I finished Bastion tonight! It lives up to its reputation as being a really good game!
I feel like when it came out, I heard a lot of folks saying "watch out for spoilers!" and because of that I ended up missing out on bits of information that would have made me more interested in playing it a decade ago.
First, like I mentioned before, it's an action RPG! I saw the isometric perspective and read about how the world grows around you in squares and was assuming some sort of slow-paced or tactical thing. Instead, it's action and it's plenty of fun! It's never too hard but you can ramp up the challenge with something you unlock somewhat early in the game.
Second, that the narrator is closer to Tom Waits than John Hurt. I heard that everything in the game was narrated, but I was assuming someone who sounds like a proper British gentleman reading a bedtime story or something. Instead the narrator sounds like a grizzled old cowboy telling the story in between shots of whiskey, chainsmoking the whole time. Definitely creates a different sort of atmosphere!
Third, that the setting is post-apocalyptic fantasy, but pretty different from most post-apocalyptic OR fantasy settings. There are some interesting political implications about the world before "the calamity" which is never explored in too much depth but involves an empire in decline that relies on large walls and the exploitation of people. The game's setting feels like its aged quite well.
As for where this fits in gaming history, I feel like it's definitely a noteworthy title of 2011. At the time, a lot of big games were starting to get bloated and padded out. Bastion is a part of the early wave of indie games that stood out on Xbox Live Arcade as offering an excellent experience that stands far apart from the AAA titles of the day *and* most of the junk that was out there on XBLA. Bastion is short and sweet but offers multiple endings and a New Game+ mode for folks who are hungry for more.