I seem to be on something of a deckbuilder kick. First I get into One Step From Eden, which in turn reignites my interest in Slay The Spire, and now I find Iris and the Giant. * Once again, a game whose art style is worth commenting on. Limited color palette, with a handful of darker shades of primary colors. A few gradients in the background, but most of the enemies and other items on the field are solid colors without fading or mixing. Simple geometric shapes, curves, and lines. * Combat and card selection seem to be taking a 'less is more' approach. OSFE had big numbers for damage and HP, fanciful spells, and a number of complex mechanics you could attempt to combine in interesting ways, even in the earliest game. IatG's attacks start dead simple and don't rise much above that. Here's an Axe, it hits every enemy in the front row once. Here's a Bow, it hits one enemy in any row. Enemies follow a similar curve. * The other thing that sets IatG apart from OSFE and STS is the level of churn. Whereas a given round in OSFE or STS may feature 3-4 enemies at most, IatG may throw dozens of enemies at you before you find the stairs to the next zone. Everything dies in one hit (if it doesn't have armor or a shield), but you don't reshuffle any of your attacks back into your deck once they're used. Thus, you've constantly got to be finding more of your basic attacks. I found myself frequently forsaking some of the more powerful cards I might find in a chest because I was almost out of Swords. * Like OSFE, there will be a number of situations where restraint will be rewarded. No, you don't have to take a reward after every fight in OSFE. No, you don't have to kill every enemy on screen if the stairs to the next level is right there. Especially if you've got a Whip and can drag the stairs to the front row. * Speaking of the power of saying No, a late-game attack, Power of Words, in which Iris screams NO and the effect is a POW-block attack. * An underlying thematic element is Iris' underlying depression, retold whenever she finds a Memory (read: skill points). She's metaphorically slaying her inner demons. * Due to her interest in Greek mythology, these manifest as a number of creatures from Greek myth. After the initial waves of Skeletons and Cat Archers, you start to face Minotaurs and Cyclopes. As mini-bosses, you face the Cerberus, the Hydra, and a treasure-chest-form mimic that, after it's defeated, gets referred to by Iris as Pandora's Box. * Why cats, exactly? Connection to Greek myth seems tenuous. I googled "cats in greek mythology" and this result was the closest to an explanation I could find: (http://www.reelwanderer.com/blog/the-cats-of-greece-zeus-cats-and-a-tale-that-didnt-end-well) In other words, why cats? It seems the answer is "why not cats?"