Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series: A 2.5 Master Returns

Namco have no shortage of classic franchises. Tekken, Ridge Racer, Katamari Damacy, Tales of, and of course the almighty Pac Man, they have no shortage of great titles people fondly remember.

But, as is expected given how long they’ve been in operation, they’ve created a lot of games that aren’t as well-known but still have a dedicated fan following. Klonoa being one of them.

The first game in the series, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, was released on the PlayStation 1 in 1997 It received critical acclaim but didn’t sell particularly well. Still, it was successful enough to spawn a numbered sequel, several handheld games and, of all things, a beach volleyball spin-off. Because you’re not a mascot platformer if you don’t have a sports game spin-off.

Sales for these were not great. Well received by those who played them, but that was sadly not many. And after a Wii remake, or Wiimake if you will, of the first game flopped the series has been put on ice for 14 years. 14 YEARS! Metroid and Mega Man would blush at that wait time.

It’s a shame too because the games were great. The low sales were not due to a lack of quality, they were likely a result of the games being released at the wrong time and a complete lack of marketing. This is a series that deserved way better than what it got.

And it appears someone at Namco agrees with me, because to celebrate the series 25th anniversary they released Klonoa Phantasy Reverie series. Developed by Monkey Craft, Phantasy Reverie Series is a remaster of the first two games for all modern platforms.

It’s great seeing Namco give Klonoa another shot after the failure of the Wiimake, and the fact it’s on all modern consoles means it has a better chance of being successful. The only question is whether they’ll do justice to the series. Which I can safely say that they have, for the most part.

When it comes to remasters like this, I only have two questions.

1. How good do the games themselves hold up?

2. How well do the remasters present/update them?

To answer the first question, yes, the games absolutely do still hold up. Klonoa is a 2.5D platformer. For those unaware, a 2.5D platformer is a platform game that plays like a typical side-scroller mixed with elements of 3D.

In the case of Klonoa this means that levels will have pathways that twist around and into each other, allowing interaction with the foreground and background and having more dynamic camera angles.

When you go through a level, you’ll be able to see other area’s you can reach in the background, giving the levels in Klonoa a sense of scale you never really saw in platformers at the time. Even when entering and exiting certain rooms you’ll still be able to see places you’ve visited in the distance.

I’ve played a few 2.5D platformers and Klonoa ranks among the best of them. 2.5D games can run into an issue of balancing how much of the 3D space to use. Use it too much and levels can become over-complicated, use it too little and you don’t have a 2.5D platformer at all, just a typical side scroller with 3D visuals.

Klonoa is one of those rare examples where it strikes a perfect balance between the two. It uses the 3D to add depth to the levels, while not compromising on the moment-to-moment platforming gameplay. Combine that with great level design and puzzles that utilize the 3D space in interesting ways, and Klonoa is still at the apex of the 2.5D genre.

And these levels aren’t afraid to get creative. When one of them has you snowboarding down a mountain before launching you into the mouth of an enormous frozen sea-beast the game is doing something right.

Klonoa himself is fun to control. His move-set is limited compared to other platforming mascots. He can jump, do a brief hover in the air for better positioning and fire a wind bullet from his giant ring.

Where things get interesting is when you hit an enemy with said wind bullet. Hitting them will make Klonoa grab them and cause them to inflate like a balloon, something I’m sure many who frequent Deviant Art will enjoy immensely.

All joking aside, once an enemy is inflated you can then use them as a projectile or use them to perform a double jump. The latter of which is the backbone of this game’s platforming. A lot of the games trickier platforming challenges will have you to double jump with one enemy, then grab another one while in mid-air to perform another double jump.

Once you get the rhythm of it down this is immensely satisfying to pull off. Some enemies will also have different effects when grabbed. Some will become bombs and others will allow you to float slowly up for a brief time.

Like any good game with a gimmick Klonoa uses it in as many different and interesting ways as it can. Though the extent of which does depend on which Klonoa game you’re playing.

Door to Phantomile is the simplest of the two. It doesn’t do anything too wild with the levels or puzzles though it does have some cool moments like riding a minecart towards the screen. Lunatea’s Veil is a little more interesting, introducing new enemy types and obstacles, and having better variety with the introduction of hoverboard levels.

