time to learn how sports for the first time in my life I GUESS
Hopefully my PC issues won’t be too severe, but in the mean time I won’t be able to join =\
Ok, I’m sitting down to play this, and I have this post open to write down my impressions as they come to me.
For context: Hades is pretty much my only real experience with Supergiant. I think I remember pirating Transistor as a teenager? And not getting it or into it at all. I know nothing about Pyre pretty much (I didn’t even really read the OP).
Anyway, here’s impressions.
I like the music.
Lmao ok, morally questionable empire established immediately.
Clever and unobtrusive way of doing that.
The voice acting reminds me of the voice clips your units would say on commands in, specifically, Age of Mythology.
So far I’m positively intrigued by all the visual novel tech and quality of life. If there’s props with text that might not be easily readable to everyone, you can open a plain white-on-dark gray textbox with that same text. Love these small affordances. I’m pretty sure it’s not purely a visual novel, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised.
After the tutorial.
Ok, so that’s the main gameplay, huh. I’m not sure I really get it yet.
After the first rite.
It looks like either I’m dumb or you cannot control a character other than the one carrying the orb, if you have it. Seems like an odd limitation. So far it really feels like it’ll just be picking up the orb and dashing past everyone repeatedly. Not quite sold, but I’ll keep going.
The artstyle/presentation overall really feels like a precursor to Hades. Same idea, but less polished execution. It’s still very pretty overall, and whatever nitpicks I’d have feel too petty to mention.
I’m loving the somewhat understated humor, and writing in general.
(I did also go with Shae.)
After the second rite.
Ok, the mechanics make a little bit more sense now. I felt like carrying the orb made you completely defenseless, but actually passing the orb as they jump at you so your aura comes out and eats them is pretty sick.
Also, why is the narrator so mean to Rukey lmao.
Interesting that there’s dialogue based on your choices of members in the last Rite. I probably should have seen it coming, what with the strong VN flavouring, but it did kind of take by surprise.
Actually trying to write down stuff as I experience it is kind of a new experience in and of itself. I alternate feeling like I’m being too pedantic about writing stuff down, and that I don’t write down nearly enough.
This’ll be the end of my first play session, though. I think I see the appeal, and I’ll come back to it tomorrow.
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yeah it’s NBA Jam rules, big inspiration for the game. it feels weird at first but i’d rather not have an NPC carry the ball and cost me a goal. plus it encourages you to pass. teamwork!!
v cool reading your thoughts live 
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I just plunk Jodi out in front of the pyre and let her huge aura play defense.
I assume this will work worse later, once more teams projectile Aura and throw the ball.
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I like seeing these kinds of fresh thoughts seeing as I’m doing a replay myself
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dope that i never uninstalled this game. less so that i haven’t played in almost a year. unsure if i’ll keep up with my last playthrough or start over.
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The music in the Cairn of Ha’Ub owns, and the Rite against Barker and the Dissidents was closer than every other match to this point, partially because their change in aggression midway through threw me off.
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Just started. This game is certainly unique… Gonna take a while to wrap my head around these mechanics lol
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Oh, I like the character trials. I also like the swamp being a pick your poison (almost literally). Go quick to mitigate penalties, or take a path to get something good.
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Gonna pick the game up after I get paid on Wednesday, really looking forward to it!
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oh yeah I’ll say this ends around June 4th. then it’ll probably be a week break before i put the next game up, so it doesn’t feel like we’re churning
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This is my first playthrough but not my first time hands on. I played either a demo back in 2017 or owned it and played up to the first rite with who I named Rhae.
I’m playing on Heightened because I’m ready to ball. However, I will absolutely back down and feel no shame if it gets too hard. We’ll see how long it takes. My last session ended with me beating the Withdrawn. It started out great, looking like I was going to win with no damage, then they stepped up, started focusing on banishments and scoring during death timers. Won with only 11hp left. It was really fun, had me leaning foward in gamer mode. Learned some good tech from watching the AI and it’s cool that Udmildhe gets added to the training room, letting you practice against harder opponents as you progress.
Still early on so there’s not much I can say about the story. Setting is curious and I want to know what enlightenment means in this world. Can you miss characters in this game? I’m not worried, what happens, happens, but it seemed like I met Ti’zo by picking the path I did, or do you just meet them regardless?
