Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil is a delightful 2.5D platformer that blends vibrant visuals with creative puzzle-platforming. You'll journey through dreamlike worlds as Klonoa, using his ability to grab and inflate enemies to solve puzzles, traverse obstacles, and reach hidden areas. While the game's core mechanics are simple to grasp, its level design offers surprising depth and challenge. Combined with its charming story and whimsical atmosphere, Klonoa 2 is a joy for fans of creative platformers.

Klonoa 2 took me by actual surprise.
Playing it by the Phantasy Reverie Collection, I tried it immediately after finishing Klonoa 1, which I thought was a cool neat title, with some major flaws.

I was expecting to see just some minor improvements from its sequel... and oh my god if I was wrong.
Klonoa 2 takes the formula of the first title and expands upon it creating one of the best 2D platformers I tried in recent years. An almost immaculate title that expands on the predecessor in every single way.

The gameplay is cozy, but not absent from surprisingly platforming challenges, that doesn't seem unfair or stright, able to make the floatier jumps endearing even to platformer veterans.
This includes skateboardng sections that while common in platoformers like this, are still really fun to navigate and repeat.

There is a lot more enemy variety, that leads to Klonoa having an incredibily varied and interesting pool of abilities, and environmental puzzles that are always fun to try to solve. Even the bosses are incredibly memorable for how they use the environment and overall abilities of our protagonist to create some really memorable encounters.

The first game was able to convey the feeling of a dream-like world solidly enough.... but oh my god the sequel did it so much better: there is not a single environment or level in this game that feels not creative: you start off with a stormy coast, to then go for a more classic forest course... only to jump into a circus, haunted house, the middle of CIVIL WAR, underground factories, floating island that reminds me so much of Laputa, giant undersea deserts, and probably one of my favorite levels I have ever seen in a platformer: the Maze of Memories. Some of the most creative realized environments I have seen in a dream-like world, sold by the stellar presentation and the amazing music.

The story of the game is also incredibly charming: yeah I liked the overall plot of Klonoa 1, but man the stakes and characters introduced in the sequel lead to much more memorable interactions, showcasing a more confident but still adorable protagonist and more deeper characterization in characters like Lolo and Leorina (also the side characters are really fun, like Tat or Popka)

I can't stress out how much this gem took me by surprise: it's not the longest experience in the world, but every single minute of it is absolutely worth it.
A must play if you are a fan of platformers.

While I was at it with playing PS2 action games that are sequels to games I’d beaten earlier, I thought why not play Klonoa 2 as well. I enjoyed the first Klonoa a fair bit, but it certainly had a fair bit of room for improvement. I’d heard nothing but great things about its sequel here, so I figured it was high time I finally get to checking out what Klonoa’s second big adventure was all about. It took me around 7 hours to beat the game getting all of the doll pieces in each stage, and I played the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.

Klonoa 2’s narrative follows our titular character as he’s pulled into a mysterious dream world to save it from the encroaching forces of darkness. He must help his new friends ring the five bells scattered around the land while constantly keeping the nefarious sky pirates at bay as well. It’s something that very much feels like something out of a Japanese children’s film or OVA series of the era, and it’s got a lot of the same writing beats and such that you’d expect to see as a result, and it does a pretty good job at executing upon them. Learning a valuable lesson from the first Klonoa, it cuts down on the cast a LOT and that does absolute wonders for the narrative as a result.

Nonetheless, I still think the game has a bit too much text in places, and it makes for some very stop-and-start pacing between the action & story telling that I grew to find grating far before the game’s end point. Though, at least in my case, that may be because the overall themes it’s going for are things I’ve seen quite a few times in other games and done better in them. The story certainly isn’t bad by any means, goodness no, but given how heavily I’d had this game’s story hyped up to me as a super well done emotional narrative, I found it decidedly lesser in that regard for my tastes at least.

Mechanically, I can’t really sum it up better than saying that this game is absolutely a successor to the first Klonoa. You still have a 2.5D action platformer centered around grabbing enemies and objects and using them to launch yourself up and around stages. There are 6 special goodies to collect in every stage, and collecting all of them will unlock a couple of far harder challenge stages to play (which unlock you the sound test, just like in Klonoa 1), but that isn’t to say the main game isn’t difficult on its own. While some stages (particularly the burning city) are far harder than the rest of the game, the usual source of the game’s difficulty usually comes from how you only have a health bar of 3 hits before you die. The platforming itself isn’t usually that hard (indistinct contrast to Klonoa 1), but that 3 hits between you and death is more often than not what will lead to your death, particularly in boss fights. It’s a very well constructed little platformer with some fun gimmick levels to spice things up, and while it’s overall not quite as hard as Klonoa 1, it’ll still provide more than adequate challenge for any seasoned veteran of the genre looking for something a bit meatier to sink their teeth into.

