I don't always finish my games. Even more so when the gameplay doesn't catch me. But this jewel just has one of the best settings and story of everything I played in recent years. Combined with a fantastic soundtrack, I just couldn't stop returning every night.
Somehow it felt like a novel of Neil Gaiman. And after finishing it, I feel the same nostalgic satisfaction a good book leaves me with.
If you like the action matches, this could easily be "six stars" for you. If not so much, just tune down the difficulty and enjoy the world.
I have my issues with this game but absolutely nothing I can say will ever besmirch how utterly unique it is. It is the best Fantasy Sports Action JRPG ever made. It is the worst Fantasy Sports Action JRPG ever made. It is the only Fantasy Sports Action JRPG ever made. And ħabibi, we need more Fantasy Sports Action JRPGs!
Unless you count the 3D swimming pool football minigame from Final Fantasy X. Then Pyre is the best and the FFX minigame is the worst.
And honestly, that's a pretty good measure of this game. You remember playing FFX, watching that cutscene and think ah this is going to be truly special. Then gameplay begins and it is just sad trash.
Pyre is delivering on all those fervent dreams you never realised you had about that minigame. Complex relationships between competitors. Teams falling and rising over internal feuds. Heavy stakes on each match that feel like world ending stakes to the player/characters but the full ramifications of which are never fully seen until much political upheaval long after the match is over and said political upheaval is itself derived from the internal politics of these matches and between these competitors.
Honestly, the only real flaw I can point out is that the actual tossing of the ball itself feels too much like a fun intense fast paced video game. Can we accept that as a form of abstraction? Or, in order for it to be a true sports game, does the sport need to have more drama and tension and literal hours of playtime before a single goal is scored?
On the other hand, real sports do actually vary from agonisingly drawn out to overwhelmingly rushingly fast paced. So perhaps in this regard, we can forgive Pyre and declare it perfect.
Ive always had a niche, for a great story, and the latest addition from the creators of "Bastion", Pyre creatively blends a subtle feel of sports entertwined with a fantasy world, that can't wait to deliver a unique, and engrossing experience, and story in the process. The critical acclaim earned by Bastion and Transistor, puts a lot of expectation from fans everywhere, whenever Supergiant Games releases a new title. The award-winning studio's third game, "Pyre", has the task of not only living up to the legacy of its predecessors,... BUT also delivering a unique story, adventure, and character all its own. (Even though I feel at times, it doesn't know it's own identity.) With all that in mind, I'm happy to say that Pyre is just as good, as the best Supergiant Games has put out over the years, and is definitely worth checking out for fans of the studio's previous work, and other studio titles like, The Banner Saga Trilogy. After saying all of that, I can say this is something typical for Supergiant releases, which means, Pyre is somewhat hard to describe. Basically, the game is a blend of a "party-based" RPG with sports, adding in the enemy encounters, typically consisting of contests called "Rites". In Pyre, Rites are special competitive rituals, that residents of Downside engage in to try to earn their way back to the "other side." I spent a long time staring at my screenshots of Pyre, before writing a word about it,... Every frame captures a pure fantasy world so creative, and otherworldly that I envy the minds able to bring it to such vivid life. It's the kind of art that reminds you fiction can be anything, if only you have the power to imagine it, and create it.
It is okay, but the strange combat of this game just isn't very fun against an input reading AI. If it was turn based it might work, but as it is, it is pretty bad. Of course turn based would mean proper AI development and not just input reading so yeah that's why it isn't there.
What a lovely experience! The artwork and music score is beautiful, the gameplay fun and the story intriguing. The writing is neat and the characters grow on you rather quickly. Took me around 13 hours for my first play through. I definitely recommend this game if you don´t mind reading a lot and like to have a story driven game.
