Retro Review: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSN)

Living a dream.

  From Namco, the developers behind the hit fighting games Tekken and SoulCalibur, came Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the PlayStation in 1997. Part of the gaming mascot craze of the 90's, it's a charming platformer with an equally charming hero, Klonoa, who must save his home from evil. As a fan of Namco's older works, I've been interested in playing Klonoa for a while and having finally beat it, does it deliver a fun experience?

 In a land called Phantomile, where forgotten dreams gather, we follow Klonoa, a cat-like creature whose been having bad dreams of his village being destroyed by a sinister figure. Joined by his buddy Huepow, the pair must save their home from Ghadius, who plans on plunging Phantomile into nightmare. The plot is as basic as they come, targeting a younger audience with its cute characters and cheery world. That said, the story had some emotional moments that many will relate to like the ending being a sad, but memorable one. 

You'll be grabbing and throwing
all kinds of enemies. 

 Klonoa is a 2D platformer where you control Klonoa as he jumps around platforms, solve stage-related puzzles, and beat enemies. Using Huepow, Klonoa can grab enemies and either throw them at other enemies or use them to get an extra jump. He can throw enemies at backgrounds and glide for a bit before falling. You'll also be rescuing Phantomile's citizens and collecting jewels that scattered in levels, which grants you a 1-Up when you collect a 100 of them. As for the levels, they're diverse with each having unique designs like a jungle and castle on the moon, and variety of enemies. Each level or "Vision" consists of two acts, with the second featuring a boss fight, which were fun as you'll be mixing Klonoa's attacks and stage gimmicks to beat them. They were easily my favorite parts of the gameplay, especially the last few bosses that were a challenge.

The gameplay is simple,
but lacks depth.

 Being a simple and straightforward adventure, the game is around five hours long. There's little in replay-value aside from rescuing all of the citizens and playing an extra level. The gameplay could've benefited from more depth like Klonoa obtaining abilities from bosses, which would make levels more fun. What was annoying too was Huepow's short grab range, which made difficult at times to grab enemies without getting damaged. 

 Klonoa is a decent-looking game with a colorful look. Characters take the form of 2D sprites while backgrounds are modelled in 3D, and both compliment each other well. I liked Klonoa's design and the CG cut-scenes were fun to watch too. The game's dialogue is in gibberish (though sometimes I swear it sounds like Japanese), fortunately the soundtrack suits the upbeat nature of the game. Tracks like the save theme, level 6-2's theme, and ending theme were some of my favorites. 

Klonoa holds up well compared
to other PS1 games.

 Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was a fun and upbeat platformer that I ended up enjoying. While it has some shortcomings, the story, gameplay, and presentation were great and stands among Namco's best games. Fans of old-school platformers should definitely give Klonoa: Door to Phantomile a look. Physical copies are expensive since the Klonoa series is obscure nowadays, but thankfully the game is $6 on PSN.