Balan Wonderworld is a game we at Real Otaku Gamer were looking forward to, even including it on our list of games to watch in 2021. Square Enix recently released a demo for the game on all platforms and we decided to check it out, and the results were mixed, to say the least. Balan Wonderworld is an interesting game with some neat ideas, but there are issues that have caused us some great concern.
Initial Thoughts
The demo was played on a variety of systems including the Switch and PS4, in order to get a more general view of how the game looks on different systems. On Switch, the graphics do take a very notable hit, but the gameplay itself is intact. The issue is, the gameplay itself has numerous problems. Everything feels slow on all platforms, and not in terms of framerate, but rather the game just feels sluggish and unresponsive at times.
Balan Wonderworld has some interesting ideas, such as the costumes giving new abilities and being able to switch between the costumes. However, you are limited to three costumes at a time, and getting hit causes you to lose a costume. While you can stack costumes, you can also end up with three of the same costume as well, which can actually mess you over. Another issue is the controls, as every button does the same action and this feels limiting in terms of game design and extremely basic for a modern platformer.
Problems
The biggest issues though are to do with the overall visual layout of the game. This does not feel like a modern 3D game like Super Mario Odyssey, but rather a Sega Saturn era game that just happens to be in HD. The world rolls in around you as you move in a very disorientating way. The camera feels like it is fighting you constantly as you play, and there are server pop-in and texture issues that are straight out of the early 3D game era. These issues are on every system and hamper the experience. The game may look very nice on a PlayStation 5, but it certainly does not play well.
This feels like a game where the developers are just learning about making 3D platformers, but Yuji Naka was involved with many great 3D platformers in the past. This game just feels out of date in terms of gaming today, especially when Naka and Naoto Ohshima have worked on many recent games that were great. Yuji Naka’s work on Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg and the Wii version of Rodea the Sky Soldier both far surpass Balan Wonderworld in looks and gameplay and they and predate it by nearly two decades and one decade respectively (Rodea Wii version was completed in 2011 though not released until 2015).
Final Thoughts on Demo
If this was a case of a Kickstarter game, it would be viewed as one of the many great ideas that did not pan out well. But Balan Wonderworld is by Naoto Ohshima and Yuji Naka’s team at Square Enix, has been in the works for years and has a strong company backing it. For the game to turn out like this, is not a good sign. This may just be a demo, but with the game releasing in just a couple of months, I am worried. I have decided not to buy the game after all for now and have canceled my preorder on Amazon. I hope the developers can fix the game in the future, but as of now, I am skeptical of its chances.
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