I don’t believe so.
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Great music, characters, and world so far. I really loved the big duet song when it came up. The game itself is really fun too, the different characters all feel quite different from each other in how they play so it’s been fun mixing up my composition.
After winning the big rite spoilers, ~5-6hrs in
I sent Rukey off first… I don’t hate him, he was very strong, but I wanted more time with Hedwyn and Jodariel who were also high enough level to send. I’m interested to see how the 2nd time through the rites goes from here, and onwards. Also the English voiced lines that Sandalwood said were very striking and surprising. Makes me wonder about the narrator of the rites, who is constantly being a hater.
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Took a break for a while to play some Hades 2 (which I maintain is a good game that I kinda wish didn’t exist) and also so I can pace out the game a bit. I’ve settled into doing one or two Rites a day. I’ll probably do bigger chunks over time though.
The transition from the fifth to sixth area (Sea of Solis to Black Basin) is an iconic Pyre moment IMO.
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Because it’s Supergiant, I can’t be sure if it’s reacting to choices I made, or a default script. After defeating the Pyreharts in the ocean, the scene back at the wagon mentioned that we won decisively (60-0), which I don’t recall seeing after previous matches I’ve won by larger margins, and Hedwyn mentioned that he hasn’t had to sit out a Rites before (I had used him in every match). Maybe I’m misreading it and he meant “sit out a match due to illness” but still.
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AIGHT. Sitting down for session #2.
First thing I noticed is there’s a little help blurb about what each mode is on the main menu. Missed that the first time. It explicitly mentions that, in campaign mode, losing is not a game over, but simply a way for the story to play out. I am… intrigued.
A pure defense section, huh. Probably a good thing to remember the controls on before another actual rite, hah.
And the way you can “understand” the little critter only through tooltips, because it still only makes various noises, is a very cute touch.
I’m really enjoying the VN bits though–and more or less every time there’s a Rite, there’s something character-related happening. Like, Rukey couldn’t participate in this one for… reasons, which sets up some scenes in the near future. It’s got a nice flow to it.
Also, with each rite, I enjoy the disembodied announcer more and more. I don’t know why he doesn’t like me, but at least I’m higher on his list than outright evil folk!
I just took damage for the very first time, against the witches. At this point I have to confess I don’t quite feel the game juice on this one. I’ve been thinking that I maybe need to turn up the difficulty, but also maybe I just need to get deeper into the game. I kinda get why it’s cool, but I don’t feel it’s cool yet.
Seeing as this last rite was the most locked in I was during any of the gameplay sections so far, I remain optimistic I’ll get there.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time today, so the defense mission, the Sandra special, and one rite will have to do. I just didn’t wanna go to many days in a row without playing it more. I’m fully intending to finish it for the club.
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Had my first session since the tutorial about a week back or so. (Ive been defaulting to katamari during my after work game times)
Did two rites and a defense minigame. I’m having fun with it. I put it on normal cuz i thought it may be too hard, but it’s a little easy. mIght bump the difficulty up a smidge.
Jodi is my rock. Some1 mentioned parking her near the pyre, and whike i havent gotten that strat to work, her presence and power is a big asset. She’ll be super powerful once i get the super jump timing down.
Stowaway (Mae) also show’s promise but i gotta learn her more. Im a little worried she’ll edge the dog out cuz she has about his same speed with better presence.
Im enjoying how this game has RPG customization but for a sports game. They really shoulda did pyre, but for football as a sequel instead of hades 2 imo.
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If yall are finding normal too easy I definitely recommend bumping it up. I’ve had a lot of close games and the tension has been enjoyable.
My only issue so far is that the AI still makes some strange moves. Sometimes not scoring when it’s open, bad pathing choices or not jumping over barriers. My last battle with the Pyrehearts was the toughest so far, was really hard for me to get in and score and I only won because the AI kept walking into pits.
I didn’t see this, had totally been expecting a game over and rematch option so I’ll probably keep it on this difficulty and roll with any future failures.
My 
team is currently her and Rukey on attack and Hedwyn supporting. With Hedwyn’s team stamina and speed with orb boosts they can juke around foes, get into their corner and just double jump/super jump straight into their pyre.
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