Balan Wonderworld demo launches January 28

yeah this looks pretty terrible on Switch, tons of jaggies and aliasing, reminds me of A Hat in Time when it first came out. Def needs a lot of work. It plays like a Sega Saturn game, take that as you may.
 
Is it possible they take feedback from the demo into account and overhaul the problems?

I heard Daemon Ex Machina did that for its Switch launch.
 
I finished the demo...

jesus fucking christ what the hell did I play there?

this has to be the weirdest fucking game I've played in a while.
it literally feels like a sega saturn game that was designed during an acit trip or something.

everything about it is so fucking weird.

and it also runs like crap on Series X, the game can't hold 60fps and it's not running at native 4k either (my bet would be 1800p just judging by eye)

it is weirdly endearing tho because it's such a fucking weird game. feels like you found some old Sega game on a rom site that you've never heard of
 
01011001 said:
I finished the demo...

jesus fucking christ what the hell did I play there?

this has to be the weirdest fucking game I've played in a while.
it literally feels like a sega saturn game that was designed during an acit trip or something.

everything about it is so fucking weird.

and it also runs like crap on Series X, the game can't hold 60fps and it's not running at native 4k either (my bet would be 1800p just judging by eye)

it is weirdly endearing tho because it's such a fucking weird game. feels like you found some old Sega game on a rom site that you've never heard of
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The developer still stuck in the Saturn /Dreamcast era bubble, both visually and gameplay wise.
 
Captain Toad said:
You'd think if a game isn't great, they would avoid putting out a demo.
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Exactly what I thought... it's the sort of game I might have bought, except the demo has now deterred me. Going to try the Immortals Fenyx demo next, hopefully have better luck.

I really wanted to like the game. The music / sound effects / atmosphere give me fond memories of early Sega games like Nights or Billy Hatcher. The graphics are ok, colourful and mostly a good framerate although the lighting is a bit severe.

The gameplay was too basic - you move slowly, and not even having a basic jump with some of the powers is limiting. I can see what they were aiming for, but in Kirby when you obtain different costumes you always have a core set of abilities too.
 
That gameplay video looked fantastic, I only wish they would have done something else with the camera, it just looks...stiff.
 
Jesus this is rotten. Seriously ALL THE FACE BUTTONS do the same thing!?!?! WTF?!!?

This makes Kameo look like Mario Odyssey.

This is "wtf were they thinking?" bad.

This feels like an indie devs first game.

It's too bad that they made a company for this IP. They'll be let down.

The worlds are big, but empty and don't feel lived in at all.

This might be worth a play if it ever comes to a Gamepass service.

Maybe this game needs to be shelved indefinitely?

Maybe furries will love this, it seems very furry focused.

This game feel like a tech demo.
 
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I was hyped for this, didn't watch anything else except for the reveal until I played the demo... Now I'm no longer hyped.

I get that it may still be unpolished/janky at this stage but I feel that at its core the gameplay and design is just not what I had hoped it would be...

However I must say I adore the Tims!
 
Yea, played it and thought wait, is it just me or is this like really really terrible, could be me, you never know. Glad, I'm still fine 😅. Game clearly made for small children but even as that it's bad and ridiculously simplistic. Ending is big wtf but if I was 5 maybe it's good 😂

Cutscenes, though, as expected, are still top notch from SE.
 
I played demo on my PS5 and I really like it's visual design but the gameplay doesn't feel good and why NPC disappear when get close to them? I was really looking forward to this but after playing the demo, I'm not sure.

It has opposite effect of Monster Hunter Rise's Demo did.
 
I liked it. Its very simple so far and very charming too. The intro was beautiful looking as are the general graphics. The Nights and Billy Hatcher influence is clear to see and obviously Yuji Naka was off his head on mind bending drugs when he devised this project. If its good I'd certainly get it on PC, I'd prefer to get it on the Switch but the hardware won't to the graphics or frame rate justice I'd imagine.
 
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Played the first world on Switch and everything about it felt awful.

Jumping is a canned animation without any sort of momentum involved.
Stutters terribly every time the camera turns.
Moving objects disappear when you get close to them.
Pop in happens about four feet away from you. You really don't have any sort of moveset outside of the suits.
Running animation is wonky.
Characters look like human Sonic characters.

