About Balan Wonderworld's reviews...
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- The long awaited return of Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima is finally upon us with the release of Balan Wonderworld. And let's just say that they probably envisioned a much different scenario in turns of reception. In this sorta Balan Wonderworld review, we take a look at how the game's been reviewed and discuss whether the game deserves the reception it's getting. Let's discuss!
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BG Music:
Temple Trouble (Intro) - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Manuals Theme - Sonic Gems Collection
Stardust Speedway Zone Act 1 - Sonic Mania
Sea Bottom Segue - Sonic Lost World
Area Planet Wisp - Sonic Colors
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I think the expectations not only came from yuji naka, but from being a 60 dollar game, which it really shouldn't be. It doesn't look or feel like a triple A 3D platformer
it looks like a remastered ps1 game
I agree, if it had been $30,people would probably be a bit more forgiving.
60 you could get like Mario Odessy, BOTW, splatoon, smash bros, throes games with thay amount
It's $90 here in Australia
Should be a $30 game
Bought it today for £24 ($34)
"Okay, we've finished the cutscenes. How long do we have left until release?"
*Like 2 months.*
Edit: Actually, probably like 2 minutes.
Iirc the final chapter cutscenes were finished and uploaded around two weeks before the game’s release, which is even more accurate
- So Yuji Naka-san. How much budget do you need, to end rest of the game?
- Yes
I could imagine Matt McMuscles doing a "Wha Happun" episode on this.
First he needs info on Wha Happun during development.
It would become my favorite episode, and also the saddest one, because i was hyped for this piece of trash
I await it eagerly.
Not really his cup of tea. Only if the story becomes that infamous.
Its not IF, but WHEN?
To be the most optimistic about this mess, at least the cutscenes were phenomenal and some bosses were alright..
I haven’t felt this disappointed in forever, I genuinely loved the concept...
The first boss is even easier than Mario Bros 3 bowser. :P
@@morriganrenfield8240 WOW
@@franciscoOrellana29 hehe
@komoriRED I guess you are easily pleased. It's not necessarily a bad thing.
@GAMES' N stuff no. This project needed to be killed early on. It was a waste of development time on all sides lol
And it cost $60 dollars while Trials of Mana is $50 when it came out and still uses more than 1 button.
That 8/10 review tho. A feast for the eyes?! What was he staring at paint dry for a week before playing the game?
@@CerealKiller Saw people saying it looked like it was made in dreams
@@Tottosmile a fever dream, maybe. Lol
XD
He was a part of the Bread Wars in the future that was his past...it was during the Great Yeast Uprising that he's seen true hell...
@@CerealKiller you need to learn the difference between "graphics" and "art style".
The art style is "bog-standard Unity Engine cartoony"
The graphics are quite clean and look damn good.
This is why I believe that we are in a bad timeline.
We’ve accidentally been sent to the bad future when we meant to go to the good future.
I don't know why I laughed so much at this
Underrated
Like how so many people remember this game as "Balan Wonder*land*"
lol
@@InkfinityOkamix3 we don’t deserve the good future
What do you mean bad timeline?
One bad game doesn't mean it's dim future for everything.
I think a big problem with the general lack of mercy towards the games certainly comes from the price. A triple AAA £60 game in such a competitive market really does hurt it. It didn't feel like they innovated and perhaps even went back (one button and the rather underwhelming quick time events).
A lof people really wanted this game to succeed, (I did even though I now feed off of the failure) so it's honestly tragic. I just wish the music and character/costume designs won't be left to the void.
At least they didn't take money from Kickstarter.
I honestly hate this game, this was the most disappointing game I’ve ever experienced since Sonic Forces. It’s really sad, I wanted the game to be so much more. But the thing that pisses me the most about this game, when the Demo came out, it was absolutely panned. But instead of taking the criticism into consideration, they just proceeded to Release without fixing anything. They didn’t fix any Animations, they didn’t fix the One-Button Control Scheme, they didn’t fix the absolutely disgusting-looking switch version. It’s just sad. But it’s not completely terrible, I love the
Art-Style of the game, the Sound-Track sounds pretty nice, and the cutscenes look gorgeous. It’s still really sad that this game wasn’t the true successor to Nights that we all wanted :(
This game is a 4/10 for me
There are a lot of things I like, but all the bad things about this game really over way the things I like about it
The worst part for me is:
Games like rise of lyric, 06, had rushed development, bad management, ya know, BUT THEY TRIED MAKING A GOOD GAME, this is the thing: 06 had great level design bugs aside, Shadow as a character was handled perfectly, aaaaand, it was playable.
Even rise of lyric tried, but because of sega they couldn’t make a good game,
NOW THIS GAME, HAD ZERO PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT TO BEGIN WITH.
They had all the time in the word.
They had a pretty high budget.
They had talent and potential.
And they wasted all that THEMSELVES.
It is Iuji Naka( i don’t know how to spell it sorry) Fault that the game is what it is not Square, at this point i’m starting to like Naka even less, especially when i discovered that because of his EGO he didn’t let STI use the nights engine for X-treme, wich killed every chance of the game being saved.
I mean by the time they put out the demo it was obviously way too late. There was no way they were gonna get the greenlight to delay the game like a year when it was so close to release. In order to fix this game they'd have to basically rebuild it from the ground up and make a totally different game from scratch.
@@BlazeMakesGames Still. they could have done so much better.
Oh and for god sake Balan on the switch has worse frame rate than DOOM ETERNAL, and BOTW. in 2021!
@@randomdoug6130 Exactly! 06 did something new, forces never did! Forces had 4 years and yet it’s the most laziest sonic game. Such disappointment.
@@undeadbatman9762 Yep, when i played generations first time, it was weird, because the game was actually challenging and really fun to use its mechanics, like drifting, forces is a devolution, but Balan is way worse by comparison story gameplay wise.
I think the problem with the game was that the developers were more worried about its "meaning" than the gameplay
But whenever we get an indie game with subpar gameplay or complete lack thereof, it gets GOTY. I’m looking at you Gone Home. These critics are clearly biased.
