the sad thing is the fact that the entire story of the game is in the novel. The chess Guy's actual story was that he was obsessed with chess and when he finally lost his title he found out he neglected his dying wife and came home to find her dead and he fell into a depression. Once the main characters restore his heart he moves on to tech the next generation how to play chess.
Ok but the way they showed it in the game was just "guy loses a game of chess then gets better when he wins against children" but honestly that's incredibly sad
i like how two of the stories were "my cat literally died" and "my parents are dead and i don't love anyone anymore" and the final one was "people litter"
But like, it's not. It's about being underappreciated for the work you do. That's why the chapter was called "the man no one saw" and why he was invisible in cutscene. I know it was REALLY subtle and all, but bear with me on this.
Fun fact about this game, all the cutscenes were added later into development because play testers had no idea what was happening so square Enix got a different company to just add them in at the last minute
The worst part about the Polar Express cutscene is that it serves literally no purpose. Trains are meant to take you to different places. But all that happens here is you circle around the island, and then go right back to where you started. You get on this fantastic magical train, and go NOWHERE!
@@MajoradeMayhem I know right? It seems to be more prevalent for JP developed games. Like it’s just more common. Sometimes manga will have a canon video game that ties one part of the manga to the next, which gets extra confusing. Cuz if you don’t play the video game there’s just info missing.
well not artbook, just regular book. And not JP exclusive either. But yeah in an attempt to make "a game anyone can play no matter what" they ended up making a game noone can understand no matter what
Love how the tragedies of these characters range from "My entire family died" and "I lost a dear childhood pet" to "I had artist's block" and "I, a firefighter, was alarmed by the fire"
I actually feel the way it handles some of these things is kind a true to life. It’s very clear that some of these things aren’t actually “problems“ but they mean a lot to the character. There are many people in this world, including myself, that put a lot of themselves or their emotions into something that admittedly don’t really matter. A lot of people do it for different reasons but I’m not one to judge and I can’t make that call. There were also some things that were in the book that didn’t get conveyed in the game about why characters had problems the way they did. The guy who “lost the chess game“ actually was feeling a sense of grief because after he began spiraling downward trying to figure out why he kept losing in chess he didn’t notice his wife was getting more sick and she passed away causing him to blame himself. Really would’ve been great to see that in the game. I’m getting off topic. One of the things I felt the game handled really well was even though it was obvious to the player that not all these things had the same weight to everyone, no one person‘s problem was treated as though it was worse than the others. Just because we agree that losing someone’s family is worse than not being able to ask out your crush, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t still horrible for the people involved.
12:10 "This costume's lantern flickers on and off WHEN IT FEELS LIKE IT, allowing the wearer to Illuminate dark areas." That, more than anything else, absolutely kills me.
when i first saw this comment i thought you were quoting alpharad or something. like it was some kind of bit that i just forgot about. no. that's literally just how the game describes it. why is this game like this
It’s even worse. The guy you played as was so good at dancing that he felt ostracized from his peers because of how good his dancing is. That’s the book.
we are the bizarro universe, a one-off joke where the main reality laughs at the weirdness of ours. Heck, we even got a reality television star to be our president. Regardless of your political stance, you have to admit that sounds like a joke reality.
Tbf this game COULD be such an awesome game... it has a great idea the theme arround teather and broadway dances is an awesome gimmick and the actual story (THAT WAS RELEASED IN A FRICKIN BOOK) is pretty damn good. Its such a wasted potential that makes me sad actually
@@mauriciomeireles1210 i'm most broken up because Balan actually looks really damn good, like he looks like something from Danganronpa, he has the same vibe as that Danganronpa teddy bear
@@mauriciomeireles1210 I agree! I'm a sucker for fantasy stories that focus on someone helping other people's inner struggles that literally transform them into monsters. Plus, the whole aesthetic of the game is amazing, it's zany and fantastical in a willy wonka kind of way, which I love so much! I just wish it was put in a game with actual good controls and a more polished experience.
Balan Wonderworld is like that one kid who spent 3 days studying for a science test, but did that studying for a math test. You can't deny the effort they made, but they most certainly put their effort in the wrong subject
I had a fever dream last night, there was a new level of Balan's Wonderworld. Its fucking Grubhub. The boss's back story was that the kid dropped his burger.
I too hate when my social anxiety causes me to be transported into a metaphysical dream dimension overseen by someone who doesn't know how to wear a hat.
My guess is that he’s supposed to be the foil for the kids in a sense. He’s got magic but he was anti social and shy so he wore the get up to preform but also interact with people because he couldn’t do so normally. The kids overcoming their issues and thanking him in the end made him take it off because he was inspired to try and make friends on his own.
This is probably my 10th time watching this and I just realized that Balan is in every flashback, so my theory is Balan makes these people lives miserable just to kidnap them, and Evil Balan is just a manifestation that actual Balan made to try and stop the kids from helping everybody.
I once got my head actually stuck in a top hat as a kid, and Balan's design reminds me of that, except maybe a universe where I either couldn't get my head out and had to cut holes in the hat for eyes, or I just straight up suffocated and still couldn't get the hat off and then decided to become a ghost stripper once of legal ghost age. Horrifying.
I'm happy we're in the universe where you're alive, but I can't help but feel we're missing out on undead ScarfDragon stripper of legal ghost age because of it.
My interpretation of each story Fuck-It-Up Farmer Ted: Lost years of hard work due to natural disasters but finding a small remainder of corn that survived gave him hope to restart Diver: Was friends with a dolphin (big mistake), the dolphin tried to kill her, sending her to the hospital, which made her afraid of the water, but she got over it soon Bug Girl: A girl obsessed with bugs tries to connect with others but gets bullied instead, only to find people who share an interest with her later Pilot: A guy who dreamed of soaring through the sky constantly fails and the video didn't show the end-dance cutscene so I can't draw a conclusion Nature Woman: A woman has the forest she loves get cut down by people who never stopped to give a shit and then she teaches them how to give a shit Cat Girl: A girl loves her cat a lot. Cat gets ran over. Girl is sad. Cat comes back. Girl is no longer sad. Grandmaster Wannabe: A guy who had a very high win streak on chess got so obsessed that he didn't care about anything else. He loses once and goes crazy because god complex. He gets over it by letting a kid win. Ice Queen: A girl who lost her parents in the winter gets too scared to love her fiancé thinking that, if she loves him, he'll die too. It's resolved by them marrying and her realizing that winter's a bitch Clown: A guy fears that he will be rejected if he puts on the persona he uses for entertainment purposes, so he confesses with his true personality Artist: A highly renowned artist gets crushed by pressure of trying to magic something up through artist block (artist block is just 'you can't get creative') without disappointing people. She resolves it by somehow finding inspiration and making the next masterpiece Firefighter: A firefighter fails at his job in saving people, blames it on himself, and loses all courage. Resolved by gaining the courage to rush through a burning building and saving the survivors Grandpa: An old guy who picks up litter out of the kindness of his heart constantly gets his hard work reversed by an entire wave of litter being thrown on the ground by entitled people, thus making him feel like nobody cares about him. Resolved by one person not littering through the kindness of their heart Protag: A person who can't dance saves everyone from their worries and regains the ability to dance
Balan’s Wonderworld 2 will include such riveting stories as “the man who found the crossword too hard for his liking” and “the girl who burnt the toast.”
@@ElementalAer The story's fine, it's just... not in the game. Or barely in the game. Like what kind of story doesn't even bother telling you the names of over half its characters?
I'd say cooking makes a better analogy. You can have all the most premium of ingredients but it will still be a waste if you don't know the recipe. Sure this Flatbread is salvageable if used like a tortilla, but everything was prepared with intention to make a fluffy loaf of bread.
It's so annoying, because this game could've been such a good "fun" way to teach kids how to process all kinds of emotional stuff, like defeat, loosing someone you love etc. But instead they did this...
It's like someone gave that pitch to an alien who had no conception of human emotions or experience and could only try to imitate them while hoping that no one would notice.
this game skips the entire prologue and setting to pop us right in the middle of the story. Which is incredibly shitty. Leo actually meets the people in the Wonderworld and actually develops bonds with them, the he and Emma remember this, they are unable to turn into Guardians and Balan is capable of telling them what actually was going on in the Magical Theater, so they decide to help him wake up the dreamers of the Wonderworld and make them face their problems, to resolve them. The moment their stages change to battle mode is on the middle of the story, when Emma and Leo receive the power to use the power of dreams to turn into the denizens of the stages and use their abilities. Another shitty thing, is that there were a lot of scenarios they were able to use....but a review panel was the one that chose the most "safe" of the scenarios. Remember, this place is for people with severe trauma......so yeah, there were a lot of darker scenarios. The girl that got her cat ran over and the bride whose family died were among the original darkest ones.
you forgot to mention: not only does EVERY new costume require a Key to obtain, some are well hidden, AND if you take ANY damage from ANY enemy, the costume is LOST and you have to unlock it again... which often means re-starting the entire level. AND using costumes in different levels from where you found them can have crazy results! oh, one more thing: the game has a 2-player co-op mode, and of the players TOUCH, they get stuck together, allowing one player to control both characters... AND, if the second player presses any jump button at the right time, you can DOUBLE-JUMP, even with NO costume!
