Yuji Naka, game director of Balan Wonderworld, doesn’t mince words about the failure of his title. He blames Square Enix and Arzest who “don’t care about the games or the fans”.
We knew Sonic’s dad Yuji Naka left Square Enix after the catastrophic Balan Wonderworld, but not that the rag was so hot between the two. The creator has decided to be heard and deliver his truth. You will see, it shoots real ammunition.
Balan Wonderworld: Yuji Naka dispossessed of his game
It’s unusual, especially for a Japanese developer, but Yuji Naka has emptied his bag about Balan Wonderworld. Why now ? The creator had sued Square Enix. And since this one ended, Naka-san was able to express himself on Twitter without fear of interfering with the case.
About six months before the launch of Balan Wonderworld, I was fired from my job as a director, so I filed a lawsuit against Square Enix. Now that the trial is over, I would like to share some additional information. I think they don’t care about the games or their fans, Square Enix is a bad company. According to official documents, my dismissal was justified on two key points.
What are two elements of discord? It all starts with in-game music used for promotional purposes. In the video in question, a youtuber plays a rearranged version instead of the original wanted by Yuji Naka. The latter therefore campaigned to assert his vision, which obviously did not please.
Then things escalated when Naka-san sounded the alarm about the state of the game to Arzest. Balan Wonderworld’s development studio. And the criticisms were not insignificant. As Yuji Naka insisted on fixing the issues and polishing the game, Arzest was more the type to submit a final version as it is, archi buggy.
In his tweets, he confides in his exclusion from development. But also on the restrictions imposed by Square Enix. Like expressing yourself on social networks in one way or another.
I find it strange to dismiss the director who comments on the development without having been consulted, and then to prevent him from getting involved at any level because of lack of time. I have been banned from sharing and liking posts on social media. There were a lot of nice comments though, some wonderful fanart, and I’m sincerely sorry that I couldn’t respond to them. So I don’t think Square Enix pays much attention to their fans.
It was better before, at SEGA!
For him, a developer is supposed to give everything until the last second to improve a game if necessary. That’s what SEGA indeed allowed him to do back in the days of Sonic the Hedgehog.
I think it was perfectly normal to ask for things to be improved since we had created the game. And if we couldn’t make those changes, we should have at least been able to talk about them. But apparently even that was not an option. I sincerely believe that Square Enix didn’t really care about the game and didn’t want to support it.. For example for Sonic the Hedgehog, two weeks before finishing development, we changed the mechanics so that you wouldn’t die, even if you only had one ring. We tried to improve the game until the very end, and I hope people still enjoy these games today.
This refusal to save a ship that was taking on water prompted Yuji Naka to file a complaint. Finally, he concludes by saying that to have released Balan Wonderworld in this state is a “real shame”.
Personally, I think it’s a real shame that Balan Wonderworld came out in the state it was in. I wanted to show the world an action game in its true light. Thereby, I think Square Enix and Arzest are companies that don’t care about games and fans.
Here, here, a beautiful atmosphere that makes us say that the two will never work together again. An intuition like that. Just in case, Balan Wonderworld is available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.