Wanted to play a nice short game after Metroid Prime 2 so I decided to dive into the Klonoa series finally! While I did have a good time with this game, I wish I liked it more because it has a 4.1 average and a lot of my followers love it so I kinda feel bad only giving it a 7 lol.
I think after beating the game, the absolute best aspect are the bosses tbh. I did not expect them to go so hard but most of them are really damn good tbh. In fact I'd go as far to say they're better than most of the levels. Something I really liked about them was how they all made good use of the foreground and background, thought that was sweet. Also the health bar they had looked really cool with that whole 3D effect.
The levels themselves are decent for the most part. They start off really simple but get more complex as you go on. I honestly didn't think they were getting really good until the last couple stages but overall they're fine.
Another one the best aspects of this game is the visuals. The mix of sprites and 3D models is always cool and its done well in this game. From the little I've seen of the remake, it's a total downgrade which is a shame so I'd recommend the original just on visuals alone.
Klonoa's moveset is kinda weird overall. The grab is very fun, especially when you can get an extra jump from an enemy. The flutter is alright but a lot of the time just doesn't cut it in getting you over large gaps unless you plan well. I just never thought it felt good to use tbh. Also Klonoa himself has a slipperiness to him when you build momentum up and that can trip up the player especially in later stages.
I didn't really find the game that hard until the last couple stages. I got every collectable so I was able to do the extra stage and man was that one tough. It was fun but definitely put your grabbing and hovering skills to the test.
The music overall was just alright. There was a track or two I kinda liked but most of them were forgettable I felt. There was also a track or two that kinda bugged me because it reminded me of the intro song to Amazing Animals. Please tell me I'm not crazy, I just kept thinking about that whenever one of the beginning stages songs was playing.
The game also had a surprisingly abundant amount of cutscenes. I thought the story overall was pretty cute, the very solid voice acting certainly helped that I feel. Like damn, I loved Huepow's voice it was adorable. And while I didn't cry or anything, the ending was pretty sad and was a unique way to end the game.
While I didn't love this game like others do, it was pretty good! I can certainly see how others would love this game cuz it just has that 90's PS1 charm. I did hear the sequel is even better so I'm looking forward to that!
I think after beating the game, the absolute best aspect are the bosses tbh. I did not expect them to go so hard but most of them are really damn good tbh. In fact I'd go as far to say they're better than most of the levels. Something I really liked about them was how they all made good use of the foreground and background, thought that was sweet. Also the health bar they had looked really cool with that whole 3D effect.
The levels themselves are decent for the most part. They start off really simple but get more complex as you go on. I honestly didn't think they were getting really good until the last couple stages but overall they're fine.
Another one the best aspects of this game is the visuals. The mix of sprites and 3D models is always cool and its done well in this game. From the little I've seen of the remake, it's a total downgrade which is a shame so I'd recommend the original just on visuals alone.
Klonoa's moveset is kinda weird overall. The grab is very fun, especially when you can get an extra jump from an enemy. The flutter is alright but a lot of the time just doesn't cut it in getting you over large gaps unless you plan well. I just never thought it felt good to use tbh. Also Klonoa himself has a slipperiness to him when you build momentum up and that can trip up the player especially in later stages.
I didn't really find the game that hard until the last couple stages. I got every collectable so I was able to do the extra stage and man was that one tough. It was fun but definitely put your grabbing and hovering skills to the test.
The music overall was just alright. There was a track or two I kinda liked but most of them were forgettable I felt. There was also a track or two that kinda bugged me because it reminded me of the intro song to Amazing Animals. Please tell me I'm not crazy, I just kept thinking about that whenever one of the beginning stages songs was playing.
The game also had a surprisingly abundant amount of cutscenes. I thought the story overall was pretty cute, the very solid voice acting certainly helped that I feel. Like damn, I loved Huepow's voice it was adorable. And while I didn't cry or anything, the ending was pretty sad and was a unique way to end the game.
While I didn't love this game like others do, it was pretty good! I can certainly see how others would love this game cuz it just has that 90's PS1 charm. I did hear the sequel is even better so I'm looking forward to that!
This review contains spoilers
I'll preface this by noting how odd I find it that many call this a Sonic clone - if anything, Klonoa is much more similar to the Kirby series, or even Yoshi. He relies on enemies, their placement, and minor abilities to progress through the level in a slow and methodical manner. He's not very powerful on his own, perhaps even feeble. I think that's some odd talking point people have read somewhere before and parrot.
Gameplay wise, I forgot how open and nonlinear these levels are. You get a sense of each as a legible place - they feel holy, arcane, and well-used. Compared to Lunatea's Veil, which features mostly linear levels but a few more cinematic moments within them, Door to Phantomile toys with level design in a seamless way and feels genuinely inventive in how it structures its progression and difficulty. I respect a game that never gives you any new abilities; Klonoa truly does two things, but the game iterates on these so well, trickles new situations in with ease, and carefully disguises the fact that it's a puzzle platformer at heart.
Klonoa, in many ways, reminds me of Osamu Tezuka's "Unico" films. Unico is a unicorn so precious and preternaturally good the Gods became jealous, and cursed him to the Hill of Oblivion. The West Wind, who is tasked with sending him there, balks at the idea of doing something so cruel and instead deposits him somewhere remote on Earth where the Gods cannot find him. Because Unico is so kindhearted, though, he inevitably reveals himself by bringing happiness to those he meets, and The West Wind must whisk him away to somewhere else right as he finds happiness for himself.
Klonoa, similarly, exists as a flash of brilliance. He arrives, shines, and must leave. His playing an active role inevitably dooms him to unhappiness, to casting away his friends and memories so he can share his gift with the greater world.
Door to Phantomile is obviously analogous with childhood. Klonoa's life until now, however false it might be, exists as a dream. He lives with his benevolent grandfather and gets to spend every day with his best friend Huepow. His halcyon days are disquieted by the coming of a primordial nightmare.
In many ways, that nightmare, Ghadius, is right. A person cannot live in a idyllic dream forever. Those dark parts, the badness, will naturally seep in. And a child is best equipped to deal with this if they know what to expect, if they have people around them to support them and hoist them up. A child is weak and lost on its own, but truly blossoms when they confront these challenges head on.
Door to Phantomile is not only a game about killing the inner child, but one of preserving its corpse. Remembering what it was like to spread your legs for the first time, to smell the fresh air of youth. These memories may only be impressionistic - an image, a sound, a taste - and they may not even be real. But these memories are genetic imperatives, and they're what presses us to survive on.
If Door to Phantomile explores childhood, then Lunatea's Veil is adolescence; Klonoa must deal with the greys of life, the unsureness of purpose, the weight of the emotions around him. As a duology, nothing captures the tragedy of immaturity quite like Klonoa. They're proof that stories don't have to be complex to be essential; in fact, the simplest stories might be the ones that stay with us the most. For me, at least, the final frame of Door to Phantomile might be one of the most haunting of any game: After toiling against destiny to keep Klonoa with him, Huepow smiles as the dream fades, forgotten already. Despite this, Klonoa's resonance remains...
Also, Klonoa and Huepow are boyfriends. This is basically textual
Gameplay wise, I forgot how open and nonlinear these levels are. You get a sense of each as a legible place - they feel holy, arcane, and well-used. Compared to Lunatea's Veil, which features mostly linear levels but a few more cinematic moments within them, Door to Phantomile toys with level design in a seamless way and feels genuinely inventive in how it structures its progression and difficulty. I respect a game that never gives you any new abilities; Klonoa truly does two things, but the game iterates on these so well, trickles new situations in with ease, and carefully disguises the fact that it's a puzzle platformer at heart.
Klonoa, in many ways, reminds me of Osamu Tezuka's "Unico" films. Unico is a unicorn so precious and preternaturally good the Gods became jealous, and cursed him to the Hill of Oblivion. The West Wind, who is tasked with sending him there, balks at the idea of doing something so cruel and instead deposits him somewhere remote on Earth where the Gods cannot find him. Because Unico is so kindhearted, though, he inevitably reveals himself by bringing happiness to those he meets, and The West Wind must whisk him away to somewhere else right as he finds happiness for himself.
Klonoa, similarly, exists as a flash of brilliance. He arrives, shines, and must leave. His playing an active role inevitably dooms him to unhappiness, to casting away his friends and memories so he can share his gift with the greater world.
Door to Phantomile is obviously analogous with childhood. Klonoa's life until now, however false it might be, exists as a dream. He lives with his benevolent grandfather and gets to spend every day with his best friend Huepow. His halcyon days are disquieted by the coming of a primordial nightmare.
In many ways, that nightmare, Ghadius, is right. A person cannot live in a idyllic dream forever. Those dark parts, the badness, will naturally seep in. And a child is best equipped to deal with this if they know what to expect, if they have people around them to support them and hoist them up. A child is weak and lost on its own, but truly blossoms when they confront these challenges head on.
Door to Phantomile is not only a game about killing the inner child, but one of preserving its corpse. Remembering what it was like to spread your legs for the first time, to smell the fresh air of youth. These memories may only be impressionistic - an image, a sound, a taste - and they may not even be real. But these memories are genetic imperatives, and they're what presses us to survive on.
If Door to Phantomile explores childhood, then Lunatea's Veil is adolescence; Klonoa must deal with the greys of life, the unsureness of purpose, the weight of the emotions around him. As a duology, nothing captures the tragedy of immaturity quite like Klonoa. They're proof that stories don't have to be complex to be essential; in fact, the simplest stories might be the ones that stay with us the most. For me, at least, the final frame of Door to Phantomile might be one of the most haunting of any game: After toiling against destiny to keep Klonoa with him, Huepow smiles as the dream fades, forgotten already. Despite this, Klonoa's resonance remains...
