Watch today's episode of Zero Punctuation on Resident Evil Village - www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/resident-evil-village-zero-punctuation/ - Watch it early on UA-cam via UA-cam Memberships and support our content for just $2 / month.
Apparently, the weird machine in the hub world is connected to a *really* convoluted secret thing which eventually lets the player unlock the costume for Balan himself to play in the actual game, a costume which the one single person who actually went through the effort to unlock the thing described as being the most overpowered thing in the game. Mostly because it just lets you skip the whole level with actually controllable flight.
It’s honestly amazing. The only way to play as the title character is by way of an overly superfluous extra that will also completely break the game for even doing it. How do you fail this bad?
@@Dtoszi You fail this bad by not understanding what gameplay even is in the first place. Basically it’s the David Cage issue, just from the opposite end of the spectrum.
The funny part about Balan Wonderworld is that it has a decent story, but it’s all in the novel. That’s right, kids, you have to do homework to understand the basic gist of what’s happening. Because nonverbal story telling is so deep and can reach everyone, right?
Or Yoko Taro Where the story is: Linked to a radio play Also a stage play Tied to a soundtrack that has several parts that complete some of the experience Also an orchestra, with theater play Several novels
I mean, having four face buttons mapped to one action when that action is a combined "jump/use power" is batshit enough, but then they start dancing and it all goes sideways.
Arguably the funniest thing about the seemingly random dance-offs at the ends of worlds in this game, beyond players' understandably bewildered and incredulous reactions, is that they somehow make *even less* sense if you're suffering through this game as Emma, the girl character. At least what little in-game story this game has makes it clear that Leo--the boy--likes dancing.
He did it under the batshit insane logic of "Well, it worked in the 2D Sonic games, so why not do it here too?" completely ignoring the fact that it only worked in 2D Sonic because the mechanics were simple enough that one button was all it _needed._ When you try to shoehorn single-button gameplay into a game with mechanics this complicated, you're asking for a train wreck.
@@MisterVercetti well sonic could also do other shit at the same time as jumping, like Spin Dash, use Barrier powers and later added Peel Out and Drop Dash while not depriving him of a jump. If it was Balan rules, he would need 5 (7 if you count the other two barriers) seperate costumes to use each skill by itself
"That said, I do need to piss, and the nearest toilet is slightly further than I'm willing to walk, so I guess you get your piss-take but know that my heart is not going to be in it."
Shout out for Bob Monkhouse appearance, may he rest in peace. "They all laughed when I said I'd become a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now." - Bob Monkhouse
Update: the most recent DLC for A Hat in Time makes fun of that hat that turns you into a box whenever it feels like it. There's a skin for the ice cap that looks like it and "turns you into a box whenever YOU feel like it"
I dont know what "A hat in time making fun of" Box-Fox was always a troll costume. It's only coincidence or more accurate to say "all player's" are making the joke of that all the costumes are useless. To me; A hate in time, letting you control when you can transform misses the joke.
The bad guy's deal? Well, I'd say beware of spoilers, but I don't think it will matter- _since none of you are ever gonna play this game._ Simply put, he's the original Balan _(the one we know is a clone made to replace him.)_ His original job was to help humans overcome their traumas in Wonderworld and then send them home and wipe their memories. He eventually grew too attached to the human visitors, and eventually seeing visitor after visitor leave, possibly never to return to Wonderworld again, became too much for him to bear. So he turned to darkness, and began a smear campaign against Balan, painting him as the bad guy. With this lie, he went to work convincing the human visitors to never get over their issues, stay in Wonderworld forever and become monsters. Monsters with no memory of their human existence, and gifted with enough power to defend their stages from Balan. ... Oh, what's that? "None of this fanfiction bullcrap is in the game?" Oh, they kept this out of the game because they felt it and other such worldbuilding stuff was better suited *_for the Novel tie-in._*
@@Metazoa54321 All we get of it is Lance changing back into his original Balan form after he's defeated before being dragged off by the Negati. I guess the original idea was that they were sure that the audience would come to the conclusion of his true identity on their own...
So, there's actually a book that explains not only the plot of the game, but MORE and it actually makes the plot INTERESTING. That Robert Smith dude is apparently the creator of the wonderworld, who got too attached to the people who entered it, such as our player characters and the people whose psyche's the levels are based on, and stopped letting them leave.
Given his reaction to the three costume limit, I’m going to assume Yahtzee never found the costume storage room. I don’t blame him, since the game never bothers to explain this mechanic, even though you absolutely need it if you need to backtrack for particular statues
The visual of yahtzee being assaulted by bright colors to represent watching NiGHTS: Into Dreams is incredibly relatable. Edit: so apparently the number machine is used to unlock a costume where you turn into Balan. It takes a LONG time to unlock with a lot of RNG involved.
The machine has nothing to do with it, you need to feed tims with gems and collect a bunch of rainbow drops to bring the flying tim to life. The machine literally doesn't do anything
No no no, when you get to the highest number in the machine, it resets. You need to reset it 666 times on a blood moon day, and then the devs appear, tell you it was all a joke and the real game will begin. If it doesn't happen, you didn't do it fast enough, you have to try again in the next blood moon.
@@scylla1772 some one 100%'d the game and you need to do some extremely convoluted things involving tedious farming and tim breeding until you unlock the super tim who can fly to get to a hidden island and get the op balan costume, which, if you ever get hit is immediately gone until you farm for the tim again.
Wanna know the crazy thing? The story is in a SEPERATE NOVEL that contains the entire games script because Yuji Naka wanted the story to be "enjoyed without words."
Having actually played this one, at least for a bit, it very much feels like "What if Mario Odyssey, but for kids?" completely ignoring the fact that Odyssey is a great game for kids. It has some interesting ideas, but never manages to execute any of them amazingly well.
