Pyre

About Pyre

Pyre is a single player and multiplayer role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Supergiant Games and was released on July 25, 2017. It received positive reviews from critics and very positive reviews from players.

Pyre is a party-based RPG in which you lead a band of exiles to freedom through ancient competitions spread across a vast, mystical purgatory. Who shall return to glory, and who shall remain in exile to the end of their days?

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Reviews

90%Audience ScoreBased on 6,124 reviews

story2k positive mentions

grinding96 negative mentions

Unique and innovative blend of visual novel storytelling and fantasy sports gameplay that creates a compelling and emotional experience.
Exceptional art style and detailed worldbuilding with memorable characters that players become deeply invested in.
Outstanding soundtrack by Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett that enhances the atmosphere and emotional impact throughout the game.

Gameplay can be divisive and initially hard to grasp, with controls feeling clunky and pacing uneven due to long stretches of reading.
Some players find the rites repetitive and the exploration segments limited, causing pacing issues and occasional frustration.
Lack of full voice acting outside of the narrator and a sometimes overwhelming amount of lore and dialogue that may deter some players.

story
4,981 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions
Pyre offers a deeply engaging, richly woven story rich in character development, worldbuilding, and thematic depth, with a narrative that evolves based on player choices and gameplay outcomes. The game uniquely integrates its fantasy sports gameplay with visual novel-style storytelling, ensuring that victories and defeats alike meaningfully impact the unfolding tale, resulting in a personal and emotionally resonant experience. While some find the heavy reading and pacing challenging, the compelling characters, beautiful art, and memorable soundtrack make Pyre's story its standout feature and a must-play for fans of narrative-driven games.
- “Pyre combines a very dialogue-heavy and reading-heavy story with sports-like gameplay, which starts out as being weirdly compelling to end up being incredibly fitting for the story the game tells.”
- “The story keeps me on my toes and every match was an intense experience.”
- “Each song they sing tells the story of what is currently happening in the game and even hints at more story regarding each and every character.”
- “The storytelling, art, and music/sound were all top notch as is expected from supergiant, but they took the gameplay/battle in a different direction with a capture the flag style. This game very distinctly splits the high energy gameplay from the story telling aspect in the wrong way, telling all of its story though long and slow segments of dialog. It's unfortunate that the story telling came out as such as I want to be interested in the world as it has an interesting world and interesting characters that I wish I could have had a more immersive experience with, but this was a learning experience for supergiant, and they nailed the ball out of the park with the story telling in Hades, so I can accept this as their way of experimentation.”
- “All these problems combine to create a game that feels like it's trying to do too many things and is only succeeding with the story. The controls are wonky, abilities don't seem to work the way they should, the entire aura mechanic is weighted towards the enemy, the story emphasizes camaraderie and teamwork and being a 3 person team but you actually spend most games with 2 or fewer players, races are wildly unbalanced (speed>everything).”
- “The basketball style gameplay is frustrating, and the story parts in the middle are boring and a ton of reading boxes, the journey parts are totally unnecessary most of the time and would be better if they were not a player controlled part (e.g. select which path to take... there is only one path to take but you need to make the choice anyway!). I couldn't really find myself caring about any of the characters or the story in general.”
gameplay
3,955 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33% positive mentions, 61% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The gameplay in Pyre is a unique blend of a fantasy 3v3 sports game with RPG elements, combining fast-paced, strategic "rite" matches that are easy to learn but challenging to master. While some players find the sports-like mechanics engaging and well-integrated with the story, others feel it can be repetitive, clunky, or a barrier to enjoyment. Despite mixed opinions on the gameplay, it complements the rich narrative, memorable characters, beautiful art, and outstanding soundtrack, creating a cohesive and emotionally impactful experience.
- “The gameplay is uniquely difficult in its progression of the removal of options and the speed of later matches.”
- “The gameplay evolves over the course of the 10-15 hour game, remaining challenging without becoming too difficult.”
- “The rites, the main gameplay of the game, are short, easy to learn, but even with only few basic mechanics, hard to master.”
- “The controls are clunky, gameplay of the rites is repetitive, the dialogues are overly dramatic and not very interesting, the story sections in between give you an illusion of choice, which ultimately don't matter and neither does winning or losing.”
- “The core gameplay loop falls into first order optimal strategy faster than you can say ‘x char is op’, and the loop itself isn’t even all that compelling or fun (although i did enjoy the challenge of playing something vastly out of my comfort zone).”