Also, Klonoa and Huepow are boyfriends. This is basically textual
klonoa isn't real
i swear this is the first thing that came to mind after finishing this game i just cant possibly believe this is a real game that exists in the videogame landscape its literally the most heartbreaking and powerful story conclusion ive ever witnessed in some time and I COULD NOT believe this game had it in it im completely astounded
p wild because I actually played some levels like 6 months ago 1 level every 2 days and then up to 3 - 1 I think I just dropped it and then I came back to it and now I dont want to ever get away from this game ever again
klonoa is a 2d platformer and by that you can imagine what the gameplay is gonna be like but theres a nuance this cute cat bunny canny something is First And Foremost the cutest living being ive seen in my life hes so cute and brave and I want to protect him with my entire willpower but he also got a magic ring that makes the enemies male preg and inflated or something so thats pretty weird BUT this is the basis for one of the best platforming sequences ever I swear its true you can solve puzzles kill other enemies jump twice with these balloons its something else when youre there I swear
and incredibly enough this doesnt feel as difficult as it sounds because you will get the hang of it in vision 1 - 1 pretty quick and it will expand on its own mechanics to heighten the puzzle solving stuff to another level completely
+his little "double jump" when he struggles to stay in the air is so adorable wow who thought about that. who wh who thoug ht klonoa I love you so much
these mechanics sound v straightforward at first but you know whats gonna butter your ass and fuck you raw ? difficulty curve
this game can be hard and when I say hard I say dying and repeating whole platformer sequences or maybe even levels entirely the punishment is UNREAL but yknow also why this game doesnt feel that punishing ? because of the excellent excellent excellent level and enemy design that makes the challenges a joy to beat even with the chains of jumps or shield enemies or insta death situations or BOOMERANG ENEMIES OH MY GOD THOSE FUCKING BOOMERANGS
funnily enough this also influences the fact that quickly levels stop to adhere to the left-to-right environments and concentrate on foreground-background kind of puzzles or even "exploration" (5 - 1 where you can get the stone keys or whatever theyre called in whichever order youd like) honestly this game got a lot of great ideas and experimentation in this field and it all pays off
possibly one of my fav levels is 6 - 2 where you basically get micro sections of a tower that slowly opens up until you finally get to the top of the fortress and get to beat the shit out of ghadius im . this game I swear
even bosses feel too interesting to be real and entirely use the game gimmicks to another level they are used as ammo and foe at the same time im just wow klonoa developers are so clever their brains ughhhh so big
in a landscape of 2d platformers that feel either too cheap or too difficult klonoa manages to be challenging enough but still feels kinda fair and also get good you suck . (I suck too it's ok)
that being said
v cool for a platformer
I dont like platformers that much
actually I do but whatever
umh
whatever what klonoa has for it tho apart from its great level design is the . art direction . my People klonoa artistic development is something that caravaggio would envy if he wasnt dead tbh its just THAT good
on a technical note all the characters (apart from CGs) are 2d in a v evident contrast with the entire world that is composed of 3d polygons which is something that could mean that … this game is 2.5 ? is that the definition I dont remember anyhow yeah all the characters are animated to heaven and beyond they got so much character and personality and . I love them all …..
also the atmosphere really sells the whole dreamlike aesthetic and made my dissociation even stronger honestly but its just that wild
its just UGHHH I love this game its something else the colors the art style and the graphics just complement each other entirely
this also carries over to the sound direction and . its stellar its amazing the music is fucking great and really adds to the whole experience its that kind of idk bubbly platformer idle music or something you get me but as the world slowly gets sucked into nightmare it starts to get more wicked more action esque and more sinister so so good please listen to the ost its really good
that apart the SFXs and all carry af and now . the best part of the game . the phantomilian
I got v strong positive opinions about phantomilian and I swear if you tell me you don't like it . trust you will be dealt with . period period
UGHHHH I love phantomilian it's so cool and also the reason why I almost had a nervous break down when I opened klonoa wii (after like 1 day of finishing klonoa ps1 because I got into a Stockholm syndrome -like state for this game that I needed some more of it more on that later) and I was introduced to a klonoa and huepow talking English ? . ENGLISH ? nah shawty stop playing with me rn I adore phantomilian and hate english va as a whole this was not a good day for me THEN I found out I could put phantomilian from the settings and my day shined bright again thank you jesus
anyhow phantomilian is cool af if you didnt get it from my never ending infatuation to it im honestly kind of a big slut for invented languages theyre so fucking cool honestly and also in a way break the entire language barrier between voice acting its just the creators going oh I so don't want to pay voice actors lets just create a language and I'm so up for that I got a mind erection honestly I wish every game in existence had fictional languages im not even joking
also the fact that it's ALL phantomilian but everyone speaks a different kind of phantomilian and still they kind of understand what the other person is saying ? weird and kinda unrealistic but it's just so cute honestly klonoa uses all kinds of expressions rupurudu manyamanirupu wahoo hanya what the fuck is this honestly and then theres huepow that uses inflections of his name going yuppi pyuu and shit like that and EVERYONE in this game has their own speech style patterns and words its unreal and also conveys a lot about their personality + can you believe this is one of the most emotional and strong voice acting ive ever heard in my entire life no I ain't joking here guys some of the most heart wrenching powerful vehement competent groundbreaking moving and more adjectives voice acting ever is in a game where a cat bunny does stuff ? I would've laughed if you had told me this before but it's real and i love it
and also another reason why I cried like a bitch in the end
SPOILER AHEAD making this v fast
klonoa is fucking around and finds the wind ring . omg I just realised why it's called 風のクロノア ok anyway when he finds this ring a ball something being spirit called huepow comes out and they become friends then one day a ship crashes and they investigate and they find joka (who unsurprisingly looks like a fucking clown) and ghadius (umh I like his design but I dont understand to this day what he is like is he just a mask he doesn't have anything inside his cloak ok whatever) searching for The Moon Pendant ™ and kidnapping the songstress lephise and they then decide to chase them
they travel to grandmother to know where the fuck is the pendant and she tells them that grandfather got the pendant tough shit so they put the brakes on and go back to his house and while they get there joka kills him . so you cry like a bitch because honestly this game is a nightmare (haha pun) and it wants to make you suffer like a dog so anyway after you cry the journey to kill ghadius starts again you go through some v austere environments and the realisation that huepow is the prince of the moon kingdom or shit like that not that important and then he tells klonoa hes a dream and youre like "omg //// gay sons" and kill both joka and ghadius (bitches hate them homophobic peers) but when ghadius dies he unleashes nahatomb which is umh a beast of some sort like nightmare fueled whatever that means ok well i dont care because he ends up dead too
so ok you kill him everyones safe klonoa and huepow good around and then you're hit with the feels . huepow explains that klonoa is actually not from this world because he called him and planted fake memories into his mind and now after lephise sings her song to regenerate the world he's gonna get back to his real world and this escalates to possibly the most haunting final FMV I've ever witnessed in my life i was left completely dry of tears my mind ached and I was gonna die on the spot it was something else I swear the way its animated and the way both klonoa and huepow look and sound desperate for having their best friend eradicated from their world forever the VA delivery is insane INSANE GUYS oh my god i cant believe this and . the "forced to say goodbye" trope always hits me too much (see: famous gay political furry visual novel adastra) and was absolutely overkilled for real
and then I was left with the credits that I did not see because they were blurry of the tears the feels just hit me and with that the realisation that this game is possibly the most heartbreakingly sweet narrative I've ever witnessed in modern day Italy and not its just
too good
bye
when I told a friend that the words klooa yuppi yuppi yuupo papapyuu (klonoa it's time for you to go home back to your phantomile) caused the most violent crying fit of this year they proceeded to bully me and I understand that too well like . I understand
YAHOO MANYAA MANYAAAAA
I'm playing the second game and im incredibly scared about the way this story Is gonna unfold im hoping I won't cry like a bitch but yknow what's gonna happen ? I'm gonna cry a lot that's it this is klonoa I'm gonna tear my hair out
im gonna boost this game to a 4.5 soon I just know it klonoa just cant leave my damn mind
klooa and yuupo are gay by the way somebody had to say it
I want that ring to make stuff mpreg umh no I wanted to say umh umh
at first I thought it was kaze no kuronoa because he can stay in the air for like 2 seconds after a jump maybe I am stupid
joka is the best boss I love it its so ugh pleasing like the 3d aspect on a 2d road is soooooo wow how do they do that the sheer experimentation wow
klooa yuppi yuppi yuupo papapyuu hysterically crying
update: thats it 4.5
i swear this is the first thing that came to mind after finishing this game i just cant possibly believe this is a real game that exists in the videogame landscape its literally the most heartbreaking and powerful story conclusion ive ever witnessed in some time and I COULD NOT believe this game had it in it im completely astounded
p wild because I actually played some levels like 6 months ago 1 level every 2 days and then up to 3 - 1 I think I just dropped it and then I came back to it and now I dont want to ever get away from this game ever again
klonoa is a 2d platformer and by that you can imagine what the gameplay is gonna be like but theres a nuance this cute cat bunny canny something is First And Foremost the cutest living being ive seen in my life hes so cute and brave and I want to protect him with my entire willpower but he also got a magic ring that makes the enemies male preg and inflated or something so thats pretty weird BUT this is the basis for one of the best platforming sequences ever I swear its true you can solve puzzles kill other enemies jump twice with these balloons its something else when youre there I swear
and incredibly enough this doesnt feel as difficult as it sounds because you will get the hang of it in vision 1 - 1 pretty quick and it will expand on its own mechanics to heighten the puzzle solving stuff to another level completely
+his little "double jump" when he struggles to stay in the air is so adorable wow who thought about that. who wh who thoug ht klonoa I love you so much
these mechanics sound v straightforward at first but you know whats gonna butter your ass and fuck you raw ? difficulty curve
this game can be hard and when I say hard I say dying and repeating whole platformer sequences or maybe even levels entirely the punishment is UNREAL but yknow also why this game doesnt feel that punishing ? because of the excellent excellent excellent level and enemy design that makes the challenges a joy to beat even with the chains of jumps or shield enemies or insta death situations or BOOMERANG ENEMIES OH MY GOD THOSE FUCKING BOOMERANGS
funnily enough this also influences the fact that quickly levels stop to adhere to the left-to-right environments and concentrate on foreground-background kind of puzzles or even "exploration" (5 - 1 where you can get the stone keys or whatever theyre called in whichever order youd like) honestly this game got a lot of great ideas and experimentation in this field and it all pays off
possibly one of my fav levels is 6 - 2 where you basically get micro sections of a tower that slowly opens up until you finally get to the top of the fortress and get to beat the shit out of ghadius im . this game I swear
even bosses feel too interesting to be real and entirely use the game gimmicks to another level they are used as ammo and foe at the same time im just wow klonoa developers are so clever their brains ughhhh so big
in a landscape of 2d platformers that feel either too cheap or too difficult klonoa manages to be challenging enough but still feels kinda fair and also get good you suck . (I suck too it's ok)
that being said
v cool for a platformer
I dont like platformers that much
actually I do but whatever
umh
whatever what klonoa has for it tho apart from its great level design is the . art direction . my People klonoa artistic development is something that caravaggio would envy if he wasnt dead tbh its just THAT good
on a technical note all the characters (apart from CGs) are 2d in a v evident contrast with the entire world that is composed of 3d polygons which is something that could mean that … this game is 2.5 ? is that the definition I dont remember anyhow yeah all the characters are animated to heaven and beyond they got so much character and personality and . I love them all …..
