Klonoa

Klonoa
Klonoa as he appears in Namco × Capcom.
Genre(s)	Platformer action role-playing sports
Developer(s)	Namco Now Production Paon
Publisher(s)	Namco EU: SCEE Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platform(s)	PlayStation, WonderSwan, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Wii
First release	Klonoa: Door to Phantomile December 11, 1997
Latest release	Klonoa December 4, 2008

Klonoa (クロノア, Kuronoa) is a video game series created by Namco and Klonoa Works, as well as the name of the titular character of the series. The character and series were launched with the release of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the PlayStation in 1997.

The character Klonoa has features of a dog, cat, and rabbit but is not explicitly any particular animal.^[1] He is described within the games and manga as a "Dream Traveler", who is fated to travel to various places where the state of dreams is in danger, but he himself is not aware of that. His traditional voice actor is Kumiko Watanabe, he is voiced by Eric Stitt in the English version of the remake of the first game. He has Namco's mascot Pac-Man on the side of his blue hat. Wanting to be a hero, he is young and good-hearted and is willing to go against all odds to make sure justice is served. He is easily able to befriend characters along the way who support his cause. His attitude is innocent and even a bit naive, as shown in Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.

Klonoa was designed by Yoshihiko Arai. Arai's first design, "Shady", had a shadow-like appearance. However, he felt that the lack of color did not seem tasteful, and dropped the design. His next design was created with characteristically animal eyes and long ears, as Arai felt that a person's eyes and silhouette are the features noticed when they are first met. He added a large hat with a Pac-Man emblem on it and collar to give the character a childlike and energetic quality. The design was kept and used for Klonoa.^[2]

Games[]

History[]

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile was released in late 1997 in Japan and in 1998 in North America and Europe, it was critically well received by numerous gaming publications and magazines. It was one of the first PlayStation platform games to feature two-dimensional character artwork on a rendered, three-dimensional backdrop.^[3] It was described as 2.5D to distinguish it between other games that relied on one or the other.

Klonoa's second appearance, Klonoa: Moonlight Museum was released solely in Japan for the Japanese-only WonderSwan handheld system in 1999. It is Klonoa's first handheld appearance and his first fully two-dimensional one. Despite lacking the artful style of the first game, Moonlight Museum set the standard for the approaching Game Boy Advance titles like Klonoa: Empire of Dreams, which came out two years later. Though it was very similar in style and execution to the previous game, it was developed for the more sophisticated Game Boy Advance hardware and was also available in North America and Europe.

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001 with moderate success. Its different types of gameplay include a standard set of platformer levels in the "2.5D" style, hoverboarding down snowy mountains and water parks, time-attack challenges, puzzle-solving, and boss fights, it also introduced a "360 degrees" system.

A third handheld title, Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament, was released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2002 with a heavily belated release in North America three years later. Utilizing the same game engine as Empire of Dreams, Dream Champ Tournament was a similar gaming experience that benefited from more sophisticated puzzles and featured a newer cast of supporting characters.

A sports title, Klonoa Beach Volleyball, released for the PlayStation in Japan and later Europe, featured Klonoa and his friends in a unique version of volleyball. A North American version was not released.

Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal was a Japan-exclusive title released in late 2002. Taking a unique twist on the series, the game is an action role-playing game rather than a platformer and is played from a top-down perspective.

A remake of Door to Phantomile, simply titled Klonoa, was released on December 4, 2008, in Japan for the Wii console. It features revised graphics and voice acting, as well as many unlockable bonuses that were not in the original. These include new costumes, Mirrored Visions, and challenge areas. It was then released in North America on May 5 and in Europe on May 22, 2009. Despite receiving positive reviews, the game was a commercial failure and plans for a remake of Lunatea's Veil as well as a third main line installment were scrapped.^[4][5]

In September 2019, a trademark filing under the name Klonoa of the Wind Encore was discovered, which was updated as of September 2020.^[6][7]

Gameplay[]

The games are set in different worlds, though the primary and known ones are Phantomile and Lunatea. It revolves around Klonoa and how he, the Dream Traveler, must save whatever world he is in from peril. Along the way he makes new friends and enemies, some of them becoming recurring characters. The game is an early example of a side-scrolling 3D game. It is an adventure and puzzle type of game. The main gameplay feature involves using Klonoa's ring and "Wind Bullets" to inflate enemies, which can be thrown at other objects or at the ground, giving him a boost upwards allowing him to double jump.