- “The gameplay is very unique, to the point of being jarring for some.”
music
2,954 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64% positive mentions, 35% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions
Pyre's music is universally praised for its beauty, emotional depth, and dynamic integration with gameplay and story. Composed by Darren Korb with vocals from Ashley Barrett, the soundtrack features varied themes for characters and teams, adaptive songs that reflect in-game choices, and a unique ending track with changing lyrics. It stands as a highlight of the game, often considered among the best video game soundtracks, richly enhancing the immersive atmosphere and memorable experience typical of Supergiant Games.
- “Darren Korb’s soundtrack is both haunting and uplifting, seamlessly weaving folk, choral, and atmospheric elements that evoke the game’s emotional and spiritual themes.”
- “The soundtrack is an incredible piece of artistic expression and matches the game perfectly.”
- “Pyre's soundtrack might be my favourite out of all their games (a high bar to clear), for its soft acoustic themes and gothic inspirations.”
- “Unfortunately, the soundtrack doesn't quite hit as hard as their previous games and the gameplay falls short.”
- “The soundtrack is servicable but it does not meet Bastion's or Transistor's achievements let alone exceed them.”
- “While the music, visuals and story are on par with Supergiant's games, that is they are wonderful, the gameplay is, quite frankly, bad.”
graphics
1,214 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
69% positive mentions, 30% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions
Pyre is widely praised for its stunning, hand-painted, and vibrant art style that offers a unique, storybook-like visual experience consistent with Supergiant Games’ signature aesthetic. Reviewers highlight the game's gorgeous graphics, richly detailed environments, and expressive character designs, which, together with a phenomenal and dynamic soundtrack, create an immersive and emotionally engaging atmosphere. Although some note the visuals can be busy or occasionally affect gameplay clarity, the overall consensus is that the graphics and art direction are exceptional and a major highlight of the game.
- “The art style is exquisite as per Supergiant and the music takes you to another world.”
- “The hand-painted art style is lush and vivid, each scene glowing with painterly detail.”
- “The visuals are absolutely stunning and the soundtrack is breathtaking, coupled with remarkable character design and immersive worldbuilding.”
- “There is one complaint, lack of display options and graphic options.”
- “The visuals are not clear enough so I got stuck several times trying to dribble around and because the court is very small the slightest error is unforgiving.”
- “I was also frustrated by the lack of flexibility with the graphics; the only thing I could change was the resolution.”
emotional
425 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
99% positive mentions, 1% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Pyre delivers a deeply emotional and heartfelt experience, combining a unique fantasy sports gameplay with a richly woven narrative that explores themes of redemption, sacrifice, and camaraderie. Players become strongly attached to the diverse cast, making the choices of who to liberate or lose profoundly impactful and often heartbreaking. Alongside beautiful art and a haunting soundtrack, the game creates an emotional journey praised for its genuine character development and meaningful player agency.
- “Pyre weaves a tapestry of creative ideas, a narrative that is both incredibly emotional and well-thought out, but also leaves a surprising amount of room for each playthrough to be unique.”
- “The story is surprisingly deep and emotionally resonant, exploring themes of redemption, sacrifice, and the nature of freedom.”
- “Few games so elegantly integrate narrative consequence with gameplay mechanics, and fewer still make you feel the emotional weight of those consequences so profoundly.”
- “Boring story.”
replayability
208 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The game features high replayability driven by multiple branching storylines, significant player choices, and various character outcomes that encourage multiple playthroughs to see all endings. While some mention the lack of online multiplayer and limited new game plus options as drawbacks, the inclusion of different difficulty modes, optional challenges, and a versus mode adds further depth and incentive for replay. Overall, replay value is regarded as a strong and rewarding aspect that enhances both the narrative and gameplay experience.
- “There is an endless amount of replayability, finding new moments with characters and exploring the multiple endings available to the player.”
- “Choices along the campaign actually have significant impact on the resolution of the story, which gives it an amazing amount of replayability.”
- “With multiple different endings and outcomes, the game has tremendous replayability value.”
- “Replayability is minimal; the only aspect beyond the core gameplay someone might want to return for is to see all the characters' backgrounds and outcomes since they are not possible to see in one playthrough.”
- “There’s a forced replayability factor that makes the game kinda monotonous.”
- “15 hours of gameplay, and while those hours are exciting, it suffers from the same problem that all visual novels do: very limited replayability.”
atmosphere