Fun fact: Balan and Lance were named so their names formed "Balance" together, which goes back to the whole deal with people getting transported to Wonderworld when their heart loses balance like the wiki says. If this game had a cohesive and/or well-developed plot, I'd find that small detail incredibly satisfying.
@@Asa44y But to someone whose entire world and self is predicated on being the best, losing shatters everything. As an anime example, look at someone like Vegeta or Kaiba. They see themselves as the absolute pinnacle of what they do (martial arts and Duel Monsters, respectively), and their first real loss causes them to briefly snap (and in a way, they never quite recover, thus their obsession with beating their rival)
i love how the backstories range from "i lost my crops to a tornado" "a dolphin attacked me" "my cat died" to absolutely tragic stories like "i lost a game of chess" "people stopped liking my art for some reason" and who could forget "littering"
This game is like if Persona 5 and Disney had a deformed child, and then Disney cheated on Persona 5 with Hamilton, and then the house caught on fire and Mario Oddessy jumped in. *chef's kiss*
I like how Square Enix’s solution to not putting crucial story elements into their games that would make it less confusing is “Eh, make a movie or a book or something”
You know, considering ice girl’s trauma is that her *family literally died and she can’t bring herself to be emotionally vulnerable with another human being again* , she would’ve made a better final level than “I feel like nobody appreciates the work I do”
Yeah the lantern also says that…there’s also a box fox costume that changes you between moving and COMPLETE stillness again whenever the fuck the costume decides it wants to be a box.
Literally the opening acts of the game: "A tornado wiped out my entire crop yield, wasting months of hard labor" "A dolphin I scuba dove with broke my oxygen tank and damn near killed me" Endgame: "I lost a single game of chess" "People litter"
Like, those two from the beginning, plus "My entire fucking family died and I don't feel like I can be close to anybody else now" could have literally been the final world. Give the game a sense of the stakes increasing.
The “people litter” one is a bit more complicated, it’s actually about a old man who tries to clean up people who litter, but everyday he just comes back to more trash, even when he tries to tell people to stop they keep doing it, making him feel like he dosent exist Not trying to invalidate your comment, I do think it’s a bit weird as the last chapter before the finale, I think it could of been a perfect mid game boss though
There's also the "I can't think of anything to draw" lady, I have this issue a lot where I can't think of anything to draw or create, but I don't give myself a heart attack from it. Some better endgame levels could maybe involve someone upset about moving or something.
32:50 _Can we just appreciate the fact that the description for the Invisible Man costume says “This costume switches between making the wearer invisible and visible _*_when it feels like it”_*
there are a lot of costumes in this game that do their thing "when it feels like it" because they didn't want to create a second button that activate the action instead of jump. The best one is that one that turns you into a cube that you can't control when it feels like it.
Yep. Rather than have TWO buttons, all of the costumes either add an effect to the jump, replace the jump entirely, or activate automatically at random without user input.
I get second hand Embarrassment as well, but thankfully it doesn’t extend to games. IRL though, if this happened I would probably black out and become a fridge or something
I don't understand the game cus one moment its Pixar, the next moment its a unity asset flip. Like seriously, 3d modeling a box to move around synchronously is one of the first things you learn in 3d animation, and that is what they show you after beatimg6a fucking boss. They obviously know how to animate, so why is everything In game motion captured? How did this game turn out this way
I can't tell if the lyrics of the dance segments are an odd Japanese dialect or a fake Sims language, but I won't look it up "BALAN'S AN ORDAINED MINISTER!?" This just killed me just as much as it did the first time I watched this
It's deliberate gibberish. There are "translated" versions of all the songs. The lyrics have all the originality and emotional depth as a bumper sticker.
You can seach for Balan Wonderworld's OST and find that all the songs have versions with actual, spoken lyrics. They're all very well performed too, if not a bit campy. Largely just "feel-good" songs meant to just be uplifting, because that's kind of the entire theme of the game. Moving beyond the bad in life and finding good together. Even the theme music of the game itself is a full 2 minute song, which is unironically good. The problem is that for some esoteric fucking reason that we won't ever know unless Yuji Naka is forced into a life or death situation and made to explain it all, they decided it would be an apex brained idea to replace all the lyrics with baby-speak gibberish. Surely a decision made halfway through the same bowl he was smoking when he decided that that every climax should just be a recycled dance sequence with emotionless stage enemies instead of, you know, actually explaining what the fuck happened so people didn't have to buy an arbitrary tie-in book.
i saw this in a different video: if you manage to 100% the game, find ALL the items and get all "perfect" in ALL the "Balan Bout" scenes, one of your rewards is: ENGLISH LYRICS in the dance scenes!
The game would've been considerably better if Balan Team put what was in the tie-in novel into the game itself. I get the game is trying to be about traumatic experiences and learning to grow past them, but the game would've been way better if the traumatic events gradually got more serious as the game went on, starting with the farmer losing his crops and ending with the reveal of what brought the two main characters to Wonderworld. Like, one of the main characters loses their parents and as a result is afraid to make personal connections with people again and the other main character gets caught in a traumatic situation where they almost die, like the girl and the dolphin and as a result is afraid of taking risks and struggles to move on.
Instead of the parents died maybe they had a friend who they thought was an actual friend but they were just like prancing them or something and that’s why they don’t want to make social connections
To be generally honest, this game has its charm and its withdraws. While I do see many of the things that make it not as good at ALL, you can see here and there that some people in the team actually wanted to give it their all, such as some of the art, character designs, and sometimes even the animation (not all of it though). Like in some cutscenes, you can actually feel a nice warmth to it, kind of like the ending scene where everone thanked Balan. Breaks my heart even more seeing the art and such at the start of the video that actually look like it has passion in it. If the team was set up right, I'm betting this game would have been a unique one of it's kind. Not record breaking, but would definitely stand out more positively.
Iirc the reason it turned out so wonky is because almost all development time was spent on the costumes (since it's a one-button game, there have to be tons of costumes to get all the abilities you need) and very little time went into actually making the story coherent or understandable Like, the beautiful prerendered CGI cutscenes that give context to each character's plight were added towards the *end* of development because playtesters had no fucking clue what was going on It's such a damn shame because Balan's design is amazing and the opening cutscenes give a taste of what the game *could* have been if it had been polished and coherent instead of focusing on janky platforming
@@GreatFernicus So much could've been avoided if they had just used more than one button. Even many mobile games have more than one button. I looked up to see if any modders had been able to fix it. There's none, zero.
Wouldn't even be so bad if it was the other way around. Start the game on litter guy and then build up the stakes, games usually start on 0 and build up to 100 not the other way around.
@@songbird6991 did you mean "Literally nobody cares if I exist or whether I live or die; people don't care how hard I work to keep the sidewalks clean and just trash it again, people literally knock me down and run off without even noticing"?
31:57 gotta give credit where credit is due, this man fought the fire with nothing but a fireman suit and he won. This dude's a legend. He squared up against a burning building and won.
My least favorite part of the game is the fact that if it had been released like 6 years earlier balan would be the most thirsted after character on tumblr and honestly that scares me
So you see, the story of this game is quite easy to understand. Balan is a demon who waits until people are at their lowest point and offers them deals to get out of their problems, and you are trapped in the prison made from the souls he's claimed over the years. A prison he calls his Wonderworld. The world-theming and the first cutscene in every boss encounter shows what drove the victim to accept Balan's "help". The boss itself is the imprisoned soul, now dark and vengeful against its tormentor, and is freed once you defeat it (hence the dancing / celebration). Then the last cutscene shows the result of Balan's deal: he gives them exactly what they ask him for, but he knows their souls are bound by his contract and will end up in this prison eventually. Lance, a rival demon, had infiltrated Balan's Wonderworld to steal these souls and, in doing so, destroy Balan. That's when he makes a deal with your character. Your character's deal with Balan was to be able to make friends. Normally the price for this deal would be your soul, but with the threat of Lance to contend with, he decides to set his price as the death of Lance.
The dead cat arc in particular upsets me, because I looked it up, and it turned out _the cat didn't actually get hit by the car._ That cat the girl found in the ending cutscene? _It was the same cat._ She freaked out and gave into despair, or whatever the fuck happened, and _she didn't even bother to check if the cat actually died._
Tbf tho, think the girl was v young (or the sleepiness could be getting the best outta me, who knows). It is understandable if she got too scared to look at her possibly dead cat's ran over corpse with guts spilling and just assumed. (Note I said understandable, not good)
@@Crazy56U From what I understood, it was like- as soon as the cat was "ran over", she despaired and got into the wonderworld (correct me if I am wrong). Thus, it is possible she went to the wonderland before she could even have the time to ask someone to check.
Imagine if when they were making Mario Odyssey, every time they ran into a design issue and came up with a fun, clever solution, they fucked it up instead. This is what you would get.
That dude isn't beating those kids at chess, he intentionally loses because he recognises the kid's concentration face as similar to his own and learned that winning isn't everything. Or something.
@@freezingblade7258 apparently it actually has a relatively good story about mental health and stuff that is fairly impressive. in the book. Most of the good stuff wasn't even in the game from what I know....
