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My first exposure to Klonoa was through some friends--we've done several freeform roleplaying campaigns consisting largely of media we were individually interested in, and the Klonoa series was minorly involved in a couple of them. It always looked cool, and even knowing little to nothing about the series I even made myself some minimalist wallpapers based on official artwork. Despite that, it took outside interference for me to research it in any detail.
Sooner or later I watched the Caddicarus review of the first game in the series, Door to Phantomile. That video convinced me that I wanted to play it, but while I picked it up once I didn't stick with it the entire way through, getting a couple areas in and putting the game down to never pick up again.
Recently a new Klonoa game came out for the first time in 14 years, a two-game collection containing fresh remasters of the two main games, and this convinced me to give the series another shot. Looking at the page for Door to Phantomile on howlongtobeat.com (an excellent website) I noticed that it was only marked as a reported average of 4.5 hours to complete the story. This gave me the idea to play through the entire game in one sitting, just to see if I could do it.
I did it, although it took closer to 6 hours (making use of infinite lives in the last couple of stages, otherwise I might have been there forever). While I can't say I regret the decision I wouldn't want to do it again.
Since finishing it the other day I've had the experience spinning around my head, so my intention here is just to get my thoughts on the game out and explain why it's worth your time.
...At least, that's what I intended to write in early July, just after finishing said play session. Unfortunately life is what it is, and while it's been a lot longer than I intended late is better than never. I've had plenty of time to sit on my thoughts about the series as a whole.
Door to Phantomile follows a remarkably simple story. We're introduced to Klonoa and his friend Huepow through a short dream sequence in which Klonoa finds the wind ring- and the ring's spirit- in the middle of the woods before the two frolick back to town and witness something crashing into the nearby mountain- referred to quickly as Bell Hill. Klonoa is jolted awake, and we see Huepow waiting there in reality. Perhaps it was, at least in part, a memory?
Later that day, something crashes into Bell Hill just like what happened in Klonoa's dream. He and Huepow leave to investigate, and we're thrust seamlessly into the first level of the game. Within these first levels the game effortlessly introduces the player to the majority of the mechanics they'll be playing with and thus sets the tone for the rest of the experience.
Two levels later Klonoa and Huepow come to climb Bell Hill and find the dark spirit Ghadius plotting to destroy the world. A bossfight against his jester-themed henchman Joka comes and goes, and soon enough our heroes find themselves on a quest that sends them all across phantomile as they work to save their world.
So, what is the actual gameplay like?
As you'd expect from a 2D platformer character created in '97, Klonoa's primary abilities are to run and jump. The control is also as you'd expect: it's not as precise and snappy as a precision platforming game, and it's not as fluid and bouyant as a momentum platformer. The platforming sits comfortably in that usual middle ground where it feels just a little floaty and imprecise compared to the best of the best but it's easy to pick up and get used to within a few minutes of play. Klonoa has a vertical leap that's just a little less than you would expect and a small flutter which doesn't gain you any height so much as help save you from accidental spills, and that's about it.
Of course, if you have even minor knowledge of the series you've already noticed what I've left out. Klonoa's signature move is the ability to use his wind ring – an oversized emerald ring as large as his head – to shoot "wind bullets" which allow him to grab enemies and throw them around. Enemies grabbed this way inflate into squishy balls Klonoa hoists over his head, and carries with him, which notably prevents you from moving under small ledges. With an enemy in tow the player has the option to throw it to either side, to face towards or away from the camera and throw it towards the foreground or the background, or to jump off it in midair to gain extra height and send it hurtling downwards. Thrown enemies deal damage, knock around pieces of the environment, and trigger switches, all of which which are used heavily in level and boss design.
Some enemies have special interactions with your wind bullets. For example: enemies carrying shields need to be hit from the back, enemies wearing armor must be hit before you can carry them, and a rare few look like whirligigs and lift you upwards a significant distance when picked up. The different enemy types also play heavily into level design and difficlty, and into the solutions to a handful of puzzles.
The thing that truly sets Klonoa apart is that it was the quintessential 2.5D Platformer series, if only for two solitary mainline games.
Over the years a great many games have made claims to be "2.5D platformers." My personal introduction to the term was when I saw The Cave (2013 - Ron Gilbert) described as such shortly after release due to the combination of a 3D artstyle and 2D gameplay, and that definition has remained constant in my understanding since then. In the games which follow this definition the 3D aspect is purely a cosmetic one: nothing about the game would fundamentally change if the artstyle was instead hand-drawn 2D or pixel animations. The Klonoa series is different.
In Door to Phantomile, the level itself is 3D. As you play you're constantly running into and out of what was once the foreground or background, running circles around curved platforms, and finding places the level uses the 3D space to loop back on itself at a different angle or elevation. At any given time the player only has the option to move in the cardinal directions relative to the camera, but as the ground curves below you or platforms slide you into the background said camera perfectly follows the geometry of the level. One particular alternate path in an early level of Door to Phantomile finds you dropping back to the main path at a 90-degree angle, with the camera rotating back to normal as soon as Klonoa's feet touch the ground. Jump too far to the left at this point and you'll fall into the bottomless pit of the level's foreground.