175 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64% positive mentions, 34% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its unique, immersive quality, blending stunning hand-painted visuals, a haunting and uplifting soundtrack by Darren Korb, and rich world-building that captivates players emotionally. Supergiant Games consistently delivers an otherworldly, cozy yet grand mood that enhances storytelling and character depth, making the game a deeply engaging, atmospheric experience that lingers long after playing. The combination of art, music, narrative, and ambient design sets it apart as a standout in atmospheric game design.
- “Gorgeous hand-painted landscapes accompanied by another lovely score from Darren Korb show once again that Supergiant is in a league of its own when it comes to atmosphere, while vivid, distinctive characters add surprisingly emotional weight to player choice, elevating Pyre into a true work of art.”
- “As always, Supergiant games demonstrate how the gaming industry could be by yet again delivering an atmospheric, immersive game with excellent voice-over work, music, visuals, an enthralling storyline and lovable characters.”
- “Pyre boasts what we have all come to expect from Supergiant games: strikingly beautiful visuals, an immersive atmosphere, gorgeous hand drawn artwork and animations, an engaging ambience and a strongly intertwined narrative.”
- “Also, when a team banished (i.e. eliminated) a character from the opposite team, the game went into bullet-time-like mode for a short time to highlight the fact... this would be okay if you were going for effects and atmosphere, but in a competitive element of the game where speed and action matter (or at least should) this was a punch in the face.”
- “[spoiler]Once all of your favorite characters have been liberated, the atmosphere in the wagon becomes slightly boring, as there becomes less and less opportunity for characters to interact.[/spoiler]”
- “Still the game presents an atmosphere that is easy to be absorbed in, although being referred to only as "reader" reminds me of the worst kinds of fanfiction.”
character development
146 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59% positive mentions, 39% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions
Character development in the game is widely praised for its depth, continuous progression, and strong integration with storytelling, creating well-rounded, memorable characters with distinct, expressive designs. The narrative is enriched by compelling backstories, meaningful player choices, and immersive worldbuilding, all supported by outstanding art and music that enhance the emotional engagement. While the gameplay is simpler and some find the story pacing slow, the character growth and interactions remain the central and most celebrated aspect of the experience.
- “If you care at all about characters in a game, buy this game, it has some of the best character development in any game I've ever played.”
- “Character development shines through every match you play and every conversation you have with them, even regarding your adversaries.”
- “The character designs are top-notch and each and every character is written masterfully.”
- “There is a little to be desired in the way of story as I craved more lore and character development, and some characters are only present for a small portion of the game which was unfortunate as well.”
- “However this game is basically a 3 vs. 3 colorful basketball game, with a graphic adventure (dialogue, but no puzzles really) in between, then supposed choices and character development that don't seem to change anything much.”
- “Character development is also a pain to sit through as none of it is voice acted.”
grinding
100 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
3% positive mentions, 1% neutral mentions, 96% negative mentions
Grinding in the game is widely criticized as tedious and repetitive, often involving long stretches of reading and frequent, slow-paced gameplay sections that disrupt pacing. Many players find the frequent back-and-forth between narrative-heavy visual novel elements and gameplay bouts frustrating, leading to a grindy experience that diminishes enjoyment over time. While some appreciate the rich lore and story, the overall consensus is that the grinding detracts from engagement, especially in later stages and multiple playthroughs.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You definitely have to be okay with the gameplay because it becomes quite grindy very quickly, so make sure you look at some videos to see what you're getting into.”
- “Unfortunately, the rest of the game involves you moving around between locations you’ve already visited, only occasionally meeting new characters, and playing the same tedious matches over and over again.”
- “Still, I know that I will find it very hard to go back to the game to give it another go, because I know that the grinding process will repeat itself over and over again.”
optimization
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36% positive mentions, 58% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The game is generally well-optimized, running smoothly even on low-end or older hardware with minimal stuttering or crashes reported. However, some users noted occasional performance issues such as CPU usage concerns and occasional audio stuttering. Overall, the optimization supports immersive gameplay where player performance reliably impacts the narrative experience.
- “All of this centers around a core game that is mechanically unique and impeccably optimized while crafting a narrative that keeps you emotionally invested in a world shaped in meaningful ways by your choices.”
- “Yet it is incredibly well optimized, and I think you should be able to run it on a notebook.”
