Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - THE BARE NECESSITIES

[Grounder]

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - 1.1 - getting barked at in breezegale
Klonoa - 1.2 - ringing a bell over gunston mine
Klonoa - 2.1 political talk in forlock
Klonoa - 2.2 - rustling waters of a backwards waterfall
Klonoa - 3.1 - grinding pulleys over forlock
Klonoa - 3.2 - hammer thwocks in the tree mansion
Klonoa - 4.1 - whistling dead branches of the wind kingdom
Klonoa - 4.2 - rushing rivers of the leviathan's cavern
Klonoa - 5.1 - burning embers in coronia
Klonoa - 5.2 - enchanting whispers above coronia
Klonoa - 6.1 - a crinkle of dust
Klonoa - 6.2 - spectral howls of the prism corridor
Klonoa - Final Vision - tears in the skies
Klonoa - Extra Vision - cries over balue's tower

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a cute Namco platformer released for the PS1, remade for the Wii with an artstyle resembling its successors, and then remade again/ported to the current gen of consoles with a look better resembling the original again.

You control a cat with rabbit-like ears named Klonoa, who inflates enemies with a magic ring. His buddy Huepow is what's giving it its power, he looks kinda like a water droplet.

Wahoo!

[EllenHouraisan]

I had an exhausting day (nothing too bad, just a long trip + social obligations) and this is the only thing keeping me awake right now.

Wa-HOO!!!

[Grounder]

[Catabo]

Unforgiveable sin of the remake that alone makes it inferior to the original game: the "wahoo" in the title screen isn't properly synched with the opening jingle. And i'm curious to see how cow handles this difficulty-wise because i've actually been playing the game with half damage since the remake doesn't give you the option of taking original damage before unlocking it. And² i'm kind of floored by how much more charm the original game has than the remake straight out of the gate with the pre-rendered scenes (they totally could've thrown on a bloom/frame ghost effect and halved the frame rate just during the movies to emulate the pre-rendered look!) and sprites. Curious to see the later levels and notice the differences!

The "language" spoken by characters in this game is a wonderful example of how to do "babbling" dialogue right. One assumes it's just gonna be puru-puru noises at first, but there are semi-consistent words ("wahu, rupuridu, manya" generally mean "yeah, let's go, whoah" altho wahu in particular is used for more things) as well as spoken character names which act as anchors that make it sound like the characters are actually speaking a language and not nonsense. You can hear it right off the bat in 1-1 with Klonoa saying "Hyupo, rupuridu!" (Huepow, let's go!).

@ raocow saying one of the enemies looks like a furba: taking inspiration from all the different kinds of moo would be a good place to start for any needed permutations of furba/other enemies in a hypothetical ASMT: The Game.

[Bean]

Don't know why I thought you've played this game before (never saw the SMBX level with him either), but have fun with it! It's all right.

[Grounder]

probably assumed he played it for that one "not sonic" block he did

[Catabo]

After a lifetime of playing games where up/down on the control pad is the Y (up/down) axis, it takes a bit to get used to up/down being Z (away/towards) instead.

Interesting, it turns out one heart is two hits in the original game too! One heart=one HP seemed so obvious to me (i think that's how it is in the GBA game? idr) that i assumed the one heart=two HP was a remake change.

[Grounder]

[KobaBeach]

balue is way too cute. i want to give him a hug and then be unable to wrap my arms completely around him because he's just that huge

anyway this game fucks and i support a soft all the klonoas

[Grounder]

[KobaBeach]

"balue's a bear" and how

[Mineyl]

Well, I'm really glad I checked in when I did. I'm so happy to see raocow playing this. Klonoa is an extremely important, formative series for me that doesn't get anywhere near even half the appreciation it deserves. Klonoa is a fairly unique beast in that the series is from an era where while nearly all the other mascot platformers were trying to be cool with lots of attitude, Klonoa cut against the grain by being calmer, grounded, and at times somber and melancholy. It's an odd mixture that I just love and fuels my taste in games and media to this day.

Also glad to see you're playing the original and neither the remake nor the port of the remake, as they have some issues. This is the pure experience right here.

I'll stop myself before I go on a five-paragraph gush and simply wish that you enjoy this very fun and underrated gem, raocow!

[Grounder]

[KobaBeach]

sorry tails if this looks gay to the viewers but man i hate it when people turn on anti-aliasing on psx/saturn/n64 games

give me the jaggies... (no offense to ronco)

Well, I'm really glad I checked in when I did. I'm so happy to see raocow playing this. Klonoa is an extremely important, formative series for me that doesn't get anywhere near even half the appreciation it deserves.

this post is iyashikei

[Catabo]

"it's a very guttural 'wahoo'"

As a kid playing the GBA game, i thought he was saying "rahoo". Yes, diff voice acting clips from PS1 game, but Klonoa certainly has a twang to his affirmative.

