Anyone have experience with Pyre?

[Man_Over_Game]

Thinking about playing Supergiant Games' Pyre, but I keep reading mixed reviews on it. Anyone got any info on it?

[Dienekes]

Excellent characterization, unique art design. A world that is simplistic in a way that allows the game to let the player explore interesting themes. Where if you take the time you will learn a lot about your characters their desires, hopes, and dreams and will have to ask yourself who is the most worthy to save, whether that even matters to you. Because they all want something, they all have a reason to side with them, but not everyone can get what they want. Making a deep and interesting experience. Will you let the greatest member of your team ascend? They deserve it, they want it, but that means you'll play the rest of the game without them which can be quite a handicap.

The actual Gameplay is just hockey. It's... fine.

I personally am glad I played through it, was immensely satisfied with what Supergiant did in terms of narrative. But if I would ever play it again I would just drop the difficulty down to 0, because the actual trials aren't really what captivated me with the game.

[Cespenar]

Pyre is pretty solid. Though not as dramatic as Bastion or Transistor, still arguably the best and fullest content (story-wise) among all of their titles. Only the street-hoop part remains, which apparently pushes some people away, but at least for me it was pretty workable. And the best part is that the story just continues even if you fail your matches. Only a handful among tens of matches are plot-critical matches (finals, if you will), and even failing them continues the story onward without a hitch. It's just that your ratio of won finals (and other choices) affect the ending and the aftermath.

[NRSASD]

Highly recommend Pyre, it's real weird though. It's a visual novel with a side of basketball. Story is excellent and has a unique "failure is incorporated" angle on the storyline. On one level, it's impossible to lose the game. On the other, your companions' eternal salvation hangs in the balance. Really neat idea, but definitely an odd one.

[Kaptin Keen]

I dropped Pyre over the hoops thing. Maybe it's just me, but it seems designed for playing with a controller - and I don't have one. So it stands as the single Supergiant title I haven't finished.

[Cespenar]

I dropped Pyre over the hoops thing. Maybe it's just me, but it seems designed for playing with a controller - and I don't have one. So it stands as the single Supergiant title I haven't finished.

Any game that has some kind of circular motion is said to be designed for a controller these days (not a jab to you, but a general theme), but I felt pretty fine with the keyboard myself. You could just downgrade it to easy and see the story. Or play with the losses and get a not-perfect but more "organic" ending? The story is worth it.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've been having a really good time with it so far. Great characters, neat world, and the core "matches" that make up gameplay are neat and have a lot of interesting strategic-level decisions. If you've played basketball video games, it'll feel very familiar, and there's a lot of quick thinking you'll have to do because you're controlling an entire team instead of one character.

I've been playing KB + Mouse so far, and it works great.

[NeoVid]

I loved Pyre's writing, the way the ending told you what happened to every single character and incorporated everything that happened with them over the course of the story was amazing. I enjoyed the gameplay, and it made for an interesting balancing act when I realized I would usually be costing myself my best player, as well as cutting their storyline short...

With one exception. Keep in mind that your team's duty isn't to free all of your own people, it's to decide who deserves to go free. There was one team with a captain I thought deserved it more than my allies. The fact that it got me thinking of the gameplay decisions in those terms really impressed me.

And one little thing people seem to miss: The music is dynamic. The championship matches get different instruments depending on which team you're up against, and the end credits have lyrics that adapt depending on the events in game.

[The Hellbug]

I would say I very much enjoyed it and it's quite good. Most complaints seem are aimed at the actual gameplay, and I'll get to that, but there is one thing that's weak with regards to world design. In Supergiant's previous games, especially Bastion, they did a very good job of telling you what you needed to know about the world (which wasn't too much to be honest; things were simple for the most part and that was good) as you played through the game. Pyre does some of this well--your enemies and allies are well characterized and the development of them through the seasons of the Rites is one of the game's best features, that alongside with its exploration of a game that is technically unlosable--but the world's backstory is just delivered through a book that you have to go read in your own time, and, while some of the stuff there is cool, it really takes you out of the narrative.

As for gameplay, I'd argue that it's not the gameplay during each match that is the problem, but the gameplay loop itself. After the first journey through facing all the other teams and going up to the finals (which stays a bit on the easy side for too long in my opinion and is a bit too long compared to the rest of the game) you just sort of get into a 'play a team, little bit of character stuff, play a team, character stuff, oh now suddenly it's another liberation rite' loop that can be a bit unsatisfying.

On the other hand, the visual design is phenomenal, the narrative is very well delivered (the best of Supergiant's attempts, which is high praise from me), the music is excellent (NeoVid mentions that it's dynamic and it really goes there, with different percussion seamlessly transitioning depending on which team has possession, big swells when someone moves in to score, and each opposing team having their own music for their matches which is further incorporated in the Liberation Rite song in the finals if they're the team you're facing), and it does come through in the end on emotional payoff. It is personally my favorite of Supergiant's games, but I recommend it under both Hades and Bastion.

Spoiler: My spoiler-y experience with the music

Show

There was a tear in my eye at the final liberation rite when the Nightwings version of Never to Return plays and I realized that this is what the opposing team has seen every time they face off against me and my folks at each liberation.

[Man_Over_Game]

Thanks for all the insights, everyone!

Does anyone have any information on the core gameplay? I haven't been able to gleam much off of it so far.

[LaZodiac]

Thanks for all the insights, everyone!

Does anyone have any information on the core gameplay? I haven't been able to gleam much off of it so far.

It's honestly really hard to describe the core gameplay. The actual sportsball (for ease of definition) you play is very... interesting. You control one character at a time in live action gameplay, nominally that character being the one who has the ball, and you need to either throw it into the enemy goal (with how hard you throw it scoring more points) or slam your face into the goal, dunking yourself in there. When playing as a character who doesn't have the ball, you can charge up an attack that can temporarily disable enemies, allowing for capturing of the ball.

Each character on your team has specific statistics and moves. The Nomad Girl's dash is basically a big jump, whereas Pamitha's dash is flying up high so it's hard to hit her. Likewise the attacks are different for each character, from a simple blast forward to a weird and cool "teleport back to where you were a bit ago, slicing everything in half" move. There are passive skills and additions to your characters you can get as you play, both in terms of "you have bought a skill from a skill tree" and in terms of "you have a special relic that changes you slightly". Later on, as with all Supergiant games, there is additional challenges you can willingly put on yourself to make it harder but more mechanically rewarding.

Truthfully though, explaining it clinically like this doesn't really perfectly explain. It's kinda something you need to experience to really "get" it. After a bit of play it feels very intuitive and smooth, to me at least.

[The Hellbug]

The game it plays most closely to is NBA Jam, pretty much. Your objective is the get the ball in the pyre without touching the death zones either around the enemy players or shot out from the one that the enemy is currently controlling. Death zones, speed, and other qualities vary from character type to character type, from small but fast ones that come back quickly when blasted to big slow ones that do a better job of controlling the field and deal more damage if they're the ones to score (there are other qualities as well but those qualities are generally inversely proportional). Watching a video or two will probably explain it best.

[NeoVid]

One thing I didn't realize for a while that makes a big difference in the gameplay: If you score by dunking, the character who went into the goal is removed from the field during the next play. If you score by throwing the ball into the goal, you keep all 3 players on the field. Dunking is more reliable, but puts you at a disadvantage next play, so keep that in mind.