been thinking a lot about why balatro doesn't super work for me

i think its because if you have bad luck, you are unable to win a run. if you roll badly you will hit a wall that you can not scale regardless

when i think about all the roguelikes/lites i adore there's an element of "even if i have the worst possible luck, if i play well enough i can still win". hades, spelunky, even something like into the breach

whereas with balatro, there have been a serious chunk of runs where i get to ante 4/5 and just think ... i will 100% lose and there is no point in me continuining this run

the other thing is that, to me, the core gameplay of playing cards isn't that enjoyable

shit man am i a balatro hater???

ultimately i think its an astonishingly polished game with a loop that makes only a quarter of runs feel worth doing