@@segaspice4062 At least with Sonic 06 you can understand what's going on story wise, like you understand the world, the characters and all. Gameplay wise it makes sense what you're doing too right. Not here though! It's literally like w h a t the f u c k is going on? Nothing makes sense at all. You know what? To me it really feels as if you went through unused assets of a Sonic and NiGHTS game, bundled them ALL together and it came out as Balan Wonderworld. It's really just a MESS of ideas with no proper execution whatsoever.
@@Msf1011 I think they were going for the wacky, nonsensical adventure feel, but there's a right way to do that and this isn't it lmao. They could have gone more Alice in Wonderland, especially given the similarities (sad child ends up in magical world with helpful hat man) but instead we got Kingdom Hearts.
@@MegidolErin I mean even Kingdom Hearts has some characters you can invest yourself in, it's convoluted but there's great moments there. But I played the demo and this farmer fuck keeps disappearing and shit and I just don't understand half of what's going on just like Alex says. It's REALLY trying to emotionally invest you and give off a great message but it fails so hard at that!
It's not even just complaints out of spite and anger, I think most of the complaints were out of sadness, these Devs made really colourful and cool retro games like NiGHTs and they just somehow squandered the very basics of platforming in this game
@@lowhp_comic worst of all, I didn’t knew that this game existed until it came out and neither grew up with sonic so I don’t love jujinaka (however his name is supposed to be written) so at least personally what bugs me the most is, HOW THE HELL NOBODY REALISED HOW BAD THIS WAS?! Seriously the most important part of developing a game is testing what you have made so far, god dammit botw team did it!!! *CONSTANTLY* THE game that is an example to follow on how to develop triple a games did it, why can’t you?
Funny how Kirby hats gave Kirby a myriad of special moves and actions to use and make each power feel super fun, meanwhile Balan is like "best I can give is one, take it or leave it"
@@plat4234 plus he could also drop the ability he was equipped with and revert to normal, something you can't even do in this game and you are stuck in the costume 😂
All I can think looking at this game is basically mix of a hat in time, Mario odyssey and Kirby, what could have been an interesting concept, but eeeeh nothing else needs to be said
@@XBusterZero Odyssey Mario runs with character rather than normal with precision platforming in mind, there's a difference between normal and appealing.
It seems a suit augmentation would have been a better solution. Like get a suit, and then get upgrades for it as you go, adding abilities rather than omitting.
I feel like the main problem with this game is that they spent too much of the budget on the character/suit designs and cinematics, while neglecting quality control and level design.
Even the narrative of the main characters (Leo, Emma, and Balan) is flawed, they’re not telling you the whole story in general, and the little they show doesn’t really deliver the idea they were going for, and throughout the game, none of their stories get explored at all, but rather, they just keep throwing more and more random stories at you without even connecting them to the main characters’ in any way whatsoever, all as if they expect you to read a book first to understand what’s going on or something, and even in movies that looks bad. They wanna be a story-driven game with charming characters, but everyone’s stories are not even well connected, they’re all a bunch of backstories and conclusions, but absolutely no in between to reach said conclusions, and they don’t even tell you the hecking names of most important characters in the game!
The character designs do pretty cool though. I thought this game looked good based on the top hat dude alone..... And that's pretty much the only thing I like about this game.
I made the mistake of buying the game because it looks like nights and was made by the person who made nights. For the love of all that is holy, do not make the mistake that I did, just look up the CGI cutscenes, all of the budget seems to have went to that instead of the gameplay..
Balan is far from the first time when a game hyped up as being based on a classic franchise and developed by the same people that made said classic franchise ends up being total crap. By now it's almost a trope.
Never pre-order, always check out the demo or review first before making a final decision. For example, even though I am SUPER HYPED about *Monster Hunter Stories 2* (LOVED the 1st game on the 3DS), I won't "pre-order" it till either I try the demo or watch a review.
This game is around $75 in japan. Americans whining about puny $60 for a game always make me smile. Especially considering ridiculously high average salaries compared to other countries where games are usually more expensive.
I guess they had two choices, either delay it and spend more money which is not guaranteed to make it that much better or just release it and hope to make back some of the development costs, it's not that surprising they went with the latter option. (Not saying that it was a good choice for gamers of course.)
@Joshua White They've probably sunk too much money so that canceling is impossible. Beside, the story and concepts are Not Bad, just the execution is poor. They could do it better. Too bad that Square Enix wasted Yuji Naka for this.
I'm not normally a conspiracy theory guy but I think Square Enix is trying to make this game look better on Metacritic by not allowing normal review companies to review it and having their employees leave perfect scores in the user review sections. It could be something else but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm right.
@@SunlitSonata14272 You got to be kidding me. Left alive was nearly unplayeble and buggy, it even needed a patch for making the headshots kill soldiers.
Wow, you weren't kidding lol. Had a look at those 10-star reviews & it's impossible those aren't fake. Wonder if they hired one of those companies like leave fake reviews on Amazon products for pay.
SE employees or an outsourced Chinese bot farm. The really bizarre phrasings and linguistic choices in grammar def comes off like how a lot of my Hong Kong friends sound when they try to speak in English.
What an effing tragedy, i am a tremendous fan of "Nights into dreams" so this feels beyond soul crushing. What could possibly have happened during Balan's development to make it so bad.
Two reasons: 1) It was developed by Arzest. Look up their track record. 2) Yuji Naka much like Yu Suzuki, Jon Romero, Cliff Blezinski, Hideo Kojima, Keiji Inafune, the list goes on, was trying to replicate old successes by leeching off nostalgia but failed to understand that things are very different from 20 years ago.
I heard that at one point it was intended to be a mobile game. If you notice, all the menus are touch friendly, the game uses a one button action system, and you know... look at it.
@@elin111 John Romero did release a good game, SIGIL, he knows how to push nostalgia buttons correctly, it's just that when he was trying to outdo Quake during Daikatana's development he failed miserably due to feature creep and lack of focus. Empire of Sin is... I dunno, they tried.
More like lack of care If budget and time are and issue they could've just made a short but sweet game, like arcade games back in the day, but we just get a surplus of crap thatll sell badly
They definitely have the budget based on how good the cutscenes look. It’s just that they simply couldn’t care less, about everything else, the cutscenes were handled by a different studio in square enix, so it’s clear they were willing to throw money, just not time or care
I’m pretty sure the whole thing with the dolphin turning “evil” is all in that girl’s mind. She was friends with the dolphin, the dolphin being an animal did an animal thing and got her respirator yanked out of her or some such, causing her to feel a near-death-experience or something similar and thus gaining a fear to the dolphin (perceived as it now looking like it’s evil). You do a Psychonaughts-like-level through her mind, and upon completion help her get over her fear.
