Iris and the Giant was one of those little niche games that I got with it via a PC code bundle. Thanks to Steam Deck there was finally time and space for it and...I didn't regret it!

Overall, Iris is a very interesting card-based roguelite that has too fast a progression due to the low difficulty. I played through the game far too quickly because the unlocks became too powerful through a single run. As a result, the game never got past the moment where the constant repetition stopped bugging me and the gameplay sucked me in again and again.

At the same time, there are too few useful options within the duels to make the gameplay variable and varied. The infrequently used memories, which are supposed to give the game world a narrative framework, don't manage to do that either. If they weren't quite so clichéd and had more depth, they could possibly carry it.