Apologies if we accidentally called Balan Wonderworld “Balan Wonderland” at any point in this video. Oopsie.
Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima’s latest collaboration, Balan Wonderworld, hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm. The Square-Enix developed game teaches us an important lesson: if your company is known primarily for making roleplaying games, it’s maybe a bit much to expect your developers to create eighty different unique control methods for a 3D action platformer in the space of two years.
Just a suggestion.
The same goes for Arzest – we didn’t name Naoto Ohshima’s development company specifically, but they too aren’t exactly platformer experts. Again, just sayin’.
By the way, have you noticed how we’re now a third of the way through 2021, Sonic the Hedgehog’s big thirtieth anniversary year, and yet there are zero new Sonic games that are public knowledge? Nothing. Nada.
I’m just sayin’, it’s weird.
This video, by the way, shows off a little of the work Matthew is doing on Moptopus. As you can see…it’s a long way from completion! In fact, it might be parked for a while yet to come. That’s okay. It’s fine to go slow sometimes.
Anyways, lots of love to all of you.
BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Matthew (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics)
Sources:
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/balan-wonderworld-devs-got-carried-away-developing-for-ps5
https://jp.ign.com/balan-wonderworld/45765/interview/
https://www.nintendo-insider.com/balan-wonderworld-interview-musical-theatre-inspirations-colourful-costumes-and-more/
https://www.ign.com/articles/balan-wonderworlds-next-gen-features-discussed-by-sonic-creator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyg5enZipCE
Source
At least they tried.
i think the sonic curse got this game due to the people who also worked on sonic got involved
I actually really love the premise of the game and the it has great ideas but the execution was just done wrong.
as always hindsight is 20 20
I'll say this, as for the design, I only like Balan's and Farmer's looks. Cutscene animations felt very nice unless suddenly lags came in and it changed into a picture drama.
But putting aside bad platformer thingy, the story is really the big problem here, player just starts the game is told to collect those Balan Trophies or whatever they were told, and that's it.
Ohh and controls, why did they even bother to the Haptic Triggers feature in PS5 even tho triggers do exatly the same thing as any other button, like really, the only buttons that do something else are start and select buttons, everything is a action button, it just makes it feel like a cheap mobile game sometimes.
I feel like this is at least partly Square Enix's fault, if their philosophy is "focus on storytelling" and they hire a developer who goes "eh, I'm not really a storyteller".
Ngl. The Gameplay dumps.
But the story, the design, the music was charming.
also the novel from what I heard gives much more exposition than the game
Fun fact: Yuji Naka quitted Sonic and moved to Square Enix to create a new game.
I just camed to this video to see is there any info why graphics were too bad.
A fascinating failure, indeed
The stark difference between what it sounds like they produced or what they thought they were producing and the actual end product is wreaking havoc with my brain rn. Like, as she's narrating, I'm flashing back to the gameplay footage I've seen from streamers and….. this feels like some kind of comedy sketch in my brain, like the whole situation could be playing out on Futurama rn with its pretend seriousness 😅
What an inspiring story for anyone hoping to just be given a lot of money and support and control over teams that are probably working themselves to the bone and never have to hear "no" or consider any questions or opinions.
It’s a shame. Yuji Naka contributed to Phantasy Star and Sonic the Hedgehog.
At least he tried something new.
"balan wonderworld is a disaster"
Yes but tall hat man produces serotonin.
balan wonderworld makes sonic forces look like a masterpiece
"Designed by the creators of Sonic…"
Say no more. That explains everything.
Is confirmed the whole development team was making the history and 1 guy made the script
well for starters the fact that all you can do is your action button… which is also the jump button.
you NEVER get to play as the character on the cover, he's only ever in cutscenes or in quick time events.
Balan’s Blunderworld
A major issue isn't wanting to tell a story but instead separating gameplay and the story. He should have been trying to push the medium of video games forward by thinking about how the gameplay not only reflects what's happening in the story but enhances it.
New video request: Why is Minecraft’s Caves & Cliffs update was split into two updates
I think most of us can agree that the game may suck but damn the balan design looks nice
I think Gilly the Kid put it best: Balan Wonderworld is ADHD incarnate. They wanted to put in so many things that they never really fleshed out anything.
this s depressing.
Well made video. The heads were very ambitious and creative, but the developers working under them were too overwhelmed. Balan Company is a new upstart, while Azrest (Mr. Ohshima’s company) have primarily developed handheld games, so this was their first console game. It’s obvious that the budget went towards the cutscenes, character designs, and world building. Gameplay of Balan is very handheld-oriented despite being a 60$ full price console game. Had it been released on mobile and/or priced at 15$-30$, it would’ve been well received.
For me, it was simple, I didn't like the game's aesthetic. Whatever gameplay you would have thrown at me, I would pretty much would not get past the trailer or even the box art.
It was also called Balan Wonderworld instead of Balan Wonder*land*
This just makes me sad. It's obvious that the developers were invested and very excited about this game. And I know I myself am very interested in the world and specifically Balan as a character, but the game is such a flop. Shame we'll likely never see it again after this
honestly the advertising of this game tricked me to thinking it would be a decent game and i really liked the design of the hat face guy.
i felt so bad and disappointed when people said it was terrible.
How did Sonic developers possibly make a bad game? Man, I can only imagine how they'd pull that off…