It's more like a major disappointment wrapped up in a giant ball of WTF. The cutscenes are beautifully done and that's the only nice thing you can say about it. Everything else is horrible - wonky, nonsensical controls, awkward character movement, nonsensical plot, no tutorial, stupid level/costume power designs. I've seen video game design school student projects done better.
You know you need more spice in your life when you feel excited because Yahtzee has mentioned in writing the name of the Italian region you live in at the end of his review
Not to mention depending on the kind of Sonic fan you were, they were either mediocre but still fun to play, or completely bad and not worthy of touching
0:40 Small correction with this: Yuji Naka hasn't been involved with Sonic the Hedgehog for the past 20 years and many people were expecting a Nights into Dreams successor with this one.
In addition to fucking up Shadow the Hedgehog - with it's truly awful story, horrendous bugs and glacial gameplay - Naka was at least thirty to forty percent responsible for the absolute WORST Sonic Game of all time before he jumped ship from Sega - namely Sonic 06 - so you're not so much 'correcting' as 'splitting hairs' :P Yeah, he wasn't involved in any of the last twenty years of Sonic games, but he WAS partly responsible for the current MESS that Sonic games are in by allowing a lot of the shit that went down in Sonic 06 TO go down :P WHICH Depending on your point of view Could arguably be worse :P
Me before watching this: "Hey look Yahtzee's reviewing that game everyone hates right now. At least I might finally understand what the deal is now." Me after watching this: "Well I can see why people hate it but not anything else about the game."
It’s psychonaughts but instead of solving a murder it’s just therapy. Every level is about someone’s problem and it’s your job to go hiking to solve said problem(and Balan’s there sometimes). The problems range from “I’ve been suicidal for 5 years🙂” to “someone beat me at chess😡”.
@@Jimbojanbo Also, the Robert Smith guy is like an immortal angel that would give you shelter from the world during your worst days. But then everyone would leave, leaving him alone. So he poisoned their minds against anyone who would help them, so that they would never leave again. Much like a cult. Every stage represents their defenses. So you're not so much solving their problems, as providing psychic therapy, to free them from the cage of their own minds.
Finally a game that are R100. Only 100 year old gamers can fully appreciate all the subtle undertones of the master piece that is Yuji Nakas Balan Wonderworld.
Thing is, Balan Wonderworld is a pretty decent story about overcoming trauma, and there's some dark stuff in there (like a guy who recreate a dead loved one in his Wonderworld and forgets she isn't real). Too bad NONE OF THIS IS IN THE GAME. If you want Balan Wonderworld to make sense, you have to buy the game's novel -not novelization, *novel*- and read through hundreds of pages of decent yet poorly translated prose, because that's where you get the plot, the backstory, the actual character motivations, and all those silly things that make a narrative. The weird thing is that it does seem like the kind of story the "kids" today would like, and I can totally see an alternate reality where Balan Wonderworld becomes a cult hit, even if the gameplay was to remain the same.
2:18 funny story. The game's novelization does explain the bizarreness of the game...but at no point did the game EVER mentions it! Like it believes you have already bought the book already!
I hate franchises that only have important pieces of lore in the comics and whatnot so you're just left confused as to what the chundering fuck is going on. *cough* Halo *cough*
@@MysteriumArcanum well halo at least informs you of the comics and stuff that fills the lore in, rather then assume you already read them and know about the expanded universe.
@@xcellentcreations3312 I get that, but the comics and other expanded lore material should be optional is my point. Any game that gives me homework in order to understand what's going on isn't going to be getting high marks from me.
but you haven't read the entire novel that contains everything you would need to know about the game, including your basic motivation for doing anything how can you give a fair assessment of this clear cut masterpiece, when you haven't read the entire novel that contains everything you would need to know about the game, including your basic motivation for doing anything
As a fan of NiGHTs Journey of Dreams, I was pretty excited for this game when I saw the trailer. Glad I completely forgot about it and didn't spend my money, lol.
Just check out some LPs, you'll be both entertained and horrified by it's crass awfulness, like watching Plan 9 from Outer Space or Rocky Horror Picture Show.
@@Sorcerers_Apprentice I actually watched this review last week (on Escapist's website) and since then I watched a video talking about 100 percenting the game and reading the tie-in book, lol. It sounds like an unplanned mess.
5:28 Oh, it gets explained, all right. Turns out the theater's a TARDIS. Also, the clown character is crushing on the 8 year old cat girl's future self. And said cat girl's car accident was the same one that killed ice girl's parents.
I did not know the ice girls parents were killed by the cat girls car accident!! Another interesting fact that NEVER gets explained in game: the chess guys distress isn’t just losing at chess, it is that his wife was dieing and he didnt even notice it until it was too late because he lost.
As yahtzee said its more confusing why the game was made the way it was, theres obviously something here that could have been great but it's just sooooo boring and has dumb design decisions
I wonder if the game developers had play tested the game enough, or if the pandemic had made play testing way harder. (This explanation wouldn't make sense if the play testing was done before pandemic) I feel like, had the developers been given outside perspective, surely the testers would've said "what does this box fox do?" or "I'm confused about the story." I'm not sure though.
@@jacks.cosplay And I agree, it's not exactly worthy of being in the "Worst Games of the Year Top 5" but it could certainly make the Blandest list Top 5
I think we have a candidate for the Blandest list year - because a game that he's this bored of and confused by doesn't tend to have much sticking power lol
"Apparently the story gets explained in a tie-in book, which means Balan Wonderland is exactly like 2001: A Space Odyssey". Now that is a weirdly specific reference that perfectly explains it.
