Titles aren't optional. Bastion post.

Last night (after watching the Ravens give away their Superbowl chances), I finally had some time to myself to sit down and play about 3 hours of Bastion. In case (like me) you have been living on a rock where all you knew about Bastion was "it's that game with the Narrator, or something... right?", Bastion is a top down action game, like the older Zelda games, but with linear levels. You have two attack buttons, and you can select what weapons you want to use for each button. At first, you just have a hammer, but by the end of the game you'll have a fairly well-stocked arsenal of weapons, all of which you can choose to upgrade. The Narrator feature is actually worth all the mention it gets, because it is a nice bit of flair I don't think I've seen in any other game. Basically, while you play, there's a man who occasionally breaks in with commentary on what you're doing. The voice is perfect, reminding me of an old cowboy telling me a campfire story, while I eat from a warmed can of baked beans. That is possibly the lamest sentence I've written in the three years I've been doing this-- but it still is a true statement.

I'm close to the end, because it's a fairly short game. If you just do the main story levels, I don't think you'd have too many issues with difficulty either, and you could probably blow through the game in a couple hours. However, there is a good portion of "optional" content to play through, and I can't resist doing most if not all of it. First off, each weapon you'll find will unlock a Proving Ground-- a special level where you earn prizes based on your skills with those weapons. So far, these are the hardest things in the game-- at least they are to get 1st place. I'm sure if you wait until your weapons are fully upgraded they get much easier, but doing them as soon as they show up was pretty rough. The other optional content is a series of endurance challenges where you fight 20 waves of enemies in an arena-type dream. I have beaten all of them, but I can turn on a series of God Idols that you find/buy to make them much harder (enemies take more damage, enemies explode on death, etc.) and earn achievements and experience. I will at least try them full-on before I consider it finished.

I'm now sitting at what I believe is the last level, and the last unfinished proving ground. I should finish this up tonight, assuming I can get 30 minutes to myself.