You see, that could have been used to make a coherent story, with each world after that leaving more clues as to why your character is going through them and helping the affected people. A larger narrative surrounding the bosses, the fears/phobias that created them and the worlds, and how does Balan fit into all of it would make this game much better story-wise. Considering that I've seen anime and read manga/comics that have similar story beats have done this to varying success, it's a big lost opportunity.
The way I see it, Leo and Emma are exorcists that have been brought to Wonderworld to beat the crap out of demons that are bewitching the people, and the demons were created using the very people’s own sudden traumas and obsessions, because Leo and Emma really come to the people’s worlds to do just that, they don’t talk to anyone, they’re not helping them in any other way to calm them down, befriend them, or encourage them to deal with it, they rather just lure the fiends in with the hearts while being aided by friendly ghosts, fight them demons, and move on to the next, and Balan is just there to show off and toy with Lance for a bit. And the random mocapped dances after the fights are the final step to conclude the exorcism. And guess Leo and Emma are the ones performing the exorcisms because their traumas were not bad enough for them to be vulnerable to possession, but they’re strong enough be allowed to enter Wonderworld, and Balan ain’t really doing much because SPOILERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . He houses the satan that has been bringing all these demons to life and curse the people you rescue all along, so he is possessed and he couldn’t really help himself (or anyone else really), and Leo and Emma need the power of the previously defeated demons to perform the ultimate exorcism! And Balan needed to find the perfect candidates to become the exorcists, Leo and Emma fitting the criteria, and that’s why he kidnapped them without a second thought at the beginning of the game hahah! That’s why he was smiling when he said the were missing heart, he was like “at last I found someone like you! Let’s go to Wonderworld so you can be rid of this ongoing demon problem of ours!”
How to fix: - Actual Story - Cut the costumes through merging their general abilities, allowing upgrades as the game progresses (using the drops!) - why the fuck is this a $60, I've seen similar concepts on steam for $10 - GIVE THE BUTTONS VARIETY
Square really let Yuji make this game...and was his "only shot" to make a platformer...and they just couldn't bother delaying the game to fix...a lot of things. ...definitely Square will likely want to forget this game existed. Amazing when it was first shown, disappointing and upsetting when the demo released and now the game itself. What a mess...
Everyone's talking about how the price is scummy, (and I totally agree), but have you seen the metacritic user scores? I think the company/employees are writing the reviews and posting 10s. That's even scummier!
It really feels like this is a game that needed to be delayed and had some fundamental changes, add a dedicated jump button, fix the frame rate, excetera. It’s sad, because we never want a game to fail, but it sometimes feels like devs are so dedicated to their vision they won’t change bad ideas, and corporate is just like “meh, I’m sure we’ll get money from it, push it out!”
Impressive, I don't think I've seen a single positive review of this game. Like I knew it wasn't gonna be great but I didn't forsee a Bubsy 3D tier disaster
The worst thing about it is that on twitter there's a defence squad trying to do damage control when people say anything bad about it lol. I bought it on ps5, and while it runs really smooth, the game is an utter mess. I really think they should have cancelled this game and restarted from scratch. For a game called Balan Wonderworld, you barely even get to play as him, and when you do its awful QTEs that so help you if you`re not exactly spot on you lose the Balan trophy. Frustrating is an understatement with this game. Apologies for the rant lol.
I would totally take a fan made COMPLETE rework of this game from at least near scratch, this game had so many good ideas and I can't even use the fucking jump button 😑
To be fair, you barely (if ever) play as Zelda in Legend of Zelda games. In any case, it looks like they could have done a better job having Balan do much more in the story with the main character than they already do. And those QTEs do look like trash.
And this is why it's called Balan Wonderworld, because it consistently keeps you wondering what the hell Square Enix was doing when they release this game.
I’m curious about the game but the necessary patch to prevent epileptic seizures at the one point concerns me greatly. I don’t have epilepsy myself but I don’t like extreme flashing lights that much as it hurts my eyes.
It looks so charming and good in so many ways. But in a platformer, you MUST have rock solid gameplay mechanics. Fail that, and all else is for naught.
I think the story of the diver was that the dolphin accidentally knocked the air tank out of her grasp. She almost drowned and was hospitalized, so she ends up greatly perturbed and assumed the dolphin did it on purpose. The dolphin looks all evil because that’s how the diver saw it at that moment.
I have to agree with you about those costumes. Why have costumes that can do the same or more. Just eliminate the weak costumes and keep the ones that work throughout the game.
I read this title and thought "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHA no, it isn't." From one Balan-induced spiteful individual to another one (Let's be honest, you'll never get over what they did to Doshin) I am so sorry for what you've gone through but appreciate your commitment to warning the world.
What is it with legendary platformer devs and lackluster indie releases? Seems like an unfortunate pattern. (I know this isn't indie, but it isn't Sega, so... I dunno.)
Because it takes more than one "superstar" dev to make a great game. There's an entire creative team that goes completely under the radar, which is very unfair.
@@incognito-p9c Yeah, that's because Iga was actually using his brain and was backed by numerous devs with experience with platformers and such (Wayforward being among them).
I will list the three redeeming qualities of this game: 1. The adorable creatures (even if some of them just look like discount Kirbys) 2. The fact that you're helping people is admirable 3. It has pretty colors P.S. They forgot to mention a major oversight in the final boss battle that has the potential to trigger epileptic seizures. I don't know if that's still a problem; I see "Balan Wonderworld - A Charmless, Confusing Fossil From The Creators Of Sonic" and can't help but laugh--Not to trivialize the very serious plight of people with epilepsy.
I think this game should’ve been Balan being an alien who came to invade Earth and take it over with his odd jazzy art styles and you are the main character freeing lands from Balan’s grasp, I think he would’ve made a good villian since he looks so likes me but he could’ve been passed off as crazy and just putting up a fake nice guy act.
Brilliant review. I have longed for this kind of honesty in addressing games that are tied to fandom. Kudos to the writer of the review: I will be eagerly awaiting Vogul's (sorry if incorrect spelling) next piece.
Loads of Yuji Naka's old games were awesome but he has struggled somewhat after leaving Sega. But you can't just pin this on him he has a full team working on this and had to work to SquareEnix' standards. They really should of delayed until later in the year... They could patch out the technical issues and add in things to make it better (as a lot of companies do now) but it's too little too late by that point. Such a shame as I might have bought this if it was good.
