The Unparalleled Brilliance of Supergiant Games

[@MagicalSlimeGirl]

Love the analysis, thanks for the content!

[@Nomadith]

Hell yes, a legend talking about legends Also might just be me, but I see some strong overlap between supergiant and Larian in their successes: High staff retention to keep motivated and knowledgeable employees around, a focus on what they know how to do (i.e, making the same kinds of games for 15-20 years and perfecting their craft each time a new game is released) and remaining independent, allowing focus to be truly on their niche instead of fads.

[@MorbidRainbow]

I somehow managed to listen to all the OSTs of the games before actually playing them. So far i've only played Hades, but from what you've shown i'm eager to play all the others as well. Also i feel ya on Dusa, she's heckin adorable.

[@wastucar8127]

What a ducking king coming out of nowhere

[@SourSourSour]

I've been playing Supergiant games since Bastion, the only game I inadvertently skipped was playing Pyre. Transistor is definitely my absolute favourite of the other 3 I've played

[@ICircuit64]

You absolutely nailed this one. Pyre is actually my favourite of the four, you've beautifully put the reason into words. The same way you sat watching the end credits of Transistor, i did when Pyre ended. Though i should probably play Transistor again, i was a lot younger and couldn't understand it really well the last time. Hades is a good game, but it didn't grip me that much to play it until the end. I tried two times and have around 80+ hours combined, but i got tired of the gameplay both times soon after Persephone came back. I wasn't even bad, it just became kind of a chore and when i died it always felt that those 25-40 minutes were for nothing.

[@kurathchibicrystalkitty5146]

This is the video that convinced me to subscribe. I've been binging your videos for the past day or so, and decided to save this one for last. You have a very concise and thoughtful way of explaining concepts [while also being funny, which I appreciate], and that's the kind of thing I look for most when it comes to video essays. The best analysis I've heard in a long time, and thank you for making this video. I didn't even notice the video length, so, congratulations on making me hyperfixate on a video about SuperGiant games as much as I do on the games themselves! So, storytime, and a massive text wall incoming. Hopefully you'll find this at least somewhat interesting. I first found out about Hades through Overly Sarcastic Productions' livestreams of it [they're my favourite KZbin channel, but that's not relevant]. But I didn't pick it up right away, since it wasn't on the Switch yet, and I was a little nervous that it'd be too hard for me. But then, at long last, in February of 2022, I started Hades. I have never loved a game this much before. It is an expression of art, beauty, and passion, and it's so much fun to play and just enjoy. Everything is so meticulously crafted. It's become a tradition for me to replay Hades around the same time every year [this year I was delayed until the end of April], and I'm currently in the middle of my fourth playthrough. Every single time, i discover something different, a new bit of dialogue, or a detail I missed before. I could gush about Hades for hours, so I'll move on and say that then, I turned my attention to the other games. I decided to play Bastion next and then Transistor [I can't play Pyre, since I have neither a gaming PC nor a Steam Deck, but I love it, too, even though I've never played it]. It took a while to get to Bastion, since my first attempt I had no idea what I was doing and fell off the map too many times before I even made it to the Bastion. Whoops. Once I did get to it, though, I had a lot of fun, and was overjoyed at the small pieces of story and fascinated by the colourful, desolate world, and silent characters [well, except for the narrator, of course] that I deeply cared about. I chose to save Zulf, without hesitation, but sat on the final choice for a good few minutes. In the end, I chose the Evacuation ending, if only to give these four broken, fragile characters another chance in a new, unknown world. Then. Then came Transistor. For two days and five glorious hours, I was utterly obsessed. I loved everything about it, the convoluted, sometimes frustratingly cryptic puzzle-piece style story that was probably too ambitious for its own good but I loved it anyway, the deconstruction of classic video game power-ups turning out to be the digitized souls of people killed for their talents, the music, Ashley Barrett's mesmerizing voice, the Transistor's entertaining and often amusing comments. I told my friends, this is one of my favourite games, and proudly put it on my list of 'top favourite games of all time'. But.............once those five hours were over, late at night when I should've been asleep, once I reached the end...I saw that final scene, and it could never be my favourite game. Because I'd overlooked one of the most important things: that Red.....is her own person, with her own choices, thoughts, and feelings. She's not me, she's not an avatar of the player. That oversight slammed into me with the force of a freight train. I've never been as emotionally devastated by any story before or since. It took precious seconds to realize what she was about to do, but I pleaded with her to stop, both of us, me and the Transistor, pleading with her not to make her choice. That experience left me raw, in a way that almost nothing else has, and it's haunted me ever since. There's a category I made, when I do tier lists of my favourite things*, that I call 'Ripples in my Mind'. That's the kind of game Transistor is. Something that affects me long, long after I've experienced it for the first time, something that turns my perception of reality upside-down, makes me see the world in a new, sometimes unsettling way. *I love lists. I make lists. I love making lists. Lists, lists, lists. Anyway. In many ways, Bastion is about choices, and how those choices affect the people and the world, in both positive and negative ways. While Transistor is about lack of choice, and how a kind of deterministic, fatalistic mindset can creatively and physically stifle not just people in general, but those who, both literally and metaphorically, lose their voices. I hope I don't come across as too melodramatic. I'm a very emotional and sensitive person, so when I feel things, I feel them HARD. I'm beyond excited for Hades II, and have been since it was announced back in December 2022. The only thing that comes close is when Pokemon Platinum came out in 2009 when I was little, and even then, this surpasses it by an impossible margin. Unfortunately, the long, long wait for the Switch release while dodging spoilers will be.....very difficult. [I've had multiple near-misses already, and the tech test's barely started!] But I know what when it at last does [in three, four, five, six years or more, who knows, ye gods], and I can play it, I will love it just as much, hopefully even more. Metal-terranean is a perfect description of the music, by the way. Thank you for getting Out of Tartarus stuck in my head again. 😁 I'd learn how to play it on the piano if I had bigger hands. [I can't even play the chords in No Escape because my hands just don't reach far enough.] Thank you for reading my Text Wall of Rambling About SuperGiant Games. 😀

