Pyre is a lot of things. It’s a poetic, 4th-wall-breaking adventure that tells its fantasy tale through the mechanics of a visual novel. It’s an RPG that has you leveling up your three heroes (a horn-laden woman, a dashing rogue, and a cool dog-man with a nice mustache) and investing in skill trees that felt very reminiscent of Transistor. But perhaps most strangely, its battles legitimately feel like a bizarre mix of Transistor, Dota, and Rocket League. Yep, you read that last one correctly.
I played 30 minutes of Pyre, and here is my answer: Pyre is an exercise in teamwork and prioritization. It’s a game about finding your purpose in the world by allowing others to help you. It’s a strategy game where you are given ample opportunities to learn about the land you’re traveling the people you are traveling with. It’s also a sports game.
“It’s like a sport, but tactical!”-types of games have never been very successful, in general. The are kind of niche.
And of course as JD said I feel there is less buzz than for Transistor, as a good amount of the Transistor buzz actually came from their last game being Bastion, at that moment.
Whether or not it sells, I’m interested to simply see the game itself. Here’s a company with two games that I’m aware of. One is a genius game, an all-timer (Bastion). The other kind of missed the mark.
That’s in the eye of the beholder, surely. Personally, I much preferred Transistor over Bastion, and never really got why everybody was raving about Bastion. I thought the setting was more interesting in Transistor, and the combat and upgrades superior (e.g. turn-based battles vs hack-and-slash, etc.).
You know what might make the game sell better? Perhaps if the actually released it on Xbox. I know, I know, less install base than ps4, whatever. Bastion was originally a 360 game, got great press and sold like gangbusters, though, and then they saw their sales of the next game take a dive when it was PS-only. Perhaps the people who like their games are Xbox gamers?
I agree. Typically these games miss the mark for real-world sports fans since these games are made up and they often miss the mark for tactical combat enthusiasts that prefer actual combat and not sports ball hijinks. Cf. Frozen Cortex.
That said, I am interested in Pyre…more for my love of Supergiant than a specific interest in the idea of this title. I am getting some Banner Saga vibes from this after watching the trailer and that can only be construed as a very very good thing!
I didn’t do more than skim down to the rating as I was in a rush, but I see IGN gave it a 9.7 - the reviewer must have really enjoyed it. I put it on my wishlist and am eager to hear what you guys thing. I liked Bastion and completed it, but both my attempts to get into Transistor fell flat for some reason (that I honestly don’t know, or I forgot). This looks neat, but the “sports” aspect isn’t doing much for me. However the story behind the “sport” is kind of cool, so I may be approaching this wrong, and if it really does “feel” like tactical-combat RPG I’m all in.
I’ve only played ~30 minutes so far and thus couldn’t dive very deep into the gameplay yet - it’s been interesting so far though and I’m looking forward to spending some more time with it. That said, the art direction is pretty damn gorgeous.
Love the art direction, I’m sure the music is amazing too, but the gameplay leaves me cold. If it was a more standard RPG I’d be all up in that shiznit.
Definitely respect what Supergiant is doing, though. Their agility and ability to jump between genres so quickly while maintaining quality is impressive.
I don’t get why folk seem instantly turned off by the sports angle. @AntediluvianArk I remember your comments in the Frozen Synapse 2 thread and I winced every time you said ‘fake sport’ in relation to Frozen Cortex.
My sentiment then was the same as it is now though: if the mechanics and rules are interesting and there’s plenty of room for different strategies and tactics, what difference does it make whether you’re punting a ball of some description around a space or trying to hit others with weapons and ballistics? (You could even say ‘fake weapons’ and ‘fake ballistics’!)
It just surprises me that everything about a game could look and sound great but… the moment sport is mentioned, folk start switching off or grumbling. I’m no sports nut either, by the way.
Frozen Cortex was flawed in some ways but it was nonetheless a great tactical game, and while the concept of it was considered a failure by Mode7, I attribute that more to the odd hang-ups of gamers than there being something fundamentally wrong with the core of it. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars didn’t gain traction either but the core of that was absolute dynamite.
Pyre fascinates me though because it’s apparently a sports game (basketball?) that jams in visual novel and RPG elements with a Banner Saga visual style and format. I want to know how close a game can get to being a sports game (or how far a game can get from being a sports game) without turning off the sports averse!
By chance I’m playing Transistor at the moment too. I’m so behind with games.