Okay so apparently there's a book that explains this whole game, but let me get on my tiny soapbox for a moment. Ahem. I shouldn't have to read a novel to play a video game. I'm not AGAINST novels- I love books. I'm not even against supplemental materials, because I love learning the new lore of an old friend. But if I pick up a video game and can't understand it WITHOUT the novel or supplement then it's not strong enough to stand on its own. I could pick up the third Lord of the Rings book and still enjoy it to an extent, even if I'd never read the first two. I could follow the world well enough without previous knowledge. The problem here is that I have no clue what's going on in this game, am being told I need to read a book nobody informed me of first, and will have trouble following the plot without it. That's an issue. The art is neat, though. I'll give it that.
Balan Wonderworld has to have the Guinness world record for first final boss that actively tries to kill the player. Look up the seizure inducing flashes that game had on UA-cam. Even I started coming down with a headache.
He's still the guy that sabotaged Sonic X-treme so hard that it nearly killed several developers because of his own ego, then did it again and caused Sonic '06 to be what it is.
This marks the second time in as many years that a once-revered Japanese game designer from Segs came out of retirement to make a video game that feels like it was made by someone who hates video games.
@@spydere3392 Mighty No. 9 is by Keiji Iwafune who is ex-Capcom. And Mighty may be disappointing to many, but isn't really a game built on baffling gameplay systems like Balan Wonderworld is. They were probably referring to Yu Suzuki's project Shenmue III, the long awaited sequel to a cult classic Sega game series. Shenmue III supposedly plays like it's designed by developers who haven't played a video game before. Suzuki has stated that he doesn't really play games so I guess it checks out.
This game clearly was made with a vision in mind but clearly it was the kind of vision that needed someone with their feet planted to the ground to help make work in a interactive medium. I'm all for empowering visionaries but you need to ground it and make it practical even if that compromises it somewhat.
If you need a novel to explain the plot and context of your _platforming video game aimed at children_ , you might be missing the forest for the trees somewhere.
One thing I don't get from just a gameplay perspective- why do the serverity of the issue go in reverse order? The first ones are "My entire farm was destroyed in a tornado and my livelyhood is gone." "A dolphin I trusted tried to fucking DROWN ME." which gives way to "I have artist's block" and "I have a crush on a girl but I'm afraid because she knows I work as a clown."
The whole "Yuji Naka made Sonic so hopes were high" thing makes a little more sense given that Naka left SEGA during the production of Sonic 06. A lot of people assumed that his absence from SEGA coinciding with the "dark age" meant that his own productions would be much better, but the sad truth is that Naka's leaving had nothing to do with the quality of SEGA's output- He'd been promoted to an executive role years before, and wanted to go back to actually making the games. Unfortunately it seems like Balan has only retroactively tarnished his work at SEGA too, because now one the of the biggest issues with Adventure 2- Too many things mapped to a single button- has been apparently revealed to be Naka's MO.
Little late to this but I figured id add onto the insanity. Those asides that are in each level, if you mess them up, they dont respawn normally, no no. If you want them to reappear, you have to go and *kill the boss of that world.* And you bave to do this everytime you want the asides to respawn.
Turns out that if you read the obscure tie-in novel, there was a greater vision behind this game that was hidden by the decision to avoid dialogue as the game's story may be too complex to explain through dialogue-free cutscenes without turning the game into a silent movie.
here's the weird thing -- there's a set of books to go along with the games that help to fill in the story, complete with fleshed-out dialogue and backstories. like, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on there *really* should've been touched on more overtly in the game. you can kinda get a better feel for the game's real vision through those, alongside some of the late completion unlocks (like the costume that lets you fly).
the way yahtzee describes games is poetic its like hes a master at saying exactly how a game feels AND juggling being funny at the same time. And whats also kinda beast is the way the comedy ENHANCES the review. its like if IGN didnt suck AND made me laugh while making their point and thats not even counting the visuals. The visuals remind me of newspaper comics. this whole show is peak human communication skills
Fun fact! both the Bug Collector and the Chess Player actually happened in game, which is really weird because the first 2 traumas were "A tornado destroyed my livelihood and now I might starve to death" and "My best friend who is a dolphin tried to murder me", so it somewhat feels as if the social outcasting of being a bit weird and literally losing a single chess game are being equivocated to the devastation of a natural disaster and attempted murder.
Here is the dumbest part about the chess losing part: according to the novel him losing a game of chess isn’t the sole reason for the trauma. It stems from his wife getting super sick and dying, and him not noticing until it was far too late for him to help her because he was so angry at losing a match. The game shows none of that.
0:50 I think a lot of those were done without his input though Also he was responsible for knights into dreams which a lot of people (not including myself because I never played those games) have fond memories of
I didn't know this game existed until it came out. I saw the visuals, thought, "Hey, that kinda looks pretty good." Then the collective public took aim and threw all the poo they had on hand, directly into the game's face, and I said "Whelp, back to Hat in Time, it is, then."
This game would mostly qualify as a confusing but fascinating disappointment if not for three things: 1) The baffling design decisions behind the costume system; 2) Putting its entire plot in a side novel (sold separately); 3) Needing a Day One patch to deal with a seizure issue caused by one of the final boss' attacks.
Its SO MUCH worse even. Naka admitted that he had no idea how to or interest in telling a story. There was NO cohesion until Square made him. The entirety of what story IS in the game comes from the FMV people being bored and deciding to chip in something they werent asked for in the 11th hour and a companion novella.
Nights into Dreams is about the Crash Bandocoot problem from Segas end. Namely moving on 3d space with their analog stick and notably without the platforming. Also has little floaty dudes that might be the proto Chao of later Sonic games.
