Aotenjo: Infinite Hands

A full year after release, Aotenjo is still something I'd have a hard time recommending to most people. It's not necessarily a bad game, but it proves that the Balatro format doesn't work well with mahjong and has a bit of an issue with scope creep. Balatro worked because the rules of poker are universal: no matter which deck you pick, you're playing using the same rules and most of the hands (barring the Flush House and Flush Five) exist in actual poker. In Aotenjo, some decks use a ruleset loosely based on Japanese mahjong while others use a ruleset loosely based on Chinese mahjong, which forces you to memorize two different sets of base yaku. Because getting a valid hand in mahjong is rather difficult compared to poker, both rulesets have dozens of house-rule yaku that either don't exist or aren't generally recognized in the real game. As a consequence of this, upgrades in Aotenjo are generally a lot less effective than they are in Balatro. Leveling up yaku is done through "element books" - each yaku has an element and you get three upgrades at once instead of picking one, except that unlike poker, you're generally going to stack multiple yaku at once and the ones that typically stack are usually in different packs. Likewise, tile removal isn't as effective when you have 136 tiles (or more on certain decks) lying around. Aotenjo's equivalent of jokers also tend to concentrate on suits and a lot of them rotate which suit they apply to, so you can't really pre-plan tile removal the way you can with a poker deck. Speaking of jokers, the "artifacts" in Aotenjo tend to be kind of terrible. Many of them have extremely specific activation conditions and don't provide enough of a benefit to justify how difficult they are to build around, and there are some that are outright useless as far as I can tell. The developer has gone through multiple balance passes on the artifacts and I don't know that they'll ever achieve balance. I don't know that I'd say avoid, but definitely know what you're in for.

https://aotenjo.fandom.com/ja/wiki/青天井：無限役_Wiki あまりにも情報がなかったので上記wikiで遺物について色々まとめさせてもらってます。 (役を別の方が先に作ってくださったので、作りかけですが自分が遺物一覧を追加しました。) 手伝ってくれる方募集します。荒らさない範囲で勝手に色々いじってみてください。

Playing the original demo of this was what actually inspired me to learn how to play mahjong for real, because it was so fun. This was before [i]Balatro[/i] got really big. And what the game is now is really heavily expanded on what was in that demo, at least from my memory, with a bunch of tilesets with different rules changing how you play, and artifacts and gadgets that help you cheat your way to impossible hands. Anyone familiar with roguelites and deckbuilding will probably have played a game like this. It really isn't particularly innovative when it comes down to it. But the tuning is so good, the feedback and sound design, the build diversity, the addictive feeling of seeing the score go up. It's a game that just makes me happy. It's a full-bodied entry to a genre where some of its contemporaries end up just feeling anemic. Like there's not enough game in those games. [i]Aotenjo[/i] has more than enough game, and since it's in early access, hopefully even more to come.

麻雀とデッキ構築ゲーが好きなら面白いとは思うが デッキとか遺物の挙動が説明不足すぎて 会ったことも無い人の仕事引き継いでるみたいな感触がずっとある

一个肉鸽游戏有仓检你敢信吗，就为了刷一个合成遗物我刷到一轮刷新一千块都刷不出来，是人啊？ 而且你这个抢先体验版到底多久没更新了啊？制作组是不是跑路了，好评差评都不见你们回应，什么时候更新新内容什么时候改好评。

Great Balatro-inspired gameplay with a mahjong theme. However, some hands are noticeably harder to build compared to others, and the items don’t synergize as well across different hand builds like they do in Balatro. It could benefit from further balance adjustments to make more builds viable to play.

Mahjong Balatro, relatively smooth but still needs some polishing

[h1] Где Ричи? (Where is Richi?) [/h1] [h2] Общее мнение (General opinion) ( [/h2] Комментариев на родном русском очень мало (около 10),поэтому внесу свою лепту. Русификатора - нет (на момент написания комментария), очень много контента и сбора "колод", обучение маджонгу (развивайтесь) и хорошее времяприпровождение. Сравню с Балатро (самого популярного роуглайка по карточным/настольным играм),да,в визуальной части и красивых эффектов уступает,да,балатро приятнее глазу и понятна большинству геймеров Европы,Америки и тд,но несмотря на это Aotenjo мне понравилась больше хотя бы из-за глубины построения "колод" и коммуникации с разработчиком. There are very few comments in native Russian (about 10), so I'll do my bit. There is no Russifier (at the time of writing the comment), a lot of content and collecting "decks", learning mahjong (develop, Europeans) and having a good time. I'll compare it with Balatro (the most popular roguelike card / board game), yes, it's inferior in visual terms and beautiful effects, yes, Balatro is more pleasing to the eye and understandable to most gamers in Europe, America, etc., but despite this, I liked Aotenjo more, at least because of the depth of building "decks" and communication with the developer. [h2] Плюсы (Positive) ( [/h2] Глубина построения колод Туева хуча контента Связь с сообществом Сложные достижение (для ценителей) Приятная музыка Depth of deck construction Tueva hoocha content (It doesn't translate, it means a f*** lot in context.) Communication with the community Challenging achievement (for connoisseurs) Pleasant music [h2] Минусы (Negative) ( [/h2] Сложность вникания для "не Азиат" Отсутсвие русификаторов Нету вкладки для обучения сложных механик (так и не понял как поставить режим 7 пар) The difficulty of understanding for "non-Asians" is the lack of Russifiers There is no tab for learning complex mechanics (I still haven't figured out how to set the 7 pairs mode) [h2] Вывод (Сonclusion) ( [/h2] Несмотря на отсутствие русской локализации и сложности с освоением механик для неподготовленного игрока, Aotenjo предлагает глубинную и увлекательную систему построения колод, обширный контент и прямое взаимодействие с разработчиком, что делает её уникальным представителем жанра. Игра заслуживает внимания даже на фоне таких хитов, как Balatro, благодаря своей стратегической насыщенности и атмосфере. Despite the lack of Russian localization and the difficulty of mastering the mechanics for an untrained player, Aotenjo offers a deep and fascinating deck-building system, extensive content and direct interaction with the developer, which makes it a unique representative of the genre. The game deserves attention even against the background of such hits as Balatro, due to its strategic saturation and atmosphere.

Flumbo still refuses to learn Mahjong.

I recommend this game ONLY IF you have prior mahjong experience or are generally cracked at strategy games. Otherwise the ambience is fun and the music is great.