Balan Wonderworld

Balan Wonderworld
Developers: Square Enix, Arzest Publishers: Square Enix Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch Released internationally: March 26, 2021 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: Cover the demo version and get footage of it specially for the article. Document the files only found in the demo version. There's more content to be found in the full game. Get 3D renders of the Demo Launchers, or hack them in the game and record footage. Tons of early demo icons to be documented.

Balan Wonderworld is a 3D platformer created by Square Enix of all companies and co-developed with Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima. The game stars Leo Craig and Emma Cole, who enter a musical theater run by the enigmatic Balan to help the hearts of the trapped inhabitants of Wonderworld.

Despite the team behind the beloved Sonic the Hedgehog franchise coming together, Balan Wonderworld quickly gained notoriety for several things, the main draws being the outdated game design and making every action tied to a single button. The demo was delisted and the game dropped to $40 a few months after release, which is rare coming from a AAA developer.

Regardless of the infamy, it's not the best game but not the worst either. Due to the short development time, there is some interesting unused content to be found.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Internal Project Name

The game is called Happiness, as it was the original working title for the game, as seen in the removed early logo from the demo.

Unused Graphics

Demo Launchers

Star Launcher, X Launcher, Blue Launcher and Steam Launcher are special costumes that are modeled after their respective platforms. Despite the visual differences, they all function the same. These costumes were planned to be exclusive to the demo that can be transferred to the full game, but they can be unlocked through an in-game cheat. All four costumes are found in the files, but three of them will always go unused depending on the version of the game. For your viewing pleasure, here's all the icons for these costumes, including the original demo versions.

Demo	Final

Revisional Differences

• Before the game was launched, a Day 1 patch was applied to the game. According to Square Enix, this patch fixes some unknown bugs, increases the movement speed of the characters, made adjustments to the camera movement, and re-balanced the difficulty. The most noteworthy thing that the patch fixed was an issue during the final boss fight where the screen flashes rapidly, which can cause seizures.
• The Steam version had a unique update six months after release where Denuvo was removed.