Super NiGHTS Odyssey

[Isuka]

https://www.balanwonderworld.com/























Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima present BALAN WONDERWORLD: https://youtu.be/hvHk2ezdRb4

Teaser trailer (Japanese): https://youtu.be/HKwcAu8cV_A
Teaser trailer (English): https://youtu.be/kldZVxarIkc

It does look kinda derivative, and the music isn't quite up there with NiGHTS's, but seems competent and fun for the young'uns...

[Locit]

Very curious to see where this one goes. There are a bunch of gameplay elements from previous Sonic Team games that were fun in their own right, but it's totally unclear if they've refined those into a cohesive package or this is another NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams that's doomed to end in tears and over-produced, excruciatingly long cutscenes.

That said I take it as a positive sign that Naka and Oshima are working together on a project without any input from Tezuka.

[Isuka]

Release date announced: March 26, 2021.

New system section on the website showing the not-nightopians and not-nightmarens, as well as some bosses and the co-operative mode: https://balanwonderworld.square-enix-ga ... -us/system

Some footage from September's Nintendo Direct mini: https://youtu.be/gMhGDmi4NVk
And the opening cutscene: https://youtu.be/CpUfLwRNDXA

[j-man]

I had a big dumb grin on my face the whole way through the initial trailer. It took me wayyy back in time, man! Suddenly, I'm standing in the middle of Sega World at the Trocadero again, playing NiGHTS for the first time, backlit with neon and pumping techno. I'm all over this like a seagull on chips.

I know it's a tired mantra of the ageing gamer but I really, really miss that particular feeling. I know not every game is CoDern Warfare or Ubisoft's Creed: Collectathon, and that there are some fantastic indie and mid-budget titles out there, but there isn't much that has recaptured that mid-90's Sega charm for me in recent years, with some notable exceptions (shout-out to my boy Hotshot Racing).

With Naka and Oshima on board, I'm pretty much sold. Aesthetically it's a dream come true (ha!) for me - let's hope the gameplay stands up, too.

[Crazy Penguin]

I had a big dumb grin on my face the whole way through the initial trailer. It took me wayyy back in time, man! Suddenly, I'm standing in the middle of Sega World at the Trocadero again, playing NiGHTS for the first time, backlit with neon and pumping techno. I'm all over this like a seagull on chips.

I know it's a tired mantra of the ageing gamer but I really, really miss that particular feeling. I know not every game is CoDern Warfare or Ubisoft's Creed: Collectathon, and that there are some fantastic indie and mid-budget titles out there, but there isn't much that has recaptured that mid-90's Sega charm for me in recent years, with some notable exceptions (shout-out to my boy Hotshot Racing).

With Naka and Oshima on board, I'm pretty much sold. Aesthetically it's a dream come true (ha!) for me - let's hope the gameplay stands up, too.

I feel the same way.

It's refreshing to see a brand new 3D platformer IP that isn't a throwback to something else. (Like how Yooka-Laylee is Banjo-Kazooie 3.)

It's hard to avoid the comparisons to NiGHTS, visually (gameplay has nothing in common), but this still looks fresh today. Most lead game characters are designed to be either cool, cute or a combination of both. It's rare for something like NiGHTS or this Balan character to come along, with a fairy tale sense of whimsy where cool and cute aren't important considerations.

Here we have a picturesque, vaguely European city, a gothic mansion and an Alice in Wonderland style world populated with Japanese mascot style characters, wrapped up in a musical theatre theme. I love it! Video games have a long history of pulling from multiple inspirations and making something new. It's something I'd like to see more of.

[Isuka]

New "chapter" section, they go into some detail about what each stage (or play, I suppose) is like: https://balanwonderworld.square-enix-ga ... us/chapter

Right now there are three of them on show.

[Isuka]

The demo is out.

[Isuka]

Played the demo for a while. Of all things, it reminds me the most of Klonoa, with simple controls and starting off real easy but with potential for more complex puzzles and platforming down the road. The problem is that it does start off way too easy, maybe they are really targeting a very young audience with this game.

Something that Blaze pointed out is that it feels a bit eerie, probably due to the lack of in-engine/real-time facial animation in most characters, but moreso because of their motion-captured dance routines, everything combines to make it feel like a weird mascot live show.

[Locit]

Took a run at the demo and bounced off it. Might try again. But I'm worried that it feels and looks a bit janky this late in the game, given the names and publisher involved.

[Isuka]

Yeah, I experienced some small camera-based glitches (and also this little gem) as well as some stutter on PS4, but maybe they didn't want to spend too much time polishing the demo on six (nine?) platforms and instead are focusing on fixing the full game? Also some people complain about the characters being slow, I think their movement speed is alright and easy to control (especially taking into consideration that there will be costumes whose explicit purpose will be to run faster) and the exaggerated running animation is intentionally cartoonish.