According to Naka himself, this was going to be more of a game for younger players, thus the one button for controls and dance party endings. It's just the Square Enix doesn't market that young, so aimed at the fans of Yuji Naka instead. Poor choice.
Just a quick thing, the first two bosses "benign problems" are: "A tornado came and literally shredded my livelihood" and "an animal that I truly trusted almost _fucking drowned me_ " you know two problems that are totally in the same ball park as "the people in my school think bugs are weird" and "I am a chess champion that lost a game."
I mean considering how this game had nearly 30 playable language options, I'd say the lack of dialogue being a way to save money on translators is more likely than you think 🤣
I heard from someone there is an AUDIO BOOK. To play along side the game. Thats what explains the story, and thats why most sequences are in silence. ... you have to buy both to get the full story. But it was only released in japan.
If you, dear viewer, really want to play a game about "Child enters the mind of adults to solve the problems inside their heads" then you should play Psychonauts instead. It's playable, the power-ups are all useful and it is funny.
Watch today's episode of Zero Punctuation on Resident Evil Village - www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/resident-evil-village-zero-punctuation/ - Watch it early on UA-cam via UA-cam Memberships and support our content for just $2 / month.
No Returnal review?
@@MrSmf500 Next week.
Does he need a copy or two of Hellpoint?
@@theescapist Lit
There is a novel of Balan Wonderworld that clears up the story. It is not a bad read.
Apparently, the weird machine in the hub world is connected to a *really* convoluted secret thing which eventually lets the player unlock the costume for Balan himself to play in the actual game, a costume which the one single person who actually went through the effort to unlock the thing described as being the most overpowered thing in the game. Mostly because it just lets you skip the whole level with actually controllable flight.
yuji naka is just hideo kojima
@@Aliens2Exist Hideo Kojima makes more sense.
@@firehawker4822 and that's saying something lol
But still Hideo is the best
It’s honestly amazing. The only way to play as the title character is by way of an overly superfluous extra that will also completely break the game for even doing it. How do you fail this bad?
@@Dtoszi You fail this bad by not understanding what gameplay even is in the first place.
Basically it’s the David Cage issue, just from the opposite end of the spectrum.
The funny part about Balan Wonderworld is that it has a decent story, but it’s all in the novel. That’s right, kids, you have to do homework to understand the basic gist of what’s happening. Because nonverbal story telling is so deep and can reach everyone, right?
It's like 2001 that way.
Or Yoko Taro
Where the story is:
Linked to a radio play
Also a stage play
Tied to a soundtrack that has several parts that complete some of the experience
Also an orchestra, with theater play
Several novels
Like atopthefourthwall has mentioned about starwars stories. Those should be optional ways to expand a story. It shouldn't have to be mandatory
@@kadosho02 You can still understand the main story without that stuff tho
@Joshua Levenberg
Halo 4 had this even worse with the Didact’s motivation and new covenant faction imo
0:37 Yahtzee exactly how many professions/hobbies has your dad taken part in during his lifetime?
As Tuco might say, he's the son of a thousand fathers 😂
All of them
I kinda want to see a list of everything we know he did so far
Yes
he's a renaissance man, don't hate
If you haven't watched the "choreographed dance" scenes, you really need to witness them to understand how batshit insane this mess of a game truly is
Still not as batshit insane as BOX FOX. Couldn't just do it Cube Wisp-style, oh no.
I mean, having four face buttons mapped to one action when that action is a combined "jump/use power" is batshit enough, but then they start dancing and it all goes sideways.
@@pronounjow
Yeah.
The dance numbers are just what someone wanted. You may not like them; good for you.
Box Fox is actually unforgivable.
Fuck it up, Farmer Ted
Arguably the funniest thing about the seemingly random dance-offs at the ends of worlds in this game, beyond players' understandably bewildered and incredulous reactions, is that they somehow make *even less* sense if you're suffering through this game as Emma, the girl character. At least what little in-game story this game has makes it clear that Leo--the boy--likes dancing.
“If Willy Wonka turned into a Pokemon” is the most accurate description of Balan that I have heard yet.
@Callahan1998 Sonic Team have been in charge of making Puyo games since 2001 so that would make sense
I thought it looked like something from Rayman
Wouldn't that just be a weird mr mime with diabetes?
IT REALLY IS?
Seriously, I was about to comment the same thing!! That description was spot on.
Good to see Yuji Naka still hasn't figured that controllers have more than one fucking button
He did it under the batshit insane logic of "Well, it worked in the 2D Sonic games, so why not do it here too?" completely ignoring the fact that it only worked in 2D Sonic because the mechanics were simple enough that one button was all it _needed._ When you try to shoehorn single-button gameplay into a game with mechanics this complicated, you're asking for a train wreck.
@@MisterVercetti well sonic could also do other shit at the same time as jumping, like Spin Dash, use Barrier powers and later added Peel Out and Drop Dash while not depriving him of a jump. If it was Balan rules, he would need 5 (7 if you count the other two barriers) seperate costumes to use each skill by itself
Everyone: “Hey Yahtzee can you widdle all over this game?”
Yahtzee: “Everyone else has already done that, what do you need me for?”
nice
You widdle the best
"That said, I do need to piss, and the nearest toilet is slightly further than I'm willing to walk, so I guess you get your piss-take but know that my heart is not going to be in it."
then again he did fucking go in on this game, idk what he was talking about at the start, he did really expose everything wrong about it
haha lol widdle lol
Shout out for Bob Monkhouse appearance, may he rest in peace.
"They all laughed when I said I'd become a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now." - Bob Monkhouse
"You got that right, pal."
