The House Always Wins

But I'm Not Losing

I’ve got to be up front with you all. These past two weeks I haven’t played any new games. I tried, I really did. I have the remake of Dead Space newly added to my PlayStation library, and The Plucky Squire is downloading as I type. But two games have been occupying my brain space whenever I have a free moment to myself.

Persona 3 Reload | Tick...Tock...

Persona 3 is the real deal. In the same way the game reinforces structure and routine in its systems, it has become a part of my own these past two weeks. As I try and maintain a balance of my hobbies and relationships, the amount of time I can dedicate to video games shifts week-to-week and even day-to-day. Sometimes I’ve got a couple of hours to sit back with a game, but then other days it’s just a quick thirty minutes before I have to head out the door to some previously scheduled activity. What has most surprised me about Persona 3 is its ability to fit into both scenarios. The calendar system encourages me to boot up the game even if I only have time to do a day or two’s worth of activities. The growth of relationships or inflation of my bank account in conjunction with the forward progress into the next in-game day maintains a persistent sense of progress. The system makes me feel like these small steps are worth taking and will add up to something big in time. For a game that can go for 80+ hours this is a huge deal!

Last newsletter I mentioned how I found myself planning my in-game activities based on my schedule, but my mindset around the game has shifted. There’s no plan necessary. Like in life there are these large goals - climb to the top of Tartarus, get into graduate school, cure the Apathy Syndrome plaguing your town, get a promotion, etc - but you don’t achieve those goals in one night. Sure you can cram for a test, but there’s a limit to the amount of information you can intake in one day. In Persona, you can study every night the week before exams, but your Academics stat isn’t going to max out in just a few days. It forces a macro-level mentality. I’ve embraced the idea that I can hop in to study in the afternoon and work at the local coffee shop for the night and that those choices are bringing me one step closer to purchasing that new weapon or flying through exam week. It’s the small actions that lead to big results.

The smartest thing the game has done has been to introduce breaks in how far you can get in Tartarus at a time. Some may groan, but it reminds me a bit of my experience with therapy. I chip away at a problem, trying to find the balance between pushing myself too far - leading to some sort of regression - and stretching just past my abilities to get a bit stronger. At some point I master the tools needed for the current situation, and go out and live life. Until one day the landscape changes enough that I become aware of new issues that I’ve got to address. It’s a smart way to pace the game out and get players to engage with all elements of the virtual life they’ve set up.

My understanding is I’m about a quarter of the way through the game now, so for fear of spoiling too much I’ll try to avoid bringing this up again until the end of year. But if you’ve ever been curious about the Persona series this one is worth a shot.

Balatro | Just One More Round

Balatro was released for iOS and Apple Arcade last week, and I have found myself incapable of not playing it every day. I initially got a trial of Apple Arcade to see how the gameplay translated and if it made sense for me on mobile, but after one run turned into an hour and a half long play session I just dropped the $10 to buy it outright. iOS’s touch-first interface translates without a hiccup, and once I got used to it I’ve grown to prefer it over how I was playing on the Switch (the Switch version supports touch controls - I just never used them). It’s unlocked a new sense of speed and flow that wasn’t present when buttons were a part of the action.

While Persona has taken up the 30 minute to 2 hour long gaming slots I have, Balatro (aside from the accidental hour long runs) has found a perfect place in the 5-15 minute range. It’s been the go-to between meetings or before I transition into some other block of focused work. The sequence of three rounds to an ante, eight antes to a run, means that there are plenty of natural break points to get back to what I was doing before. Honestly, the most frustrating part of the experience is making sure I stop to do something else, but even that is mitigated by the fact that it is so easy to put away my phone. I have on more than one occasion just had to hit the power button on my phone to break the spell, but it’s always reassuring to know it’ll load back up right where I was. Playing on the Switch has been nice, but to be able to have this on the device that’s always with me is a game changer. The older I get the more obvious it becomes that, if technically possible, games should meet people where they are. We shouldn’t have to work around them, rather it should be vice versa.

This was already going to be on whatever end of the year list I end up making, but after the past week plus with it on iOS it’s gunning for the top. To developer LocalThunk I just have to say, no apologies necessary.