Pyre

released on Jul 25, 2017

A party-based RPG/visual novel/sports game hybrid wherein the player, dubbed the Reader for their literacy by the group of scavengers who discovers them, is sent in exile to a lawless wasteland called the Downside and has to lead their ever-growing party of misfits to locations wherein many similar parties compete in Rites in order to attain freedom and be absolved of their crimes.


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I liked the game, and I think the way it handles failure is great. My main complaint is that it felt like a game that if I ever put it down, I was in danger of never being able to pick it back up. Which was what happened, tragically.

Easily Supergiant's best.
A large cast of complex characters that you are ludonarratively invested in. A truly beautiful story with a fantastic ending. Superb soundtrack, gorgeous art, rich worldbuilding.
Criminally underrated.

I kinda started losing interest towards the end but the game is so polished (like every Super Giant game) and the concept is so cool.

Just wasn't as engaging as Bastion and Transistor for whatever reason.

This review contains spoilers

Supergiant Presents: Final Fantasy X-1 2: Oops! All Blitzball

Franchise modes in sports games rule. There was a time where the GM mode in 2K might've been the summation of all gaming's best things. Buttery-smooth hooping ensconced in fricative layers of Koei-esque simulation, and you could play it with friends!!!

2K has, of course, stumbled into the era of GaaS (games as a slot machine) taint first, succumbing to the same perineal perforation as all of its peers. Man-hours of digitial labor that could have been poured into making NBA 2K something like Crusader Kings but with Slam Dunks instead enriched the digital soil that glorified lobbies bloomed in, rife with real-money currencies and in-game advertisements.

I think of the story of my Milwaukee Bucks in NBA 2K15. By then the rot was already present, but I had not yet reckoned how bad it would become. My thoughts were filled only by the multi-season epic of Giannis Antetokounmpo's meteoric rise (I had to fudge his stats, Visual Concepts are not as good as determing Who Is Actually Good as I am), the unlikely success of Jabari Parker as his second-banana, the Nate Wolters Game, the succession crises of max contracts as injuries caught up with my aging roster over 10 seasons in...the retirement of Larry Sanders, NBA Champion. Indelible, unforgettable moments conjured out of a few dressed-up spreadsheets. I could only imagine the glory next-gen gaming would bring to the GM Mode, unaware of the horrors to come.

Pyre feels like the promise of this utopian franchise-mode future, reduced on medium-high until thick. It does not feel like a sketch, like somehow the team at Supergiant arrived at sports as a venue for Persona-esque RPG antics by accident. It feels as if they saw the same glittering possibilities as I, but instead worked to capture that promise in a contained narrative. And as such, it is one of the Best Games of All Time. It is relatively simple, on its face, sport-as-religious-rite entwined with a narrative of rebellion against empire. Honestly, like most games of its ilk, the 'plot' is interesting, but mostly acts as a sounding board for what you think of as "your" character, and how they establish relationships with the rest of the party. The characters are good, but not all created equal. This is important. There are characters that loom large over the story, rebels fighting for a cause like Volfred (the Volfman) and Jodariel (Jody Highroller). There are characters that seem almost incidental but are no less loveable, like Sir Gilman (the Gil-o-tine). The game reveals that the winners of the proverbial Larry O'Brien trophy get to send one of their players back to the Imperial core, where they will presumably further the cause of revolution and its somewhat vague goals. So, you have to deal with managed retirement, which is mind blowingly good. Like, what if in Persona 4 you were halfway through the game and it was like, one of these teenage motherfucks has to stay behind in the TV forever, their story will no longer advance, you can no longer use them in your party. Wild!!

The thing about it is, is that even as a somewhat contained narrative, it still allows for an amount of that good Crusader Kings style self-directed storytelling. Like, I put up Big Jody in my first run as the candidate to get sent home. This was mostly because I don't think she was a great hooper. She's like if Charles Barkley had no mobility. Not a champion. And as such (and also because I was not ready let's be real), we got smoked, the big demon guy got to go to heaven, and the cycle continued. Ok, next time through, I send my man Rukey even though I DO like him both on the court and off, because Jodariel is not a starting player, and the normal guy (I forget his name but he is based for dating a harpy) at this point is central to my gameplan, a little strategy I call "Pass the Ball to Shae". But I get thinkin'...I'm basically the Downside Pat Riley at this point. The Rites are what I live for. They're going to lower me into a coffin still holding the Book of Rites and my wife orb. I don't know how much I give a shit about the empire anymore, To Be Honest. So...I shifted my priorities.

The revolution was job 2. Winning basketball games was job 1. I'm pushin' through ready to send up Sir Gilman, cause at this point I'm not liking his playstyle (I eventually Figured It Out), but...Pamitha walked into my life. Now, I was in a commited and ironclad relationship with my orb-dwelling shooting coach, but Pam was great hangs, immediately climbing to the top of my "good locker room guy" rankings. I put her in with Shae and Sir Gil in the final rite, since I had influenced the standings to force a climactic encounter with Pamitha's sister, Tamitha. Pamitha stuns me before tip-off. "Let my sister win. Send her home so she can redeem herself." Bruh...I mean. Winning is job 1...but could hanging with the homies be job 0? I lost the match. I don't know if it was on purpose or not. Pamitha thanked me profusely. Gil probably felt some way about not winning, didn't really ask him.

We did the rites until they ran out of rites, and in the end I sent Big Jody and Pam home. I wanted Pam to try and patch things up with her sister. The game let me decide to prioritize the sisterly bond of one of my favorite characters over the main story it was trying to tell, and that rules!! There were also characters like Shae (Grey Mamba) and Ti'zo, hoopers of the first degree that were never going to go back home. I was the proverbial Tom Thibodeau, and they were going to play. Often until they were not physically able! Did I feel bad that they'd never get to go back up to the land of milk and honey? No! They were born to play!! Literally in the case of Ti'zo! But it was fun that the game was even playing at this question. Are you going to spoil a chance at the good life for one of your players so your so you can win more rings? (Yes.)

The ending is a bit of a mixed bag. I think the concept of who 'deserves' to go home culminating with a previous winner who got shafted showing up demanding his spot is a fun little twist, especially if he beats you and you mind-control him into giving up his spot anyway. Sorry Oralech! I missed Jody and Pam after all! And no one likes a two time loser. But the denouement of the 'revolution' is basically a prolonged fart. I truly didn't care, outside of the impact it had on my homies. I did love the story about Pam and Tam both fighting for the revolution, but still not patching it up all the way.

I think after all that, the fact that the game has a multiplayer mode with the full roster available from the very beginning of the game is the strongest possible statement at how fun this game is to play. Leaping over a defender, shooting a bomb from the logo, it's...joyous. Some may feel that the game is actually fun to play secondary (like the Persona games...bazinga!!!) but...to me it's not. The characters live in my head both defined by the things they said and did, and also by the way they played ball. That's an achievement. They really tackled a SUPER GIANT task here, and you can go play it right now. Slam in the hollowed grounds your forefathers did, Jam in the echoes of your teammate's hearts.

The game was amazing, till the "ending".