Airisu

Sometimes it’s a great thing to find an obscure game and try to understand its mechanics, especially if it turns out to be a very fun experience. On the other hand, that’s not always the case, because there’s usually a reason for those games to remain unknown to the public. Thus, bad level design and awful gameplay mechanics are the usual faults with indie productions.

Airisu is a pretty weird strategy game in which your goal is to defeat your opponents using a couple of cards, although the rules and the mechanics are elusive at best. The matches are also very short, which makes it even more difficult to understand how everything works. On the other hand, it can be quite interesting if you enjoy tackling vague puzzles.

Each card has certain values on it, and they belong to one of four elements, such as water or fire. It’s unclear how these elements interact, but you can probably figure it out after a few matches if you pay enough attention. Unfortunately, the game has no rematch option, so you have to quit and start the application again if you want to play another match, which is incredibly annoying.

It’s even difficult to understand which one is your health bar and which one belongs to the opponent, not to mention the fact that it’s also unclear whether you are winning or losing. Learning the rules wouldn’t be too much of a problem if you at least understood when the choices you make are the right ones, but in this case there are just too many unknown variables.

Not much can be said about the graphics, although they are actually quite nice. The retro artwork certainly works in this case, even if the characters look more or less the same. The cards are simple and to the point as well, given the fact that most of them feature plain objects like swords, axes and crossbows instead of actual creatures.

All things considered, Airisu might be a good idea, but it’s difficult to tell at the moment, because it’s way too vague to keep you engaged for more than one match. On top of that, you don’t even get to understand the rules after one match.