Man its a true shame this game was so poorly executed,the art style and concept is really really good. Seems as time moves forward , we keep getting more and more incomplete games, that shouldve stayed in the oven longer, but instead we get a doughy mess lol.
I downloaded the demo. The moment I got the one plant powerup that stretches your torso, I uninstalled. I am interested to hear the backstory to the dev cycle
0:49 "... that it feels straight down from 2001" That's exactly my thoughts, by itself is not really a bad game, but when you consider factors like: - Made by an experienced company during PS5 era (not experienced in platforming tho, but still) - The high price - The triple AAA announcement it got, as if it was going to be "the next big mascot" - The "story" ... That's when even I say: "This is extremely bad"; if you told me this was made by an indie developer, I'd say it's very nice and has a lot of potential, but that's not the case, this is just borderline basic and lackluster
Want a good 3D platformer for Nintendo Switch? Stay away from Balan Wonderworld and turn to these games: Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, A Hat In Time, Blue Fire, New Super Lucky's Tale, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and SpongeBob SquarePants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. These are my favorite 3D platformers on Switch, and there's others out there that are also good, but they're either not for me or I haven't played them. I recommend all of them, though if possible get Battle For Bikini Bottom on another platform because the Switch version is quite inferior.
The story is about you helping many characters to overcome their issues. The diver girl was afraid of dolphins (that´s why she sees it as an evil creature on some scenes) but she also dreamed about being able to swim with them. After she overcame her fear, she went to the sea and no longer is afraid of them.
@@star22sally67 I think you didn't get it. The diver girl gets transformed into the final boss of that level. Lance (the villain of the game) convinces the human characters to live in the wonderworld instead of overcoming their fears and tells them that Balan wants to expell them from that place. So they get convince by Lance to stay and then transform to fight Balan and the player (that are only trying to help them to overcome their traumas). Lance just got too attached to the people that gets into the wonderworld and tried to convince them to stay and not going back to the real world.
@@giboit. I get what's going on, but for a game about symbolism and metaphors, it drops the ball completely with many of the bosses and levels. Think about it: she has a traumatic experience in water so her level show show that. We should feel anxious and uncomfortable in the water levels with hands (like in her cut scene) from the coral grabbing us. The boss should represent the biggest part of her trama: the dolphin which is given a lot of emphasis in her cut scene. We should be fighting the dolphin as it's the source of her issue, not some random basic jelly monster. As for lance, I'm well aware with the background and his motivations, but the levels and bosses feel so disconnected from the "characters" we fight, it loses any impact.
@@limendime3720 I can see that and gor some it works really well (farmer and bug girl for example) but for others like the diver it misses the point due to the cutscene. The cutscene shows an evil dolphin coming at us. That would imply that a dolphin should be our enemy. But it's not. That's the main issue. If it was suppose to be the jelly, then that should have been the cutscene focus, not the dolphin.
3/10 huh? Well I assume the score is based on FMV’s, aesthetic of the game, and the dope soundtrack! I figured this game was not worth playing but I would love to own this soundtrack. I cannot get some of these level tunes out of my head.
I dont know the whole story or lore of balan land and i don't know if it was explained, but they said there were these trinkets the main character had to collect right? So my wild guess is that these trinkets are like mementos which reminds that specific boss why they love doing the things they do.
@@segaspice4062 I know some of you folks remember it fondly, but top 10 Gamecube game is pushing it. It's fine, certainly better than this, but the Gamecube had so many good games for that to be the case.
OK The Dolphin thing here's my interpretation the Dolphin accidentally knocked the oxygen out of her mouth and almost caused her to drown so she became scared of this Friendly Dolphin and Balan talks about "fixing hearts" so I'm guess helping her get over her fear of her Dolphin and realize it was an accident. That's the best I got.
Quick question for the guys at Nintendo Life, if they are able to answer it anyway, was there a review embargo placed on this game or is the lack of reviews online from outlets and critics due to no review copies being given out?
I just picked this up on Amazon for £20 instead of £50. I was really excited for this game when the announced it so I wanna give it a go and see what it’s like
The movement animations have Crash Bandicoot PS1 vibes. Looks like they were trying to create a lite version of SM Odyssey with the transformations but flopped. They should have hired Miyamoto as creative designer to make this game “fun.” His first suggestion would have been: “make the actions fun and fluid.” Oops.
So the ACTUAL OFFICIAL NOVELIZATION is available in English. (But only digitally on like Nook and Kindle) And is fairly good. What happened between the writing of the novel to the completion of the game happened?
That's why Duke Nukem Forever and CyberPunk 2077 are _obviously_ flawless masterpieces that *totally* lived up to expectations and came out as _great_ games that definitely function on a basic level.
Apparently Balan Wonderland is getting review boosted in Metacritic with a lot of positive feedback by users. But there are still only a handful of critic reviewer scores (all negative) and about half as big of users giving bad scores. The user bots singing praises for this game are just as vague as the game itself; don't explain why or how it's great other than you should just play it and see. Clearly something's fishy here.
I thought this would be a good weird dream trip game (the one you get before waking up after the doctor saved your life) the first time I saw that mascot:/
"Huh.... 'Balen Wonderworld- Is it Worth it..." *Clicks video* "No. Well, thanks for watching! For more videos from NintendoLife, click that subscribe button and we'll see you on the next one!"
2:17 Each stage of the theater is their happy place as they hide from their pain. Then Lance appears and forces it to the surface where you defeat it, helping them move on from their pain. How hard is that to understand?
The story, from what I can grasp from context clues, is these people are sad and you are doing things to help them be...less...sad....you are beating the depression out of them with these boss fights. If you have ever seen the show “Miraculous Ladybug”, the villains powers in this game is the same as Hawk Moths powers in the show.
I saw it as the player character reaching out in support, the levels being a way for them to better understand the person they're trying to help (hence unlocking the key to their heart in stage 1&2) then helping them come to terms with what happened to them (defeating their demons basically) and giving them the strength to push on and see a brighter side or new perspective. With Lance and his powers being a stand in for grief/depression/isolation etc. but I would've really liked to see the game reinforce these themes with a bit more dialogue.
Yeah, really. And yet people got excited about this game as if Yuji Naka was some kind of god among game developers despite the fact that his name is attached to both Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog.
@@PC2000 He was less involved with 06 because he left not even half way in development but yeah Shadow The Hedgehog is literally the stupidest Sonic game concept wise. Like Sega were probably making all kinds of crazy ideas for the next Sonic game in the office, and Naka said “hey Shadow looks cool in a motorcycle” and Sega said “You are getting a fucking raise”.