- “Story, music, graphics, worldbuilding, performance (I had very few stutters throughout my 34 hours so far), and it's really impressive because it all comes together perfectly as a single, amazing experience.”
- “Some people complained about performance issues.”
- “Then the music had some stuttering sounds sometimes.”
- “In terms of performance, I only experienced one error that required me to restart the game.”
humor
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The humor in Pyre is sharp, clever, and often intertwined with heartfelt, emotional storytelling, delivering a mix of laugh-out-loud moments and poignant character interactions. The cast’s witty dialogue and charming personalities create an engaging atmosphere that balances light-heartedness with bittersweet themes, making the humor both meaningful and memorable. While some players find the dialogue-heavy breaks occasionally tedious, the humor overall enriches the narrative and deepens the connection to the story.
- “Conversations are sharp, often funny, and sometimes surprisingly emotional, and the choices you make feel meaningful because they affect relationships and the path your group takes.”
- “The dialogue, vocabulary, relationships, character development, and especially the humor, are absolutely phenomenal.”
- “Character development is strong and continuous throughout the game, and its message feels interactive and important; and it often comes with a wry, clever sense of humor, to boot.”
stability
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 71% negative mentions
The game's stability is inconsistent, with frequent crashes, freezes, and bugs reported, such as disappearing menu buttons and AI glitches. While some players experience smooth performance, others find technical issues frustrating and occasionally game-breaking, especially on certain platforms. Despite these problems, the core mechanics remain engaging for many users.
- “Truly unique combination of sport & strategy/RPG, with an entertaining narrator and bug-free mechanics.”
- “Runs great on Steam Deck.”
- “Runs great on Linux.”
- “The game freezes randomly every so often, and of course, your progress gets wiped since the last checkpoint.”
- “Crashes and screen freezes (I can still hear the game going, but the screen is frozen) all the time.”
- “It's still pretty buggy; I had to revert to a checkpoint multiple times because the 'exit out of menu' button randomly disappears, so you can't leave the vendor.”
monetization
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43% positive mentions, 14% neutral mentions, 43% negative mentions
Supergiant Games stands out for delivering high-quality titles without relying on microtransactions, DLC charges, or always-online DRM restrictions, providing a clean, consumer-friendly monetization approach.
- “Pyre can be a bit addicting at times, particularly if you find yourself concerned with one-hundred percenting a game, but there are no issues of microtransactions or additional payments of any kind.”
- “The company that makes real games and doesn't charge for DLC and microtransactions.”
- “Unlike many AAA game developers, Supergiant is not constantly trying to shove DLC or microtransactions down your throat, or trying to make their games with always-online DRM restrictions.”
- “Supergiant Games are really an indie game studio with AAA production values (minus microtransactions :)).”
- “Unlike many AAA game developers, Supergiant is not constantly trying to shove DLC or microtransactions down your throat, or using always-online DRM restrictions.”
- “The company makes real games and doesn't charge for DLC or microtransactions.”

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Critic Reviews

83%Critics’ scoreBased on 34 critic reviews

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Play Times

10h Median play time

11h Average play time

11h Main story

21h Completionist

6-16h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 28 analyzed playthroughs

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Pyre is a role playing game with fantasy theme. Common tags for Pyre include indie, trading, soundtrack, great soundtrack, party-based rpg and others.

Pyre is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Mac OS, Phone and others.

The main story can be completed in around 11 hours, while the entire game is estimated to take about 21 hours to finish. On average players spend around 11 hours playing Pyre.

Pyre was released on July 25, 2017.

Pyre was developed by Supergiant Games.

Pyre has received positive reviews from players and positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Pyre for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

Pyre is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Transistor, The Banner Saga, Bastion, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Masquerada: Songs and Shadows and others.

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Reviews

story

gameplay

music

graphics

emotional

replayability

atmosphere

character development

grinding

optimization

humor

stability

monetization

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About Pyre

Games Like Pyre

Transistor

The Banner Saga

Bastion

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

The Pale Beyond

Sea of Stars

Citizen Sleeper

Roadwarden

Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth

Reviews

story

gameplay

music

graphics

emotional

replayability

atmosphere

character development

grinding

optimization

humor

stability

monetization

Critic Reviews

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Pyre

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