I showed the game to a dev that makes slot machine games for casinos, they said they like it. So I tried it again. I went through with mostly yellow-containing tiles and midas touch is now pretty nuts even when I had all sorts of other yellow icons draining chips like mad. I still could've died so I'm going to say it's balanced but someone who isn't running lots of "pay chips" tiles might find it stronger.

I recorded your and other games with commentary:

https://mega.nz/folder/PYMBCI6A#kb__dlWiUsmt-zPha-iBtA

that's the whole DD51, and I am going to remove it when DD52 comes.

I wish she wouldn't smoke

First off I want to say the aesthetic is legitimately very cool and unique. Major props.

For the actual game, there's some things to go over.

First, it feels just like... well just like playing a slot machine. Yea you can build up your machine and stuff, but you don't really have much control over anything really until you do so. Competitors like Slay the Spire are very much about your choices and decisions, so the clash of the two can be kind of ugly at times. That being said, I think that you can definitely find a way to make it work smoothly and give the player more agency. 

The minigames are a great idea. The pinball is pretty standard. I do suck at pinball, so I never got anything more than 1 coin the times I played. I am not sure if I am bad or whatever, but if the amount of points you got from pinball scaled with the coins you got, then that would be cool instead of just trying to release the items. I did notice a chunk of coins was one of the rewards on one of them, but I feel like a classic pinball 'points go up, reward goes up' formula would work well too and provide a secondary goal. 

The grid layout feels kind of...unnecessary? I almost kind of want there to be ONLY occupied cells and not empty ones that let you traverse all over the place. It feels like I was able to walk everywhere I wanted and not be punished and in this genre, it seems almost wrong. I know that the bouncers are a thing, but I feel like there needs to be more nuance to the grid than just that. 

I am going to play more I think and maybe update with more feedback. The game is actually really interesting and I need more time with it, but I thought I would give my initial impressions for now. Very cool game. 

The setting is very unique and instantly draws attention.

It's confusing what's happening at the start, but since all I could do was press Spacebar I just let RNGesus take wheel and tried to learn. The game felt extremely unfair initially without understanding how to build a good symbol collection, it felt like my choices didn't matter, I had fail rolls often, low damage and enemies stronger than dice creatures packed a serious punch.
But the game is actually very easy to navigate and read after I got over the initial hurdle.

I defeated the Leprehaun with green+blue build, stacking block and retaliation with a lot of healing symbols and a bit of poison.

When I started understanding things a little better, I noticed I developed a superstition of trying to "plan" things in combat, even though that's not how it works. I was playing scenarios in my mind: "Yes excellent, now if only I'd roll mojito, the poison will finish him on his turn and I'll be healed".

That's why I disagree with Wierdox about slots about automatic. Having to pull the lever yourself in your own time is the quintessential to gambling experience even though your input has no bearing on the output.
And beside that, it gives you time to read enemy goals and understand situation better.
Maybe it could be an option in settings, but it should definitely be off by default.

The pinball minigame needs to have a fixed camera. It's annoying to not see paddles you're supposed to control.

Overall I think semi-random minigames are a very fun idea and I wished there were more of them.

Discovering Tourist is actually dangerous was very funny.

Yellow symbols beside the money shield, felt weak and I didn't want to use them.

Instant easy restart after death is so good. For some reason many games don't understand this.

I finally defeated the leprechaun, whack fol lol le rah. I stacked as many blues as I could.

I like the new animations and the gift shop is a great addition. The game is still decisively RNG based, but that's a great way to let the players handle some of the worst risks.

The fact that you also start with a couple of additional items is also really good and I felt more encouraged to fight enemies from the get go. Before that the first encounter was always the most difficult besides the boss.

You even start with a lemon which is really smart because that item sucks so you immediately have a decision to make between deleting it for 50 or trying to get new items for 50-100 a piece to decrease the risk of rolling the goddamn lemon.

Yellow items seem kind of weak in general. I imagine that's because accumulating money is a vehicle for snowballing which seems like a good balancing mechanic if that's the case.

Notes as I play:

Visual improvements are nice, it's getting there.

Maybe it's just RNG, but I feel like it's more likely for me to get decent slot combos. Makes the pace of combat faster. Suppose it could also be how the default cards are buffed. Poison is a nice addition, allowing for some chip damage if you don't get another combo. Having the slots be automatic after the first input is better I think, less mashing involved. 

I ended up leaning into a poison build, getting the Dubious Drink. I also got the Horseshoe, which feels almost OP given how it means you never have a turn of doing nothing. It was still relatively close, but I finally managed to beat that green rat of a  leprechaun after 3 DDs(not that I was trying too hard).

Did another run, going into a red and yellow build. Found a gift shop, which is a fun addition. It was especially useful for getting rid of a tourist photo. It was fun, but as to be expected a money build would be hard pressed to best the boss. The game over screen is a lot nicer, though I will mention the text on the bottom spills over onto the red outline a little. Specifically the first letter P.

• i want to play this game with only my mouse!!!!
• i accidentally bought the purple glasses instead of the blue collar and it was the worst mistake of my life. what a useless item
• status effects would be more readable if they were grouped up somewhere instead of all around the character
• enemy intentions are a little confusing when highlighting them switches to a text description of all of their actions. maybe have the specific icon you highlight tell you what its going to do?
• all red all wins babeey

Played until the end of the demo, beat the leprechaun guy, and had no idea what was going on the entire time. I assume it's more like an autobattler where you have no control once the battle starts. But even during battle I had no idea what was happening. All actions happen quite fast with multiple lines on the slot machine.  I didn't understand what I could do well or poorly to win or lose.