Might pick it up after the price drops $20. Shame because I had high hopes for this game seeing as how it was so Nights into Dreams inspired. Is the “A Life System” any good? Miss me Chao and Nightopians.
Looking forward to all the video essays and theories why this game turned out the way it did. My money's on "Was originally meant to be a mobile game, but was turned into a console game half-way through." Seriously, overly simple level design, slow movement, one-button gameplay... Where else would that make sense other than a touch screen?
2:47 I rag on a lot of the things this game has done, but this is one of the parts I appreciate. It's able to tell a simple story without dialogue or telling you everything. That being said, who the hell is Lance? And why is everyone dancing? The emotionless Mocap dancing is creepy
When the optimistic folks of Nintendo Life are giving your game a 3/10, you know you're in trouble.
When you would rather pay $60 for Sonic 06 with added glitches more than you know this game is trash
@@segaspice4062 At least with Sonic 06 you can understand what's going on story wise, like you understand the world, the characters and all. Gameplay wise it makes sense what you're doing too right. Not here though! It's literally like w h a t the f u c k is going on? Nothing makes sense at all.
You know what? To me it really feels as if you went through unused assets of a Sonic and NiGHTS game, bundled them ALL together and it came out as Balan Wonderworld. It's really just a MESS of ideas with no proper execution whatsoever.
@@Msf1011 Exactly, I loved Sonic 06, maybe because I played multiplayer a lot
@@Msf1011 I think they were going for the wacky, nonsensical adventure feel, but there's a right way to do that and this isn't it lmao. They could have gone more Alice in Wonderland, especially given the similarities (sad child ends up in magical world with helpful hat man) but instead we got Kingdom Hearts.
@@MegidolErin I mean even Kingdom Hearts has some characters you can invest yourself in, it's convoluted but there's great moments there. But I played the demo and this farmer fuck keeps disappearing and shit and I just don't understand half of what's going on just like Alex says. It's REALLY trying to emotionally invest you and give off a great message but it fails so hard at that!
This was an opportunity to just have a 2-second long video saying just
"No."
Would‘ve been perfect for April fool‘s day
@@KeDe1606 April Fools are supposed to be lies
@@cakemix5877 Ahhh if they were to make the vid on April Fools day they would‘ve said how the game is an absolute masterpiece...right?
@@KeDe1606 Yup that would be an April Fools
@@cakemix5877 gotcha
i saw people complaining and i’m like “man this isn’t coming out for years is it” and then i find out they were complaining about the final game
same
It's not even just complaints out of spite and anger, I think most of the complaints were out of sadness, these Devs made really colourful and cool retro games like NiGHTs and they just somehow squandered the very basics of platforming in this game
@@lowhp_comic more importantly the lead devs made classic fricking sonic, which is easily one of the best play styles ever cross the platformer genre.
@@lowhp_comic worst of all, I didn’t knew that this game existed until it came out and neither grew up with sonic so I don’t love jujinaka (however his name is supposed to be written) so at least personally what bugs me the most is, HOW THE HELL NOBODY REALISED HOW BAD THIS WAS?! Seriously the most important part of developing a game is testing what you have made so far, god dammit botw team did it!!! *CONSTANTLY*
THE game that is an example to follow on how to develop triple a games did it, why can’t you?
The game that has everything going for it except the game part.
And the story part
@@spacemanspiff2137 Kinda like Modern sonic games
@@subifyouhatetiktokandreddit234 nah, modern sonic games atleast try to tell a cohesive story
@@Fabriciod_Crv Honestly, I disagree. Especially when looking at Sonic Forces.
At least the music's great!
Funny how Kirby hats gave Kirby a myriad of special moves and actions to use and make each power feel super fun, meanwhile Balan is like "best I can give is one, take it or leave it"
I mean in the second kirby each ability only had one power, however it was in 2d and HAD A JUMP BUTTON
@@plat4234 plus he could also drop the ability he was equipped with and revert to normal, something you can't even do in this game and you are stuck in the costume 😂
@@lowhp_comic Exactly, I professionally produced game should not have glitchless softlock situations, let alone as many as this game has.
All I can think looking at this game is basically mix of a hat in time, Mario odyssey and Kirby, what could have been an interesting concept, but eeeeh nothing else needs to be said
This game is the game that finally got my kid to put down Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Say what you will about it but it's my son's favorite game.
How did Square think we would put $60 in a game that can’t even get a walking animation right.
*A Walking Animation*
I mean that's just a slower running animation amirite?
@@mechashadow You learn to animate slow walk cycles rather than running strides first when in animation school.
@@corrinflakes9659 I know, that's why I don't get why they did things backwards.
*Because it's a dream?*
To be fair, most game characters do walk or run funny. 90% of them don't look normal at all lol.
@@XBusterZero Odyssey Mario runs with character rather than normal with precision platforming in mind, there's a difference between normal and appealing.
Don't think I missed Doshin at 9:20! You can't fool me!
This game is really good cuz it has Doshin reference!!!
Read that as it came up XD
It seems a suit augmentation would have been a better solution. Like get a suit, and then get upgrades for it as you go, adding abilities rather than omitting.
That would have been good
And also, ADD A PROPER JUMP BUTTON FFS.
I feel like the main problem with this game is that they spent too much of the budget on the character/suit designs and cinematics, while neglecting quality control and level design.
Even the narrative of the main characters (Leo, Emma, and Balan) is flawed, they’re not telling you the whole story in general, and the little they show doesn’t really deliver the idea they were going for, and throughout the game, none of their stories get explored at all, but rather, they just keep throwing more and more random stories at you without even connecting them to the main characters’ in any way whatsoever, all as if they expect you to read a book first to understand what’s going on or something, and even in movies that looks bad.
They wanna be a story-driven game with charming characters, but everyone’s stories are not even well connected, they’re all a bunch of backstories and conclusions, but absolutely no in between to reach said conclusions, and they don’t even tell you the hecking names of most important characters in the game!
Ya know, the actual game part
Sounds like the same issue that plagued Sonic Forces.
The character designs do pretty cool though. I thought this game looked good based on the top hat dude alone..... And that's pretty much the only thing I like about this game.
80 costumes.
The fact this costs the same as Breath of the Wild.
More pissed BOTW is still $60 four years later
Think about the fact the Tetris 99 is technically free, and they want you to pay 60 for this.
Neither should cost anywhere near 60 bucks.
@@Soniman001 Why? It's still the same quality of a game that it was four years ago
And the fact it has the balls to releasing at the same time as monster hunter rise is insane
I made the mistake of buying the game because it looks like nights and was made by the person who made nights.