The result of this level design is that despite the primarily 2D gameplay, you'll still find yourself exploring and getting a full sense of entirely 3D and often surprisingly realized environments. It's a form of level design I've never seen another game pull off in the same way (arguably Nights into Dreams does something similar, but with less variety), and it gives these games a very unique feeling.
As you continue to play through Door to Phantomile, you'll find yourself facing up against a variety of interesting locations as the game progresses. From Klonoa's home of Breezegale, the village of the wind, to the legendary moon kingdom of Cress, the world is small but charming. Each location ties together beautifully and plays an important role alongside their neighbors, and the characters who enhabit the world are delightful to meet and very believable in how they interact with each other and with Klonoa.
As the locations progress, so too do the levels. I have almost nothing but praises to speak for the level and puzzle design, which never failed to entertain me with something new to learn and figure out. Every area comes with an interesting new gimmick which keeps the game constantly interesting, perhaps with the exception of the final levels in which the primary gimmick appears to be making them hard as nails- which becomes rather annoying when one of the hardest levels in the game begins with several cutscenes you need to skip past every time you die. The greatest weakness is truly that towards the end it falls into the same trap many platformers do of putting a near-vertical difficulty spike in the last world, and I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that I had to use cheats by the end to give myself unlimited lives.
Yes, absolutely.
If you're a fan of platformers (especially strange and innovative ones) and you haven't tried a Klonoa game yet, you're missing out. I've enjoyed every moment I've spent engaging with the series so far, and Door to Phantomile is a fantastic introduction. The game oozes with charm constantly, and while the gameplay can get a bit frustrating at times it's well worth powering through to feel the satisfaction of a job well done and see a genuinely heartwrenching story at play. It's no wonder that everyone I've ever seen introduced to Klonoa has loved the games and the characters instantly.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile released in 1997(/1998) to excellent reviews, with many critics calling it one of if not the best games of the year. Others criticized it for simplicity, cuteness, or lack of challenge, but with Klonoa himself winning the best character reward at the 1997 Japan Game Awards it was locked in and ready to spawn a series.
In 2001 the direct sequel, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, released for the PS2 to universal acclaim. Ranking even better than the first game, Lunatea's Veil cemented Klonoa as one of the best series in the Playstation market and among the greatest platformers of the time.
A handful of side-games, primarily for handhelds, fill out the ranks. Moonlight Museum came out on the WonderSwan (a Japan-only handheld) in 1999, two years after Door to Phantomile, and Empire of Dreams and Dream Champ Tournament released for the GBA in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Being built for 2D consoles, these games drop the 2.5D aspect fall back on the basic platforming mechanics of the mainline series and asking players to explore more open levels in search of three collectables to open the exit door.
In 2002 we also recieved Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal (The Legendary Star Medal), an action RPG for the GBA which never released in the west (although an english patch has been made), and Klonoa Beach Volleyball, a sports game for the PS1 which reviewed well but only released in Japan and Europe. These games abandon the original platformer formula, but successfully made names for themselves (in the regions where they released) as competent spinoff titles.
Only two new games have released since 2002: Klonoa Wii, a remake of Door to Phantomile which released in 2008, and Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, the collection mentioned at the top of the article which recently brought Door to Phantomile and Lunatea's Veil to new systems on July 7th/8th 2022 to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary. This means there have been no wholly new Klonoa games for the past two decades.
Klonoa is a character who seems to be beloved by everyone who sees him, but the series is almost criminally underdeveloped. Much like Spyro the Dragon or Crash Bandicoot the series never quite filtered through the generation's platformer market and failed to leave a lasting impact, but unlike Spyro and Crash it didn't have enough spinoffs or reboots on home consoles to make a name with players at large. It's become something of a quiet classic, a game that increasingly many people know (and don't often talk about) but which came into that broad popularity after its time.
Considering it took a series milestone to get Band---
ai Namco to create a pair of remasters I don't personally have much hope for the series to recieve wholly new entries any time soon. Klonoa is not forgotten by the creators or by the fans, but he's not high on the priority list.
While trying to slam through the entire game in a few hours put rather more stress on me than I had hoped, and I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself, I massively enjoyed my time with it. While I don't expect to come back to Door to Phantomile with a completionist's mindset any time soon, I fully intend to play through the other games in the series sooner or later as well as engage in some other parts of the series that are worth catching up on- for example, I've been meaning to read through Klonoa: Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol (an official webcomic series which was never completed) and its fan continuation, Klonoa: Dream Crusaders.
If you feel like falling into a new fandom sometime soon, consider giving Klonoa a shot. I know I've been enjoying it.
__________________ Have any thoughts about Klonoa or similar games? Feel free to send me an email.