LOVE the Klonoa series (although it hasn't aged too well), but I just cannot recommend it on Switch. Obvious frame rate issues that were never fixed are a huge letdown
So, I'm not sure if I should post this review here, since this isn't just a review of the quality of the collection itself, but it's also my experience with these games for the first time, and it just so happens that the Phantasy Reverie Series is how I got to experience them firsthand, so, here we go:
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile:
A cute 2.5D sidescroller, with a brilliant platformer mechanics for its time, a cute and imaginative character designs and artstyle, a catchy soundtrack, and a story that will pull at your heartstrings, especially that ending ðŸ˜, this game was a better Kirby 64 than Kirby 64 itself, just an all around good game.
It's interesting how this version of this game is basically a revamped, HD remaster of the failed Wii remake (or the "Wiimake" as the fans refer to it), but, with a more saturated, colorful palette, and no longer having awful English voice acting, Phantomilian is the only spoken language you get to hear in this game, also, they changed Klonoa's Wiimake model to a character model that heavily resembles his PS1 incarnation.
I may try the original PS1 version one day for comparison, but overall, yeah, I liked what I played.
Rating: ☆☆☆½
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
The direct sequel to Door to Phantomile, it's an improvement of the original in almost every way, more fun levels (especially those board levels) more enemies with unique gimmicks, more cast of compelling and sympathetic characters, and a story while simple, will probably gonna make you cry if not at least make you teary eyed by the end of it.
And just like its predecessor, Lunatea's Veil has an amazing soundtrack, shout out to Stepping Wind, a certified Mira Mira Classic, the theme of Joilant, which sounds like a copyright friendly instrumental version of Gaston's theme song from Dianey's Beauty & The Beast, and of course, the haunting theme of The Ruin of Sadness.
This is an excellent platformer, that I'm glad was freed from its PS2 prison over 20 years later thanks to this collection, so more people can experience it, an easy recommendation.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Now, related to the collection itself, I know some fans are disappointed with the visual overhaul that MonkeyCraft, the studio that handled this collection of remasters, have given to both games, and how they look bland in comparison to their original incarnations according to them, and I get it to a degree, but personally, I don't see it as a total deal breaker, maybe the reason I feel that is because I didn't grew up playing these games, so, nostalgia bias isn't affecting my judgment here, but, I dunno.
That said, for a collection that supposed to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, it's quite lacking and bareboned, since it does not include the spin off games that were on the PS1, the GBA, and even the Wonder Swan, that one handheld system by Bandai that never left Japan, Kirby's Dream Collection, this is not.
Which is why I'm reluctantly giving this collection 3 Stars out of 5, and this is me being really generous with it.
But yeah, with that aside, I'm glad I got to finally play these two games for the first time thanks to The Phantasy Reverie Series, it's the easiest, most convenient way to try out these classics without relying on piracy or looking for affordable physical copies of them on Ebay or whatever.
I already did my part of buying a physical copy of the collection nearly two years ago, to show Bandai Namco that there's a demand for more adventures featuring the young Dream Traveller, whether or not this will work, I have no idea, but hey, thanks to this collection, getting into the main series have never been easier.
So yeah, if you haven't played a Klonoa game before, and you wanna experience the main games for the first time, you can't go wrong with the Phantasy Reverie Series.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile:
A cute 2.5D sidescroller, with a brilliant platformer mechanics for its time, a cute and imaginative character designs and artstyle, a catchy soundtrack, and a story that will pull at your heartstrings, especially that ending ðŸ˜, this game was a better Kirby 64 than Kirby 64 itself, just an all around good game.
It's interesting how this version of this game is basically a revamped, HD remaster of the failed Wii remake (or the "Wiimake" as the fans refer to it), but, with a more saturated, colorful palette, and no longer having awful English voice acting, Phantomilian is the only spoken language you get to hear in this game, also, they changed Klonoa's Wiimake model to a character model that heavily resembles his PS1 incarnation.
I may try the original PS1 version one day for comparison, but overall, yeah, I liked what I played.
