Bastion Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Bastion
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer:  Supergiant Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games
Age Rating: 12+ (UK & EU) | E10+ (US)
Price: £10.99 | €12,49| $14.99
Release Date: 13th September 2018
(The game is also available on PS Vita, Xbox One, Playstation 4, iOS, PC, Xbox 360)

Overall Feeling: I like it a lot!

Review code kindly provided by Supergiant Games

In 2011, Supergiant’s Bastion was released for both Xbox and PC platforms. Since then, it has been ported to several consoles, with the latest port arriving on the Nintendo Switch. The adventure is now more than 8 years old and at no time while playing did I feel Bastion’s age – game-play, art-style, sound and story feels fresh, and even though Bastion for Switch isn’t the first hand-held version of the game; it is the best version (on a hand-held console).

Introducing the Kid!

The game begins by introducing you to Kid; who awakes in a solitary room floating in the sky, and our young friend sets out to find the place of refuge called Bastion. It’s obvious from the start that something terrible has happened; an event called the calamity has destroyed everything in its wake and Kid is just one of a handful of survivors.  As he walks, ground begins to pop up below his feet, and it isn’t long before foes appear in order to hinder your progress.  At the start, enemies such as Squirts, Gasfellas, and Scumbags and  are easy to overcome, but tougher foes appear as you progress through the game.

Your search for the Bastion quickly ends and its there you meet a mysterious stranger.  Just who is he?  Well his identity is later revealed in the game, but it’s at point that the game starts to open up.  The Bastion was once a powerful place of refuge for displaced people, but due to its energy levels being exhausted, Kid must explore what’s left of surrounding areas to find new power cores.  Each time a new core is inserted into the Bastion’s monument, the player is greeted with a new structure of which there are 6 to unlock.

The Arsenal enables Kid to try new weapons and secret skill combinations, where as the Forge is used to upgrade weapons by using collected items.

The Memorial records achievements, while the Distillery enables the player to make enhancements to their character.

There’s also a Lost and Found that enables players to purchase items which can further enhance both Kid’s and even your enemy’s abilities.  New items and upgrades are purchased by collecting and using fragments that Kid finds.

It’s as hard as you make it.

By default, Bastion isn’t a particularly challenging game but the developer has provided options to significantly up the difficulty.

The Shrine can  be used in combination with idols to invoke the Gods – which results in your foes receiving a boost in abilities.  There are 10 idols to collect and you invoke the fury of each divine being by activating their idol within the Shrine.  The more idols activated, the greater the reward in terms of fragments and XP, but at the same time the game becomes less forgiving in terms of items and overall difficulty.

Graphics and Sound

The game’s art-style looks great regardless of whether you play in hand held or TV mode.  Characters, areas, and objects are nicely detailed, colourful, and vibrant.  The game also has simple but nice backgrounds that helps with the overall scroll effect as well as effective environmental effects such as heavy rain, falling leaves, moving clouds etc.

Where Bastion truly stands out is in the sound department.  As soon as you start the game, you’re immediately introduced to a narrator that comments on events, Kid’s movements, and delves more into the storyline as you progress throughout the game.

In an interview with the website Ars Techica,  Supergiant Game’s Greg Kasavin stated that, “none of the lines ever repeat unless the player repeats certain content or replays the game.”  I’ve tested this statement and I’m amazed at how accurate it is.  It’s clear that a lot of care and time was placed into the games narration which makes it a major highlight of the whole Bastion experience.

Vita or Switch?

Bastion is also available to purchase for Sony’s PS Vita which provides an extra option for players if they own Sony’s hand-held.  My personal feeling is that the Switch version is superior due to a bigger screen, TV support, and an overall much smoother experience.  This doesn’t mean however that the Vita version isn’t playable or a poor version, I just prefer the game running on Nintendo’s hybrid console.

Overall

I like Bastion a lot.  From the beginning to the end I was gripped by the experience and I highly recommend it for anyone that likes hack and slash titles and story driven games.  Interestingly I’m not a huge fan of the hack and slash genre but Bastion is so much more than that.  Due to Bastion being the the first of Supergiant’s games coming to Switch, I hope we will soon see more of there game coming to Nintendo’s console.