also the atmosphere really sells the whole dreamlike aesthetic and made my dissociation even stronger honestly but its just that wild
its just UGHHH I love this game its something else the colors the art style and the graphics just complement each other entirely
this also carries over to the sound direction and . its stellar its amazing the music is fucking great and really adds to the whole experience its that kind of idk bubbly platformer idle music or something you get me but as the world slowly gets sucked into nightmare it starts to get more wicked more action esque and more sinister so so good please listen to the ost its really good
that apart the SFXs and all carry af and now . the best part of the game . the phantomilian
I got v strong positive opinions about phantomilian and I swear if you tell me you don't like it . trust you will be dealt with . period period
UGHHHH I love phantomilian it's so cool and also the reason why I almost had a nervous break down when I opened klonoa wii (after like 1 day of finishing klonoa ps1 because I got into a Stockholm syndrome -like state for this game that I needed some more of it more on that later) and I was introduced to a klonoa and huepow talking English ? . ENGLISH ? nah shawty stop playing with me rn I adore phantomilian and hate english va as a whole this was not a good day for me THEN I found out I could put phantomilian from the settings and my day shined bright again thank you jesus
anyhow phantomilian is cool af if you didnt get it from my never ending infatuation to it im honestly kind of a big slut for invented languages theyre so fucking cool honestly and also in a way break the entire language barrier between voice acting its just the creators going oh I so don't want to pay voice actors lets just create a language and I'm so up for that I got a mind erection honestly I wish every game in existence had fictional languages im not even joking
also the fact that it's ALL phantomilian but everyone speaks a different kind of phantomilian and still they kind of understand what the other person is saying ? weird and kinda unrealistic but it's just so cute honestly klonoa uses all kinds of expressions rupurudu manyamanirupu wahoo hanya what the fuck is this honestly and then theres huepow that uses inflections of his name going yuppi pyuu and shit like that and EVERYONE in this game has their own speech style patterns and words its unreal and also conveys a lot about their personality + can you believe this is one of the most emotional and strong voice acting ive ever heard in my entire life no I ain't joking here guys some of the most heart wrenching powerful vehement competent groundbreaking moving and more adjectives voice acting ever is in a game where a cat bunny does stuff ? I would've laughed if you had told me this before but it's real and i love it
and also another reason why I cried like a bitch in the end
SPOILER AHEAD making this v fast
klonoa is fucking around and finds the wind ring . omg I just realised why it's called 風のクロノア ok anyway when he finds this ring a ball something being spirit called huepow comes out and they become friends then one day a ship crashes and they investigate and they find joka (who unsurprisingly looks like a fucking clown) and ghadius (umh I like his design but I dont understand to this day what he is like is he just a mask he doesn't have anything inside his cloak ok whatever) searching for The Moon Pendant ™ and kidnapping the songstress lephise and they then decide to chase them
they travel to grandmother to know where the fuck is the pendant and she tells them that grandfather got the pendant tough shit so they put the brakes on and go back to his house and while they get there joka kills him . so you cry like a bitch because honestly this game is a nightmare (haha pun) and it wants to make you suffer like a dog so anyway after you cry the journey to kill ghadius starts again you go through some v austere environments and the realisation that huepow is the prince of the moon kingdom or shit like that not that important and then he tells klonoa hes a dream and youre like "omg //// gay sons" and kill both joka and ghadius (bitches hate them homophobic peers) but when ghadius dies he unleashes nahatomb which is umh a beast of some sort like nightmare fueled whatever that means ok well i dont care because he ends up dead too
so ok you kill him everyones safe klonoa and huepow good around and then you're hit with the feels . huepow explains that klonoa is actually not from this world because he called him and planted fake memories into his mind and now after lephise sings her song to regenerate the world he's gonna get back to his real world and this escalates to possibly the most haunting final FMV I've ever witnessed in my life i was left completely dry of tears my mind ached and I was gonna die on the spot it was something else I swear the way its animated and the way both klonoa and huepow look and sound desperate for having their best friend eradicated from their world forever the VA delivery is insane INSANE GUYS oh my god i cant believe this and . the "forced to say goodbye" trope always hits me too much (see: famous gay political furry visual novel adastra) and was absolutely overkilled for real
and then I was left with the credits that I did not see because they were blurry of the tears the feels just hit me and with that the realisation that this game is possibly the most heartbreakingly sweet narrative I've ever witnessed in modern day Italy and not its just
too good
bye
when I told a friend that the words klooa yuppi yuppi yuupo papapyuu (klonoa it's time for you to go home back to your phantomile) caused the most violent crying fit of this year they proceeded to bully me and I understand that too well like . I understand
YAHOO MANYAA MANYAAAAA
I'm playing the second game and im incredibly scared about the way this story Is gonna unfold im hoping I won't cry like a bitch but yknow what's gonna happen ? I'm gonna cry a lot that's it this is klonoa I'm gonna tear my hair out
im gonna boost this game to a 4.5 soon I just know it klonoa just cant leave my damn mind
klooa and yuupo are gay by the way somebody had to say it
I want that ring to make stuff mpreg umh no I wanted to say umh umh
at first I thought it was kaze no kuronoa because he can stay in the air for like 2 seconds after a jump maybe I am stupid
joka is the best boss I love it its so ugh pleasing like the 3d aspect on a 2d road is soooooo wow how do they do that the sheer experimentation wow
klooa yuppi yuppi yuupo papapyuu hysterically crying
update: thats it 4.5
Wonderful game in nearly every aspect. Brings Kirby 64 in particular to mind, which is always welcome if you ask me. Had a blast through and through, bar emulator issues that led to me switching cores halfway through the game.
But on the other hand, what was their problem? When writing out the ending, specifically. What was their problem
But on the other hand, what was their problem? When writing out the ending, specifically. What was their problem
i was having the time of my life playing this incredible cutesy platformer and then the ending full-force sucker punched me square in the gut and left me to die on the ground
This review contains spoilers
When Klonoa was like weepabupobadubadeepo, but then Huepow told him meenomiweeniebeedeebedee, even though before the bad guy was all like brakbrakburkbockbock...
I felt that
I felt that
Wahoo!
so many people on here have this and Klonoa 2 in their top 5 that I was too curious. I had played this when I was younger and liked it a whole lot, but perfect top 5 game?
Yeah actually. Turns out the consensus on things can be totally correct!
Klonoa is a smart, fun, creative and clever platformer that has genuine poignancy and themes that resonate in ways most other platformers don't bother to do, or modern ones that overdo it to the point of seeming disingenious.
Klonoa is the real fucking deal. It's borderline perfect, a must play for platformer fans but it will spoil you on the genre, because when one doesn't have the same passion Klonoa does you'll just come back to replay it again.
Yeah actually. Turns out the consensus on things can be totally correct!
Klonoa is a smart, fun, creative and clever platformer that has genuine poignancy and themes that resonate in ways most other platformers don't bother to do, or modern ones that overdo it to the point of seeming disingenious.
Klonoa is the real fucking deal. It's borderline perfect, a must play for platformer fans but it will spoil you on the genre, because when one doesn't have the same passion Klonoa does you'll just come back to replay it again.
PS1 Summer #1
"Soul" is kind of a meme word in games discourse but I don't care, this game is the epitome of SOULFUL; the 2.5d presentation which blends pre-renders and polygons set to a soundtrack with no misses, it's hard not to get sucked into Klonoa's whimsical fantasy world. The core moveset controls naturally and is developed smoothly, it's a blast to snatch guys from the background and use them as a double jump to platform or solve puzzles to.
"Soul" is kind of a meme word in games discourse but I don't care, this game is the epitome of SOULFUL; the 2.5d presentation which blends pre-renders and polygons set to a soundtrack with no misses, it's hard not to get sucked into Klonoa's whimsical fantasy world. The core moveset controls naturally and is developed smoothly, it's a blast to snatch guys from the background and use them as a double jump to platform or solve puzzles to.
This review contains spoilers
I've been on something of a lull lately. Playing almost nothing but rpgs, dense story driven affairs, and dense story driven rpgs has taking something of a toll on me as of late, so I decided to play this as a nice cooldown in between other shit.
It was cool. Above average platformer affair. 2.5D stuff was cool, Klonoa felt fun to control, the level design was well done except for a few parts, mostly just World 3 which I thought kinda sucked ass. Klonoa's attack thingy also feels a little too short, would've preferred if it was just a bit longer. Bosses are cool! I liked basically all of them except for the last couple, which both kinda felt like boring slogs.
But fr tho who gives a shit about the gameplay of Klonoa. You think I'm playing a video game to have fun gameplay? Nah son I'm here for the aesthetics. The beautiful polygonal gameplay. The phenomenal midi ost. The great sound effects. It's genuinely kind of overwhelming at points, how loud the music gets along with all the weird sound effects going through.
Did not expect this game to fuck me up as much as it did though! A combination of weirdly evocative nonsense word voice acting and a genuinely fucked story really got to me at points. I ain't gonna pretend I'm a big man and act like this shit ain't make me tear up a little cuz it did. Twice.
That ending chief. Such a bitter note to end such a whimsical game on. I was fully expecting it to double back on it in some way like it did at first with Huepow but nah. My man's is just gone. Genuinely fucked up.
It was cool. Above average platformer affair. 2.5D stuff was cool, Klonoa felt fun to control, the level design was well done except for a few parts, mostly just World 3 which I thought kinda sucked ass. Klonoa's attack thingy also feels a little too short, would've preferred if it was just a bit longer. Bosses are cool! I liked basically all of them except for the last couple, which both kinda felt like boring slogs.
But fr tho who gives a shit about the gameplay of Klonoa. You think I'm playing a video game to have fun gameplay? Nah son I'm here for the aesthetics. The beautiful polygonal gameplay. The phenomenal midi ost. The great sound effects. It's genuinely kind of overwhelming at points, how loud the music gets along with all the weird sound effects going through.
Did not expect this game to fuck me up as much as it did though! A combination of weirdly evocative nonsense word voice acting and a genuinely fucked story really got to me at points. I ain't gonna pretend I'm a big man and act like this shit ain't make me tear up a little cuz it did. Twice.
That ending chief. Such a bitter note to end such a whimsical game on. I was fully expecting it to double back on it in some way like it did at first with Huepow but nah. My man's is just gone. Genuinely fucked up.
Finishing this game after playing Mega Man X6, I was able to remember that video games are actually pretty cool after all. Thanks, little dude.
Klonoa is actually pretty good in my book! It's a very simple and not-too-difficult platformer, but it more than makes up for it by being incredibly charming and just damn fun, with an emotional ending to boot. This isn't a game to be passed up at all.
Klonoa is actually pretty good in my book! It's a very simple and not-too-difficult platformer, but it more than makes up for it by being incredibly charming and just damn fun, with an emotional ending to boot. This isn't a game to be passed up at all.
Cara mas que joguinho bom, fazia um tempo que eu não jogava nenhum platformer ou algum jogo de PlayStation. Fui ver nas minhas ROMs, olhei pro Klonoa e disse "É ele".
