“Working on anything?”
“I’m writing something about Pyre.”
“Never heard of it, what is it?”
“That’s the thing, no one has apparently. You’d like it, it’s made by the team who made Bastion.”
“What, Really!?

This was an actual conversation I had with a friend while trying to write this article, cheers Ish for the perfect opening. But it illustrates my question in the most poignant way I can think: why has no one heard of Pyre? Whenever the name Supergiant Games is mentioned what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? I’m guessing it’s probably their Smash hit rogue-like game Hades, or perhaps you’re an OG fan and the name conjures up memories of Kid and the calamity in their breakout title Bastion, which still to this day has the single greatest game soundtrack and I’m willing to die on that hill. But never have I ever heard anyone reply, “Pyre.” Why is that? As far as I’ve been led to believe every game Supergiant creates is a craft of painstaking love. They’re one of the few studios who time after time have released nothing but pure bangers. So, I had to find out for myself if Pyre was Supergiant’s only stinker, or if I somehow let another masterpiece of a game fly right over my head.

God damn, look how beautiful this looks!

Released on July 15^th, 2017, Pyre is a weird hybrid blend of Visual Novel, RPG and a sports game, which is a blend of games I never knew I needed more of until playing Pyre. Two of the three main gameplay loops are quite simple in terms of mechanics. Generally, you’ll find yourself speaking to other party members to learn about their pasts, navigating the stars to lead your team to the next Rite, shopping for talismans and upgrades for the Rites, keeping up with the world’s lore via your Book of Rites, doing some specialised training with Sandra or gearing your party and equipping their in-Rite abilities. All of this is done by very simple on-screen button prompts, it’s in these sections where you’ll get to experience two of Supergiant's strongest aspects as developers, their world-building and the beautiful hand painted art style of Jen Zee.

The story of Pyre begins when you are found by a trio of strangers travelling the purgatory known as Downside, A vast purgatory into which the Commonwealth casts its convicts and its enemies. None have been known to return from the forsaken land. Taking you along you soon learn that the trio that have rescued you are all exiles of the Commonwealth, A proud country risen from the ashes of a fallen empire. Home to a multitude of ethnic groups. Founded on principles of mercy and kinship, who exact meaning evolved through many centuries. Meaning that they each have somehow sinned in a manner fitting of banishment and exile. However, hope is not lost as it is soon discovered that you, the player, are what the trio call a Reader. A being who is capable of doing the very dastardly act of…gasp! READING! An act banned in the Commonwealth, why this is, I’ll let you discover for yourself. Because of this, you are capable of reading the Book of Rites, allowing you to gain its insight (You’ll get a ton of world building through this book, so be sure to keep coming back to read it!) and navigate your team of Exiles to their next Rite, a ritualistic game in which the winner can take a step closer to being free from Downside and to be let back into the Commonwealth. Now, If I were to try and tell you all the intricacies of each character, their lore, their interactions and the world at large, this review would turn into the length of an academic paper, and neither of us want that. Besides, delving into the lore, and allowing yourself to indulge in its richness is something you should try to do blindly. So, before we talk about the remaining gameplay loop, we’re going to briefly talk about one of my favourite things about any Supergiant game, Darren Korb’s and Ashely Barrett’s stelar OST work.

The starting Trio: Rukey, Jodariel and Hedwyn.

First of all, I need to say, I am a big Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett fan with both the Bastion and Transistor soundtracks being OST’s I go back to quite often. I’d even go as far to argue that no piece of gaming music has ever had such an impact on me than Bastion’s Setting Sail, Coming Home, a song which I would still rank in my top five of all time favourites. So, saying my expectations for Pyre’s OST was high is a bit of an understatement. And God damn did they ever deliver. With a whopping thirty-nine tracks, Pyre’s music perfectly captures this strange, mysterious land and its inhabitants. My personal stand out being Thrash Pack a punk rock style tune that blares during the Rite against Rukey’s rivals, the Dissidents. With each track capturing the essence of the location and characters on screen, I knew Pyre’s lack of recognition couldn’t have come from its music, but then where? Maybe the third gameplay loop is the culprit?

