Pyre: Winning Freedom With a Ball

Pyre asks you to win your freedom with a ball. Supergiant Games built its third title around Rites — three-on-three matches played on a field with a pyre at each end — and wrapped them in a visual novel about exile. The game was released in July 2017 for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and PlayStation 4, then in August 2017 for macOS. That was nine years ago.

Trailer, via IGDBcom.

Exiled to the Downside

You play the Reader, named for the literacy that sets you apart from the scavengers who find you. Exiled to a lawless wasteland called the Downside, the Reader leads a growing party of misfits to compete in Rites, hoping to win absolution for their crimes. The story unfolds through on-screen narrative passages, with a hyperlink-type system the player uses to explore further. Between Rites, the Reader scavenges for supplies, learns the world’s lore, and mentors exiles to improve their abilities.

Three Exiles, One Orb

Rites put three exiles against three opponents, viewed from a top-down perspective. Each team tries to destroy the opposing pyre by launching a single glowing orb at it, steadily draining its health. You control one character at a time, passing the orb among the three — whoever holds it is the one you steer. Carry the orb and an enemy’s aura can banish you from the Rite, dropping it at your feet. Characters bring different skills, from dashes to long-range projectiles, and different passive abilities. One moves quickly but does little damage to the enemy pyre. Another is slow and bulky, and hits hardest.

What Marty Sliva Compared It To

IGN’s Marty Sliva described the combat as a mix of Defense of the Ancients, Rocket League, and Supergiant’s previous game, Transistor. That comparison holds. Pyre is a party-based RPG, visual novel, and sports game at once, and the Rites are the hinge the whole thing turns on. A local multiplayer mode is included.

Following Transistor

Supergiant followed Transistor (2014) with this, and the studio’s habit of rebuilding its own rules holds. Pyre drops real-time action into a sport. The Rites are legible on sight: orb, pyre, aura, banishment. That clarity is the achievement. A less confident studio would have buried it.

The Exiles Carry It

The Rites are not the whole game, and they are not the best part. The exiles are. Scavenging, mentoring, and reading through the lore give the roster weight that a bracket alone cannot. The hyperlink system opens the story wider wherever the player chooses to look.

Ranking What Works

1. The Rites — clear, fast, and genuinely tense at the pyre.
2. The cast — misfits with reasons to be here.
3. The lore — dense, and worth the digging.
4. The mentoring and scavenging — useful, if slower.
5. The narrative passages — strong, but they interrupt momentum.

Where Pyre Stumbles

Pyre’s weakness is pace. The story passages and the management between Rites can stall a game that is at its best in motion, and the visual novel half will not land for everyone. Still, the hybrid works. Supergiant took a sports game and made it mean something.

2017 games · game review · Indie Games · Pyre · Supergiant Games · visual novel