@@InkfinityOkamix3 it's the difference between a kid making a crayon drawing versus an adult making crayon drawings. The adult is held to a higher standard since they are considered experienced and should "know better" while the Kid doesn't really know better and doesn't have that experience.
@@InkfinityOkamix3 in addition to the big studios having more experience, they also have more money and resources to put into the game. And generally indie games aren't 60 dollars.
Wanting your game to be meaningful is good, actually.
@@Graknorke of course it's good, but what's the point if the gameplay is bad? No one would enjoy it the way it's supposed to be
His game company Prope went bankrupt, and this game wasn't good? Jeez...Yuji shouldn't have left SEGA/Sonic Team behind. Now he's learning that the hard way.
Why shouldn't he have left?
@@TheFloodFourm because hes a talentless quack?
@@TheFloodFourm Because Takashi Iizuka is damaging the Sonic franchise.
And now, Yuji Naka fell from grace too.
@@tiruliru1189 Iizuka has completely ruined sonic, sega needs to kick him out
@@davidlynch4202 Those sales numbers say otherwise
Bro. It deserves all bad reviews and flak. They’re charging $60 for this nonsense game and it only sold around 2100 copies in Japan in its first week.
the one button mechanic may be a sign that this game was suppose to be a mobile game, but then was put on consoles, but they didn't bother improving it.
There is no such thing as a “legendary” developer. “Veteran” developers rarely lead to Bloodstained but instead Metroid: Other M, Mighty No. 9 and now Balan Wonderworld.
also shenmue 3
@@cornnflake1267 Whoops, I lost to yet another scrub punk, better go on yet another wild goose chase to learn yet another secret technique that looks suspiciously the same to the last secret technique I learned.
@@Shalakor *laughs in 5 second cutscenes just to take off or put on shoes*
Kingdom Hearts 3...
@@odindarkll3706 honestly does not deserve to be grouped with those others, because for as much as it failed to live up to a lot of people's hype, it's very much a game that's easy to enjoy and have a blast with
an inconsistently polished blast with some glaringly obviously meddling from disney's part, but a blast nonetheless
Long story short: Don't buy into the hype, and you won't feel disappointed.
@Derek Martinez Montie Dude wait for a price cut if it bothers you so much
@@SneakyBoots I mean, by the time it gets a price drop, there will probably be at least once other, notably better 3D platformer that is also going to get an at least comparable price cut.
@@lnsflare1 That’s not the point. There’s already arguably better platformers that have already been out for years now. People can still focus on games without looking for the bigger and better thing all the time. It’s called a backlog.
Glad i cancelled!
@FuckOuttaHere I want a new 3D Donkey Kong game that offers a cohesive experience and is very fun unlike.....Donkey Kong 64.
I really wanted this game to be good, because I love the design of Balan. I really wanted to play as him and see more of him. This game is extremely disappointing.. but (16:39) dang I love Yooka Laylee, that game is awesome
I think the biggest difference between YL and Balan is that Yooka Laylee was actually fun to control. The movement worked, traversing the world worked, you had a wide variety of skills that kept the game from being boring. Balan's movement... just isn't fun.
Both games had plenty of flaws, but Yooka Laylee manages to be fun despite its flaws because the core game mechanics were fun. Balan Wonderworld flounders because it's utterly crippled by them because the flaws are present at pretty much any moment you're in control.
I hate it because I love wordless storytelling, but good storytelling doesn't make a boring game fun.
basically Yooka Laylee is a Bee Movie kinda game, while Balan Wonderworld is a Shark Tale kinda game.
@@carlosmattessich3883 I love this comparison so much.
@@RPGgrenade good for you
I understand the point... but the glitches and weird level design and clunky mechanics make it “ok”. The Impossible Lair tho, great game, better than donkey Kong country.
Honestly, this games gave me so much "mobile game" vibes just by playing the demo
No review copies before release is the biggest dead giveaway that the game is crap.
I believe some indeed got them a week early but instead of actual reviews some just played it fully like a normal playthrough and didn't give much thoughts on it until way later
I truly think this was originally a mobile game Yuji Naka was forced to port to console and given not enough time to do it. Maybe I'm wrong but major evidence would be:
- Single button gameplay
- Prerendered QuickTime events to control Balan instead of actually, well, controlling Balan
- Characters phasing out of existence when you get too close to them
Again, maybe I'm wrong; but if I'm to give Yuji Naka any benefit of the doubt here this would be it.
We thought it was going to be good because Yuji Naka was leading it, AND it looked good. I'd say we couldn't have known a developer from a beloved franchise's greatest heyday was capable of releasing something so bad, but then I remember things such as the Mega Man guy releasing the abysmal Mighty #9, or Miyamoto repeatedly making decisions that drastically harmed Mario's adventure, or the majority of Metroid Other M's failures being traced directly to someone who'd basically been a major player since that series's early days... Maybe we should've learned this lesson long before Balan. At least this time we had that demo to open our eyes before we opened our wallets.
Yup. And there are way more bad Sonic games than good ones, I couldn't really see the hype behind this game
It's not just the hype and expectations of a triple A title. But the fact that it dumbed down over 2 decades of gameplay and learning.
We've had the NES up to PS5 where we've seen children from ages 5 and up grow up with Sly Cooper and Portal.
We've seen children love Call Of Duty with rage and Ratchet And Clank. These games all have a basic control scheme that's the golden standard for no brainers. Moving with the stick and jumping, interacting, attacking, focus, aiming and switching weapons. These are things we take for granted.
So for a big title to throw all of that out the window and do such a watered down system is a kick to the balls of everything we've learnt over the years. You can't even jump as a basic control, everything is a single action. That's like making the reload, aiming, open, run, jumping and crouching button all shoot with the gun unless you pick up boots, then you can run but not fire the gun.
They not only took away all the controls and gameplay but somehow created a flawed and broken system as well by making some costume's powers work automatically when you stand still without you having any control over anything.
