That said, the Klonoa games are beautiful, fun, (mostly) hidden gems and I’m hoping that enough interest shows up for this new collection that Bandai Namco seriously considers making Klonoa 3. I mean, Namco is no stranger to awesome PS1 museum compilations, so I feel a bit let down. It looks like a digital artbook is included in the special edition, but I’d have preferred some kind of Klonoa museum feature in-game. It should also be noted that none of the other Klonoa games, like from the Game Boy Advance, made the cut. Many of the recent throwback collections (say, from Capcom) have dabbled in such extras and I think it goes a long way in making a re-release like this more special. I’m thinking in terms of stuff like design documents, interviews, anything to ‘plus’ a retro compilation like this. The last thing I’ll mention is that I was definitely expecting a little bit more in terms of franchise history with Phantasy Reverie Series. At least the music from the first game appears to be in-tact from the PS1 release, though I can’t be certain for the sequel, since I didn’t play that title nearly as much. This bummed me out, because I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for cel-shading, and I blame Jet Set Radio for that. It does seem that Bandai Namco has altered the look of Klonoa 2, stripping the game of its charming cel-shading in favor of a more homogenized display. The draw is in the art, the environments, and the cute appealing nature of our anthropomorphic hero’s entire world.
If you go in expecting graphical powerhouses, you’ll surely be disappointed, but Klonoa has never really been about pushing hardware. I’ll always prefer the rudimentary sprite-heavy visuals of the PS1 release, but what’s here is nicely and lovingly brought into the current generation. On that note, the updated graphics do look excellent, minus some egregious blooming effects here and there. Probably more gamers experienced the Wii remake, so it’s nice that we’re getting a pair of largely ignored classics in one modern, accessible, updated collection. Between the two of them, they’ve occupied a somewhat niche corner of Namco’s storied library, and I still don’t think a whole lot of people have played these games. Basically, if you haven’t played any of the Klonoa games, they’re arguably great platformers with an interesting surrealist style.
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