Update: the most recent DLC for A Hat in Time makes fun of that hat that turns you into a box whenever it feels like it. There's a skin for the ice cap that looks like it and "turns you into a box whenever YOU feel like it"
I dont know what "A hat in time making fun of" Box-Fox was always a troll costume. It's only coincidence or more accurate to say "all player's" are making the joke of that all the costumes are useless. To me; A hate in time, letting you control when you can transform misses the joke.
The bad guy's deal? Well, I'd say beware of spoilers, but I don't think it will matter- _since none of you are ever gonna play this game._
Simply put, he's the original Balan _(the one we know is a clone made to replace him.)_
His original job was to help humans overcome their traumas in Wonderworld and then send them home and wipe their memories.
He eventually grew too attached to the human visitors, and eventually seeing visitor after visitor leave, possibly never to return to Wonderworld again, became too much for him to bear.
So he turned to darkness, and began a smear campaign against Balan, painting him as the bad guy. With this lie, he went to work convincing the human visitors to never get over their issues, stay in Wonderworld forever and become monsters.
Monsters with no memory of their human existence, and gifted with enough power to defend their stages from Balan.
... Oh, what's that? "None of this fanfiction bullcrap is in the game?" Oh, they kept this out of the game because they felt it and other such worldbuilding stuff was better suited *_for the Novel tie-in._*
@@styfen
No one cares, but _you_ cared enough to write a paragraph to me about no one caring. _Check, and _*_Mate._*
Thank you for your sacrifice. But goddamn..whut did I just read?
that's... actually pretty interesting. sure would love to have that explored in the ga-- oh.
@@Metazoa54321
All we get of it is Lance changing back into his original Balan form after he's defeated before being dragged off by the Negati. I guess the original idea was that they were sure that the audience would come to the conclusion of his true identity on their own...
We thank you for your sacrifice...
So, there's actually a book that explains not only the plot of the game, but MORE and it actually makes the plot INTERESTING. That Robert Smith dude is apparently the creator of the wonderworld, who got too attached to the people who entered it, such as our player characters and the people whose psyche's the levels are based on, and stopped letting them leave.
Given his reaction to the three costume limit, I’m going to assume Yahtzee never found the costume storage room. I don’t blame him, since the game never bothers to explain this mechanic, even though you absolutely need it if you need to backtrack for particular statues
The visual of yahtzee being assaulted by bright colors to represent watching NiGHTS: Into Dreams is incredibly relatable.
Edit: so apparently the number machine is used to unlock a costume where you turn into Balan. It takes a LONG time to unlock with a lot of RNG involved.
The machine has nothing to do with it, you need to feed tims with gems and collect a bunch of rainbow drops to bring the flying tim to life.
The machine literally doesn't do anything
@@amysel I have watched multiple let's plays of people trashing this game, and still don't know what most of that means
@@scylla1772 Sounds like more fake unlocks, which I hate
No no no, when you get to the highest number in the machine, it resets. You need to reset it 666 times on a blood moon day, and then the devs appear, tell you it was all a joke and the real game will begin.
If it doesn't happen, you didn't do it fast enough, you have to try again in the next blood moon.
@@scylla1772 some one 100%'d the game and you need to do some extremely convoluted things involving tedious farming and tim breeding until you unlock the super tim who can fly to get to a hidden island and get the op balan costume, which, if you ever get hit is immediately gone until you farm for the tim again.
Wanna know the crazy thing? The story is in a SEPERATE NOVEL that contains the entire games script because Yuji Naka wanted the story to be "enjoyed without words."
Welp he got half of that right. It sure is without words. Goddamn even Katamari Damacy had words to sell its shoestring logic.
Given the calibre of writing in the book, I can see why 🤣
Hello, furry.
imagine if george lucas wanted star wars to be “ enjoyed without words.”
Having actually played this one, at least for a bit, it very much feels like "What if Mario Odyssey, but for kids?" completely ignoring the fact that Odyssey is a great game for kids. It has some interesting ideas, but never manages to execute any of them amazingly well.
God, i never even associated this to mario Odyssey, that makes it look even worse.
Noooo, no, no, no, no. Balan Wonderworld is what would happen if Square Enix made Mario Odyssey.
I was thinking "What if we learned how to make Kirby fully 3D but forgot how to make it fun?"
God, is it bad I saw the title and immediately went “oh, noooooo.”
Exactly the same.
Are you talking about the review or the game? Because that's exactly what I said at the game title
It's more like a major disappointment wrapped up in a giant ball of WTF. The cutscenes are beautifully done and that's the only nice thing you can say about it. Everything else is horrible - wonky, nonsensical controls, awkward character movement, nonsensical plot, no tutorial, stupid level/costume power designs. I've seen video game design school student projects done better.
Its funny, but now that you mention it, even the title is bad. Its a mouthful. I keep thinking of it as "Balan Wonderland".
@@Sorcerers_Apprentice eh the plot is actually not half bad, the problem is the game tells you none of it.
You know you need more spice in your life when you feel excited because Yahtzee has mentioned in writing the name of the Italian region you live in at the end of his review
You fool I’ve just discovered your entire life story with this information
@@danielg3857 come at me bro :)
@@fabiometalsinger *FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!*
...
...
*kiss kiss kiss*
"have you played any sonic in the last 20 years?"
Yes and yuji naka was not responsible for most of those
Not since 2006. Lol
There were enough issues with the development of Sonic '06 that Yuji Naka jumping ship wouldn't have changed much
I'm guessing you never played Sonic Adventure 1, 2 Heroes, and Shadow, since those games weren't that good.
@@atre5763 I never played shadow but I like all the other games
Not to mention depending on the kind of Sonic fan you were, they were either mediocre but still fun to play, or completely bad and not worthy of touching
AFTER ALL.... YOU'RE MY WONDERWORLD
Nice one
I SAID MAYBEEEE
0:40 Small correction with this: Yuji Naka hasn't been involved with Sonic the Hedgehog for the past 20 years and many people were expecting a Nights into Dreams successor with this one.
