What is The Appeal of This Game?

[Energist]

I'm not a poker player. Not even that interested in cards.

Hard to believe this game is as popular as it is, and I'm wondering if someone can explain to me what it's about? What's the sell ?

[AlphaGodith]

number go up. pleasing sound effects. that's really all it needs.

[ruler2k2k2]

I could say the same thing about Notia, either you're interesting in a game enough to look for more about it, or you're not.

[Energist]

Originally posted by ruler2k2k2:

I could say the same thing about Notia, either you're interesting in a game enough to look for more about it, or you're not.

That's why I'm here, to learn more.

[noisyturtle]

What's the appeal of gambling?

[Energist]

Originally posted by noisyturtle:

What's the appeal of gambling?

Sure. I'm just trying to figure out if I should buy this or not since everyone seems to love it. I feel like I'm missing out, but the images and videos just don't explain the appeal.

I could go fight dragons, survive an onslaught of zombies, kill gods, cast magic spells.

Or I could play poker. lol

[RazzberryMocha]

You play legal poker hands to meet a score requirement that increases every round. After each round you visit a shop and can spend your money to buy joker cards that passively increase your scoring capabilities (ex. +80 chips if hand contains a flush, X3 mult if hand contains each suit) and tarot cards that will directly affect your deck (ex. makes two cards give +4 mult when scored, removes two cards). This is an incredibly short explanation of what it is but should give the general idea if that's what you were wanting.

This video is of someone playing a basic run of the game while explaining everything if you'd be interested in a more in-depth explanation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNjh1IT62ew&t=65s

[Xaelon]

To start, the game isn't similar to traditional poker.

It just looks like poker and borrows some of the terminology. The different poker 'hands' in this game are just one of the many mechanics in play during a run. Balatro isn't about playing the "best" hand. It's about playing the "right" hand.

Depending on what combo of Jokers you end up with playing a single card can beat a Royal Flush, which is unbeatable in traditional poker.

Generally the appeal is similar to other Roguelikes: assembling a winning strategy out of a random set of things while taking advantage of the game's mechanics. There is satisfaction to be had in "putting the pieces together" so to speak and seeing how things go. Each run not unlike assembling an "OP build" in other games, but without any grinding or other filler between you and all the delicious mechanics. And if you lose? So what. Start over and try again. You probably unlocked some cool new stuff anyway.

The thing that sets Balatro apart from other games in the genre is probably the "easy to learn, hard to master" aspect of it. The object of the game is simple: score enough points (or "chips" as the game calls them) to move to the next blind. But since the amount of points you need grows with every stage you beat the question becomes "What can I do to earn enough points?"

And due to how the game is built there are A LOT of different ways to answer that question. You can add or remove playing cards from your deck. You can boost how many chips you get from playing a specific hand. Generally though your wins will come from assembling different combinations of Jokers. The catch is that most jokers aren't good by themselves. The most powerful jokers often need others to play off. And there are plenty of combinations that will make you go "Oh. I never thought of that."

The game just makes you feel very clever when you win. You'll chuckle to yourself as you fire off a combo that wins by hundreds of thousands of points or gasp in relief as you barely win because you never got the last thing you needed.

I dunno what else to say. All the different options you have during a run and how much impact each of them has makes for a very satisfying gameplay loop.

[x_equals_speed]

Sid Meier claims "A game is a series of interesting choices" and I think that's largely true. A game works when you get to make meaningful decisions and see the results of those decisions play out (Feeling good about it when they work and feeling like you learned something when they don't)

Baltoro is dense with choice points at every level.

During a round you could play a hand from the cards available to you or you could discard some of those cards.

If you play a hand you could play the best hand available or you could modify your play to try to engineer your next hand to be better. Picking the best available also becomes non-trivial once you have a few jokers and hand upgrades that moves you beyond "The best poker hand is the best option"

With some jokers you might also play a bad hand for the long term benefits. For example if a joker gives you money for playing certain cards or if playing a card might destroy it and you don't want it in your deck.

If you discard you need to decide what to discard. The game gives you ample information on what the value of different hands are and which cards remain in your deck (to save you card counting). There is often a trade off between "The discard that is most likely to get a decent hand" "The discard that is most likely to get a phenomenally good hand" and "The discard with the best long term potential"

The short term / long term thing comes up a lot thanks to various mechanics. For example it's very common to be able to upgrade a card to a gold card, which gives you money if it's in your hand (but not played) when you win. So if you have a bad hand with a gold card should you discard it (to increase the odds of drawing to a good hand) or keep it (to increase the payoff if you get a good hand) It depends on your judgement of how much you need the money vs how likely you are to wipe out.

Outside of the moment to moment play there are also lots of meaningful decisions. In the shop after each level you might buy a card to add to your deck or a joker to modify your run or a booster pack - offering random cards of a type. Or a permanent upgrade, though these are expensive and might encourage you to save your money. You are also rewarded with extra money each level for keeping coin you don't spend, so the right long term decision might be to buy nothing now in order to have more money later.

There's a host of extra choices to be made beyond this. Jokers take effect in the order they're in and can be re-ordered at any time. You can see which enemies are coming up and some have limitations which may affect your choices.

The game also has a lot of replayability because you have ways to modify the choices a run can make. You might start one game with a deck that has only 2 suits, which makes flushes more likely and you need to account for that when weighing up the relative advantages of cards available. Or you might play a challenge that means you can't add more cards to your deck and will destroy any card you play, but get many more points, encouraging winning using the fewest cards possible so you have enough left to win at the end. There are 20 challenges and about a dozen decks to try.

