Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series

Really happy to see Klonoa back. Even if it’s just a bundled together remaster of the games from 1997 and 2001, that’s still all right. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile might be one of my top 25 games ever, I think it’s an utterly masterful example of my favourite genre. Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil isn’t far off of that quality either. One of the first things I did during the March 2020 lockdown was complete Klonoa 2 – here’s what I typed in the reviews thread:

Shigeru Miyamoto's Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandpa Ross wrote:

This is great. Just like the first game, Klonoa 2 fantastically detailed, imaginative and colourful, with loads of cleverness in its design and puzzles, and charm in its audio and aesthetics. It’s very nicely assembled, with strange level design that makes sense to the scale of the adventure, a natural difficulty curve, and cel-shaded graphics that were probably the best they had ever been done in gaming before The Wind Waker came out two years later. The soundtrack is equally thoughtful, switching between being poppy and upbeat in the easier early levels to becoming a lot more grandiose and melancholy when you go into the bigger, more challenging levels with names like ‘The Sad Kingdom’ and ‘Mirror of Mazes’. I know most half-decent games do that, but it’s done masterfully here - it really draws you in to Klonoa 2. Some of the tunes are outstanding, and well worth listening to when I post them in the Nontendo music thread. All this comes together to make for an atmosphere that – Celeste aside – I can’t remember any other 2D platformer having. I’ll remember Klonoa 2 for a long time. It’s not difficult to see why Klonoa 2 has a Metacritic score of 91.

My only disappointment is that the release date is nearly six months away. It’s going to be a long wait.

My only exposure to Klonoa was a demo disc packed in with my PS2 which had a level from Klonoa 2 on offer. I remember really enjoying it at the time and hunting round my local game stores for copies of it, Jak and Daxter and Dark Cloud (all of which featured on the demo disc) and only being fortunate enough to find Jak.

I could easily see myself checking this collection out!

Right. Grumpy question time. Is Klonoa better than Spyro the dragon?

I've only played the GBA Klonoa on the Wii U VC, and had a pleasant time, but I guess it's not really the "proper" Klonoa experience. I think it'll depend on price whether I get this pack or not.

I don't think I'd go far as Top 25 games like Cappa, yet the Klonoa games certainly fantastic games from what I remember about them, but 1997 and 2001 were a long time ago, which is a good thing as it means these remaster are going to be fresh to me.

Chris Scullion has been yelling his head off about this. It's one I probably need to try, because as things sit I'm seeing just another mascot platformer in - as Jim says - the Spyro or Crash mould. Decent chance I pick it up if it reviews well though!

Cappa and I have to do reviews on Gintendo and Pod of War give it at least 9 to bump up the Opencritic score.

Balladeer wrote:

t I'm seeing just another mascot platformer in - as Jim says - the Spyro or Crash mould.  

The thing is, Spyro and Crash were trying to do 3D when it was brand new. This is from the same era, but it's basically a side-scroller, so it didn't have to mess around trying to understand how cameras and stuff work

Jimbob wrote:

Right. Grumpy question time. Is Klonoa better than Spyro the dragon?

They're both great! Klonoa is a much stranger and more imaginative mascot platformer than most everything else, with an immaculate design and a very individual personality. It's just really high quality all-around.

Ever play Pandemonium? I kinda want a remaster of that now.

Well I'm almost sold on this Klonoa fella!
(Spyro is really disappointing though guys sorry)

I love Klonoa and am happy to see it has fans here too! "Just another mascot platformer" is unfair because this is 2.5D, there aren't actually many games that use that perspective - essentially 2D, but with the visual interest of weaving that through 3D space and occasionally using that to have looping parts of levels that you couldn't do in 2D alone.

Plus I think these games actually have something to say, and have a story that's worth experiencing.

“Just another mascot platformer” undersells Klonoa’s uniqueness, it’s high quality and those 2.5D mechanics.

For those unconvinced, Bandai Namco are pretty reliable for putting out demos on the eShop, so I’m sure there’ll be a chance for folk to try Klonoa before it comes out. Being honest though, I’m maybe overegging my opinion a bit. I do think that they’re exceptionally well-made games and ‘an utterly masterful example of my favourite genre’, but they might not be everybody’s 2022 tastes. The first one is pretty short too.

A quick gander on Metacritic shows that the UK gaming press gave Klonoa’s Wii remake some middling scores. I can see a repeat situation happening, at least with some of the diddy review sites and blah magazines.

masofdas wrote:

Ever play Pandemonium? I kinda want a remaster of that now.

Did we not get one? Or am I mixing it up with another game?

If we got one, I don't know of it.

Buskalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

Ever play Pandemonium? I kinda want a remaster of that now.

Did we not get one? Or am I mixing it up with another game?

Are you maybe thinking of the Medievil remake? I always mix up those two games in my mind.

I tried playing Pandemonium on Vita and it has absolutely nothing on Klonoa fwiw

Back in the day it was good though

JayMoyles wrote:

Are you maybe thinking of the Medievil remake? I always mix up those two games in my mind.

Yep! Used to do the same thing back in the day, too.

How one is 2D the other 3D, one has a Jester the other a Skelton.

Anyway



I was going to pick up but may have waited for a sale being digital only, but will get day one likely now.

masofdas wrote:

How one is 2D the other 3D, one has a Jester the other a Skelton.

Because I've never played either, so they both just look like awkward masses of lumpy polygons.

I bought this on its launch day last week. I’m about halfway through the first game and a couple of levels into the second one, and all my impressions so far are that they both remain very special. The gameplay and audio are perfectly intact, they’ve been superbly remastered. I’m not as convinced about the visuals though – it’s still a nice looking game, but I just think that the first game especially deserves a more lavish presentation. Everything else is just about untouched though, and so they’re still two of the best platformers of the last twenty-five years.

Anybody else getting this? If not, why not? What’s wrong with you? What’s your problem?

There’s a demo on the eShop btw.

Yep I got it! I played Klonoa 2 first, as I've played Klonoa 1 more recently on Wii and Vita whereas I haven't played 2 since borrowing it on PS2. It's still really good and I was surprised it is as challenging to 100% as I remember! The two bonus levels are legitimately tough and while I haven't quite got 150 gems on every level in the game, I have on those - the second took me well over half an hour!

I've started but not finished 1. Last night I loaded up the PS1 game on my Vita and I have to confess I think I prefer the PS1 visuals, they have more of a charm to them with the sprites and other little details. I still loved the wii remake though, and I think this new version betters that!

I don't know if I'm just a fanny but in the demo (and when I played the GBA version on the Wii U VC) my fingers could never quite remember the difference between jumping and firing an air bullet so I often flubbed my moves.

I liked the demo but not enough to prioritise playing it over a bunch of other stuff. Maybe in a sale.