I played Balan Wonderworld, so you don't have to 

6:46 "do they....kiss?" I swear that had to be almost everyone's first thought when that cutscene played

It's so annoying, because this game could've been such a good "fun" way to teach kids how to process all kinds of emotional stuff, like defeat, loosing someone you love etc. But instead they did this...

For some reason, I feel like Balan would be a Tumblr sexyman if this game was less obscure.

14:29 "You had 17 jump buttons and you didn't use any of them." is the most specific and funny insult lol

Welcome to suffering, my friend.

Fun fact about this game, all the cutscenes were added later into development because play testers had no idea what was happening so square Enix got a different company to just add them in at the last minute

Fun fact: Almost 90% of the actual story of this game was sold in a separate art book that might have also been JP exclusive

12:10 "This costume's lantern flickers on and off WHEN IT FEELS LIKE IT, allowing the wearer to Illuminate dark areas." That, more than anything else, absolutely kills me.

“Is this is a story based game?” “This is just a based game”

“Is this a story-based game?” “It’s just a based game” Fucking golden

Let’s rewrite the story of Balan Wonderworld. Starting by renaming it Balan Wonderland. Balan lives in Wonderland as the caretaker of people’s hopes and dreams. When not helping people he is performing in his theatre for the denizens of this magical world. While performing a sudden darkness encompasses his theatre. There are 12 people who have lost hope. Awakening Lance, Balan’s shadow who grows stronger the more souls lose hope. Lance transforms the lost souls of these 12 people into monsters who terrorize Wonderland. Lance’s goal is to break down the walls between worlds and bring despair upon all the souls of the real world. The hub world is Balan’s theatre. With various wacky means to access other places of Wonderland. As you progress you get more people living in the theatre that help you in some way. Power ups, skill upgrades, costumes, etc. Balan’s basic move set is a double jump, backflip, a slide kick, wall jump, and a punch. Upgrades include a cape that lets you glide, wacky melee weapons like a big hammer, throwing cards like ninja stars, a floating power, and a mega jump. Power ups are fire that lets him lite fuses, do a ram attack, and melt ice. A lightning ability that lets him run fast and activate machines, with certain areas letting him ride power lines. A climbing power that replaces the wall jump and dig up treasures. A rolling power that bowls through obstacles and enemies. And a phase power that lets him walk through walls. Each power up can be upgraded in the theatre and can be swapped for at any time. After saving the souls, Balan returns to the theatre to find it taken over by Lance. The final boss takes place on the stage. Going from the 3D boss fights to a 2D one as Lance attacks from backstage with props. It finally ends when Balan uses the power of hopes and dreams of the saved souls to banish the darkness within Lance. The ending shows Lance is now performing with Balan, free from being a shadow and devoted to despair. He found the dream he truly wanted, to be his own person like Balan. The End

My interpretation of each story Fuck-It-Up Farmer Ted: Lost years of hard work due to natural disasters but finding a small remainder of corn that survived gave him hope to restart Diver: Was friends with a dolphin (big mistake), the dolphin tried to kill her, sending her to the hospital, which made her afraid of the water, but she got over it soon Bug Girl: A girl obsessed with bugs tries to connect with others but gets bullied instead, only to find people who share an interest with her later Pilot: A guy who dreamed of soaring through the sky constantly fails and the video didn't show the end-dance cutscene so I can't draw a conclusion Nature Woman: A woman has the forest she loves get cut down by people who never stopped to give a shit and then she teaches them how to give a shit Cat Girl: A girl loves her cat a lot. Cat gets ran over. Girl is sad. Cat comes back. Girl is no longer sad. Grandmaster Wannabe: A guy who had a very high win streak on chess got so obsessed that he didn't care about anything else. He loses once and goes crazy because god complex. He gets over it by letting a kid win. Ice Queen: A girl who lost her parents in the winter gets too scared to love her fiancé thinking that, if she loves him, he'll die too. It's resolved by them marrying and her realizing that winter's a bitch Clown: A guy fears that he will be rejected if he puts on the persona he uses for entertainment purposes, so he confesses with his true personality Artist: A highly renowned artist gets crushed by pressure of trying to magic something up through artist block (artist block is just 'you can't get creative') without disappointing people. She resolves it by somehow finding inspiration and making the next masterpiece Firefighter: A firefighter fails at his job in saving people, blames it on himself, and loses all courage. Resolved by gaining the courage to rush through a burning building and saving the survivors Grandpa: An old guy who picks up litter out of the kindness of his heart constantly gets his hard work reversed by an entire wave of litter being thrown on the ground by entitled people, thus making him feel like nobody cares about him. Resolved by one person not littering through the kindness of their heart Protag: A person who can't dance saves everyone from their worries and regains the ability to dance

The best part about the dance scenes is that everyone has flat, dead faces as if their being forced to dance

"He lost once, so he plays against children to feel better" Wasn't this an episode of iCarly?

