The Supergiant Run | Pyre
"Reader! Dare you tamper with the forbidden knowledge, so soon after your sentence into exile?"
The Supergiant Run is a mini-series where I chronologically play through all games made by Supergiant before the official release of Hades II. Some of my favorite games are made by this amazing indie studio, so I want to relive the experience of playing them again and share my thoughts.
Play time: Around 15 hours on first playthrough (haven’t finished this playthrough yet)
Played on: Steam Deck
Difficulty: Standard
This post contains very mild spoilers.
Pyre is the weird child of Supergiant Games. Always sitting in the corner, always excluded from conversations. When Hades was first announced, they said "From the makers of Bastion and Transistor", not a peep about Pyre.
It is my comfort game.
More on that later.
In Pyre, you are expelled from the Commonwealth to the Downside. Your crime is "being literate". As you are on the brink of death, a travelling wagon approaches, and you are rescued by a group of strangers - a human, a demon, and a dog. As the only one who knows how to read, you are entrusted with the Book of Rites, which describes the only way to get out of the Downside and get back to the Commonwealth: you have to play basketball. Ahem, I mean that you have to engage in ritual fights and earn your way to freedom.
I think Pyre's most unusual format really contributed to its being so underrated. It’s mostly a visual novel with some RPG mechanics, but really, it’s essentially NBA Purgatory, as one player once lovingly put it. The description on Steam’s page is somewhat misleading, as the "party-based RPG" suggests a turn-based game like the Final Fantasy series, but it’s essentially a sports game.
But its undervalued status makes me want to write about it more, because I feel like the other games don’t need it as much as people already know about them.
It has the most colorful cast of characters. Most story branches. Most endings. It’s a game where your choices actually matter. There is no fail state. You continue even if you lose, and this actually has consequences.
It’s the most narratively impressive Supergiant game.
Let’s get into it.
Unusual gameplay
As I said, Pyre has the weirdest gameplay of the bunch. The visual novel elements of Pyre may put some people off. On top of that, the actual gameplay is essentially a basketball game. When you combine these two not very popular mechanics, you get this weird amalgamation.
As an Ace Attorney and Persona fan, I’m very familiar with the visual novel format, so I never thought it was an issue. However, I’m not a fan of sports games so it was not easy to get used to.
Pyre is the most divisive game because of this choice to mix these two mechanics. Everything else - the story, the art, the music - is top-notch once again, but you either love the gameplay or hate it. I’m personally in the ‘‘loves it’’ team, but I understand if you find it less-than-ideal.
Yet again, I find it admirable that they are willing to think out of the box and experiment with the gameplay.
The most endearing cast
In Pyre, you collect friends like you collect Pokémon. You meet all sorts of people, such as the most intimidating but golden-hearted Jodariel, or the most precious vagabond girl (I named her Rhae in this playthrough), or Rukey, the dog with the twirly mustache. Or my favorite kind-hearted man, Hedwyn. Many others are there, but I won’t name them to avoid spoilers. The cast for this game is much bigger than the previous entries.
Having such a good cast, antagonists included, makes for an engaging experience. All the characters have their motives, their distinct personalities. As you make your way through the Downside with this merry ensemble, you get to know them, what they love, what they cherish and help them overcome their fears.
It is a common experience to be taken aback when you first start the game, as you probably won’t understand anything. By the middle, assuming you love reading the materials given to you (you are given the role of the Reader, after all), you will understand what is going on and hopefully make your choices accordingly.
Speaking of choices…
Choices matter
One of the biggest choices in the game comes in the form of choosing a character for certain events. If you got attached to the cast like I did, you will not find it easy to simply choose one. Who you choose, when you choose them, or even the fact that you won or lost some matches (on purpose or by accident) has an impact on the story.
You can say that Pyre’s narrative choices were a good learning experience for Supergiant as they took what they learned and applied them to Hades phenomenally. The way Hades takes into account everything that can happen in a run and alters the dialogue accordingly is surely thanks to Pyre’s existence, as well as the ‘‘no-fail state’’ situation. I couldn’t find the interview now, but I remember Greg Kasavin saying that without Pyre, Hades would not exist.
Finding joy and comfort in a hellscape
I mentioned earlier that Pyre is a comfort game of mine. Out of all the Supergiant titles, Pyre is the one that makes me feel like I’m back home. As soon as I hear Downside Ballad, I feel a sense of ease that seeps into my veins.
I’ve always been a fan of the "fire-forged friends" trope, and the entire cast of Pyre is exactly that. It also helps that the cast, including the opposing sides, all have distinct personalities with no clear "villain". Everyone has a good reason to do what they are doing, and you can’t blame anyone too much (maybe some minor characters…).
As you trudge along the treacherous terrain of the Downside in your little wagon, you encounter more people and have them join you. The cutest thing is when a new character joins, there is usually a new trinket that appears in your wagon. Jodariel’s rug, Rhae’s star made out of twigs, Rukey’s family photo… And you also gather new keepsakes from your travels: a jar of magma, a creature from the sea…
It is also a funny game. Bastion and Transistor have their moments, but Pyre embraces its weirdness and leans into it without being too silly. It still takes itself seriously, but the levity is there. A character gets seasickness and can’t participate in a match. You can converse with a bird/imp thing, and he is the cutest, and he is a feisty little fella. There is a dog with a mustache, and if you tell him that it looks bad, then he’ll cut it. You get a worm as a teammate.
Oh, and you can also ask the merchant to shut up. Kindly.
Inevitably amazing art and music direction
I know, it’s getting old, but I have to make a section for the art and the music. It’s one of their strongest suits, and it would be amiss of me not to include this part. I’ll just list my favorite tunes and put some screenshots to show off the art.
Both Thrash Pack and Dread Design are songs that play during certain matches against certain teams, and they are so good. Thrash Pack makes you want to headbang while you dunk on the opposite team’s pyre. Dread Design succeeds at making you feel unease and eerie, but also keeps your blood pumping.
In the Flame is the main theme of Pyre, and basically encapsulates the journey we undertake in the game.
Strands may break alone
But twisted make a braid
Together on their own
The journey shall be made
One of the most awesome parts of the OST is that the song that plays during the ending credits is that it completely changes depending on the choices you made during the game. And I’m not talking about a slight change; it is a pretty significant one. It blew my mind the first time I heard it, but I’m not going to link it here to avoid spoilers.
Overall thoughts
Pyre is an unusual little game with a lot of heart. You have to be aware of its oddities when you go into it. It is not like any other titles from this studio, so to go into it with such an expectation would just be the cause of your disappointment. But if you go into it with this in mind, you might find gold.
It also gets discounted very regularly and very steeply, usually up to 80% on Steam. Your mileage may vary, but it is well worth the price in my humble opinion. Recommended for those who enjoy interesting narrative structures in their games.
Noxalas!
I really want to do what you are doing and do a play through of all of these games and then do hades 2. It looks like a really fun run!
You had me at “collect friends like Pokémon. I’m a sucker for a collectibles game 😭 adding to my wishlist, looking forward to the next game in your run!