For the love of all that is holy, do not make the mistake that I did, just look up the CGI cutscenes, all of the budget seems to have went to that instead of the gameplay..
I feel you i almost made the same mistake before trying out the demo.
I can’t imagine paying the same price as Mario Odyssey for this
Balan is far from the first time when a game hyped up as being based on a classic franchise and developed by the same people that made said classic franchise ends up being total crap. By now it's almost a trope.
Never pre-order, always check out the demo or review first before making a final decision.
For example, even though I am SUPER HYPED about *Monster Hunter Stories 2* (LOVED the 1st game on the 3DS), I won't "pre-order" it till either I try the demo or watch a review.
Yugi Naka was a programmer but as always ,a game like nights ,wasnt a product made by a person only
The thing that annoys me the most about this game is the price. $60 for this game is absolutely insulting.
If I can tolerate the demo I'll pay $20. But not $60.
This game is around $75 in japan.
Americans whining about puny $60 for a game always make me smile. Especially considering ridiculously high average salaries compared to other countries where games are usually more expensive.
$80 in Canada
@@HaohmaruHL So you guys in Japan are getting ripped of even worse, amazing....
here in canada it's $80. i expect to find it in the $5 bin soon.
My question is HOW did Square let this thing see a release date after all the problems it had?
Someone had to realize this game had issues
Well... that's the same company that gave us that wonderful Avengers online game. If it's not KH or FF, they don't care enough lol
@@phantomdubbing4219 KH and FF have been shit lately too, square enix fucking blows
I guess they had two choices, either delay it and spend more money which is not guaranteed to make it that much better or just release it and hope to make back some of the development costs, it's not that surprising they went with the latter option.
(Not saying that it was a good choice for gamers of course.)
Square also published The Quiet Man remember?
@@TheMrNukeman Dragon quest is still good at least
The biggest sin is this game was likely reviewed when the reviewer could of been playing MH Rise
Perhaps. Though the biggest mistake Square have done is not sent the review copies early for the game, which seemingly affected its word of mouth.
If only they decided to delay the game. They didn't, and they still release it on the same day as Monster Hunter Rise release.
F***ing Nonner *could have
@@manuelalbertoromero9528 *sending
@Joshua White They've probably sunk too much money so that canceling is impossible. Beside, the story and concepts are Not Bad, just the execution is poor. They could do it better. Too bad that Square Enix wasted Yuji Naka for this.
Y’know what they say, you can’t have a Square Enix game without a convoluted story.
Yeah but this sucks. Convoluted is one thing, awful control, weird animation and completely irrelevant is something else x
y'know what the say, the more the merrier
Ahem Dragon quest XI says hello.
@@raulrojas9253 Act 3 says hello.
*coughs* Kingdom hearts *coughs*
Though in fairness, they have made good stories before (NieR Automata, Octopath and the Bravely Default games)
I knew Ecco the Dolphin was Evil all along
Funi
I never understood that game
The bastard
They have the balls to release this on the same day as Monster Hunter Rise.
Or they're doing a suicide release just to get it over with. I REALLY want to know the dev story of this game. I can't wrap my head around any of it.
@@noodlepsychosis8452 This. Essentially so they can say, "Well it didn't do well because it was up against Monster Hunter Rise."
@@noodlepsychosis8452 I bet we'll see this game end up on "Wha' Happun?" one day.
They had the balls to release this at all.
I want to cry
I'm not normally a conspiracy theory guy but I think Square Enix is trying to make this game look better on Metacritic by not allowing normal review companies to review it and having their employees leave perfect scores in the user review sections. It could be something else but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm right.
Most of the user reviews I read were incoherent with nonsensical grammar
@@SunlitSonata14272 You got to be kidding me.
Left alive was nearly unplayeble and buggy, it even needed a patch for making the headshots kill soldiers.
Wow, you weren't kidding lol. Had a look at those 10-star reviews & it's impossible those aren't fake. Wonder if they hired one of those companies like leave fake reviews on Amazon products for pay.
SE employees or an outsourced Chinese bot farm. The really bizarre phrasings and linguistic choices in grammar def comes off like how a lot of my Hong Kong friends sound when they try to speak in English.
@@torrb420 How are they?
What an effing tragedy, i am a tremendous fan of "Nights into dreams" so this feels beyond soul crushing.
What could possibly have happened during Balan's development to make it so bad.
Two reasons:
1) It was developed by Arzest. Look up their track record.
2) Yuji Naka much like Yu Suzuki, Jon Romero, Cliff Blezinski, Hideo Kojima, Keiji Inafune, the list goes on, was trying to replicate old successes by leeching off nostalgia but failed to understand that things are very different from 20 years ago.
I heard that at one point it was intended to be a mobile game. If you notice, all the menus are touch friendly, the game uses a one button action system, and you know... look at it.
The development part didn't happen
@@elin111 John Romero did release a good game, SIGIL, he knows how to push nostalgia buttons correctly, it's just that when he was trying to outdo Quake during Daikatana's development he failed miserably due to feature creep and lack of focus. Empire of Sin is... I dunno, they tried.
@@flykulu42 I honestly could see this game working as like a $20-$30 mobile game, but as a $60 console game? Hell nah-
This feels like they wanted to make their own Mario Odyssey but either didn't have the budget or time to make that happen
More like lack of care
If budget and time are and issue they could've just made a short but sweet game, like arcade games back in the day, but we just get a surplus of crap thatll sell badly
Or talent,
or effort,
or creativity,
or common sense,
or bare basic understanding of game design or simple logic in general
Or motor functio-
They definitely have the budget based on how good the cutscenes look. It’s just that they simply couldn’t care less, about everything else, the cutscenes were handled by a different studio in square enix, so it’s clear they were willing to throw money, just not time or care
I’m pretty sure the whole thing with the dolphin turning “evil” is all in that girl’s mind. She was friends with the dolphin, the dolphin being an animal did an animal thing and got her respirator yanked out of her or some such, causing her to feel a near-death-experience or something similar and thus gaining a fear to the dolphin (perceived as it now looking like it’s evil).
You do a Psychonaughts-like-level through her mind, and upon completion help her get over her fear.
You see, that could have been used to make a coherent story, with each world after that leaving more clues as to why your character is going through them and helping the affected people. A larger narrative surrounding the bosses, the fears/phobias that created them and the worlds, and how does Balan fit into all of it would make this game much better story-wise. Considering that I've seen anime and read manga/comics that have similar story beats have done this to varying success, it's a big lost opportunity.
