Pyre

Listen, I love Hades, but this is Supergiant's best game in my heart.
Pyre is a Supergiant game, which means the gameplay is a little experimental, but deep and interesting. It also means the story, characters, art style and soundtrack are all absolute wins. It'll likely take you a minute to get the hang of, but is definitely worth the trouble - crucially, this is a game that doesn't punish failure but considers it a feature - and once it starts to click, you'll find it becoming your favourite visual novel/fantasy 3-on-3 basketball tournament simulator.

I don't recommend playing this game on Medium difficulty, because then I think your choices don't really matter. You'll win every fight and get the super goody good ending that everybody else got. Then you'll forget about the game and move on to your next dopamine hit. But the game could make you feel so much more than just empowerment and satisfaction that you can get from any other game.

I recommend playing Pyre like so:
- Start on Medium difficulty.
- When you meet a new friend, increase the difficulty to Hard.
- After each win, enable a Titan other than Yslach.
- After each loss, disable a Titan.

The fact that losing a fight in this game doesn't result in a "Try again, go back to checkpoint" is the unique selling point of this game. You can lose, and the story will move forward, taking that loss into account. The fate of your allies and enemies will go in different directions, and that's amazing to watch. THIS is the unique thing about this game. But if you win every Rite because the game is too easy, you miss out on this whole aspect!

I wish there was no difficulty selection, and no manual restarting of Rites, but instead an automatic difficulty adjustment happening sneakily in the background as I play.

A beautifully-told and engaging story about unlikely allies embarking on a journey to achieve salvation and enlightenment through the ritual power of 3-on-3 basketball

An underrated entry in Supergiant's catalogue, absolutely worth a playthrough and likely another after that. Clever mix of RPG and sports game with a visual novel whose story directly impacts and alters the gameplay. Loaded with endearing characters and intriguing worldbuilding, along with all the audiovisual delights you can expect from these devs.

Pyre is a Golden example of a Beautiful Narrative driven game with interesting gameplay where the outcome of your battles alters the story and the events that unfold.
I dont think I have ever seen someone create a unique sports game where the sole focus is the story instead of the core mechanics. Not to say that the gameplay is not developed, but I would say that playing the sport is more of a second thought than the meat of the whole experience, which is the narrative. The game plays kind of like basketball but instead of characters moving on their own, you can only move one at a time and they all have different abilities that allow you to move across the field and take out your opponents, as well as strengths and weaknesses. You can also buy things that your team member can equip to boost their stats and aid them. Your members also Level up independently and when you level up you get to unlock different abilities for each of them that further aid you in your conquest.
Typically in these types of games, you are encouraged, if not sometimes required to win every single match to progress. However in Pyre, you can win or lose matches and the story will continue with your members giving different comments depending on the outcomes that have unfolded. I honestly enjoyed so much how every character interacted with one another. Some don't like each other as much but end up warming up with one another, others give out comments on certain teams that you fight against and then everyone always talks about the end goal that they all have and their purpose. There is so much dialogue and just so many different conversations that can happen between them or even between the teams you fight that I never ran into a single repeated line. Even other characters that you meet that are not part of the sport make comments about certain aspects of the events that are occurring while you play. This game has so many different dialogues that you will not see everything in just one playthrough.
The games art is also so beautiful, SuperGiant Never seems to fail at creating breathtaking games with their beautifully drawn Backgrounds and positioning of things where you can see the different layers on the screen. The character designs are also so amazing and incredibly detailed with all of them very clearly standing out from one another. The music as well just like all of their other games is so good with certain people having their own themes and even the music dynamically changing while you play against certain opponents.
This game is such a work of art that you have to experience it for yourself. Some people say that it gets repetitive because of the gameplay and as much as I want to agree with those people, you have to keep in mind that the design of this game is mimicking that of a sports game. You don't change a sports rule in the middle of a game, its supposed to be consistent, plus there are these constellations that you can invoke before a match where it makes the game harder giving the enemy team an advantage. If you turn these on and constantly change your team members, you get a lot of variety from each match while keeping things fresh.
Buy this if you want a game that is very story focused which unique characters and interactions.

I've been putting off reviewing this game for far too long.
In 2017 I was at one of my lowest I had ever been mentally, even games I enjoyed couldn't keep my attention or fill me with and kind of emotional response, and I felt like my options and reasons to be around were dwindling. At some point my brother mentioned a game he got but hadn't really tried and for some reason I decided to download it and see if it could do something for me. 9 hours later I was crying and ready for a second play through.
Pyre is always my go to recommendation for a game, the game play isn't for everyone but the story is spectacular, and I usually can't focus on reading stories in games. This was my first Steam 100% and for the longest time my only until Hades came out. I can say confidently this game saved my life, and I've heard similar stories from others. It's truly something else

I think this might sneakily be Supergiant's best game to date (including Hades). The characters in this game are incredible, and the choice you have to make between keeping your favorite characters on your team versus giving them their happy ending was always gut-wrenching. The voice acting is superb, and it easily has the best soundtrack of any Supergiant game.
I can see folks being put off by the gameplay, though. It's very bizarre. I've heard it called "Wizard Soccer", and I don't think that's unfair. Personally, I enjoyed it, but it can be a hard sell to someone looking at it and saying "I don't know if this is for me"