The Real-Life Balan BlunderWorld

The state in which Square Enix’s Balan Wonderworld released made it evident that a story full of drama occurred behind the scenes. The title once appeared to be full of promise, inheriting the gameplay and art direction styles of platformers from the late 1990s and early 2000s (specifically the NiGHTS games and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg) recreated in a new game for HD consoles. That promise fell off a cliff when the demo dropped, and hit the ground with a cartoonish thud when the main game released shortly afterward. An ostensibly nostalgic experiment resulted in one of the worst video games Square Enix has ever put out.

Now, more about its tumultuous development process and the resulting mess of a project are being revealed. Director Yuji Naka, well known for his contributions to the early Sonic the Hedgehog titles and those listed above, spoke out about Balan’s development and his relationship to Square Enix in a series of tweets (translated by Cheesemeister3k and posted by Gematsu).

Naka revealed that he filed a lawsuit against Square Enix not too long after he left the company shortly after Balan released in April 2021. Naka claimed that he was removed from the game’s development about half a year before it was finished. As one example of many: Naka mentioned how game’s promotion went horribly awry when one trailer used a remix of a theme from a fan instead of one directly from the game, though whether this was a mistake or not is unknown. Arzest, he said, submitted an unfinished game, but the tight schedule that producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto wanted to stick to led to the game’s release despite that.

This was contrary to Naka’s desires, who referenced his previous work in polishing and modifying features in older Sonic games mere weeks prior to release. “Improving a game until the very end is what being a game creator is all about, and if that’s not possible, something’s wrong,” he said in translated comments. Naka, in a particularly incendiary claim, said Square Enix doesn’t value games or their fans. Twice.

These are damning accusations, and Naka’s feelings about Balan Wonderworld development result and how the game was treated by those overlooking its production at Square Enix could not be more evident. But it’s hasty to immediately swallow everything he’s shoveling despite his claims having a feel of truthfulness to them. It’s not always true that there’s more than one side to every story, but this is one where it’s imperative that the other side be heard.

Naka outright says that it was “the producer, head of marketing, head of sound, managing director, and human resources” who made the decision to eject him from development. It’s not clear whether those descriptions are referring to five people in separate roles, but it certainly refers to more than two. There has to be one hell of a reason for them, and potentially more behind the scenes, to want him out of development months before the game released. These people should be heard from before any kind of conclusion can be drawn here. It would be good if Square Enix provided some kind of response, assuming they don’t feel their more-private comments for the lawsuit are sufficient.

The stories about Naka being difficult to work with throughout his career only exacerbate the need to hear every side. There’s, for instance, the story about former Sega of America president Peter Moore saying “fuck you” or “fuck off” to Naka during a meeting that involved Moore’s desire to present a focus group of American game players to explain how Sega’s brand had faded outside Japan during the Sega Saturn era. Naka reportedly didn’t believe them, which pissed off Moore, and some variation of the f-bomb was dropped.  There are other scattered reports of him being tough to work with, but the combo of more than one person on Balan’s team wanting him out and the Moore fiasco make them easy to believe.

None of this is to excuse Square Enix for their occasional quality control issues. The publisher has seemingly adjusted to releasing at least one putrid title a year, examples in addition to Balan Wonderworld including The Quiet Man from 2018 (one of the last games Human Head Studios had the pleasure of working on), Front Mission spinoff Left Alive (released mere months after the previous game in early 2019), and most recently, PlatinumGames’ Babylon’s Fall. Now that Square Enix themselves will be smaller with Embracer Group acquiring the western divisions, they’ll have more opportunities to focus on this. Then again, maybe they won’t.

The Naka lawsuit could be the beginning of a new web of drama between him and the remaining developers at Square Enix, so this might be a good opportunity to sit back and watch the fireworks of wonderworld.

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