Even with Naka, the games we're not that good
yeah he was always a producer or programer, never director
In addition to fucking up Shadow the Hedgehog - with it's truly awful story, horrendous bugs and glacial gameplay - Naka was at least thirty to forty percent responsible for the absolute WORST Sonic Game of all time before he jumped ship from Sega - namely Sonic 06 - so you're not so much 'correcting' as 'splitting hairs' :P
Yeah, he wasn't involved in any of the last twenty years of Sonic games, but he WAS partly responsible for the current MESS that Sonic games are in by allowing a lot of the shit that went down in Sonic 06 TO go down :P
WHICH
Depending on your point of view
Could arguably be worse :P
@@2Scribble ok that’s why I said small correction :)))
@@2Scribble I mean it could be argued that the game would've turned out a lot better had he stayed
Me before watching this: "Hey look Yahtzee's reviewing that game everyone hates right now. At least I might finally understand what the deal is now."
Me after watching this: "Well I can see why people hate it but not anything else about the game."
It’s psychonaughts but instead of solving a murder it’s just therapy.
Every level is about someone’s problem and it’s your job to go hiking to solve said problem(and Balan’s there sometimes). The problems range from “I’ve been suicidal for 5 years🙂” to “someone beat me at chess😡”.
@@Jimbojanbo
Also, the Robert Smith guy is like an immortal angel that would give you shelter from the world during your worst days. But then everyone would leave, leaving him alone. So he poisoned their minds against anyone who would help them, so that they would never leave again.
Much like a cult.
Every stage represents their defenses.
So you're not so much solving their problems, as providing psychic therapy, to free them from the cage of their own minds.
Yahtzee played it on the channel. Watch the first level and you'll understand everything wrong with the game.
I think we need more of little Yahtzee with a hat that's too big for him. Anyone else?
When do the T-shirts go to print Yahtzee?
Lil Yahtzee seems to be dead judgeing by the outro
Yes!!!!
@@connormcconnell7881 Yahtzee felt threatened by a small and cuter version of himself, had to eliminate the competition.
Finally a game that are R100. Only 100 year old gamers can fully appreciate all the subtle undertones of the master piece that is Yuji Nakas Balan Wonderworld.
@Anguila Hombre "I don't feel so good, Mr. Naka..."
Thing is, Balan Wonderworld is a pretty decent story about overcoming trauma, and there's some dark stuff in there (like a guy who recreate a dead loved one in his Wonderworld and forgets she isn't real).
Too bad NONE OF THIS IS IN THE GAME. If you want Balan Wonderworld to make sense, you have to buy the game's novel -not novelization, *novel*- and read through hundreds of pages of decent yet poorly translated prose, because that's where you get the plot, the backstory, the actual character motivations, and all those silly things that make a narrative.
The weird thing is that it does seem like the kind of story the "kids" today would like, and I can totally see an alternate reality where Balan Wonderworld becomes a cult hit, even if the gameplay was to remain the same.
"I don't understand the hatred towards the game", "Worst game of 2021"
Something can be completely, utterly, gut-wrenchingly bad without being hatable. A prime example would be something like "the Room".
This video is making me laugh so hard with the new assets for lance and balan
I've played NiGHTS into dreams. I wonder what it's about
All I know is: I saw it in Sonic Adventure, it was trippy as hell then, and apparently the actual game is no different.
Yeah, Yuji Naka definitely deserved to go to jail for this.
The thing is there's a book where everything is explained. It should be obvious why this is a problem
2:18 funny story. The game's novelization does explain the bizarreness of the game...but at no point did the game EVER mentions it! Like it believes you have already bought the book already!
I hate franchises that only have important pieces of lore in the comics and whatnot so you're just left confused as to what the chundering fuck is going on. *cough* Halo *cough*
@@MysteriumArcanum well halo at least informs you of the comics and stuff that fills the lore in, rather then assume you already read them and know about the expanded universe.
@@xcellentcreations3312 I get that, but the comics and other expanded lore material should be optional is my point. Any game that gives me homework in order to understand what's going on isn't going to be getting high marks from me.
*BECAUSE MAYBE*
*YOU'RE GONNA BE THE ONE THAT SAVES ME*
*AND AFTER ALL*
*YOU'RE MY WONDERWORLD*
I hate Oasis
Balan feels like the Mario party 8 mascot getting hit with puberty
"If Wily Wonka got turned into a pokemon"
I fell on the floor laughing.
4:11 I have not thought of that thing in over a decade but it was legit one of my favorite toys as a kid
but you haven't read the entire novel that contains everything you would need to know about the game, including your basic motivation for doing anything
how can you give a fair assessment of this clear cut masterpiece, when you haven't read the entire novel that contains everything you would need to know about the game, including your basic motivation for doing anything
Easy, put all that shit in the base game and keep the comics and expanded canon stuff optional.
As a fan of NiGHTs Journey of Dreams, I was pretty excited for this game when I saw the trailer. Glad I completely forgot about it and didn't spend my money, lol.
Just check out some LPs, you'll be both entertained and horrified by it's crass awfulness, like watching Plan 9 from Outer Space or Rocky Horror Picture Show.
@@Sorcerers_Apprentice I actually watched this review last week (on Escapist's website) and since then I watched a video talking about 100 percenting the game and reading the tie-in book, lol. It sounds like an unplanned mess.
the publisher tried to kill the game, it's not that surprising that it came out like this
@@seqka711 Maybe the person who wants to do this just really, really hates themselves.