[@maxducks2001]

God FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT PYRE.

[@strawberrypuddin8919]

You sold me on pyre! I love fire emblem games with all of my heart! And the game seems like it is fire emblem enough to tickle that part of my brain

[@Shnyak]

This is exactly what I wanted to fill my Monday evening. Thank you, Puppet.

[@santoast24]

That person who watched this video without ever playing a Supergiant game? Ya thats me, hi, nice to meet you.

[@alexandrudorries3307]

Me too! :D

[@rocket_hops]

i adore that passion you have, words to feelings

[@LordsSky]

How does this only have 2.5k views? Wonder how many other good youtubers just completely go unknown by 99% of users.

[@jhonon1]

Well Done We shall watch this ones career with great interest

[@kaliflowers]

awesome video. now i wanna replay transistor and get back into hades

[@fridgegremlin5496]

Aw fuck yeah. I love listening to people yell about Supergiant. Pyre’s one of my favorite games ever.

[@NoahSouthwick]

Very good video

[@The13thclam]

The first time I opened Bastion I just sat there and listened to the menu theme a couple times before I even started playing. I've been hooked ever since. Supergiant doesn't just make games, they make experiences. Coming across Zia the first time, "Mother, I'm Here" with Zulf, the first time I heard "We all become"...just all of it. Hades deserved GOTY. Also Dusa is best waifu.

[@alexandrudorries3307]

I almost feel like this should have been split up into episodes in a series to make it more accessible to randomly spawning unsubbed viewers. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love this, but these videos work best for creators who already have a cult following who’ll follow their insanity anywhere… *cough hbomberguy cough cough

[@robertshaw3203]

Wtf 55:25

[@ddd-op5wy]

I've only played Pyre and Hades. Pyre was boring trash and comparing its story to VNs is insulting. Hades was good but one of the most overhyped games I've played. I can't relate.

[@maxermrh1979]

Interesting 🤔 I think most people just have a visceral emotional reaction to the sheer beauty of the games, both in the visuals and in the writing, that fundamentally affects their experience with the game. If you can't connect with that aesthetical and emotional journey, I see how you might wonder what all the fuss was about. Would you say you've never been into art in general?

[@bruhgamer316]

great vid. you should do another warhammer 40k vid too that was sick. but i loved this vid on the history of hades