Nah, there's a moment when he's hovering his piece over the square that would put the kid in checkmate, the flashback happens, and he places the piece in a different spot, allowing the kid to win with his next move.
most of this game feels like A Hat in Time if A Hat in Time saw it had an assignment due in 3 hours, downed an unfortunate amount of illicit substances, and kinda just... *went for it.*
This genuinely feels like square Enix saw the complaints of KH being confusing and convoluted and they went “oh you want something that doesn’t make sense? Have this!” And gave us this game
It feels nothing like that actually. The opposite of what you said, in fact. For two reasons. KH isn't as confusing as everyone thinks. It's actually very straightforward and easy to understand, despite all of the memes from idiots. PROVIDED you just naturally play the side games in order and stay awake during them and pay attention. But Balan Wonderworld isn't easy to understand at all because UNLIKE KH, it explains very actually little and Wonderworld makes you fill in a lot of specific gaps yourself. KH games have a meticulous glossary. Wonderworld has a handful of vague cutscenes that explain nothing.
@@the-NightStar What are you talking about, that story just makes no sense. All I really know is there's some anime guy in Disneyworld, and he tries beating up the edgy guy. But WHY?? What is the reason for the edgy guy to be doing bad things? Why are there a million of him? Why can't they just make a good story???
@@urgae9125 The entire premise of the games is the archetypical battle of light vs darkness, which is simple in and of itself. It takes a long time to explain, but once you know the details, it's understandable. It is just facts written on facts because it's a storyline that's been around for a couple decades. The MOST convoluted part is knowing what the next system to be able to play on will be. They jumped from playstation to gameboy back to playstation, with another important title on the psp, the pair of ds games, there was a game released on browser in japan that was then made into a phone game that added more plot... and all of these are plot-relevant. For the most part, the story is really more of a backdrop to give an excuse for the main character to visit a bunch of wacky and interesting disney worlds (square enix characters are from a new location called Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden), as well as mess around with the combat system. In general, the plot is: evil guy is gathering power to summon Kingdom Hearts (the collection of a certain type of hearts, there are actually multiple kingdom hearts's), which will allow his plans to come to fruition. In order to stop him, you have to explore worlds, meet new people, save their worlds, maybe find the next plot hook, and then move on to the next world - while also possibly learning lessons about friendship along the way.
What breaks my heart is that the character designs, animation (in the cutscenes) colours and visuals are all top-notch and incredibly well made. Yet, it was all gone to waste on poor game design and subpar storytelling.
@@ihopeicanchangethis8912 yeah, the fact it’s in a novel outside of the game that you have to buy separate from the game is the game not trying to tell the story.
It almost feel like someone in the game’s team heard that metroidvanias open up more of the world because you got a new power, and then said “I can do that” when they, in fact, could not
Honestly. Kinda makes me sad that this game is so fucked. You just know this was a total passion project. And everyone is (understandably) shitting on it lol. I played the demo for literally 3 mins and was done.
@@rrad9487 twas a video I watched In a nutshell- Just remake the whole bloody game at this point- I mean the male player, Ended up in balens world Due to having a ego the size of bakugou at the start of bnha/mha But, twas hard for em to make friends Lance, was sick and tired of making friends and then they leave the wonder world So, he told everyone that balen was keeping them prison (makes sense) And to escape how to embrace why your there Ore whatever Hence the bosses But the player wasen’t affected- And balen basically said- Ok, now go save everyone- The girl from the cat chapter And the girl from the clown chapter Are the same person- Turns out, when a boss is defeated they go back to their own timeline- Ore whatever YEH, this is what I mean- Just remake the game-
A RUclips Short from this channel convinced me to add _Balan Wonderworld_ to my Steam wishlist. Now that I’ve seen this entire video, I’m even more determined to experience the game for myself.
Nah it’s more like “can we make another NiGHTS game?” “No” “Fine well just take the NiGHTS concept and make something else but keep the one button design of NiGHTS for an open world platformer for some reason”
Ironically, it's not actually social anxiety. It's deliberate self-imposed isolation because of fearing loss (the character once had a best friend that they split from after an argument, and decided that being alone was better than losing a friend ever again).
This game's premise reminds me of the cartoon "Miraculous Ladybug," where people get turned into villains by the big bad during times of emotional stress. Some triggers are having your love unrequited or seeing your best friend being treated like trash, but then you have other triggers like "people don't like the pigeons in Paris" or "I'm a baby and I didn't get a lollipop."
Yes! It does seem like that. From the Wikipedia page he read and the game cut scenes, it also seems like the anime Pretty Cure. (I watched Heart Catch Precure and was unaware of just how many sessions/generations it had 'till I looked it up to double check the name.) Where people's "heart flowers" can be stolen by the bad guys in times of doubt or trouble. Or the anime Shugo Chara! where it's heart eggs. Same principle, but focusing more on talents and passions that drive a person. ..At least from what I remember from when I watched them.
I have a feeling I'll piss people off by saying this but I don't care: Why the hell does a cartoon show made for kids have such a dedicated fanbase? I mean I get Steven Universe and the Clone wars because they're actually pretty intriguing shows that touch on some pretty heavy topics. But Miraculous Ladybug? Why? It's a show where people who are mad turn into scary monsters because some moth man wants to kill two french teenagers in skin tight suits. Every episode it's just something along the lines of "Oh my dog pissed on my socks, so now I'm going to transform into the Dog Piss Sock monster and seek revenge!" I just don't get it man, I just don't get it.
@@Cairo40000 I totally agree with you it's kinda absurd how such a dumb low standard show has a dedicated fan base, but ngl I'm in the fan base. Most people are in it for the unrequited romance between the two main characters, and for the most part that keeps everyone's attention. But yeah it doesn't compare to a show like SU in terms of quality
whats funnier is lance could actually be a genius villain concept, feeding off the hearts of others and harvesting negative energy to create fearless servants, and then he’s placed in a wacky game like this and its like “oh, Filler Boss”
Can we just talk about 33:08, where he's nearly at the end of the game with 1634 ball things, and this game has prepared itself for you to get over 1 fucking million of them...
I - I - fuck - I - jesus christ, I looked _directly at_ the game's name like _fifty times_ and I _swore_ it was Balan Wonderland holy fucking fuck it's like all of reality just shifted around me
chapter 1: my entire produce was destroyed overnight due to a natural disaster placing me and my family in deep poverty and famine, maybe i could come back from it if it wasnt for the fact i may lose the farm due to being unable to pay for the land chapter 12: people dont notice how good i am at picking up trash :(
I like how the boys story is “he has social anxiety” and the girls is “her parents are on the brink of divorce” the exact same stakes for bost characters
In the same game as the brilliant contrast of "my parents died and I'm afraid of caring about anyone anymore" and "I lost at chess ONCE and my whole life is ruined" ladies and gentlemen
I mean- The chess guy's resolution is that he finds solace in teaching other people how to play chess and get better. The boy he beat reminded him of himself when he started playing. But for the reasons of funny I must admit I like the idea he just feels better beating this child in a game he's played for years.
I would like to also point out, chess guy purposefully lost to the kid. In the scene after he has the flash back we see the kid excited and the guy acting bashful in a "hey you got me" kind of way"
The best part about the dance scenes is that everyone has flat, dead faces as if their being forced to dance
we have to dance or Mr balan will get the belt
Like puppets on a string
Balan wonderworld propaganda
They could have had everyone have permanent smiles like how Balan kinda looked like he had.
Well they are
the sad thing is the fact that the entire story of the game is in the novel.
The chess Guy's actual story was that he was obsessed with chess and when he finally lost his title he found out he neglected his dying wife and came home to find her dead and he fell into a depression. Once the main characters restore his heart he moves on to tech the next generation how to play chess.
This went from 0 to 100 real fucking fast
I feel like all of the character stories aren't awful, but the execution kinda killed the meaningfulness of them
That’s fucked omg
Ok but the way they showed it in the game was just "guy loses a game of chess then gets better when he wins against children" but honestly that's incredibly sad
He teaches the new generation chess. Of course! So that THEY can then be distracted from their dying family and friends. Makes perfect sense.
i like how two of the stories were "my cat literally died" and "my parents are dead and i don't love anyone anymore" and the final one was "people litter"
Priorities
"i lost a chess game"
And don't you dare forget "people don't like what i like"
But like, it's not. It's about being underappreciated for the work you do. That's why the chapter was called "the man no one saw" and why he was invisible in cutscene. I know it was REALLY subtle and all, but bear with me on this.
@@Glitch_Man42 yeah but the funny interpretation is funnier
Omg I just realised: with Balan as good and Lance as evil, you can find true harmony when they're together.. in BaLance
WAIT YOUR RIGHT WHAT
Wait this cant be real
How did I not notice this the first time I watched this video
The game is for literal children
Balanlance
@@patpat4937 no-
Fun fact about this game, all the cutscenes were added later into development because play testers had no idea what was happening so square Enix got a different company to just add them in at the last minute
And they did an amazing job.
And the best part? We still don't know what's happening! 10/10
Apparently they didn't send it back to the play testers.
Why is this me when I finish an essay but didn’t include everything I needed from the prompt
Not just any different company. The guys who make the FFXIV opening cutscenes
The worst part about the Polar Express cutscene is that it serves literally no purpose. Trains are meant to take you to different places. But all that happens here is you circle around the island, and then go right back to where you started. You get on this fantastic magical train, and go NOWHERE!