The 70+ costumes was such a bad idea. So many of them are either redundant or useless. Some are even worse versions of already existing costumes. Why so many costumes?
They really shouldn't have aimed to make so many instead of just making enough for the mechanics need and reusing them throughout the game. Yuji Naka even said they started running out of steam at around 40- why make even more??
Reminds me of how Pokemon is going. Kids aren't stupid.
swsh selling millions because kids loved it and only adults on reddit hate it: "y'all here somethin?"
why does every video I look have at least 1 comment comparing the situation to pokemon?
@@An_Entire_Lime Pokemon is quite the big franchise whether we like it or not.
@@sonicdudeatdawn2 Reddit has been one of the few places where I've seen the game get positive reception. But then again I don't use social media.
@@sonicdudeatdawn2 SWSH selling millions because ADULTS wanted to play them or THOUGHT kids would want to. The reality is most kids didn't care for it and would rather do anything else.
Something that would have helped the story a LOT would have been moving when the cutscenes played. They don’t play until right before the boss level. So you see the characters and the world based around them but don’t really learn what is happening to the characters until the boss and then it’s over.
Fun fact: the tie-in book indirectly explains why it does this. Apparently all these sad people don’t remember what made them sad until you reach the boss fight. It’s an answer, but honestly a lame one. Showing the cutscenes in the beginning would be way better for player understanding and the whole memory loss thing is pointless.
@@sweetumami1338 that's so funny considering they made that sort of amnesia plot point impossible to convey in the game... Putting important information outside of the main game makes it basically non canon.
A person also shouldn't have to look for information outside the game for a plot point to be explained....
Plus the fact doesn't the tie-in book cost money meaning the person have to fork out more money ontop on a $60 video game?
I'll be honest. Do you know why it has a one button control scheme? Three words: Future Mobile Title.
Tap the screen to do the action. It completely explains why they would choose something so unfitting for a platformer.
Apparently Yugi thought that kids are too dumb to understand more than 1 button control schemes, hence the 1 button deal
I think this game is super charming. But it does mess up things you'd think be obvious for a platformer, like having costumes that take away the ability to jump.
Also, the box fox costume exists...
This game is functional but is NOT fun, I have played a lot of broken, glitchy games and had fun with them, but Balan Wonderland just suffered from being boring, bland, the epitome of mediocrity and simpleness
The story is not let at the interpretation, it's just things put on the table with no correlation, the gameplay is so restrictive and the costumes are self destructive since you get certain ability and later get another costume with the same ability but better making the previous ones USELESS, the music isn't bad but is so forgettable that I don't even remember the first song
It deserves the scores it gets (maybe not a 3 and below) for the same reason Mighty No.9 had bad scores, not because it's bad, but because there's no excuse for this mediocre mess of a game while promising this was going to be "the action game of the action games" (said by Yuji Naka itself)
I didn't had any expectations on this game, hell, the whole idea didn't even got my attention and yet still it was one of the most disappointing games of these last years, the only things I can give credit is that the cutscenes aside of being confusing because, story, look fantastic, the designs are great and the game works well, but damn, I had more fun with broken messes like Sonic 06 or even Cyberpunk2077 and in my opinion, having more fun with a broken game than a functional one it just shows the lack of quality on the product
Yeah. As a Nights fan I was hoping this game would succeed and light a fire in Sega's ass to bring my jester gal back (granted in general, they've been bringing lesser used IP's back thankfully). I know this plays nothing like Nights, but it would show that a game like it, especially with themes related to mental health similar to how Nights was which we could all use, regardless of the past couple years, has a spot in today's world. And they could exist side by side since they're so different. And while the game has plenty of the visual charm with Oshima's designs and the loveliness of the cutscenes, playing the demo I had the same sentiments, it wasn't the monstronsity ppl claimed (gaming community loves to exaggerate for flair) it was just.... Kinda boring. And the way the ability system impacted controls was odd for sure. But then I unlocked the later worlds and started experiencing the actual messy stuff that would make ppl wanna call it bad and hoped the reception would inspire delay. But nope, and it seems nothing was improved. So I'll have to pass, and at least appreciate how cutscenes look I guess.
On the other hand, another Sega revival in the works I recommend would be Asha in Monster World. It's remake of an old Genesis platformer, 4th entry in Sega's Wonder Boy/Monster World series. That's a game where the devs saw initial trailer criticism and improved upon the game in their most recent showing, comes out later this year.
functional until you played the switch version which was......
The thing about games is that they are GAMES first and foremost. Most of the time it won't matter how good a game looks, how good of a story it has, how great the soundtrack is, or how "well put-together" it is. If the core gameplay isn't fun and engaging, then it's deserving of a lower score.
That's why, for example, Sonic Forces was received so poorly (ignoring the history of the series). In all honesty, it's nowhere near as bad as '06 or Boom in terms of quality and stability. However, the core gameplay is absolutely terrible. The levels are far too easy, far too short, and far too few in number. The gameplay itself is far too inconsistent and unstable to be fun. If we were truly roping the entire Sonic Forces package together, it'd probably warrant around a 6/10, but that unenjoyable core gameplay knocks that score much lower BECAUSE that gameplay is at the center of it all.
That same thinking is applied to Balan Wonderworld with most of these reviews. Yes, the game looks great, the story is passable, and the soundtrack is alright. BUT, because of how bad the core gameplay is, this otherwise average game is seen as terrible, and rightfully so. The core gameplay is what makes up a majority of the game, and if that's bad it doesn't matter how good the other elements are.
Game designers shouldn't be allowed to coast off of the non-gameplay elements of a game and receive an average score when the gameplay doesn't hold up. That sort of thinking sets up a precedent that will only lead to increasingly worse games down the line. Going back to the Sonic Series, it's the perfect example of this precedent being set up. The fanbase defends the worst titles in the series by praising the non-gameplay elements while ignoring the actual game. In doing so, they've given Sonic Team the green light to get sloppier and sloppier with newer entries since the fans seemed to like the other ones regardless of how bad the gameplay is. The exact same can be said about the modern Pokémon games.