Inicialmente eu estranhei quando fui pular em cima de um inimigo e tomei dano, o jogo não funciona dessa maneira, mas sim com uma mecânica muito bacana de inflar os inimigos, basicamente você chega perto de algum deles, aperta o botão de ação e ele é capturado. Com isso você pode tanto atirar o mesmo pra matar outros inimigos, ou usar pra pular mais alto. O jogo tem muitas seções de plataforma sensacionais com essa mecânica. Diferenciada e divertida.
A história eu imagino que se encaixaria como um espetáculo da Pixar, não sei porque mas tudo em Klonoa me lembra o estúdio em seus tempos de glória. É uma baita de uma aventura que tem mais momentos marcantes do que eu esperava, e aquele final...nossa, simplesmente lindo.
É um dos jogos mais bonitos do console, é simplesmente alucinante a mistura do 2D com 3D, eu sempre me pegava parando pra apreciar o cenário, nunca joguei algo parecido. As boss battles não são muito difíceis mas eu gostei de todas, todos eles são bem divertidos. O jogo tem trilha sonora bem competente também.
Klonoa é curtinho, uma jogatina só indo pra zerar deve durar no MÁXIMO umas 5 horinhas, talvez estenda um pouco pra quem caça o 100%, mas acho que não chegue nem a 10 horas. É um jogo que da pra matar numa tarde. Bonito, divertido e com desafio na medida, adorei.
Inicialmente eu estranhei quando fui pular em cima de um inimigo e tomei dano, o jogo não funciona dessa maneira, mas sim com uma mecânica muito bacana de inflar os inimigos, basicamente você chega perto de algum deles, aperta o botão de ação e ele é capturado. Com isso você pode tanto atirar o mesmo pra matar outros inimigos, ou usar pra pular mais alto. O jogo tem muitas seções de plataforma sensacionais com essa mecânica. Diferenciada e divertida.
A história eu imagino que se encaixaria como um espetáculo da Pixar, não sei porque mas tudo em Klonoa me lembra o estúdio em seus tempos de glória. É uma baita de uma aventura que tem mais momentos marcantes do que eu esperava, e aquele final...nossa, simplesmente lindo.
É um dos jogos mais bonitos do console, é simplesmente alucinante a mistura do 2D com 3D, eu sempre me pegava parando pra apreciar o cenário, nunca joguei algo parecido. As boss battles não são muito difíceis mas eu gostei de todas, todos eles são bem divertidos. O jogo tem trilha sonora bem competente também.
Klonoa é curtinho, uma jogatina só indo pra zerar deve durar no MÁXIMO umas 5 horinhas, talvez estenda um pouco pra quem caça o 100%, mas acho que não chegue nem a 10 horas. É um jogo que da pra matar numa tarde. Bonito, divertido e com desafio na medida, adorei.
I know this game has a lot of reviews already on this site but this was a very great game so why not. Klonoa has always one of those series I've been meaning to try more of. But before I talk about the game, thought I'd share my history with the series.
So to probably no ones surprise, I never played a Klonoa game for so long. In fact the only other one I played was Empire of Dreams on the GBA back in 2021. I'm basically like that one meme that's like "Big Earthbound fan playing game for the first time." but for Klonoa. Now granted it wasn't out of not trying, I just didn't have a way to play it and while a remaster did come out it had annoying stutters on the Switch version and it kind of turned me away from buying it for the time being. Who knows maybe it got fixed by now. I also for the longest time wanted the Wii remake but I just have never seen it anywhere and if I did, it was online for an awful price. Enough about me, let's talk about the game.
Klonoa is a 2.5D platformer where you'll go through 12 different levels known as visions in this game. You can jump and use your ring for attacking. Hitting enemies with your ring will inflate them and you can throw them in 4 different directions. If you press jump while in midair you can use this for a midair jump to help you reach areas. Keep in mind you can't go through areas that are too short with one in hand. You can also hold jump in the air to get a little flutter to help reach a platform barely in reach and help correct a mistake.
Platforming in Klonoa feels amazing. Every level is fun to traverse in and the controls are great as well. Levels feel tightly designed and aren't afraid to shake level progression up without resorting to new gameplay styles. There's not a single bad level in this game in my eyes and it uses your abilities pretty well.
The game however can be pretty easy, I think I only died like 6 times and had about 30 lives by the end of the game. Personally I don't mind easy games but I'm sure some do so keep that in mind if you're interested in the game. While this game does have lives, checkpoints are a plentiful and you can grab gems to get a 1-up once you get 100 and you can even sometimes find 1-ups which I swear they love giving you by the end of the game.
Bosses are also pretty easy but they're pretty decent. I'd argue they're the low point due to their simplicity but they are at least not bad and they can be engaging. I like the final boss which is this intense fight having to help others load cannons and even going inside to destroy the boss. But it does say a lot when I only died to a boss once which oddly was the 5th vision's boss.
I gotta say though, the story was a big surprise for me. What starts as a simple quest to get to destinations and stop the villain becomes somewhat sad and serious by the end. A character actually dies during the story which caught me off guard. It probably isn't as deep as I think it is but by the end I won't lie, it got me to tear up a bit as embarrassing as that is to admit.
The game looks great for a 1997 PS1 game. I really like the use of pre rendered sprites combined with the 3D environments. It somehow just works really well in a way I can't explain well. The game does use models at times and they work well. The music is phenomenal for the game and there's some amazing stuff here, would really recommend listening to it. There's also voice acting but it's done using this incomprehensible language and it's charming though some might find it annoying.
Oh I forgot to mention, there's these people of Pahntomile you can save with 6 in each stage. You can play an extra vision if you get them all I think but sadly I missed 7 which isn't too bad if you ask me. At least I was trying to get as many as I could. Maybe someday I'll go back and do them and see what that last level is like.
Klonoa is a remarkable game, one I never expected to love so much. It says a lot when I really don't have any big complaints with the game. It may not be a top 3 game I've played this year but it is still such a great game that you have to wonder why a game like this didn't find a greater audience. Klonoa would get a sequel on the PS2 but sadly that game is also expensive to get nowadays so I can't play it. The rest of his games were either spinoffs, cameos or handheld games. A remake for the Wii was made and maybe someday if I ever can, I'll talk about it. It's just a shame the series was dead for so long, if you have still slept on this game please at least try it. It's a great experience and I'm really happy I played the game.
So to probably no ones surprise, I never played a Klonoa game for so long. In fact the only other one I played was Empire of Dreams on the GBA back in 2021. I'm basically like that one meme that's like "Big Earthbound fan playing game for the first time." but for Klonoa. Now granted it wasn't out of not trying, I just didn't have a way to play it and while a remaster did come out it had annoying stutters on the Switch version and it kind of turned me away from buying it for the time being. Who knows maybe it got fixed by now. I also for the longest time wanted the Wii remake but I just have never seen it anywhere and if I did, it was online for an awful price. Enough about me, let's talk about the game.
Klonoa is a 2.5D platformer where you'll go through 12 different levels known as visions in this game. You can jump and use your ring for attacking. Hitting enemies with your ring will inflate them and you can throw them in 4 different directions. If you press jump while in midair you can use this for a midair jump to help you reach areas. Keep in mind you can't go through areas that are too short with one in hand. You can also hold jump in the air to get a little flutter to help reach a platform barely in reach and help correct a mistake.
Platforming in Klonoa feels amazing. Every level is fun to traverse in and the controls are great as well. Levels feel tightly designed and aren't afraid to shake level progression up without resorting to new gameplay styles. There's not a single bad level in this game in my eyes and it uses your abilities pretty well.
The game however can be pretty easy, I think I only died like 6 times and had about 30 lives by the end of the game. Personally I don't mind easy games but I'm sure some do so keep that in mind if you're interested in the game. While this game does have lives, checkpoints are a plentiful and you can grab gems to get a 1-up once you get 100 and you can even sometimes find 1-ups which I swear they love giving you by the end of the game.
Bosses are also pretty easy but they're pretty decent. I'd argue they're the low point due to their simplicity but they are at least not bad and they can be engaging. I like the final boss which is this intense fight having to help others load cannons and even going inside to destroy the boss. But it does say a lot when I only died to a boss once which oddly was the 5th vision's boss.
I gotta say though, the story was a big surprise for me. What starts as a simple quest to get to destinations and stop the villain becomes somewhat sad and serious by the end. A character actually dies during the story which caught me off guard. It probably isn't as deep as I think it is but by the end I won't lie, it got me to tear up a bit as embarrassing as that is to admit.
The game looks great for a 1997 PS1 game. I really like the use of pre rendered sprites combined with the 3D environments. It somehow just works really well in a way I can't explain well. The game does use models at times and they work well. The music is phenomenal for the game and there's some amazing stuff here, would really recommend listening to it. There's also voice acting but it's done using this incomprehensible language and it's charming though some might find it annoying.
Oh I forgot to mention, there's these people of Pahntomile you can save with 6 in each stage. You can play an extra vision if you get them all I think but sadly I missed 7 which isn't too bad if you ask me. At least I was trying to get as many as I could. Maybe someday I'll go back and do them and see what that last level is like.
Klonoa is a remarkable game, one I never expected to love so much. It says a lot when I really don't have any big complaints with the game. It may not be a top 3 game I've played this year but it is still such a great game that you have to wonder why a game like this didn't find a greater audience. Klonoa would get a sequel on the PS2 but sadly that game is also expensive to get nowadays so I can't play it. The rest of his games were either spinoffs, cameos or handheld games. A remake for the Wii was made and maybe someday if I ever can, I'll talk about it. It's just a shame the series was dead for so long, if you have still slept on this game please at least try it. It's a great experience and I'm really happy I played the game.
Klonoa é especial, um dos melhores plataformers que joguei. Dificuldade na medida, narrativa emocionante e level design surpreendente.
