Players will find themselves not unexpectedly on a nicely contrasted dark (font) on light “background main menu, which is similar to every menu found further in the game. Fonts in these menus are easily read due not only to the contrast of the color scheme used, but also due to the font size employed. While the font style, while not always comfortable read, won’t present any major hardships and may be cause for a lean forward to differentiate between letters (“I” and “l” look a little too similar).

As is the case with most downloadable games; “Story”, “Help& Options”, “Leaderboards”, “Achievements”, and “Exit Game” are all present on the main menu.
Inside the “Help & Options” menu players will find the usual suspects: “Controls”, “How to Play”, “Settings”, and “Credits”. The only really useful options found in any of these places, is the ability to turn on and off both subtitles and vibration, and a slider to adjust the brightness of the game.

The “Controls” tab will only take players to a map of the control scheme which is not able to be tailored to each player’s desired layout, though earlier than later in the story, players will get the option to place weapons at either the “X” or “B” buttons which may allow for slightly more comfortable play. Unfortunately this means that unless highly skilled with the stock XBOX 360 controller, single-handed players will need assistive technology in order to enjoy this title to its fullest.

Also absent from Bastion is the ability to switch difficulty; while not all that hard in the beginning, at later stages of the game, some players might find the game a little too challenging and opt not to continue, and as there is no failure limiter to be found, some players may find themselves in possession of a game that is unable to be finished.
Available weapons in the game like “Something Sharp” can be used as either a close-range or long-range weapon which is almost more accessibly used at long-range as the auto-aim feature not only does its thing as soon as the corresponding button is pressed and held, but also maps its course to the awaiting adversary. This isn’t always a strategy that can be employed. Sometimes players will have to mash buttons in order to clear an area in a more-timely and less-costly manor. Combat in close quarters doesn’t benefit from such a feature as auto-aim, so it’s going to be up to the player to cut the baddy and not the space an eight of a turn away from the baddy. More than just a few environmental objects are destructible, though none of the weapons will automatically lock-on to any of them.

There are a lot of aspects of gameplay that are dependent upon timing – both in terms of beating the clock and well-timed defense turned offense; although there are more accessible ways of defeating enemies than using The Kid’s Shield to deflect an enemy’s attack back at them, there is no way some players can beat a clock in order to gain weapon upgrades, at least not the top-tier weapon upgrades.

The art style of Bastion is for the most part an accessible one, though at times it becomes very inaccessible: There comes a time later in the story wherein players will encounter poisons and other intoxicants – the color scheme used when The Kid becomes poisoned is red and green, and at times briefly takes up the entire screen.

At other times, the screen will be darkened to the point that adjusting the brightness of the game will be a welcome option for some players.
There are also times when the screen is so overrun by flora that players won’t be able to see The Kid onscreen and will have to hold themselves accountable for not dying in confrontations with enemies.

Players will notice as they fall repeatedly from the platforms that form beneath their feet that there is nothing to keep themselves on the platforms at all times. The idea is taken further with enemies capable of breaking areas of platforms leaving gaping chunks of missing platforms. Furthering the idea of watching the player’s step is the possibility of having to outrun the ground falling from beneath.

Continuing the could-be-better visual trend is that some areas of the game meld too well with hazards like such as gaping holes, some baddies, and some hazardous plant-life.
Rounding out the accessibility of Bastion is hearing accessibility which is done very well, but as is usually the case, could be just a little bit better, though not much; without it’s narrative style, this game would be just another RPG, and it does a great job of not overexerting itself and bogging down hearing impaired gamers with so many subtitles to read that it constantly distracts from the action with most narratives being only a single statement that takes up two lines of text at the bottom of the screen.
Where subtitles are concerned, they are large and for the most part are easily read. Though they follow the usual pattern of white font with a black outline on whatever background they might find themselves on, the size of the text makes them that little bit easier to read, but as always, it would really be nice if this dialogue were given a dedicated background to exist on.

Though it’s not a huge oversight in Bastion, there is no sound effect captioning; it would be hard to translate the sounds that baddies make into anything other than nonsensical, but at the same time, would it be so hard to caption the narrator humming by floating the words “narrator: humming” at the top of the screen to add a little more ambience to an otherwise quiet game?

At a glance

Hearing:
~Subtitles follow the usual pattern of white font surrounded by a black outline on whatever background they should find themselves on, but they are of a larger size which helps them to seem more readable. (-0.50 points for the lack of a dedicated background)
~Game is heavily narrated, though there are frequent breaks from this. Often, subtitles only last for the duration of a statement which equates to only two and in some cases three lines of dialogue at the bottom of the screen.
~Not captioned, though the only instance where captioning would be nice is when the narrator hums in order to add a bit of ambience to the game which seems like it would have been easily done and a bit negligent to have not done. (-0.25 point)
~Players don’t need to be worried about being blind-sided by an enemy that they didn’t hear coming as visuals and controller feedback make up for any audible yet uncaptioned gameplay related activity.
Recommended score of 9.25 out of 10

Visual:
~Options menu includes the ability to adjust the games brightness which will be necessary for some at certain stages of the game.
~Players with color sensitivity issues may find themselves at a disadvantage as red/green colorblindness will be affected and others when flora can’t be differentiated from its surroundings. (-1 point)
~Menus throughout the game follow the pattern of dark font that could be larger on a light background - though the font could be more comfortably sized, it won’t inhibit gameplay.
~Paths and walkways present the option to fall off quite frequently. (As this is an intended part of the game, I don’t feel points should be taken away, and a fair warning should be enough)
~At times the player will lose sight of the character in within tall plant-life. (See above “fair warning”)
Recommended score of 9 out of 10

Mobility:
~One-handed players will need assistive technology in order to play this game. (-1 point)
~Control scheme is not remap-able. (-1 point)
~It’s a button-masher. (No points deducted as it is the nature of the game – only fair warning)
~Game does feature auto-targeting for long-range combat, though no such thing exists for close-range fighting. (-0.50 point)
~Timed events occur; sometimes players will need to outrun hazards in order to survive, and sometimes these events will be for weapon upgrades. (-1 point)
Recommended score of 6.5 out of 10