The thing is, even if you have a personal attachment to a game, even if you are able to find enjoyment in a game, that should never cloud your overall objective judgement of a game. As a personal example, I really like ReCore. I thought the concept behind the game was neat, and I found enjoyment out of the game personally. However, objectively I know ReCore is a mediocre title at best. The gameplay is a bit clunky, the combat is overly simplistic, load times are quite long, and the game wasn't even fully finished on release. If I were to give the game a score I'd likely give it a 5.5/10, but it's still a game I personally enjoy.
If more people began to separate their objective and subjective views on games, I guarantee that we'd see far fewer cases such as Balan Wonderworld, Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Sonic Forces. Allowing personal bias to influence the way we critique games is one of the biggest reasons we still see such mediocre titles like these. If a game is objectively defensible, then there is no need to defend it because it speaks for itself. However, if such a defense is needed on behalf of a game, maybe it's time to step back and reevaluate if the game is even deserving of that defense.
From what I understand, there is a menu you can access to change your costumes with any extras that you have, meaning as long as you grab extras, you don't need to backtrack as much. Buuuut they don't tell you this
Hopefully they do something like Yooka Laylee and make a much better second game. They did say they were branching off from square. There’s legit already glimpses of greatness within this mediocre game and I really want to see them come to light.
There's a Yooka Laylee 2?????
@@TalenkauenTV Yes. It was called Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. It has a great DK Country like vibe that was pretty good in the long run. Hell, it saved Yooka Laylee from being so much hated there since the gameplay is tighter and not to mention the platforming wasn't as difficult and the controls were better. So yes, Yooka Laylee did have a semi-sequel (semi as in it's not the same platforming type of game, but it does still take place after Yooka-Laylee).
It plays like dkc its a great game if you like hard platformers :)
@@TalenkauenTV It's not really a proper Yooka Laylee 2 since the gameplay is completely different, but there was another Yooka Laylee game in Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. It's pretty much a DKC-esque 2D platformer with a 2D Zelda-esque overworld, with a gimmick where you can change the state of a level from the overworld (for example, if you freeze the book that allows you to enter the level, the level becomes an ice level, or you could submerge the book in water to turn it into a water level). Definitely give it a try, it's not quite the grand sequel you'd hope it to be but it's actually better and more fun in some ways;.
Also @Cosmic space thing, this game isn't getting a sequel. Bad games can get sequels if they still sell well, but this game didn't even do that right, it sold miserably. No way in hell Square Enix is letting Naka do anything further with this IP.
A game can be ridiculous bad(deadly premonition), a game can be broken bad(sonic 06), but a game CAN'T BE BORING. a boring game will eventually be forgotten, and that is the moral of today's story.
Here's a reason why everyone is ragging on the game. AAA price with Steam Early Access quality
Banal Blunderhurl. Honesty the bare minimum it needed was the ability to equip multiple skills at a time, that alone would make everything more tolerable, give the player some CONTROL dangnabbit!
Honestly I think we need the nintendo design process where you focus more on the game, otherwise tell a consistent story that makes more sense.
Right. It worked well for some of the Legend of Zelda Games!
Heck, the Nintendo Switch remake for Link’s Awakening remedy the Game Boy version’s hassle of swapping out items for the two face buttons, by assigning important equipment like a sword and shield to the other buttons and leave the X and Y buttons for the sub weapons!
I don't get the idea that kids can't handle more complex games. Minecraft is fucking huge among kids...
@Welp I was referring to game design, not story telling process.
@@morriganrenfield8240 Minecraft is the reason mario odyssey had such an amazing camera!! :D
@@BBWahoo no idea what you mean.
The messages behind the story become muddled depending on the character. Dead cat? Instead of growing and learning to move on, let's just rewind time! The story isn't nowhere as mature as it could be, even if it wanted to be.
Even Sonic forces looks more fun to control. Both games have bad controls but at least sonic forces controls faster and more fun.
I hoped both games to be good but it is what it is. I don't know whatever I should try the full version of Balan or not.
Sonic Forces? Controls faster and more fun? Sorry, I have to disagree. I did NOT enjoy playing that game.
@@JokerTheHedgehogX Sonic Forces is alright imo, just too short that's all, but balan wonderworld is not fun, boring, and very slow character speed.
@@JokerTheHedgehogX I didn't enjoy that game a lot as well but my point was that even that game controls better than balan wonderworld. And also it's always more fun going fast than slow in video games right? 😅
But it's ok. I respect your opinion. Both games are bad. Actually I prefer sonic 06 over forces.
@@CharriiiLandak I won’t judge, if others likes Forces. It’s just, that’s my personal opinion. But, yeah... Balan is boring
@@CharriiiLandak true. If it had longer levels I might've enjoyed it more. It's the easiest 3d sonic game and the weakest boost game but it's still fun. The avatar stages are he best part from the game in my opinion.
The story could’ve been really great. They should’ve spent another year or so “perfecting” the game and it wouldn’t have done so poorly. Wasted potential :((
I think the scores show that it is not a broken game like you said but more a disappointment for what it could have been and what it is is just so sad in comparison
It is broken. Watch Choctopus play the game. Constant frame drop even after reducing graphics
I think the problem you did not pointing out is the price.
That’s one reason why people hate it for.
Agreed, I think the price of the product should be factored into the review as well. Like other games that cost way less provide more content and enjoyment and look way better. This being sixty dollars definitely deserves shit for that. If it was fifteen dollars that would be good pricing. But sixty whole dollars fuck no.
I haven’t played the game but to me it looks meh.
artstyle i charming but the game is dogshide
@@BBWahoo facts have spoken
Meh is an understatement really
Damn I want this game to be really good. Especially the hat guy, cool design
Saying that the issue with this game's story is the short attention span of the players and the story meant to be interpreted yourself is missing the point of why the storytelling of this game falls flat. The way they structured the story itself hinders the story itself. (and here, I am talking about how they set up each of the stage's stories)
First, let's not pretend that this game has some deep hidden meaning and variable interpretations that each person will take away. Because there is clearly a right answer that they basically spoon-feed you before the boss. You can wonder all you like why someone's psyche looks a certain way, but the game will blatantly tell you in the most straight forward way possible, making the exercise pointless. Plus, the chapter titles basically tell you the story, so if someone cares even a little bit about the story, it's not hard to 'get'.
