Square Enix and Yuji Naka Announce 3D Action Platformer Balan Wonderworld

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
Balan Wonderland, the spiritual sequel to Sega's Nights series. It is surprising and thrilling to see Yuji Naka working on a new game after leaving Sega and not doing anything for a while. The game will release on all platforms and PC. I look forward to buying this.



(turn on the closed caption for the second video)





 
Last edited:

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,190
8,435
118
Neat. I'm down for a nice platformer. Wait and see how it turns out first tho, haven't been overly impressed by any of the Squenix games I've played these past couple years.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
Neat. I'm down for a nice platformer. Wait and see how it turns out first tho, haven't been overly impressed by any of the Squenix games I've played these past couple years.
I understand. The last SE game I played was Nier: Automata. The only reason I played that was more for Platinum, than anything. I do love the story, but after getting all of the main endings, there was little to no reason to comeback. The game has a kick ass soundtrack, so I still listen to that.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,216
3,354
118
There's a demo available for it already, have ye checked? I gave it a bash, it's got cute little chao garden thing going on, but not sure if they're doing anything with it like they did for the sonic adventures. Those were my fave parts of the games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

09philj

Elite Member
Legacy
Mar 31, 2015
2,154
947
118
It looks very janky and off in the way that Sonic Adventure was... which is what they were trying to achieve I suppose.
 

Dreiko

Elite Member
Legacy
May 1, 2020
2,693
895
118
CT
Country
usa
Gender
male, pronouns: your majesty/my lord/daddy
Not my aesthetic cup of tea but it could be fun.
 

Kae

That which exists in the absence of space.
Legacy
Nov 27, 2009
5,792
712
118
Country
The Dreamlands
Gender
Lose 1d20 sanity points.
It has a lot of Dreamcast/PS2/GameCube era Sonic Team vibes, the characters you play as in particular remind me of Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg, they have a similar aesthetic (including the silly costumes) and the way they move seems very similar, the guy with the top hat also reminds me of Nights Into Dreams, which I guess is more old school since that was a Saturn thing, but yeah, I guess this could be interesting, even if it doesn't get a great critical reception, it'll probably be nostalgic enough for me to enjoy it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BrawlMan

