User:Kiki2002/sandbox/Balan Company

Balan Company was a Japanese video game developer that was a subsidiary of mh:awesomegames:Square Enix founded by mh:awesomegames:Yuji Naka in 2018. The subsidiary was set up to specialize in the production of action games, rather than the games Square Enix normally specializes in, which are RPGs, and their business model was centered on a core team of designers and artists who would do the planning and pre-production work, and once that was done, they would then hire another company to do the programming and asset building. Balan Wonderworld is the only game they developed so far, and after the release of said game, Yuji Naka left Square Enix. Despite that, it is unknown yet if Balan Company was shut down or not.

List of video games

 * Balan Wonderworld (2021)

Why Their Games Sucked

 * 1) Their games' graphics are extremely outdated and they look like they come from the mh:awesomegames:PlayStation 2 or mh:awesomegames:GameCube game, rather than the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch version of Balan Wonderworld was lackluster.
 * 2) Because of their ununwillingness to delay development of Balan Wonderworld,, the game was released in an unacceptable condition, bearing in mind that the game lacked polish and the developers took strange design decisions that resulted in a worse experience and a great feeling of junk.
 * 3) A lot of costumes in Balan Wonderworld are stupid. For example, most of the costumes in the game do not allow the player character to be able to jump, in a platform in game.
 * 4) They tried to add 80 power ups to their game, but most of them are repeats anyway.
 * 5) Their logo feels like a ripoff of mh:awesomegames:Sonic Team's logo, especially since Balan Company was founded by former members of Sonic Team.
 * 6) * As Sonic Team creates the Sonic the Hedgehog series, where Sonic actually plays the main role, this game is the complete opposite. Although the name of the company and the title of the game suggest that Balan will be the main character, it turns out to be completely misleading. In fact, the main role is played by children named Leo Craig or Emma Cole if you choose one of them, but Balan is only playable in the QTE sections.
 * 7) Despite Square Enix marketing Balan Company as their "action game brand", they already have a subsidiary that specializes on action games, mh:awesomegames:Taito.
 * 8) They outsourced their development to Arzest, which has a low track record for game development.
 * 9) They decided to sell Balan Wonderworld for $60, which doesn't offer quality at this price, meaning Balan Wonderworld was overpriced, especially since it costed way too much money.
 * 10) Because Square Enix gave Yuji Naka one chance to make a platformer with them, Balan Company never had a chance to stand.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) At least, Naka's idea of making a subsidiary of Square Enix wasn’t bad, if Balan Wonderworld was better thought out, it would’ve become a long running franchise like Naka hoped.
 * 2) Their logo, despite being similar to Sonic Team, at least has some charm and is pleasant to look at, since it is Balan's hat.

Trivia

 * The word "Company," in Balan Company, refers to the theatrical term for an entire cast and team, rather than a regular company.

Comments
[Category:Companies]] [[Category:Defunct companies]