Pyre

Pyre is a game that asks the important question: "What if sports were a metaphor for spiritual redemption, and also involved a magical talking dog?" You play as the Reader, a banished exile who assembles a team of equally banished weirdos to compete in the Rites, a series of mystical competitions that are, essentially, fantasy basketball with fire.

The world of the Downside is a vibrant, hand-painted fever dream. Imagine if someone crossbred a medieval tapestry with a prog-rock album cover, and then populated it with a cast of characters that are equal parts tragic and hilarious. You've got giant, stoic tree-bearded dudes, sassy harpies, and of course, the aforementioned magical talking dog, who is probably the most well-adjusted member of your entire crew.

The Rites themselves are a blast. It's a unique blend of strategy, action, and sportsmanship (sort of). You hurl an orb into the opposing team's pyre, while also trying to defend your own, and occasionally banishing your opponents to the astral plane. It's fast-paced, it's frantic, and it's surprisingly tactical, requiring you to balance offense, defense, and the ever-present threat of getting your face dunked on by a winged fury.

But let's be honest, the real joy of Pyre comes from the characters and their interactions. Your team is a motley crew of outcasts, each with their own unique backstory, personality, and reason for being banished. As you travel together, you'll forge bonds, engage in witty banter, and maybe even develop some unexpected rivalries. It's like a really weird, really heartwarming road trip, but with more chanting and fireballs.

The story is surprisingly deep and emotionally resonant, exploring themes of redemption, sacrifice, and the nature of freedom. But it's also punctuated by moments of levity and absurdity, reminding you that even in the darkest of times, there's always room for a good joke (or a well-timed dunk).

Pyre is a game that's hard to describe, but easy to love. It's a sports game, it's an RPG, it's a visual novel, it's a fever dream – and it's all of those things wrapped up in a beautiful, hand-painted package. Just be prepared to explain to your friends why you're so invested in the fate of a magical talking dog and his quest for spiritual enlightenment through competitive orb-dunking.

Pyre might not be the most popular Supergiant game, and it might not be as well reviewed as the others. Even so, I would go as far as to say that this is my favorite Supergiant game.
I played Bastion, Transistor, and Hades, yet, this is the one game that I can't get out of my mind. It's so underrated, it hurts. I just adore everything about it, be it the story, world, characters, gameplay, art, soundtrack, voice acting, and everything in between.
Pyre itself tells the story of yourself, who was exiled from the country of Commonwealth to the bleak, extreme, nearly unlivable region of the Downside. Criminals from the Commonwealth are sent here, and they are all handed a life sentence.
One day, your injured self was saved by the triumvirate of Nightwings, and you would soon help them back by guiding them in the Rites, an ancient basketball-like competition where the champion can get the chance to be liberated, back to Commonwealth, all sins forgiven.
In this competition, three characters in the Nightwings triumvirate would compete against three adversaries from various triumvirates, for example the Fate triumvirate led by the old wise cur named Dalbert Oldheart, or the Essence triumvirate under the orders of the war orchestrator harp called Tamitha Theyn.
Both teams have Pyres, which is similar to a basketball hoop. And your job is to control one character at a time, to move them while holding the ball (or in this case, Celestial Orb), use your skills (which differs between characters) to fend off the adversaries, and either jump into the Pyre or throw the Orb into it. Once you get the point, the scoring character will be banished/out of the game for several seconds.
Not only different skillsets, your characters also have different stats, like Glory which decides how many points/damage you deal to the enemy's Pyre, Quickness which decides your speed, and Aura which decides how big the circle of aura that surrounds you is. Whoever touches your Aura is banished for several seconds, but your Aura will be gone if you're holding the Orb.
You can also level up your characters to learn new skills, and use talismans to strengthen your character based on your playstyle.
I truly enjoyed this gameplay loop. It can get repetitive for sure, but I didn't mind it one bit. To make it more refreshing, I usually just turn on the gameplay modifiers (sort of like Hades' Heat system and Transistor's Limiters), which can increase the adversaries' Pyre health, decrease yours, make their Aura bigger, and many more.
The other half of Pyre is basically a visual novel, where you get to read interactions between yourself and the well-written members of the Nightwings, like Hedwyn the nomad, Jodariel the demon, Rukey the cur, and Ti'zo the imp. I loved getting to know them and their backstories, on why they were exiled to the Downside. You will also learn more of the world's lore by accessing the Book of Rites ingame. If you like reading, you're in for a treat!
For me, the best part of Pyre is the fact that your journey continues even if you win or lose the Rites. This part is so good when combined with the mechanic of Liberation Rites, which is the ultimate rite to liberate your teammates. Only one of your teammate can be liberated at a time, and if your adversaries win, one of them will get liberated instead.
This will definitely make you think. First off, if you lose a Liberation Rite, that's one less chance for your teammates to be liberated. Second of all, you can liberate your favorite character, but once they're gone, they're gone. You can't use them again in the Rites, and you can't interact with them ever again. And then, you also have to make sure that your team is balanced, and if you liberate your strongest ones, you might be left with the ones you're not familiar with gameplay wise, which can lead to a loss streak.
There is no right or wrong answer. Once, I had to pause a Liberation Rite because I really liked this one triumvirate, and I did consider to throw the game so they can be liberated instead of my teammates. With this many possibilities of who gets liberated and who doesn't, it will make your playthrough personal. You might have a wildly different playthrough than mine.
Lastly, the art and soundtracks are truly gorgeous. When it comes to soundtracks, I adore "In the Flame", "Path to Glory", "Vagrant Song", "Never to Return", and "Bound Together". Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett just never miss.
With all the points I've made above, I can only hope this might at least spark an interest for you, the Reader, to give this game a go. It's absolutely worth it.

a once-in-a-generation wonder; there's truly nothing else like it and that will alienate people, but if you pick up what Supergiant is putting down then it'll live in your heart until your heart stops beating

Having played this after Hades it feels very cozy, with the type of endearing characters and fantastic soundtrack that later games would make me expect. I love how Darren Korb's urge to play duets with Ashley Barret and then intertwine them in videogame narratives is a constant through the years. Voice acting is phenomenal, and I loved some of the ideas for making the world of The Downside stand out more.

Most of the time I didn't have issues with the sports game they introduce (in fact game feel is excellent) but, for a gameplay device that, as I understand, is meant to add spice to what is otherwise a visual novel, it feels very strange to have to deal with the typical "+5% jump distance" elements, which I often frown upon in other games. Just like in those, eventually they add very little to the mix. Did Pyre really need merchants, gathering plants, etc.?

In the end what I enjoyed the most was the story, the unusual way to deal with consequences and the perhaps almost tragic nature of what you are led to decide for the characters that you grow to love.

Way fun. Definitely play with a controller. It's a Supergiant hidden gem with all their hallmarks.

Every supergiant game is worth playing. beautiful games.

Solid CHOICES MATTER visual novel whose story and traversal elements are broken up by odd and awkward but weirdly fun 3v3 basketball segments. It's pretty short - 12 hours give or take - with a massive amount of replay value since there's all kinds of endings and relationship possibilities and all that. Story-wise it's rather typical fantasy fare, but there's enough polish here to make it compelling - the main cast are interesting enough, the giant matrix of possibilities the intricacies of the plot hinge on do keep you interested and the art does an especially great job at enhancing the world-building and the personality of both the cast and the overall story. I can totally see why Supergiant went with the 100-hour rougelite structure for Hades instead - there's a lot of text the vast majority of players will never come across - but if you liked Hades or are just intrigued by how Hades-meets-NBA Street could possibly work I recommend giving it a shot.