The aesthetics are also very much more Klonoa, but as this is a game with the power of the PS2 (albeit one released barely after the console’s first birthday), we’ve dropped more or less any 2D stuff for all 3D models. Klonoa and friends, all the characters really, have wonderfully adorable designs that my friends watching me play described as having Dreamcast aesthetics (which I’m inclined to agree with). The dream world itself’s designs are also very pretty, and it all makes for a great adventure. Also adding to that is the soundtrack, which is also excellent.

Verdict: Recommended. While Klonoa 2 didn’t live up to the super hype it’d been sold to me as, it’s still a quite good game nonetheless. If you’re into 2D action platformers and don’t mind a relatively difficult time, then this is absolutely one you shouldn’t sleep on. However, if you’re someone who is less comfortable with 2D platformers but still love the aesthetics of the game, it might be worth looking at some bits of a playthrough online before you run out and buy the remasters recently released for modern systems.

Issue 13 of the Official UK PS2 Magazine, published November 2001, came with a demo disk containing a handful of levels from the then soon-to-be-released Klonoa 2. Playing this demo tens of times as a wean would be my only exposure to Klonoa 2 for nearly 23 years. Despite Klonoa 1 being a childhood favourite, and a formative cornerstone that had no doubt informed my tastes and passion for videogames; I only managed to get around to Klonoa 2 proper earlier today. I’d have gotten around to it sooner, were it not for the fact that Klonoa 2 was one of a few outlier cases of games that emulated horribly on PCSX2. Fugged to the nines until relatively recent revamps in compatibility were instated. Aptly enough, it was so surreal playing the levels from the demo once again - it all came flooding back like fleeting memories returning to me from a dream fighting to be recalled.

Soberingly, I don’t think I’m anywhere near as red hot on this game as I still am with Klonoa 1. Perhaps K2 had spent too long being gassed up, cooking and stirring in my head as an elusive cryptid. On many fundamental levels I think this is absolutely beautiful work. Demonstrating incredible emotional maturity in its final hours of the narrative representative of a slightly aged Klonoa, through heartfelt writing and vocal performances. A soundtrack brimming with disparate ideas and delivering them w/ confidence, grappling a wide array of influences and energies. For such an early PS2 game, these cutscenes are composited so brilliantly, giving characters illustrative frames to act in, staging the environments in striking ways… we still get things like this wrong!! I particularly love how the camera would move during boss fights, not only tracking the boss’ movements but also working to sell their scale and let them act on the stage! Incredible level design too, making great use of unique stage quirks to impose puzzle-like ordeals - the colour changing enemy was an enlightened addition. Klonoa 2 is the proud owner of an amazing final level, too - a true sum of all of it’s works with stellar level design, and thoughtful use of music and visuals.

I’m less keen on how weak a handful of the stages in the game are, both visually and in terms of level design. I’m even less keen on the repetition the game will impose on you, it’s not enough that they’ll re-use levels at certain points; you’d also need to run a few laps around some levels as you collect keys/activate elevators and such. It’s a bit more draining than it’s necessarily worth, in my humble, made worse due to the fact that levels in this game are wildly long and can be a bit plain. If I had to be brutally honest, I think Klonoa 1 does a better job at conceptualising its levels around its many disparate worlds, wrapping around and winding between the background geometry in a way that makes it all the more satisfying to explore. It would be nice if Klonoa himself had more of an active role in the story than an optimistic errand boy. It stands in stark contrast to the first Klonoa game where he’s incredibly emotionally invested in the proceedings, but I’m sure the plan here was to demonstrate that he’s an older and wiser character this time around, more clear on his Unico-like role in life and letting the world speak for itself. There’s tremendous merit to that and I can’t help but feel more of a relation to a Klonoa who isn’t thrashing out at the world when playtime is over, but I’m a theatre kid at heart I suppose oh god.