Second, the issue is that of context. Let's look at world 1. You literally just get thrown into the level, with an outline of a farmer and the chapter title "man who rages against a storm". The player does not get to see the person in the real world and see how his mental anguish has affected him in life. You don't know why you should care about this guy's problems, nor is there a strong overarching plot that drive you to help this person. So it's hard for the player to be expected to care enough to delve into the symbolism of what everything means when they have been given no reason to do so.
Third, the timing of the reveal and resolution are poorly done. You basically get to learn what trauma these people suffered after beating the world, right before you face the boss. There is no gradual reveal, or increase in our understanding of the character that unfolds over time. No, the whole story is just told right at the very end. Then you have a boss battle, dance sequence, then a cutscene showing how the characters manage to get past their issues and go on with their lives. The resolution of their issues minutes after being presented with them make the issues appear completely trivial. We don't get to feel like these issues really were devastating or impacting their lives and thus, who cares that these randos got over their issues? After all, it literally gets solved minutes later with a dance sequence, so it must not have been a big deal.
Fourth, the tone and consistency of the stories are bizarre. Balan is a fantastical, cartoony, over-the-top character. Yet a lot of the problems we see that these people face are very mundane ones that clash with the bright and goofy look of the game. But maybe the game wanted to address issues that are close to the ones that children might face. Then, you run into the massive tone shifts with a girl whose dolphin friend seemingly almost drown her, or a farmer who lose his livelihood. The dolphin story is absurd and goofy and the farmer story is focused on adult fears. There's just no consistent tone in the story.
If they wanted to do this right, they should have actually paid attention to how psychonauts crafted their stage and storytelling. That game did the going into people's psyche thing, but gave proper context, reasons to care, and kept a strong consistent tone despite just how varied the themes of the worlds were.
did you forget about box fox? cause....for a platformer, specifically a level with bottomless pits, randomly turning into a box and sliding off the edge is a pretty bad powerup.
They really should've included more of the story that they've created for this world. The gameplay wasn't going to save this game, the demo made that clear, but the story could've. It would've have been a fascinating way to show children how easy it can be for anyone, child or adult to ignore their problems, sink into a depressive state and hide away in their own minds, in a wonderland where nothing is wrong. Lance is the embodiment of that.
The game suggests that Lance is corrupting these people when they're emotionally weak but the synopsis of the novel explains that these people are willingly letting Lance remind them of their trauma so they can protect the worlds they've built for themselves, these are the places that the player explores prior. This would explain why we see the 'trauma' cutscenes before fighting the boss. It's not the player seeing the trauma, it's the character reliving that trauma with Lance's assistance, they willingly become monsters to fight off the threat that they see in the player and Balan.
The website advertising the game did more to tell the story than the game does, the game doesn't even tell you the names of the villain or the enemy creatures! Honestly anyone who is even mildly interested in the story Balan Wonderworld was trying to tell, read the novel synopsis on the wiki and if you like it, buy the book. The game has flopped but perhaps they can release more books instead, because I genuinely think this would make for a fantastic book series for children.
That's actually a pretty solid idea. BW is clearly bankrupt gameplaywise but if they switch over to alternate media the series might be able to make a name for itself...a positive one, that is.
@@rotciv557 I could absolutely see an animated series. Given how expressive Balan is on his own, he could easily carry the role of the main character alongside Emma and Leo.
It could easily work as a formulaic cartoon aimed at young teens. With a new person entering Wonderland in each episode and meeting Lance. With Balan and co. going through wacky antics, meeting new faces (the characters connected to the costumes) and then using costumes new and old to solve said antics. Leading up to fighting against the person as a monster. (Maybe throwing in a 'Balan's Bout' to chase off Lance) Before finally meeting the new person and helping them cope with their trauma. Maybe including the dance sequence as a transition into the credits.
And throughout the series you could sprinkle in hints here and there in regards to how Balan and Lance are related and the problems Emma and Leo are going through outside of the theatre. Building up to a climatic fight against Lance for the finale etc.
I really hope they do more with BW, you can see how much effort went into the character designs and not just for the human characters.
It deserves a bad score, this is just a scam.
60 dollars is a good way to say this is a scam. This triple AAA could deserve some like 20 bucks.
(Too) high expectations or not, Balan is on its own a bad game. The release should have been postponed to completely rework the game mechanics. Some lazy ass programming for mapping almost every button as the same “action” button and not being able to do a basic move as a single jump without any power up (getting a power up for enabling a multi-jump is still horrible, but it can be justified).
honestly i feel like this game deserves the bad reviews because of the price, if it wasn't for the price i wouldn't mind how good or bad it was
A 6/10 is really generous for something you admitted had bugs and performance issues and was boring and you wouldn't go back to after a few hour of playing. To me, a 6/10 is something that I could enjoy under the right circumstance, maybe playing with a friend, or its story is worth getting through shitty gameplay for.
Also resenting the idea that people are less willing to get into a game that they need to interpret today than in the past. I highly doubt that's true, that's just biting the "kids these days and their new-fangled PHONES and society is RUINED now" Boomer propaganda. It's true that hardware limitations in the past meant that games had to be more clever about telling a story, but have you ever seen a fandom? They LOVE interpreting shit, even if their interpretations are stupid as hell. But wanting to play a fun "pew pew, woo! I won!" game sometimes is valid, too, sometimes you just wanna chill and let at game unwind your brain a bit.
I had zero expectations when I tried the demo out of boredom, it still managed to disappoint me. This feels like it was TRYING to be bad.
I don't understand how people could play test this and be like, "Mmm yes quality 💅" I had high hopes for this game and man, it's pretty crazy how much they slipped up.
