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Quite simply, one of the most underrated franchises of the modern era, Klonoa stands out as being a cross between Sonic The Hedgehog's animal-like protagonist, and Super Mario's simple, yet brilliant platforming schematic. Klonoa, a rabbit-like creature lives in Phantomile, the world of Dreams. It is here that the stages, or Visions as they are called, actually reflect fantasies that can only be invisioned within your own head. Being a curious youth, Klonoa's biggest question is "Why can't we remember our dreams, the next morning, and yet I can still remember a specific one from a long time ago, perfectly". The dream is later shown to be the coming of the Spirit of Darkness, Ghadius, which indeed occurs. I won't say anymore, so just buy the original PSone version, or better yet, the new Wii remake. The game is beautifully presented. Though in 2.5D, like Donkey Kong Country, the game has its own brilliance, being one of the first PSone games to incorperate CG cutscenes with voice-acting (well... more like gibberish), lip-syncing to the words, and magnificent 3D graphics rivaling those of the sixth and seventh generation. The music can be a tad annoying for anyone over the age of 8, but the game is geared to that audience anyway, so I can't complain. I would still recommend the soundtrack to anyone, because the later tracks convey some powerful emotions within the mind. (Seriously, try not to cry while hearing the Credits) But the one and only REAL problem with the game is it's difficulty curve, in that THERE ISN'T ONE... Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, and it's Wii remake are so short, and easy, that's it's just unbelieveable... 12 Stages, and 7 Bosses... It's helped by the fact that some of the stages are longer than you would normally expect, even with Klonoa's above-average skip-running speed, a normal Vision will take maybe 4-6 minutes, about the same time as two stages in the Sonic The Hedgehog, or Super Mario platforming series. But really, this game is pure fun, and if you don't feel emotion start to swell up inside of you, then you probably eat babies for breakfast, speak in reverse, and live in a fiery pit. BOTTOM LINE: Incredibly emotional, loads of fun, very underrated, and I highly recommend it to everybody who has a PSone, or a Wii. In fact, I challenge the world to play this game instead of your usual FPS's, RPG's, or MMO's.Read full review
I never played Klonoa-anything until I purchased this game this year, at its insanity of a price, and after spending hundreds of dollars out of my hard-earned money on what I always thought was a knock-off of Sonic the Hedgehog (because the characters looked similar), I booted this oldie up for the first time. The sound of my PS2 booting up hit me, my screen went black, and I took a breath, closed my eyes, and awoke to the sound of happiness coming from my TV. It was a sound of wonder and joy, and from there, I had to see more. So I hit start. Instantly, I fell in love with this game. Thank god, because these things are going for half a grand right now. But price aside, this game plays amazingly. There's so much depth to every layer of this game. It's a 2.5D sidescroller, and makes EVERY use it can of the backgrounds and level design. The closest game I've played to it would be Pandemonium, but they're far from the same game, and to be honest, Klonoa does it better just a bit in comparison to Pandemonium. The character designs are beautiful and decent quality for the PS1. I mean, if I can at least tell what it is I'm looking at, then I'm good when it comes to PS1. I mean, yeah, I'm still not 100% sure what Klonoa or Huepow or Ghadius are actually supposed to be, but at least I can look at my screen, and say, that looks like a Klonoa-the-cute-whatever-he-is. The level designs are creative and beautiful as well. All in all, the difficulty is fairly easy, but does take a bit of practice and learning. I found learning the King riding the fish really tricky to figure out what I needed to do to damage him, but after a while, I figured it out, just like every old boss battle, there's just a trick to it you need to figure out. I refused to look it up, because I wanted to be challenged. This game is simplistic enough, but doesn't hold your hand entirely. I noticed there aren't very many extra lives throughout levels, and it takes a bit to get 100 gem-thingies to get that extra life as well. Health is also fairly scarce. I ended up restarting my first save due to running really low on lives and all too quickly, but on my second run, I walked into the game with better understanding, and had some lives to spare. The soundtrack is boss. This game hits hard and well in the feels, but I'm not gonna spoil the story. Just play it, you won't regret it. Look at me, I'm broke now with no food, shelter, just Klonoa, and I'm happy. How can I not be when the happiest jingle plays every time I boot this game up? This game is like cuddles wrapped in hugs wrapped in happiness. You should definitely play it. It's wonderful all the time.Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Initially when I heard of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile I was researching its PS2 sequel, which was apparently good enough to make it onto a couple top 25 PS2 game lists. Those lists were pretty much the only things that made me give the series a second glance. My curiosity aroused, I decided to get the first game in the series to see where the series came from. Upon playing it I wonder why the series is relatively unknown because it is actually fun. The story is this, you play as Klonoa, a small, childish, furry cat thing with large, wing-like ears and you're goal is to save the day from an evil force that was banished long ago. Apart from the basic story having no originality whatsoever there are a few quirks that do make it stand out slightly. Spoiler alert! For the those obsessed gamers who get angry at spoilers then skip the next 3 lines. It turns out that the world Klonoa lives in is actually some sort of dream or Phantomile and Klonoa was brought to it to prevent an evil entity from unleashing nightmare energy. He was given fake memories to care about the world so he could save it. Game-play wise it is similar to the old Mario 2D games in movement except that the environment is 3D resulting in some interesting mechanics. Klonoa's special ability comes from his ring that he found in the woods one day and inside it was some bubble creature that became his best friend. On that note the ring allows Klonoa to catch enemies and then either throw them to attack, or jump off them in midair to perform a double jump. Now this game is not without its faults, the combination of 2D and 3D makes it sort of difficult at times to judge the distance of enemies or items. As far as length game length goes don't expect too much. I finished it in about 6 hours and the only reason to replay it might be to unlock the bonuses earned by saving creatures in each level. Also notable is that the game has a VERY childish tone about it as far as art style and difficulty. The game spews cuteness out every orifice and the difficulty curve is slight. While there are some tricky jumps and bosses the challenge is pretty much constant so new gamers might feel like they are accomplishing something. Also the gibberish that passes for communication as well as their squeaky voices might grate on a few people's nerves (not the case with me). Even with the heavily childish tone and possibly irritating voice work the game was decent. It felt nice playing it because I'm about 20 and it brought me back to day when I put in Sonic 2 on my genesis. At the same time playing something so childish sometimes requires breaks to play something more intense. I found myself taking breaks every 2 levels or so to play Team Fortress 2 to let the adult in me assert its authority. Allow me to just skip to the bottom line. If you can afford and track down a copy of your own then I do recommend this game, especially for kids or those new to the gaming scene that are turned off by casual games. Heck, if love cute, fuzzy creatures then this'll be just right.Read full review
A solid platformer that's easy to pick up easy to play with a nice learning curve kids will love it retro gamers will love it its a good value
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This game is a vibe!! Your favorite heros favorite hero. It has a very whimiscal feel and the gamelplay is very solid and engaging as well. Had to pick it up!!!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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