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KLONOA: DOOR TO PHANTOMILE—Fantasy done right.
——————————
[ I don’t know how to do the fancy lines. ]
I FLIPPING love platformers; there’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting down and watching as the anthro creature sullying my screen attempts to hop over a rickety platform; sports are probably the only thing better!
Klonoa is a somewhat decrepit franchise that saw its rise in the late 90s with the audience-acclaimed Klonoa: Door to Phantomile—Namco’s attempt to create a story for Spriggan only to ponder one day and realize—”Hey, wanna cry?”
Hence we get to where we are today, a little game about a cute critter that can hop and fight and cry! But wait, there’s more!
KLONOA: GAMEPLAY.
——————————
3D, BOOM! Klonoa separated itself from its peers based solely on the fact that it could traverse the dimensional planes, restricting every Street Fighter character, able to turn forward and backward! You see, Klonoa is a game that uses three dimensions for its structure, as do many other platformers, BUT the linear progression always follows the set path of 2D.
Klonoa, surprisingly, also boasts very fun moves for someone so young, able to throw his trusty pal Huepow into enemies to grab enemies and use them as projectiles, usually used for puzzles or simply clearing a path. His tails(?) also function for hovering, something minuscule that you’ll soon realise is very important for grabbing a tricky collectible and using the poor bugger for cheesing by jumping, because let’s be honest, we all cheese.
The 2D Plane is your biggest ally in this game because it functions as the certified void for every unlucky goober you come across, and it also serves as a good way to gauge your progress when you’re exploring.
All of this condenses into a Jabberwock of a game; as you press play, you can say you dislike it, but you can't admit it’s dull.
KLONOA: NARRATIVE
——————————-
Klonoa’s narrative is its biggest strong point, and it’s what I'm going to yap about, as I love the moral and storytelling.
Klonoa takes place in the fantasy world of Phantomile, an unusual realm plagued with illusions—a world that people fuel with their very dreams, an isle of nothing but phantoms.
Klonoa, a strange animal resembling a mix of a feline and a rabbit living in the quaint Breezegale with his grandfather, has a strange dream about an aerial disaster—only to experience it in the real world the next day as an explosion sounds!
He quickly darts out of bed with a floating blue orb called Huepow, already aiming for adventure!
But this adventure turns out to be far more serious than he imagined, finding himself in the presence of the fabulous Ghadius and his chatty henchman, Joka, the main antagonists of the story.
Turns out, they want a magical pendant and will do anything to get it, which leads to our back-and-forth as our heroes attempt to stop them!
First, they retrieve the pendant rather easily before chasing after the evildoers after leaving it with Grandpa, only to find themselves in the nearby land of Forlock after Ghadius’s mischief had dampened the land.
They quickly save the inhabitants, even managing to break his corruption off the mother of a sea creature!
But trouble soon arises again, and I'm sure you can guess where this leads, with our heroes slowly but surely halting Ghadius’s influence over nature until finding his clown right-hand man threatening Klonoa’s granny, the chief elder of the forest—
Klonoa felt an itch as he defeated the grotesque creature sent to stop him; he felt like he was forgetting someone, like he had made a mistake.
…
It’s an empty threat, the one Joka makes as he finds out where the pendant is hiding, so our heroes quickly travel back to Breezegale to stop the clown before he can get his hands on—!
Death, that’s it, there’s no fakeout, there’s no sappy speech beforehand, Klonoa is too late, and he’s forced to watch as a beam descends from Joka and mortally wounds his grandfather, the old man barely able to grasp his breath in the soot surrounding his feeble body.
After agonising silence, he rushes over to Joka, long since gone, even defeating another one of his monsters, only to be met with a small speech and gratitude before his only parent drifts off; nothing stops his tears from descending as you hear the gut-wrenching distorted scream of the small boy, a world of fantasy that can't stop the ultimate fate that befalls all of us.
Klonoa barely has time to process it before he’s already on the move, the villains having already infiltrated an important temple and planning something dangerous.
After a LONG level, we find ourselves in the final stretch, Ghadius is already preparing his monologue before revealing his ultimate plan—to drown the world in a nightmare, to make them feel the pain that plagued his past by using an ancient deity of destruction.
But before we can get to the final boss, Klonoa has to get his get-back on Joka, who transformed himself into a creature of Lovecraftian imagery in a desperate attempt to please his master for failing to stop Klonoa, a boy who lives for freedom vs. one who is content in servitude.
And like any good bootlicker, Joka stumbles before regretfully dying, unable to please his master… only in death, as his very demise fuels Ghadius’s plan to spread demise over Phantomile.
Klonoa grits his teeth before battling the dark lord in a strange wheel of sorts, having to throw his own minions back at him to ensure the slightest chance of victory, and it’s only then that the man falls.
But with his dying breath, his last semblance of resistance, he unleashes the ultimate evil.
Nahatomb, the deity of destruction, is unleashed with a sickening glare, everyone’s breath hitching as they soon realise what they’re up against.