Cameos[]

• Klonoa had playable guest appearances in Moto GP,^[8] Alpine Racer 3, Smash Court 3 and Taiko no Tatsujin.^{[citation needed]}
• Klonoa and Guntz appear as a playable duo in Namco's cross-over role-playing game Namco × Capcom. They retain similar moves from Klonoa Heroes. Joka, Janga and various varieties of Moos also appear as a part of the game's enemies while Lolo & The High Priestess of La-Lakoosha appear as non-playable characters.^{[citation needed]}
• In Tales of Destiny 2, a Klonoa plushie can be seen at the left side of the character Harold's room.^{[citation needed]}
• In Tales of Symphonia, the character Presea could get a Klonoa costume.^{[citation needed]}
• In Tales of Hearts and Keroro RPG: Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku, Klonoa appears as a summon character.^{[citation needed]}
• In Tales of Vesperia, Klonoa appears in the form of a fellowship statue named (C) F Statue. There is also a Klonoa costume for the character Karol as downloadable content in both the PlayStation 3 and Switch version.^{[citation needed]}
• In Tales of Phantasia Klonoa appears as the Statue of Friendship.^{[citation needed]}
• In Soulcalibur V Klonoa appears as a keychain as downloadable content for character creation.^{[citation needed]}
• Klonoa appears in Tekken 7 as part of downloadable panel art along with other Bandai Namco characters.^[9]

Other media[]

Manga[]

Shippuu Tengoku Kaze no Klonoa is a two-volume long comedy/slapstick manga that, unlike the somewhat more serious tone from the video games, feature Klonoa as a good natured, clumsy and dim-witted kid obsessed with being a super hero. His attempts to make good deeds tend to fail or cause the opposite effect, due to his being overly enthusiastic, his habit of jumping to conclusions and, sometimes, just because of bad luck. The volumes were released in 2002 and 2003.^[10][11]

His patient sidekick is a Moo, who is the postman of Breezegale. Garlen is the main villain, trying to scam or catch Klonoa but failing every time, making a fool of himself in the process.

The manga borrows characters, villains and locations from most of Klonoa's games, such as Lolo who makes an appearance in almost every comic, but instead of following any canon personality or storyline, it simply puts Klonoa and Moo in many everyday situations that quickly snowball into huge confusions or spectacular (and painful) accidents.

The first volume mainly takes focus on Klonoa's actions and morals as a (stupid) hero, which often turns out to be turned upside down, and the Moo's responsibility as he has to stop Klonoa from doing something idiotic.

However, the second volume's story is mainly about Popka who is looking for the "Legendary Hero". Baguji told him that the hero could be recognized by a "Hot Spring" icon somewhere on his body. Only the Legendary Hero can stop a disaster that may blow up the world.

Webcomic[]

Klonoa: Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol was a webcomic series published by ShiftyLook, written by Jim Zub and drawn by Hitoshi Ariga. It began in September 2012 and lasted for two seasons with new pages being released every Wednesday, later Wednesdays and Fridays, before abruptly stopping in mid-late 2014 with the closing of ShiftyLook, resulting in the story to be unresolved.^[12]

Cancelled film adaptation[]

A Klonoa film adaptation was under pre-production at Henshin.^[13] Hideo Yoshizawa joined the project as executive producer. Ash Paulsen of GameXplain also joined in as an associate producer.^[14][15] After two years with no updates, writer Hitoshi Ariga confirmed the project was cancelled on January 4, 2019.^[16]

Reception[]

The Klonoa series has been mostly been critically well received. It was praised for its gameplay, graphics and story.^[17][18] It also received several awards including Lunatea's Veil winning GameSpy's PlayStation 2 "Platform Game of the Year" in 2004.^[22]

However, the series saw disappointing sales commercially. Lunatea's Veil only sold 133,401 copies in Japan during 2001, making it the 85th best-selling game of the year,^[23] while Klonoa on Wii only debuted with 5,800 copies sold in Japan, making it the 33rd highest-selling game in the region in its first week.^[24]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Dale Bashir (July 26, 2021). "Remembering Namco's Forgotten Platforming Mascot 'Klonoa'". IGN. Retrieved July 26, 2021.

External links[]

• Official website (in Japanese)