Despite its long absence from the gaming scene, Klonoa has remained a cherished memory in gamers’ hearts – just check the used prices on copies of the two original games for proof. Fortunately, the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie series has brought fuzzball back to modern consoles, upgrading classic 2.5D platforms to HD and allowing a new generation of gamers to discover what makes these games so special.
But while Klonoa’s comeback is cause for celebration, Namco missed some opportunities to make this collection a true celebration of the series.
10 Reshading torrent
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series collects and reworks the series’ master console inputs, Klonoa: Door To Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil. Both games in their original form feature a charming cartoonish graphic style; The first game used 2D reliefs on 3D backgrounds, while the sequel worked around the PS2’s early graphic limitations using a cool shaded aesthetic.
In the Remaster, though, Lunatea’s Veil is rendered naturally, without the original cel shading. It’s not a bad look, and it keeps both games visually compatible with each other, but as a result, the game doesn’t quite have the same vibe.
9 Improved performance on switch
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is available on almost every major console. It’s no surprise that the game runs like butter on the world’s Playstations and Xboxes, but its performance on the less powerful Switch is a bit more tumultuous.
The game targets and hits 60fps most of the time, but you’ll likely notice a few glaring obstacles now and then. And while it’s still perfectly playable, it’s disappointing and strange that these decades-old games don’t run perfectly on modern hardware.
8 Let’s choose between CG and Cutscenes inside the engine
Klonoa: Door To Phantomile was originally released on PS1, during an era when developers used the freedom of CD formatting to cram their games full of pre-rendered fantasy scenes. Klonoa was no different, featuring great prequels to the big story events… which the Phantasy Reverie remaster series excludes in favor of more solid in-engine chains.
It makes sense, since this version of the game is based on a Wii remake rather than the original, but it loses some of the charm of the original.
7 stop with dang دروس lessons
When you play either of the two games in the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie series, you’ll be taken to a level and instantly greeted with a series of tutorials. These range from somewhat useful to completely useless, like telling you to collect glowing collectibles that litter each stage. (What else would you do with them?)
Even worse are the pop-up tutorials that tell you exactly how to defeat the bosses, sucking all the fun out of the encounters. And that doesn’t even refer to the tutorials that welcome you to the level loading screens, which display information for the levels You are already defeated. What gives?
6 Feature more adjustable difficulty options
Klonoa isn’t known for being a challenging series, but later parts of both games increase the challenge, asking you to juggle Klonoa’s abilities with high jumping and enemy capture while landing precisely on small platforms.
So it’s a good idea that the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series offers a less demanding setup, which offers unlimited life, increased health, and a longer grab range to make these segments less demanding. However, you can just take all of these options together – it was nice to mix and match these options to customize the gameplay and offer more challenging gradients.
5 Includes collectibles finder
Another way in which the Klonoa levels present complexity is through branching and nonlinear pathways. The early levels in both games are straightforward hikes from start to finish, but as the games progress, they’ll use a 2.5D perspective to introduce new paths and hide secrets.
It’s a fun twist on the traditional gameplay loop, but it also means that reaching 100% in each level can be frustrating, as some collectibles are hidden behind optional tracks or obscured by environmental elements. It would have been nice to include some kind of hint system or collectibles finder to reduce this frustration.
4 Let’s skip the text more quickly
Aside from its cute aesthetics and thoughtful gameplay, the Klonoa series distinguishes itself from the platform competition by placing heavy emphasis on its story and world, making the game feel like a playable Studio Ghibli movie. As such, if you want the full Klonoa experience, you’ll want to pay attention to the dialogue exchange that finishes the levels.
Phantasy Reverie Series includes the option to skip these scenes, but you can’t just… press X to advance to the next text box. Since you’ll likely be reading faster than the text the game is showing, your options are mainly to wait for the text to advance or to skip these scenes altogether. There is certainly room for some compromise there.
3 Other games included
Door To Phantomile and Lunatea’s Veil are the most popular games in the Klonoa series, but by no means the only one. The lovable bunny cat… ah, the dog… the dude has gotten his fair share of spin-offs, as Klonoa Heroes, an action RPG that blends Klonoa’s whimsical aesthetic with Zelda-like gameplay. There’s even a Klonoa beach volleyball game!
But among these sub-games, the only ones that make it out of Japan are the awesome GBA platforms Empire Of Dreams and Dream Champ Tournament… and the only way you can play them these days is to go to the dying Wii U eShop. Bandai Namco missed a great opportunity by leaving these games out of the Phantasy Reverie series.
2 Put a little effort into the title screen
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie series locks two of the most magical and grotesque games ever made behind the most amazing title screen you’ll ever see. When you launch the game, you are greeted with a flat, blurry background and prompted to get started. There isn’t even any music playing!
As fun as these games are, the splash screen looks empty and lifeless. It’s an oddly flat gateway to a beloved series.
1 Include any supplemental content…like, ever
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie series was released to coincide with the series’ 25th anniversary, so you’d think the collection would be a celebration of this underrated adorable mascot.
But almost all the festive features you’d expect — like concept art, the option to listen to the soundtrack, cute costumes, or developer commentary — are completely missing. That is, unless you want to spend $20 on a DLC bundle!