I still have things to say about Balatro (LocalThunk), so this is the (probably) last post on the game. In the last post, I mentioned that I knew the game was deep, but I was having more and more dissatisfaction with how deep the game was. I mentioned that it took actual days to get two Legendary Jokers, which made the game not fun at all. In fact, in reading up on the best way to do it, someone said that you should just play the game and not worry about it because focusing on those kinds of things took the fun out of the game.
It’s so true. I just sat there mechanically playing the game, feeling no joy in my heart. I know the grind is real, but this grind felt so unnecessary. It really should not have been that hard to unlock them or that random. I mentioned in the last post how Baldur’s Gate 3 has something that I now know is Karmic Dice. I thought it meant it made your rolls better so you won’t have a truly terrible bad streak of rolls, but apparently, it also makes enemies roll better? Apparently, it’s a heated option, and there are arguments on both sides.
I do think in general, though, that the idea of bending the rolls (yes, rolls, not rules) so that the player does not fail a 90% roll three or four times in a row is fair play in a video game. I know that’s not how probabilities actually work, but I’m not going to play a game that does that to me over and over again. I know there are people who feel differently, which is why it should be an option and not the default.
In Balatro, I felt empty when I got the last Legendary. Relief, yes, but also just an intense weariness. It really should not have been like that, and while I realize that my luck was exceptionally bad, I can’t forget the hours upon hours upon hours of grinding I had to do to get two Legendary Jokers, neither of which I actually like. In addition, those two Legendaries are so specific, they’re pretty much useless. Well, not useless, but not very helpful.
*SPOILER*
You know what is a good Joker I slept on? And quite possibly the best overall Joker in the game? Hanging Chad. It’s a Common, and it replicates your first card twice (so you get all the effects of the first card three times. This includes any modifiers that card has and any other Jokers that are affected by the card. I didn’t know how powerful it was until I was going for my last Joker–Stuntman.