Welcome back aboard our leaky little craft! Today, Floss finds a new way to do fortune-telling. Chris, meanwhile, has a few quick game recommendations.

The Bathysphere crew
Christian Donlan
Florence Smith Nicholls
Keith Stuart

Contact us at bathyspherecrew@gmail.com

Delightful games

Playdate games are slowly trickling out onto other platforms, which is theoretically kind of worrying, I guess? But it’s hard to be too worried when it’s something like Ratcheteer DX. This is a lovely Zelda-alike that survives the de-crankification process extremely well. The use of colours in the new version is great too. CD

Also, in de-crankification news, the wonderful narrative-driven city builder GlagStone is also headed to other platforms, by the looks of it. And I love the fact they’ve kept things monochrome. Cor. CD

I’ve reached a slight sticking point in my swimming lessons at the moment because I’m ready for the more serious end of the pool and it turns out I’m absolutely terrified of deep water. I’m trying to ease into things, though, by playing SILT.

I first spotted SILT when it came out for PC. It’s a wonderfully oppressive game in which you explore the depths and mind-swap with various underwater creatures to progress. Now it’s out on iOS, and it remains a dark and sinister treat. CD

Interesting things

Over a decade in the making, an artist has released a Cave Story rap concept album on YouTube in which they narrate an entire walkthrough of the game. My favourite lines so far are: “You need to relax I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m a fortified friend full of metal and virtue.” FSN

Essay: Balatro Cartomancy

Apparently it’s bad luck to buy your first tarot deck, instead you should either receive it as a gift or steal it. I wonder if the same is true for digital tarot decks? In any case, this week I’ve been ambiently dipping into Balatro, the roguelike, pokerlike, deck-building game. One category of consumable in the game are Tarot cards, and so the thought crossed my mind, can you do a Tarot reading with Balatro?

Let’s start with the basics. On any Balatro run you always begin with a standard 52 card deck. In between rounds, you have the option to buy singular cards that appear in the shop, as well as Booster Packs. This is the most straightforward way to obtain Tarot cards in the game (there is also, fittingly, a Joker card called Cartomancer that will create a Tarot card when a Blind is selected). If I were conventionally doing a Tarot reading for myself, I would just shuffle a deck and draw cards. So, I had to consider by what mechanism I would ‘draw’ Tarot cards for my reading in Balatro. While opening a standard Arcana Booster Pack would technically give me a spread of three cards, that just didn’t feel like a satisfying method to me. Thus, I settled on simply using the Tarot cards that appeared in the shop for my reading.

Balatro only includes the 22 Major Arcana, that is, the named cards of a Tarot deck. I’m not a Tarot expert but this does seem to indicate that any Balatro reading might lack the nuance of the Minor Arcana, perhaps suggesting that you should only use it for pretty unambiguous questions. To make a test reading, I did indeed need to ask a question and decide on the spread to use for the divination. I decided to ask the pressing philosophical question “Should I buy a Switch 2 just so I can play Pokémon Pokopia?” A simple five card decision-making spread seemed like it would suffice. One final consideration was whether the deck I chose for my run would have any significance. Tarot readers often use specific decks according to the vibe of the reading or person. I went with the Chequered deck (made up of 26 Hearts and 26 Spades) because I could be confident I would easily get far enough in the run to get a reading. 

In actuality, on my first go I ended up stopping before getting a full five card reading. It’s up to chance whether a singular Tarot card appears in the shop after each round, and even though I reached ante 10 I still had only seen four Tarot cards! So I tried again. The second time it worked out, so I’ll share the full reading here:

Card 1, Motivation: Empress

A stereotypical reading of the Empress card is one that emphasises her femininity and nurturing nature. Still, the theme of nurturing certainly does map on to my motivation to play Pokémon Pokopia.

Card 2, Ideal Outcome: Judgement

Well, this one seems pretty self-explanatory. My ideal outcome is to reach some sort of resolution about whether my FOMO justifies investing in a new console. 

Card 3, Values: Hermit

After handing in my PhD thesis, I do value contemplation and withdrawal. Perhaps I’m drawn to the promise of idyllic self-actualisation that Pokopia promises, a safe walled garden in which to set down roots.

Card 4, Option 1: The World

I decided that option 1 would stand in for the answer of “yes.” The World represents achievement, completion, enlightenment. The chance to catch ‘em all.

Card 5, Option 2: The Wheel of Fortune

Option 2 means “no.” The Wheel of Fortune is all about decisive changes and luck - what goes up must come down. In the original Rider Waite Smith deck the card has an angel, an eagle, a bull and a lion on it; maybe there are Pokémon everywhere for those with eyes to see.

In conclusion, it is very possible to do a Tarot reading using Balatro- it just might require a certain amount of luck and endurance to get a reading at all. Perhaps balancing things out, with Balatro you’re more likely to get a positive spin on your reading, because there is no obvious way to have a ‘reversed’ card (drawing it upside-down). Maybe it is as Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! says, you just have to believe in the heart of the cards. FSN