Okay, so as I said I’ve finished it. It took me something about 10 hours, or so my Steam says and it’s usually pretty exact when it comes to this, so there you have it, 10 hours of playtime. I’m talking only about single player campaign here, and I guess that if I would have done everything properly I could add 1 more hour to this, and that’s as far as it goes. I read pretty fast and game is very text-heavy (especially compared to previous Supergiant games, which were extremely focused on voiced narration driven plot, in context voice acting in this one is almost non-existent), so I guess if someone reads slower than me (because said someone have only played fucking games all one’s life or something) it could add to the count, but in the end – what you should expect is 10-15 hours of game. It’s fucking short. But it’s short on purpose. Plot is constructed in a way that encourages multiple playthroughs, I’m not going to explain why, because that’s a spoiler, and taking into consideration that this game is so fucking short, then as you might guess spoilers start to fly pretty early.
As for the genre, this game IS NOT a cRPG and should never be named as such. My guess and my estimation is that’s a visual novel with pretty heavy elements of pure game. The Banner Saga is closest kin to this game, if you played The Banner Saga then you perhaps know what you are signing for. Pyre has some elements commonly associated with cRPGs or jRPGs. Each character has stats, four of them, but they only, and I mean only, influence performance during the match/the game/whatever the fuck this is what you are doing most of the time. There is equipment and there are items, but this is so fucking basic that I guess most racing games done that better and in more depth. There are no side quests bare one optional questline which is connected with personal ability trials of your characters. So there you have it – visual, interactive novel with heavy focus on the plot and on battles, with light mechanics and ultimately not very much content.
Most of the content is in the lore and backstory, but here’s the trick. Supergiant Games learned their lesson from Morrowind, that being said most of the backstory is optional, and like 95% of the lore is even more optional. That’s pretty fucking amazing and I praise this design choice. Lore is always explained by the method of in-world description, comes from mouths of certain characters or from the Book of Rites. The Book is an important artefact that in-lore lets your character – the Reader – conduct the rites, but aside from that it serves as a source of lore. It’s written pretty well, and world that it describes is rather nice and well-constructed. Game does not shove exposition into your throat with a fucking shovel. You know that the Outside is a purgatory for political dissidents from the Commonwealth, that all your party members did something to deserve this punishment, and that there are Eight Scribes, folk heroes who probably invented the rites and are believed to watch over the Outside – that’s it. That’s all that you need to know, rest is optional, and rest is very interesting for the most part.
As for the plot – it’s a highly forgettable story about simple truths and simplest of problems. AND ABOUT MUH FREEDOM, Jesus, I was so bored by the political propaganda of one of the main characters… Nevermind. Game does not even compare to Bastion or Transistor in this department and this is a FUCKING SHAME. Game also does not create such brilliant narrative moments like Zulf moment from Bastion, mainly because it’s not so focused on the narrative. It’s less linear than it seems and plot suffers from it. Supergiant focused on the characters instead, and while, as I have said previously, they are clichés of clichés, they are still written competently, their backstories are basic but interesting, and game is made so that you eventually connect with at least some of them. As always Supergiant put much effort into side characters, and they deserve praise for that. Even the Voice that at the start (once again, for those interested, he’s fucking Magnus from Text-to-Speech Device, this is hilarious) seems to be only a narrator of the events and sports commentator equivalent ends up as a character with an agenda, so that’s nice I guess. But for those who will end up buying it and expecting tight, narration driven plot as was presented in Bastion or in Transistor, they will end up disappointed. Devs did not handle sort-of-open-narration and choices & consequences kind of story. There are many choices in this piece of gaming, but I’m yet to see how it translates to the plot, I’m afraid that not very much.
And yeah. You can fuck up. I believed so. See, here’s the trick. If you lose a battle, than you must suffer the consequences, and I would say that they are rather… dire. Also, you can make bad choices in-game when choosing where to go, what to do or what to say to certain characters. There is however a one big BUT to this all. You can fucking restart a rite. When you lose a battle you can easily go to the main menu and click restart the rite, and here you go, have another swing at it. It’s this game’s ersatz of save scamming, but option is evident and easy to use. This fucking sucks and is pure decline. You either commit or do not commit to style of playthrough in which defeats hurt you.
And on to the rites, that is the matches. Plot is that you play a magical ball and gain mystical enlightenment from tossing this fucking ball into a colourful flame. Who am I to judge what Supergiant thinks is spiritual enlightenment, but whatever. They are fun. Dynamic. Unique. I’ve never seen anything like that in a game like this, that’s for certain. As the game progresses the fights become more difficult, and you have an option to make them even more difficult, this is cool. AI knows some really fucking nasty tricks, Supergiant really made it smart when it should be, and in late game you really need to focus, what AI can do to you is sometimes impressive and invites a challenge. Each character really plays differently, outside of perhaps two or three speed focused ones. You can make all different kind of teams and you play against sometimes very varied enemies. Some skills of some heroes encourage slower, more tactical approach, while other characters tell you to play fast and with no regrets, so while overall dynamic, rites can be approached from different angles. Yet still, the mechanics behind whole match/rite system are shallow. Game ends exactly when you feel that you explored all the options. Supergiant could have utilized different kinds of terrain or give heroes more abilities, or make items relevant, I don’t know. All arenas have more-or-less the same shape, and terrain obstacles are almost never truly hard to overcome. In the end I felt that fights in this game had their moments, but were overall underdeveloped.
What can I say about the art style. It’s good for what it is, if someone digs the colour palette and aesthetics than it’s cool. Supergiant are generally extremely competent when it comes to their art, and this game is no different. It took much inspiration however from a source that’s not to my general liking – from jRPGs. There are moments in this game when you’ll feel like you’re playing an jRPG. Especially during conversations or during travel. It’s however western take on the overall style, close to Child of Light or The Amber Throne for example, so that’s not bad by the definition. As for the music, I uphold what I’ve said, it’s a good soundtrack with some brilliant themes, and I think it ranks the lowest out of their three games.
Overall – good game I guess? Good visual novel with rather heavy gameplay aspect? Plot is good and competent, some characters are fun, lore and setting are entertaining. Fights are really cool and sometimes tense, but still a lot of pleasure from them. Art as per usual with the devs is good, for some even splendid. That’s not a cRPG however and never should have been marketed as such. If you take that into consideration you end up with a good game, just a good game.
And yeah, as for the SJW shit. There. Is. None. Of. It. In. This. Game. Game gives you an option to choose gender of your Reader the same as it gives you the option (at some point) to choose a background or motivation of your Reader. Game gives you the option to choose They as a gender because in the setting there are races which do not have classical human genders, that’s it, although game I think assumes that you’re a human. Other than that this game is classic, even sexist some might say. All characters are either male or female, all at least slightly suggested romance sublots (be that your characters FAILED attempts or stories of other NPCs) are heterosexual, and only interracial romance in this game between human-like beings promotes a white dude banging a black chick (yeah Celeste we all know you want this BWC). So there you have it.