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.
I have won a red stake game, and I have separately earned the green stake–which ramps up the antes in each round. And that stacks on top of the red stake, so it just gets harder with every additional stake.
You have to win a run with five different decks to unlock the challenges. I have won with three different decks, and I’m partial to the blue deck because it gives one extra hand. I need as many hands as possible.
It’s funny how things change from one run to another and drastically. A few games after I won my second game, I built a deck that got me my third win on which I hit a million points (in endless mode). I believe that was the one I also got the Violet Vessel on and beat it with one hand. I’m not sure, though, because I’ve playde a lot of Balatro since then. I had a really strong deck until I hit the 7 mill chips round and then it fell to pieces.
This game is surprisingly deep. There is just so much to think about and so many moving pieces. Probabilities and multipliers, oh my! The one thing I wished the game would do is tell me at a glance–never mind. I was going to say I wished it would tell me at a glance about different stats such as which level a certain hand was on. It does. It’s the run info tab. It says which vouchers you’ve bought, too–along with what blinds you have this round. I had looked at it very early when I started playing, then kind of forgot it was there.
If you’re a completionist like me, this game is trouble. First level is to beat a run with each deck. As I’ve said before, each deck is like a different player character. I just won with the black deck, which is one less hand and one more joker slot. With only three hands per blind, I had to be really careful with my hands. Thankfully, I got the joker that has a x3 multiplier for the final hand of each round because that saved my bacon so many times.
I can’t emphasize enough how joker synergies are so important. I really like the joker that adds +2 (I think) to my multiplier when I had pairs in my hand. Oh, and I wish the game had flat-out said that I did not need to play five cards per hand (except with the boss blind “The Psychic”. Which means that if I didn’t play five cards, I got no points at all for the hand. But it would still tally what I would have gotten if it was a valid hand. The warning about not qualifying for chips is in a separate place than where they tally the points, which I find to be bothersome) instead of making me have to infer it from some of the jokers.
I would give the game a 9 off the top of my head. Which is the same score I gave Sekiro (FromSoft). I would say I enjoy Balatro WAY more than I did Sekiro, but that overall, Sekiro is…not a better game, but more sumptuous and lavish than Balatro. They are so different, though, that it’s difficult to judge them against each other.
It’s funny because I have completely stopped playing Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) right before the last boss fight of the DLC. I am just so done with it and why would I play that when I could play yet another hand of Balatro? In the end, I gave Ghost of Tsushima a 6.5/7 (probably more the latter), and I’m comfortable with that. Even though it’s a gorgeous game and I had fun with it–mostly–I was definitely weary by the end. And I hated the end of the second act onwards, storywise, until the last bit with me and my uncle.
It’s amazing to me that such a deceptively simple game by one man could be so damn good (back to Balatro). And so deep. I think I’m going to stop playing soon (for my sanity), but that’s only because the game is highly addictive. I have my quibbles with it, and I am not wild about the unevenness of the bosses, but that’s like any roguelike, really. It’s all up to the RNG gods, and that’s all there is to it.