My favorite part about this game is that Yuji Naka committed insider trading against Square Enix after this game bombed. Really classy, Naka.

This is probably my 10th time watching this and I just realized that Balan is in every flashback, so my theory is Balan makes these people lives miserable just to kidnap them, and Evil Balan is just a manifestation that actual Balan made to try and stop the kids from helping everybody.

Love how the tragedies of these characters range from "My entire family died" and "I lost a dear childhood pet" to "I had artist's block" and "I, a firefighter, was alarmed by the fire"

the sad thing is the fact that the entire story of the game is in the novel. The chess Guy's actual story was that he was obsessed with chess and when he finally lost his title he found out he neglected his dying wife and came home to find her dead and he fell into a depression. Once the main characters restore his heart he moves on to tech the next generation how to play chess.

I can't tell if the lyrics of the dance segments are an odd Japanese dialect or a fake Sims language, but I won't look it up "BALAN'S AN ORDAINED MINISTER!?" This just killed me just as much as it did the first time I watched this

"is this an allegory for ww2? several minutes later "he's probably just bad at art"

20:26 “It gets hit by a car” being immediately followed by the game actually having the cat get hit by a car fucking killed me.

“Mom I went on a magical journey and now I finally have enough confidence to tell you, I’m going to clown college and you can’t stop me”

you forgot to mention: not only does EVERY new costume require a Key to obtain, some are well hidden, AND if you take ANY damage from ANY enemy, the costume is LOST and you have to unlock it again... which often means re-starting the entire level. AND using costumes in different levels from where you found them can have crazy results! oh, one more thing: the game has a 2-player co-op mode, and of the players TOUCH, they get stuck together, allowing one player to control both characters... AND, if the second player presses any jump button at the right time, you can DOUBLE-JUMP, even with NO costume!

Balan still has a pretty unique character design imo and I kinda love it.

i like how two of the stories were "my cat literally died" and "my parents are dead and i don't love anyone anymore" and the final one was "people litter"

the game gets rid of the protagonists depression by giving it to me

30:39 Ladder man is so powerful he can spin a ladder without even touching the ladder

Its a shame this game is so badly written because the visuals and art are beautiful! 😭

I had a fever dream last night, there was a new level of Balan's Wonderworld. Its fucking Grubhub. The boss's back story was that the kid dropped his burger.

Balan Wonderworld is like that one kid who spent 3 days studying for a science test, but did that studying for a math test. You can't deny the effort they made, but they most certainly put their effort in the wrong subject

I like how Square Enix’s solution to not putting crucial story elements into their games that would make it less confusing is “Eh, make a movie or a book or something”

"Does she believe in deforestation?" is SUCH a wild line with SO MANY implications

It’s even worse. The guy you played as was so good at dancing that he felt ostracized from his peers because of how good his dancing is. That’s the book.

"Is that a love interest or a child?" "God I hope it's not both."

I love how the cutscenes are meant to be heavily symbolic and their just taking them all at face value

32:50 I find it funny how the invisible man costume says it switches between visibility and invisibility when it feels like it.

I love how “her entire family died” and “he lost once at chess” are treated as the same in this game

“Is this a story based game?” “It’s just a based game” So true bro

To be generally honest, this game has its charm and its withdraws. While I do see many of the things that make it not as good at ALL, you can see here and there that some people in the team actually wanted to give it their all, such as some of the art, character designs, and sometimes even the animation (not all of it though). Like in some cutscenes, you can actually feel a nice warmth to it, kind of like the ending scene where everone thanked Balan. Breaks my heart even more seeing the art and such at the start of the video that actually look like it has passion in it. If the team was set up right, I'm betting this game would have been a unique one of it's kind. Not record breaking, but would definitely stand out more positively.

