Pyre

Welcome back to another review. I've been super busy lately but I heard Supergiant games released their new games which is always a blind purchase since I played Bastion. In this blog, we swore by their previous games, Bastion and Transistor all of which are revolutionary in terms of game design. In my own perspective, each game perfected the term of innovation however each game shined in its own field. Where Bastion shined in its narrative, Transistor replaced that with its unforgettable soundtrack. Then Pyre comes out and completely breaks my expectations as usual. I never actually thought I'd enjoy a sports game, let alone play one with RPG elements and it is fantastic and super addictive.

Pyre puts you in the place of an unnamed and an unseen protagonist, named the reader who is literate in a desolate world full of illiterates. In the setting you are put in, the downside, you must recruit and regain your allies' freedom back into society, the commonwealth. Supergiant games is known to create a lot of terms for its story and setting which is not bad now that I think about it. It is involving as transistor was although gets a bit tiresome from a narrative perspective. I've had a couple of accounts where I've wanted to quit the game because I wanted to skip the visual novel dialogue to get to my next match but didn't want to at the same time because the story is not all that bad. In fact, the story decisions you get to pick greatly reflect your gameplay and vice versa.

Pyre's main focus to me is its gameplay and its quite surprising how much adrenaline it pumps into me where I've almost thrown my controller from an enemy scoring a goal against me. Each team consists of three members are tasked with throwing the orb in the middle into the enemy team's pyre. The aura around each team member affects their enemies and they can cast their auras to disintegrate the enemy members for a few seconds. RPG elements come in where your ATK affects the pyre's health or your speed when you traverse the map while holding the orb or even the presence your aura reaches further into. There is even a vendor between areas while you traverse the world map that sells talismans as accessories for your teammates as well as your own members having an EXP bar of their own with their own masteries. It's a beautiful system because each member you meet is differently played and you can work out different combinations not just in a narrative perspective but gameplay wise. It's open ended in the sense you don't get to lose and the story stops, even some matches continue the story if you lose them.

Pyre's aesthetics, just like the previous games is simply gorgeous and they compliment each other. I'm not sure if it has the same composer but some tracks are reminiscent of transistor in the sense some are melancholic and monotone, fitting for a desolate world like the downside. Your party members connect and develop gradually during your journey and you can't help but be drawn to their predicament if you can withstand the visual novel aspect of it since it's not very approachable of a genre in my book. 

But once you get through the tip of the iceberg that is the visual novel factor of Pyre, there remains a beautiful interior and a challenging game at that. Your party members eventually get their own personal missions as well as each match can have its difficulty raised aside from the main game's difficulty, exactly like how Transistor was with its levels and I couldn't withstand most of it. There is definitely a high replay value for those interested to see how the story can turn out depending on who you liberate back into society.

When you get the hang of it, you will realize the gameplay is oddly similar to how Rocket League is played if you experienced that before. If you don't even fancy the campaign, you can go right ahead and play versus mode against the CPU or a friend. Pyre is available on PS4 and on Steam. I haven't beaten the game but I've played 10 proper hours and I can safely say this is one of the most enjoyable games of 2017. I've been Ahmed Jadaa, see you on my next review