actions within the bout. Each team in the Rite starts off with a default 100 points for their Pyre, with some characters being able to bring in artifacts that increase that number, or decrease it later in the game by using titan stars (Think of them as willingly applied debuffs in exchange for more EXP in the Rite.). The goal is to hurl the orb and most the time yourself, into the enemy's pyre in an attempt to extinguish it. Once a team reaches zero, their Pyre is extinguished and the Rite is over. Each team’s exiles (Remember you chose to field three from your roster) come with their own unique abilities, this can range from some members being able to dash at incredible speeds, take flight or even turn themselves into a small bomb, temporarily banishing your foes. If I had to equate the Rites to a real-world sport, it would be Handball, if they allowed full contact. While in contact with the ball, your exile is essentially defenceless. They are able to use their movement abilities to get around but if they are hit by an opposing player's aura, or aura blast, they will be banished for a few seconds before returning to the field. While early game it’s quite easy to just pick a faster character like Rukey or Sir Gilman and essentially have them single-handedly run the game like Lebron playing against a bunch of school kids, but as the game progresses, they satisfyingly layer on various character mechanics to make the Rites more complex and challenging, really giving you a sense of mastery over your Exiles. It’s this complexity that really gets you thinking actively about what three exiles you’re going to send out into the Rite as each team has its own unique characteristics and playstyle, making learning to counter pick your opponent’s composition an important aspect of the game.

The Rite has begun! Jodariel, Ti'zu and Bertrude take to the field.

It's the sports section of the game that really gives you that unique Supergiant action RPG feel, rather than some pretty looking (And phenomenally sounding) visual novel. Not that I have anything against visual novels, it’s just that when I think Supergiant, I usually think of more action-heavy games à la Bastion or Hades. This had me thinking, maybe this was one of the main reasons that Pyre just didn’t rank so high on people's Supergiant top five list. Perhaps they were offput by the heavy visual novel element of the game? I mean according to steam achievements, only 34% of players managed to Liberate (Gain an exiles freedom) a single party member, which is a shame, because it’s from after that moment that the training wheels really come off. Your opponents begin to improve, gain better artefacts and overall, just play a lot better than they initially did on your first encounter. I’d also say this is when the Lore building really gets interesting. Up to this point, you learnt mostly about the world and how it works through conversations with other characters and reading the book of Rites, but on the second go around, you start to learn about the main cast of characters and why they are here in Downside fighting for their freedom.

It probably doesn’t help that by the time this occurs, you’re probably already at the six to seven-hour mark, which when compared to Supergiant’s other releases, is generally when their games are wrapping up story wise. Don’t believe me, check out these screenshots from howlongtobeat.com (and obviously take this with a grain of salt yeah?) Now you might also be saying, “Well what about Hades? That game can be played for hundreds of hours.” Well, yeah, roguelikes are generally designed to be that way. These however, are not. So maybe people were just put off by the length of the game? I’m not convinced. While the game may be longer than its two predecessors, not once has it ever felt like its overstayed its welcome. So maybe people don’t like the game due to the story or presentation?

So, by the end of all of this I realised I had a major problem. I had even more questions as to why Pyre is never mentioned as anyone’s favourite Supergiant game. By all means, the game is an extremely enjoyable and engaging product. It is both visually and audibly gorgeous while its gameplay loops have depth and are well polished. Now, the game’s not perfect by any means, with some opponents (More so in the first half of the game, which is still six hours or so,) being a bit of a pushover once you find a strong combination of Exiles or the right buffs, *Cough* Sig Gilman with upgraded speed, *Cough* and at times, confusing world building that takes a bit of effort on the platers half to really piece it all cohesively together (which is worth it, and you should do it by the way). But overall, I really enjoyed my time so far with Pyre and despite leaving it with more questions than I had coming in, I’m glad I came searching. It may not be able to topple Bastion as my favourite Supergiant game, but it damn well gave me one enjoyable ride, and hey, when it comes to video games, that’s all I’m asking for.

* Updated 4/10/24 *

Pyre is finished! Clocking in at around 14 hours (I did do practically all the extra trials.) 
The game was fantastic and quite honestly, it's a shame only 20% of its steam base saw it through because the story gets much more intense in the last quarter of the game.

There's not really much more I want to add to this review as it's already getting lengthy and quite honestly, I don't want to spoil any part of the ending. I want you to go play the damn thing! So instead, here's some final screenshots I took.

Review Score: 8

Reviewed Game Tier List Placement: A Tier

Final Thought: 
Pyre is a highly polished gem of a game that I highly encourage those who love delving deep into lore to give a go. It's official, there is not one single bad Supergiant game.

My final line-up.