Other Characters : *Near-Death Experience, Lost Loved One, Can’t Make Up Mind* Chess Guy : “no i lost at chess 😢”

This game is a perfect example of a group project, the animators did an amazing job but everyone else didn’t

This game is like if Persona 5 and Disney had a deformed child, and then Disney cheated on Persona 5 with Hamilton, and then the house caught on fire and Mario Oddessy jumped in. *chef's kiss*

37:48 this part just yells at you: “Yay Lance is dead! 🎉🎉🎉

So you see, the story of this game is quite easy to understand. Balan is a demon who waits until people are at their lowest point and offers them deals to get out of their problems, and you are trapped in the prison made from the souls he's claimed over the years. A prison he calls his Wonderworld. The world-theming and the first cutscene in every boss encounter shows what drove the victim to accept Balan's "help". The boss itself is the imprisoned soul, now dark and vengeful against its tormentor, and is freed once you defeat it (hence the dancing / celebration). Then the last cutscene shows the result of Balan's deal: he gives them exactly what they ask him for, but he knows their souls are bound by his contract and will end up in this prison eventually. Lance, a rival demon, had infiltrated Balan's Wonderworld to steal these souls and, in doing so, destroy Balan. That's when he makes a deal with your character. Your character's deal with Balan was to be able to make friends. Normally the price for this deal would be your soul, but with the threat of Lance to contend with, he decides to set his price as the death of Lance.

Fun fact: dolphins have the capacity to be evil, so the dolphin from chapter 2 was definitely trying to kill the girl

"What are you in for?" "My entire family died" "Cool, my invention broke and I got mad"

21:38 Same energy as “Have you ever had a dream that-that you that-uh you that-“

Can we just talk about 33:08, where he's nearly at the end of the game with 1634 ball things, and this game has prepared itself for you to get over 1 fucking million of them...

"I think its to remind the protagonist that he has social anxiety" But yet he's been dancing with everyone he sees for 13 chapters

moral of this game: if you have social anxiety, just backflip

It almost feel like someone in the game’s team heard that metroidvanias open up more of the world because you got a new power, and then said “I can do that” when they, in fact, could not

Balan just said :are you ready to trust yourself and your friends? Me: no Balan: I don’t care 🤷 And then he gone

I’m convinced this is the dark parallel reality alternative to one where it was called “Balan Wonderland” and was the greatest game of the decade.

"The cats gonna get hit by a car" The game immediately after: "CORRECT!"

*loses chess once* *has a fucking panic attack*

This whole game feels like a whimsical and silly April fools joke

I too hate when my social anxiety causes me to be transported into a metaphysical dream dimension overseen by someone who doesn't know how to wear a hat.

Honestly. Kinda makes me sad that this game is so fucked. You just know this was a total passion project. And everyone is (understandably) shitting on it lol. I played the demo for literally 3 mins and was done.

Ah yes the artistic temptation to redesign this thing and make it actually have an intresting plot that makes sense

12:22 The sound effect for the light turning on and off sounds like Sparx from Spyro. Specifically, when you click in the right stick and he points you in the direction of the nearest uncollected gem.

Ah yes tragic character backstories “I got bullied” “My cat died” “My family died” *”I lost a game of chess :(”* what perfect storytelling

The fact that every button is the jump button makes this the best platforming game ever

6:53 “Your a pretty strong Pokémon trainer! I can’t wait for our rematch!”

18:24 “I’m pulling my jaw up off the floor because I’m just in awe that they could make a game that was this good” Greatest quote ever

The worst part about the Polar Express cutscene is that it serves literally no purpose. Trains are meant to take you to different places. But all that happens here is you circle around the island, and then go right back to where you started. You get on this fantastic magical train, and go NOWHERE!

Balan’s character design is amazing, so this is just a tragedy.

I love how they just progressively go through the 5 stages of grief with every dance scene

this game is like if sonic(specifically the chao garden stuff), mario, and klonoa had a god awful love child its like as if they tried mashing what ppl love about those and failed horribly

I like how the problems in this story range from: "my whole family died" "I know your pain, I lost at chess once."

