It's been quite some time since playing a puzzle game has made me feel bitter. I want to love Klonoa 2 so much for what it is and how much complexity it crams into a single GBA cart, but it can be such a chore to play through entirely.
Feeling like a true evolution of Empire of Dreams' concepts - taking the console Klonoa experience and putting it to shorter handheld levels with a heightened puzzle focus - is awesome and I love all the new puzzle piece additions added here, whether new or pulled from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. It doesn't look bad, plus the story's charming as well. Everything else is a heavy burden though.
I didn't find myself as down on the underwater levels as others seemed to, but the alternative level types - the boarding and auto-scroller levels - are miserable. The game also decides to ramp up its puzzle difficulty much higher than the previous title ever does. The game designer in me lauds how amazing intricate some of the puzzle designs are here, but actually playing them leads to constant frustration and solutions that sometimes feel non-intended. (or maybe I'm just getting old)
For all the enjoyment I had throughout the first two and a half worlds, I let out the loudest possible groan when exploring the final puzzle platformer level in this game - which maybe tells all you need about the experience of what's only a 2-3 hour playthrough.
Feeling like a true evolution of Empire of Dreams' concepts - taking the console Klonoa experience and putting it to shorter handheld levels with a heightened puzzle focus - is awesome and I love all the new puzzle piece additions added here, whether new or pulled from Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. It doesn't look bad, plus the story's charming as well. Everything else is a heavy burden though.
I didn't find myself as down on the underwater levels as others seemed to, but the alternative level types - the boarding and auto-scroller levels - are miserable. The game also decides to ramp up its puzzle difficulty much higher than the previous title ever does. The game designer in me lauds how amazing intricate some of the puzzle designs are here, but actually playing them leads to constant frustration and solutions that sometimes feel non-intended. (or maybe I'm just getting old)
For all the enjoyment I had throughout the first two and a half worlds, I let out the loudest possible groan when exploring the final puzzle platformer level in this game - which maybe tells all you need about the experience of what's only a 2-3 hour playthrough.