It this point, I’m just amused by my neverending review of Balatro (LocalThunk). We all kknow that I will write another post about Balatro at some point because that is how I do. In fact, I am going to write one now and give my completely arbitrary rating for this game. I explained my rating systnems in the last post, but I’ll briefly sum it up here once again.
I have two different systems. One is for FromSoft games and the other is for all other games. The lowest rating I’ve given a FromSoft game is a 9.0 for Sekiro, and the highest rating is a 9.75 for Elden Ring and Dark Souls III. I am not gonig to go into it again about why those two games are basically tied at the top for me.
On the other list, at the top is Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall). I would give it a 9.5 off the top of my head. Then Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games), which would be roughly the same. Maybe a 9.4 as NitW is the absolute pinnacle of non-FromSoft games to me. Spiritfarer is very close behind. Both of them made me crry buckets and think really hard about things. I platted the latter, but not the former because the former included a really difficult video game within the video game that was just no fun to play.
I’m grading Balatro in the non-FromSoft ranking system, of course, as it’s not a FromSoft game. It’s funny because before I started the grind, I probably would have given it a 9.3 or so. It’s really good and quite addictive. It has that ‘just one more run’ feel to it, and one run turns into hours. It’s such a good game.
I just…wish it could be a bit better. That’s not a knock on this game specifically beacuse you could say that about any game. Any game could be a bit better, really. Even Elden Ring, probably my favorite game in the world, I gave a 9.75. That’s just me–I will not give a game a 10. Nothing is perfect, and I know that most people use 10 to mean a game is as good as it can possibly be in relation to other games, but that’s not how I see it. To me a 10 is inattainable, and I’m fine with that.
Back to Balatro. I just got Big Hands (the achievement for which you have to get 80 cards in your deck), and it felt very hollow. Why? Because it was all down to chance. I got the Magic Trick voucher early on which allowed me to buy playing cards in the shop. Then, I got the Rocketjoker that gives you a dollar at the end of every round, and it increases by two dollars after beating every boss. Plus, I had Midas Mask which makes every face card gold, and if you hold them in your hand at the end of the round, each one gives you three bucks.