Yesterday I bought the game and I wouldn't say it was "Wow!"

[Last_in_line]

Yesterday I bought the game and I wouldn't say it was "Wow!" It may not be bad, but in my opinion it clearly doesn't live up to the number of positive reviews it has and the 19,000 online players. I'm not an expert in the roguelike genre, but I've played a lot of Slay the Spire and Monster Train. I like those two more. There's more content there, and somehow there's more of a feeling that the deck-building process is underway (that you're playing and implementing some strategy). And in terms of visuals/music, they obviously win. The visuals are probably not the most important thing in this genre, but if they're present in good form, then why not? Spectacle also has some impact. I expected more. The game is a bit dry/bland for my taste. It's as if I'm playing some kind of solitaire in a standard game on Windows 95 =)
...the game, however, pleased me today with a card with a baseball player with a price of half a buck on the Marketplace.

[ruler2k2k2]

This could've been a review instead of a forum post. Also, not every game needs a high player count like Dota 2.

[malogoss]

I have 600h in both games, Balatro and StS.
Last time I played StS was 2 years ago. I still play some Balatro now and then.
They are both good games.
Both need time to fully appreciate. Judging either before hitting the 50h mark is like walking out the movie theatre after the previews and having an opinion about the movie.

[Mr. Tact]

It is one of those, "easy to play, difficult to master" type of games. You really don't get the full impact without 20 or more hours in the game. Balatro is a lot more complex than solitaire. But hey, no game is for everyone. Just because many people like it, doesn't mean you will. Look at the Sims games -- I have no idea why people play them, but they do.

Different strokes for different folks.

[ProximityFuse]

boo

[Winblows]

The interactivity is top notch. But it is very much at the end of the day "just a poker game", you either love the idea or you dont. The gamplay is addictive, but yah visually it leaves a lot to be desired. But at the same time theres plenty of more visually appealing games that have not held my attention for any where near as long, some even gameplay wise being even more boring then "just a poker game"

So simply put the game play is just very nice. never seen anything as crazy with interactivity out side of binding of issaic.

[Twelvefield]

As our friend Mr. Tact will be quick to agree, you don't see the game's true colours until you've played it for 15-20 hours.

Up until that point, Balatro can be pleasant, or not. It's very difficult to make an accurate assessment of this game until you've put in that time. You can say what you like, but your opinion will be uninformed until then.

[Last_in_line]

Let's leave the matter of taste... Here's a question: why does Street lvl 3 give more points than Flush lvl 3? Is there some kind of debuff from the frequency of use? I just assumed that the values ​​should change proportionally from lvl 1 and above.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3461500749

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by Last_in_line:

Let's leave the matter of taste... Here's a question: why does Street lvl 3 give more points than Flush lvl 3? Is there some kind of debuff from the frequency of use? I just assumed that the values ​​should change proportionally from lvl 1 and above.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3461500749

Straights are harder to make in Balatro due to tarot cards making flushes very easy to play (flushes scale worse than three of a kind, straights scale just as well as four of a kind). It's a clash between actual poker rules and Balatro's balance.

[Twelvefield]

With Balatro, there are no hidden cards since there are no other players: the entire deck is available to you. As well, your draws tend to be larger than Poker draws. Upper tier hands are easier to make in Balatro than in Poker. A Straight beats a Flush in Poker.

Jokers, modifier cards, and the large draws make Flushes easier than Straights in Balatro, more so than in Poker. A Flush strategy is a fairly good one to beat the game to Ante 8. However, any strategy that requires five-card hands to score will not do as well as a strategy that can get by with fewer cards in your hand.

[JasonS]

Originally posted by Last_in_line:

Let's leave the matter of taste... Here's a question: why does Street lvl 3 give more points than Flush lvl 3? Is there some kind of debuff from the frequency of use? I just assumed that the values ​​should change proportionally from lvl 1 and above.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3461500749

Because its easy to edit your deck to make 100% sure you get a Flush every hand. You cannot do that with Straight.

That's why Flush starts out strong in the early game but the planet cards don't scale well.

[Last_in_line]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Originally posted by JasonS:

Got it, thank you.
Is this exception in scaling only for the straight combination or for some other ones?

I just encountered another unusual situation. I had a Joker card that allowed me to make a flush and a straight for 4 cards instead of 5. So I make a flush of 4 red cards, then add a black king to it and get a straight flush 0_o

[RazzberryMocha]

Originally posted by Last_in_line:

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Originally posted by JasonS:

Got it, thank you.
Is this exception in scaling only for the straight combination or for some other ones?

I just encountered another unusual situation. I had a Joker card that allowed me to make a flush and a straight for 4 cards instead of 5. So I make a flush of 4 red cards, then add a black king to it and get a straight flush 0_o

For your first question, straights and flushes are the only hand types to have scaling irrespective of their ordering on the list of hand types.
For the second question, the four fingers joker allows you to make a straight or flush with only four cards. You made a hand where four of the cards counted towards a straight and four of them counted towards a flush. Since the games definition of a straight flush is a hand that contains both, you have a straight flush. Just one of the many examples of emergent gameplay coming from the games rules/wording.

[Last_in_line]

Originally posted by RazzberryMocha:

Yeah, I figured it out. I just made the same one. I figured out that if a hand contains a flush and a straight, it becomes a straight flush and doesn't have to be one color. I was just too focused on the fact that a straight flush always has to be one color.
Anyway, thanks for the answer.