@New Under Craft no 796 like now
Like in life in general
Also the train it Balan wonderworld is like if the train in Japan just went around your house
Alex the 9 has better trains
It’s all a metaphor in this never before seen gaming experience for gamers across the world
6:46 "do they....kiss?"
I swear that had to be almost everyone's first thought when that cutscene played
Your doppio pfp is how I feel about those cutscenes
What part of the video?
6:46
Im not sure if they kiss I think she just tackled a man twice the size of her
i swear i thought that too. it's the romantic music
Fun fact:
Almost 90% of the actual story of this game was sold in a separate art book that might have also been JP exclusive
To any video game developers who might see this: DO NOT put the main plot of your game into a separate book. The main plot belongs IN THE GAME.
@@MajoradeMayhem I know right? It seems to be more prevalent for JP developed games. Like it’s just more common. Sometimes manga will have a canon video game that ties one part of the manga to the next, which gets extra confusing. Cuz if you don’t play the video game there’s just info missing.
@@MajoradeMayhemno i think it should be done for the sequel for this award winning masterpeice
well not artbook, just regular book. And not JP exclusive either. But yeah in an attempt to make "a game anyone can play no matter what" they ended up making a game noone can understand no matter what
@@MajoradeMayhemunless you’re Fnaf, Fnaf gets a pass
Love how the tragedies of these characters range from "My entire family died" and "I lost a dear childhood pet" to "I had artist's block" and "I, a firefighter, was alarmed by the fire"
Don't forget "I lost a game of chess."
@@jasonkeith2832 and "frick, I'm a nerd who likes bugs."
@@abbycollins and, "DAMMIT! I'M A CLOWN!"
A dolphin maimed me
Next is gonna be, “The underside of my pillow was room temperature”. Balan Wonderworld 2, I’m calling it
I love how “her entire family died” and “he lost once at chess” are treated as the same in this game
Is it not?
and people litter
I actually feel the way it handles some of these things is kind a true to life. It’s very clear that some of these things aren’t actually “problems“ but they mean a lot to the character. There are many people in this world, including myself, that put a lot of themselves or their emotions into something that admittedly don’t really matter. A lot of people do it for different reasons but I’m not one to judge and I can’t make that call. There were also some things that were in the book that didn’t get conveyed in the game about why characters had problems the way they did. The guy who “lost the chess game“ actually was feeling a sense of grief because after he began spiraling downward trying to figure out why he kept losing in chess he didn’t notice his wife was getting more sick and she passed away causing him to blame himself. Really would’ve been great to see that in the game. I’m getting off topic. One of the things I felt the game handled really well was even though it was obvious to the player that not all these things had the same weight to everyone, no one person‘s problem was treated as though it was worse than the others. Just because we agree that losing someone’s family is worse than not being able to ask out your crush, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t still horrible for the people involved.
@@w.o.iproductions248 you're looking deeper into this than they probably did
@@w.o.iproductions248 dude calm down this game is not worth a collage essay
20:26 “It gets hit by a car” being immediately followed by the game actually having the cat get hit by a car fucking killed me.
The subsequent laughter is gold.
Same with the deforestation joke.
But it didn't kill the cat.
They ripped this off yokai watch lmao
No it killed the cat not you
12:10 "This costume's lantern flickers on and off WHEN IT FEELS LIKE IT, allowing the wearer to Illuminate dark areas." That, more than anything else, absolutely kills me.
it could’ve just said “for a certain amount of time”.. sigh
when i first saw this comment i thought you were quoting alpharad or something. like it was some kind of bit that i just forgot about.
no.
that's literally just how the game describes it.
why is this game like this
@@SQUISHYCANDYGUTI mean true, but they could have bound it to a button... any butto- OH WAIT THEY CAN'T BeCAuSE ItS AlL JumP.
@@darrellwillis4871GAMe dEsigN yAY
at 32:49, the Invisible Man costume has the same text. that's what kills me. THERE'S MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF THAT
It’s even worse. The guy you played as was so good at dancing that he felt ostracized from his peers because of how good his dancing is. That’s the book.
moves so good they gave me depression
The fuck ? Is that legit ?
And people all over the comment section praise the book like it's a masterpiece. God damn.
@@miserirken shmoovin to an early grave
@@sirocco2810 when compared to the game, it is a masterpiece. It isn't a hard feat, of course, but at least it made sense.
@@LockeGran I respect this take
I’m convinced this is the dark parallel reality alternative to one where it was called “Balan Wonderland” and was the greatest game of the decade.
we are the bizarro universe, a one-off joke where the main reality laughs at the weirdness of ours. Heck, we even got a reality television star to be our president. Regardless of your political stance, you have to admit that sounds like a joke reality.
@@jasonbrose6743 i fuckin hate this joke i wanna go to the fuckin prime universe
Tbf this game COULD be such an awesome game... it has a great idea the theme arround teather and broadway dances is an awesome gimmick and the actual story (THAT WAS RELEASED IN A FRICKIN BOOK) is pretty damn good.
Its such a wasted potential that makes me sad actually
@@mauriciomeireles1210 i'm most broken up because Balan actually looks really damn good, like he looks like something from Danganronpa, he has the same vibe as that Danganronpa teddy bear
@@mauriciomeireles1210 I agree! I'm a sucker for fantasy stories that focus on someone helping other people's inner struggles that literally transform them into monsters. Plus, the whole aesthetic of the game is amazing, it's zany and fantastical in a willy wonka kind of way, which I love so much!
I just wish it was put in a game with actual good controls and a more polished experience.
The fact that every button is the jump button makes this the best platforming game ever
Honestly what’s the point of other buttons
Who needs running and long jumping when u can jump
Also love your vids
At least you won't forget the controls
Multiple solutions to one problem it is the same level design as BOTW
For some reason, I feel like Balan would be a Tumblr sexyman if this game was less obscure.
it's because he looks like fucking Jax-
@@itsonlyzaq I made my comment before Digital Circus was released, but now, I can’t unsee it.
@kokopium8003 I suddenly had the feeling, so I just HAD to.
I can already see the blonde white guy gijinka of balan
he actually is one. there's a very thriving tumblr fandom for this game.
Balan Wonderworld is like that one kid who spent 3 days studying for a science test, but did that studying for a math test. You can't deny the effort they made, but they most certainly put their effort in the wrong subject
No, because studying math can actually help with science. It's more like they studied archaelogy for a math test.
I agree. Make this into a movie or netflix series and you'll have all my money. But I aint buying a game that plays like garbage.
It’s more like they spent hours perfecting their handwriting for a math test. Sure their handwriting, looks nice, but they have no idea how to do it
@@brethebird3148 that sums it up best they polished the cutscenes so much they forgot they were making a game
They might have studied, but they still get an f lmao
I had a fever dream last night, there was a new level of Balan's Wonderworld. Its fucking Grubhub. The boss's back story was that the kid dropped his burger.
i can see the cutscene so vividly
Ayo new Balan wonderworld dlc 😳😳😳😳
oK😐
LMAOO
XD
I too hate when my social anxiety causes me to be transported into a metaphysical dream dimension overseen by someone who doesn't know how to wear a hat.
i like vodka
just a typical tuesday for me tbh
Yeah! I was promised a train that goes on forever!
@@Sandux930 same
My guess is that he’s supposed to be the foil for the kids in a sense. He’s got magic but he was anti social and shy so he wore the get up to preform but also interact with people because he couldn’t do so normally. The kids overcoming their issues and thanking him in the end made him take it off because he was inspired to try and make friends on his own.
This is probably my 10th time watching this and I just realized that Balan is in every flashback, so my theory is Balan makes these people lives miserable just to kidnap them, and Evil Balan is just a manifestation that actual Balan made to try and stop the kids from helping everybody.
OOOORRRRR you could just read the novelization tie-in that explains Balan and Lance's backstories.
@crystaljon you shouldn't have to do that to understand the story of a game. It should've been explained in the game
I mean you're remarkably close to the actual lore, even if you got it exactly backwards, so good job!
@@crystaljonso what is their backstories
Oh god
You're right
I once got my head actually stuck in a top hat as a kid, and Balan's design reminds me of that, except maybe a universe where I either couldn't get my head out and had to cut holes in the hat for eyes, or I just straight up suffocated and still couldn't get the hat off and then decided to become a ghost stripper once of legal ghost age. Horrifying.
I'd watch that anime
I'm happy we're in the universe where you're alive, but I can't help but feel we're missing out on undead ScarfDragon stripper of legal ghost age because of it.
You know your history can be a balan chapter
"the kid who has nightmares with hats"
@@ycleptprof.5249 tfw no undead ScarfDragon stripper of legal ghost age bf
I died at *ghost stripper*
“Mom I went on a magical journey and now I finally have enough confidence to tell you, I’m going to clown college and you can’t stop me”
Good job Steve O
"Ok. I don't think any of us saw that coming."
“Okay sonny boy!”
College
What a clown.
“Is this a story-based game?”
“It’s just a based game”
Fucking golden
I know right
Classic Jawsh
Iconic
It is definitely one of the games I've ever played.
