Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series Review

When it comes the 3D platformers, there are few games from major series’ I haven’t tried. Growing up with the SNES and the PS1 being my primary consoles, there were no shortage of platformers to play. But I must admit, Klonoa is one series that until I sat down to review this collection I hadn’t played at all. My only experience with the series was the spin off Klonoa: Beach Volleyball game that I actually spent quite a lot of time with on the PS1, but hadn’t ever checked out the core games. Now with the Phantasy Reverie Series, the first 2 Klonoa games look better than ever and are certainly the most accessible they’ve been in a long time. And while the Klonoa series isn’t the most well known platforming series, I’ve learned that is has quite the loyal fan base.

The Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series collection contains remasters of the first 2 games in the series. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile from the PS1 and Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil which originally launched for the PS2. The game’s textures, character models and assets have been upgraded, and for the most part, look really great. I played the PS5 version for review and besides looking incredibly vibrant, the game runs at a stable 60FPS and is capable of 4K output. This feature isn’t available on every platform that the collection is available on, so if you’re looking into picking it up and have multiple consoles available to you, just double check that the version you’re looking for fully meets your needs.

The main stories of the games aren’t too complex and in the first game especially, boils down to a good team vs evil bad guy threatening to destroy the dream world Phantomile. Not to uncommon in the 90’s especially. But I didn’t find this to actually be a drawback with either game as the core fun component comes from adventuring through the levels, solving puzzles and finding the best paths and collectibles. While both of the games aren’t incredibly long to beat. These alternate paths and collectibles in the levels encourage you to find all the gems and replay the stages.

Surprisingly, there is a decent amount of story segments to play through within the stages, and I did like many of the colourful and quirky characters you’ll find and chat to along the way. Many other games in the same genre do feature some story segments but they typically take place between the stages or upon clearing worlds, but you’ll often encounter these segment breaking up the middle of stages which was something that did initially take me by surprise.

One thing I loved about the collection was that the games seem very approachable for players of all ages. While the story component of the game will require some reading ability, the game overall is pretty approachable for kids as they can easily grasp the mechanics of the game such as picking up enemies and using them to double jump, throwing them to open object and reveal paths and navigate the well designed yet complex weaving levels. This collection also introduces multiple difficulty modes including an easy mode where Klonoa’s wind bullets have increased range, he has more overall health and takes less damage when attacked. I have young children, and any time I can see them enjoying games and we can bond over a common interest, that’s a big win in my book when it comes to game design.

The games both mostly hold up by todays standards. I quite enjoyed many of the boss battles and while they’re not too difficult or complex, they’re certainly fun to play. I do wish there was a bit more variety to the enemy designs and that the games were a bit longer overall, I can appreciate that these titles were made over 20 years ago and designed in a very different time. Until the release of this collection, the games were quite hard to come by and certainly aren’t cheap for original copies so I’m glad to see that this may be the first step to getting more people to enjoy this often overlooked series (including myself).

Final Thoughts

Although it originally launched during an era when we were flooded with 3D character platformers, Klonoa does feel unique enough to stand up against many of the household names we think of when thinking about the genre, it just seems it didn’t catch on enough at the time to grow as big as Crash, Spyro or Ratchet & Clank for example. Hopefully with the release of this collection it can continue to resonate with existing fans, find some new ones and who knows it could eventually spawn a brand new entry, reviving the series with the first original new game in over 20 years. If you’re a fan of character based platformers, I’d recommend checking out the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series on your platform of choice.

A PS5 review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of review.

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