The way I see it, Leo and Emma are exorcists that have been brought to Wonderworld to beat the crap out of demons that are bewitching the people, and the demons were created using the very people’s own sudden traumas and obsessions, because Leo and Emma really come to the people’s worlds to do just that, they don’t talk to anyone, they’re not helping them in any other way to calm them down, befriend them, or encourage them to deal with it, they rather just lure the fiends in with the hearts while being aided by friendly ghosts, fight them demons, and move on to the next, and Balan is just there to show off and toy with Lance for a bit. And the random mocapped dances after the fights are the final step to conclude the exorcism.
And guess Leo and Emma are the ones performing the exorcisms because their traumas were not bad enough for them to be vulnerable to possession, but they’re strong enough be allowed to enter Wonderworld, and Balan ain’t really doing much because SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
He houses the satan that has been bringing all these demons to life and curse the people you rescue all along, so he is possessed and he couldn’t really help himself (or anyone else really), and Leo and Emma need the power of the previously defeated demons to perform the ultimate exorcism! And Balan needed to find the perfect candidates to become the exorcists, Leo and Emma fitting the criteria, and that’s why he kidnapped them without a second thought at the beginning of the game hahah! That’s why he was smiling when he said the were missing heart, he was like “at last I found someone like you! Let’s go to Wonderworld so you can be rid of this ongoing demon problem of ours!”
Exactly! I thought it was friggin' crystal clear.
It seems like Yuji Naka just can't seem to get a polished game out the door.
Or he just doesn't understand how a 3d game even functions
or he just hates us all and doesn't function
@@K_8T OF COURSE, he's an android!
So the game is basically A Hat in Time done wrong.
I’d rather play A Hat in Time than this any day!
@@kingmagnus4009 For real
The second you hear his tone for the review, you knew this wasn’t gonna be a positive discussion
Also, the final boss apparently causes seizures and doesn't warn you
How to fix:
- Actual Story
- Cut the costumes through merging their general abilities, allowing upgrades as the game progresses (using the drops!)
- why the fuck is this a $60, I've seen similar concepts on steam for $10
- GIVE THE BUTTONS VARIETY
Square really let Yuji make this game...and was his "only shot" to make a platformer...and they just couldn't bother delaying the game to fix...a lot of things. ...definitely Square will likely want to forget this game existed. Amazing when it was first shown, disappointing and upsetting when the demo released and now the game itself.
What a mess...
Everyone's talking about how the price is scummy, (and I totally agree), but have you seen the metacritic user scores? I think the company/employees are writing the reviews and posting 10s. That's even scummier!
It really feels like this is a game that needed to be delayed and had some fundamental changes, add a dedicated jump button, fix the frame rate, excetera. It’s sad, because we never want a game to fail, but it sometimes feels like devs are so dedicated to their vision they won’t change bad ideas, and corporate is just like “meh, I’m sure we’ll get money from it, push it out!”
Impressive, I don't think I've seen a single positive review of this game. Like I knew it wasn't gonna be great but I didn't forsee a Bubsy 3D tier disaster
The worst thing about it is that on twitter there's a defence squad trying to do damage control when people say anything bad about it lol. I bought it on ps5, and while it runs really smooth, the game is an utter mess. I really think they should have cancelled this game and restarted from scratch. For a game called Balan Wonderworld, you barely even get to play as him, and when you do its awful QTEs that so help you if you`re not exactly spot on you lose the Balan trophy. Frustrating is an understatement with this game. Apologies for the rant lol.
I would totally take a fan made COMPLETE rework of this game from at least near scratch, this game had so many good ideas and I can't even use the fucking jump button 😑
To be fair, you barely (if ever) play as Zelda in Legend of Zelda games.
In any case, it looks like they could have done a better job having Balan do much more in the story with the main character than they already do. And those QTEs do look like trash.
@@tyrell7693I really hope fans do take this game under their wing and overhaul it so it becomes the shining diamond it deserves to be
@@SelecaoOfMidas difference it's tradition
Also they make balan the main point all loz has is zelda bing kidnapped and link saving her
I remember playing the Demo and being so confused to why on earth they made every single button one command, its so dumb.
And this is why it's called Balan Wonderworld, because it consistently keeps you wondering what the hell Square Enix was doing when they release this game.
I’m curious about the game but the necessary patch to prevent epileptic seizures at the one point concerns me greatly. I don’t have epilepsy myself but I don’t like extreme flashing lights that much as it hurts my eyes.
It looks so charming and good in so many ways. But in a platformer, you MUST have rock solid gameplay mechanics. Fail that, and all else is for naught.
A game can look like shit but otherwise be an amazing game.
But no matter how pretty a game is, if its gameplay is terrible, the whole game is a wash.
I’m just dying to know if Mitch made it to the credits without gauging his eyes out
I think the story of the diver was that the dolphin accidentally knocked the air tank out of her grasp. She almost drowned and was hospitalized, so she ends up greatly perturbed and assumed the dolphin did it on purpose. The dolphin looks all evil because that’s how the diver saw it at that moment.
I have to agree with you about those costumes. Why have costumes that can do the same or more. Just eliminate the weak costumes and keep the ones that work throughout the game.
It's a real hard sell when Monster hunter rise released right beside this.
As a Tim, I really wish this was worth getting so I could have a massive crew of tims
I mean, I like the OST and the cutscenes are beautiful from what I've seen, and Balan has a nice design...
ᵇᵘᵗ ᵗʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ᵃˡˡ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ ᶦˢ ʰᵉʳᵉ ʰᵘʰ
I read this title and thought "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHA no, it isn't."
From one Balan-induced spiteful individual to another one (Let's be honest, you'll never get over what they did to Doshin) I am so sorry for what you've gone through but appreciate your commitment to warning the world.
What is it with legendary platformer devs and lackluster indie releases? Seems like an unfortunate pattern.
(I know this isn't indie, but it isn't Sega, so... I dunno.)
Because it takes more than one "superstar" dev to make a great game. There's an entire creative team that goes completely under the radar, which is very unfair.
At least Bloodstained Ritual of The Night was addicting. This new game is boring as hell.
@@incognito-p9c Yeah, that's because Iga was actually using his brain and was backed by numerous devs with experience with platformers and such (Wayforward being among them).
Budget. They got way more backing with their former companies
I was really hoping that it would have been basically “a hat in time 2”
I was hoping it would be “Billy Hatcher 2”
@@makotoyuki345 it has a similar feel? Idk what to call it
@ that’s why I said billy Hatcher since that’s the closet comparison I could make
If you were hoping for that, you would have to ask Gears for Breakfast for such a game.