In what world 6/10 is game that "you regret buying" and barely functional game is 6/10? 6/10 is game that is above average, close to good, with issues but still damn fun
Cutscenes were really nice, Balan and Lance are cool characters, that's about it.
DEFINITELY not an 8/10.
This game didn't meet the minimum required standard to exist.
This reminds me of your video about the reviews of SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom- Rehydrated.
Merely being functional (which this game barely is) shouldn't be enough to warrant a 6. I played the demo and to be honest it's just extremely boring. I believe a 50/100 (which is what it has in metacritic right now) is a fair score, at least if the demo is anything to go by.
Bad take. If this game came out 20 years ago (without the cutscenes, because they do look good) people would've been just as ruthless. When games were limited, people got resourceful. There's a reason why Mario Bros is still a fun game today - and it isn't just nostalgia. It's fun to play, and the controls feel good. Add on to it being $60 and Balan deserves every bad review it gets.
Balan Wonderland: **dies**
Fallout 76: First time? **casually play a Bongo while sitting on log with 3 Rippers stuck oh back and T-51b Broken**
I haven't played this game, but based on some of the videos I've watched about it recently, there's a couple of changes that could have really improved this game.
1. No one-button controls. The buttons are there, use them all. Have one dedicated jump button and three buttons for various "powers".
2. Condense the 80-some costumes down to 20 or so (maybe less). Get rid of costumes with redundant abilities, and merge costumes together so each one uses all three buttons for powers. Instead of _just_ unlocking new costumes, it should be a mix of unlocking new costumes and unlocking new abilities for old costumes.
These two alone would have massively improved the game. For extra credit, they could have additionally done the following:
3. General clean up. Fix the stilted running animations, make the levels look less empty (I think it's the Isle of Tims that looks so barren during the opening cutscene pan?). Having not played the game, it's hard for me to say what else might need to be done. A big one is to make sure the movement/gameplay is just right, especially on something like a platformer. I remember Dunkey noting that the stretchy plant powerup doesn't hop forward after stretching up, like it's counterpart in Mario Odyssey does.
Trusting the guy behind Sonic 2006 was the biggest mistake people made.
Sonic 06 is just Sonic Adventure 3, it's really not that out of line in comparison. So the fans liked it for being more of the thing they already like. This doesn't have the benefit of that.
@@Graknorke Unless it's outright called Sonic Adventure 3, it's not Sonic Adventure 3. Otherwise Sonic Rush is Sonic 4.
considering he was also behind the adventure games and the only reason Sonic 06 came out the way it did was because of deadlines that needed to be met... yea, no
@@TokyoDrift456 "Muh deadlines" is excusing the fact the guy left mid-way through the game's development, or that as producer he bears responsibility in part for the messes that are Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes.
@@vincere_
Free yourself from the shackles of names. Look at things for what they are not what they are called. The signifier is not the signified.
Being "meh" is so much worse than being bad. And it shows with this game. It's just....meh...nothing to see here
That's what I was thinking, at least bad has a chance to be meme'd on
@@ZyroidX and ironically good, like sonic 06
Reviews should not be associated only with the game being buggy or glitchy, yes the game functions but thats literally the bare minimum a game has to do. If other aspect of the game is crap, its crap.
Yooka laylee delivered exactly what they promised.
The problem was that most people didn’t realise that wasn’t what they actually wanted
I mean, not really? Many fans of 3d platformers were quick to talk about how yooka laylee lacked some of the direction of past 3d platformers. A hat in Time (from what I hear) was basically the game they were hoping yooka laylee would be so it seems like people knew exactly what they wanted
@@CapnNapalm hat in time was inspired by Mario 64. Yooka laylee was banjo kazooie.
But my point stands. Yooka laylee was advertised as “hey, we’re gonna make a new game, just like the ones you played as a kid on N64.” Everyone was like, yea baby!
Then everyone complained that it played like an N64 game, despite that’s exactly what they paid for.
Also, I remember the exact moment people turned on yooka, and oddly enough, it was another game that did it.
Mighty no 9 did so badly that it affected how people viewed Kickstarter games in general. Hat in time got away with it because it had slipped under a lot of players radars, it didn’t have the coverage behind it like yooka and mighty did.
At least, that’s how it appeared to me.
I know yooka got bogged down by their stretch goals. Like, people paid to have stuff in the game, then the developers realised, wait, this wasn’t a good idea, but we promised to put it in, so our hands are tied.
If they weren’t bound by Kickstarter, they would have cut some of that stuff out, but they couldn’t, they’d already been paid to put it in.
@@Alpha-oo8 I am far from the demographic for Yooka Laylee, but all of the youtubers that I saw reviewing it at the time were criticizing it for not having level design as tight as some of the older 3D platformers from the n64 days. Never really heard anyone complain that it was too much like an n64 game tbh. It seemed to me that Yooka Laylee had the problem of not measuring up to its predecessor (much like Mighty No.9 did). Megaman 9 and 10 actually succeeded at doing what Mighty tried by being even more like the old mega man games than Mighty did. From everything I've heard, Yooka Laylee was just half baked. Nothing more, nothing less
edit: forgot to add. You're probably right about the kickstarter stuff. A lot of devs totally mismanage that
@@CapnNapalm fair enough. I just think that yooka laylee wasn’t as good as it could have been, but it copped more criticism than it deserved. And that unfair criticism spread over to its 2d sequel, which Is actually fantastic.
@@Alpha-oo8 that just sounds like damage control
6 out of 10 would mean its above average which it isn't 4 out of ten is below average which it is
3:22 "and I also played this game for a few hours" - dosen't give justice to a 19:00 minutes video
I was honestly hoping this game would be loved but oh well... :(
As Shigeru Miyamoto said: A delayed game is eventually good. But a rushed game is forever bad.
@@jamesgibson4073 sure, but honestly this game's problem wasn't really a bad development time, It's just very poorly designed and the movement of the character feels very suggish. That kills any platformer game.
