RAVE: Iratus: Lord of the Dead

 It is strange. Sometimes I get in the mood to play a new game and get started but sometimes I just swing back to some old favorites and get caught up playing that instead. Such is the case with Iratus: Lord of the Dead. I first played this game on my Steam Deck way before I ever played Darkest Dungeon and funny enough a lot of critics of Iratus call it a Darkest Dungeon clone. Because I was strangely afraid of playing Darkest Dungeon (due to its perceived difficulty) I decided to try something similar but no way near as hard. Within a couple days playing it I truly feel in love with Iratus and honestly I remember nothing but fun times when I was playing it. Fast forward a long stint with Darkest Dungeon and all it's DLCs, I got in the mood to go back to Iratus. I also felt that if my desktop PC was able to handle Darkest Dungeon it should not have a problem with Iratus too and I was able to run it without a hitch.

Within a couple hours I found myself drawn back into the world of Iratus and this time I wanted to try some new minions I did not use previously. One of the by-products from switching from the Steam Deck to my desktop was losing all my save data so I hate to start from scratch progress wise and I oddly did not mind that. So without any more fanfare, we now have our RAVE for Iratus: Lord of the Dead.

    

Iratus is a dungeon-crawler roguelite similar to Darkest Dungeon (DD) as I previously mentioned. You play as Iratus, a rather cocky necromancer who is trying to conquer the world. Unlike some roguelites the lost you incur are not to yourself but to the minions you control and when you lose a minion they are gone for good. That Level 15 Banshee you've been slowly levelling up with all them cool items? Gone if you have a particularly bad battle. Sometimes you can lose a whole squad and have to start all over with a brand new team. However unless you lose all your minions you can rarely be defeated which make it a bit easier compared to some roguelites.

Iratus is not the most graphically intense game but the graphics are very serviceable especially for an indie game in this genre. It is on the same scale as Darkest Dungeon with just key frames of animation being the focus and definitely better than Indies' Lies minimalist approach. It also has a gothic art style to it, similar to Darkest Dungeon but with a more Dungeons and Dragon approach compared to DD's Lovecraftian style. The sound is okay, nothing to write home about however the guy who does the voice lines for Iratus is definitely having a good time and it shows in his performance (even tho hearing the same lines over and over can get a bit grating). The sound effects are nice tho and very satisfying when you score hits or cast spells. It is however in the gameplay where Iratus shines.

As mentioned above, Iratus is a tough game too however it is not as hard as say Darkest Dungeon. Thankfully Iratus does not borrow from Darkest Dungeon's mechanic where you get a disease and afflictions even if you have a good run. The upgrade economy is much more generous too compared to DD. Also as a nice twist because you are playing the bad guys, you get to inflict the stress on your opponents instead of the other way around. Some of the cooler teams in Iratus actually do stress damage instead of physical damage and you can actually scare enemies to death or install so much fear in them that they run away or turn on their allies. Its actually one of the cooler elements that the thing you feared the most in DD is now a benefit for you in Iratus.

The minions are what sells Iratus to me. Using resources you obtain while playing you combine these resources to make minions. When ether it be a fearsome Werewolf, a sturdy reliable Skeleton to a backstabbing conniving Lost Soul. You have so many choices and making up a team of maximum 4 characters, you can make endless combinations of teams and find synergy for days. During my most recent run for example, I use a mostly stress team with some melee hitters for the stress resistant folks (which there are some) and it was a blast especially because I never tried a stress team before. This constant discover of new teams and new ways of playing kept me going for 3 back to back runs and unlike some roguelites, a full run aka beating the game is an investment especially compared to a 30-40 min run in Risk of Rain 2. On average, if you want to beat Iratus, you normally are in it for a long haul of a 3 to 4 hr campaign.

Each minion can also be built according to your preference with each having multiple abilities you can build one way or another and they also have a special attacks too which are powered by Iratus' resource called 'wrath' and these are the most spectacular attacks in their arsenals. Iratus is no back-seat driver too, he can contribute with spells at least once a round and potions (which you craft with resources) which can either buff his squad or nerf the opposition. Iratus also has something snarky to say when ether his squad scores a kill or a he hits his opponents with a nasty spell. He is like the narrator of the game much like the narrator in DD (but honestly, nowhere near as cool).

