Balan Wonderworld: All Sparkle, No Soul

Introduction

Balan Wonderworld, released in 2021 by Square Enix and directed by Yuji Naka, promised to be a magical 3D platformer evoking the charm of Nights into Dreams. However, beneath vibrant graphics and a flashy presentation lies a rather hollow and confusing experience. Issues ranging from its repetitive level design and enemies to its nonsensical story, Balan Wonderworld fails to deliver on multiple levels.

A Polished Facade

Let’s give credit where it’s due: Balan Wonderworld is a visual treat. Its polished visuals and vibrant, colorful art style greatly bolstered the game’s appeal from lush jungles to shimmering underwater realms. The boss designs, like the mechanical marvel in Chapter 7, are creative highlights, blending quirky aesthetics with fluid animations. The orchestral soundtrack, while forgettable, is not too bad either. But this polish is but an illusion for once you peel back the curtain, you are left with repetitive enemies, recycled level layouts, and lack of depth reveal a hollow experience that no amount of glitter can salvage.

A chess-themed boss from Balan Wonderworld, showcasing the game’s vibrant yet hollow design. Image credit: Square Enix / Arzest (2021).

 A Story That Makes No Sense

Several words could be used to describe the plot of Balan Wonderworld. Nonsensical, incoherent, and downright strange come to mind. Upon starting the game, we are presented with two protagonists to choose from—A boy who can’t decide if he wants to happily breakdance or be sad and miserable, and a girl whose housemaids whisper behind her back for no apparent reason. The choice makes no difference as both run off but are soon whisked away(or kidnapped, whichever you prefer) by Balan, our theatrical, top-hatted companion. We are brought to a magical world filled with strange birds, crystals, and more!

Here we are tasked with traveling through each of the game’s 12 chapters, which focus on different characters whose personal struggles manifest as corrupted worlds within Wonderworld. So, I guess we have to go around resolving these people’s tragic backstories? Looks like it. The events of this series of unfortunate events play out through admittedly well-animated cutscenes. They take the form of everything from understandable things like a farmer whose crop field was destroyed by a tornado to…a guy who got his ego crushed because he lost to another guy at chess. Now, these events do influence the aesthetic of the level. The dolphin girl’s level takes place underwater, and the chess guy’s level is littered with chess pieces. What doesn’t make sense is that the cutscene where this is explained only plays JUST BEFORE the boss fight and is resolved immediately after. This makes for strange pacing and deprives the level of any meaningful context. There was also the villain named Lance, I think? I don’t know. At this point, I was pretty checked out of the experience. But the story is the least of Balan Wonderworld’s troubles.

Costume Conundrum: Too Many Hats, Too Little Purpose

If you want to know where this magical train jumped the rails and went careening into the endless void, look no further than the costume situation. Throughout our adventures, costumes can be collected, which act as your power-ups. Each costume does one sole function, from useful abilities like allowing us to walk in the air for a short time and crawl on the webs in the bug level, to blink a light on our head intermittently to show the path forward. So, stop and guess how many costumes are here and obtainable. 1? No. 5? Try again. 12? Still too low. The correct answer? 80. 80 costumes to collect in total. This is bad for many reasons. Chief among them being that it can cause many costumes to become redundant. The best examples are Jellyjolt and Dynamic Dolphin. Both are found in Chapter 2 and allow the player to travel through slidestreams. The difference is that Jelly has an electric attack when you jump, and Dolphin allows you to jump out of slidestreams. I didn’t encounter any enemies that needed Jelly to defeat them, so I just kept using Dolphin, effectively power creeping Jellyjolt in the level right after it was introduced.

The game features many unique but sometimes redundant costumes. Image credit: Square Enix / Arzest (2021).

The controls do not get any better. Balan Wonderworld is a one-button game. What does that mean? Aside from the joystick to move and the shoulder buttons to switch costumes, every other button performs the same action. A, B, X, Y? The trigger buttons? All do the same thing—Use your costume’s signature ability. This decision does nothing but restrict what’s possible without a reason as to why. It’s even worse considering some costumes are left unable to jump, hindering level navigation. Even navigating menus feels like a chore, with no simple “back” button versus just being able to hit B and exit the menu. It’s a design choice so baffling it feels like sabotage.

A Draining Disappointment

Playing Balan Wonderworld is like being stuck in a loveless marriage. Every day is just going through the motions waiting until that inevitable moment when everything comes to an end. The collectibles (Balan statues, crystals) and minigames add nothing meaningful, and the cheerful and polished facade can’t mask the fundamental rot present here. I’ve played games in the past that have had their frustrating moments. Pokémon Blue, for example, was difficult to get through primarily due to its grindy nature. Even then, I still had fun. I still can look back fondly on my time with the game. Here? I just felt numb, muttering “Why does this exist?” as I trudged through another recycled level. The game’s ambition is admirable, but its execution is a masterclass in squandered potential.

Verdict

Balan Wonderworld promises a magical adventure only to deliver a game, a platformer hindered by repetitive design, an incoherent story, and restrictive controls. The only positive, the presentation, does little to hide the cracks forming just beneath the surface. Fans of Yuji Naka’s Nights into Dreams or modern platformers like Super Mario Odyssey will find little to love here. Skip this one and save your energy for a game that respects your time. Have you braved this Wonderworld? Let me know if you found any magic I missed!