@@jamesgibson4073 can you guys stop saying? this quote Has aged extremely poorly
@@jamesgibson4073 They had everything, so it’s obviously the people making the game that counts
@@argo9721 Explain
I did *not* just hear this dude blame shorter attention spans on social media again, right?! I don’t hate the video, I respect all of your points (even though I don’t disagree with some), but if you wanna blame cartoons and such for shortened attention spans, blame the people that dumbed down cartoons this much, not the kids watching it
to me this game has interesting ideas but for some reason they decided to limit themselves to "see what we can create with limits". Like there is no reason for a 1 button control sceme, they could have easily gave each costume multiple abilities with each button or hell even fuse costumes together to combine abilities.
I can't wait to watch an AVGN episode of this game.
I was expecting/hoping this video was going include the part about this game having hundreds of fake reviews that square-enix obviously paid for to spam the User Review section on Metacritic. All of the accounts that gave this game a 10/10 all say pretty much the exact same thing, were all made the day after the game came out, and if you look at the accounts, the only games they've ever rated are Balan Wonderworld, and many of them left 10/10 reviews on several, if not all of Balan's ports to other systems.
imagine if you could equip 3 costumes at a time (with the jump button always being present, of course) and when you saw the next obstacle in your path you could prepare a set of abilities that you think would pass said obstacle the most effectively. the concept of giving the player multiple interchangeable abilities is the perfect setup for strategic and nonlinear problem solving but the devs just, said Press One Button
the thing is that, yes while there was some built expectations with this game, the biggest problems it faced was that first impression of the game when you actually control your character, the fact that you cant play as Balan, and how extremely underwhelming the gameplay feels when you're exploring. it all was damning upon release, and really feels like they made this game as a cash-grab. a vast majority of gamers play games for the gameplay, not booting up a game brief musicals unless that's the main deal of the game. this feels very unfocused in that sense too
Here's the thing the worst thing a game could be is boring. A game shouldn't be given brownie points for functioning if the game is still garbage.
Gotta love the people trying to defend it, here's what I saw in the comments:
1) Someone trying to say that since the game is about positivity then no one can saw anything bad about it
2) it's just like the 2000 games (too bad its competition is 21 year ahead of it)
3) among us is bad
4) Spend more money on an already $60 purchase to read the book
_game is about positivity_
Noooooo! you can't say negative things about my bad video gaem!
I'm thankful that they released a demo, it made me avoid spending 60 dollars on this game, that's something that makes the game looks even worse and make the score seems more justified, this game really isn't worth 60 dollars, at maximum is maybe worth 40 dollars, but 60? Nah, you have much better games for that price, like Crash 4 for example.
I cannot understand why 80 powerups needed to be the case. When i saw you had different situational powers i thought it could be cool. but seeing how most powers are just basic controls (being able to jump, , interact with the world, basic attacks etc) stripped out and split into a bunch of costumes immediately soured the idea. Taking a basic control set and adding to it with these powers (an additional jump, adding to speed, power, projectiles) is what i expected. But instead its more like the game takes away your basic abilities to do things like jump, attack, and press switches, and makes you have to swap costumes just to be able to do what at this point is normal for games.
That's not to say games HAVE to stick to what's conventional, but if you mess with the norm you are fighting an uphill battle. It's like how a lot of games play from left to right. Games can be made with right to left movement in mind, but its a change that, while fair, would just be baffling
Yikes, atleast they didnt do a jump costume that allows you to jump
How are you actually trying to defend any part of this game, though? Get off the Yuji Naka hype train and just look at this game. It's horrible.
Actually the cutscenes, the character designs and the concept it self are really good, it is so sad that the game play looks wacky and it's mechanics are Indecent
How much budget should we put on cutscenes alone?
Yes.
I see the review scores in the thumbnail and I have to admit those review scores are too high
The opening gave this game way too much credit
I didn’t see the appeal tbh. It just looked like an average platformer with a bit of twist with the costumes.
I actually thought about getting the game because it looked quite nice and a relaxing plattformer and after a minute of playing the demo I was "NOPE, I'm out".
The thing about the game is that it is REALLY, REALLY repetitive. Sure, the world's change and you have different outfits but over all, the game itself remains the same and the 'challenges' from each costume aren't so much 'challenges' as they are HINDRANCES. For starters, the fact that some costumes take away your jumping abilities is a MASSIVE hit considering the amount of jumping this simple game requires you to do from the get go. Dunkey put it best when he said the game is essentially Sonic Adventure 2 but every level is Knuckles but even then that's a disservice to SA2 considering that Knuckles' stages had an increase in difficultly and layout from his first stage to the last.
Here? It doesn't feel that way all. Things change but at the same time they don't feel like they....change. It's hard to describe but it's like all the levels are the exact same overall difficultly in terms of LAYOUT but things are only hard and feel long due to you trying to manuever with the costumes. And did I mention the mechanic has this weird thing where you CONSTANTLY have to 'unlock' your costume in stage rather than saving it in your roster when you first get it? That means that you can get 'doubles' of the same abilities for no reason which can knock off an ability that you need or want to keep from a previous stage. It makes no sense.
And the biggest disappointment is that you're not Balan himself. Yes, I know this is essentially NiGHTS but Balan was pushed forward so much that me and a lot of folks thought he would be one of the few playable mains and you do get to play him....in those awful QTEs. I mean, they have a good concept on paper and the story is nice but it just repeats itself so much that it's boring. There's not even a lot of enemies to fight in stage once you think about it which you'd think would be fun to do with the different powers you'd get with each costume but again, no.
And the dance scenes. THE DANCE SCENES.
This game absolutely deserves all the bad reviews it's getting.
It was hyped up to be something great, it had big names working on it, the initial scene looks magnificent and it costs 60 dollars on the same shelf as Mario Odyssey or Zelda BOTW while in reality looking like an half baked PS2 game with dubious story and controls straight from a mobile game. It's basically bait for parents and grandparents that want to buy a good game for their children or nephews not knowing any better while also being an incredible waste of potential. Hope all the criticism will get them to do something decent next time.