Like all roguelites, the fun comes from the random elements the game throws at you, the challenge of a particularly hard boss or when you sometimes find a broken team combination and just steam roll over your enemies. Along the way there is chances to earn cool items for you or your minions, sacrifice your minions for more resources and even random events with multiple choices (similar to Slay the Spire and Indies' Lies). Whilst the challenge is there, honestly Iratus is one of the easier roguelites and completely wipes do happen but it is not as common. If anything, if you are starting off on this type of roguelites, I would highly recommend it because it'll definitely ease you into the genre. The game even has automatic auto-saves and multiple difficulty choices to make it easier to pick up. The game has since released some DLC which added some more minions (and new area with harder enemies which unlocks the 'true' ending)  and an extra character or two. I enjoyed this game so much I bought all the DLC (Wrath of the Necromancer) and even brought a 'supporter pack' (which included the OST, alternative skins and a digital strategy guide) and a couple of the alternative skin packs as well. Unfrozen, the makers of the game has recently announced they are working on a sequel and another project which is very interesting.

Can you believe this is Fanart?! Amazing work from Coremort.

Iratus: Lord of the Dead is basically Darkest Dungeon but you are not a fan of how difficult DD gets or you just want to play a bad guy for once. The game has a lot of charm and very easy to pick up and play as well. You have numerous minions at your disposal and each one brings their own unique flare to the game and along the way you will slay many heroes. I honestly feel because I enjoyed Iratus, I was able to tackle Darkest Dungeon and we know how that ended *cough* 5 blogs back to back *cough*. It gets a RAVE which is the highest recommendation on this blog and on top of that, it is not that expensive to pick up. It is constantly on sale along with the DLCs and it is well worth your time and money.

C'mon. Sometimes it is good to be bad.

AV

He Rises... Again

 

Iratus: Lord of the Dead RAVE coming soon.

AV

RAVE: Dreamcatcher and their Concert

     I know it has been a minute since the Update but life get busy y'all. However as promised this RAVE will be about K-pop group Dreamcatcher and me and wife getting to see them live in our home town of all places.

    So for the people who do not know me and just stumbled onto this blog via the labels/ tags then first, welcome!! As an introduction me, the author of this blog and my wife of 15+ years are massive Korean Pop fans or K-pop. We became K-pop fans way before it was mainstream with acts like Blackpink and BTS now tearing up the US Billboards monthly. We have been fans of the genre for as long as we have been together which is a pretty long time as I mentioned above. We started in mostly in the second generation going all the way to this new 'fifth generation' as some labels are calling it. We are fans of multiple groups like the aforementioned Blackpink and BTS but we also follow groups who are not as mainstream like Fromis_9, VIXX, Purple Kiss, KARD and UNVS. Funny enough, one of our favorite girl groups did not even start as one of our favorites.

    First a history lesson, we started seeing Dreamcatcher videos in the middle of our K-pop journey. By now we have listened to artists like EXO, Red Velvet, GFriend and other very popular groups at the time. Both me and my wife were kind of thrown by how 'dark' Dreamcatcher's concept was and even more than that, their sound was a bit much for us. We have never experience a 'rock' sounding K-pop group in our journeys so far, so songs like their debut 'Chase Me' and follow up 'Good Night' were a bit strange to us. However they keep putting out releases and people kept talking about them and how unique they were. Fast forward a couple releases and I finally found a Dreamcatcher song I enjoyed and I played it for my wife. For me, it gave me an almost anime soundtrack opening vibe and since I enjoy some anime it appealed to me. The song was called 'You and I'. However my wife not being the biggest anime fan and whilst she did not mind it, she did not love it like I did. I nodded and kept it moving, maybe Dreamcatcher was not going to be for her I thought. However to my surprise with Dreamcatcher's subsequent releases the very rocky 'What' and the hypnotic 'Piri' my wife came around and she actually started to like Dreamcatcher as much as I did. From there on in, we were all in and Dreamcatcher became another group for us to stan. Eventually we picked our bias, me settling for the all-rounder beast Yoohyeon and my wife feel for Dami's tomboy charms. We even settled on secondary and third bias'. We became part of the fandom which is called InSomnia and just like our fellow InSomnia's cheered and celebrated when they finally got their first music show win (which is a very important event for a K-pop group). We listened to all their A-sides and even their B-sides and just became big fans of the girls in general. So when we found that Dreamcatcher was coming to not only the United States but our hometown we HAD to go.

    THE CONCERT

    

    As the day got closer, me and wife kept telling each other how excited we were to see a legit K-pop concert again. The last K-pop concert we saw was CL (from 2NE1 fame) in Chicago but that was some years ago. Me and the wife are introverts by nature but we simply could not turn down seeing Dreamcatcher in our town of all places. The mere fact a well known K-pop group was willing to come to Cincinnati was amazing event in itself. We made it to the venue just in time and we settled into our seats, not knowing we would not be sitting in them for long. The location, the Taft Theater is a nice location, it was able to seat all of us and we have a very good crowd. We, however were not crowded which we both appreciated. As you can see from the above picture we were not that far from the stage too. The sound system played some Dreamcatcher songs as we waited in anticipation.  Then the light dimmed and we were transported to Dreamcatcher's dream world.

