and normal players ekes itself out again…
that scene hit like truck for a lot of people (myself included)
20:00 the theorists commonly attribute this actually to the processed Sybil singing along to Red. The version itself is considered an entirely different sound track (_n C_rcles iirc as opposed to the original "In Circles")
28:50 sadge, some people like VNs (myself, it varies)
really what it needed was for the multiplayer mode (and a quick battle mode) to be put in as base game, because IMO the VN part and overworld relaxation is fine for anyone who isn't turbo trihard
I'mma go ahead and say it, your gripe on the VN part is a you problem lmao
giant games
lol catched it 17 minutes ago
I remember playing bastion when it came out, glad to see they’re still killing it
man i cant put into words how amazing it was to fight sybil for the first time, in circles hit me really fucking hard
Htwo, you really need to do a katana zero video, seriously.
okay
While I do understand and somewhat agree with your opinion on bastion's ending, I do like that one guy, in the rescue ending, that still shoots you, even after everyone else stops, only to be whacked on the back on the head by someone else. It kinda takes away from the emotional feel of the ending, but it's still really funny to me.
next you should play through both
risk of rainrogue legacy gamesAs someone who is into visual novels and played Pyre first, that's completely fair, not everyone is into that and I get that some people would just rather read a book, which is a common complaint I see from most people when the game forces them to read for longer than 10 minutes. I can also agree that some text, like The Scribe's Book could've been actually read to you.
Imho the main gripe I have about the game isn't the amount text, it's definitely everything past the first liberation rite, the game just feels like it needs to recycle previous content and characters mainly focus on talking to you instead of having cool narrative options between each other. If like me, you also liked the game, but AS A VISUAL NOVEL, but you wish the second half was better, then I highly recommend The Pale Beyond.
Bastion was the first game I ever bought on steam and the first game I ever played on computer that wasn't Minecraft. Its hard to overstate how good it was at the time, then transistor came out, and supergiant became my favorite studio. Wish I could have invested cause supergiants stock as an indie studio only went up. Pyre was fantastic u wrong.
To be fair on the unlock thing gripe with Hades, risk of rain is pretty damn heavy on them as well, with a lot of items locked behind achievements, so you're not really going to be getting something like the runalds and kjaros bands off the bat, and also a really good movement item that's the wax quil and i think the red whip may be on the list as well, not sure.
H.T.W.O
Do you have some physical condition or faulty controls that prevent you from clicking/hitting trigger buttons quickly? I cant think of any other reason for that awful pistol gameplay in Bastion
I Played Every SuperGiant Game in a Week
he is talking about rigging yoyr runs when he voids bacpack an item that makes rigging easier
I’d suggest taking another few puffs from that pipe in Bastion. Might fix a few gripes you had hint hint
Bastion was such a neat game to look at when it came out, as a college student going through a game design course. One of my professors basically dedicated an entire class to talking about the game and why the narrative style in it should absolutely not work for a video game. It was so neat to see a game pushing the boundaries on what is accepted and what's not. Hades itself is a fun game, but I definitely don't think it's the best offering that Supergiant ever had – it's just the one that ended up getting the most non-gamer recognition.
I fully agree that Transistor is the best game, esp when your boyfriend is a bigass sword
i feel like Htwo would love heart machine
It is just sad that they are unable to create compelling stories, and no a story in a game is not a book you gotta read to get the "lore"
im watching this drunk. i have a headache
19:41 so that is where that track came
would love to see them break away from the isometric camera style mainly to see how they tackle other perspectives. Feel like they could really do a unique 1st person game through their artstyle.
Honestly I love visual novels because of the voice acting, so because Pyre has gibberish sims voices I don't think I'd enjoy it at all. Any VN I pick up that doesn't have JP voice acting I instantly drop lol
Oh one interesting thing to note, personally I play most of these "smaller" type games on the Switch as thats just what I like to do. Pyre is the only Supergiant game that is not on Switch despite it being on other consoles, I have no idea why.
Pretty good takes the entire way through, very little that I would argue about and none of those are big things. Awesome video and hopefully we can shine some more attention on other indie companies the same way.
Final note, you mentioned that Supergiant has a full time in house music person and I just wanted to let you know about RadicalFish, the people behind Crosscode and soon to be Project Terra as they have the same thing. Denize did all of the music for the base game of Crosscode and a pretty huge chunk of the DLC as well, recently putting out these little snippts of music here and there in the Project Terra channel. Gotta love that little rice ball.
I actually heard about supergiant initially through the transistor soundtrack. Didn't know it was a game until I looked a little closer at the artist and album, and finally played the game. I'll be honest, the game isn't great- or maybe I have a major turn-based skill issue- but it was still very fun to listen to the soundtrack in a game that I had been listening to for the past 2-3 months prior
Pyre speedruns must be amazing
With Hades in particular I personally feel like what many would consider to be faults are actually done on purpose specifically to help with its status as the perfect intro to the genre (I say as someone whose first game in the genre was Hades and now I play like 7 rougelikes, coming up 200 hours on dead cells right now).
Fore example, starting off objectively weaker so its less likely to win on your first run – It's a whole genre that thrives off dying and resetting progress all the way to the start, which is absolutely hated in every other genre. It needs to be established early on that you WILL NOT win every time and thats fine. A lot of other things you mentioned as well but I wont rant.
I first encountered Bastion through my phone. You start with the pistols and hammer, which is a real step upwards from the repeater in my opinion. The two weapons are more diverse than hammer and repeater, both of which you need to stand still for maximum effect (or any for the repeater). With the pistols, you can kite foes or stand your ground from the start, and then it all feels like upgrades. A few weapon upgrades are changed though; instead of being able to throw machetes, you instead have poison slashes and some measure of deflecting. At the time i picked up Bastion, sometime in 2014 or so, i had also picked up Aquaria, both very artistically ambitious games and both available for mobile at the time. They both have excellent music, both have heavy hand-created art aesthetic, and both hold a very special place in my heart. And my time playing those games on my tablet makes me so sad for the state of mobile games which has only deteriorated since 2017 or so.
Do I played every Videocult game in a week next