Balan Wonderworld

Balan Wonderworld (バランワンダーワールド, Baranwandāwārudo,)- sometimes stylized as BALAN WONDERWORLD on various merchandise and gaming platforms- is a 3D action-platformer created/developed by Balan Company, developed by Arzest, and published by Square Enix. It was released on March 26th 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Steam. A Japanese only PC version of the game was released on December 16, 2021.

About[]

Balan Wonderworld is a musical theatre-themed action-platformer game centering around the player characters, Leo Craig and Emma Cole, who are accompanied by the flying, stylish stage master Balan. Each of them use various Costumes with unique abilities, that can help them progress through each Chapter's Acts and solve puzzles in the magical world of Wonderworld.

Throughout the game, you'll go through 12 different Chapters, each with labyrinthine-styled stages (Acts) and fight menacing Negati and Nega Bosses. There are mini-games for you to enjoy, including Balan's Bout, and special sports-themed Costumes. There is also an animal-raising system put in-place in the form of Tims.

There is no set language in-game, all the characters and singers speak a fictional language called Balanese, ensuring a universal experience while playing the game.

The game's interface supports 23 languages.

Story[]

Maestro Balan invites Leo Craig and Emma Cole to a journey into Wonderworld to restore the lost balance of their hearts. Balan Theatre only appears when this balance is lost.^[1]

The game's story is mainly about restoring the lost balance in Leo/Emma's hearts, and other people's hearts as well. It teaches the importance of emotional balance.

More information centering around the game's story/in-universe details can be found in Balan Wonderworld ~Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders~, a tie-in novel released alongside the game's release.

Development[]

Full development history here.

Development of Balan Wonderworld started in July 2018. The game was announced and was presented on July 23, 2020. and the game released on March 26, 2021. The game's demo released on January 28, 2021.

Day 1 Patch:[]

Balan Wonderworld received a patch on its launch date, this patch fixed a potentially fatal bug that could trigger epilepsy, and further expanded on the Stamp System in-game to balance difficulty. The bug was present during the final boss fight with Lance, when he transitioned between attacks, the screen would flash white rapidly. The patch also adjusted other gameplay components of Balan Wonderworld, including camera tracking and movement controls/speed.

The latest change to Balan Wonderworld was the implementation of a new method to obtain the Demo Launchers. It is unknown if Balan Wonderworld will update its gameplay aspects, or add more content on the base game and/or as downloadable content in the future.

Features[]

Twelve different tales on labyrinthine stages^[2]
- In A Spectacular Preview - Announcement Trailer players can watch some of the featured levels from the game.
  - More gameplay and featured costumes can be found through the game's trailers.
80 different Costumes. (Actually 81 or 84)
- Special abilities from each Costume.
Hidden Costumes (Act 3 Costumes.)
Hidden tricks and stage gimmicks.
Collectible Balan Statues.
Puzzles to suit the Costumes.
An animal-raising system.
12 unique Inhabitants with inner dreams and goals.
- And their Nega Boss counterparts.

Credits[]

Director: Yuji Naka
Development Producer/Character Designer: Naoto Ohshima
Cinematics: Visual Works
- Visual Works Director: Kazuyuki Ikumori
Music Composer: Ryo Yamazaki

Name in Other Languages[]

Langauage	Name	Translation
English/Other	Balan Wonderworld	Balan Wonderworld
Japanese	バランワンダーワールド (Baranwandāwārudo)	Balan Wonderworld
S. Chinese	巴兰的异想奇境 (Bā lán de yì xiǎng qí jìng)	Balan's Bizarre Wonderland
T. Chinese	巴蘭的異想奇境 (Bā lán de yì xiǎng qí jìng)	Balan's Bizarre Wonderland
Korean	밸런 원더월드

Gallery[]

Balan Wonderworld/Gallery

Trivia[]

The game's official Twitter revealed that a demo would be released on January 28, 2021 for all game platforms before the game's release.
- The game's demo was later delisted on April 14, 2021 for almost every game platform, and April 16, 2021 for the Steam version.
Despite supporting Simplified Chinese in-game, there is no Simplified Chinese version of the game's official website.
- This also goes for Dutch, Arabic, Greek, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Thai, Turkish, (Latin American) Spanish, and Russian.
- The Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish versions of the website are in English, though the game supports these languages as-is in the full game.
In June 2021, Balan Wonderworld's official US price reduced from around 60 US dollars, to 40 US dollars.
The developmental codename for Balan Wonderworld is Project Happiness.