5:28
Oh, it gets explained, all right. Turns out the theater's a TARDIS.
Also, the clown character is crushing on the 8 year old cat girl's future self. And said cat girl's car accident was the same one that killed ice girl's parents.
Wat
I did not know the ice girls parents were killed by the cat girls car accident!! Another interesting fact that NEVER gets explained in game: the chess guys distress isn’t just losing at chess, it is that his wife was dieing and he didnt even notice it until it was too late because he lost.
About time Yahtz did a shout out with his dad in a Playboy Bunny costume.
Tbh I'm surprised this to be very mild
As yahtzee said its more confusing why the game was made the way it was, theres obviously something here that could have been great but it's just sooooo boring and has dumb design decisions
I wonder if the game developers had play tested the game enough, or if the pandemic had made play testing way harder. (This explanation wouldn't make sense if the play testing was done before pandemic)
I feel like, had the developers been given outside perspective, surely the testers would've said "what does this box fox do?" or "I'm confused about the story." I'm not sure though.
Then the game's flaws could've been caught and fixed
@@jacks.cosplay And I agree, it's not exactly worthy of being in the "Worst Games of the Year Top 5" but it could certainly make the Blandest list Top 5
I think we have a candidate for the Blandest list year - because a game that he's this bored of and confused by doesn't tend to have much sticking power lol
"Apparently the story gets explained in a tie-in book, which means Balan Wonderland is exactly like 2001: A Space Odyssey". Now that is a weirdly specific reference that perfectly explains it.
It feels like at this point more people have reviewed this game than actually bought it.
Okay so apparently there's a book that explains this whole game, but let me get on my tiny soapbox for a moment.
Ahem. I shouldn't have to read a novel to play a video game. I'm not AGAINST novels- I love books. I'm not even against supplemental materials, because I love learning the new lore of an old friend. But if I pick up a video game and can't understand it WITHOUT the novel or supplement then it's not strong enough to stand on its own.
I could pick up the third Lord of the Rings book and still enjoy it to an extent, even if I'd never read the first two. I could follow the world well enough without previous knowledge. The problem here is that I have no clue what's going on in this game, am being told I need to read a book nobody informed me of first, and will have trouble following the plot without it. That's an issue.
The art is neat, though. I'll give it that.
Balan Wonderworld has to have the Guinness world record for first final boss that actively tries to kill the player.
Look up the seizure inducing flashes that game had on UA-cam. Even I started coming down with a headache.
0:47 **Yahtzee then proceeds to show only Sonic games that came out AFTER Yuji Naka left**
He's still the guy that sabotaged Sonic X-treme so hard that it nearly killed several developers because of his own ego, then did it again and caused Sonic '06 to be what it is.
Yahtzee your version of Balan is absolutely horrifying. Can I get that on a T-shirt?
I love that the Balan monster thingies have crisp packets for torsos
Stealth sequel to Bugsnax?
This marks the second time in as many years that a once-revered Japanese game designer from Segs came out of retirement to make a video game that feels like it was made by someone who hates video games.
What’s the other one?
@@rhubarbjin mighty number 9
@@spydere3392 Mighty No. 9 is by Keiji Iwafune who is ex-Capcom. And Mighty may be disappointing to many, but isn't really a game built on baffling gameplay systems like Balan Wonderworld is. They were probably referring to Yu Suzuki's project Shenmue III, the long awaited sequel to a cult classic Sega game series. Shenmue III supposedly plays like it's designed by developers who haven't played a video game before. Suzuki has stated that he doesn't really play games so I guess it checks out.
@@winner3887 yeah Shenmue would've been my second guess but I didn't know that bit of trivia about it so I went with m9
This game clearly was made with a vision in mind but clearly it was the kind of vision that needed someone with their feet planted to the ground to help make work in a interactive medium. I'm all for empowering visionaries but you need to ground it and make it practical even if that compromises it somewhat.
If you need a novel to explain the plot and context of your _platforming video game aimed at children_ , you might be missing the forest for the trees somewhere.
One thing I don't get from just a gameplay perspective- why do the serverity of the issue go in reverse order? The first ones are "My entire farm was destroyed in a tornado and my livelyhood is gone." "A dolphin I trusted tried to fucking DROWN ME." which gives way to "I have artist's block" and "I have a crush on a girl but I'm afraid because she knows I work as a clown."
0:16 My little Yahtzee can't be this cute???
This game can be summed up as “Disney’s Psychonauts”
You calling the game salt and vinegar crisps... While I was just opening my bag of salt and vinegar crisps...
I am surprised yahtzee didn't mention the part were naka hasn't been employed at Sega since 2006.
That terrifying hat creature will be haunting my dreams now. Thanks Yahtzee.
More like "Bellend Wonderworld"
*Wonderwank
The whole "Yuji Naka made Sonic so hopes were high" thing makes a little more sense given that Naka left SEGA during the production of Sonic 06. A lot of people assumed that his absence from SEGA coinciding with the "dark age" meant that his own productions would be much better, but the sad truth is that Naka's leaving had nothing to do with the quality of SEGA's output- He'd been promoted to an executive role years before, and wanted to go back to actually making the games.
Unfortunately it seems like Balan has only retroactively tarnished his work at SEGA too, because now one the of the biggest issues with Adventure 2- Too many things mapped to a single button- has been apparently revealed to be Naka's MO.
Little late to this but I figured id add onto the insanity. Those asides that are in each level, if you mess them up, they dont respawn normally, no no. If you want them to reappear, you have to go and *kill the boss of that world.* And you bave to do this everytime you want the asides to respawn.
