Let it be known that this double-pack served as my introduction to the series and that I have not played the originals. This review is purely about the games themselves rather than the quality of the remaster.

That said, these games were such a welcome surprise! Klonoa himself moves fairly slow and doesn't have too many fancy moves to his name, which I initially thought would hinder my enjoyment, but I found that it worked very well for what the game was aiming for. Levels encourage exploration and light puzzle-solving (especially in Klonoa 2) on top of its platforming challenges, and they all work together nicely.

The atmosphere of these titles is breathtaking. I'm a sucker for dreamlike worlds, and Klonoa absolutely delivered. Colorful visuals are accompanied by the games' incredibly dreamy and smooth soundtracks, combining to form an experience that feels incredibly nostalgic even on first impression. Klonoa 2 especially grabbed me with its soundtrack, sprinkling in bits of drum and bass and jazz amongst its usual dreamy feel.

The Klonoa games also feature light storytelling as part of their presentation (more than the average platformer) and the stories told add to their personality! I didn't expect the emotional moments these games threw my way at all.

Ultimately, I can't help but recommend these games! The movement takes a bit to click, but once it does, things fall in place nicely, and you're left to enjoy the ride.

Since I played both I wrote individual reviews for each game, as a whole though this remake is a solid 9.

Klonoa 2 Lunatea's Veil -- 7/10 [NOTES] Played this for the first time using the remaster, since I never played the PS2 release I can't compare but I can compare it to Klonoa 1 which I've played a lot of. Klonoa 2 has a shorter jump, it takes way longer to move, shoot and do anything than it did in Klona 1. The game is slower paced and it feels like it's the "stereo typically" ps2 2.5D platformer. None of this is inherently bad, but coming from the fast paced platforming of Klonoa 1 to 2 feels a lot worse. The environments for levels is incredibly varied but the problem seeps it when the game starts having you revisit levels with different conditions. Klonoa 1 did this as well but not nearly as many times as Klonoa 2 does it. Not that these revisits are worse or better than the original, but it does get stale when I played for around 5 hours, did everything and didn't see as much as I wanted to. Klonoa 1 does the better job than 2. I'm currently replaying Klonoa 1 and will mention anything if my revisit finds me more fond of 2 than 1.

Klonoa Door to Phantomile [Replay of Remaster] -- 9/10 [NOTES] Pretty damn fuckin good, ps1 release is always and will always be a 10. The updated visuals are fantastic, much more noticeable coming from 2 to 1 as 1 was pixelated ps1 sprites. The gameplay itself is still the fun game it was on the ps1, albeit I found this version to be more floaty than the original, with a few issues with inputs though I'm willing to blame my controller. Highly recommend, though maybe play the ps1 version :3
-2023

Played only the demo. While not an atrocity like the Wii's remake, they somehow have not learned anything from that and butchered any charm and personality Door to Phantomile possessed. That opening cutscene was painful to sit through, and I don't feel like seeing what they did to the other great moments of the game. I'm glad I didn't buy this on a whim.

Lunatea's Veil feels pretty much the same but in HD at least.

I haven't played the originals so this review is only about these versions.
The first Klonoa is a cute platform that does everything right besides the actual platforming. I don't know if it's similar to the original or the Wii remake, but the Reverie version controls badly. Klonoa has no acceleration or momentum when he jumps. I'm not a platforming god but I consider myself really good at these games and Klonoa made me nervous over the easiest sections. Even jumping over a small gap is akward since air control is almost non existent. It's a very easy game that becomes challenging for the wrong reasons. I also think that the main gimmick of grabbing enemies is not explored fully.
Everything else great. I would prefer an HD remake of the original psone release since pre-rendered sprites have their own charm, but it still looks great and colourful. The music is fantastic and the story is cute.

The sequel though is vastly superior and fixes everything about the first game.
Although the jumping still has no acceleration you feel more in control of Klonoa. I think the first game must have some kind of lag. The platforming is still not the best but at least feels normal.
The level design is much better with huge levels and nice puzzles and the racing levels are really fun. The grabbing mechanic is explored much more with many fun sections and challenges.
The art direction and ost lose a bit of the dreamy atmosphere of the original, but still look great (although I prefer the first game's Klonoa's design).
Speaking of Klonoa he's definitely one of the best designed mascots.

