Klonoa is one of those games that just has a really strong concept that most of its gameplay focuses around. You can pick up monsters and hold them over your head, which lets you double jump off them, throw them, and do a couple other things. This is really the only mechanic besides a single jump and a particularly wimpy float, but the game makes it work very well. It's a 2.5D platformer and showcases a much better idea of what to do with the genre than most others (Sorry, Kirby 64): levels twist and turn around each other, even dropping you off on different paths at certain points, attacks come and can be sent forward and back, which means there's a lot more potential than "normal" sidescrolling, and I think Klonoa lives up to it fairly well.
What I could do without is the lives system- granted I'm generally not a fan of the concept and its ubiquity in older games, but I think Klonoa could really have used to ditch it. It's going for a Kirby-esque more relaxed feel I think, and that doesn't really work when in the back of my mind there's always the nagging reminder that 1) If get a game over I'll have to do this really long level again 2) If I die too much the odds of that happening in the next level are higher. It's anxiety-inducing and doesn't really belong IMO, especially when the game itself is not that hard, but does feature some kinda mean jumps, and some slightly finicky mechanics regarding the hover.
On a more positive note, I think the bosses are great. Similarly to the levels, some of them drag on a bit, but there's a lot of creativity at play here. To close things off, I'd like to praise the atmosphere- I'm not sure if I really get the "dream" feel from the relatively restrained concepts (I could see most of them belonging in most other platformers- while I sure couldn't imagine NiGHTS' Soft Museum being in any other type of setting), but between the music and the visuals (man I wish there were more games with this style), they're quite great still. Finally, a shoutout to the hilariously ballsy direction the story chooses to go, I respect the shit out of that.
What I could do without is the lives system- granted I'm generally not a fan of the concept and its ubiquity in older games, but I think Klonoa could really have used to ditch it. It's going for a Kirby-esque more relaxed feel I think, and that doesn't really work when in the back of my mind there's always the nagging reminder that 1) If get a game over I'll have to do this really long level again 2) If I die too much the odds of that happening in the next level are higher. It's anxiety-inducing and doesn't really belong IMO, especially when the game itself is not that hard, but does feature some kinda mean jumps, and some slightly finicky mechanics regarding the hover.
On a more positive note, I think the bosses are great. Similarly to the levels, some of them drag on a bit, but there's a lot of creativity at play here. To close things off, I'd like to praise the atmosphere- I'm not sure if I really get the "dream" feel from the relatively restrained concepts (I could see most of them belonging in most other platformers- while I sure couldn't imagine NiGHTS' Soft Museum being in any other type of setting), but between the music and the visuals (man I wish there were more games with this style), they're quite great still. Finally, a shoutout to the hilariously ballsy direction the story chooses to go, I respect the shit out of that.