If you get really completionist about it the game tracks which cards you've won with at which difficulties. Some people try for all of these so then you have choices like "This card is better, but that card is one I've not won with before".

The whole gameplay loop is slick so that taking a choice takes seconds and seeing its results will play out in seconds or maybe over ten minutes if it's a long term thing.

In short, it slices to the core of what a game is and delivers effectively on the fundementals.

[Energist]

Originally posted by Xaelon:

To start, the game isn't similar to traditional poker.

It just looks like poker and borrows some of the terminology. The different poker 'hands' in this game are just one of the many mechanics in play during a run. Balatro isn't about playing the "best" hand. It's about playing the "right" hand.

Depending on what combo of Jokers you end up with playing a single card can beat a Royal Flush, which is unbeatable in traditional poker.

Generally the appeal is similar to other Roguelikes: assembling a winning strategy out of a random set of things while taking advantage of the game's mechanics. There is satisfaction to be had in "putting the pieces together" so to speak and seeing how things go. Each run not unlike assembling an "OP build" in other games, but without any grinding or other filler between you and all the delicious mechanics. And if you lose? So what. Start over and try again. You probably unlocked some cool new stuff anyway.

The thing that sets Balatro apart from other games in the genre is probably the "easy to learn, hard to master" aspect of it. The object of the game is simple: score enough points (or "chips" as the game calls them) to move to the next blind. But since the amount of points you need grows with every stage you beat the question becomes "What can I do to earn enough points?"

And due to how the game is built there are A LOT of different ways to answer that question. You can add or remove playing cards from your deck. You can boost how many chips you get from playing a specific hand. Generally though your wins will come from assembling different combinations of Jokers. The catch is that most jokers aren't good by themselves. The most powerful jokers often need others to play off. And there are plenty of combinations that will make you go "Oh. I never thought of that."

The game just makes you feel very clever when you win. You'll chuckle to yourself as you fire off a combo that wins by hundreds of thousands of points or gasp in relief as you barely win because you never got the last thing you needed.

I dunno what else to say. All the different options you have during a run and how much impact each of them has makes for a very satisfying gameplay loop.

Ok thanks. It sounds like it's a more abstract take on card games like Slay the Spire or Monster Train.

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by Energist:

Originally posted by Xaelon:

To start, the game isn't similar to traditional poker.

It just looks like poker and borrows some of the terminology. The different poker 'hands' in this game are just one of the many mechanics in play during a run. Balatro isn't about playing the "best" hand. It's about playing the "right" hand.

Depending on what combo of Jokers you end up with playing a single card can beat a Royal Flush, which is unbeatable in traditional poker.

Generally the appeal is similar to other Roguelikes: assembling a winning strategy out of a random set of things while taking advantage of the game's mechanics. There is satisfaction to be had in "putting the pieces together" so to speak and seeing how things go. Each run not unlike assembling an "OP build" in other games, but without any grinding or other filler between you and all the delicious mechanics. And if you lose? So what. Start over and try again. You probably unlocked some cool new stuff anyway.

The thing that sets Balatro apart from other games in the genre is probably the "easy to learn, hard to master" aspect of it. The object of the game is simple: score enough points (or "chips" as the game calls them) to move to the next blind. But since the amount of points you need grows with every stage you beat the question becomes "What can I do to earn enough points?"

And due to how the game is built there are A LOT of different ways to answer that question. You can add or remove playing cards from your deck. You can boost how many chips you get from playing a specific hand. Generally though your wins will come from assembling different combinations of Jokers. The catch is that most jokers aren't good by themselves. The most powerful jokers often need others to play off. And there are plenty of combinations that will make you go "Oh. I never thought of that."

The game just makes you feel very clever when you win. You'll chuckle to yourself as you fire off a combo that wins by hundreds of thousands of points or gasp in relief as you barely win because you never got the last thing you needed.

I dunno what else to say. All the different options you have during a run and how much impact each of them has makes for a very satisfying gameplay loop.

Ok thanks. It sounds like it's a more abstract take on card games like Slay the Spire or Monster Train.

If you're into deckbuilder roguelikes then definitely check this game out also.

[FJG741]

Originally posted by AlphaGodith:

number go up. pleasing sound effects. that's really all it needs.

Pretty much. And don't forget my personal favorite, "screen shake ooooooh".

[PuiTin]

Saying that it is just a poker game or numbers go up is quite an insult tbh. You need to plan strategically and plays the plan carefully based on your play style . The joker you acquired will require you to change your playstyle and improvise on higher difficulty. To win the "match" there are numerous approaches as you expand your knowledge on the joker and card deck you can build on.

[Probably Alpharius]

I like setting up combos and the satisfaction of getting a chain reaction going. Game is also right up my alley in terms of challenge. That's my two cents.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by Energist:

I'm not a poker player. Not even that interested in cards.

Hard to believe this game is as popular as it is, and I'm wondering if someone can explain to me what it's about? What's the sell ?

Its one of the very few games i have played, which gets my heart p;pounding. Will I score enough chips to get to the next round. Its also really exciting, especially at ante 8. Will I be able to complete and win.

The design of the game is very much perfect, the animations, the sound, the background music, the concept - these are all factors that keep me playing, currently nearly up to 200 hours and still need to wish to play more.

[i think i miss my wife]

gambling. too much gambling.