Showtime trailer (Japanese): https://youtu.be/e9DQGv4anac
True Happiness is an Adventure | Gameplay Trailer (English): https://youtu.be/gdf85ydqfBM

[j-man]

Gave it a go on PS4 yesterday. It's... weird!

My immediate reaction is that it's for kids; I mean, literally every face button, and even the triggers, do the same thing, and combined with the pop-up storybook visuals it kind of feels like a My First Videogame. I have literally no idea what the Tims are all about, but they've got a slide and a trampoline now and they seem to be having a good time. I just keep feeding them and they keep bouncing around like mad - it's a bit like having cats, really.

It was quite a pleasant experience, just having a low-stress runabout - well, jogabout, anyway. I wouldn't say the characters feel slow, but there's a vaguely frustrating sense of not quite getting up to top speed. It feels like trying to run in a dream, which is at least thematically appropriate... I think. Is my character supposed to be dreaming?

Anyway. Nice design, nice music, still figuring out the rest. It feels like a bit of a relic, which I'm sure is gonna put people off, but I found it pretty charming overall.

Something that Blaze pointed out is that it feels a bit eerie, probably due to the lack of in-engine/real-time facial animation in most characters, but moreso because of their motion-captured dance routines, everything combines to make it feel like a weird mascot live show.

I feel like this was a sticking point for me. At first it's like, whoa! Creepy ghost characters! What's going on there? Could be a bit of lore behind that. Then you finish the boss and it goes full-on Clockwork Knight cabaret - which I didn't hate, because I'm a die-hard Saturn fanboy, but I did find just a tiny bit cringeworthy. I'm in my thirties, man! This game makes me feel like I awkwardly snuck into a taping of Barney the Dinosaur midway through, and now I'm just desperately struggling not to look like a paedo.

The missus was on the fence about the whole thing from start to finish, but the post-boss dance party tipped her over the edge for sure. I think her exact words were "No". Not even a "No, thank you"! It must've been pretty dire.

[Isuka]

Previews for all twelve chapters now available over at the Japanese site: https://www.balanwonderworld.com/JP/chapter/index.html

[Isuka]

Producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto says that the development team analyzed player feedback from the demo and are going to implement adjustments to controls, camera and difficulty in a day one patch: https://square-enix-games.com/en_US/new ... rld-themes

There’s been a wide range of opinions and responses to the demo, and unfortunately at the current stage of development, it simply isn't feasible to reflect every piece of feedback into the game. However, to offer you all a more balanced gameplay experience, we will be implementing a day one patch for the full game.

Specifically, this patch will adjust movement controls, camera movement, and rebalancing of the difficulty. There's just over a week left until launch now, so I hope you all enjoy the world of Wonderworld to your heart's content!

BALAN WONDERWORLD | A Hero or Two: https://youtu.be/pow07l5bWiE

[big_smile]

Ugly graphics, costumes with pointless abilities, too much backtracking to use the abilities.... This game needs a lot more than a patch for controls and difficulty.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

And now Naka has left Square Enix and is considering retirement.

https://twitter.com/nakayuji/status/1401050454704857088

Didn't think this is how the programmer and later producer of one of my favorite childhood video game franchises would reach his end. Much less at only 55. Yikes.

[Isuka]

That didn't age well.

Got the game because my nieces tried out the demo and liked it, they ended up also liking the final game but yeah, it's pretty trash, starts out bad and never really improves, way too many amateur mistakes on top of the short, linear, mostly boring stages. The "third acts" highlight the utter stupidity of the whole costume stock nonsense, losing access to a costume after being hit once or falling off the stage is no big deal if you can collect the costume again without having to exit the stage, but when you can't do it and are rendered unable to beat the stage because the game took the necessary tools away from you the fastest thing to do is to return to the title screen and reload the saved game, same with failing one of the Balan Bouts... not to mention the entire game's plot not being in the damn game and instead only existing in a novel that isn't included with the game, not even as an unlockable...

Third acts notwithstanding (which are also uglier than the first two acts and the boss stages), I guess the game is playable, but without much merit. And most of that merit is aesthetic/non-interactive in nature.

Thing is, Naka has never truly directed a big game, I guess that as a producer he had the option of being as hands-on or hands-off on each project as he saw fit, but when he's put on the driver's seat and his designated producer is a no-name dude that's most probably just a yes man for him there's no one telling him that his basic design and game mechanics are boring, repetitive and/or frustrating. He might be the George Lucas of Japanese video games.