Overall it's a very nice compilation despite the controls' issues of the first game.

2.5D Klonoa just never clicked for me and while this remaster finally got me through both games; I didn't have a ton of fun and it wasn't much more than a facelift.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I've tried to play Door to Phantomile over the last 25+ years. From original hardware, to emulation, to emulation handhelds, to emulation on Steam Deck... It was always a few levels and shelved. There was something there that kept me coming back for another attempt. I eventually found Klona happiness in Moonlight Museum for the WonderSwan and the two GBA games.

With this love of 2D Klonoa games; I was determined to find the fun in the more popular games. I force fed myself the Reverie Series. Door to Phantomile showed that the Reverie was just a facelift as quality-of-life in something as simple as the gem count was lacking. I ended up not going for the 100% I found so much fun in from the 2D entries. I beat it. I felt indifferent.

And after a month+ long break I just mainlined Lunatea's Veil. FFWD'ing cutscenes (the single QoL addition), going for no collectables. I had a lot more fun with this entry. The maps were more polished in the presentation, making the 2.5D make a little more sense. The puzzles had a hint of a challenge towards the end. But I was playing and beating it out of spite more than anything. And I didn't care for the repeated level angle to it.

I'm just a 2D Klonoa person in the end. It's me, not you 2.5D Klonoa. I'm sorry.

Ok vamos lá.
Finalizei por enquanto apenas o primeiro jogo, então essa review é baseada apenas nele.

É um jogo plataforma bem divertidinho até, gosto como ele brinca com a perspectiva as vezes, embora achei que foi mal explorado e tinha bem mais potencial.

Tem a mecânica de dar um double jump usando um inimigo que você está segurando que é muito legal, e é essencial que você domine isso.

As batalhas de bosses são bem criativas e até que difíceis, e são intuitivas.

A historinha desse jogo é até que bem legal e bem trabalhada, digna até de alguns Plot-twist.

Porém tem uma coisa que me incomoda, é que a gameplay do jogo é muito “clunky”, ou seja meio que travada.
Diversas vezes morri por causa de um pulo que saiu errado ou um inimigo que não consegui agarrar a tempo no ar para dar o pulo duplo.
Fora o fato que, na versão de Switch pelo menos, eu notei alguns problemas terríveis de performance. Não me atrapalhou muito, mas vale ressaltar isso.
Já o jogo em si, ele não tem nada de mais, não tem power-ups, fases com jogabilidade diferente e afins.

E sobre os gráficos eu achei simples de mais considerando que é um remake de um remake.

Eu ainda posso recomendar o jogo para os fãs de plataforma que, apesar dos apesares, ainda é um jogo sólido.

"Why do you wish to save the world?"

Pleasure cannot exist without pain - the seemingly impossible task of viewing sorrow as a reprieve from joy, instead of the other way around, in order to save yourself from what would surely be a flat, insensate existence; and to deny such a core part of the human experience would subject yourself to a form of disdain we (evidently) haven't even fully diagnosed yet. We have to move on, we have to... even if it's objectively going to suck. You know that feeling you get when you just know you're playing a new favorite? God it's been so long. Was not expecting such mature stories about how hard it can be learning to co-exist with your own emotions, feeling lost in the world until you're reminded of the things that intrinsically connect us all. Despite sharing obvious similarities, this is everything that Pac-Man World: Re-Pac wanted to be. Reminds me of the brand of old-school magic I found in - of all places - Balan Wonderworld's good moments, though there are elements from many of the best 3D platformers in here. What with such colorful storybook art design (the enemies look like Squishmallows and are called "Moos"), effervescent characters, lovable music, and occasionally brain-melting puzzles. My one major complain about the otherwise fun set of moves here is how stupidly specific the wind bullets have to be in order to function, but otherwise I loved pretty much every minute of these. I definitely like the second game more than the first, but they're both wondrous adventures with some of the greatest levels (and feats of platforming therein) in the history of the genre.