He made some good points on why the game shouldn't be that hated but the semi train wreck cost 60 bucks. The game may have its good points but there's a lot wrong with it to warrant the harsh reviews especially for 60 damn dollars.
That person that gave a 8/10
WTF?!! LMAO
You can't promote/support a mess of this caliber. It really harms the gaming community as a whole!
Remember, they sold this game as a AAA 60$ game, you can't trick people into buying garbage trying to pass it as a good product
Time and time again you see games not handing out reviewer copies and then tanking on release and to my knowledge there hasn't ben any outliers to this trend so at this point I don't really know who to blame for the disappointment
It didn't expect this to be a groundbreaking platformer but I thought it'd be at least be somewhat enjoyable. Nope, it feels like the team behind it put in the bare minimum and called it a day. I'd say the best word that describes this game is "quantity over quality". They added so many characters, worlds, and costumes but they don't mean anything because they are all so bland and unexciting.
A game doesn't need to be broken to be a complete shit if it's shit even when functioning properly is worst is just the entire shit and you can get any hope or any redemption or somethinf
And the story could be good if it wasn't for it's totally stupid way to tell it the boss designs had anything to do with the problem of the person and doesn't reflect anything at all aside from looking cool and the levels lack enterily from story telling making it simple as just chosing a theme that has anything to do with the problem like, use creatively the visual comunication at least putting al kind of hints and story telling on the art direction like a dream instead of just "oh this girl swims so let's make the level a water level"
I agree, a 4 isn't fair for this game
I'll give it at least a fucking 2
60 dollars for this. Even cyberpunk costs less
That interpreting thing would be valid if the creators didn't make a visual novel or whatever comic book that you have to buy that tells you the story and basically does all the thinking for you, all the story and explaining the narrative and anything and everything. On top of that a demo came out for the game and people asked for the game to be delayed cause of it's constant issues but they didn't. They pushed it out with its problems my problems with the game is basically, the super cool character known at Balan, yeah you don't play him, you play two kids you probably won't give a shit about, and all the buttons do the same, jump/costume ability. which means if the costume you have on doesn't jump, you have to take it off in order to jump because all the buttons do the exact same thing. You need these costumes to beat the game as well, and they disappear from you if you get hit, Balan you only play as him in these random lazy no reason to care or do them QTEs, and the rival who's meant to be this big bad evil man is just a bitch, because he gets his ass beat easily and often by Balan, who you again don't play as just do QTEs with, and you never fight him, just Balan, and he's not a threat period. Also the whole thing is every level is the inner psyche of someone with mental issues like anxiety and shit, but it's all the same, you start the level with a glimpse of its mental theme, you see a cutscene of the person in quest half way through, you fight a boss, then it ends with a song/dance number to help them get through their issues the two kids you play as also have mental issues but you never address them just everyone else cause... get naynayed...idk.
I think Balan Wonderworld would have worked better as an 3D anime or a manga than a video game. I am not ready to give up on Balan just yet.
Yuji, Oshima... You done f***ed up. Clearly your strengths are in art design and character design not in GAME DESIGN. This is just a Bad Game. I would have originally thought you would be playing that kind of cool weirdly designed Balan Character that would've been a great Concept to centralize the game design upon, taking a significant amount of inspiration from the Nights Series.
Lol, man its basically every sony shovelware platformer bruh. Its just being released by another company so it isn't being propped up by the snoy shills in the nerd press and internet snoy fans. Most of the internet gaming channels and forum nerds talking about that game creator don't even know who he is. Rodea the Sky Solider games were great though.
Yeah I knew this game was going to be rushed
I’m really disappointed in Yuji Naka 😔
Poor Yuji 😔
@@D00DM00D I have a sad feeling this game might of killed Yuiji Nakas career 😔💔
I think square enix ran out of money for the new final fantasy game and needed to make a quick buck
I have a switch. Balen Wonderworld is not at all a functional game and should have been delayed
Should have been scrapped entirely
Controls are horribly sluggish, costume system is about as primitive as possible and has a piss-poor management system to go with it, the minigames are god-awful and stupidly unforgiving (alongside having many that honestly don't need to be there. About half of them could be removed entirely and the gameplay would lose NOTHING), and the aesthetic appeal of some of the levels wears off quickly since the game doesn't use its costume gimmicks for anything beyond the most basic uses imaginable and doesn't provoke thought at all.
You want a good costume-power 3D adventure? Get "A Hat In Time" instead. It did the idea MUCH better (and with only a few such costumes to its name, to boot), it's quite a bit cheaper, and it has content for both casual gamers just seeking a bit of fun and the crazy ones out there who want to push their limits (with most of the latter being its Seal the Deal DLC).
0:48 it would not be a cool name, Naruto in Japanese is a small fish cake used in ramen
i will now never unhear everyone calling Naruto, "fish cake", in the anime/games/etc now.... XD
it seemed like all of the effort went into the cutscenes then the game, honestly this is a good example of video game arguments
would you rather have a game with not so great cutscenes but fun gameplay, or good looking cutscenes but you gotta go through awful gameplay to see them
Ed: I'm saying this with the perspective what other reviews gave me, I don't played Balan Wonderworld (Only the switch demo) And 06
Well The only thing I disagree with you is the game being functional, being functional not means it needs better scores what 06', At least 06 has some fun in its levels, but well if Balan and 06 has at least a comparable score I think it's okay (Because one is not fun and the other is frustrating)
2. The Switch version has bad graphics and have bad performance even with that bad graphics
3. The problem I have with the stories of Balan Wonderworld is they appear because IDK, and we're going to dance because IDK I destroyed that thing, but well that problem probably was only the first time, the other times I think is acceptable because you know what is going to happen, and well the real problem I have with the stories is they appear only before the boss, I think it was better if this appears in pieces (Example: You see the farmer stay with his corns when you start the 1st act, when you start in the 2nd act you see the farmer have problems with his corns and the torment, and before the boss well, everything seems lost, and he becomes the wolf)