I remember that line when I first saw this but I can’t find it now
My interpretation of each story
Fuck-It-Up Farmer Ted: Lost years of hard work due to natural disasters but finding a small remainder of corn that survived gave him hope to restart
Diver: Was friends with a dolphin (big mistake), the dolphin tried to kill her, sending her to the hospital, which made her afraid of the water, but she got over it soon
Bug Girl: A girl obsessed with bugs tries to connect with others but gets bullied instead, only to find people who share an interest with her later
Pilot: A guy who dreamed of soaring through the sky constantly fails and the video didn't show the end-dance cutscene so I can't draw a conclusion
Nature Woman: A woman has the forest she loves get cut down by people who never stopped to give a shit and then she teaches them how to give a shit
Cat Girl: A girl loves her cat a lot. Cat gets ran over. Girl is sad. Cat comes back. Girl is no longer sad.
Grandmaster Wannabe: A guy who had a very high win streak on chess got so obsessed that he didn't care about anything else. He loses once and goes crazy because god complex. He gets over it by letting a kid win.
Ice Queen: A girl who lost her parents in the winter gets too scared to love her fiancé thinking that, if she loves him, he'll die too. It's resolved by them marrying and her realizing that winter's a bitch
Clown: A guy fears that he will be rejected if he puts on the persona he uses for entertainment purposes, so he confesses with his true personality
Artist: A highly renowned artist gets crushed by pressure of trying to magic something up through artist block (artist block is just 'you can't get creative') without disappointing people. She resolves it by somehow finding inspiration and making the next masterpiece
Firefighter: A firefighter fails at his job in saving people, blames it on himself, and loses all courage. Resolved by gaining the courage to rush through a burning building and saving the survivors
Grandpa: An old guy who picks up litter out of the kindness of his heart constantly gets his hard work reversed by an entire wave of litter being thrown on the ground by entitled people, thus making him feel like nobody cares about him. Resolved by one person not littering through the kindness of their heart
Protag: A person who can't dance saves everyone from their worries and regains the ability to dance
Misread the chess guy as Grandma Wannabe.
Congratulations, you made better stories than the actual people making the game
This is well worth the read, but you got a like out the gate for the Snapcube reference
@@graverobbingcleric2745 where?
@@jojogacha974 f*** it up Farmer Ted
“Is this is a story based game?”
“This is just a based game”
You see that’s where you’re wrong cause it is neither based or a game
No sorry this game is bluepilled
game
Based on what?
@@current9300 based on you havin 0 hoes
"He lost once, so he plays against children to feel better"
Wasn't this an episode of iCarly?
That's just competitive Pokémon.
That's just Alpharads job
Yes.
he actually lost on purpose in the game, though it’s hard to tell
@Paraster lol I was thinking thinking that
Balan’s Wonderworld 2 will include such riveting stories as “the man who found the crossword too hard for his liking” and “the girl who burnt the toast.”
If only the team that made the game didn’t get disbanded for making such a terrible game
Or “person spills milk”
Dont forget "a war criminal who cant look in the eyes of his own family because of his guilt" but that motivation is kinda mid ngl
@@МарияДолотова-э6е I agree, I think the better story was “The man who opened the door for a woman, and she didn’t bang him in bed”
"The creator who was arrested for insider trading"
My favorite part about this game is that Yuji Naka committed insider trading against Square Enix after this game bombed. Really classy, Naka.
@@duckbuster1572 You make it sound like ain’t nobody know who Sonic is
@@duckbuster1572 Bro really tryna slander Sonic the Hedgehog by calling him “Mario but he’s a ball”
@@duckbuster1572 didnt he program the games physics?
@@duckbuster1572 But that still paved the way towards Sonic's creation. Still deserves more credit than what you gave him.
This game is a perfect example of a group project, the animators did an amazing job but everyone else didn’t
That's not fair, I say the composer and character designers pulled their weight 😂
@@casperrabbit7254 Music, designs, and the primal idea were delightfull. But then there was story, gameplay and the rest...
@@casperrabbit7254 yea ur right
@@ElementalAer The story's fine, it's just... not in the game. Or barely in the game. Like what kind of story doesn't even bother telling you the names of over half its characters?
I'd say cooking makes a better analogy.
You can have all the most premium of ingredients but it will still be a waste if you don't know the recipe.
Sure this Flatbread is salvageable if used like a tortilla, but everything was prepared with intention to make a fluffy loaf of bread.
It's so annoying, because this game could've been such a good "fun" way to teach kids how to process all kinds of emotional stuff, like defeat, loosing someone you love etc.
But instead they did this...
Y e h
Or it could've been a story telling masterpiece about letting go of your grief in a Willy-Wonka-esque fantasy narrative.
It's like someone gave that pitch to an alien who had no conception of human emotions or experience and could only try to imitate them while hoping that no one would notice.
@@Ciretako Either that, or they fed countless of musicals and feel good movies to an AI and this is what the computer generated based on those.
@@abbycollins That would also be coolm
"I think its to remind the protagonist that he has social anxiety"
But yet he's been dancing with everyone he sees for 13 chapters
its helping him not have social anxiety
It's because he forgot that's why he had to be reminded!
@@bombyman84 10/10 plot
this game skips the entire prologue and setting to pop us right in the middle of the story. Which is incredibly shitty.
Leo actually meets the people in the Wonderworld and actually develops bonds with them, the he and Emma remember this, they are unable to turn into Guardians and Balan is capable of telling them what actually was going on in the Magical Theater, so they decide to help him wake up the dreamers of the Wonderworld and make them face their problems, to resolve them. The moment their stages change to battle mode is on the middle of the story, when Emma and Leo receive the power to use the power of dreams to turn into the denizens of the stages and use their abilities.
Another shitty thing, is that there were a lot of scenarios they were able to use....but a review panel was the one that chose the most "safe" of the scenarios. Remember, this place is for people with severe trauma......so yeah, there were a lot of darker scenarios. The girl that got her cat ran over and the bride whose family died were among the original darkest ones.
@@garreonlefay6703 question: why do you know that?
Why did you bother to know that?
you forgot to mention:
not only does EVERY new costume require a Key to obtain, some are well hidden, AND if you take ANY damage from ANY enemy, the costume is LOST and you have to unlock it again...
which often means re-starting the entire level.
AND using costumes in different levels from where you found them can have crazy results!
oh, one more thing: the game has a 2-player co-op mode, and of the players TOUCH, they get stuck together, allowing one player to control both characters...
AND, if the second player presses any jump button at the right time, you can DOUBLE-JUMP, even with NO costume!
WHAT
God, makes this game sound more like Balan BROKENworld to me. 😭😅
Fun fact: Balan and Lance were named so their names formed "Balance" together, which goes back to the whole deal with people getting transported to Wonderworld when their heart loses balance like the wiki says.
If this game had a cohesive and/or well-developed plot, I'd find that small detail incredibly satisfying.
Balanlance
@@c731-enfi balanlanlance
@archivemi balanlanlanlanlance
@@flopdeop135 balanlanlanlanlanlance
Banban😊
"What are you in for?"
"My entire family died"
"Cool, my invention broke and I got mad"
I love the implication that this is just a fucking prison
@@shadowsableyexd2660 It is
"I lost a game of chess."
"Oh it must've been a pretty important game, did they take something from you?"
"Yeah, my dub"
i lost a
a game of chess
@@Asa44y But to someone whose entire world and self is predicated on being the best, losing shatters everything. As an anime example, look at someone like Vegeta or Kaiba. They see themselves as the absolute pinnacle of what they do (martial arts and Duel Monsters, respectively), and their first real loss causes them to briefly snap (and in a way, they never quite recover, thus their obsession with beating their rival)
“Is this a story based game?”
“It’s just a based game”
So true bro
Redpilled game.
My exact thoughts
All I want to say is baron is just based hisoka
that was such a raw line on jawsh's part
Based? Based on what?
"Does she believe in deforestation?" is SUCH a wild line with SO MANY implications
i love how the backstories range from
"i lost my crops to a tornado"
"a dolphin attacked me"
"my cat died"
to absolutely tragic stories like
"i lost a game of chess"
"people stopped liking my art for some reason"
and who could forget
"littering"
I get the littering one
OMG CHESS IS SO SAD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
The artist didn’t make bad art it just she took pictures of random things and used the paint filter
"People stopped liking my art for some reason"
Hold up I've seen this before-
Can’t forget “I’m a clown she won’t love me” and “I’m shit at inventing”
the game gets rid of the protagonists depression by giving it to me
and me-
"Here player take this so our protagonist doesn't have to deal with it!"
Everyone say thank you Kagamine Len for absorbing our problems
@@benotafra1d Thank you banana boi
equivalent exchange
This game is like if Persona 5 and Disney had a deformed child, and then Disney cheated on Persona 5 with Hamilton, and then the house caught on fire and Mario Oddessy jumped in. *chef's kiss*
Mastahpeece lmao
Why does this make sense?
This is exactly it
This is very oddly specific and I'll die for that
And they are all cousins
I like how Square Enix’s solution to not putting crucial story elements into their games that would make it less confusing is
“Eh, make a movie or a book or something”
"Would you like to purchase this DLC/movie/novel to know what happens?"
moral of this game: if you have social anxiety, just backflip
If I could back flip I wouldn't have social anxiety.
@@fictionarch there you go, learning already
"Oh, you have social anxiety, just fucking dance!"
But a backflip is a 360! You can't turn your life around with a 360
@@tinkerermelon6599 Proceeds to stop at 180 degrees and starts walking like a dog in Minecraft named dinnerbone.
"Is that a love interest or a child?"
