I’ve just uninstalled and removed Balatro after yet a near, very close 8/8 ante finish. I have been failing and failing, I’ve only ever seen and gotten to 8/8 ante twice, this being the second time. Every other run has been just insulting me to where no strategy has ever worked, I feel like a lot of it is RNG and pre-determined outcomes based on seeded runs.
And I hate that way of playing. It always feels like I’m getting smacked down by a troll bully who I can never overcome. They’d kick me down every failed run I’d have, then they give me a false sense of security the further I get. “Awwww, getting tired of being owned? Here, let me help you by giving you a few seemingly lucky breaks. SMACK Oh! OWNED YOU AGAIN! FUCK YOU! LOLLOLOL! I BANGED YOUR MOTHER, GIT GUD, NOOB!1”
I just don’t understand why these kinds of games are around, even when I have a good idea who it is for.
For me, it’s Elden Ring. I wanted to love the game so bad but it didn’t recapture the magic of Dark Souls 1 for me. I never get past the early areas of the game because I just get bored.
Elden Ring just doesn’t make the experimenter part of my brain feel good. I want to try out everything and do everything and constantly adjust to the enemies. But, in ER you are much better off focusing on one thing and getting really good at it. The game is about mechanical skill and pattern recognition, not solving the enemy like a puzzle. So, I just get bored doing the same repetitive attacks and learning when to dodge the enemies. Maybe you get to do a little bit of fun planning by picking the right element or buffs but that’s about it.
I was actually really sad about it, but I came to realize that I just want to play games that are very mathy and allow me to test out lots of builds and strategies. I’ve actually taken an interest in JRPGs as a result and I’m enjoying it so far.
Oh man, I totally agree with this. Plus they reuse mini bosses a bunch of times. The open world is a slog. I played 80 hours trying to explore the whole map and beat almost all of the bosses and got so burnt out I haven’t picked it up since. Meanwhile I’ve played DS:R probably 10+ times since.
Magic The Gathering player?
I actually couldn’t afford to play it really.
The only format I could really play was Pauper and I had some fun with it for a bit at my LGS. Then I just gave up because I wasn’t making any friends at the LGS and I didn’t want to keep spending money on it. I guess proxies exist, but I don’t have anyone to play with 😢.
I actually really wish I could afford it, I play games like Slay the Spire to get the deck building fix without spending a ton of money.
MtG draft scratched this itch for me for a few years. With a little gaming of the system on Magic Arena, it’s definitely possible to play for free or near-free once you get good enough at it, but I was already a veteran Magic player by the time Arena came out, and there are few things with a higher learning curve than draft.
You might like JRPGs with job systems. Metaphor: ReFantazio is a recent one. Final Fantasy Tactics and Bravely Default are a couple of my favorites in this vein.