Admittedly I played Klonoa 2 in a bit of a goofy way, where I'd finish a level, and then skim a longplay of the same level from the 2022 remaster for comparison. I can only be honest here, but I think both of them have merit! The remaster fucks up the vibes in key locations with awful colour choices, blown out bloom and weird fullbright lighting. The level in sheer darkness, necessitating you to use a limited light resource to be able to see the geometry is ruined in the remaster because it’s already so well lit you don’t even need the light spirits! But I think the additions to the geometry and character models made in the remaster are really well considered, fleshing out the world enough for them to feel closer to realisation without diminishing their overt dream-like quality. My annoying brainwyrms are expertly trained to hate the aesthetic haemorrhaging that occurs from changes and concessions these remasters tend to make, but my ideal Klonoa 2 sits somewhere between the two versions..... (I want to know what the remaster changed the weird Full Metal Jacket cypher into)

I straight up cannot think of anything I notably dislike about Klonoa 2. Like... it's kind of short, I guess... but that's kind of it. The level design is incredibly inventive and dynamic, the story is great with a very endearing cast of characters, the music is absolutely lovely and highly memorable, the locales are detailed and varied, it takes everything great from the first game and expands upon it greatly... this game is just an absolute banger from front to back. Genuinely a personal top 10 2D platformer contender.

...Like, I guess that one Momett Doll in the tank chase level that's right next to a trampoline which makes it really tricky to grab with just the Wind Bullet alone is pretty annoying, but this just docks one point off an otherwise 14/10 game so it basically evens out.

This whole game is just Klonoa bringing sorrow to Lunatea because of the emotional trauma after Phantomille, that's why the last levels have the OST from the first game mixed all in a distorted sense, the villain is a mix of Klonoa's body and Huepows green blue and gold colors, Klonoa is the only one that hears those cries for help...and the OST from that level is called Hyuponia!!!!!

Klonoa is a duology about loss, sadness and dreams, Klonoa is us, and just like him we learn to live in a world with sorrow, we're sad about the ending of Klonoa 1, but all the players remember the ending from that game, it's that sadness that makes us remember that moment, that world, that dream.

Every person has different ways of coping with these emotions, just like every kingdom in Lunatea with stuff like games, war, just thinking about the past and not moving forward, we try to ignore these bad feelings, but we have to embrace sorrow, after embracing it we're able to save this world, this dream, and wake up from this long dream, our dream.

After finishing this game, us and Klonoa, are able to wake up, good morning player!

2d Platformers have evolved. When i say that, i mean that the game shows its age. Its hard to really say this game does anything great. Thats not to say i hate the game, i like it, but it was kind of a struggle to get through 6 hours of it. Game doesnt really so much in gameplay. Its pretty basic, theres walk, jump and the ring move where you pick up enemies and use them to jump with. Gameplay variety changes based less on how klonoa moves and more with the enemies you see. Klonoa's moveset is pretty pathetic, I get he isnt fucking hollow knight but give me anything to press to traverse levels than walk and jump. Something I thought about was how the best 3d platformers typically give you a long jump to traverse levels faster. But lets slow down a bit, Klonoa isnt a faced paced action platformer, its more on the puzzle side of that coin. Fine, but it struggles to stand its own ground during portions that arent focused on building up the crystal or bombing the wall, which consists of 90% of the "puzzles" in this game. Puzzles also get tedious considering they all focus around the crystal mechanic that i am not too fond of. All of it rounds out to be a pretty mediocre experience that doesnt stand on its own in todays age. In all honesty, I dont think its even that good in terms of "ps1 and before" era type games, after all, i did enjoy the first one more. I think the game is only rated high because the only people who know klonoa grew up with it so theyre the only ones care. Outsiders probably won't find this game to be that great. Look, its fine if you love the game from your childhood or even as an adult, no matter what I say, if you truly love the game then what i say doesnt matter at all. Im just simply stating why I dont find it as enjoyable as other 2d platformers i have played.

Almost a perfect sequel that improves on many things from the original, which was already a fantastic platformer game that still holds up to this day. One thing that the original does better is the story overall, but that by no means Klonoa 2's story is not good or anything, thematically it was still quite excellent, but I thought the og had more impact. Luckily, in everything else, I found this to be an improvement over the original.

Missions were solid all around, I didn't had any problem with them. Snowboard missions were a nice touch that spiced up the gameplay with a much needed variety and I thought it was really fun. Kingdom of Sorrow mission was a highlight for me, because of the atmosphere and that goddamn soundtrack... it was just perfect.

This is undoubtedly my favourite platformer game.