But against all odds, they place their trust in Klonoa and work together, channelling all their power into a single shot that blasts through the evil creature!
Phantomile is saved, the nightmares soon vanish, and Klonoa goes back to Phantomile with Huepow, the final scene displaying our duo gazing at the sky, simply recollecting what has happened.
…
“Klonoa…You don’t really exist in this world.”
KLONOA: DEVIL IN A NEW DRESS.
————————————————
This entire review has been an excuse to talk about my favourite aspect of Klonoa, the moral it wants to tell.
Klonoa, as a tale, preys upon the fantasy of the old and transforms it into something new, but it does so whilst recognising you, the viewer.
At the end of its lengthy story, which I skimmed past and attempted to convey through short bursts of text, my bad if I can't articulate myself well, we get hit with a cannonball.
Klonoa doesn't exist in Phantomile; he was pulled from another to help save it, implanted with false memories to have a reason to do so.
We’re treated to another gut-wrenching scene as Klonoa barely has time to recognise his existence before he’s forced to return, attempting to cling to his only friend before he’s sucked back with tears in his eyes, nothing but an incredible melancholic track playing over it with their grunts and desperate pants.
Klonoa, at its core, is about escapism, the joy of engrossing yourself in a world that isn't your own before having to leave it, no matter how hard.
You can't stay in there forever; there comes a moment when you have to realise that the friends you make, the world you explore, isn't one fit for reality; you have to leave.
But Klonoa tells this narrative through its title character, because like him, he too doesn't want to leave that world.
But does an experience being false mean it shouldn't be appreciated? No, but we should acknowledge that we don't belong in this world, and we never will—hence, the dream theming.
I've always struggled with not accepting the world; I think I'm safe to say that I still sometimes wish I was on some far-away planet, one free of mischief, but as Klonoa tells it, pain and demise will be with you no matter where you go, no matter how far you run, and learning to accept our reality is the closest we can get to happiness.
KLONOA: CONCLUSION:
————————————
Klonoa is a certified cult classic; its ability to introduce mechanics and story beats whilst also ensuring the atmosphere of southern hike is nothing short of impressive, and whilst some of that derives from bias, I will always cherish this game as something beautiful.
And while this was originally supposed to be a review on the second game, I found the first one’s themes on reverie far more impactful in my current life than the second one’s impressionism.
Its unique gameplay, its narrative, its morals, and its characters are stuff I will always remember as a game that made me fall in love with the franchise as a whole.
I love Klonoa, and that’s all I can say.
——————————
[ I don’t know how to do the fancy lines. ]
I FLIPPING love platformers; there’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting down and watching as the anthro creature sullying my screen attempts to hop over a rickety platform; sports are probably the only thing better!
Klonoa is a somewhat decrepit franchise that saw its rise in the late 90s with the audience-acclaimed Klonoa: Door to Phantomile—Namco’s attempt to create a story for Spriggan only to ponder one day and realize—”Hey, wanna cry?”
Hence we get to where we are today, a little game about a cute critter that can hop and fight and cry! But wait, there’s more!
KLONOA: GAMEPLAY.
——————————
3D, BOOM! Klonoa separated itself from its peers based solely on the fact that it could traverse the dimensional planes, restricting every Street Fighter character, able to turn forward and backward! You see, Klonoa is a game that uses three dimensions for its structure, as do many other platformers, BUT the linear progression always follows the set path of 2D.
Klonoa, surprisingly, also boasts very fun moves for someone so young, able to throw his trusty pal Huepow into enemies to grab enemies and use them as projectiles, usually used for puzzles or simply clearing a path. His tails(?) also function for hovering, something minuscule that you’ll soon realise is very important for grabbing a tricky collectible and using the poor bugger for cheesing by jumping, because let’s be honest, we all cheese.
The 2D Plane is your biggest ally in this game because it functions as the certified void for every unlucky goober you come across, and it also serves as a good way to gauge your progress when you’re exploring.
All of this condenses into a Jabberwock of a game; as you press play, you can say you dislike it, but you can't admit it’s dull.
KLONOA: NARRATIVE
——————————-
Klonoa’s narrative is its biggest strong point, and it’s what I'm going to yap about, as I love the moral and storytelling.
Klonoa takes place in the fantasy world of Phantomile, an unusual realm plagued with illusions—a world that people fuel with their very dreams, an isle of nothing but phantoms.
Klonoa, a strange animal resembling a mix of a feline and a rabbit living in the quaint Breezegale with his grandfather, has a strange dream about an aerial disaster—only to experience it in the real world the next day as an explosion sounds!
He quickly darts out of bed with a floating blue orb called Huepow, already aiming for adventure!
But this adventure turns out to be far more serious than he imagined, finding himself in the presence of the fabulous Ghadius and his chatty henchman, Joka, the main antagonists of the story.
Turns out, they want a magical pendant and will do anything to get it, which leads to our back-and-forth as our heroes attempt to stop them!
