Bastion Preview and Interview
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Combat definitely takes a back seat to the visuals of Bastion. (The graphics are high-rez 2D because we wanted to capture the classic look of older games,) and because of this, the game looks somewhat like Braid. These graphics are used to depict a world existing high in the sky with ground that appears as The Kid approaches. This is possible the best way a game can direct a player that I have ever experienced. The game feels both extremely limited (when the path before you resembles the cover of (Where the Sidewalk Ends)) and infinitely expansive (when the world continues to come to life and unfold in front of you). This, combined with the visual style, makes staring at Bastion captivating.
The ending of Bastion's demo leaves The Kid standing in the Bastion after having met Stranger (the man who has narrated the story thus far) with many questions to be answered and a mystery to be solved. It is revealed that The Kid will have to quest to the corners of the... sky and bring back crystals in order to bring the Bastion to life. In doing so, he will be able to (save everything,) and bring back his people and land. There's a definite sense that there is much more world to form beneath your feet; however, if Bastion is simply more of the PAX demo, I can't imagine the game succeeding. Without engaging combat, The Kid is basically walking through the world-- Granted, its a beautiful world. This holds up for a fifteen minute demo, but I can't see myself just walking throughout an entire game.
And Gamasutra for the latter (with designer Greg Kasavin):
He describes Bastion as "definitely a game in the action RPG genre, and it does owe to the classics. We wanted to make a 2D game specifically, and we wanted to make a game in that genre because we loved it, and also felt it was really under-explored. We look back to the classics and what I consider the golden age -- 16-bit era, the early to mid-90s or so."
Bastion's design, then, aims to accumulate what team members like Kasavin learned from and loved in an entire lifetime of gaming: "Those games, they just felt really good," he reflects. "I don't think it's just the nostalgia talking."
And one new innovation the team's aiming for with Bastion is what Kasavin calls "real-time narration": "Someone is basically telling the story of the game as you play it; the story's unfolding at your own pace," he describes. "Of all the many things that made us really happy coming out of PAX, it was awesome to see a positive reaction to that."
