Miscellaneous Games

Balatro: The Joy of Making Numbers Go Up

by
This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Balatro

Introduction

Balatro is a well-regarded roguelite indie game that I have been playing since it arrived on Microsoft’s Game Pass.

Despite knowing nothing about card games in real life, I really like this one. While it looks like a card game, the real focus is on planning and building a cohesive strategy on the fly, using the bonuses that become available in any given run. Its brevity and low-stress, cheerful nature make it the perfect game to fit around real life.

For roguelite / deckbuilder fans, and especially for Game Pass subscribers, Balatro is an easy recommendation.

What do you do in the game? (Synergise jokers.)

This is a Balatro round in progress:

Taking on a final boss in Balatro. The “Spare Trousers” joker gets a bonus to its + multiplier every time the player uses a “Two Pair” hand. Over long games, this can turn it into a powerhouse.

The goal of each round is simple — play card hands to reach the target number of chips, visible at the top left of the screen. Failing to meet the target is a game over. Meeting the target leads to the shop where I can unlock different bonuses, and then progress to the next, harder round.

The key to Balatro is that it’s not actually about the cards at the bottom of the screen, it’s about the jokers — the (typically) up to five bonuses visible at the top of the screen. Typically, a good setup will have a minimum of three types of jokers:

  • Chips (for example, “+50 chips” or “+2 chips for each card remaining in the deck”)
  • Additive (for example, the Abstract Joker gives “+3 multiplier per joker”, for +15 total with five jokers)
  • Multiplicative (for example, the Baseball Card joker gives “x1.5 mult per uncommon joker”, so having 3 uncommon jokers will increase the multiplier by 1.5^3 or 3.375 times)

Then add “support” or “income” jokers as needed.

For example, if I play a card hand worth 10 chips and with a base multiplier of 1, the maths will look like this:

  • Start with 10 chips
  • + 50 chips from joker = 60 chips
  • 1 base multiplier +15 multiplier = 16 multiplier so far
  • 16.0 multiplier * (1.5^3) = total 54 multiplier
  • Final number of chips = 60 chips * 54 multiplier = 3,240

Not a bad increase from a starting point of 10!

And this is why I say Balatro is about jokers first and cards second. Card hands that seem terrible at first glance, such as playing a single card (“High Card”), become appealing with an appropriate joker setup: High Card builds never have to worry about drawing the right card or combination of cards.

Conversely, powerful hands are often challenging to set up: a Straight (5 consecutive cards) is mathematically unlikely, unless:

  • I have jokers that make this easier — for instance, by allowing non-consecutive numbers (the “Shortcut” joker); by allowing 4 cards instead of 5 (“Four Fingers”); or both.
  • I have tweaked my deck along the way (for example, by choosing bonuses that adjust cards’ strength or that allow me to delete cards)

Besides jokers, Balatro contains many other bonuses that can be unlocked along the way. For example:

  • “Tarot” cards affect the playing cards themselves — giving them more chips, bonuses to their multiplier, or adjusting their suit or strength.
  • “Planet” cards strengthen card hands, making them worth more chips and increasing their multiplier.

As such, while playing individual rounds is about trying to maximise chips to beat the target (and sometimes, taking advantage of other bonuses before beating the round), playing an overall run is about answering different questions:

  • What jokers have I encountered / do I have available?
  • How can I build a cohesive strategy around these jokers?
  • How can I choose other bonuses and adjust my deck to support that strategy?

At times, this can feel like trying to assemble a plane in mid-air — and that makes it all the sweeter when a build comes together.

Facing down the final boss of another Balatro run. The “Joker Stencil” rewards players for having fewer jokers.

Short and sweet

Besides its core gameplay, I like several other aspects of Balatro:

  • It’s not particularly mentally taxing or stressful to play.
  • It’s short — a complete run takes maybe 1-1.5 hours.
  • Because of this, it’s short enough for its “roguelite” design to work — frequent Game Overs are tolerable (and less frustrating!) when it doesn’t take much time to start again and there isn’t much progress to lose.
  • This also makes it much friendlier to real life.

Conclusion

Balatro deserves its fame — it’s quick to play, deep (there are many paths to victory that tick the three vital boxes of + chips, + multiplier, and x multiplier), and satisfying when things come together. 