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,190
8,435
118
So, played the demo on Switch. Here are my first impressions pretty much as i thought them while playing.
  1. Ok, you start out by picking a character. Boy or girl. White, black, asian and ... redhead with a deep tan? Ok? Not really sure what the 4th one is supposed to represent.
  2. Cutscene. Looks nice. I like that the character you picked is actually in the cutscene. Does that mean there's basically 8 versions of this?
  3. Actual gameplay now. Yeh, rather stark visual downgrade from the cg, but didn't expect that level considering the platform. There's better looking platformers on Switch. VIsual design is not bad tho. A bit like a mix of Billy Hatcher and Nights, even if a lot of it looks like it wouldn't look out of place on mobile or, fuck it, the gamecube.
  4. No idea what any of the stuff in this hub is, let's just get into a level and ... holy crap, what the fuck is this run animation? It looks like my legs could be making Sonic style figure eights any moment, but why am I so slow? Anyway, level time.
  5. Ingame cutscene and whoa, framerate is taking a nosedive. That's gotta be 15fps or below. Actual gameplay also doesn't run very well either.
  6. This doesn't control very well. It feels so stiff and unresponsive. But at same time also too loose and floaty? And why is it so slow? There's no sense of flow or momentum.
  7. Sure is a lot of pop-in going on here, but for some reason npcs disappear when I get close? Dafuck's up with that? They're all dancing, but why is the dancing animation so bad? Why is all of the animation so bad?
  8. Music is pretty nice. Not really catchy nod your head stuff, more like relaxing whimsy, but it kind of works.
  9. Ok, first costume. Now my jump breaks blocks. Ok, is that all? I mean, is that everything I can do? Make a shitty jump that breaks blocks? Ok, maybe you're supposed to use combinations of costumes. We'll see when I get some more.
  10. Second costume. Now I can do a Yoshi style flutter jump. Ok, that's a better jump. Can't break blocks tho. How long does it take to switch? Ouch, 1-2 seconds? Ooof, that's not gonna become annoying at all, no siree.
  11. First enemy encounter. Framerate drops to single digits while they load in. Hope that won't that happen every time? (pssst, the answer is yes, pretty much)
  12. Oh hey, it's Balan and ... dafuck why am I suddenly doing a shitty quicktime event? What the fuck am I even doing? Is that a burning cob of corn? Why am I kicking it? Ok, I launched Balan through a crystal energy thing? Just what? Oh, that was some kind of bonus level for extra gems? That was jarring.
  13. Come to think of it, what are those gems even for? Are they a like coins or rings? Do I get extra lives if I collect enough of them? What do the different colors mean?
  14. Ok, some kind of weird crystal energy plant thing? Those puffball chao clones that have been following me around the level are doing something to it? Ah, I see, that's the end goal.
  15. Back to the hub, it seems. It's telling me to toss the gems I collected into flower fields. Ok, cool, now the puffballs are eating the gems. Is that supposed to happen? I have no idea what I'm doing. Game tells me to do stuff, but not what the purpose of that stuff is. Or did I miss that somehow? I have no idea.
  16. There's also this hamster wheel with a counter next to it. I can put a puffball in it, and it'll start turning, making the counter go up. I also have a sub-objective to teach 30 and it'll make part of a tower o' tims appear? Is the hamster wheel how I reach that 30? I hope not, cuz this is slow as molasses.
  17. Whatever, next level. New costume and ... oh ... this is just straight up that onion with extendible legs from Mario Odyssey. But shitty. Nother new costume. A little dragon with a shortranged fireball attack. Neat. Oh wait, I can't jump anymore. Nother new costume. A pig that can buttstomp. And yeah, seems like every costume really does exactly one thing.
  18. What is that weird warping effect in the geometry, like the level is on the inside on a sphere, but it flattens out as you get closer? It's kind of neat, but why does it only seem to do that some of the time?
  19. Second level done and ... guess we're going straight into a boss fight. And it's over already. That was easy. I think? I mean, half the time I had no idea whether or not I was doing the right thing, but I guess I was. Whatever, back to the hub.
  20. Ok, for real now? What am I supposed to do in this game? Go for the end goal? Is it a collectathon? Both? What does the tower o' tims do? I'm someone who normally gets annoyed when a game spends too much time tutorialising and explaining itself, but this doesn't really explain itself well at all. Maybe if instead of dancing around those ncps you can turn into did whatever power their costume grants you? I'm done tho, I I've seen enough.
As you might have guessed, there's not much positive in there. Balan Wonderworld is slow and clunky to play. It runs poorly and looks bad from a technical standpoint. It feels antiquated, like a platformer from the PS1/N64 era, but not in a good way. There's comparisons to Dreamcast era Sonic Team in here, but those games are honestly better than this. But above all, it is just not fun to play. It is boring. Capital b Boring.

You want my recommendation, for whatever that is worth? Don't bother. Just don't bother.

At the very least not with the Switch version, but I don't think the PS5 version will be much better aside from hopefully looking and running better. There are way better options out there for 3d platformers. Mario Odyssey or 3D All-Stars obviously. If you don't have a Switch, perhaps opt for Crash N'Sane or Spyro Reignited. Something new you haven't tried? A Hat in Time if you want a collectathon or Spark the Electric Jester 2 if you want something Sonic Adventure-like. On my honor, I guarantee you those are way better games than Balan Wonderworld.
 
