As someone who completed both Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (2022) and Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997) back to back, I can confirm the superiority of the original to this new half assed “Phantasy Reverie Series” version.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997) is a very charming game. Much of that charm lies in its art direction. The 2.5D makes everything look different, unique and unlike anything else. All of that is lost in this version and in Klonoa (2009) from which this Phantasy Reverie version is supposedly based on. It instead looks plain, generic and like any other platformer, but with the addition of over-saturated & -exaggerated lighting and colours.
How is it possible that no-one on the entire development team ever thought of maybe removing the gigantic ”SKIP” & ”5x SPEED” buttons which smudges itself on every cutscene. It’s so distracting and it’s almost as if they want you to skip the cutscenes because of how lacklustre they are. Sometimes the dialogue can feel sluggish, other times dialogue is too fast to be able to read. In the original PS1 version you manually went through the dialogue — that way you could read it at your own pace, without being bored out or stressed about following with.
The game has some incredible music, but that’s something I didn’t realise until playing the original. There must be some odd mixing going on it the new game which prevents it from popping like it does in Door to Phantomile (1997)
It does the job and it’s undeniably fun despite its flaws. 50$ for two games you could emulate for free and at the same time be made looking and running better is what ultimately makes this bundle not worth being bought, unless you’re a console-only gamer.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997) is a very charming game. Much of that charm lies in its art direction. The 2.5D makes everything look different, unique and unlike anything else. All of that is lost in this version and in Klonoa (2009) from which this Phantasy Reverie version is supposedly based on. It instead looks plain, generic and like any other platformer, but with the addition of over-saturated & -exaggerated lighting and colours.
How is it possible that no-one on the entire development team ever thought of maybe removing the gigantic ”SKIP” & ”5x SPEED” buttons which smudges itself on every cutscene. It’s so distracting and it’s almost as if they want you to skip the cutscenes because of how lacklustre they are. Sometimes the dialogue can feel sluggish, other times dialogue is too fast to be able to read. In the original PS1 version you manually went through the dialogue — that way you could read it at your own pace, without being bored out or stressed about following with.
The game has some incredible music, but that’s something I didn’t realise until playing the original. There must be some odd mixing going on it the new game which prevents it from popping like it does in Door to Phantomile (1997)
It does the job and it’s undeniably fun despite its flaws. 50$ for two games you could emulate for free and at the same time be made looking and running better is what ultimately makes this bundle not worth being bought, unless you’re a console-only gamer.
2 Comments
50$? Is your prices fluctuating in such a matter? I've paid like 20$ for it, jeez the economy is a shithole.
Bojangles4th
1 year ago