Bastion Launch Trailer Released

With the launch of Bastion as an exclusive on Xbox Live Arcade in just a week, the crew at Supergiant Games just released one last teaser to get everyone excited about this impressive looking downloadable game.

According to publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment:

In Bastion, players take control of the Kid, a young survivor who wakes to a world that has crumbled around him, with no one to help but an old man who believes he holds the key to bringing things back to the way they were.

As you can see by the video below, the landscape of the game is vibrant and creative, and the graphics are top notch. There also looks to be a large collection of unconventional weapons to use, upgrade tonics to drink, and dynamic environments to explore.

The enemy, referred to as The Calamity in the trailer, is trying to systematically destroy the world. The main character is tasked with getting rid of the bad guys, reversing the damage they caused and rebuilding his home to its original form.

One of the aspects of Bastion that caught many people’s interest was the innovative reactive narration system that responds to players’ actions throughout the game. It sounds pretty promising and I am interested in seeing how it ends up turning out.  Hopefully the narration won’t be too repetitive, so as not to lessen its effectiveness.

I am also particularly excited about this game due to the fact that when I first heard about it earlier this year, and saw the reveal trailer, the game seemed to be heavily influenced by The Neverending Story.

The parallels are quite striking, even with the title of the game being very similar to the main character’s namesake (Bastian Balthazar Bux) in the book and movie.  Also, The Calamity is similar to the The Nothing in The Neverending Story, with their dark colors and destructive tendencies.

In addition, the narrative system looks to be (at least at this point) an homage to the ways Bastian directed Atreyu through his reading of the book, as well as the Voice of Silence that tells Atreyu how to find the Childlike Empress.

Pablo Picasso once allegedly said that “good artists borrow, and great artist steal.”  So at least Supergiant Games will have that quote to fall back on if comparisons are made.

In all honesty though, it does seem that Bastion separates itself in many ways and should present an original experience for gamers.

Supergiant Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are using superlative creative influences to make a fresh new game with original gameplay and a vibrant universe. As of now, all signs point to Bastion being a winner.

Look for Bastion to land in the XboxLive Arcade on July 20, 2011 with a price tag of 1200 MS points.