Eu não quero me prolongar, mas resumindo a opera: Chorei para um caralho com o final
Eu não quero me prolongar, mas resumindo a opera: Chorei para um caralho com o final
really wanted to hate this game to distance myself from the furry community at large but it's actually really good
playing klonoa feels like reminiscing about childhood with a friend who came from the same sorta social patch. some details won’t match up and some details are too broad generic to get caught up on, but every once in a there’s some hyper specific throughline. could be as minute as also happening to marching around barefooted looking for pecans sometimes, doesn’t really matter—that mutual nostalgia feels all the sweet regardless
i imagine if you could lift the misty veil off our dreams, you’ll probably see the phantasmic-but-oddly-photorealistic landscapes of phantomile. not to say there was some massive movement here, more so a handful of isolated incidents, but i really dig the odd fixation on oneirology we saw throughout that gen. no idea if this was the product of developers registering that technology was just at the right level to render vague, dreamy approximations of reality but not quite at the level of making new york city replicas, but it works nevertheless
nights played with this and mixed in suggests some analytical psychological theories; lsd dream emulator rejects any sense of formality by haphazardly throwing cultural, social, and religious sign around to create a game that is one part eerie, one part tender. klonoa takes this theming and dials it up on the whimsy, framing itself as a harlequinesque pop-up book concerning around human desires. what should be meek, passing touches on high concepts are deeply afflicting, all thanks to their shared framing device
again, beneath the mirage, there’s a real sense of familiarity ingrained here. they’re distant as they are true to life. it taps into a primordial understanding of our world and how we interact with it. i’d honestly say accurately articulating this is unattainable feat, but i really mean it when i say there’s something about these game’s audiovisual presentation that gives them an unmatched intimacy
i imagine if you could lift the misty veil off our dreams, you’ll probably see the phantasmic-but-oddly-photorealistic landscapes of phantomile. not to say there was some massive movement here, more so a handful of isolated incidents, but i really dig the odd fixation on oneirology we saw throughout that gen. no idea if this was the product of developers registering that technology was just at the right level to render vague, dreamy approximations of reality but not quite at the level of making new york city replicas, but it works nevertheless
nights played with this and mixed in suggests some analytical psychological theories; lsd dream emulator rejects any sense of formality by haphazardly throwing cultural, social, and religious sign around to create a game that is one part eerie, one part tender. klonoa takes this theming and dials it up on the whimsy, framing itself as a harlequinesque pop-up book concerning around human desires. what should be meek, passing touches on high concepts are deeply afflicting, all thanks to their shared framing device
again, beneath the mirage, there’s a real sense of familiarity ingrained here. they’re distant as they are true to life. it taps into a primordial understanding of our world and how we interact with it. i’d honestly say accurately articulating this is unattainable feat, but i really mean it when i say there’s something about these game’s audiovisual presentation that gives them an unmatched intimacy
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile sigue siendo una obra que no ha sido replicada. Es una experiencia bastante única en el repertorio de la consola, es decir, ser un plataformero sumamente pulido y bien diseñado no es suficiente para ser algo realmente especial, pero ¿qué dirían de uno que se mantenga consistente en temática y estética para ser armónico con cada uno de sus elementos?, o ¿qué tal uno que ignore las tendencias de la época y juegue con sus tropos para hacerlo alcanzar un nivel de auto-entendimiento aún mayor?
Pasa que detrás de su aparente simplicidad, se esconde un maravilloso mensaje que ha sido pasado por alto en las discusiones del juego por bastante tiempo, razón por la que decidí explayarlo con atención al detalle en un video análisis. Si piensas que la historia acaba en lo triste y amargo que resulta su giro argumental en vez de notar la inspiradora carta de amor que simboliza su totalidad, déjame decirte que hay mucho más detrás de la Puerta a Phantomile.
~ ANÁLISIS COMPLETO: https://youtu.be/rBbGlcSyjtM ~
Pasa que detrás de su aparente simplicidad, se esconde un maravilloso mensaje que ha sido pasado por alto en las discusiones del juego por bastante tiempo, razón por la que decidí explayarlo con atención al detalle en un video análisis. Si piensas que la historia acaba en lo triste y amargo que resulta su giro argumental en vez de notar la inspiradora carta de amor que simboliza su totalidad, déjame decirte que hay mucho más detrás de la Puerta a Phantomile.
~ ANÁLISIS COMPLETO: https://youtu.be/rBbGlcSyjtM ~
it's odd to think that there aren't many other games that take cues from yoshi's island considering how well respected it is. the slower pace, nuanced character abilities, and high-concept level designs were incredibly novel in the mid-90s, but the shift away from side-scrolling platformers with the rise of 3D wilted this particular evolutionary branch before it had time to really blossom. thankfully while klonoa doesn't feature the sprawl of yoshi's beloved headlining debut, it offers a tightly-paced knockout of a platformer that tills the same field to create a masterfully crafted experience.
the gameplay of klonoa centers around the titular character's ability to grab virtually any enemy and use them as a makeshift projectile, which has the added by-product of giving him an extra jump when the enemy is thrown downward. while simple in concept, the planners stretched this mechanic as far as it would go thanks to smart enemy design and an excellent difficulty curve. klonoa is limited in his abilities outside of this power - he does have a yoshi-esque flutter jump when he's not carrying anything - so with any danger ahead of him the player must carefully consider enemy placement both for utility and avoidance. an enemy may need to be carried from a separate section in order to boost klonoa past an obstacle, or ungrabbable enemies in the way may force the player to lure grabbable ones over to use as ammo. further into the game the execution becomes more strict with strings of enemies to chain jumps with, insta-death surfaces, and shielded enemies, but the game never manages to feel unfair. given the number of lives that the game hands out, most will find the difficulty at that sweet spot between leisurely and strenuous. it's the perfect level of challenge for encouraging replays for collectables, and it provides enough training with mechanics to make that difficult extra stage feel achievable.
the macro-design shows a clear influence from some of the key-driven levels present in yoshi's island. levels here don't stick to a left-to-right structure and instead generally feature per-room challenges that require a higher level of spatial awareness thanks to elements of both the foreground and background playing into small puzzles. while early on each stage rarely approaches non-linearity outside of small side-jaunts that contain collectables, the later stages begin playing with interconnected stage designs that feature loop-backs and stage-wide object effects such as turning elevators on or opening doors. none of it is truly exploratory (outside of one neat stage that features four keys that can be obtained in any order), but it does go a long way towards actualizing the locations beyond mere vessels of challenge.
vision 6-2 in particular shows a keen awareness of parallelism as an effective way to both present a series of challenges and the feeling of an authentic environment. this level involves a single large cylindrical tower with a long column-filled room that contains different pathways to take. more difficult pathways are locked behind timed switch puzzles at the end of the pathway before it. these switch puzzles inside the tower must be accessed by moving a block located outside of the tower behind a puzzle centered around a super-sized version of a common enemy which impedes progress. reaching this section on the outskirts of the tower requires making it through a climb sequence from within the tower, and before that a precision platforming section over a perilous drop away from the tower. the cycle of these different elements each getting increasingly more difficult imparts the feeling of true progress as one makes their way further and further through the column-filled corridor until they finally reach the end, where they can ascend the final part of the tower to reach a monumental boss fight. an exceptional display of level design chops that illustrates - more than just mechanical understanding - a conscious synthesis of micro-design and macro-design to elevate mere gameplay into a worthy struggle through perilous odds that rewards persistance and patience.
it must be said that the bosses are all excellent as well. each provides a unique twist on the enemy-throwing formula that utilizes the same hierarchy of movement, primary, and auxillary obstacles that I layed out in my cuphead review. klonoa has the extra trick up its sleeve of having those enemies be both tool and trial at once, and the bosses use this to great effect. in many instances the auxillary attack itself consists of or contains the very enemies you need to use to damage the boss, and weighing when to avoid them and when to seize them for an attack creates a lovely risk/reward element that keeps each fight fresh. no boss resembles any other boss, and most of them provide a perfect blend of attacks to keep the player on their toes and repetition to a minimum (the second boss is a little stale tho, there's a lot of downtime during it that unfortunately makes it the weakest of the bunch).
what perhaps really elevates this game beyond the rest of its ilk is its attention to aesthetic detail. no aspect feels cheap or rushed, from the rotating pentagonal prism health bars that each boss has to the gorgeous vision start splashes with unique names and subtitles each. every character is well-animated and meshes well with the 3D backdrops, and the game doesn't skimp on gorgeous oscillating polygonal effects illustrating the magical capabilities of the cast, small particle effects when klonoa runs across certain surfaces, and cinematic swirling camera angles as klonoa takes corners and breathes in monumental structures. the story is also full integrated into gameplay, with smooth transitions and everything handled in-engine with unique sprites that really sell the integration. the story itself is compact and strays little from a vague KH-esque light and darkness dichotomy, which suits the pacing of the game perfectly; mature enough for adults to appreciate while simplisitic enough to avoid overwhelming a child. it neatly foreshadows up to its infamous final cutscene twist, and while shockingly abrupt and bittersweet for a game of this nature, it perfectly captures the emotion with the turmoil and rush of the final FMV before the credits roll. it's evident that this is the culmination of hideo yoshizawa's vision of an action game that marries unvarnished gameplay to cinematic qualities.
a little note to fellow popstarter users: this game is pretty playable up to the end if you can stomach semi-frequent crashes between levels that will require a quick reset (thankfully this is after you save, so you won't lose any progress). in a couple of cases this skips important cutscenes, so be advised. I also found it impossible to reach the credits thanks to a crash after the final boss, and thus after a couple tries I resorted to duckstation to finish the game off. disappointing to be sure, but it's a testament to the game's quality that I was perfectly willing to replay the final boss (all three phases) over and over again to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and frankly it was worth it in the end just so I could play the majority of the game on a proper CRT! this is a game that benefits greatly from that phosphorescent swirl of an authentic old screen.
the gameplay of klonoa centers around the titular character's ability to grab virtually any enemy and use them as a makeshift projectile, which has the added by-product of giving him an extra jump when the enemy is thrown downward. while simple in concept, the planners stretched this mechanic as far as it would go thanks to smart enemy design and an excellent difficulty curve. klonoa is limited in his abilities outside of this power - he does have a yoshi-esque flutter jump when he's not carrying anything - so with any danger ahead of him the player must carefully consider enemy placement both for utility and avoidance. an enemy may need to be carried from a separate section in order to boost klonoa past an obstacle, or ungrabbable enemies in the way may force the player to lure grabbable ones over to use as ammo. further into the game the execution becomes more strict with strings of enemies to chain jumps with, insta-death surfaces, and shielded enemies, but the game never manages to feel unfair. given the number of lives that the game hands out, most will find the difficulty at that sweet spot between leisurely and strenuous. it's the perfect level of challenge for encouraging replays for collectables, and it provides enough training with mechanics to make that difficult extra stage feel achievable.
the macro-design shows a clear influence from some of the key-driven levels present in yoshi's island. levels here don't stick to a left-to-right structure and instead generally feature per-room challenges that require a higher level of spatial awareness thanks to elements of both the foreground and background playing into small puzzles. while early on each stage rarely approaches non-linearity outside of small side-jaunts that contain collectables, the later stages begin playing with interconnected stage designs that feature loop-backs and stage-wide object effects such as turning elevators on or opening doors. none of it is truly exploratory (outside of one neat stage that features four keys that can be obtained in any order), but it does go a long way towards actualizing the locations beyond mere vessels of challenge.
