Bastion

@Enlong: I heard that the Bastion Bourbon and Leechade do work together the way Belisaurius said, but only on the Xbox 360 version.

A Secret Skill that worked surprisingly well for me was Squirt Lure. The things couldn't really fight, but they made a good distraction. Once I upgraded my Fang Repeater, I switched to Bolt Burst since the homing effect carries over.

I find that the Gel Cannister really helps in Who Knows Where. If you can keep the turrets alive long enough to cover the entire field, they get rid of enemies really quickly.

edited 4th Aug '12 5:54:31 PM by thiefoftime

Oh yes. The Portal turrets are amazing. And no, I don't think they're broken, surely it's intentional.

The only other skill I used extensively was the one that traps enemies, I think I got through the second Who-Knows-Where with it during my all-idols attempt. Those fething birds.

No idea what drinks I picked anymore. I really should play this again now.

Just beat Bastion tonight. Saved Zulf and Evacuated, because I just couldn't stand to see the traitorous little bastard be beaten up by his own comrades, and Rucks made the Bastion's time warp sound really super unreliable.

Such a fantastic game. Escaping with Zulf was one of the most heartwarming moments in any video game I've played.

Just finished it. Saved Zulf, and then agonized for five minutes whether to evacuate or fix the Bastion. Ended up fixing it, though I felt awful for Zia. Never a game made me think so hard about my choices.

Necro, I know, but something's been bugging me about the whole Reset vs. Evacuate ending.

We are made to think that even if you choose the Reset option, the world just blows to bits anyway and the whole thing turns into a loop until the Kid chooses the Evacuate option instead. Yet that would suggest that in the world of Bastion, time is an immutable thing that can't be altered-

-but wait. Every playthrough of the game stands as a timeline of these events, right? And doesn't the Kid always subtly choose different paths, different weapons, different rates of completion every time he has to go through this? But perhaps more importantly, isn't he allowed to choose to either reset or evacuate? If everything that'd happen couldn't be changed, he'd be doomed to choose the Reset button every time, wouldn't he? (that's bloody depressing btw)

So if the game's events can truly differ on each reset, then surely there must have been timelines where the Calamity didn't happen, right? Because the game has no reason to show us such peaceful timelines, we never know about them, and our knowledge is confined to the ones where the Calamity did happen. And then maybe that leads to why people think Resetting just lets the Calamity happen again.

Of course, there's the possibility that the Calamity happened out of circumstance and without any human intervention. As in, it happened as naturally and inevitably as an earthquake or a typhoon, or maybe out of an accident that no one could prevent; no amount of timeline resetting would stop something like that from happening. So, thoughts?

edited 25th Jan '13 9:41:32 PM by Tropernovan

Yeah, there definitely are subtle differences in how it all plays out. Rucks' narration stops a few times, getting feelings of deja vu about the whole story.

So, my thinking is that time can be changed, but the Bastion's reset function tragically isn't powerful enough. When all's said and done, they're back in a time a few days, perhaps, before the button is pressed, and a few differences in small events aren't enough to stop what's in motion. It's also possible that the survivors; that is, the ones on the Bastion, are the only ones who have even residual memories of what happened, which doesn't help if the people who pressed the button aren't part of that group. However, residual memories held on to by the survivors eventually lead to the Kid choosing to evacuate, breaking the cycle.

edited 25th Jan '13 9:47:30 PM by Enlong

A friend was kind enough to gift it to me, out of the blue. I think it was during the passing Christmas Steam Sale.

It's quite fun, I gotta say. And the weapons are neat.

Yeah. I really like how you can build a weapon in the direction you want, by choosing one of a two different upgrades at each level. And there are enough weapons to find the right fighting style for most any player.

I think that the reset only goes back so far— to a specific point where the Calamity hasn't happened yet, but the events leading up to it have already occurred and the trigger will inevitably be pulled. EDIT: Ura'd.

I beat all of the "Who-Knows-Where with 10 idols" achievements with Mortar and Bellows. Something powerful (and with the right upgrade, immune to self-damage) and something that can bypass armor. After that, it's just Leechade and whatever attack/defense/health buffs you can muster.

edited 25th Jan '13 9:57:37 PM by Blueeyedrat

I beat Stranger's Dream with 5 idols (Micia, Pyth, Hense... and I can't remember the other two) with Bellows and Carbine.

Specifically, stationary, massive-range, shielded grip, lingering burn, extra width Bellows, and super-speedy crackshot carbine.

They pair pretty nicely together.

And yes, Leechade is awesome. It actually occasionally makes Micia a beneficial idol. Set yerself up with something like a single Pincushion, and continually hit it after it regenerates, in order to regenerte yourself.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:05:08 PM by Enlong

There are some pretty crazy combinations with upgrades and secret skills. If you use Bolt Burst with the Repeater's tracking upgrade, every shot will home in on something. It's really cool to see a flurry of projectiles shoot out from the Kid and converge on a single point. Another combo I found myself: Musket w/ double-shot upgrade + Scrap Salvo = machine gun.