Rating: ☆☆☆½
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
The direct sequel to Door to Phantomile, it's an improvement of the original in almost every way, more fun levels (especially those board levels) more enemies with unique gimmicks, more cast of compelling and sympathetic characters, and a story while simple, will probably gonna make you cry if not at least make you teary eyed by the end of it.
And just like its predecessor, Lunatea's Veil has an amazing soundtrack, shout out to Stepping Wind, a certified Mira Mira Classic, the theme of Joilant, which sounds like a copyright friendly instrumental version of Gaston's theme song from Dianey's Beauty & The Beast, and of course, the haunting theme of The Ruin of Sadness.
This is an excellent platformer, that I'm glad was freed from its PS2 prison over 20 years later thanks to this collection, so more people can experience it, an easy recommendation.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Now, related to the collection itself, I know some fans are disappointed with the visual overhaul that MonkeyCraft, the studio that handled this collection of remasters, have given to both games, and how they look bland in comparison to their original incarnations according to them, and I get it to a degree, but personally, I don't see it as a total deal breaker, maybe the reason I feel that is because I didn't grew up playing these games, so, nostalgia bias isn't affecting my judgment here, but, I dunno.
That said, for a collection that supposed to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, it's quite lacking and bareboned, since it does not include the spin off games that were on the PS1, the GBA, and even the Wonder Swan, that one handheld system by Bandai that never left Japan, Kirby's Dream Collection, this is not.
Which is why I'm reluctantly giving this collection 3 Stars out of 5, and this is me being really generous with it.
But yeah, with that aside, I'm glad I got to finally play these two games for the first time thanks to The Phantasy Reverie Series, it's the easiest, most convenient way to try out these classics without relying on piracy or looking for affordable physical copies of them on Ebay or whatever.
I already did my part of buying a physical copy of the collection nearly two years ago, to show Bandai Namco that there's a demand for more adventures featuring the young Dream Traveller, whether or not this will work, I have no idea, but hey, thanks to this collection, getting into the main series have never been easier.
So yeah, if you haven't played a Klonoa game before, and you wanna experience the main games for the first time, you can't go wrong with the Phantasy Reverie Series.
As someone who was a PS1/PS2 kid, it's a crying shame I never played these when they came out originally. So I had to jump on this when I saw it was announced and I had a blast with both games. Klonoa 2 especially had some excellent and memorable level designs.
Not a complete waste but worse than the originals. Door to Phantomile in particular feels pretty soulless.
Juegazo de mi infancia que sin duda necesita una tercera parte. BuenÃsimo!!
peak? PEAK!!
Not for me. General fan of platformers but this did not feel good to me. Platforming does not feel sharp and don't like how the jumps and progression is tied to the use of the enemies. Recognizing that as a 28M I'm probably not part of the target audience, as I have not played the original(s) much. Probably a good game for a younger audience, getting into video games.
Played the first game about halfway through.
Played the first game about halfway through.
Game has more bloom than an outback steakhouse.
I've always wanted to play the Klonoa games when I had found out about them in middle school. Partly due to his character design. It was series that flew under my nose for most of my life mainly cuz I never owned a Sony console growing up. I even missed out on the Wii remake on Klonoa 1. The Phantasy Reverie remakes were my answer and initiative to actually start playing these games.
K1 -
As of writing this log, I had beaten K1 over a year ago, so my memory is a little hazy on how I felt at the time of beating it. What I do remember was actually enjoying my time with it. I kinda felt surprised the first time I played the game and realized how simple it was control wise. It was really only jump and air bullet. I don't know why, but I thought it would have more movement based controls. The game was simple, but the level design expanded with what you can do with grabbing, throwing, and jumping off enemies. Personally, I thought that Klonoa's little Yoshi hover felt weak to use (which I understood that it wasn't meant to act like Yoshi's and give you extra height). My thoughts on the gameplay were further elevated when the level design required you to throw enemies into the foreground and background. The game's worlds and levels were colorful and creative. It's really leaning into the dream world aesthetics. Overall, my experience with K1 was pretty good. This was a brand new experience for me as I had never played the original. I had even forgotten the original game used sprites instead of 3D models.
