After releasing on Steam earlier this year, roguelike deckbuilder Iris and the Giant is now available on iOS devices alongside its debut in Nintendo Switch, with an Android release coming soon.
You play as Iris, a young girl lost in a fairytale world of her own imagination who has to face her fears. As you journey through Iris’ mind, you collect memory fragments which reveal the reasons behind her odyssey into this strange land of mythical creatures. It’s a beautiful, minimal world where she must fight her inner demons away.
To battle these monsters, you need to assemble a full deck of cards with abilities and powers on them, which will develop as you progress through the story. There are 51 of these to collect, which can be gained by defeating enemies and making choices throughout the narrative in order to build up a more powerful deck. This way you can specialise your character and adopt a playstyle that suits your needs. See the trailer below for an idea of the game’s central themes and how it plays out.
Iris and the Giant mixes traditional deckbuilding gameplay with RPG roguelike mechanics, as the order of enemies and levels become procedurally generated as Iris makes her way through this dreamland. Its difficulty has a progressive curve, meaning players inexperienced in these genres don’t get too hammered at the beginning, but will gradually become more difficult to please veteran fans of the genre much later on.
Originally releasing on Steam in February this year, Iris and the Giant’s iOS release this week also coincides with the game’s debut on Nintendo Switch. It’s available to buy for £3.99 on the iOS App Store, compatible with iPhone and iPad devices, while an Android version is available for pre-registration on Google Play with an unknown release date.