Watching Pyre’s emotionally gripping story unfold, precisely and enjoyably punctuated by exciting, tactical, real-time battles, is to witness just about everything I look for in a video game executed all but flawlessly. Developer Supergiant’s latest is an experience on par with watching a world-class musician perform a difficult piece with equal parts talent and soul. And speaking of which, the music is superb.

The intricate but easy to follow story casts you as the Reader, an unseen character flung into the center of momentous events that are shaking the foundations of a finely crafted fantasy setting best described as some kind of beautiful cross between Dr. Seuss and H.P. Lovecraft. Like Bastion and Transistor, it’s an imaginary world where the dark and the whimsical mingle like they’ve always belonged together, subverting familiar stereotypes and treating lore nerds to layers and layers of detailed, expertly penned history and legend to uncover.

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“ Interactions take place in a delightfully hand-drawn overworld.

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Rukey Greentail is one of your first companions and quickly became my star orb-runner in The Trials, with his speed and agility forming the cornerstone of my playstyle. The strategies I’d developed all had him at their center. He was my secret weapon. But by chance, while following an optional objective on our travels I overheard Rukey praying to the stars for something he really wanted in his heart of hearts. Something I felt like I would be a monster to deny him. The catch? Granting him his wish would remove him from my roster forever. I struggled with the decision mightily through many Trials, and of all the earthshaking choices I made throughout the last act, the one that left the greatest emotional impression on me had to do with Rukey’s wish.

It’s so masterfully plotted, setting up situations where gameplay considerations must constantly be weighed against tugs at my own heartstrings. And the number of ways each character’s story can go had my head spinning with the possible paths I could follow in my next playthrough. Between all of the fates I could choose for certain characters over Pyre’s 20 hours and a Mass Effect 3-style progress tracker that determines how well your ultimate plan is enacted, the number of possible endings seems expansive.

“ The Trials feel more than a little like a fantasy world version of NBA Jam.

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There’s no lack of diversity, visually or mechanically, when it comes to the playing fields. Some have moving obstacles or blocks that can be pushed around to create a makeshift defensive perimeter. Others feature chasms that must be jumped, flown, or teleported across. One even pits you against living mobs that move around semi-randomly to make it difficult to plan your plays with any kind of certainty. Strategies and players that seem useless on a flat field can rise to all-star status depending on the terrain, making knowing when to use them crucial. And each arena has a unique visual personality, from the volcanic, imposing Nest of Triesta to the angelic and stately Fall of Soliam where the campaign’s ultimate challenges, the Liberation Rites, take place.

“ There's a MOBA-like range of interactions between opponents.

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Everything about The Trials feels precise, strategic, and exciting. There’s a 1v1 multiplayer mode with the ability to play against bots or other humans that allows all of the compositional diversity of the story campaign and then some. One of my only disappointments with Pyre was discovering that the head-to-head mode is local only, so you can’t challenge your steam or PSN friends across the world to a match. This is a shame, because the mind games and unorthodox strategies you can develop and run into playing against another human bring The Trials to another level of tactical depth and tests of reflexes.

Sneaking in that final goal to win a match by inches when my own pyre only had five health left was the kind of tense moment that made me stand up from my desk and run my hands through my hair, wondering if I could start parading around the room cheering without my roommates calling the cops. These close victories are made even more gripping in the context of the campaign, where the outcome of a match could decide the fate of a character you’ve come to know and love.

“ It’s all wonderfully united by a common mood.

The art, likewise, never ceases to impress. The character designs are imaginative and expressive, from the hulking, curly horned demons to the quirky, goblin shopkeeper who sells trinkets to boost your team’s performance in The Trials. The variety of surreal, dreamlike landscapes you’ll travel through in the Downside look like they were pulled from a children’s book and then tweaked to be just a bit darker, just a bit weirder, to the point of coming across almost foreboding. Likewise, each arena in which The Trials take place has a vibrant and unique character, in addition to varied terrain that must be accounted for in planning your tactics.