Gears for breakfast is in fact working on a new platformer called "Here comes Niko", it's supposed to be really atmospheric and cozy :D
This game would have been fine if it was a $20 Wii game in the Walmart bargain bin
Seems like a perfectly fine game to me.
Sure runs like one lol
Even $20 is too much for this. There are many amazing indie titles around that price. I'd only buy this if it were a $5 mobile game.
I will list the three redeeming qualities of this game:
1. The adorable creatures (even if some of them just look like discount Kirbys)
2. The fact that you're helping people is admirable
3. It has pretty colors
P.S. They forgot to mention a major oversight in the final boss battle that has the potential to trigger epileptic seizures. I don't know if that's still a problem; I see "Balan Wonderworld - A Charmless, Confusing Fossil From The Creators Of Sonic" and can't help but laugh--Not to trivialize the very serious plight of people with epilepsy.
The epileptic lights have been fixed.
The tims[If they are called that]are like a chao garden or virtual pet simulator.
@@edwardrobinson5470 So that's what they're called. Neat.
@@sylv3053 I'm not sure. I've only played the demo.
You forgot a positive point - the soundtrack slaps!
I absolutely came here to see a murder.
I think this game should’ve been Balan being an alien who came to invade Earth and take it over with his odd jazzy art styles and you are the main character freeing lands from Balan’s grasp, I think he would’ve made a good villian since he looks so likes me but he could’ve been passed off as crazy and just putting up a fake nice guy act.
You know you messed up when your hero makes more since being a villian. Heck, when I first saw him I thought he was the villain lol
at one point where the footage nearly froze, I thought there was something wrong with my internet, but it was just the game.
Brilliant review. I have longed for this kind of honesty in addressing games that are tied to fandom. Kudos to the writer of the review: I will be eagerly awaiting Vogul's (sorry if incorrect spelling) next piece.
Loads of Yuji Naka's old games were awesome but he has struggled somewhat after leaving Sega. But you can't just pin this on him he has a full team working on this and had to work to SquareEnix' standards.
They really should of delayed until later in the year... They could patch out the technical issues and add in things to make it better (as a lot of companies do now) but it's too little too late by that point.
Such a shame as I might have bought this if it was good.
Basically. It’s glee and Tim Burton got into a teleporter with a severely brain injuried Rob Zombie and this is the abomination that falls out
This sounds like it deserves an avgn episode
And a “wha happun” or however you spell it
@@TheKyubiisaan no, you got it right.
Man its a true shame this game was so poorly executed,the art style and concept is really really good. Seems as time moves forward , we keep getting more and more incomplete games, that shouldve stayed in the oven longer, but instead we get a doughy mess lol.
"Is Balan Wonderworld worth it?"
Pink Guy: *haha, no son.*
I downloaded the demo. The moment I got the one plant powerup that stretches your torso, I uninstalled. I am interested to hear the backstory to the dev cycle
Oh you made it that far?..lol. As soon as I was able to start moving I uninstalled.
i want to add another issue it has,
the end boss (potentially) causing seizures due to the screen flashing
I guess the main story is meant to be the kids "escaping" from their reality.
Yuji Naka went and made a ninja bread man. That's all you need to know
0:49 "... that it feels straight down from 2001"
That's exactly my thoughts, by itself is not really a bad game, but when you consider factors like:
- Made by an experienced company during PS5 era (not experienced in platforming tho, but still)
- The high price
- The triple AAA announcement it got, as if it was going to be "the next big mascot"
- The "story"
...
That's when even I say: "This is extremely bad"; if you told me this was made by an indie developer, I'd say it's very nice and has a lot of potential, but that's not the case, this is just borderline basic and lackluster
Want a good 3D platformer for Nintendo Switch? Stay away from Balan Wonderworld and turn to these games:
Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, A Hat In Time, Blue Fire, New Super Lucky's Tale, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and SpongeBob SquarePants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated.
These are my favorite 3D platformers on Switch, and there's others out there that are also good, but they're either not for me or I haven't played them. I recommend all of them, though if possible get Battle For Bikini Bottom on another platform because the Switch version is quite inferior.
The story is about you helping many characters to overcome their issues. The diver girl was afraid of dolphins (that´s why she sees it as an evil creature on some scenes) but she also dreamed about being able to swim with them. After she overcame her fear, she went to the sea and no longer is afraid of them.
Wish the evil dolphin was the final boss, not some random fish lady
@@star22sally67
I think you didn't get it. The diver girl gets transformed into the final boss of that level. Lance (the villain of the game) convinces the human characters to live in the wonderworld instead of overcoming their fears and tells them that Balan wants to expell them from that place. So they get convince by Lance to stay and then transform to fight Balan and the player (that are only trying to help them to overcome their traumas). Lance just got too attached to the people that gets into the wonderworld and tried to convince them to stay and not going back to the real world.
@@giboit.
I get what's going on, but for a game about symbolism and metaphors, it drops the ball completely with many of the bosses and levels. Think about it: she has a traumatic experience in water so her level show show that. We should feel anxious and uncomfortable in the water levels with hands (like in her cut scene) from the coral grabbing us. The boss should represent the biggest part of her trama: the dolphin which is given a lot of emphasis in her cut scene. We should be fighting the dolphin as it's the source of her issue, not some random basic jelly monster. As for lance, I'm well aware with the background and his motivations, but the levels and bosses feel so disconnected from the "characters" we fight, it loses any impact.
@@star22sally67the bosses are a combination of all of the costumes found in the world, with each costume representing a fear/part of their character
@@limendime3720 I can see that and gor some it works really well (farmer and bug girl for example) but for others like the diver it misses the point due to the cutscene. The cutscene shows an evil dolphin coming at us. That would imply that a dolphin should be our enemy. But it's not. That's the main issue. If it was suppose to be the jelly, then that should have been the cutscene focus, not the dolphin.
3/10 huh? Well I assume the score is based on FMV’s, aesthetic of the game, and the dope soundtrack! I figured this game was not worth playing but I would love to own this soundtrack. I cannot get some of these level tunes out of my head.
I dont know the whole story or lore of balan land and i don't know if it was explained, but they said there were these trinkets the main character had to collect right? So my wild guess is that these trinkets are like mementos which reminds that specific boss why they love doing the things they do.
The only thing thats going for is the damn cutscenes its so pretty to look at.
Thats where most the of budget went...
@@jazzratoon Honestly, they could have made an animated movie instead. The money would have been MUCH better spent, imho.
I feel like Balan Wonderworld is this generation’s Bubsy 3D.
Balan Wonderworld is what an AI would produce after seeing every mascot platformer ever released.