In general, I think Lunatea’s Veil is the better of the 2 games. Door to Phantomile is still a classic that I enjoy playing now and again, but the sequel just improves upon it in almost every way. As any good sequel should.

The difficulty in both is low throughout. Still having challenging moments but being more relaxed experiences overall. The games are also very forgiving. Lunatea’s will even just hand you lives if you get low enough, so you shouldn’t have a hard time getting through them.

There are some additional challenges to do if you think the games are too easy. If you find 6 special items in each level, you’ll unlock some bonus levels that are a surprisingly good challenge and pretty fun too.

You can also unlock art gallery pieces by finding 150 Dreamstones in each level. I did not do this, and I’ll tell you why. Each level has exactly 150 Dreamstones, and keep in mind that it counts stones obtained from the multiplier power up as separate stones. Meaning trying to get all 150 requires a near perfect run of a stage, especially the hoverboard levels where you cannot backtrack.

I did not like these at all. You need to have each stage perfectly memorized to beat them and I just don’t have that kind of time. It doesn’t seem worth it just for some artwork. At least the bonus levels give you some cool rewards. What rewards? Play the game and find out, I ain’t spoiling that for you.

The more relaxed difficulty isn’t a big issue for me. Honestly, I enjoy playing these because of the more relaxed difficulty. They’re some of the best games to zone out to on a lazy afternoon. I don’t take umbrage with the difficulty, what I do take umbrage are the sudden spikes in difficulty.

There are moments in these games where the difficulty shoots up for no reason. The final stages of Door to Phantomile are one of the more egregious examples of this, having a lot of very small platforms that are way too easy to slip off from. I know games are supposed to get harder near the end, but the difficulty curve here is a little out of whack.

Neither game is very long. Door to Phantomile is just under 3 hours while Lunatea’s is around 7. Some might lament the short lengths, but I think both are the perfect length. There’s no filler here, every level introduces new elements and by the time the game is done you feel like they’ve done everything they can with their ideas.

The only drag in either game are the cutscenes. You can skip these if you want, but I recommend against it since the stories are some of the best parts of both games.

They start out light-hearted, but they can get surprisingly dark. Not too dark mind you, this is still a cut platformer aimed at kids, but there were some twists here that will take you off guard. The ending to Door to Phantomile is one of the biggest WTF moments in gaming and I still get teary eyed at the opening music notes of it.

Lunatea’s Veil doesn’t have as many shocking moments, but it makes up for that with good world building and character development. The plots are still simple and straight forward but have more interesting ideas and themes than most other platformers.

So yes, both games hold up remarkably well. Even compared to recent platformers they still play great and are still one of the best examples of a true 2.5D platformer. The games are good, the only question remaining is how well the Phantasy Reverie Series presents them.

In terms of how both games look, I think they did a great job updating the graphics while keeping some of the dreamlike atmosphere of the original games. The games retain their vibrant art style with the remasters adding more detailed textures and dynamic lighting, but I think they went a little overboard with the colours.

The colours can be so over-saturated at times that it can be hard to look at. The bloom here is ridiculous, it glows so much you’d think the game was pregnant. I still think the games look good overall. The colours may be a bit too bright, but they are nice colours, and Door to Phantomile is way more vibrant here than in the Wiimake where it looked dull and washed out.

Before we go any further, I need to specify that the version of Door to Phantomile is based on the Wii version, not the PS1 original. Given this was a remaster I expected it to be the Wiimake, but some fans will not like this.

The Wiimake was a bit of a contentious release for fans and Phantasy Reverie does suffer from some of the same problems. The cutscenes are still nowhere near as visually interesting or as well animated as the pre-rendered cutscenes in the PS1 original, with the ending being nowhere near as powerful as before. The animations in general are also nowhere near as expressive as they used to be and look stiff overall. The Wiimake wasn’t awful, but it had a lot of flaws that carry over here.

That said, Phantasy Reverie does try to improve on certain elements and bring the game closer to the PlayStation version. The character designs are now the same as they were in the original. No weird lanky teenage Klonoa, he’s back to his cute child appearance, cat-eyes and all.