"God I hope it's not both."
Same
When do they say that
@@Wyvernlord6 23:35 after the chess guy fight
I hope its both 😳
(This is a joke)
@@patriciacardenas958 you and i are not so different
(this is a joke)
You know, considering ice girl’s trauma is that her *family literally died and she can’t bring herself to be emotionally vulnerable with another human being again* , she would’ve made a better final level than “I feel like nobody appreciates the work I do”
These definitely need to be reordered for sure- I'm like 90% sure they kept them in the order they came up with them in.
Shes a better final boss
the art girl should be next to the farmer dude because their scenario is kinda the same
@@tonykhang1984 thsts something that depends on the person. In my opinion, losing your family is way worse
@@phantomnite i was talking about the next to last person who didnt lose thier family and the first one who also didnt
32:50 I find it funny how the invisible man costume says it switches between visibility and invisibility when it feels like it.
Yeah the lantern also says that…there’s also a box fox costume that changes you between moving and COMPLETE stillness again whenever the fuck the costume decides it wants to be a box.
14:25 "dude you had 17 jump button and you didn`t use any of them" crack`s me up every time
I dunno man, should've had 18 jump buttons.
@@RGC_animation nah 20, gotta round it up
Welcome to suffering, my friend.
There’s a hot farmer character there is no suffering friend. (´∀｀)
Suffering did not include dancing until now :)
At least he didn't play multiplayer
Choc, I'm so sorry my guy. You didn't deserve to play through this entire game
You love it dont lie.
Literally the opening acts of the game:
"A tornado wiped out my entire crop yield, wasting months of hard labor"
"A dolphin I scuba dove with broke my oxygen tank and damn near killed me"
Endgame:
"I lost a single game of chess"
"People litter"
Like, those two from the beginning, plus "My entire fucking family died and I don't feel like I can be close to anybody else now" could have literally been the final world. Give the game a sense of the stakes increasing.
The “people litter” one is a bit more complicated, it’s actually about a old man who tries to clean up people who litter, but everyday he just comes back to more trash, even when he tries to tell people to stop they keep doing it, making him feel like he dosent exist
Not trying to invalidate your comment, I do think it’s a bit weird as the last chapter before the finale, I think it could of been a perfect mid game boss though
@@ashers1930 Shh I’m trying to be as dismissive as possible for the joke
@@nategwright oh sorry
There's also the "I can't think of anything to draw" lady, I have this issue a lot where I can't think of anything to draw or create, but I don't give myself a heart attack from it.
Some better endgame levels could maybe involve someone upset about moving or something.
30:39 Ladder man is so powerful he can spin a ladder without even touching the ladder
Wireless touching
Ladder-kenisis
It’s like this entire game was written by a 4 year old
“And then the farmer gets evil by evil balan and then they dance”
I think this game is a metaphor for motivation
His name is Lance goddamnit
Lance & True Form Lance:You Called?
@@filipsstarymultiverse lol i didn't realize he had a true form lol. 😳
@@dylanbyrd4290 it's a joke
32:50
_Can we just appreciate the fact that the description for the Invisible Man costume says “This costume switches between making the wearer invisible and visible _*_when it feels like it”_*
Your lungs will make oxygen when they feel like it
there are a lot of costumes in this game that do their thing "when it feels like it" because they didn't want to create a second button that activate the action instead of jump.
The best one is that one that turns you into a cube that you can't control when it feels like it.
just like Fox Box and the weird plant lamp thing.
Yep. Rather than have TWO buttons, all of the costumes either add an effect to the jump, replace the jump entirely, or activate automatically at random without user input.
@@chrismanuel9768
mmm yes game design
In an alternate universe, Balan was absolutely tumblr's next top sexyman. I think we actually dodged a bullet, guys-
Nah Lance (evil balan) is clearly the best pick here.
He and The Once-ler could have crossed over potentially
Bold of you to say in an alternate universe
he has no right having such an interesting character design in a game like this
yknow i want this to happen just to see where it will go.
"is this an allegory for ww2?
several minutes later
"he's probably just bad at art"
underrated comment
NAH 💀💀💀
This is my favorite comment ever on an Alpharad video. Ever.
Oh goodness.!
💀
Can I just say? The secondhand _embarrassment_ level that struck when the first dance number broke out nearly flatlined me instantly.
and then there were eleven more...
I get second hand Embarrassment as well, but thankfully it doesn’t extend to games. IRL though, if this happened I would probably black out and become a fridge or something
wait is that what that was? I honestly thought I was having a stroke XD
Duhhh ghosts can't have a stroke
@@Sandux930 they can. The symptoms are a bit different though
"The Man Seen By No One":
Credit where it's due, they understood well how many people would make it to the last level of the game.
Ouch, wicked burn. Made me laugh!
ZzzZzzzzzzz🎉
The worst part about this video for me is seeing how good all the boss designs are, and then remembering the quality of everything else.
Ugh I feel like the bosses are ruined by the game
@@aaaaaaa7808 the game is ruined by the game
I don't understand the game cus one moment its Pixar, the next moment its a unity asset flip. Like seriously, 3d modeling a box to move around synchronously is one of the first things you learn in 3d animation, and that is what they show you after beatimg6a fucking boss.
They obviously know how to animate, so why is everything In game motion captured?
How did this game turn out this way
Hi pvz rule 34
@@InsertFunnyThingHere where did that even come from--
I can't tell if the lyrics of the dance segments are an odd Japanese dialect or a fake Sims language, but I won't look it up
"BALAN'S AN ORDAINED MINISTER!?" This just killed me just as much as it did the first time I watched this
It's deliberate gibberish. There are "translated" versions of all the songs. The lyrics have all the originality and emotional depth as a bumper sticker.
You can seach for Balan Wonderworld's OST and find that all the songs have versions with actual, spoken lyrics. They're all very well performed too, if not a bit campy. Largely just "feel-good" songs meant to just be uplifting, because that's kind of the entire theme of the game. Moving beyond the bad in life and finding good together. Even the theme music of the game itself is a full 2 minute song, which is unironically good.
The problem is that for some esoteric fucking reason that we won't ever know unless Yuji Naka is forced into a life or death situation and made to explain it all, they decided it would be an apex brained idea to replace all the lyrics with baby-speak gibberish. Surely a decision made halfway through the same bowl he was smoking when he decided that that every climax should just be a recycled dance sequence with emotionless stage enemies instead of, you know, actually explaining what the fuck happened so people didn't have to buy an arbitrary tie-in book.
@@Mgaugeit's like splatoon but worse
i saw this in a different video:
if you manage to 100% the game, find ALL the items and get all "perfect" in ALL the "Balan Bout" scenes, one of your rewards is:
ENGLISH LYRICS in the dance scenes!
@@kotozaki-psplatoon is at least like...garbled Japanese or something
The game would've been considerably better if Balan Team put what was in the tie-in novel into the game itself. I get the game is trying to be about traumatic experiences and learning to grow past them, but the game would've been way better if the traumatic events gradually got more serious as the game went on, starting with the farmer losing his crops and ending with the reveal of what brought the two main characters to Wonderworld. Like, one of the main characters loses their parents and as a result is afraid to make personal connections with people again and the other main character gets caught in a traumatic situation where they almost die, like the girl and the dolphin and as a result is afraid of taking risks and struggles to move on.
Instead of the parents died maybe they had a friend who they thought was an actual friend but they were just like prancing them or something and that’s why they don’t want to make social connections
@@Fire_Spark51 in other words, afraid of making friends because they had a false friend who exploited them?
Honestly if you want a 3D platformer about trauma and mental health, just play Psychonauts instead. Its much better than... this.
@@katherinesmallbean3594 TRUUUUUUUUUUE lmao, there’s 2 of them (tho 2 does way better then 1)
Your comment immediately reminded me of the Persona games, specially the 4th one, LMAO
"Balan's an ordained minister?!" is a sentence that I could never be prepared for.
It's honestly easy to do. You can just get a certificate online in like five minutes.
I absolutely wasn't ready. I needed like 5 minutes to breathe lmao
Same with "guys, I don't think we can help her with this one" right after the family died.
Fun fact: dolphins have the capacity to be evil, so the dolphin from chapter 2 was definitely trying to kill the girl
Yes
God, in all hail King Julian the dolphins try to kidnap sharks to sell to the Russians
That's pretty tame for dolphins
They're kinda into recreational murders and gang r*pe.
Dolphins are fucked up.
Well that took a turn
To be generally honest, this game has its charm and its withdraws. While I do see many of the things that make it not as good at ALL, you can see here and there that some people in the team actually wanted to give it their all, such as some of the art, character designs, and sometimes even the animation (not all of it though). Like in some cutscenes, you can actually feel a nice warmth to it, kind of like the ending scene where everone thanked Balan. Breaks my heart even more seeing the art and such at the start of the video that actually look like it has passion in it. If the team was set up right, I'm betting this game would have been a unique one of it's kind. Not record breaking, but would definitely stand out more positively.
