If there’s one thing I can really thank about the past few years of video games, it’s the resurgence of the old franchise. For some reason, these franchises simply disappeared or hit the ground. However, many of us remember playing these games and hope that these series will come back. Recently, I’ve seen successful remasters and reboots of franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Kangaroo, and even Kao the Kangaroo. The latest series featuring remasters is Klonoa. Sure, it’s not one of the famous series of the PlayStation 1 era, but Klonoa was loved by the crowd who played it. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the series, Klonoa is back on the Nintendo Switch. Not as shining as the celebration of the series, the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a fun platformer to check out.
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a remaster of the first two Klonoa games, Klonoa Doorto Phantomile and Klonoa Lunatea’s Veil. Both of these games were originally exclusive to PlayStation and were released on PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2. KlonoaDoortoPhantomile is based on a remake of the Wii, which sold very poorly in 2008.
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series excels at being a great 2D platformer. Each level is colorfully designed to give you a sense of the bright and warm world you are exploring. It’s also helpful that each level or vision called in the game has a different and different aesthetic. Some visions have you in the woods, some in the mines, and others in the sky. Even if it takes a relatively short time to see the world, it really gives you a sense of the diverse worlds you can explore. Neither Klonoa game is too long, which is not a bad thing.
The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is also a great platformer for easy understanding. Compilation never throws you too much and teaches you all the mechanisms at the first level. This makes the game so simple that it doesn’t overly complicate what I can do. This simplicity leads to the disappointing end of the game, which we’ll discuss in more detail soon, but it provides an easy-to-play experience for anyone, regardless of skill set.
However, one of the biggest problems with the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is its simplicity. The game is very easy to understand and will tell you everything you need to know right away. The problem is that playing doesn’t change anything. That is, nothing new is added to the experience. This is usually not a big deal, but you can see that nothing changes because the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series has a short play time (about 7 hours for both games). To make matters worse, as you progress through the game, it doesn’t get harder in itself, but it gets mean. Later levels of platforms will begin to have the perfect precision of pixels that will be a fun experience and frustrating. I noticed that I was falling off the platform, not because I missed the platform, but because I was clearly looking at myself on the platform, but apparently fell one pixel too far away. It frustrates later end games to the point where you really wonder if you’re still having fun.
Another big complaint about the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is that in the series celebration edits, there is nothing to celebrate the series other than the existing series. The remaster is specifically said to be released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the series. Still, the collection doesn’t make sense to say that. For example, there is no bonus section to showcase artwork, music, or promotional materials like other compilations. It’s a painstaking, lack of grouping of the thrills of the two games. That’s really disappointing to me. It’s really cool to bring this series back, and it’s more remarkable than ever. But having a non-special anniversary seems to miss the point of celebration said.
Another small problem I have with the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is unpleasant narration. In short, all characters speak with tweets, awkwardness, and random noise. This can have some interesting and somewhat compelling effects in series like Banjo-Kazooie, but in Klonoa you’ll come across it as a nuisance. The cutscene goes through forever, and the character always spits out meaningless Gibberish to you. This was fine at first, but as the game progresses, it slowly becomes annoying. I’m not saying this is a big problem that makes the game worse, it’s just pointing out that it’s going to get old soon.
So is the Klonoa Fantasie Livery series worth a visit? Simply put, that’s right. The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series does a great job of grouping two beloved but lesser-known games into packages that work well on the Nintendo Switch. The game has an attractive visual style and gameplay simplicity, which I am very grateful for. That said, the game has a relentless late game platform that pops up randomly for no reason, annoying voices about work, and a boring celebration of what could be a milestone in the series. The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series has plenty of fun to recommend this game to anyone who enjoys 2D platformers or wants to rediscover two notable classic games. Hopefully this will cause Klonoa to see a new game or a Game Boy Advance game remade.
