Pyre is the third game to be released by indie developer Supergiant Games[1], following Bastion[2] (2011), and Transistor[3] (2014). Not only has the studio delivered two excellent games, it has also managed to stick to a schedule of releasing one game every three years. We loved both Bastion and Transistor[4] for their art, music, gameplay, and most importantly, the narration of the story.
Since Supergiant Games’[5] two previous games were so good, we were very excited to play Pyre[6]. Its story falls under the fantasy genre, which is a departure from the science fiction/ speculative fiction genres of the developer's other games. You play as the Reader — a person who can read words and the alignment of stars to see where Rites can take place. The story begins in the Downside, a land for exiles who broke the law in the Commonwealth. Groups of exiles band together and wander across the land to battle each other in the hope that when the stars align they’ll get a chance to battle and win their freedom via a Liberation Rite.
Why Pyre Doesn’t Have a Game Over Screen[7]
Your character is near death when a wandering party of exiles called the Nightwings finds and saves you. In return, you guide them across the Downside and help them in battles. In Pyre, your own character remains largely off-screen. You are instead interacting with the others and controlling them in battle. Everyone speaks a fictional language so you’ll be reading most of the dialogue on screen. It’s like reading a comic book, as far as the dialogues are concerned.
At first, we weren’t too immersed in Pyre’s...