Yeah I agree don’t know how they got it so wrong
Iirc the reason it turned out so wonky is because almost all development time was spent on the costumes (since it's a one-button game, there have to be tons of costumes to get all the abilities you need) and very little time went into actually making the story coherent or understandable
Like, the beautiful prerendered CGI cutscenes that give context to each character's plight were added towards the *end* of development because playtesters had no fucking clue what was going on
It's such a damn shame because Balan's design is amazing and the opening cutscenes give a taste of what the game *could* have been if it had been polished and coherent instead of focusing on janky platforming
@@GreatFernicus So much could've been avoided if they had just used more than one button. Even many mobile games have more than one button. I looked up to see if any modders had been able to fix it. There's none, zero.
So the stories range from
“I lost in chess” to
“Everyone I loved is dead”
You forgot the last part
“People litter even after I pick it up”
Don’t forget “I had artist’s block for a short while”
Wouldn't even be so bad if it was the other way around. Start the game on litter guy and then build up the stakes, games usually start on 0 and build up to 100 not the other way around.
"my friends dont like bugs"
@@songbird6991 did you mean "Literally nobody cares if I exist or whether I live or die; people don't care how hard I work to keep the sidewalks clean and just trash it again, people literally knock me down and run off without even noticing"?
You could shove Dora the Explorer's "We did it!" song and it'd fit with every single one of these dance numbers. You can't tell me otherwise.
I hate you for saying this.
The first song almost begins the same way
exactly
you deserve more like just for how right you are...
Honestly it would probably be better, at least then I would somewhat get what was happening
31:57 gotta give credit where credit is due, this man fought the fire with nothing but a fireman suit and he won. This dude's a legend. He squared up against a burning building and won.
Madlad fought fire with fists.
"Oh shit i forgot all my equipment"
@@WompodReviews *"Better start ballin"*
@@CozyOrSomethingba infhhrnhddd
This is the equivalent of Pokémon type matchups
12:12 NO WAY THAT IS NOT EDITED! “This custome’s lantern turns on and off when it feels like it”
I saw Balan and thought, "what awesome character! This must be awesome!" and then there was this
i do really enjoy his design and he would be better in a show or a manga than a game.
@@nelydoe
PARAPPA PFP SPOTTED. INITIATING COMPLIMENT...
u r based
@@nelydoe Agreeeeed, so much wasted potential
do y’all really want another onceler
Yeah, what a waste of good character designs and high budget graphics.
Only one sentence was echoing in my mind during the first dance scene: “fuck it up farmer Ted”
FUCK IT UP FARMER TED!
What's that from?
@@M12GProductions From Snapscubes playthrough
EFF IT UP FARMER TED
*Dougal pops up from the hay bails dressed as a meerkat*
My least favorite part of the game is the fact that if it had been released like 6 years earlier balan would be the most thirsted after character on tumblr and honestly that scares me
There would have been yaoi fan art of him and Lane
Ship name Balalance
@@flowersandcheesecake1710 you are correct and I absolutely hate you for it 🤣
@@agent_8167 ☺️
@@flowersandcheesecake1710 wouldnt that be like selfcest?
@@breannecandelaro8013 Yes
So you see, the story of this game is quite easy to understand.
Balan is a demon who waits until people are at their lowest point and offers them deals to get out of their problems, and you are trapped in the prison made from the souls he's claimed over the years. A prison he calls his Wonderworld. The world-theming and the first cutscene in every boss encounter shows what drove the victim to accept Balan's "help". The boss itself is the imprisoned soul, now dark and vengeful against its tormentor, and is freed once you defeat it (hence the dancing / celebration). Then the last cutscene shows the result of Balan's deal: he gives them exactly what they ask him for, but he knows their souls are bound by his contract and will end up in this prison eventually.
Lance, a rival demon, had infiltrated Balan's Wonderworld to steal these souls and, in doing so, destroy Balan. That's when he makes a deal with your character. Your character's deal with Balan was to be able to make friends. Normally the price for this deal would be your soul, but with the threat of Lance to contend with, he decides to set his price as the death of Lance.
I get you're probably joking, but no. There's a novel that explains the story.
@@greenapple9477 Oh it's absolutely a joke, don't worry. I'm not out here trying to ruin the sanctity of Balan lore XD
Ah yes tragic character backstories
“I got bullied”
“My cat died”
“My family died”
*”I lost a game of chess :(”*
what perfect storytelling
The chess looser... he is having such a sad story T__T
to think that this is from the same people that made Final fantasy...
@@imperialspacemarine1539 This maybe were there final fantasy *badumm tss...*
"I got drowned to death by a dolphin that stole my oxygen tank as a prank"
A tornado destroyed my cornfield :(
The dead cat arc in particular upsets me, because I looked it up, and it turned out _the cat didn't actually get hit by the car._
That cat the girl found in the ending cutscene? _It was the same cat._ She freaked out and gave into despair, or whatever the fuck happened, and _she didn't even bother to check if the cat actually died._
Sounds like an overly cryptic way to teach about Schrödinger's cat
Tbf tho, think the girl was v young (or the sleepiness could be getting the best outta me, who knows). It is understandable if she got too scared to look at her possibly dead cat's ran over corpse with guts spilling and just assumed. (Note I said understandable, not good)
@@yasminsilva340 Fair, but I think she could’ve at least asked someone else to check.
@@Crazy56U From what I understood, it was like- as soon as the cat was "ran over", she despaired and got into the wonderworld (correct me if I am wrong). Thus, it is possible she went to the wonderland before she could even have the time to ask someone to check.
@@Crazy56U tbf, the game (or at least the video) left it rlly unclear about when exactly the chars get sucked into the wonderland... Hard to tell.
"If you’re being bullied, stop"
No no, he's on to something
Bro you got shot? Just stop bleeding ain’t that hard
Drowning? Breathe.
you're*
@@_hollowsky that’s what I said
@@ragingmonkeycritic we can all see the edited tag buddy
Other Characters : *Near-Death Experience, Lost Loved One, Failing in Life*
Chess Guy : “no i lost at chess 😢”
This game’s concept and atmosphere had so much potential and it’s painful to see how badly they blew it
Hello, fellow hollow knight OC pfp
This is a never before seen gaming experience idk what you’re saying
Frrr tho, if they had a good team then this game wouldve actually been so cool
@@jjtpg well, it was developed by arzest and this was their first 3d venture...so that explains it.
@@jjtpg hey, think of it this way, maybe they can make a good sequel
Imagine if when they were making Mario Odyssey, every time they ran into a design issue and came up with a fun, clever solution, they fucked it up instead. This is what you would get.
Ok ruining the no comment after 700 likes vibe
Lol
That dude isn't beating those kids at chess, he intentionally loses because he recognises the kid's concentration face as similar to his own and learned that winning isn't everything. Or something.
To be fair, no sense of symbolism can make this game make sense. But thanks for the explanation
@@freezingblade7258 apparently it actually has a relatively good story about mental health and stuff that is fairly impressive.
in the book.
Most of the good stuff wasn't even in the game from what I know....
oh, I thought he just started teaching kids how to play chess. huh
I thought he was teaching the kids, so they can be the best chess masters
Nah, there's a moment when he's hovering his piece over the square that would put the kid in checkmate, the flashback happens, and he places the piece in a different spot, allowing the kid to win with his next move.
most of this game feels like A Hat in Time if A Hat in Time saw it had an assignment due in 3 hours, downed an unfortunate amount of illicit substances, and kinda just... *went for it.*
The funniest thing ab this game is that the cutscenes and artstyle actually look really good, but literally everything else just isn’t
6:46...
Yeah... good looking cutscenes.
@@GenericProtagonist118 didnt say they used them well 😂😂
The spiritual successor to Sonic 06
I know...all the art looked so interesting
This genuinely feels like square Enix saw the complaints of KH being confusing and convoluted and they went “oh you want something that doesn’t make sense? Have this!” And gave us this game
It feels nothing like that actually. The opposite of what you said, in fact. For two reasons. KH isn't as confusing as everyone thinks. It's actually very straightforward and easy to understand, despite all of the memes from idiots. PROVIDED you just naturally play the side games in order and stay awake during them and pay attention. But Balan Wonderworld isn't easy to understand at all because UNLIKE KH, it explains very actually little and Wonderworld makes you fill in a lot of specific gaps yourself. KH games have a meticulous glossary. Wonderworld has a handful of vague cutscenes that explain nothing.
@@the-NightStar
What are you talking about, that story just makes no sense. All I really know is there's some anime guy in Disneyworld, and he tries beating up the edgy guy. But WHY?? What is the reason for the edgy guy to be doing bad things? Why are there a million of him? Why can't they just make a good story???
And then it still doesn’t make sense
@@urgae9125 The entire premise of the games is the archetypical battle of light vs darkness, which is simple in and of itself. It takes a long time to explain, but once you know the details, it's understandable. It is just facts written on facts because it's a storyline that's been around for a couple decades. The MOST convoluted part is knowing what the next system to be able to play on will be. They jumped from playstation to gameboy back to playstation, with another important title on the psp, the pair of ds games, there was a game released on browser in japan that was then made into a phone game that added more plot... and all of these are plot-relevant.
For the most part, the story is really more of a backdrop to give an excuse for the main character to visit a bunch of wacky and interesting disney worlds (square enix characters are from a new location called Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden), as well as mess around with the combat system. In general, the plot is: evil guy is gathering power to summon Kingdom Hearts (the collection of a certain type of hearts, there are actually multiple kingdom hearts's), which will allow his plans to come to fruition. In order to stop him, you have to explore worlds, meet new people, save their worlds, maybe find the next plot hook, and then move on to the next world - while also possibly learning lessons about friendship along the way.