    The girls came out with a bang with a bombastic performance of one of our fave songs 'Scream' and me and my wife sang a long with all the lines that we knew by heart. If I could capture a moment in a bottle, this would have been it. Simple seeing these energetic girls in person as opposed to a screen was something else, the girls sang with a backing track but we could also hear they were singing live too and it just added to the experience. Hearing main vocal Siyeon live and hitting the notes we know she can hit was transcendent. On stage, they all looked amazing, almost glowing, trust me when I say, JiU and Handong look pretty in the MVs but in person, they look angelic. Gahyeon, their youngest member whom K-pop fans called the magnae, had all the sass we have come to know from her (especially in 'Scream' where she even turns up the sass), SuA moves just as fluid as a main dancer would and of course our respective bias' brought it as well. Dami's verse in Scream is one of our favorites from here and Yoohyeon is just so damn good at everything it hard to just pinpoint what she excels at. All in all, we were definitely getting our monies worth.

    Each song they sang if we knew it we sang along with them and some of the more obscure B-sides, we just jammed to and still loved it, some of those B-sides have even become new favorite songs of ours. They did some of their newer songs but they also mixed in some classics like 'Good Night', 'Fly High' and 'Boca' from their earlier albums. Mixed in with the energetic performances was a mixture of chatting and playing up to the crowd (with a well thought of off stage Korean translator so we knew what they were saying) and some playful banter between the members. We could clearly see all of them were very comfortable with each other, some even been almost playful with each other and entertaining the crowd too but they also truly showed how much of a senior group they are with their professionalism as well. When the sound cut off during one of their stand out new hits 'Demian', SuA laughing played it off and called it a spoiler and when it finally did come back they did not miss a beat at all. You can tell even through this was a smaller venue and Cincinnati is not a big priority for K-pop companies, Dreamcatcher did not treat us like we were lesser, if anything they brought us up to their level.

    When they eventually stopped for breath, we were treated to some fan service with some cover dances of popular songs. From Jisoo's 'Flower' to Jungkook's 'Seven' to going much more older and for us senior fans, 'Trouble Maker' by Trouble Maker aka HyunA and Hyunseung. It was cute and definitely showcased their personalities very well. When they were ready they went back in for some more hits and we loved them all but nothing and I mean nothing could prepare us for the biggest moment of the night. 

    

      'Silent Night' is a popular B-side from their 'Raid of Dream' mini album. It is a super energetic EDM track filled with amazing vocals (of course) and also one of the most pumping instrumental outros. Well, this outro was a showcase for Dreamcatcher to really let loose. All the girls were fist pumping and just feeling it and then they did it again... and again and again LOL. It was at this point we realize how much of a energizer bunny JiU is because she was rocking out non stop to every reprisal without fail. SuA even hyped us to keep asking for more and who are we to deny her? Now if you are think 5 reprisals is a bit much you would be partial right but if you were there, in that moment, every time the beat drop again Dreamcatcher and InSomnias were one and we were just living our best lives. You HAD to be there. Going back to my previous request to bottle a moment, this was the other one.

    Speaking of InSomnias, our first real interaction with the Dreamcatcher fandom was amazing and as a fandom in general, they are super nice and friendly, there was no drama and a fan in front of us gave me and the wife bracelets for free with Dreamcatcher song names on it. Not one fan was rude or obnoxious and everyone was respectful when various Dreamcatcher members was speaking on the mic. Its moments like this that I realize whilst they are some toxic fandoms out there, Dreamcatchers fans are not among them, at least in the Cincinnati area that is.

    The staff at Taft treat us well as well, no issues getting in or out, we did not have to deal with sticky chairs or any type of clutter. The sound team was also on it, there were some glitches but nothing that ruined the experience and backing vocals never overpowered the girls despite the booming sound.

    The whole concert was an amazing experience and very well paced and that is why I had to write this RAVE which is one of the biggest kudos I can give to something (hence the name of my blog) and despite it being almost 2 weeks ago, it still sticks in my memory. We saw Dreamcatcher LIVE and I can honestly say all it did was make us even bigger fans of them. I must also take some time out to thank my wife, for encouraging us to go and getting us there. It was an experience like no other and one that will stick with us forever.

    AV

UPDATE: Lost in a Dream

 My next RAVE is going to be very personal to me. After such an amazing experience I feel I need to just talk about it.

Teaser below:

Coming Soon!

AV