vision 6-2 in particular shows a keen awareness of parallelism as an effective way to both present a series of challenges and the feeling of an authentic environment. this level involves a single large cylindrical tower with a long column-filled room that contains different pathways to take. more difficult pathways are locked behind timed switch puzzles at the end of the pathway before it. these switch puzzles inside the tower must be accessed by moving a block located outside of the tower behind a puzzle centered around a super-sized version of a common enemy which impedes progress. reaching this section on the outskirts of the tower requires making it through a climb sequence from within the tower, and before that a precision platforming section over a perilous drop away from the tower. the cycle of these different elements each getting increasingly more difficult imparts the feeling of true progress as one makes their way further and further through the column-filled corridor until they finally reach the end, where they can ascend the final part of the tower to reach a monumental boss fight. an exceptional display of level design chops that illustrates - more than just mechanical understanding - a conscious synthesis of micro-design and macro-design to elevate mere gameplay into a worthy struggle through perilous odds that rewards persistance and patience.
it must be said that the bosses are all excellent as well. each provides a unique twist on the enemy-throwing formula that utilizes the same hierarchy of movement, primary, and auxillary obstacles that I layed out in my cuphead review. klonoa has the extra trick up its sleeve of having those enemies be both tool and trial at once, and the bosses use this to great effect. in many instances the auxillary attack itself consists of or contains the very enemies you need to use to damage the boss, and weighing when to avoid them and when to seize them for an attack creates a lovely risk/reward element that keeps each fight fresh. no boss resembles any other boss, and most of them provide a perfect blend of attacks to keep the player on their toes and repetition to a minimum (the second boss is a little stale tho, there's a lot of downtime during it that unfortunately makes it the weakest of the bunch).
what perhaps really elevates this game beyond the rest of its ilk is its attention to aesthetic detail. no aspect feels cheap or rushed, from the rotating pentagonal prism health bars that each boss has to the gorgeous vision start splashes with unique names and subtitles each. every character is well-animated and meshes well with the 3D backdrops, and the game doesn't skimp on gorgeous oscillating polygonal effects illustrating the magical capabilities of the cast, small particle effects when klonoa runs across certain surfaces, and cinematic swirling camera angles as klonoa takes corners and breathes in monumental structures. the story is also full integrated into gameplay, with smooth transitions and everything handled in-engine with unique sprites that really sell the integration. the story itself is compact and strays little from a vague KH-esque light and darkness dichotomy, which suits the pacing of the game perfectly; mature enough for adults to appreciate while simplisitic enough to avoid overwhelming a child. it neatly foreshadows up to its infamous final cutscene twist, and while shockingly abrupt and bittersweet for a game of this nature, it perfectly captures the emotion with the turmoil and rush of the final FMV before the credits roll. it's evident that this is the culmination of hideo yoshizawa's vision of an action game that marries unvarnished gameplay to cinematic qualities.
a little note to fellow popstarter users: this game is pretty playable up to the end if you can stomach semi-frequent crashes between levels that will require a quick reset (thankfully this is after you save, so you won't lose any progress). in a couple of cases this skips important cutscenes, so be advised. I also found it impossible to reach the credits thanks to a crash after the final boss, and thus after a couple tries I resorted to duckstation to finish the game off. disappointing to be sure, but it's a testament to the game's quality that I was perfectly willing to replay the final boss (all three phases) over and over again to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and frankly it was worth it in the end just so I could play the majority of the game on a proper CRT! this is a game that benefits greatly from that phosphorescent swirl of an authentic old screen.
I got spoiled on the ending years ago and I still cried like a bitch, funny how that works
I actually played through this last year during a server challenge with friends but never recorded a review for some reason, so here's my short retrospective take. Klonoa's got it all, when it comes to both charm and accessibility. It's not mind-numbingly easy platforming against generic enemies but it's also not particularly tough or bullshit platforming. Rather, you just need to ponder up the solution in your head as you go along, and you'll get that nice fuzzy little feeling in your heart once you pull it off despite no difficult execution barriers or crazy obstacles to overcome. I've said it before that Klonoa's basically a deconstructed puzzle platformer without the usual failings of puzzle platformers, and I think that only becomes more true as you progress through the levels and the series. If I really had to nitpick, I would say that classic PS1 jank does come through from quick instant deaths here and there from falling, and some of the boss hurtboxes can feel a bit strange (I wasn't too big of a fan of the final boss for some reason), but these minor complaints pale in comparison to just how tightly constructed I feel Klonoa is; it gets everything it wants accomplished during its relatively short runtime. It teaches you the concepts and controls without tedious tutorials, every stage feels like wandering through this nostalgic dream thanks to its classic pixel upon PS1 3D graphics artstyle and wistful tunes, and it's actually a genuinely sad and often heartbreaking game with very poignant moments. Klonoa's one for the books for sure, and I'm looking forward to revisiting it soon when the remake comes to Steam.
i was surprised to learn that the famous Smash Bros request Klonoa not only had his own video game but that it was also a good video game
Oh my gosh, what an absolute masterpiece. There is not a single thing this game sets out to do that I don't absolutely love.
The gameplay is so incredibly clever. You, as Klonoa, have the ability to inflate your enemies like a balloon and throw them. This is used for clearing enemies but this is also used for really fun puzzles. While they tend to be simple, it's the use of dimensions that make the game so fun. Klonoa is bound by a 2D plane but the environment and what he can interact with is 3D, making this a 2.5D game. What the level design does with this is so imaginative and enjoyable with the ability to make the player think beyond the boundaries of a sidescroller. Klonoa himself is also enjoyable to play as. Having an enemy picked up will grant you another jump which in later levels you'll have to chain with multiple enemies in the air. The enemy pick up mechanic makes boss fights pretty engaging with some of them even using the double jump to hit your foes. It's a flawless gameplay formula that can be easily built upon like Lunatea's Veil's diversity and the handhelds' emphasis on puzzles, although this is only a review for Door to Phantomile. The game can be finished in one or two sittings, so it never really overstays its welcome either even if I wish I could play more and more of this.
The aesthetics and music are both wonderful. Every environment is distinct and beautiful with an accompanying soundtrack of tons of memorable songs. The aesthetics are very PS1 but they don't feel dated at all. The graphics all look distinct, charming, and very good ranging from the sprites of most characters to the polygonal environments to the stellar CG cutscenes that still hold up to this day. There's not one environment that doesn't look beautiful. The soundtrack is astounding too and I listen to it often. One of my favorite songs if not my favorite song in general is from this soundtrack, "Untamed Heart." The melancholic yet peaceful vibe of the song speaks to me and the way it uses a past motif found in "The Windmill Song," a very happy Level 1 theme, in a somber way reflects upon the series' themes of grief and depression.
Speaking of, the writing for this game is so intelligent yet charming. It starts with a lighthearted romp that turns into a message about mourning that never loses its edge or feels like it never turns into anything else. This game genuinely made me cry multiple times, it's so so good. I don't want to spoil anything but it genuinely feels like I'm playing through a wonderful animated film that tells its story that can hit children as hard as adults. It serves as a wonderful build-up to Lunatea's Veil which takes the themes of Door to Phantomile and builds off of them even more, although this is still only a review for one game. This game is also pretty funny when it wants to be such as the side villain Joka's antics, although the game drops its light-heartedness directly when he starts getting serious as an actual threat. Klonoa is a charming and likable protagonist that drives the story in ways I never feel bored of. He's a bit simple of a character but it's his childish and honest nature that makes the events around him carry so much more weight.
This is a game I wish I could play for the first time for people. This is a game I aggressively recommend to people even if I have to show myself play the game. I wish this had a rerelease, but at the time of review the series has been left collecting dust for more than a decade. If you give this game a chance, you will not be disappointed.
The gameplay is so incredibly clever. You, as Klonoa, have the ability to inflate your enemies like a balloon and throw them. This is used for clearing enemies but this is also used for really fun puzzles. While they tend to be simple, it's the use of dimensions that make the game so fun. Klonoa is bound by a 2D plane but the environment and what he can interact with is 3D, making this a 2.5D game. What the level design does with this is so imaginative and enjoyable with the ability to make the player think beyond the boundaries of a sidescroller. Klonoa himself is also enjoyable to play as. Having an enemy picked up will grant you another jump which in later levels you'll have to chain with multiple enemies in the air. The enemy pick up mechanic makes boss fights pretty engaging with some of them even using the double jump to hit your foes. It's a flawless gameplay formula that can be easily built upon like Lunatea's Veil's diversity and the handhelds' emphasis on puzzles, although this is only a review for Door to Phantomile. The game can be finished in one or two sittings, so it never really overstays its welcome either even if I wish I could play more and more of this.
The aesthetics and music are both wonderful. Every environment is distinct and beautiful with an accompanying soundtrack of tons of memorable songs. The aesthetics are very PS1 but they don't feel dated at all. The graphics all look distinct, charming, and very good ranging from the sprites of most characters to the polygonal environments to the stellar CG cutscenes that still hold up to this day. There's not one environment that doesn't look beautiful. The soundtrack is astounding too and I listen to it often. One of my favorite songs if not my favorite song in general is from this soundtrack, "Untamed Heart." The melancholic yet peaceful vibe of the song speaks to me and the way it uses a past motif found in "The Windmill Song," a very happy Level 1 theme, in a somber way reflects upon the series' themes of grief and depression.
Speaking of, the writing for this game is so intelligent yet charming. It starts with a lighthearted romp that turns into a message about mourning that never loses its edge or feels like it never turns into anything else. This game genuinely made me cry multiple times, it's so so good. I don't want to spoil anything but it genuinely feels like I'm playing through a wonderful animated film that tells its story that can hit children as hard as adults. It serves as a wonderful build-up to Lunatea's Veil which takes the themes of Door to Phantomile and builds off of them even more, although this is still only a review for one game. This game is also pretty funny when it wants to be such as the side villain Joka's antics, although the game drops its light-heartedness directly when he starts getting serious as an actual threat. Klonoa is a charming and likable protagonist that drives the story in ways I never feel bored of. He's a bit simple of a character but it's his childish and honest nature that makes the events around him carry so much more weight.
This is a game I wish I could play for the first time for people. This is a game I aggressively recommend to people even if I have to show myself play the game. I wish this had a rerelease, but at the time of review the series has been left collecting dust for more than a decade. If you give this game a chance, you will not be disappointed.
Quando eu joguei esse jogo pela primeira vez eu tinha 7 anos.
Não tinha memory card, então nunca cheguei ao fim... foram horas e horas nos primeiros capítulos sem saber como acabava. E eu amava isso.
Me lembro de passar um verão inteiro imerso na magia desse mundo, como tudo era mágico e tão real. Era tão bom.
Hoje, rejogando esse jogo, a nostalgia veio como um delírio. Algo que você sabe que sente, sabe que viveu, está em suas lembranças, mas não como memória clara, como um sentimento forte, mas não simples, como um sonho.