A game like this pales in comparison to Mario Odyssey, if not Mario 64.

Final thoughts:
 
saintjules said:
It's not bad for what it is. Some are more critical than others. Give it a whirl and let me know your thoughts!
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I played the demo. It has all the fantasy world building for any Sega fan to enjoy. It has cool world changing stuff going on. Collecting items is where a lot of the platforming shines. It really isn't bad, but there's something about the way it comes off feels a bit odd at times. The characters really bring out the history he has with Sega as well as Digimon. Some of those designs really remind me of the Digimon universe. Which he did go on to help assist with iirc. It does have an older style of object placement, which isn't always bad. There are places on the map where objects or platforms don't make any sense. The game has a lot of wonder to it. The final part of the demo felt easy and felt like a beginner's type of game. Overall I wouldn't mind playing it. I just don't know about the day 1 cost. It's enjoyable, but at what price do I want to relive that type of enjoyment? I do see why some people criticize it, but it has good platforming when things are moving around in the game. The Balan parts were kinda weird because there's this odd timing and it isn't free roaming either. I wanted the Balan part to be like the secret stages in the Sonic games where you can move the character even if they're always having to be at a certain speed.
 
It's a really pretty game, I can say that.
Otherwise it seems to be Mario Odyssey mixed with a heavy dose of Nights into Dreams.
Think I'll pass on it for now.
 
Just finished the demo on Steam, I have lots of complaints, they literally tried too hard to be keer-aaaazzzy and tap into that Nights aesthetic.
There's a decent 20-30$ game with some clever bits there, but who thought the form changing mechanic would make for good gameplay? It flows like a river of bricks.
 
Played all of World 1 on Steam. I found pretty boring, game is not for me. They also should've called it Balan Wonderland, rolls off the tongue better.
 
Back in college for computer programming I played tons of student demos with far better gameplay loops than this.

This is absolutely amateur hour and the fact that they were happy to put out a demo of this shows that it's incompetence all the way to the top here - they don't realize that this isn't good enough. They think they've made a good game.
 
This is so saddening. This will be the "Resident Evil 3: Remake" of 2021. Experiencing so much wasted potential after having so much excitement.

This is coming from someone who loved Nights: Journey of Dreams on the Wii. You know, the game everyone hated.
 
Good platformers tend to always have an exceptional first level. I'm so conflicted by this. There's a lot about the first level that I'd cut out and there's a lot that I'd adjust just a little bit. I'm just going to save my money. Maybe someone on here will play it and give us a better idea of how the later parts of the game are. If you've ever played Roblox, you have this generic jump with your avatar or character. This feels a bit similar to that. I don't see why they had to add those pillars where you could slam on them? They're placed at random and the way I got to one part of the level felt so weird. I really want to like this, but damn.
 
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So I played the demo on switch, will try it on pc tomorrow but God damn I had some hope for this game, the presentation is pretty good (for every platform except switch, shit barely runs) but the game just isn't fun to play.
 
I'm one of those people who was really looking forward to this game but man the demo kind of turned me off. I believe they called this game "action platformer" but the game just doesn't feel good to control.

But I do like the visual design, its kind of between Kingdom Hearts and Nights.
 
Imagine a Mario Odyssey bootleg game had an inbred child with Yooka-Laylee. Based on the demo, that's pretty much how polished Balan is.
 
The demo is bad and makes me wonder, whether Square Enix is trying to be somewhat upfront about what people should expect from this game.

I played the demo on PS4 and completed all the available areas. To give at least one compliment, the art style is cute. Beyond that, everything related to moving the character around in the world is sluggish, and the visuals are often messy with artifacts and at times atrocious, when the resolution takes hard dips. From a design standpoint, while I assume players will be tasked with having to revisit levels with new powers, what's presented in the demo is so easy and straightforward the game seems like it's meant for very young children. Besides hopefully cleaning-up some of the visual issues, if the demo is a good representation of the final product, I'll have to pass on Balan Wonderworld.
 
My god, that first video in the Steam store.. Who decided that was a good thing putting up as promotion.. So fucking weird, makes no sense whatsoever - And also in a funny way.
 
Went back and beat the demo..that um dancing cut scene..Game seems fun but teh graphics are so blurry and jaggy...60 for this? this games going to be 30 in a month 1000%
 
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