Iris and the Giant

This is a good game, but it's far too buggy. As much as I enjoyed it initially, I got fed up + uninstalled it because of the bugs.

Playtime: 2h41m (beaten the Giant, first of three paths/campaigns) **Intro** IATG is a turn-based strategy game in which you play a card each turn (some cards allow further plays) to battle monsters. In turn the monsters in the first row or those with ranged attacks attack you. Cards can hurt monsters, defend/heal you or draw/steal cards. Each card can only played once. You get new cards from chests or abilities. Killing monsters and finding gems gives you XP, which can be used to buy abilities or chests. **The Good** - IATG has a cool, clean style that represents most game elements really well. - There's a solid variety in monsters and enemy abilities. - The little story elements are nice. **The Bad** - The game is terribly unbalanced. Even on the "super-easy" Story difficulty it took me several tries to reach the giant. - Some monsters require specific cards to beat, making the game too random. - I have no idea how you're supposed to win without maxing the Shield upgrade. - You have to replay the exact same levels every time you die. - The exact same story elements play each time. - Puzzle levels also remain exactly the same. - The game does a little zoom each time a new level starts. This can be skipped but not disabled. - While being branded as a deckbuilding game, cards are one-use only and very basic. There's no real strategising here. **Conclusion** Iris And The Giant has some really solid content, but there's very little of it. I already dislike how roguelikes make you start over constantly, but at least every other one i have played had randomisation. Here you have to sit through the exact same stuff a bunch of times hoping you draw the right cards this time. This game shouldn't have been a roguelike in the first place.

its mostly another indie game focused on depression >again< but it goes slow with it, it does makes you feel grief or some steps to help yourself or others around you. The sound design is so marvelous i am mad others games doesnt grounds their maps as good as this, its both relaxing but also fits wayyyy too well with the textured paper look of the whole thing. it falls more on the basic side of card games because there aint as much cool stuff you can do compared to other ones but its game thats supposed to be short not that much replayable, it gives you a few points to keep going and when you are near finishing the whole amount of cards for just 1 campaing you are deep enough to be able to finish it. made me think quite a lot but also remembered me what else i could do. i wished there were other games as lazer focused as this one even if this is still kinda buggy (see some of the other reviews to know which bugs). i technically only played half of it which the main story is the kid, while the other is her father. i didnt particularly got much of the references it did or even why it grounded itself on mythology besides of some spoiler reasons on the story of the kid, but i really liked how properly good designed were both the enemies patterns and the stages. whoever wants to do a card game by god put proper sound design like this one on your game.

I enjoyed this game. I beat it on normal in about 2 and 1/2 hours. The mechanics are fun and I felt the game to be pretty balanced. Losing by running out of cards can kind of suck though. I wasn't a big fan of the story. I don't think the characters are introduced well because of the quick nature of roguelikes. It's probably difficult to do some kind of meaningful story within the genre because people likely want to restart quickly. Watching the same 3-sentence cutscenes doesn't really help me develop the characters on my own, and it ends up feeling out of place. Fortunately, the story mostly takes the backseat, and you can skip all story if you want. I liked the art style of the game and the music was pleasant. I got this for free, but I would recommend picking it up on sale for $5 or so.

I really liked the game despite it being a rogue game, but it was buggy when i first started playing it and had to come back to it after they patched it. I was finally able to finish it, coming back to it because the roguelike runs were very short, and a "successful" failure allowed you to carry over rewards into the next run, which never felt like a complete waste. The annoying, recurring monologuing was tiring, but I don't think it would have ever stopped me from wanting to see the final cutscene.