I - I - fuck - I - jesus christ, I looked _directly at_ the game's name like _fifty times_ and I _swore_ it was Balan Wonderland holy fucking fuck it's like all of reality just shifted around me

A RU-vid Short from this channel convinced me to add _Balan Wonderworld_ to my Steam wishlist. Now that I’ve seen this entire video, I’m even more determined to experience the game for myself.

Love how Square Enix's logic was hiring the two guys that made that one game for SEGA 30-ish years ago that a lot of people liked so they could get in on that sweet sweet 3D platformer action

Literally the opening acts of the game: "A tornado wiped out my entire crop yield, wasting months of hard labor" "A dolphin I scuba dove with broke my oxygen tank and damn near killed me" Endgame: "I lost a single game of chess" "People litter"

In an alternate universe, Balan was absolutely tumblr's next top sexyman. I think we actually dodged a bullet, guys-

Fun fact the actual story for the game is in a book that you have to pay separate from the game

27:26: This line came right out of nowhere and sounded plain dark.

14:25 "dude you had 17 jump button and you didn`t use any of them" crack`s me up every time

Can I just say? The secondhand _embarrassment_ level that struck when the first dance number broke out nearly flatlined me instantly.

Jawsh's perpetual tiredness really adds something to this experience. Also these characters and cutscenes unironically look like mobile game ads. I thought that farmer dude was literallt from a mobile ad.

Looking back on this game, the costume mechanic would be pretty interesting if each level was a creative puzzle that you could incorporate any costume you've collected in the past into solving. That would require effort though.

I once got my head actually stuck in a top hat as a kid, and Balan's design reminds me of that, except maybe a universe where I either couldn't get my head out and had to cut holes in the hat for eyes, or I just straight up suffocated and still couldn't get the hat off and then decided to become a ghost stripper once of legal ghost age. Horrifying.

Fun fact: Balan and Lance were named so their names formed "Balance" together, which goes back to the whole deal with people getting transported to Wonderworld when their heart loses balance like the wiki says. If this game had a cohesive and/or well-developed plot, I'd find that small detail incredibly satisfying.

Why do the cutscenes in this game look so good

This game doesn't deserve this high of an animation budget

"Morale of the story: if you're getting bullied... Stop" This got me dying really hard

i love how the backstories range from "i lost my crops to a tornado" "a dolphin attacked me" "my cat died" to absolutely tragic stories like "i lost a game of chess" "people stopped liking my art for some reason" and who could forget "littering"

16:45 The Lorax (2012)

I find it interesting that it wasn’t mentioned that the characters who are basically embodiments of positivity and negativity are Balan and Lance. Literally, their named Balance. In a game about emotional stability. … I do love the random dancing segments though😅

"The Man Seen By No One": Credit where it's due, they understood well how many people would make it to the last level of the game.

Nobody: Balan Wonderworld: *"C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S S H I N J I"*

Them:We still do not know the relationship between her and this man, is he her babysitter? The photo of him proposing minutes prior: Am I a joke to you?

While the game may have been odd, you have to admit, the cutscenes look really good. The style of moving from exaggerated scene to exaggerated scene looks really good. Now if everyone else on the team put in that much work...

chapter 1: my entire produce was destroyed overnight due to a natural disaster placing me and my family in deep poverty and famine, maybe i could come back from it if it wasnt for the fact i may lose the farm due to being unable to pay for the land chapter 12: people dont notice how good i am at picking up trash :(

The fact that I can rewatch it twice because I didn't understand a single thing is really telling of the game

You know, considering ice girl’s trauma is that her *family literally died and she can’t bring herself to be emotionally vulnerable with another human being again* , she would’ve made a better final level than “I feel like nobody appreciates the work I do”

My least favorite part of the game is the fact that if it had been released like 6 years earlier balan would be the most thirsted after character on tumblr and honestly that scares me

most of this game feels like A Hat in Time if A Hat in Time saw it had an assignment due in 3 hours, downed an unfortunate amount of illicit substances, and kinda just... *went for it.*

23:59 this is me when I lose in a game while just havin fun so I use one of the op things I have and completely dominate and go back to havein fun

Balan’s Wonderworld 2 will include such riveting stories as “the man who found the crossword too hard for his liking” and “the girl who burnt the toast.”

It’s like this entire game was written by a 4 year old “And then the farmer gets evil by evil balan and then they dance”