Last edited:

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
So, played the demo on Switch. Here are my first impressions pretty much as i thought them while playing.
  1. Ok, you start out by picking a character. Boy or girl. White, black, asian and ... redhead with a deep tan? Ok? Not really sure what the 4th one is supposed to represent.
  2. Cutscene. Looks nice. I like that the character you picked is actually in the cutscene. Does that mean there's basically 8 versions of this?
  3. Actual gameplay now. Yeh, rather stark visual downgrade from the cg, but didn't expect that level considering the platform tho. There's better looking platformers on Switch tho. VIsual design is not bad tho. A bit like a mix of Billy Hatcher and Nights, even if a lot of it looks like it wouldn't look out of place on mobile or, fuck it, the gamecube.
  4. No idea what any of the stuff in this hub is, let's just get into a level and ... holy crap, what the fuck is this run animation? It looks like my legs could be making Sony style figure eights any moment, but why am I so slow? Anyway, level time.
  5. Ingame cutscene and whoa, framerate is taking a nosedive. That's gotta be 15fps or below. Actual gameplay also doesn't run very well either.
  6. This doesn't control very well. It feels so stiff and unresponsive. But at same time also too loose and floaty? And why is it so slow? There's no sense of flow or momentum.
  7. Sure is a lot of pop-in going on here, but for some reason npcs disappear when I get close? Dafuck's up with that? They're all dancing, but with is the dancing animation so bad? Why is all of the animation so bad?
  8. Music is pretty nice. Not really catchy nod your head stuff, more like relaxing whimsy, but it kind of works.
  9. Ok, first costume. Now my jump breaks blocks. Ok, is that all? I mean, is that everything I can do? Make a shitty jump that breaks blocks? Ok, maybe you're supposed to use combinations of costumes. We'll see when I get some more.
  10. Second costume. Now I can do a Yoshi style flutter jump. Ok, that's a better jump. Can't break blocks tho. How long does it take to switch? Ouch, 1-2 seconds? Ooof, that's not gonna become annoying at all, no siree.
  11. First enemy encounter. Framerate drops to single digits while they load in. Hope that won't that happen every time? (pssst, the answer is yes, pretty much)
  12. Oh hey, it's Balan and ... dafuck why am I suddenly doing a shitty quicktime event? What the fuck am I even doing? Is that a burning cob of corn? Why am I kicking it? Ok, I launched Balan through a crystal energy thing? Just what? Oh, that was some kind of bonus level for extra gems? That was jarring.
  13. Come to think of it, what are those gems even for? Are they a like coins or rings? Do I get extra lives if I collect enough of them? What do the different colors mean?
  14. Ok, some kind of weird crystal energy plant thing? Those puffball chao clones that have been following me around the level are doing something to it? Ah, I see, that's the end goal.
  15. Back to the hub, it seems. It's telling me to toss the gems I collected into flower fields. Ok, cool, now the puffballs are eating the gems. Is that supposed to happen? I have no idea what I'm doing. Game tells me to do stuff, but now what the purpose of that stuff is. Or did I miss that somehow? I have no idea.
  16. There's also this hamster wheel with a counter next to it. I can put a puffball in it, and it'll start turning, making the counter go up. I also have a subobjective to teach 30 and it'll make part of a tower o' tims appear? Is the hamster wheel how I reach that 30? I hope not, cuz this is slow as molasses.
  17. Whatever, next level. New costume and ... oh ... this is just straight up that onion with extendible legs from Mario Odyssey. But shitty. Nother new costume. A little dragon with a shortranged fireball attack. Neat. Oh wait, I can't jump anymore. Nother new costume. A pig that can buttstomp. And yeah, seems like every costume really does exactly one thing.
  18. What is that weird warping effect in the geometry, like the level is on the inside on a sphere, but it flattens out as you get closer? It's kind of neat, but why does it only seem to do that some of the time?
  19. Second level done and ... guess we're going straight into a boss fight. And it's over already. That was easy. I think? I mean, half the time I had no idea whether or not I was doing the right thing, but I guess I was. Whatever, back to the hub.
  20. Ok, for real now? What am I supposed to do in this game? Go for the end goal? Is it a collectathon? Both? What does the tower o' tims do? I'm normally someone who gets annoyed when a game spends too much time tutorialising and explaining itself, but this doesn't really explain itself well at all. Maybe if instead of dancing around those ncps you can turn into did whatever power their costume grants you? I'm done tho, I I've seen enough.
As you might have guessed, there's not much positive in there. Balan Wonderworld is slow and clunky to play. It runs poorly and looks bad from a technical standpoint. It feels antiquated, like a platformer from the PS1/N64 era, but not in a good way. There's comparisons to Dreamcast era Sonic Team in here, but those games are honestly better than this. But above all, it is just not fun to play. It is boring. Capital b Boring.