K2 -
Going into K2 after just beating K1 was a little weird. I had that same expectation that I had going into Klonoa 1 about there being more controls for gameplay. K2 remains the same in gameplay to K1 with a few additions in enemy types and levels. The new additions being hoverboard levels and unique enemy types that you can pick up. The hoverboard segments weren't bad but I felt that they were kind of lacking. Controlling Klonoa on the board felt limited. Making turns felt slow and I wish there was a great sense of speed in the levels. Again, the level design in the sequel is great and I would say even better than K1. From the platforming to the puzzles, K2 stands out from K1 while still being the same gameplay.
My Final Thoughts -
In both segments, I had not talked about the story of either game. I feel like that be whole a pages of my thoughts on both games' stories. But I mention it because of how I experienced the stories in this remake. Prior to finishing K2, I was slightly spoiled with a cutscene from the PS2 version. Something about the way THAT version of the game looked and that cutscene left me questioning why I'm playing the remake of K2. The lighting and the outlines on the characters were drawing me in more than the look of the remake. While I don't think Phantasy Reverie looks bad, it lacks visual identity that the originals had. Also, I looked at gameplay of K2 after finishing the game and it looked significantly faster. There was a feeling of floatiness in the remakes that I just got used to, but I was not the biggest fan of how it fully felt. I am aware this remake was made in Unity which could affected the physics or this was consciously done by the developers. I feel that learning about the previous versions of Klonoa 1 and 2 shouldn't affect my overall experience with both games. I enjoyed them, but I think I feel more incline to replay them in their original versions.
K1 -
As of writing this log, I had beaten K1 over a year ago, so my memory is a little hazy on how I felt at the time of beating it. What I do remember was actually enjoying my time with it. I kinda felt surprised the first time I played the game and realized how simple it was control wise. It was really only jump and air bullet. I don't know why, but I thought it would have more movement based controls. The game was simple, but the level design expanded with what you can do with grabbing, throwing, and jumping off enemies. Personally, I thought that Klonoa's little Yoshi hover felt weak to use (which I understood that it wasn't meant to act like Yoshi's and give you extra height). My thoughts on the gameplay were further elevated when the level design required you to throw enemies into the foreground and background. The game's worlds and levels were colorful and creative. It's really leaning into the dream world aesthetics. Overall, my experience with K1 was pretty good. This was a brand new experience for me as I had never played the original. I had even forgotten the original game used sprites instead of 3D models.
K2 -
Going into K2 after just beating K1 was a little weird. I had that same expectation that I had going into Klonoa 1 about there being more controls for gameplay. K2 remains the same in gameplay to K1 with a few additions in enemy types and levels. The new additions being hoverboard levels and unique enemy types that you can pick up. The hoverboard segments weren't bad but I felt that they were kind of lacking. Controlling Klonoa on the board felt limited. Making turns felt slow and I wish there was a great sense of speed in the levels. Again, the level design in the sequel is great and I would say even better than K1. From the platforming to the puzzles, K2 stands out from K1 while still being the same gameplay.
My Final Thoughts -
In both segments, I had not talked about the story of either game. I feel like that be whole a pages of my thoughts on both games' stories. But I mention it because of how I experienced the stories in this remake. Prior to finishing K2, I was slightly spoiled with a cutscene from the PS2 version. Something about the way THAT version of the game looked and that cutscene left me questioning why I'm playing the remake of K2. The lighting and the outlines on the characters were drawing me in more than the look of the remake. While I don't think Phantasy Reverie looks bad, it lacks visual identity that the originals had. Also, I looked at gameplay of K2 after finishing the game and it looked significantly faster. There was a feeling of floatiness in the remakes that I just got used to, but I was not the biggest fan of how it fully felt. I am aware this remake was made in Unity which could affected the physics or this was consciously done by the developers. I feel that learning about the previous versions of Klonoa 1 and 2 shouldn't affect my overall experience with both games. I enjoyed them, but I think I feel more incline to replay them in their original versions.