Pyre - an RPG from Supergiant Games

Got it! Only a little ways in, but I'm loving the aesthetic and setting. Gameplay is fairly interesting and very unique, though I'm still getting the hang of passing and all, so far using Rukey to just sprint past everyone seems to be the best strategy. And the customization system is as great as ever with Supergiant.

I preferred the other games' no-fault systems for customizing over this one; I never seemed to have enough money on me when I needed it. And, while I will need quite a while before I go back, I DO want to go back, so see how stuff can be changed.

I haven't gotten this yet, but I've been reading some of the people's reviews on Steam, and a lot of the negative ones seem to boil down to how much text there is in the game.

That's not a negative to me at all (if anything's its a plus especially over Transistor which left me craving more information about the rich world it set up), but it does remind me of this Penny Arcade strip.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2017/06/16/reading-gaol

I'll probably pick this up tomorrow since I'm currently on a video game buying jag that I'm thoroughly enjoying (but my bank account is a little more 'meh' about).

I mean, it's half the game. Complaining about too much text in this one seems like complaining about too much combat in Bastion or too much despair in Transistor.

I'd like to see how letting other team's Exiles be liberated affects the ending, or rather the overall success of the Plan. I lost to the Essence and the Fates; Tamitha seemed to prompt the Highwind Remnant to stage an assault at the same time as the Commonwealth uprising, leaving a very bloody battle, though it was ultimately successful and peace among the Harp and the new state (Sahrian something, I forget) was ultimately forged. Dalbert gave up the annointing to Almer at the last second and passed away of natural causes in the Downside, while Almer got some massive Ship Tease with [Rh]ae.

edited 26th Jul '17 8:13:08 PM by Ninjaxenomorph

...You already finished the game? How many hours long is it?

Complaining about excessive text in an RPG! Wow...

That makes me wanna get the game more. But I'm busy right now so when I'm off or in a sale it would be first buy.

edited 26th Jul '17 8:26:49 PM by Malco

I have 15 hours on it, might be a little padded from being AFK for stuff. Compare 39 hours on Bastion (which I must have 3-4 playthroughs of) and 17 on Transistor (which I think I did 1 1/2 playthroughs on).

edited 26th Jul '17 8:14:33 PM by Ninjaxenomorph

That's mildly impressive considering it came out yesterday.

As of this post it's been out for approx. 32 hours. Meh, took a while to install and I was pretty busy today. I think I beat Transistor in a single night.

So is this game worth a buy?

If you like Supergiant Games' other offerings, definitely. Otherwise, its a visual novel with a sports game/action RPG element, that looks and sounds amazing. Dunno if that appeals to you.

edited 26th Jul '17 9:22:32 PM by Ninjaxenomorph

Yeah sure all that sounds great.

As long as its good & fun I'll play anything.

I bought Bastion and Transistor on the strength of their respective soundtracks. Unfortunately I only really liked one song this time around, which is really too bad. Either way, reviews seem generally positive, lowest I've seen is from usgamer where they mentioned feeling that, for all the words, they didn't feel as though your motivation was sufficiently built on beyond "Empire bad".

Still, hope you folks enjoy it! Looks as gorgeous as I've come to expect.

Well, the Commonwealth is bad. [Rh]ae (honestly choosing the name you went with and putting the mutable part in brackets is the best way I've found to informally refer to her) was banished, as in thrown into a dismal wasteland with little hope of survival, for vagrancy. I made sure she was one of the ones Liberated because of that.

Edit: From those who have completed the game, I'd like to hear which exiled were liberated in your games.

edited 27th Jul '17 9:23:36 AM by Ninjaxenomorph

The ones i liberated in order: Hedwyn, Sir Gilman, Rukey, Xae, Jodariel, Ti'zo, And i Annointed Volfred and prevailed over Oralech....but i gave Oralech his freedom

I'm not one to say this on anything but IMO this is Supergiant's greatest work yet.....i'm eager to see where it goes from here.....

Also not afraid to admit tearing up a bit at the shot of them staring at the moon in the credits

Some art from Jen Zee herself: Team Transistor and Team Camerata.

edited 28th Jul '17 2:58:58 PM by Blueeyedrat

Nice. I love her art so much.

Definitely one of the top artists in the videogame industry right now IMO. Her art was the first thing that caught my eye way back when Bastion came out.

Oh, you've played it?

You mean Bastion? Yeah, I never finished it but I did play it for a few hours and found it pretty enjoyable. I'd like to finish it someday but don't trust the computer I'm using right now to run it properly.

While i definitely see the through-lines of design from the past two SG games, some of the art style really reminds me of Banner Saga.

I think its the wagon travel, maybe.

It's my second favorite game of all time (you know the first one). I really recommend you finish it, it's not long. It also has pretty low requirements, so I don't think that should be a concern.

I think this might be my favorite Supergiant game. Bastion and Transistor were great, but I didn't actually like the gameplay in them all that much (Bastion was meh to me and Transistor was tedious). I enjoyed managing the strategy of picking what masteries, characters, and talismans best fit my playstyle and there wasn't a single character I didn't like in the game. Even the "bad" guys I either pitied or hated for all the right reasons.

If there's one complaint I have about the game though, it's that the tutorial is way too long. The game is very linear and pretty easy for the first half and I was worried that was what the rest of the game would be like. But the game soon opened up and the rites became much harder (I had some very close calls later on). If I play again (which I probably will) I hope I get to skip it.

As for my choices: I freed Hedwyn, Rukey, Gilman, Fae, Jodariel, and Tizo. For the final fight I picked Pamitha but I ultimately chose freedom for myself. I felt like a real selfish asshole for doing so, but I wanted to honor my promise to Hedwyn that us original four would all go free. She and the others left behind got a pretty happy ending anyways.

I'm hoping they release a version for the Switch. This is the perfect game to play on the TV with some friends and I would love to be able to take it on the go too. I'd totally buy it a second time for that.

edited 31st Jul '17 5:00:44 AM by Nerevarine

finished pyre tonight. I love that supergiant games puts together such a lovely, enthralling experience that I not only sit through the credits, but I drink it all in wishing it won’t end.