Finally picked this up and played through. Really enjoyed the combat mechanics and options. I liked the story telling, it seemed clear to me what was going on. That is, the slow reveal through the various character back-stories had the pacing about right and I was figuring things out at what seemed like a narratively appropriate rate.
Some of it was diluted by all the characters who were not relevant to the plot, whos back-stories you uncovered. Mainly they existed to give context to the various functions you unlocked, but I suppose they also created more of a sense of a living (or, once living) world.
Whoever said that the characters were not confused must have missed the narration during the M. C. Escher levels. And actually, the narrator seems pretty confused most of the time -- even though the protagonist seems to act with certainty and purpose. I think this works well. You come into the story in-media-res, Red is acting with purpose and drive, but you dont quite know what fuels it or why until about half way through.
I agree with the complaints that the game lacks agency. Bastions mid-game choices were artificial ones, you could either do the side levels or not. The weapon trial levels were fairly optional, but if you didnt do all the hooka hits and eat all the stew, then you didn't get all the backstory and the end game reveals probably would have sucked. But Bastion did have a major end-game choice, and this did give you some agency after a very linear game.
Transistor lacked any kind of end game choice. There were two points where there could have been one, and both times I was very much against the direction it went.
The more I think about it though, the less upsetting it is. Initially, I might have been upset that a strong female protagonist was showing such a blatant sign of weakness and dependency... but that might just be a modern reaction based on the media-climate of the moment.
Being an urban person through and through, I have to sympathize that
even if you could recreate all your favorite places, "Junction Jan's, or all the drinking placed down on the canal" that it would be empty and meaningless without the people. And since it was clearly a virtual world, isnt the reasonable thing to go where at least a few people are? Or the one you care about? Frankly, I think the idea of moving to a subsistence farm and never seeing another living person besides my wife sounds pretty awful, and I'd probably off myself if it came to that -- but I wouldn't want to walk around a dead city with nothing but the voices of ghosts to keep my company either.
But to the ACTUAL choice in the game, forget if each one comes with text, does each one come with its own cinematic still? I saw her eating a picture of the actual flatbread that I ordered, and I want to know if that is customized for each choice!