Tag: roguelike | A Banana Peeled

Tag Archives: roguelike

My (non-From) game of the year, 2024

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

My usual schtick for my game of the year is to have two. One From game and one non-From game. I thought this year was going to be different (only the one From game) because other than the obvious, I didn’t really love any other game I played this year. The two I mentioned in yesterday’s post, were enjoyable and worth my time. However, I would not consider either of them even close to game of the year, even if either of them had been released in 2024.

By the way, when I talk about my games of the year, I am talking about the games I played this year, not games that were necessarily released in this year. Hey. It’s my list, and I’ll do whatever I want with it. That means making up silly names for the awards and handing them out almost haphazardly. I wanted to give a shout-out to games I quite enjoyed this year, but that did not make it onto my top tier list.

It’s late, so I’m going to wait until tomorrow for that. For tonight, I’m going to write about one game. I’m calling it…ah…let me think.

The game that I studiously ignored for several months because I knew better, but it really is the indie GOTY

Balatro (LocalThunk)

I was not ready for this game. At all. It released on February 20th, but it didn’t become a part of the collective consciousness until it was released on mobile in late September. Then, everyone was playing it and everyone was talking about it. I didn’t pay much attention because I’m not really into card games. I tried several that just did not grab my attention, and I thought this would be more of the same.

Let’s be real. If you just hear about the game, you’re not going to be impressed. “It’s a poker game, but it’s also a roguelike/roguelite. Oh, you can buy different kinds of cards to supplement your build (stone cards, glass cards, steel cards, etc). And you can level up different hands (one pair, two pair, three of a kind, etc.). In addition, there are different editions of the cards, and there are tarot cards, planetary cards, etc., as well. I have included the launch trailer below that summarizes the game neatly. Now that I’ve played it, the trailer makes sense. If I had watched it beforehand, I would have been confused and probably not into it.

The look of it is very simple. Yes, there are swirls of colors, but it’s pretty basic. I turn the music off when I play because I like to watch videos as I play games, and the music on repeat bothers my brain.

Balatro part three (I can’t quit it)

Posted on December 24, 2024 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

Am I making a third post about Balatro (LocalThunk)? Yup. Did I ragequit the game when getting what I considered to be an unfair final boss? Also yup! Did I go back the next day and win the next run? Yup for the third time!

Let’s talk about that loss. Before I do, here is my post from yesterday. For whatever reason, I didn’t actually finish it until just before starting this post–and then I ended it abruptly to write this one. Hey, it’s the holidays so I do what I want! I have to be careful, though, because if I don’t follow a schedule, I tend to not do the thing at all (in this case, writing posts and writing 2,000 words of fiction/nonfiction a day).

Let’s talk about that loss. There are different bosses you can fight after a small blind round and a big blind round. The bosses all have one negative thing you have to overcome as I mentioned before. I’m not sure if the bosess are restricted to a pool in each round (like most roguelikes), but that’s definitnely the case with the final round. These are very special rounds, and I’m not fond of any of them. But the one that really just took the wind out of my sale was the

*SPOILER WARNING*

Violet Vessel. I keep wanting to call it Violet Assassin, and people online have called it Violent Vessel, which is also funny. The qualifier for this boss is a really big blind–in this case, 3 times the normal amount–which is 100,000. So, in this case, you have to get 300,000. Well, not dollars, but chips. I call it monies.

I had been cruising along really easily in this run, barely breaking a sweat. Then, I hit the big boss, saw the requirement, and I just deflated. There was no way I was going to make 300,000–my deck was just not good enough for that. I tried, but my heart wasn’t in it. I managed to get 100,000+, but that was cold comfort when I had to get three times that amount.

I cursed and immedaitely quit out of the game. I vented about it in the RKG Discord Balatro channel and thought about not going back. That would actually be for the best because I am too into this game.

I went back, of course, and I won the next game. And now I’ve won a game on the next level. See, white stake is the base level. Red stake is what you get for winning one game. You can only play red stake with a deck that you have won once with. Red stake is that you get no chips for winning the small blind. Therefore, it’s better to skip it and get the reward instead. It’s oftentimes souped up joker at the end of the round (in the shop). Jokers will make and/or break you.