First, they retrieve the pendant rather easily before chasing after the evildoers after leaving it with Grandpa, only to find themselves in the nearby land of Forlock after Ghadius’s mischief had dampened the land.
They quickly save the inhabitants, even managing to break his corruption off the mother of a sea creature!
But trouble soon arises again, and I'm sure you can guess where this leads, with our heroes slowly but surely halting Ghadius’s influence over nature until finding his clown right-hand man threatening Klonoa’s granny, the chief elder of the forest—
Klonoa felt an itch as he defeated the grotesque creature sent to stop him; he felt like he was forgetting someone, like he had made a mistake.
…
It’s an empty threat, the one Joka makes as he finds out where the pendant is hiding, so our heroes quickly travel back to Breezegale to stop the clown before he can get his hands on—!
Death, that’s it, there’s no fakeout, there’s no sappy speech beforehand, Klonoa is too late, and he’s forced to watch as a beam descends from Joka and mortally wounds his grandfather, the old man barely able to grasp his breath in the soot surrounding his feeble body.
After agonising silence, he rushes over to Joka, long since gone, even defeating another one of his monsters, only to be met with a small speech and gratitude before his only parent drifts off; nothing stops his tears from descending as you hear the gut-wrenching distorted scream of the small boy, a world of fantasy that can't stop the ultimate fate that befalls all of us.
Klonoa barely has time to process it before he’s already on the move, the villains having already infiltrated an important temple and planning something dangerous.
After a LONG level, we find ourselves in the final stretch, Ghadius is already preparing his monologue before revealing his ultimate plan—to drown the world in a nightmare, to make them feel the pain that plagued his past by using an ancient deity of destruction.
But before we can get to the final boss, Klonoa has to get his get-back on Joka, who transformed himself into a creature of Lovecraftian imagery in a desperate attempt to please his master for failing to stop Klonoa, a boy who lives for freedom vs. one who is content in servitude.
And like any good bootlicker, Joka stumbles before regretfully dying, unable to please his master… only in death, as his very demise fuels Ghadius’s plan to spread demise over Phantomile.
Klonoa grits his teeth before battling the dark lord in a strange wheel of sorts, having to throw his own minions back at him to ensure the slightest chance of victory, and it’s only then that the man falls.
But with his dying breath, his last semblance of resistance, he unleashes the ultimate evil.
Nahatomb, the deity of destruction, is unleashed with a sickening glare, everyone’s breath hitching as they soon realise what they’re up against.
But against all odds, they place their trust in Klonoa and work together, channelling all their power into a single shot that blasts through the evil creature!
Phantomile is saved, the nightmares soon vanish, and Klonoa goes back to Phantomile with Huepow, the final scene displaying our duo gazing at the sky, simply recollecting what has happened.
…
“Klonoa…You don’t really exist in this world.”
KLONOA: DEVIL IN A NEW DRESS.
————————————————
This entire review has been an excuse to talk about my favourite aspect of Klonoa, the moral it wants to tell.
Klonoa, as a tale, preys upon the fantasy of the old and transforms it into something new, but it does so whilst recognising you, the viewer.
At the end of its lengthy story, which I skimmed past and attempted to convey through short bursts of text, my bad if I can't articulate myself well, we get hit with a cannonball.
Klonoa doesn't exist in Phantomile; he was pulled from another to help save it, implanted with false memories to have a reason to do so.
We’re treated to another gut-wrenching scene as Klonoa barely has time to recognise his existence before he’s forced to return, attempting to cling to his only friend before he’s sucked back with tears in his eyes, nothing but an incredible melancholic track playing over it with their grunts and desperate pants.
Klonoa, at its core, is about escapism, the joy of engrossing yourself in a world that isn't your own before having to leave it, no matter how hard.
You can't stay in there forever; there comes a moment when you have to realise that the friends you make, the world you explore, isn't one fit for reality; you have to leave.
But Klonoa tells this narrative through its title character, because like him, he too doesn't want to leave that world.
But does an experience being false mean it shouldn't be appreciated? No, but we should acknowledge that we don't belong in this world, and we never will—hence, the dream theming.
I've always struggled with not accepting the world; I think I'm safe to say that I still sometimes wish I was on some far-away planet, one free of mischief, but as Klonoa tells it, pain and demise will be with you no matter where you go, no matter how far you run, and learning to accept our reality is the closest we can get to happiness.
KLONOA: CONCLUSION:
————————————
Klonoa is a certified cult classic; its ability to introduce mechanics and story beats whilst also ensuring the atmosphere of southern hike is nothing short of impressive, and whilst some of that derives from bias, I will always cherish this game as something beautiful.
And while this was originally supposed to be a review on the second game, I found the first one’s themes on reverie far more impactful in my current life than the second one’s impressionism.
Its unique gameplay, its narrative, its morals, and its characters are stuff I will always remember as a game that made me fall in love with the franchise as a whole.
I love Klonoa, and that’s all I can say.
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