What breaks my heart is that the character designs, animation (in the cutscenes) colours and visuals are all top-notch and incredibly well made.
Yet, it was all gone to waste on poor game design and subpar storytelling.
good art, bad game
@@eShopbag that describes sonic boom pretty accurately
Subpar storytelling? Bro, it didn’t even try telling its story.
@@GamerTheVoidGamingCentreIt does have a story, it's just in a stand-alone novel.
@@ihopeicanchangethis8912 yeah, the fact it’s in a novel outside of the game that you have to buy separate from the game is the game not trying to tell the story.
It almost feel like someone in the game’s team heard that metroidvanias open up more of the world because you got a new power, and then said “I can do that” when they, in fact, could not
I think I’m gonna like this “I played *blank* so you don’t have to” kinda series.
Like when someone plays horrendous flash games, which are now extinct, on Girls Go Games for the first time?
18:50 is this loss?
The not blank series recoated
i played you like a fiddle so you dont have to
knowing alpha's reputation with series, i wouldn't get too attached
"BALAN'S AN ORDAINED MINISTER?" Made me laugh way harder than it should have.
Honestly. Kinda makes me sad that this game is so fucked. You just know this was a total passion project. And everyone is (understandably) shitting on it lol. I played the demo for literally 3 mins and was done.
It has such a pleasant art style. This could have been a nice family-friendly game. Such a shame.
Agreed-
The book explains so fucking much-
Like, just remake the whole bloody game at this point-
It’s that bad-
@@staydetermined6717 so.... how's the book??
@@rrad9487 twas a video I watched
In a nutshell-
Just remake the whole bloody game at this point-
I mean the male player,
Ended up in balens world
Due to having a ego the size of bakugou at the start of bnha/mha
But, twas hard for em to make friends
Lance, was sick and tired of making friends and then they leave the wonder world
So, he told everyone that balen was keeping them prison (makes sense)
And to escape how to embrace why your there
Ore whatever
Hence the bosses
But the player wasen’t affected-
And balen basically said-
Ok, now go save everyone-
The girl from the cat chapter
And the girl from the clown chapter
Are the same person-
Turns out, when a boss is defeated they go back to their own timeline-
Ore whatever
YEH, this is what I mean-
Just remake the game-
@@staydetermined6717 there's a book???
A RUclips Short from this channel convinced me to add _Balan Wonderworld_ to my Steam wishlist. Now that I’ve seen this entire video, I’m even more determined to experience the game for myself.
Balan Wonderland seems like a pitch "What if Persona games were mario?" but they just had no license.
Oh my god you are so right
World.
Replace persona with nights into dreams And you're pretty much spot on
Nah it’s more like “can we make another NiGHTS game?”
“No”
“Fine well just take the NiGHTS concept and make something else but keep the one button design of NiGHTS for an open world platformer for some reason”
No, Persona Dancing with Mario.
Nobody:
Balan Wonderworld: *"C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S S H I N J I"*
Would have been nice if the monolough from the english dub would have been at the ending.
O M E D E T Ō
hahaha got me with that one
In a way, it's a very similar situation. Learning to get past one's trauma, to not let that consume everything.
Did you see that, Shinji?
"We used to have social anxiety, and now, we probably still do." - Alpharad 2021
Ironically, it's not actually social anxiety. It's deliberate self-imposed isolation because of fearing loss (the character once had a best friend that they split from after an argument, and decided that being alone was better than losing a friend ever again).
I saw this comment when he said that so it was kinda perfect.
@@ericmurotake5180 Did they put any of that info in the game?
@@losnfjslefn8857 They kinda implied it. The official book lays it out more directly
I love how they just progressively go through the 5 stages of grief with every dance scene
This game's premise reminds me of the cartoon "Miraculous Ladybug," where people get turned into villains by the big bad during times of emotional stress. Some triggers are having your love unrequited or seeing your best friend being treated like trash, but then you have other triggers like "people don't like the pigeons in Paris" or "I'm a baby and I didn't get a lollipop."
Yes! It does seem like that.
From the Wikipedia page he read and the game cut scenes, it also seems like the anime Pretty Cure. (I watched Heart Catch Precure and was unaware of just how many sessions/generations it had 'till I looked it up to double check the name.) Where people's "heart flowers" can be stolen by the bad guys in times of doubt or trouble.
Or the anime Shugo Chara! where it's heart eggs. Same principle, but focusing more on talents and passions that drive a person.
..At least from what I remember from when I watched them.
Omg it does remind me of that. Even the graphics lol
I have a feeling I'll piss people off by saying this but I don't care: Why the hell does a cartoon show made for kids have such a dedicated fanbase?
I mean I get Steven Universe and the Clone wars because they're actually pretty intriguing shows that touch on some pretty heavy topics. But Miraculous Ladybug? Why? It's a show where people who are mad turn into scary monsters because some moth man wants to kill two french teenagers in skin tight suits. Every episode it's just something along the lines of "Oh my dog pissed on my socks, so now I'm going to transform into the Dog Piss Sock monster and seek revenge!" I just don't get it man, I just don't get it.
@@Cairo40000 I totally agree with you it's kinda absurd how such a dumb low standard show has a dedicated fan base, but ngl I'm in the fan base. Most people are in it for the unrequited romance between the two main characters, and for the most part that keeps everyone's attention. But yeah it doesn't compare to a show like SU in terms of quality
@@daylinhesford3116 agreed the romance aspect is pretty understandable but the rest is pretty weird
Why wouldn’t I want to play this masterpiece? It had memorable characters like ladder man and chrono bunny
Edit: Can’t forget about vacuum blaster
I choose to believe he repressed the memories of Box Fox, which is why Box Fox did not appear in this video.
Cmon, pounding pig is amazing.
can't forget about vaccum blaster
I’m sorry you forgot about vacuum.
Don't forget farmville farmer
whats funnier is lance could actually be a genius villain concept, feeding off the hearts of others and harvesting negative energy to create fearless servants, and then he’s placed in a wacky game like this and its like “oh, Filler Boss”
Ain't that the plot of the kingdom hearts games?
@@MarvelMPH t is it??
Reverse Vanitas
Hawkmoth
@@liamwhite3522A Vanitas fan?
Can we just talk about 33:08, where he's nearly at the end of the game with 1634 ball things, and this game has prepared itself for you to get over 1 fucking million of them...
"Morale of the story: if you're getting bullied... Stop"
This got me dying really hard
A lot of topics have been handled really badly in this game.
If you're dying, stop
@@Simon-yp7rv Because you can't do a character arc with a 20 seconds voiceless cutscene
I - I - fuck - I - jesus christ, I looked _directly at_ the game's name like _fifty times_ and I _swore_ it was Balan Wonderland holy fucking fuck it's like all of reality just shifted around me
it’s because a lot of reviews called it balan wonderland then even the marketing department mistakenly called it balan wonderland
It's like the Mandela effect
I just read your comment and it just happened to me.
Honestly didn’t even realise it was WonderWORLD and not LAND until I read this comment. So thanks for enlightening me I guess
DUDE same exact thing happened to me!!!
chapter 1: my entire produce was destroyed overnight due to a natural disaster placing me and my family in deep poverty and famine, maybe i could come back from it if it wasnt for the fact i may lose the farm due to being unable to pay for the land
chapter 12: people dont notice how good i am at picking up trash :(
chapter 7: i lost one game of chess
Chapter i cant remember : i like bugs and am going through a metaphorical state of metamorphosis
@@octopus616 chapter 3
@@ShiningStar5022 Chapter 50: I choke on water
chapter 0: i couldn’t release half life 3
39:47 THE BIGGEST PLOT-TWIST IN HISTORY
The littering plot line feels like it’s straight out of a dhar man sketch
Oh my god
How can i unsee a comment
WE ARENT TELLING STORIES, WE'RE CHANGING LIVES
Dolphin fucking murders little girl (what happens next is shocking)
Yooooo Dhar man
I like how the boys story is “he has social anxiety” and the girls is “her parents are on the brink of divorce” the exact same stakes for bost characters
In the same game as the brilliant contrast of "my parents died and I'm afraid of caring about anyone anymore" and "I lost at chess ONCE and my whole life is ruined" ladies and gentlemen
@@kirbysuperstaruhh3769 It even could have worked if they made the MC Just smack the shit outta him and tell him to grow tf up lmao
@@whymustyoulookhere7112 "Litearlly fucking cope it was ONE game."
I mean one can cause the other to emerge
Depending on the severely of the anxiety it could be on the same level, but I don't think this game put much thought into that.
I mean-
The chess guy's resolution is that he finds solace in teaching other people how to play chess and get better.
The boy he beat reminded him of himself when he started playing.
But for the reasons of funny I must admit I like the idea he just feels better beating this child in a game he's played for years.
there is honestly a healthy and understated moral in that. it was just told in a confusing way
I would like to also point out, chess guy purposefully lost to the kid. In the scene after he has the flash back we see the kid excited and the guy acting bashful in a "hey you got me" kind of way"
He gets a mental breakdown over losing one single game. That's just ridiculous and unrealistic
I thought he had let the kid win
If you look at the board the kid has m1
Why do the cutscenes in this game look so good
When the cutscenes are better than the game in its self💀