They provide enough of a challenge that even platforming veterans might sweat a little. Their patterns are simple yet it still comes down to execution. I love the boss battles as they follow along the same lines as the gameplay. As the levels shift and become more mechanically focused there are less roaming enemies roaming. Both usually come before particularly challenging sections, allowing you to fail without suffering heavily. Checkpoints are frequent and extra lives are easy to come by. Although you have three hearts you can actually take six hits or more. That accessibility means Klonoa is an easy game. But at its core the game always remains accessible. While the initial levels are simple they gradually become more complex and puzzle like. The game makes excellent use of your abilities, often tasking you with using them in clever ways.
The level designers use this to hide all manner of secrets in plain sight but leave you to figure out how to reach them. Distant enemies and obstacles can be seen in the background and the camera shifts constantly. At any moment there are all kinds of moving parts going on in a given level.
Restricting movement to a single plane allows the game to have the same level of precision as the 2d platforming greats while also giving it the graphical bells and whistles of a 3d game. But its depth and ingenuity comes from its master class level design. Tossed enemies can be used to destroy walls, enemies, or reveal hidden objects. Inflated enemies are carried by his large ears, at which point they can be thrown or used as a makeshift platform to jump higher. Klonoa’s primary means of attack is grabbing enemies with his ring and inflating them. More importantly his design heavily informs the gameplay. His overly cheery disposition could be grating to some but I found it endearing. Klonoa turned out the best of that small class and made me wish there were more games like this.Īs a character Klonoa was a breath of fresh air among a class of edge lord platforming heroes. When they were bad, like Spider, boy were they bad. When they were good 2.5d platformers were amazing. It was like having the best of both worlds, although it didn’t always work out. Klonoa was among a class of platformers like Pandemonium, Wild 9 and Tomba that coined the phrase 2.5d.
The world is built in 3d but movement is still 2d.
At a time where every game went full 3d, especially platformers it was a weird in between. Klonoa was a bit of an anomaly during the 32-bit era. Klonoa decides to pursue him to save Lephise and the secret she guards.
His dream comes true and as he investigates with his sidekick Huepow they stumble across the evil Ghadius as he kidnaps the diva Lephise. Klonoa is haunted by one dream in particular, of an object falling from the sky and crashing into a nearby mountain. Phantomile is powered by the dreams of the people although they do not remember them. Klonoa takes place in the land of Phantomile. Namco were not known for their platformers but in one fell swoop they created one of the best of that era. But while everyone speaks of Ridge Racer and Tekken (and rightfully so) I appreciate Namco for giving us Klonoa. In my eyes they seemed to rise to another level with the advent of 3d and were critical to the PlayStation’s success. All that changed with the release of the PlayStation. Not that they weren’t putting out good games, but compared to Capcom and Konami they were low on my priority list. During the 8 and 16-bit era I’ll admit I did not think too much of Namco.