Very, very beautiful game. Beautiful in story, music, and yes, even game play. This game absolutely did terrible because it mixes two genres where the fans usually despise the other. Fans of sports game are going to be annoyed with the constant fantasy book aspect, and fans of visual novels are going to be annoyed to have to always stop reading to play a basketball game. But sometimes that mixture is perfect for the right people, and I'm lucky to be one of those people.
Pyre has an absolutely beautiful and emotional story where you and your fellow exiles have to work towards freedom, that which you can only achieve if you win in a liberation rite (a super important basketball game, capeesh?). Only one person from your team is allowed freedom, and only if they are at a high enough level to be worthy for the rite. This is probably one of the most self aware games I've played that knew how to use its sport elements to create a very difficult and emotional story. In order to allow someone freedom, you need to spend time with them and learn their own story for why they want to go home and why they're down here. You begin to grow closer with the character and learn to love them, only to eventually send them away to the freedom you know they deserve, while also knowing you will never get to see or hear from them again (minus the one letter you get letting you know they returned safely). The game essentially punishes you for letting go of your favorite and best-played characters, but you continue to do so because you KNOW it's the right thing to do. It somehow takes a game very heavily in the sports genre and gets you to willingly give away your strongest teammates.
I think my biggest complaint would be that some of the characters were too easy to keep in the Downside. The struggle is trying to determine who gets freedom, and who has to forever stay in what's pretty much Hell. The struggle would be more if all the characters were begging to be sent home, invoking a similar emotion that having to defeat an equally as desperate and home-sick team does, but a good amount of the team was pretty happy to be in the Downside, particularly the moon girl. I kept her until the very end because she didn't really care about going back up, same with Sir Gilman, Bertrude, and Ti'zo, though I did eventually let them back up anyways (minus Bertrude). Additionally, after playing the game a certain length of time, you really learn how to just get the AI to walk into your auras, which can cheapen the gameplay a little, ESPECIALLY with Volfred, but that's just me starting to get picky. I think the biggest hit this game had going against it for me personally was the visual novel aspect. I can imagine I was able to enjoy the game more than most as I'm more of a sports game fan than a visual novel fan, and it's easier to force myself to just read rather than for someone to try to force-enjoy a basketball game. Overall though, this was a visual novel I ended up REALLY enjoying, especially in comparison to others I tried playing.
I freed Volfred last as I thought it would serve as a good dramatic and satisfying ending. He also ended up being my favorite character, very close with Jodariel, who I freed second (she was unworthy to be the first, oops). It's fun reading all the reviews here and seeing who ended up being everyone's favorite character, because it really can end up being any of the Nightwings, and shows who out of everyone really caught someone's attention.
Shout out to @AnimalJayson for getting me this game and helping me experience something truly unique and gorgeously charming.
Pyre has an absolutely beautiful and emotional story where you and your fellow exiles have to work towards freedom, that which you can only achieve if you win in a liberation rite (a super important basketball game, capeesh?). Only one person from your team is allowed freedom, and only if they are at a high enough level to be worthy for the rite. This is probably one of the most self aware games I've played that knew how to use its sport elements to create a very difficult and emotional story. In order to allow someone freedom, you need to spend time with them and learn their own story for why they want to go home and why they're down here. You begin to grow closer with the character and learn to love them, only to eventually send them away to the freedom you know they deserve, while also knowing you will never get to see or hear from them again (minus the one letter you get letting you know they returned safely). The game essentially punishes you for letting go of your favorite and best-played characters, but you continue to do so because you KNOW it's the right thing to do. It somehow takes a game very heavily in the sports genre and gets you to willingly give away your strongest teammates.
I think my biggest complaint would be that some of the characters were too easy to keep in the Downside. The struggle is trying to determine who gets freedom, and who has to forever stay in what's pretty much Hell. The struggle would be more if all the characters were begging to be sent home, invoking a similar emotion that having to defeat an equally as desperate and home-sick team does, but a good amount of the team was pretty happy to be in the Downside, particularly the moon girl. I kept her until the very end because she didn't really care about going back up, same with Sir Gilman, Bertrude, and Ti'zo, though I did eventually let them back up anyways (minus Bertrude). Additionally, after playing the game a certain length of time, you really learn how to just get the AI to walk into your auras, which can cheapen the gameplay a little, ESPECIALLY with Volfred, but that's just me starting to get picky. I think the biggest hit this game had going against it for me personally was the visual novel aspect. I can imagine I was able to enjoy the game more than most as I'm more of a sports game fan than a visual novel fan, and it's easier to force myself to just read rather than for someone to try to force-enjoy a basketball game. Overall though, this was a visual novel I ended up REALLY enjoying, especially in comparison to others I tried playing.
I freed Volfred last as I thought it would serve as a good dramatic and satisfying ending. He also ended up being my favorite character, very close with Jodariel, who I freed second (she was unworthy to be the first, oops). It's fun reading all the reviews here and seeing who ended up being everyone's favorite character, because it really can end up being any of the Nightwings, and shows who out of everyone really caught someone's attention.
Shout out to @AnimalJayson for getting me this game and helping me experience something truly unique and gorgeously charming.