Klonoa 2 teaches you a life long and important lesson. You should steal rental products. You'll never know when it'll be necessary to snowboard down multiple expansive cliffs, so just take that rental snowboard.
Klonoa 1 is a pretty good game, but you can feel the age of First Try At A New Franchise On the PS1 out of it. The core kinda kirby like system where enemies are used as both your way of attacking and as a platforming too is a fun system, but it's usage is pretty basic.
The levels are... surprisingly multilayered for a game that's technically a 2d platformer. Again it's not out of this world but pretty ambitious. The remake controls okay. I really hate how miserablly short the grab range is, Klonoa himself feels pretty slippery and I really dont like floating being hold the button at any point rather that like pressing jump again in the air and then hold from there, like how most games would do this, (this is for both games, i felt it less in the 2nd but thats probably because i just got used to it) but it's mostly fine control wise. The game is almost really short, even on a casual playthrough.
Of course what separated Klonoa 1 as a fondly remembered cult classic from the other PS1 platformers of the era that are remembered as Pretty Good but no ones sweating over a sequel was the story. The game's final act tonal shift into the tearjerker ending is probably the most memorable part of the game, was likely a big reason Klonoa 2 was a lot more story heavy andddd probably why that game got a sequel becoming a series that people will post on twitter about how much they miss it.
Klonoa 2 is a lot better. The levels feel more linear but they're still not straight forward left to right walks, and especially later in the game the level have a lot of backtracking, which is fun. The core gameplay hasn't changed, but instead they've added a lot more enemies that do unique things when you pick them up, and platforming/level design with a lot more moving parts and varied designs. It's smartly not just using enemies as obstacles that you occasionally use to get a double jump, but as puzzle pieces. And a lot of sections really just puzzles, but they're fun so I'm down. Like mentoined before you get a lot more varied level designs; bringing back old stages but revamping them, levels where you're getting chased by an enemy for most of them, a LOT of snowboarding levels, level where after doing a thing you have to escape, level with a oxygen guage, ect ect. I don't really remember much of Klonoa 1's levels even though i played it only a few days ago, but 2's got a lot of memorable levels.
Also yeah it's a lot more story heavy. I don't think it hits like Klonoa 1 but it's fine. I was definetly zoning out for chunks of it but I really shouldn't be putting too much weight into ps1 platformer stories just cuz 1 had a nice tearjerker moment.
Klonoa 1 is rough with charm while 2 is jsut an improvement overall. I'd give K1 like a 3/5 and then K2 somewhere between a 3.5/4. Checkem out.
Oh yeah i should talk about the remake part of it. it's fine. Game runs good. I like that K1 still has that crunchy dialogue audio that I love. I'm not super into the graphics of the game, it feels flat and reminds me of like a wii game (which, ironically, K1 has a wii remake), and I'm fan of K1's sprites on a 3d world and K2's overall color platette more. But hey, this one's new and shiny and on a shit ton of consoles.
Klonoa 1 is a pretty good game, but you can feel the age of First Try At A New Franchise On the PS1 out of it. The core kinda kirby like system where enemies are used as both your way of attacking and as a platforming too is a fun system, but it's usage is pretty basic.
The levels are... surprisingly multilayered for a game that's technically a 2d platformer. Again it's not out of this world but pretty ambitious. The remake controls okay. I really hate how miserablly short the grab range is, Klonoa himself feels pretty slippery and I really dont like floating being hold the button at any point rather that like pressing jump again in the air and then hold from there, like how most games would do this, (this is for both games, i felt it less in the 2nd but thats probably because i just got used to it) but it's mostly fine control wise. The game is almost really short, even on a casual playthrough.
Of course what separated Klonoa 1 as a fondly remembered cult classic from the other PS1 platformers of the era that are remembered as Pretty Good but no ones sweating over a sequel was the story. The game's final act tonal shift into the tearjerker ending is probably the most memorable part of the game, was likely a big reason Klonoa 2 was a lot more story heavy andddd probably why that game got a sequel becoming a series that people will post on twitter about how much they miss it.
Klonoa 2 is a lot better. The levels feel more linear but they're still not straight forward left to right walks, and especially later in the game the level have a lot of backtracking, which is fun. The core gameplay hasn't changed, but instead they've added a lot more enemies that do unique things when you pick them up, and platforming/level design with a lot more moving parts and varied designs. It's smartly not just using enemies as obstacles that you occasionally use to get a double jump, but as puzzle pieces. And a lot of sections really just puzzles, but they're fun so I'm down. Like mentoined before you get a lot more varied level designs; bringing back old stages but revamping them, levels where you're getting chased by an enemy for most of them, a LOT of snowboarding levels, level where after doing a thing you have to escape, level with a oxygen guage, ect ect. I don't really remember much of Klonoa 1's levels even though i played it only a few days ago, but 2's got a lot of memorable levels.
Also yeah it's a lot more story heavy. I don't think it hits like Klonoa 1 but it's fine. I was definetly zoning out for chunks of it but I really shouldn't be putting too much weight into ps1 platformer stories just cuz 1 had a nice tearjerker moment.
Klonoa 1 is rough with charm while 2 is jsut an improvement overall. I'd give K1 like a 3/5 and then K2 somewhere between a 3.5/4. Checkem out.
Oh yeah i should talk about the remake part of it. it's fine. Game runs good. I like that K1 still has that crunchy dialogue audio that I love. I'm not super into the graphics of the game, it feels flat and reminds me of like a wii game (which, ironically, K1 has a wii remake), and I'm fan of K1's sprites on a 3d world and K2's overall color platette more. But hey, this one's new and shiny and on a shit ton of consoles.