Funny you say that🙃
Moral of the story: Never hire Arzest to develop your game.
I like the character designs, but that isn’t worth a $60 purchase. No deal.
I've looked at the bosses their designs are actually really impressive... Really is sad the gameplay turned out to be a flop...
I'm waiting on an AVGN episode reviewing this game. "What were they thinking!"
The sad thing is that we KNOW Yuji Naka put effort and passion into it but the design philosophy is so old
(Heck even Billy Hatcher had more depth).
Billy Hatcher was genuinely and top 10 gamecube game
@@segaspice4062 true dat
@@segaspice4062 I know some of you folks remember it fondly, but top 10 Gamecube game is pushing it. It's fine, certainly better than this, but the Gamecube had so many good games for that to be the case.
@Anonymous Turkey never said Billy Hatcher was bad
@@roskiart8750 I replayed it last year, definitely better than Mario Sunshine
Dean Takahashi really liked this game.
And that's...good? Bad? Tolousse-Lautrec?
"no"
(end card)
14 minutes and 36 seconds is a really long time for an end card...
OK The Dolphin thing here's my interpretation the Dolphin accidentally knocked the oxygen out of her mouth and almost caused her to drown so she became scared of this Friendly Dolphin and Balan talks about "fixing hearts" so I'm guess helping her get over her fear of her Dolphin and realize it was an accident. That's the best I got.
Quick question for the guys at Nintendo Life, if they are able to answer it anyway, was there a review embargo placed on this game or is the lack of reviews online from outlets and critics due to no review copies being given out?
Probably both
No one got review copies from Square
I just picked this up on Amazon for £20 instead of £50. I was really excited for this game when the announced it so I wanna give it a go and see what it’s like
The movement animations have Crash Bandicoot PS1 vibes.
Looks like they were trying to create a lite version of SM Odyssey with the transformations but flopped. They should have hired Miyamoto as creative designer to make this game “fun.” His first suggestion would have been: “make the actions fun and fluid.” Oops.
I was referring to the exaggerated arm and leg movements. Not animation quality or FPS.
So the ACTUAL OFFICIAL NOVELIZATION is available in English. (But only digitally on like Nook and Kindle) And is fairly good. What happened between the writing of the novel to the completion of the game happened?
This game shows why reviews are necessary. I will never play this mediocre game
Best thing that came from this for me. It makes a great example of what I mean when I comment about no skill ceiling and small skill ceiling.
A fantastic example of why delays are good
Delays wouldn’t save its fundamental issues like bad game design
This game is fundementally broken
That's why Duke Nukem Forever and CyberPunk 2077 are _obviously_ flawless masterpieces that *totally* lived up to expectations and came out as _great_ games that definitely function on a basic level.
Saying this is from 2001 is an insult to better designed and deeper 3D platform games from even before that year. Including Naka's own Sonic Adventure
Lets be honest... All those "should you buy Balan Wonderwolrd" videos just extend to gain money, when they could be 1 second long just by saying
*NO*
Apparently Balan Wonderland is getting review boosted in Metacritic with a lot of positive feedback by users. But there are still only a handful of critic reviewer scores (all negative) and about half as big of users giving bad scores. The user bots singing praises for this game are just as vague as the game itself; don't explain why or how it's great other than you should just play it and see. Clearly something's fishy here.
I thought this would be a good weird dream trip game (the one you get before waking up after the doctor saved your life) the first time I saw that mascot:/
Thankyou for taking one for the team. Will not be doing this to myself!
"Huh.... 'Balen Wonderworld- Is it Worth it..."
*Clicks video*
"No. Well, thanks for watching! For more videos from NintendoLife, click that subscribe button and we'll see you on the next one!"
2:17 Each stage of the theater is their happy place as they hide from their pain. Then Lance appears and forces it to the surface where you defeat it, helping them move on from their pain. How hard is that to understand?
Because the game doesn't give any context nor explains anything about how any of it works.
The story, from what I can grasp from context clues, is these people are sad and you are doing things to help them be...less...sad....you are beating the depression out of them with these boss fights. If you have ever seen the show “Miraculous Ladybug”, the villains powers in this game is the same as Hawk Moths powers in the show.
I never thought about that thats pretty cool
I saw it as the player character reaching out in support, the levels being a way for them to better understand the person they're trying to help (hence unlocking the key to their heart in stage 1&2) then helping them come to terms with what happened to them (defeating their demons basically) and giving them the strength to push on and see a brighter side or new perspective. With Lance and his powers being a stand in for grief/depression/isolation etc. but I would've really liked to see the game reinforce these themes with a bit more dialogue.
This review is comedy gold. I lost it at "The wheels fall off this snowmobile " lol
Sonic ‘06, the last Sonic game Yuji Naka worked on: “Finally a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!”
Yeah, really. And yet people got excited about this game as if Yuji Naka was some kind of god among game developers despite the fact that his name is attached to both Sonic 06 and Shadow the Hedgehog.
@@PC2000 He was less involved with 06 because he left not even half way in development but yeah Shadow The Hedgehog is literally the stupidest Sonic game concept wise. Like Sega were probably making all kinds of crazy ideas for the next Sonic game in the office, and Naka said “hey Shadow looks cool in a motorcycle” and Sega said “You are getting a fucking raise”.
@Federal Bureau of Investigation 06 is decent with unfinished gameplay, but still fun
Did I saw Doshin the Giant somewhere in the video?
This seems like something Sega would do, which is ironic considering that Yuji Naka worked on this game.
Sega would have done it well though
Might pick it up after the price drops $20. Shame because I had high hopes for this game seeing as how it was so Nights into Dreams inspired. Is the “A Life System” any good? Miss me Chao and Nightopians.
Forgot to mention from other videos a warning ⚠️ at the last boss fight trigger warning for epilepsy aka seizures!!
Looking forward to all the video essays and theories why this game turned out the way it did. My money's on "Was originally meant to be a mobile game, but was turned into a console game half-way through."
Seriously, overly simple level design, slow movement, one-button gameplay... Where else would that make sense other than a touch screen?
it's easier than de blob, and that's a labor of love
2:47 I rag on a lot of the things this game has done, but this is one of the parts I appreciate. It's able to tell a simple story without dialogue or telling you everything. That being said, who the hell is Lance? And why is everyone dancing? The emotionless Mocap dancing is creepy
Surprised that the review said nothing about the final boss...saw that on Twitter...the final boss is dangerous...literally. lol
Balan Wonderland feels like what you would get if you vaguely described early 2000s platformers to a group of kids and told them to make a game.