CarrionCrow: Well, it's the same frequent narration thing. In Bastion, it was a guy talking as you went like they were telling the story of your adventure, while in Transistor the sword you carry and use is what's talking to you in present time as you check things out.
EndreWhiteMane: Is he needed to follow the story? Can you turn him down/off or does that kill all the sound?
The main character doesn't talk, so it's needed for the story to go forward.
But on the bright side, it doesn't seem like the sword is talking about every little unimportant thing like the guy in Bastion would.
It seems that the sword is being treated as a supporting character more than color commentary.
One thing I haven't mentioned is that the combat is all kinds of different from Bastion, and it's pretty cool.
You can fight in real-time, but you can also stop time to plot attacks and movement, then have it all play out at once.
With that, you can do backstabs for extra damage, combos, things like that.