EDIT: leaving my original review below because i think some of the perspective and analysis still stands, but after at least 50 hours i've landed firmly in the pro-balatro camp for a number of reasons.
i was initially dismissive of the game due to what i still perceive as a fairly low skill ceiling to "winning" a run. that's still sort of true, insofar as finding a combination of jokers that'll let you make 100,000 chips on white stake is not a difficult job. once you move beyond that, to hunting higher stakes, antes, or challenge runs, balatro begins to shine impeccably. this game is so finely tuned, back to front, in terms of letting the player make interesting, intelligent choices. every action, even those as simple as a discard, comes with a cost-benefit analysis. every additional hand played means losing a dollar, every dollar spent means losing out on potential interest. every joker used for a supplementary benefit takes up a valuable spot that could strengthen every hand, and every joker needs to be considered not solely on it's own merits, but how it fits into a wider strategy. a friend asks me for advice, which jokers or tarot cards are best, and I find it difficult to give a real answer, because everything is so contextually dependent, everything needs to be learned by doing, all while having each individual card and action be completely intuitive. it's accessible, with a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, and an extremely reasonable learning curve.
there will be a lot of balatro-likes in the next few years, i've already seen one or two pop up in early access, once for roguelike mahjong, one for roguelike roulette, but many of these games will struggle in hitting the near-perfect balance of elements that this game achieves.
original review:
still actively playing this one but i'm a little hot and cold on it despite the hype.
for a card game, the actual playing of card can matter very little compared to cash and joker management, which inevitably become the core of the run every time. most of the runs i've won, i've won by finding the right three or four jokers that blast my multiplier into the stratosphere. i won my last run playing a pair of twos that could've nearly beat the final boss blind by themselves, and not because of any particularly involved decisions beyond identifying some good joker synergies half a run ago.
ironically, my most fun run yet was one that i lost, cheesing myself into like a hundred tarot cards and having half my deck made of enhanced cards, which was cool, but couldn't overcome the lack of a sufficiently broken joker to boost up my mult. lot's of decision making, timing, involved card/hand selections, and the impact was minimal compared to getting a big big multiplier every hand like in my other runs.
it's fun, for sure. cards and mechanics click together clearly and comprehensibly, there's a lot of well-made content and variety, but it feels like the skill ceiling is pretty drastically low, once you've identified how to make the number big. it almost has more resemblance to an idle game than any other card game i've played, which doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but might not make for a great card game.
i was initially dismissive of the game due to what i still perceive as a fairly low skill ceiling to "winning" a run. that's still sort of true, insofar as finding a combination of jokers that'll let you make 100,000 chips on white stake is not a difficult job. once you move beyond that, to hunting higher stakes, antes, or challenge runs, balatro begins to shine impeccably. this game is so finely tuned, back to front, in terms of letting the player make interesting, intelligent choices. every action, even those as simple as a discard, comes with a cost-benefit analysis. every additional hand played means losing a dollar, every dollar spent means losing out on potential interest. every joker used for a supplementary benefit takes up a valuable spot that could strengthen every hand, and every joker needs to be considered not solely on it's own merits, but how it fits into a wider strategy. a friend asks me for advice, which jokers or tarot cards are best, and I find it difficult to give a real answer, because everything is so contextually dependent, everything needs to be learned by doing, all while having each individual card and action be completely intuitive. it's accessible, with a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, and an extremely reasonable learning curve.
there will be a lot of balatro-likes in the next few years, i've already seen one or two pop up in early access, once for roguelike mahjong, one for roguelike roulette, but many of these games will struggle in hitting the near-perfect balance of elements that this game achieves.
original review:
still actively playing this one but i'm a little hot and cold on it despite the hype.
for a card game, the actual playing of card can matter very little compared to cash and joker management, which inevitably become the core of the run every time. most of the runs i've won, i've won by finding the right three or four jokers that blast my multiplier into the stratosphere. i won my last run playing a pair of twos that could've nearly beat the final boss blind by themselves, and not because of any particularly involved decisions beyond identifying some good joker synergies half a run ago.
ironically, my most fun run yet was one that i lost, cheesing myself into like a hundred tarot cards and having half my deck made of enhanced cards, which was cool, but couldn't overcome the lack of a sufficiently broken joker to boost up my mult. lot's of decision making, timing, involved card/hand selections, and the impact was minimal compared to getting a big big multiplier every hand like in my other runs.
it's fun, for sure. cards and mechanics click together clearly and comprehensibly, there's a lot of well-made content and variety, but it feels like the skill ceiling is pretty drastically low, once you've identified how to make the number big. it almost has more resemblance to an idle game than any other card game i've played, which doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but might not make for a great card game.
Kusoro
2 months ago
Deckbuilding in this game is at most a tool to make your runs, which are defined by the joker lineup like you said, work more reliably, it's not core to the game in and of itself, and I don't think it's a flaw, the decision-making part happens in-between blinds, in the shop and whether youre engaging the blind or skipping it. The card playing part is mostly about execution of whatever your build is going for. I would still say it's a great card game, but it's not a deckbuilding game, it's a game that technically has deckbuilding in it, but it's not the most important part.