The Iris and the Giant is a roguelike role-playing strategy game developed by Louis Rigaud. It was originally released for the Switch and PC in 2020 and has now made its way to all the current and last gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles. My time with this title has been very positive overall. It has a deep and meaningful story perfectly complimented by it’s engaging and addictive card-based gameplay that keeps you coming back for more.
Story and Presentation
The story revolves around a girl named Iris who has to fight her way through an imaginary world representing her inner demons. Throughout the game, you will gradually unlock more and more cutscenes showing the issues that Iris is experiencing in the real-world. Serious themes such as bullying are depicted and the game does well to bring attention to them during the plot. In terms of the presentation, the menus were easy to navigate and I really appreciated the overall visual style of the game.
Gameplay Mechanics
Fundamentally, this is a card-based strategy RPG. You have a limited number of cards and it is game over if you run out. These cards give you a variety of different abilities and you will gain many new ones as you progress. At first, I struggled to get far in the game and I kept finding myself short of cards. However, it soon became much easier to accumulate a larger number of them once I started to develop more of a strategy. Strategy is one of key strong points of this game as a whole. There are multiple different ways you can go about defeating enemies and progressing through the levels and once you reach the later floors the game shakes things up yet again with many new types of foe. Once you die, you have to start from the beginning BUT you are able to unlock new abilities yourself by finding memory tokens and by collecting stars during your runs. As a result, you will find that your battle options expand as you progress through the game, better equipping you to take on the harder adversaries. Overall, I found the gameplay fun, rewarding and addictive. I constantly found myself wanting to do another playthrough from the beginning with the new skills I have unlocked in the hope of getting further than before. The only small gripe I had was the potential for it to get too repetitive at times. However, this was soon offset once I started to unlock more powers and get progress further through the levels.
Graphics and Performance
The game has a very appealing visual style. The graphics were pleasing to the eye throughout. The game goes for an isometric 3D layout during battle along with 2D sprites. Overall, it looked great in motion and animations for the sprites were fluid. In terms of performance, there were no issues to report on the platform I played for which is the PS5. It seems well optimised for console overall.
Verdict
Iris of the Giant is a true gem and I am happy to have had the opportunity to play and review this title. It is a visually pleasing game with a deep and meaningful story that keeps you coming back for more until you reach the end. At the same time, the combat mechanics provided much room for strategy and planning giving this game an impressive amount of depth. Although at times, it can seem repetitive and difficult, above all at the start, the gameplay experience is truly rewarding and addictive once you get a bit further into it.
This is an title that undeniably deserved more attention than it initially received upon release and I would definitely recommend it.
Score = 9.0 out of 10
Massive Thanks go to Klabater for the free review copy of this game.
My video review of the game can be found below
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