You want my recommendation, for whatever that is worth? Don't bother. Just don't bother.

At the very least not with the Switch version, but I don't think the PS5 version will be much better aside from hopefully looking and running better. There are way better options out there for 3d platformers. Mario Odyssey or 3D All-Stars obviously. If you don't have a Switch, perhaps opt for Crash N'Sane or Spyro Reignited. Something new you haven't tried? A Hat in Time if you want a collectathon or Spark the Electric Jester 2 if you want something Sonic Adventure-like. On my honor, I guarantee you those are way better games than Balan Wonderworld.
Thank you for the well thought out experience. I have the PS4 demo, and I'm going to play it tonight. Sorry you had to go through all that. Hopefully It'll run better on PS4.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,190
8,435
118
Thank you for the well thought out experience. I have the PS4 demo, and I'm going to play it tonight. Sorry you had to go through all that. Hopefully It'll run better on PS4.
I know that was pretty scathing, but I have in all honesty not played a game this bad in a long, long time. It didn't cost me any money, and I still feel robbed. That bad. And I don't mean it's bad in the sense that it's not my cup of tea. Or in the sense that it is unfinished tho I suspect it is in fact plain not done and needed at least another year in the oven, if not more.

It is bad in the sense of coming off ill-conceived. Like there was no plan on what kind of game they wanted to make, so they kind of threw a slew of ideas in there with no thought on what they wanted to achieve with those ideas and how well they would mesh with any of the others, and all of it implemented in this jarringly janky and seemingly shallow way. This is a product made by a team of professionals, but it really really doesn't feel like one.

It's a demo, so maybe it gets better later on, but that was a terrible first impression for my tastes. I am baffled Squenix gave the ok for it.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I know that was pretty scathing, but I have in all honesty not played a game this bad in a long, long time. It didn't cost me any money, and I still feel robbed. That bad. And I don't mean it's bad in the sense that it's not my cup of tea. Or in the sense that it is unfinished tho I suspect it is in fact plain not done and needed at least another year in the oven, if not more.

It is bad in the sense of coming off ill-conceived. Like there was no plan on what kind of game they wanted to make, so they kind of threw a slew of ideas in there with no thought on what they wanted to achieve with those ideas and how well they would mesh with any of the others, and all of it implemented in this jarringly janky and seemingly shallow way. This is a product made by a team of professionals, but it really really doesn't feel like one.

It's a demo, so maybe it gets better later on, but that was a terrible first impression for my tastes. I am baffled Squenix gave the ok for it.
They okayed The Quiet Man so nothing surprises me.
 

Elvis Starburst

Unprofessional Rant Artist
Legacy
Aug 9, 2011
2,732
719
118
I had to check it for myself now that you mentioned all of this, and my god is it ever janky looking. Not even just graphically, PS4 can improve that. But the game itself looks jank as hell in so many ways. And the weird little dance number at the end of the first boss with the farmer... What was that all about? The idea seemed neat on the reveal trailer, and even the preview video here at the top of the thread. But now that I'm looking at it... eugh
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,190
8,435
118

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,690
11,192
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
10,753
5,297
118
Just ... ouch. Considering he hasn't done anything else of note in like 15 years, I'm guessing Yuji Naka's chances of heading any big projects have become quite slim now.
Yeah this was on my radar to give an impression about but then i forgot it was coming out and by the time i saw it, i saw that is pretty much was a bust already by everyone so i just skipped it.