Square Enix are charging $60 for this.
This game runs bad on Switch, and the controls are the same. There isn't even a back button. I feel like this was originally a mobile game then at the last second decided to port to consoles and PC.

This isn't a game that needs patches to make it better, it's a game that needs a complete redo.

3D platformers are really hard to make good, which is why we see a lot of 2D platformers. This should have been a game that is 2D and make it like a Nights clone.

This game is going to sell so bad.

The lack of a back button has less to do with a possible mobile start and more about the lead developer being his 50's and never touching a modern game. Balan Wonderland would have been fine 15 years ago. 

I thought the NPCs disappear because the Switch couldn't handle it or something, but with these terrible textures and graphics that shouldn't be a problem. What a lazy game. Aweful in every way possible.

Boring, sluggish, uninspired and ugly. This game is the biggest garbage I have played since I made the terrible mistake to try out The Elder Scrolls: Blades.

Only the cutscenes look good and some of the music is fine. It has the most basic gameplay I have seen in a very, very long time.

I'm on PS4. As for Switch. It can handle more demanding games than this. This game is just bad.

It would have bern painfully sluggish either way. I can't remember having ever played a game where you move so slow. 

15 years ago a game where you can only make one thing with six buttons appart from crawling, wouldn't have been fine. 15 years ago Oblivion and Twilight Princess released. It would have been fine in the 90s but still far inferior to Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie.

It has been a really long time since I saw a platformer as clunky as this game. Your character feels like it has the weight of an rhino with the speed of an 80 year old man. The camera takes you back to the Nintendo 64 era and it has an super awkward attack mechanic. You should really go back and rethink your project when the jumping, what I could argue is the most important factor of an platformer alongside the level design, feels off and inconsistent. There was also this one point where I got hurt and I got stuck on that Dragon suit, that literally cannot jump, and forced me to walk back because I couldn't proceed, so yeah the level design also didn't made a fan out of me...

15 years ago we had Resident Evil 4, Psychonauts, God of War, Devil May Cry 3, and Shadow of the Colossus. Those games are still great today.  Even mediocre games from the time like Sonic Heroes and Billy Hatcher (which Naka worked on) wipe the floor with this.  

There is something wrong with this game on a fundamental level. It doesn't feel like it was supposed to be a platformer. Your character's default jump has next to no forward momentum and you can't jump and attack at the same time. Something went wrong in the development process. 

At least they put out a demo so people could make an informed decision.

I should expand.

I meant that the design of this platformer would not be made by todays developers. It just feels like something that was designed around trends from the early 2000 - 2006 and I say that while ignoring all the janky shit. Even if the game was fundamentally fine it would still feel dated. I am 100% positive that the lackluster mobility has to do with the fact their are probably handful of costumes that. 

When was the last time you played Sonic Heroes? You only think you made an accurate statement.

The last time I played Sonic Heroes was around the beginning of the pandemic... so not too long ago. But, just to be sure, I just played a couple of levels. And for good measure I fought the boss of act 1 in Balan wonderworld right after. I am 100% confident in my opinion.

Heroes was actually fairly entertaining. My characters didn't feel like they were wading through shit. I didn't have to choose between being able to attack or being able to jump. I didn't lose all my horizontal momentum when I jumped. I have access to more than one action at any given time, so I can react quickly to different challenges. And like Balan I had access to three sets of abilities at a time, but unlike Balan switching was seamless, so I didn't have to grind my momentum to a halt every time I needed to switch up my abilities. 

I was just playing Heroes on an emulator. I pressed escape thinking I would be able to save my state (you can on SNES emulators that way), but it just closed the emulator completely. My honest legitimate thought was "Oh damn it didn't save". Because I may actually want to play it again in the near future. With Balan, I have no inclination whatsoever to ever play again.

This isn't about being dated. People have known how to make competent 3d platformers for well over two decades. This would not have been acceptable any time after Mario 64. 

Didn't the publisher even break out the studio into it's own company even while the game was in full development 9 months ago?
Will Japan eat it up anyways if it has the right marketing push?