UPDATE: I continued playing this game exclusively high as hell, and did eventually finish it. My notes:
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The game is good fun when it’s easy, but when it gets challenging it’s a chore to play. You can’t predict it, either. There was a span of 3 or 4 worlds where it got way too difficult, but then the next few worlds after that were blessedly easy. The level sequencing is totally off.
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The “Balan Bouts” are terrible, but there’s a certain charm to them. There are so many of them that you can sort of get a sense of Balan’s day-to-day life. I started thinking of the bouts as though I were watching a betta fish swim around its tank. Every day, Balan goes for a routine flight around their empty little domain, during which they will always encounter some detritus they will excitedly smash, and then they will shoot an energy ball at something: either an abstract art piece or their bishounen rival (another betta fish trying to encroach on their waters). Sometimes they think, “it’s blue out today”, and occasionally they think “oh, it’s orange out today”. But either way, they’re going to destroy some debris. It’s like a woodchuck sharpening its teeth. Balan doesn’t think about it at all, simply destroys it because it’s there. You shouldn’t think about it either.
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I think it’s kind of uncomfortable that whichever race you pick for your main child character, the other kid is always that same race.
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At the end, everybody is really grateful to Balan… They solemnly shake Balan’s hand and walk off into the middle distance. But you have to wonder, what did Balan actually do for these people? In all of their stories, Balan simply lurked in the background and winked at the camera, but never took any concrete action. I went through these peoples’ psyches and fought an embodiment of their fears… They should be thanking me! Balan didn’t do shit!
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I really don’t like that you see Balan’s true face, and their true face does raise a lot of further uncomfortable questions about this game’s treatment of race.
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My partner ended up really liking this game and, to my surprise, started playing it completely sober without me to farm costumes and get additional statues. The only way I can explain this is that she has never played a 3D platformer before and does not know what she’s missing. I should probably hook her up with Mario 64 or something.
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I actually went through the trouble to get the god damned secret Balan costume and it was not worth it… It trivializes the game in a quite enjoyable way because it lets you simply fly around wherever you want. But the problem is, if you take ANY damage while wearing it, you lose it, and then you have to farm rainbow drops to get it back. This means that you can never truly relax and enjoy the costume. You’re always on extreme edge while wearing it, because it was a huge time investment to get it in the first place, and getting it back will not be easy.
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I can’t believe when you beat the game it unlocks a third act in each world. I did 2 of these bonus levels and they were NOT worth the bother. They’re just the same level layouts with slight tweaks. Weed’s not going to cut it, I think I’d need mushrooms to attempt this. And I don’t trust myself to play Balan on mushrooms and not come out of the experience a worse person.
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I will NEVER complete the Tower O’ Tims.