Something to be said about how the most sophisticated schools of design in any medium are the ones that encourage maximum consumption (see also: the blockbuster, serialized comics / soaps, and cultural/authorial anonymity through “pop”) but that doesn’t actually change that this is a brilliantly evil game about your most addictive impulses as a player. After ante 8 every Balatro run ends the same way, so it becomes a quest for numbers in themselves, joy through getting one over on The Man while always operating within the easy, intuitive iconography of poker (even though this game has nothing to do with asymmetrical information or even really card counting). It’s more about like.. being ready to change plans at the drop of a hat, to identify and exploit asymmetries between the two verbs of gameplay, all while on top of the runaway train that is your already-built deck. I would imagine a fuckton of players ran flush decks on their first run and were stopped dead by a boss blind that nulls whichever suit you have most of, for example, and early losses like these are what teach you how important it is to hedge bets. I personally really liked this aspect! - too many roguelikes become bound by the strength of their synergies, but in Balatro it’s less about having one goated hand you’re always hunting than maintaining a calculated redundancy while still keeping up with the power creep. It’s that aspect that separates it from the many other games I’ve played, and what I think makes it more worthwhile than a slot machine or whatever. Like there are situations you can get into that feel absolutely hopeless, where you know the run is lost with like three hands to be played, and that absolute commitment to letting you reap what you sow is so refreshing. Every time you start a run it’s very bluntly asking you, how do you want to wipe out this time? And every time you choose your deck and ante up and go, "nah i’d win", and lose.

Strive's fundamental systems are much less interesting than basically any other anime fighter playable today, but Testament is still such an elegantly designed character. Everything just kinda flows in the power fantasy zoners are designed to provide without ever relying too heavily on metagame outplays over mechanical expression (see: Guile). I think part of the reason they work so well without being frustrating is that stain, your reward for playing midrange keep-away, is just a combo extension tool--not only does it require you to win neutral to capitalize on your advantage, it specifically emphasizes creativity in your combo routing in a way the rest of the game does not at all. Combine that with fun, unique oki that often feeds right back into stain, normal hitboxes bigger than god, and a fullscreen 50/50 mixup that i always feel slightly guilty for hitting online? If teleport was cooler this would be like a perfect character.