Last year Balan Wonderworld was released to very poor reception. The game, headed up by former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka released in March of 2021. The game was not what fans expected with a myriad of bizarre design choices and what seemed like a non-fleshed-out platforming system.
Yuji Naka Says He was Removed as Director of Balan Wonderworld “Half a Year Before Release”
This morning, Yuji Naka took to Twitter to speak about what happened during the development of Balan Wonderworld and how it ended up releasing in such a broken state.
The tweets have been translated by Twitter user Cheesemeister and you can find a full breakdown of the thread here.
“I was removed as the director of Balan Wonderworld about half a year before release, so I filed a lawsuit against Square Enix. Now that the proceedings are over and I’m no longer bound by company rules, I’d like to speak out.”
As the thread continues Yuji Naka speaks about his relationship with Square-Enix and Arzest
“I think it’s wrong of Square Enix not to value games and game fans. According to court documents, I was removed as the director of Balan Wonderworld for 2 reasons. It was done by the producer, head of marketing, head of sound, managing director, and HR.”
The two major reasons Yuji Naka talks about are when a Youtuber’s arranged piano performance is used in promotional material instead of the official game track. When Yuji insisted that the track be replaced it seemed to cause friction with Square.
The second reason cited in the court document is that the relationship with Arzest was ruined when Yuji made comments about the game needing to be improved before submitting without fixing bugs.
Yuji Naka also goes on to talk about how he believes Square doesn’t value its fans, this is because “Retweeting, liking, etc. on SNS and such was banned, so I don’t think Square Enix values game fans. There were many comments and wonderful illustrations about Balan Wonderworld, and I’m really sorry that I couldn’t react to them.”
One other point Yuji Naka brings up in this thread is how fixing a game up until the last minute can be extremely beneficial. He goes on to say “For Sonic the Hedgehog, 2 weeks before finalizing, the spec was changed so that if you have even 1 ring, you won’t die. This now well-known rule was the result of improving the game until the very end, and people world-over have enjoyed it as a result.”
While it seems Yuji Naka and Square-Enix’s relationship is now strained, we do hope that one day Yuji can create a game that lives up to his standards and is something he can be proud of.
