Balan wonderworld trophy guide series#

And the control scheme feels overly simplistic under most circumstances, all of the buttons do the same thing - jump.

It all feels very disjointed and untested in every way, from the static movement when jumping to the requirement for standing still when using attacks in certain costume forms. This is made even more awkward as the animation for each costume change takes far too long we come to a complete standstill waiting for it to finish. The running animations for all the characters look far too jarring and move at an exaggerated, quick speed despite how slow their feet appear to be moving. This is just one example of the many small but noticeable gameplay design choices that are detrimental to the title all of them feel downright wrong for a platformer. It feels far too random, awkwardly implemented and executed, and receiving a trophy for passing it feels like a bit of a hollow victory. These sequences transport the player to a location which is unclear and vacant, all in a simple, single coloured and uninteresting background Balan randomly floats about, kicking enemies when we indicate to do so, in what appears to be a recycled animation for each level. To rub salt in the wound, we do occasionally take brief control of him in a quick-time event sequence called Balan’s Bout, as a means of collecting a golden hat item. So consider me bitter that we do not play as them!

Both character designs set the tone of their respective games, with Balan clearly being this title’s NiGHTS. This is no surprise with Ohshima taking the reins of the character designs Ohshima was the reason why NiGHTS looked so appealing, and was so fitting as the centrepiece of their whimsical adventure. We got a look at the titular Balan, who appears to borrow greatly from NiGHTS. The aesthetic of Balan Wonderworld gripped many of us from the moment its concept art was shown, and the excitement to see even more news drop about the title heightened to an all new level when the gorgeous opening cutscene was revealed. NiGHTS focused on the whimsical and fantastical meshing of reality and dreams, making for wonderfully imaginative designs and visually stunning levels that make you feel you’ve been whisked away to - and want to stay in forever.

Balan wonderworld trophy guide series#

This in turn explains my personal interest in Balan Wonderworld, as I was hotly anticipating a nostalgic trip back to what the NiGHTS series had delivered. While we all know their names as being those who brought one of Sega’s biggest IPs to life, my fondest memories are from their conception of NiGHTS. This marked the first reunion of Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog’s original programmer) and Naoto Ohshima (Sonic’s character designer) in 20 years - they last worked together on Sonic Adventure in 1998. Let’s get this out of the way so I can forget about it sooner than later! Why all the excitement for Balan Wonderworld?īalan Wonderworld is the first title from Balan Company, a new subsidiary of Square Enix formed by industry legend Yuji Naka. I experienced the demo on arguably the worst platform for it - the Switch - so while my points will be centred on how it ran on Nintendo’s hardware, it is worth pointing out that it seems to have performed better on all the other platforms it is available on.