Turns out that if you read the obscure tie-in novel, there was a greater vision behind this game that was hidden by the decision to avoid dialogue as the game's story may be too complex to explain through dialogue-free cutscenes without turning the game into a silent movie.
here's the weird thing -- there's a set of books to go along with the games that help to fill in the story, complete with fleshed-out dialogue and backstories. like, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on there *really* should've been touched on more overtly in the game. you can kinda get a better feel for the game's real vision through those, alongside some of the late completion unlocks (like the costume that lets you fly).
the way yahtzee describes games is poetic its like hes a master at saying exactly how a game feels AND juggling being funny at the same time. And whats also kinda beast is the way the comedy ENHANCES the review. its like if IGN didnt suck AND made me laugh while making their point and thats not even counting the visuals. The visuals remind me of newspaper comics. this whole show is peak human communication skills
Fun fact! both the Bug Collector and the Chess Player actually happened in game, which is really weird because the first 2 traumas were "A tornado destroyed my livelihood and now I might starve to death" and "My best friend who is a dolphin tried to murder me", so it somewhat feels as if the social outcasting of being a bit weird and literally losing a single chess game are being equivocated to the devastation of a natural disaster and attempted murder.
Here is the dumbest part about the chess losing part: according to the novel him losing a game of chess isn’t the sole reason for the trauma. It stems from his wife getting super sick and dying, and him not noticing until it was far too late for him to help her because he was so angry at losing a match. The game shows none of that.
I will forever be baffled by how this series manages to not get demonetized, surpressed, and buried by youtube.
0:50 I think a lot of those were done without his input though
Also he was responsible for knights into dreams which a lot of people (not including myself because I never played those games) have fond memories of
I didn't know this game existed until it came out. I saw the visuals, thought, "Hey, that kinda looks pretty good."
Then the collective public took aim and threw all the poo they had on hand, directly into the game's face, and I said "Whelp, back to Hat in Time, it is, then."
This game would mostly qualify as a confusing but fascinating disappointment if not for three things:
1) The baffling design decisions behind the costume system;
2) Putting its entire plot in a side novel (sold separately);
3) Needing a Day One patch to deal with a seizure issue caused by one of the final boss' attacks.
The control scheme of this game reminds me of Kirby Air Ride... if it sucked.
Nights was my favorite game as a kid. Still don't know what it was about.
Depression & mental health
ok but the fact you compared this to nights makes me want to play this for the childhood nostalgia
I love that you reference Dizzy games in 2021!
Its SO MUCH worse even. Naka admitted that he had no idea how to or interest in telling a story. There was NO cohesion until Square made him. The entirety of what story IS in the game comes from the FMV people being bored and deciding to chip in something they werent asked for in the 11th hour and a companion novella.
2:57 Jesus Christ, that's a dark joke, even for Yahtzee.
Yes, there is 'Check your Ego' Man and 'Kid failed once therefore RAGE' Boy, but quite a few of them have legitimate concerns.
2:08 - Considering what happened to Yuji Naka nowadays, this visual gag aged like fine wine.
Every time I see the title of this game, I think it's called "Balan WonderLAND". Anyone else?
"I am a burger snail" but we're not talking about Bugsnax haha
Yuji Naka actually DID answer everything. IN A BOOK! Just all of the context fr this game is written in a tie-in novel
This is one of those games you don't want to play, but you just love every clip of it you see,it's so bizzare that it's hilarious.
"... and knocked over the amaretto."
I see Yahtzee is a man of good taste
Honestly say it's light Nights sold me. I'm pretty excited to give it a shot now.
And now that I've finished the review I have determined not to get it. Kudos!
Im super happy yatz is still doing these
4:48 I recommend pausing it for a great picture
When the world seems more divided than ever, Balan Wonderworld has united people quite unlike anything else.
Somewhere in an alternate universe, someone titled this game "Balan Wonderland," because that is a strangely better name. Also, the game makes sense.
I didn't know anything about Balan's wonderland before watching this review. I still know nothing about Balan's wonderland
Sad that this is the closest we'll get to a decent Nights remake.
I quite liked Nights on Sega Saturn, when I was seven playing on the demo system at Target.
This review actually makes the game sound interesting.
I think we have top contender for Blandest Game list. 2 or 3 placement for sure
Same
It doesn't look bland at all. It looks memorably terrible
4:58 That inscription on the trophy was pretty funny
Nights into Dreams is about the Crash Bandocoot problem from Segas end. Namely moving on 3d space with their analog stick and notably without the platforming. Also has little floaty dudes that might be the proto Chao of later Sonic games.
According to Naka himself, this was going to be more of a game for younger players, thus the one button for controls and dance party endings. It's just the Square Enix doesn't market that young, so aimed at the fans of Yuji Naka instead. Poor choice.
Younger players can figure out pressing more than one button.
@@elin111 Depends on how young. Naka seems to have been aiming for small children as a target audience here.
Just a quick thing, the first two bosses "benign problems" are:
"A tornado came and literally shredded my livelihood" and "an animal that I truly trusted almost _fucking drowned me_ " you know two problems that are totally in the same ball park as "the people in my school think bugs are weird" and "I am a chess champion that lost a game."
I mean considering how this game had nearly 30 playable language options, I'd say the lack of dialogue being a way to save money on translators is more likely than you think 🤣
Love the Tayto touch on Robert Smith
Anyone else here from the _list_ to remember what the F Balan actually was?
The rainbow beam of Nights sent me, I needed a good laugh
I heard from someone there is an AUDIO BOOK. To play along side the game. Thats what explains the story, and thats why most sequences are in silence. ... you have to buy both to get the full story. But it was only released in japan.
If you, dear viewer, really want to play a game about "Child enters the mind of adults to solve the problems inside their heads" then you should play Psychonauts instead. It's playable, the power-ups are all useful and it is funny.