This setup is standard for platformers, but it also causes all of the costumes to feel one-note and situational. Meanwhile, Balan Wonderworld opts for a more generic level-based structure. It doesn’t even get repetitive because there are so many different forms. By following the lead of grind-heavy mobile games, Drinkbox crafted something very addictive. This means players are always working toward a mission, whether it be short- or long-term. Form-specific missions could ask players to do something like hit a single enemy 20 times with the Slug’s Tear Burst, while other missions reward players for clearing dungeons or sidequests.
On top of a typical leveling system, players complete specific tasks to level up individual forms. In an interview with the Xbox Podcast, Ian Campbell, the game’s lead designer, points out that the mobile game Jetpack Joyride‘s missions inspired Nobody Saves the World‘s progression. Nobody Saves the World achieves a constant feeling of progression by taking a cue from mobile games. While some of Balan Wonderworld’s costumes look memorable, they can all only do one thing. Balan Wonderworld prioritized quantity over quality, and it shows next to Nobody Saves the World. While he spun achieving 80 costumes as a positive, Balan Wonderworld ultimately could have benefitted from trimming that number down. Game Director Yuji Naka even admitted in an interview with IGN Southwest Asia that, “during the proposal stage, I wrote down that it would have 80 different types of action, but I thought that once I actually started making the game, I would run out of steam at around 40.” The scope of the costume concept was too ambitious for Square Enix. The fact that each costume only has one ability also means players have to switch every time they want to do a simple interaction, which is a lot more frustrating than fun considering players can only carry three costumes at any time. Players can only carry three costumes at a time. Several costumes exist just to jump or attack, making some forms redundant. In Balan Wonderworld, players have 80 costumes with one ability each.
These are just some of the forms that players can switch to at any time in Nobody Saves the World. Players spend ample time with every form, and each is trickled out slowly enough to where these gameplay systems never feel overwhelming. For example, one form is a Knight whose signature ability is to attack enemies with a sword and whose passive ability gives him an attack stat buff when he’s low on health.Īfter taking down a group of enemies as a Knight, you can then switch to another form on the fly like the Slug who fires slimy tears and leaves a trail of status effect-inflicting slime behind him. In Nobody Saves the World, players slowly unlock 17 different forms and over 80 abilities. Nobody Saves the World‘s successes highlight Wonderworld‘s shortcomings and how Square Enix could have improved it. While Nobody Saves the World and Balan Wonderworld are different genres, their core concepts are similar. Nobody Saves the World has a 79 on the review aggregate website Metacritic meanwhile, Balan Wonderworld’s score is as low as 36 on Nintendo Switch. Balan Wonderworld‘s transformation-based gameplay tackles some of the same ideas as Nobody Saves the World, but was received much more harshly. Released in March 2021, Balan Wonderworld lets the player transform into one of 80 different costumes to complete platforming challenges in worlds based on the memories of troubled individuals.
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