Square Enix is a company known for its RPG franchises like Star Ocean, Romancing SaGa and most notably, Final Fantasy. Platformers don’t really come to mind and Yuji Naka wanted to change that. Although Naka worked on the Phantasy Star franchise at SEGA, his strengths lie in platformers like Sonic the Hedgehog. Naka joined Square Enix a few years ago and Balan Wonderworld is his “one chance” under Square Enix is take a 3D platformer at the company. Here’s what Naka had to say in his interview at IGN:
“Square Enix’s management philosophy is ‘to contribute to the wellbeing of people all over the world by providing the best stories.’ When I joined the company and heard that, I was like ‘Stories, huh…'” Naka said. “To be honest, I’m not really the type of developer who focuses on a game’s script. I always emphasize how the game feels and the action, while the story may be a bit weak. I wasn’t very good with stories.”
“A lot of popular games these days are based on shooting, but I always want to make pure action games,” Naka said of his love for the genre. It definitely seems that he is taking his “one chance” from the president of Square Enix seriously, doing everything to deliver a game experience packed with all the elements of platform games.
Balan Wonderworld releases on March 26th for PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Switch and PC. Stay tuned at Final Weapon for the latest Japanese gaming news and updates!