E como um sonho, eu me via novamente com 7 anos, jogando em pé, de sunga, esperando para ir para praia. Feliz, mesmo sabendo que ao voltar, teria que jogar tudo de novo, mas ficaria ali, naquele mundo mágico e seguro.
Agora terminei Klonoa... eu só queria permanecer nesse sonho.
Por ironia, eu não consigo salvar o jogo pelo emulador sem ser save state.
Com 24 anos, olhando a tela de save game sem conseguir salvar, eu não consigo parar de chorar.
Não vou voltar para o sonho, mas ele fez parte de mim, como esse jogo também fez. Acabou como tudo tem que acabar.
Não tinha memory card, então nunca cheguei ao fim... foram horas e horas nos primeiros capítulos sem saber como acabava. E eu amava isso.
Me lembro de passar um verão inteiro imerso na magia desse mundo, como tudo era mágico e tão real. Era tão bom.
Hoje, rejogando esse jogo, a nostalgia veio como um delírio. Algo que você sabe que sente, sabe que viveu, está em suas lembranças, mas não como memória clara, como um sentimento forte, mas não simples, como um sonho.
E como um sonho, eu me via novamente com 7 anos, jogando em pé, de sunga, esperando para ir para praia. Feliz, mesmo sabendo que ao voltar, teria que jogar tudo de novo, mas ficaria ali, naquele mundo mágico e seguro.
Agora terminei Klonoa... eu só queria permanecer nesse sonho.
Por ironia, eu não consigo salvar o jogo pelo emulador sem ser save state.
Com 24 anos, olhando a tela de save game sem conseguir salvar, eu não consigo parar de chorar.
Não vou voltar para o sonho, mas ele fez parte de mim, como esse jogo também fez. Acabou como tudo tem que acabar.
Esse jogo mora no meu coração!
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile é, de longe, um dos melhores jogos de plataforma que eu já joguei até hoje. Eu nunca me canso de rejogar ele.
A frase de ouro que melhor define Klonoa é: "Complexidade na Simplicidade".
É uma gameplay simples, montada sob uma mecânica de ataque criativa e igualmente simples - porém o jogo sabe muito bem como trabalhar essa simplicidade toda pra montar situações cada vez mais dinâmicas e mais desafiadoras.
A parte artística do jogo não fica pra trás. Ou, melhor dizendo, é ela que alavanca enormemente a beleza e emoção que esse jogo trás. As fases possuem cenários lindamente trabalhados e vívidos. A história, mesmo que simples, consegue ser fortemente sentimental. Os personagens e monstros possuem designs simpáticos e marcantes. Tudo, tudo nesse jogo consegue ter uma personalidade própria e ser memorável.
E é claro, a Soundtrack do jogo, que está entre as melhores que já ouvi. O trabalho sonoro magistral das músicas de Klonoa consegue alcançar o fundo da alma de qualquer um. Cada música consegue intensificar a atmosfera e emoção das fases de maneiras indescritíveis.
Não, sério, se você gosta de plataforma, jogue Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Pode ser qualquer versão: a de PS1, a de Wii, ou a Phantasy Reverie. Todas possuem suas diferenças, mas, em geral, todas são ótimas (eu, particularmente, prefiro a de PS1 por ser a primeira versão que joguei, assim como a que mais me marcou).
Apenas vá lá em jogue! Se submerja na magia de sonhos de Phantomile e veja o quão bom esse jogo consegue ser!
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile é, de longe, um dos melhores jogos de plataforma que eu já joguei até hoje. Eu nunca me canso de rejogar ele.
A frase de ouro que melhor define Klonoa é: "Complexidade na Simplicidade".
É uma gameplay simples, montada sob uma mecânica de ataque criativa e igualmente simples - porém o jogo sabe muito bem como trabalhar essa simplicidade toda pra montar situações cada vez mais dinâmicas e mais desafiadoras.
A parte artística do jogo não fica pra trás. Ou, melhor dizendo, é ela que alavanca enormemente a beleza e emoção que esse jogo trás. As fases possuem cenários lindamente trabalhados e vívidos. A história, mesmo que simples, consegue ser fortemente sentimental. Os personagens e monstros possuem designs simpáticos e marcantes. Tudo, tudo nesse jogo consegue ter uma personalidade própria e ser memorável.
E é claro, a Soundtrack do jogo, que está entre as melhores que já ouvi. O trabalho sonoro magistral das músicas de Klonoa consegue alcançar o fundo da alma de qualquer um. Cada música consegue intensificar a atmosfera e emoção das fases de maneiras indescritíveis.
Não, sério, se você gosta de plataforma, jogue Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Pode ser qualquer versão: a de PS1, a de Wii, ou a Phantasy Reverie. Todas possuem suas diferenças, mas, em geral, todas são ótimas (eu, particularmente, prefiro a de PS1 por ser a primeira versão que joguei, assim como a que mais me marcou).
Apenas vá lá em jogue! Se submerja na magia de sonhos de Phantomile e veja o quão bom esse jogo consegue ser!
i love klonoa so much. he is my best friend. my silly cat-rabbit. if klonoa has 1,000,000 fans i am one of them. if klonoa has 100 fans i am one of them. if klonoa has 1 fan, that fan is me. if klonoa has 0 fans, i am no longer on this earth. if the world is against klonoa, then i am agaisnt the world. wahoo.
the way this game will utilize its character's mechanics in ways that are actually inventive and benefit the platforming challenges stunned me. in the platforming genre it will be surprisingly hard to find games that are actually interested in being platformers in the way that this one is.
Extremely well executed platformer with a great aesthetic and an unforgettable story. Also Klonoa is such a good character design I have no idea why he's just been completely abandoned.
Spoilers for Klonoa
Given the remake collection that came out recently which I've seen has a very mixed reception, I decided to look into the original Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.
Two of my closest friends, Simon and Luke, were both big fans of this game and told me about how it has a lot of emotional resonance with them. So, I went in optimistic about how the game would go.
At the start the game is relatively simple and sweet, the plot isn't particularly deep at this point, as all we know is that something has crash-landed from space into a nearby mountain top and Klonoa and his friend Huepow go to investigate.
The game controls like most other platformers, with one sole exception being the central mechanic of the game, the Wind Ring.
With the Wind Ring, you can press the shoot button to fire a Wind Bullet that will grab an enemy towards you and blow them up like a balloon. While in this state, you can throw enemies like projectiles to take out other enemies, or use them to give yourself a double jump, which when combined with Klonoa's natural Yoshi like Flutter Jump, will allow you to reach all sorts of heights.
This mechanic is inherently neat and reminds me of another platformer I played this year Hameln no Violin Hiki in how using enemies in this game reflects using Flute in that one. Door to Phantomile uses this mechanic in spades to create all sorts of interesting plaforming challenges and puzzles for the player to face.
I would say that as I kept going through the game I didn't find it to be overly difficult or overly easy for the most part, and our journey remained simple.
We find that the embodiment of evil, Ghadius, has captured Laphise, the Moon Diva with the help of his underling Joka. They intend to drown the entire world into nightmare, giving me a lot of Kirby vibes at the start.
So we quest along to stop Ghadius and Joka, and attempt to make contact with the other Kingdoms in order to stop their evil.
And while we finally find the Granny we were looking for, the person who would tell us how to stop Ghadius... Joka reveals he was hiding in wait and find out that an Amulet we obtained earlier in the story was at Klonoa's grandfather's house.
Klonoa makes a mad dash through a secret passage to return to his home, and sees his Jiji safe and sound.
Before his home is evaporated by Joka, and his grandfather passes on claiming that it is Klonoa's destiny to stop Ghadius.
It is very rare in media for children to show death, especially in such a upfront way. Often times you get the Disney Death where it's not actually death but a temporary state for the character to be in that builds stakes, or a Disney Villain Death where the character dies off screen or is rather implied to have died.
In Klonoa though, the game has you look death in the face, and it is a turning point for the game's tone and direction both in gameplay and story.
Levels become far more aggressive in nature, and longer. The challenges within being far more complex than what had come before while the plot itself slowly becomes more existential and sad. A reflection of the complicated emotions and turmoil that follow when we lose a loved one, perfectly encapsulated in gameplay.
When I think of how difficult the final four levels are, and how frustrated I was, I imagine Klonoa's feelings. How frustrated he feels with how he couldn't do anything for his Jiji, how sad and angry he is.
And then at the end, after you beat the final boss, it's revealed that... Klonoa never existed in this world to begin with, and was brought here by Huepow to save everyone. Everything Klonoa knows, the death of his grandpa, his friendship, his childhood... it's all ripped away from him.
I genuinely wonder how kids who played this growing up felt when they got to the end of Klonoa and saw the heartwrenching cutscene of him and Huepow trying to stay together while the black hole pulls them away, both crying and screaming like any child would when they're forced to leave a friend behind.
I know I almost cried, and I am a 22 year old man who suffers chronic depression.
I do have some complaints, some minor, some major in regards to the gameplay itself.
In regards to major complaints, the boss fights aren't particularly good. All of them have this waiting game feel to them and drag out for way longer than necessary, the Joka fight in particular being my personal low point with this game, being a fight with a cutscene transformation every 3 hits on the boss that you can't skip, and a gimmick with changing the floor tiles colors that while neat at first, quickly wears out its welcome and becomes very obnoxious.
Klonoa also doesn't really have invincibility frames, like at all. This one is mostly a nitpick but I cannot count the amount of times where I'd get hit by an enemy only to suffer knockback and hit another enemy and take damage while Klonoa is still flashing. It's definitely annoying as fuck, and led to a good amount of deaths, though I'll admit that a good number of them were my fault.
Vision 5-2's gimmick was also something that was annoying and only grew more annoying with time. It basically accentuates that waiting game problem by basically putting progression to a halt every 10-15 seconds because it becomes nighttime and you can't grab enemies and a ghost fish tracks you down wherever you go.
Also aiming through the 3D felt weird at time, again another nitpick. It's mostly the camera in this case because despite being 2.5D, it definitely sometimes feels like even if you're directly in front of an object you're aiming at in the background (or behind an object in the foreground), you'll sometimes miss because the camera angle makes your positioning look wrong.
At the end of it all, the question is, did Klonoa resonate with me?
I'd say so. The ending in particular caught me off guard with the sheer amount of emotions and existentialism that I would not have expected from a kids game.
Klonoa deals with complicated issues that I think most kids should be allowed to see and experience, and it deals with it in a very mature and respectful way that I think a lot of other media doesn't. So I'd say that if you haven't already, try Klonoa.
Of course getting it physically is probably going to be impossible given the price ranges, but emulation is the next best thing. Just don't buy the remake, this game is very pretty for a PSX game and from what I've seen the remake butchers the artstyle and makes it look so bad and bland.
