Ok. This is it. I’m going to talk more about what I want in a game and what I don’t. And how I am having trouble finding the former as I’m wading through the slop that contains the latter. The thing is, I am part of the problem. If I’m buying an indie game, I’m pretty relaxed as to what I expect from said game. Actually, in general, I’m pretty chill. That way, I’m pleasantly surprised if a game turns out to be good.
Is that a good attitude? Probably not. Am I going to change it? Nope. Here is my post from yesterday in which I mostly talked about how terrible most soulslikes are. Why? Because it’s related to the topic at hand; I swear.
The topic is how once something goes big, there are a million wannabes, and most of them are not nearly as good as the original. I mentioned Stardew Valley (Concerned Ape) yesterday, and today I want to talk about Balatro (LocalThunk).
When it first came out, I stayed far away from it because I knew that it might be the kind of game that I would obsess over. When I finally gave in, I was so right to be wary of it. It has that ‘just one more run’ feel to it and that intangible something that kept me playing. For hours. Upon hours. Upon multiple hours. And got obsessed with it in a very unhealthy way. I got what I consider my personal plat for it*, and it was my life for a couple of months.
It’s such a simple game, and it looks very basic. Aesthetically, there’s not much to it. It’s competent. That’s the way I would describe it. I hadf to turn off the music because it was tickling my brain in a weird and not welcome way. The music wasn’t bad, I hasten to add; it just wasn’t something I wanted to listen to for hours on end. Plus, I watch videos as I game, so I usually don’t like music in my games. (FromSoft games are the exception.)
Balatro went from the little game that could to one of those games that define a genre. I have seen so many balatrolikes, and I will say that most of them are not as good as the original. Which is a theme that continues with games i love and their imitators.
I don’t mind that games try to copy something successful, but I do mind that they often are way too slavish to the source material to be enjoyable. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that doesn’t necessarily make for interesting or fun gameplay.
One of my biggest complaints in the early days of Balatro was that it didn’t explain things very well. Like how the perks actually worked (or if they last throughout the whole run or not). It took me some time to figure shit out (and help from the Balatro channel in the Discord I’m in), and I would have gotten further much faster if I had knows several things from the beginning.
I have tried several balatrolikes (and, yes, I just made that up a la soulslikes), and none of them have captured my attention the way Balatro did. Balatro was not my jam at all (meaning it’s not in a genre i normally like). I don’t go for deck-builders. I play roguelikes/lites, but I’m not good at them.
It’s the same way I feel about soulslikes. I can’t tell you how many I’ve tried, and I have not like any of them as much as I like From games. There have been a few that have been ok, but there have been many more that have been awful. And there are some I just don’t like–including some very popular ones. In fact, the arguably most popular one left me very cold. Not going to talk about it because I have written about it ad nauseam.
What I’ve reluctantly realized is that the days of just trying out a half-dozen Stream Next Fest for shits and gigs is not worth it any longer. Even five years ago, I would have said it was (glanced at the date. Yep. That’s right before I died) worth it to try out five or ten demos from Steam Next Fest, even if I had no idea what the games were.
Now, I have played maybe two dozen demos from this Steam Next Fest, and I think I only put one or two of them on my wishlist. Remember, I don’t put games on my wishlist with the sole intent of buying them. I put them on my wishlist as well just to remember a game because my memory is shit.
The few demos I’ve enjoyed in the last several days were ones I found from the Wholesome Games Direct. I have included one for Milki Delivery (Blibloop, Doot Tiny Games) that seems like it could be up my alley. I like the bright and cheerful art style, and I like the cozy feel to it. Bilibloop is the developer of Minami Lane, a game I liked, but didn’t love. Milki Delivery is a cozy farming sim in theory, but I have a hunch there will be more to it than that.
Another was The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (Square Enix, ClayTech Works), which is a JRPG that has real-time combat and Zelda vibes to it (apparently. I’ve never played a Zelda, so I’ll have to take people’s word for it). You are Elliot. You are an adventurer. As you will hear many times. I don’t love the aesthetics, but they are serviceable. Oh, and I found out about this one through the Discord and maybe a fest? So I installed the demo with a purpose, not just on an impulse. The story is very basic, and the characters are mostly forgettable. Plus, i have heard that the fairy/princess is an incessant talker in the game, which will drive me crazy. I didn’t find the comapanion in the demo too bad, but she did talk more than I would have liked.
Hm. I’m done. I think I have one more post in me. We’ll see tomorrow.
*Read about why in this post (which is part of my review of the game).