My Baby Boy
Alright, here we go. A lot of you are probably wondering, "
What the **** is a Klonoa?!" And honestly... That's a pretty reasonable question.
Klonoa is a series of 2.5D platformers, taking place on a 2D plane but branching out into multiple different paths, rendered in 3D. Gameplay revolves around Klonoa's Wind Ring, which he uses to shoot Wind Bullets. Despite the name, they're more of a grab than anything. They inflate enemies and Klonoa holds them above his head; After that, he can throw them to either side, the background, or the foreground.
Klonoa stars the eponymous Klonoa, a floppy-eared cat-rabbit thing (Canonically he's supposed to be a cat). Other important characters include the Ring Spirit Heupow, the priestess-in-training Lolo, and the bounty hunter Guntz. Klonoa seems to have the same character, but different settings, a la Ys. This is because Klonoa is a dream traveler, destined to travel across different worlds in danger. This is something he might not even know, though we'll never known at the rate because of the franchises' dormancy. More on that later.
While only the first game is set in Phantomile, Klonoa is referred to as a Phantomilian and so is the language everyone speaks. Yep, the games have their own language. Heck, they even sang a song in that language.
They gave an option for standard English in the Wii remake of Door to Phantomile, but uh... I feel like they could've found a more fitting VA for Klonoa.
Regardless of the setting, Klonoa is also known for being quite tragic.
This is first showcased in the especially cruel twists in the first game, Door to Phantomile. His grandpa gets bombed to death, it turns out all his memories are faked so that he can stop the villain Ghadius and the monster Nahatomb, and at the end he's sucked into a portal without warning, with the heavy implication that he won't ever see Huepow again.
Yeah, cute and cuddly, amirite?
It should also be noted that the Wind Ring requires an energy source to function, usually a friend who inhabits it. In the first game, this was Huepow, while in the second, it was Lolo. Seems like pretty good taunt material to me. Beyond that, he can float a little by flapping his ears, giving a bit of extra height to his jump. He also has a few extra weapons, such as the Wind Sword, the Hammer, the Arm Cannons, the Boomerang, and the Beam Gnome (Actually a shield on a stick, basically).
Klonoa is a beloved and charming series. Despite that, it was a flop, in no small part because Bandai Namco refused to advertise
their own product. Yes, everyone's sure to buy the game they don't know exists, brilliant marketing strategy, guys. As such, he barely lasted more than a decade. Despite this, Klonoa has had a couple appearances outside his home games. He's appeared in Namco X Capcom, he got a webcomic in 2014 (Which was sadly cancelled as the website went down), and an anime that was announced in 2016... Which was also cancelled after three years of radio silence.
Pain
Regardless of the suffering, we might just have a spark of hope. Recently, a trademark for "Klonoa Encore" was filed, alongside Mr. Driller and Splatterhouse. This matches up with Katamari Damacy REROLL, which had the Encore subtitle in Japan. In fact, Mr. Driller Encore has actually released, giving more credence to Klonoa Encore. As of current, the trademark has been given a Japanese registration certificate, as seen here:
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The last step after this would be an American/European certificate. If the Mr. Driller trademark is any indication, that should come in about four months, followed by an announcement two months after that. Then again, COVID has fricked us all, so I'm setting my projections for 2021 and waiting to see what happens.
With everything the little guy has, I'll have to give him a
15%.
...
Sigh. Even with my bias, optimism, low bar of entry, and habitual overrates, 15% is all I can muster for this guy,
and that's pushing it. Poor guy's just outclassed and in dormancy. Which is a darn shame, because unless the big writeup didn't tip you off, my want score is a full
100%. Just looking at the games gives me a flash of nostalgia for a game I didn't know about until a couple years ago. I see gameplay and go, "Why couldn't I have grown up with this?" Here's some gameplay of the Wii version, for some perspective.
And so concludes my rating days. There were some fun times here, but in the end, I'm just not made for debates. My bar of entry is low and my ratings tend to be too high, and half the time I'm not good at explaining my points. I'll probably drop in here from time to time to give another writeup for someone I think needs more attention, but I'm a regular no longer.
Sayonara, everyone
.