P.S.
The voice actor for Klonoa in this game deserves a raise, being able to express the emotional range of a character who speaks mostly in gibberish as well as them is something I wish I could do.
On a different note, this is going to be my last review for a while. I have played well over 50 games this year, and we are only halfway through 2022. I have been making this Backloggd account my job for the past 6 months and it has honestly burnt me out from games to the point where I feel I have no enjoyment while I'm playing them and only get it after the fact during the review.
That is not how I want to be so I will be taking at least a 2 week break from reviews and new games in order to get an actual job and replay some of my favorites to get a nice refresher without feeling obligated to review. When I come back to reviews I don't know what will be next, whether it's on my Obscure Game's list or not.
Regardless I would like to say thank you to those who read my reviews. You are what makes this site worth coming to and I myself need to spend more time reading other's reviews for a while instead of writing my own.
Take care for now!
Given the remake collection that came out recently which I've seen has a very mixed reception, I decided to look into the original Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.
Two of my closest friends, Simon and Luke, were both big fans of this game and told me about how it has a lot of emotional resonance with them. So, I went in optimistic about how the game would go.
At the start the game is relatively simple and sweet, the plot isn't particularly deep at this point, as all we know is that something has crash-landed from space into a nearby mountain top and Klonoa and his friend Huepow go to investigate.
The game controls like most other platformers, with one sole exception being the central mechanic of the game, the Wind Ring.
With the Wind Ring, you can press the shoot button to fire a Wind Bullet that will grab an enemy towards you and blow them up like a balloon. While in this state, you can throw enemies like projectiles to take out other enemies, or use them to give yourself a double jump, which when combined with Klonoa's natural Yoshi like Flutter Jump, will allow you to reach all sorts of heights.
This mechanic is inherently neat and reminds me of another platformer I played this year Hameln no Violin Hiki in how using enemies in this game reflects using Flute in that one. Door to Phantomile uses this mechanic in spades to create all sorts of interesting plaforming challenges and puzzles for the player to face.
I would say that as I kept going through the game I didn't find it to be overly difficult or overly easy for the most part, and our journey remained simple.
We find that the embodiment of evil, Ghadius, has captured Laphise, the Moon Diva with the help of his underling Joka. They intend to drown the entire world into nightmare, giving me a lot of Kirby vibes at the start.
So we quest along to stop Ghadius and Joka, and attempt to make contact with the other Kingdoms in order to stop their evil.
And while we finally find the Granny we were looking for, the person who would tell us how to stop Ghadius... Joka reveals he was hiding in wait and find out that an Amulet we obtained earlier in the story was at Klonoa's grandfather's house.
Klonoa makes a mad dash through a secret passage to return to his home, and sees his Jiji safe and sound.
Before his home is evaporated by Joka, and his grandfather passes on claiming that it is Klonoa's destiny to stop Ghadius.
It is very rare in media for children to show death, especially in such a upfront way. Often times you get the Disney Death where it's not actually death but a temporary state for the character to be in that builds stakes, or a Disney Villain Death where the character dies off screen or is rather implied to have died.
In Klonoa though, the game has you look death in the face, and it is a turning point for the game's tone and direction both in gameplay and story.
Levels become far more aggressive in nature, and longer. The challenges within being far more complex than what had come before while the plot itself slowly becomes more existential and sad. A reflection of the complicated emotions and turmoil that follow when we lose a loved one, perfectly encapsulated in gameplay.
When I think of how difficult the final four levels are, and how frustrated I was, I imagine Klonoa's feelings. How frustrated he feels with how he couldn't do anything for his Jiji, how sad and angry he is.
And then at the end, after you beat the final boss, it's revealed that... Klonoa never existed in this world to begin with, and was brought here by Huepow to save everyone. Everything Klonoa knows, the death of his grandpa, his friendship, his childhood... it's all ripped away from him.
I genuinely wonder how kids who played this growing up felt when they got to the end of Klonoa and saw the heartwrenching cutscene of him and Huepow trying to stay together while the black hole pulls them away, both crying and screaming like any child would when they're forced to leave a friend behind.
I know I almost cried, and I am a 22 year old man who suffers chronic depression.
I do have some complaints, some minor, some major in regards to the gameplay itself.
In regards to major complaints, the boss fights aren't particularly good. All of them have this waiting game feel to them and drag out for way longer than necessary, the Joka fight in particular being my personal low point with this game, being a fight with a cutscene transformation every 3 hits on the boss that you can't skip, and a gimmick with changing the floor tiles colors that while neat at first, quickly wears out its welcome and becomes very obnoxious.
Klonoa also doesn't really have invincibility frames, like at all. This one is mostly a nitpick but I cannot count the amount of times where I'd get hit by an enemy only to suffer knockback and hit another enemy and take damage while Klonoa is still flashing. It's definitely annoying as fuck, and led to a good amount of deaths, though I'll admit that a good number of them were my fault.
Vision 5-2's gimmick was also something that was annoying and only grew more annoying with time. It basically accentuates that waiting game problem by basically putting progression to a halt every 10-15 seconds because it becomes nighttime and you can't grab enemies and a ghost fish tracks you down wherever you go.
Also aiming through the 3D felt weird at time, again another nitpick. It's mostly the camera in this case because despite being 2.5D, it definitely sometimes feels like even if you're directly in front of an object you're aiming at in the background (or behind an object in the foreground), you'll sometimes miss because the camera angle makes your positioning look wrong.
At the end of it all, the question is, did Klonoa resonate with me?
I'd say so. The ending in particular caught me off guard with the sheer amount of emotions and existentialism that I would not have expected from a kids game.
Klonoa deals with complicated issues that I think most kids should be allowed to see and experience, and it deals with it in a very mature and respectful way that I think a lot of other media doesn't. So I'd say that if you haven't already, try Klonoa.
Of course getting it physically is probably going to be impossible given the price ranges, but emulation is the next best thing. Just don't buy the remake, this game is very pretty for a PSX game and from what I've seen the remake butchers the artstyle and makes it look so bad and bland.
P.S.
The voice actor for Klonoa in this game deserves a raise, being able to express the emotional range of a character who speaks mostly in gibberish as well as them is something I wish I could do.
On a different note, this is going to be my last review for a while. I have played well over 50 games this year, and we are only halfway through 2022. I have been making this Backloggd account my job for the past 6 months and it has honestly burnt me out from games to the point where I feel I have no enjoyment while I'm playing them and only get it after the fact during the review.
That is not how I want to be so I will be taking at least a 2 week break from reviews and new games in order to get an actual job and replay some of my favorites to get a nice refresher without feeling obligated to review. When I come back to reviews I don't know what will be next, whether it's on my Obscure Game's list or not.
Regardless I would like to say thank you to those who read my reviews. You are what makes this site worth coming to and I myself need to spend more time reading other's reviews for a while instead of writing my own.
Take care for now!
I should preface this by saying I haven't actually played the PS1 version and this review is moreso based around my experiences with the game in the case of Klonoa Wii and the Phantasy Reverie ports.
Regardless, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is an underrated masterpiece. The game is rather short, clocking in at about 4-5 hours for it's main campaign, but at the same time those 4-5 definitely leave an impression.
The gameplay is sort of similar to Yoshi's Island to an extent where levels are built around things like exploration and utilizing enemies to attack and/or clearing the path while being more slow-paced and relaxed. Levels definitely feel very fleshed out and well-made that does give good incentives to learn and utilize the mechanics especially when going for completion. Level themes themselves all feel really unique, colorful and vibrant, and the game uses a 2.5D perspective to it's benefit with levels going in and out of each other, in a sense.
The throwing/grabbing mechanic in particular feels really good to use, especially as you 'master' it with the game rewarding you with collectibles in the form of the captured(?) inhabitants and gems - both contributing towards completion.
The story is also really good - you may go into this thinking it's a rather simple plotline, but the story really unfolds the more you play, allowing you to understand the characters, and the ending... I won't spoil it, but man it's an emotional curveball.
The graphics on the original PS1 game haven't aged the best, especially with the use of pre-rendered sprites (and I definitely feel like the cutscenes in the remastered versions help portray the story better), but at the same time, I really love the art style they were going for - sort of giving me a "pop-up" book vibe not only with the world map but also the levels themselves with the amount of color and cuteness.
My only complaints are that some of the later levels do rely a bit too much on things like small platforms which can be a bit tedious, and the bosses are pretty 'eh'. That's about it though - this game is great and I would definitely recommend it, albeit I would suggest the recently released Phantasy Reverie Series or if you want to go with the original version, buy it off the PSN store or emulate it since original PS1 copies seem to cost an arm and a leg.
Regardless, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is an underrated masterpiece. The game is rather short, clocking in at about 4-5 hours for it's main campaign, but at the same time those 4-5 definitely leave an impression.
The gameplay is sort of similar to Yoshi's Island to an extent where levels are built around things like exploration and utilizing enemies to attack and/or clearing the path while being more slow-paced and relaxed. Levels definitely feel very fleshed out and well-made that does give good incentives to learn and utilize the mechanics especially when going for completion. Level themes themselves all feel really unique, colorful and vibrant, and the game uses a 2.5D perspective to it's benefit with levels going in and out of each other, in a sense.
The throwing/grabbing mechanic in particular feels really good to use, especially as you 'master' it with the game rewarding you with collectibles in the form of the captured(?) inhabitants and gems - both contributing towards completion.
The story is also really good - you may go into this thinking it's a rather simple plotline, but the story really unfolds the more you play, allowing you to understand the characters, and the ending... I won't spoil it, but man it's an emotional curveball.
The graphics on the original PS1 game haven't aged the best, especially with the use of pre-rendered sprites (and I definitely feel like the cutscenes in the remastered versions help portray the story better), but at the same time, I really love the art style they were going for - sort of giving me a "pop-up" book vibe not only with the world map but also the levels themselves with the amount of color and cuteness.
My only complaints are that some of the later levels do rely a bit too much on things like small platforms which can be a bit tedious, and the bosses are pretty 'eh'. That's about it though - this game is great and I would definitely recommend it, albeit I would suggest the recently released Phantasy Reverie Series or if you want to go with the original version, buy it off the PSN store or emulate it since original PS1 copies seem to cost an arm and a leg.
makes me sad that people will now grow up with the phantasy reverie version of this game which is basically the absolute worst version to play this (seriously, even the "wii"make made this game look better than this soulless remake)
beautiful, dreamy worlds, gameplay that doesnt get boring even though you only have like one mechanic to use and a touchingly beautiful story.
still the best way to play the first game.
beautiful, dreamy worlds, gameplay that doesnt get boring even though you only have like one mechanic to use and a touchingly beautiful story.
still the best way to play the first game.