By the way, something fun to mess around with in NG+: Melting Pot + either turret skill (Turret Surprise or Gel Canister) = fun times. Once the black tonics start dropping, just drop turrets with reckless abandon and watch the carnage.

The secret skill I used in the Stranger's Dream was Ring of Fire. Nice quick burst to clear enemies away from you when things get hectic. Burning Carousel is also good for that, but Ring of Fire is better because it's over faster, so you can't get hurt because you locked yourself into the attack.

I also enjoy using the Brusher's Pike/Cael Hammer/Scrap Musket as my melee weapon from time to time. I still really love the Carbine as my ranged weapon of choice, though I have messed around with homing shotgun variant Fang Repeater, or hip-shot poison Breaker's Bow.

When you do get around to the 10-idol challenges, don't get too attached to secret skills; no Black Tonic drops (Yudrig Roathus). I think I took Mirror Shield, but I never used it.

I went into the Tazal Terminals with the Cael Hammer. Seemed appropriate.

edited 25th Jan '13 10:58:34 PM by Blueeyedrat

I think it's Roathus that stops tonics dropping.

So, a friend of mine gifted this to me on Steam a while ago, and I finally got around to playing it over the past few days. Just beat it. The scene at the end where you carry Zulf out through the remaining Ura was amazing. I went with the Restoration ending; it seemed too selfish to do otherwise. (Okay, so Zia's happier without resetting the Calamity, but what about everyone else?) After New Game+, though, I'll probably choose the other ending, on the rationale that the Kid remembers having tried Restoration and seeing it fail, even if no one else does.

Looking over the Bastion page, though, it seems like a lot of people think that either the Caelondians were bigger assholes than the Ura or else they were equally bastards. Am I the only one who didn't see that at all? The impression I got was that neither was malicious; they both just thought they were doing what was best for their people.

Yep. Both came off as equally scummy and equally noble. They were people, in other words.

Started playing this recently. After I got the first shard I saw that I could upgrade all the buildings in the bastion. Except after I upgraded the Arsenal I saw that I apparently couldn't upgrade any of the other buildings. I just assumed that I had seen just misseen something. It wasn't until way later I realized that you get one building upgrade per shard. After checking the wiki it appears that the Arsenal is the only building in the game whose upgrade is pretty much pointless, while all the others have vital, and thus is easily the choice for last building to be upgraded. Except now I've upgraded it first. And the moronic forced autosave with no ability to load previous saves means there's no way to undo this. So I'll have to ask here; how deeply have I irrevocably screwed up my playthrough? How long does the game continue after I find all the shards? Will I still be able to get all weapon upgrades, buy all the things from the shop and complete all valedictions? Are there some other building upgrades that are as useless as the arsenal so I don't have to wait until the very end of the game to get all the necessary stuff?

edited 21st Mar '15 5:44:26 PM by Druplesnubb

In order?

Not at all, about 3 biggish levels after you get all building upgrades, yes (though getting enough money for all upgrades will require some running through the repeatable dream levels in any case), and the Shrine doesn't make your life easier, since it just unlocks more Idols to use to make the game harder in exchange for XP/money bonuses.

Ok, so after a while I've decided that even though I'll have to play through the entire game without all the good stuff I should have access to because someone decided to not give the player access to older save files I still liked playing the game enough to continue. So I go to the swamp level fight, the boss, take the shard midfight and then I accidentally leave the level before I kill the boss. Cue autosave, I.E. the game going "lol enjoy never getting all that exp and money you gullible dumbass!"

Who on Supergiant Games came up with the idea of not allowing people to load earlier saves, and why was their idea implemented instead of said person getting their ass fired from ever creating video games again? Why does Supergiant games deliberately go out of their way in order to screw over their customers?

edited 31st Mar '15 3:06:38 PM by Druplesnubb

You're waaaaay overreacting, man. "The game allowed me to do something suboptimal" doesn't mean "whole game is Ruined Forever".

You're not going to get everything on your first playthrough without a fair amount of grinding regardless. That's what New Game+ is for. Didn't know it was possible to skip any of the bosses though.

Free DLC, free soundtracks for Bastion and Transistor...

This will sound like an excuse, but the whole "can't go back" thing is, i assume, meant to be part of the game's theme. The old world is falling apart, and each Core or Shard retrieved leaves that place basically dead and gone, so there can be no return.

Thankfully, they never screw you out of weapons or upgrade materials. Those things can be bought at the lost-and-found if you miss them.

As for money and XP, the dreams can be repeated for those things.

Finally, one mode you can select (as new game +? I can't recall) does allow return visits, as it's got a sort of score-attack thing going.

Score Attack mode lets you revisit areas.

ah yes, the "hand everything to me on a silver platter" mentality of gamers today

There's no need for that.

I didn't have issues with that design choice when I played Bastion, but it's definitely a valid point if it results in one missing out on stuff they want to do.

It's a stylistic choice I'm fine with, but it's also in stark contrast the way a lot of games go about things, so I do not think disliking it is a result of unwarranted entitlement.

edited 1st Apr '15 10:54:56 AM by Enlong