I love the new character models here. They manage to keep the same cute designs while still updating the small details. Klonoa’s ears are so much fluffier in this game, they didn’t need to do that, but they did and I’m happier for it.

The script is also pulled directly from the original version, along with the original vocal recordings from the PS1 game in all its compressed glory. It is weird hearing the old, compressed voices alongside the updated graphics, but I still think the performances hold up. Those original voices still have a lot of emotion despite how compressed they are. Although the ending uses the new recordings from the Wiimake for some reason, guess it just worked better.

The soundtrack is pretty much untouched, as it should be. It was a great soundtrack back then and it’s still great now. The only issue is the sound mixing is a little off. it’s a little hard to hear the voices since the music is mixed louder. This was also a problem in the Wiimake, though at least this game has an excuse of using older recordings.

Lunatea’s Veil is based on the original and aside from the new graphics the presentation remains untouched. It fares a little better in this regard since, unlike Door to Phantomile, the cutscenes are presented as originally intended. The animations do look a little dated, it was an earlier PS2 title, but I think the presentation still holds up overall and there weren’t any noticeable downgrades.

In terms of how things are presented here I think they did a decent job overall. I have my issues with it, aside from how over saturated it looks. Some of the smaller details were removed as well as some of the original atmosphere, but I still think they managed to capture the spirit of the originals well enough. They even through in a pixel filter to make it look extra retro if you want. No clue why it’s here, but it is.

I don’t think they look better. Those original games art styles still hold up and look great today. The original Door to Phantomile with its pre-rendered sprites on 3D backgrounds still has a charm that cannot be beat and I’m always a sucker for cel-shading.

I wouldn’t say what’s here looks better, but I don’t think it looks significantly worse. It’s serviceable. It captures the original art style and updates it well enough, but somethings do get lost in translation.

As for performance, it was good from what I played on Switch. Ran at a smooth 60fps with only very occasional dips when there was a lot of enemies on screen, and even that was a light stutter at worst. There was this weird bug where an enemy model with no hit box spawned over another, but that was the only one I ran into.

As for new additions, you get some added difficulty options including an unlockable hard mode, a time attack style “stop-watch” mode and a new tutorial feature. Do yourself a favour though and turn the tutorials off. The games already do a good job of teaching the mechanics through gameplay, the tutorials are completely unnecessary.

There’s also a new co-op mode. This was technically introduced in Lunatea’s Veil, but Phantasy Reverie adds it to Door to Phantomile as well. Don’t get your hopes up though, it sucks. It’s one of those “support co-op” modes where one player plays the game and the other helps slightly. It’s lame.

The new additions aren’t anything ground-breaking but are nice to have. The one downside is the new content in the Wiimake did get cut. So we lost the mirror mode, new bonus levels and extra costumes. I guess that makes sense given they were trying to capture the original version as much as possible, but losing content always sucks no matter how insignificant.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is a good way to play these classic games. The art, music, and gameplay for these titles still holds up all these years later and this remaster does a good job of updating it for modern audiences.

It’s far from a perfect remaster. The oversaturated colours can be distracting and the cutscene problem for the Wiimake still persists here. I don’t think this is a replacement for the originals, those will always have their own charms, but I do think it works as decent way to experience these titles on modern platforms at a fair price. With how expensive those original games have gotten; this is the most ideal way to experience these titles outside emulation.

Some fans might be bothered with the changes here regardless of how small they are, but I would still whole heartedly recommend it to those fans anyway. If for no other reason than to show support for the series. And if you’re a newcomer then all the little changes won’t bother you in the first place. You’ll just see some nice platformers with great gameplay and stories, in which case I’d say it’s well worth it.

It's great seeing Klonoa back again after so long. Hopefully this game does well enough to get a new entry sometime in the future. If nothing else I would love to see more remastered collections of Namco games. I’d love to see a remaster of the Point-Blank games. How about a Splatterhouse Trilogy for Halloween. Hell, why not remake Pac-Man World for his… hey wait a minute!

It’s good to be a Namco fan sometimes.