Pyre
5 Indie Ports That Should Come to Switch
Pyre comes from Supergiant Games, the talented developers of Bastion and Transistor. Like its predecessors, Pyre is a memorable experience, albeit for pretty different reasons. The game takes place in a fantasy world, where an affluent country known as the Commonwealth is the dominant power. You play as a Reader, someone banished from the Commonwealth for their ability to read, and cast into an underworld known as the Downside. There, you meet with other outcasts who have to undertake religious trials known as The Rites to win back your freedom to the Commonwealth.
Pyre is much more story-based than Supergiant’s last two games, and takes around three times as long to beat as well. The game is essentially split into two parts: visual novel-like sections where you get story and talk to characters, and the Rites which play out as a basketball-like fantasy sport. The Rites themselves require a fair amount of strategy, as you switch between three different characters on the fly trying to outmaneuver the opposing team to douse their Pyre. Where the game really shines, however, is in how it melds story and gameplay together. Everything you do in Pyre has a purpose, each match of the Rites makes a difference in the abilities of your teammates’, and who comes closer to salvation. There are also some tough choices you have to make in the game as to who gains their freedom, meaning you lose a valuable member of the team but send that character back to their life.
The presentation of Pyre would make it a perfect fit for the Switch, especially playing in handheld mode. The nature of the system means it would also be easier than ever to play multiplayer, with each player using a Joy-Con to play the Rites against each other. It’d be great to see any of Supergiant’s games on the Switch, but at the moment Pyre seems the most fitting.