Not sure when would be appropriate to say it: another thing that differs from platformers as the player is probably used to them is that Klonoa has no variable jump. It feels weird at first, but once you get used to it it's got a puzzle-game-like precision that can be appreciated (you know the exact height a jump will be each time). It's nice just to be able to tap the jump button when you don't want to flutter, too!

sorry tails if this looks gay to the viewers but man i hate it when people turn on anti-aliasing on psx/saturn/n64 games

give me the jaggies... (no offense to ronco)

Agree, but i understand when the game is being played at a resolution much higher than the original. My ideal AA setting for the remake would be 2×, but there's no option between off and 4× feelsnotsowahooman

[Grounder]

[Bean]

Also give me the Super Mario World or Mega Man 6/7 springs where you hold the button down instead of time it. Otherwise, you get a specific level I'm not fond of in DKC Tropical Freeze. This is looking a lot more charming than the Wii remake that is my only experience with the series.

[Catabo]

The timing of the springs is more generous than it appears; you more or less just press the button while Klonoa is on it at any point and it gives you the full jump height (at least that's how it is in the remake that's on Steam).

[Grounder]

[Catabo]

So yo, here's a theme we don't see very often: forest and machinery coexisting in harmony rather than being enemies! All of the contraptions really make Forlock feel alive.

The music being fantastic merits a mention: the music is the exact same in the remake, which is a pleasant surprise in a place where you would expect a both pointless and soulless remix. The PS1 game choosing to use streamed instead of sequenced music paid off!

I'm generally a fan of the bosses in this game because they test your main verb of throwing things. First boss is throwing horizontally, second is throwing with timing, and now it's wahooing to throw downward. This boss in particular annoyed me with having to position it when it does its jump attack so it lands close enough to a spring so you can wahoo a moo into it.

[KobaBeach]

the jungle bgm in this boss battle mmmfff

[Grounder]

[EllenHouraisan]

From today's episode (spoiled in case future adventurers come across the thread without watching the LP):

As a non-english speaking kid, I didn't understand the plot and somehow completely missed all the stuff with the pendant, so I thought that the reason Klonoa went back to the wind kingdom was because he was homesick and wanted to pay grandpa a visit, and the villains just killed him out of spite.

Baladium (the giant snek) is one of the most memorable bosses in the game for me, and his theme may very well be my favorite song in the ost. It's so good, and is very fitting for what's pretty much the turning point of the game.

Also, reminds me of when Mike Matei reviewed this game and complained that this boss was too hard to hit. Somehow.

[Grounder]

[KobaBeach]

one of the stages in seawar's hack, should raocow ever decide to play one of the unfinished demos (i don't think seawar has updated it in A While) is actually based on 4-2, baladium and all.

stuff abt it:

it is janky as shit and very unfun with its abuse of weirdly coded double jump chaining and overall the messy baladium battle being done in the snes' hardware which is Not Meant for shit like this.

it's also one of the first levels after getting yeeted to another submap by kamek's magic outside peach's castle, so instead of it being grandpa that gets murked by ghadius it's luigi who you left at home like a big dungus getting pwned by bowser.

he gets better, there's a whole ass optional fight with loogi based on the rouge battle in saga frontier, you just have to collect/unlock the fight's powerup magic in the like. two, three? magic trial levels there are around the overworld a la saga frontier 1's magic gift trials, it's just that with each powerup you unlock the easier it is to get more of the magic icons in the trial levels to unlock more powerups for the battle.

the breezegalese and jugpotians are also toads and huepow is instead starlow from one of the mario & luigis (the vore/macro bowser one? completely forgot). getting the secret exit also requires you getting every gem and "feather" which is way easier said than done

very interesting ideas and attempts but WOW this is jank

EDIT: extremely glad raocow agrees with me that klonoa's story is amazeballs. please treat children with dignity when writing a story. and you'll wind up with like klonoa or digimon tamers which are some of the highest pieces of art to come out of japan's otaku media market, even if chiaki j. konaka is a weirdo.

now if only the tales of team could harness 0.1% of that energy despite also being a namco studio making games for a younger audience! i think up to xillia 2(?) they had actual furigana in the manuals, so. alas!!!!!11

okay they may have succeeded maybe in vesperia? im not sure, im just going off of second hand remarks

Also, reminds me of when Mike Matei reviewed this game and complained that this boss was too hard to hit. Somehow.

mike and james are pretty garbage at reviewing stuff lets be real
and yet mike complained about people savescumming nes games..........................................

disclaimer i fucking love nes/sg1k/sms games, maybe atari/coleco/intv/cassette vision too, need to try those out