Now to see if I can beat that pesky Green Stake difficulty…

Quick impressions: Papers, Please

by

PapersPlease

 

Papers, Please is an indie game by Lucas Pope, currently in beta, in which the player takes on the role of a 1980s border guard in a Communist country. On paper, the game is simple: read the papers of each traveller who approaches your checkpoint. Admit those who meet the official criteria (e.g. they are citizens of the correct country; they have a valid work permit and visa); deny those who don’t; and keep an eye out for discrepancies. In practice, it’s a bit more complicated: there are a fair few variables to keep track of, which requires the player to trade off thoroughness and speed. You are paid based on how many people you process, but make mistakes and your pay will be docked. Earn too little, and your family starves.

 

The real appeal of Papers, Please isn’t so much mechanical as psychological: this is a game that tries to put the player into the shoes of a minor, despised apparatchik upholding a corrupt regime in order to pay the bills. I might even go so far as to say the game turns you into a bureaucratic version of the mooks we normally mow down without a second thought. Not necessarily a “fun” game, but it’s an interesting thought experiment and worth checking out if you have a few minutes to burn.

Journey: The Verdict

by

 

How much can we care about a digital companion?

 

Whole games have been built around this question – most notably 2001 classic Ico, which cast players as a young boy who had to escape a witch’s castle together with a girl named Yorda. Together, the two made a team: Yorda was frail, but she was the only one who could open the castle’s magically sealed doors. And it worked: Ico is one of my all-time favourites. Subsequent games – such as the modern Princes of Persia – ran with this idea, but implemented it the same way: your companion was always computer-controlled, and there was a gameplay reason you needed to work with her (for good measure, it was always a her). Thatgamecompany’s Journey is the latest game to tackle this question… but this time, it puts its own spin on the formula.

 

In Journey, you play a cloaked traveller who has to cross the desert to reach a distant mountain. There is no dialogue, no narrative, and no exposition. Who is the traveller? The answer seems to be “a pilgrim”, but this isn’t stated outright anywhere – it’s something I deduced. Is the pilgrim a he, a she, or an it? I imagined my pilgrim as a she, but that was pure whimsy. Did she have family or friends before deciding to cross the desert? Who knows. Journey’s gameplay mechanics are equally minimalistic: mostly, the pilgrim walks towards her destination. She can use the magic in her scarf to jump or fly, and she can recharge her scarf by chirping musically when standing near bits of cloth scattered throughout the world – streamers, banners, magic carpets, and the like. This is pleasant enough – controlling the pilgrim is smooth and fluid, whether she’s on the sand or soaring through the air – but that’s about it as far as game mechanics go. There is no real challenge, except for looking/walking around, wondering where to go next. There are neither puzzles nor combat. There isn’t even a Game Over screen – it is impossible to die. The overall game is quite short, just a couple of hours. In this regard, Journey feels a lot like thatgamecompany’s previous title, Flower.

Read more

Flower – The Verdict

by

One of the gameplay elements that made 2006’s Okami so special was its emphasis on healing the world. As creation goddess Amaterasu (incarnated as a wolf), smiting evildoers was only the beginning; as you restored sacred cherry blossoms, nature would spring back to life in a blaze of colour. It was beautiful, it was triumphant, and it fit the theme of the game.

 

Well, Flower is that element turned into an entire, albeit short, game. In Flower, you control the wind, as it blows a petal across the landscape. Fly up to other flowers, and they’ll blossom, releasing petals to join you – soon, your one lonely petal will have turned into a flying trail of colour, almost like a prettier Katamari Damacy. Blossom all the flowers in an area, and you’ll revitalise the world. Withered fields will spring back to life, boulders will part, new flowers will sprout for you to collect, and new areas will unlock.

 

As far as game mechanics are concerned, that is pretty much it, although certain other features of the landscape will become important as you progress*. There are no enemies, no conflict, no timer, and no fail-state. A challenging test of skill this is not; if you play games solely for that reason, then Flower is not for you. What it is, instead, is one of the most unique, prettiest, and most relaxing titles I’ve played. Text-based descriptions of gameplay mechanics can’t do justice to what makes this game work – the combination of fluid controls (tilt the controller to steer, press any button to move ahead), unique premise, and art design.  The world in bloom is a glorious sight – but that art design can also turn far more ominous, effectively changing the mood without a word being said.  That makes it all the sweeter when you do restore the world.

 

All in all, I’d recommend Flower for any gamer after a simple, unique, pleasant experience. It’s particularly suitable to play while tired or stressed. The game isn’t long, but it ought to put a smile on your face while it lasts.

 

* I’m being vague here to avoid spoilers.

 

You can buy Flower via Amazon (warning – US PSN store only).

 

I hope you enjoyed this post! To quickly find this post, and my other reviews, click the “reviews” tab at the top of this page.

 

The basis of my review

 

Time spent with the game: A few hours.

 

What I have played: The entire game.

 

What I haven’t played: n/a