Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Wahoo! - Klonoa Protagonist(s): Klonoa Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): PlayStation Wii Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Microsoft Windows Release: PS1 JP: December 11, 1997 NA: March 10, 1998 EU: June 5, 1998 Wii JP: December 4, 2008 NA: May 5, 2009 EU: May 22, 2009 AU: June 19, 2009 KOR: September 10, 2009 PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows JP: July 7, 2022 WW: July 8, 2022 Developer(s): Namco (PS1) Paon (Wii) Publisher(s): PlayStation WW: Namco EU: Sony Computer Entertainment Wii WW: Namco Bandai Games Country: Japan Series: Klonoa Successor: Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a platform game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation on December 11, 1997 in Japan and in 1998 in North America and Europe. It is the first installment in the Klonoa series.

A remake of the game titled simply Klonoa was released for the Wii on December 4, 2008 in Japan and in 2009 worldwide. This version also served as a remaster of Door to Phantomile included in Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series released in on July 7, 2022 in Japan and a day later worldwide on July 8.

Plot

Set in Phantomile, a land fueled by dreams people have at night, Klonoa has had a dream about an airship crashing into a nearby mountain known as Bell Hill. The next day an airship does indeed crash into the mountain, just like in Klonoa's dream. Klonoa and his friend Huepow (Hewpoe in the Wii remake) decide to investigate. At the Bell Hill, Ghadius and his henchman Joka (known in the Wii remake as Joker) on the mountain searching for a magical moon pendant so he can turn Phantomile into a world of nightmares, all the while kidnapping Lephise in order to prevent her from renewing the world with her "Song of Rebirth". After a brief scuffle, Klonoa finds the pendant under a bell and ventures back to his home in Breezegale, where his caretaker, Grandpa, tells him that the chieftess of the nearby Forlock Forest, named Granny, knows about the pendant. The pendant is left with his caretaker. After being stolen by Joka/Joker, Klonoa and Huepow/Hewpoe must defeat Joka/Joker and Ghadius to save Phantomile.

Why It Rings a Dream

1. The graphics are great for PS1 standards. The game surprisingly does well at making the characters 2D sprites while making the stages in 3D, which the result was great. Each stage and background are well designed and have good animations. The graphics are even better in the Wii version, where everything is 3D, and the animations are more fluid.
2. Awesome soundtrack. The theme for the first stage, "The Windmill Song" is very catchy and makes the player feel like they're actually going for an awesome adventure. Some of the boss themes, such as "Baladium's Drive" and "The Rongo Lando" are also awesome and are worth listening. Sometimes you might even want to stay in the levels for longer just to listen to the game's soundtrack.
3. The plot is interesting; an airship crashes into a mountain just like in Klonoa's dream, and then Klonoa and Huepow/Hewpoe decide to investigate to see what happened. Ghadius and Joka/Joker then steal the pendant and after it is stolen by Joka/Joker from Grandpa, Klonoa and Huepow/Hewpoe must save Phantomile from Joka/Joker and Ghadius.
4. Despite being mainly in gibberish, which is known as "Phantomilan" in the game, the voice acting is awesome, especially in the PS1 version. Each voice actor does a great job voicing the characters they're voicing, notably Kumiko Watanabe as Klonoa. The Wii remake has noticeably higher quality voice acting, where some voice actors even reprise their roles, notably Watanabe as Klonoa. The English voice acting in the Wii version, while slightly weaker than the Phantomilan one, is also great. Notably, Huepow/Hewpoe's voice is fitting for him and Balue and Grandpa's voices sound both good.
5. The attack Klonoa uses, the Wind Bullet, is creative. While it can pop some bubbles that enables the check points, it can also be used on enemies to throw them onto other enemies and other objects that cannot be hit by the Wind Bullet. It can be also used to oerform a double jump when having an enemy.
6. While there are some pits that cannot be jumped over with regular jumps, they can be jumped over with floating. To perform this, Klonoa must be airbone to perform it, and if any jump buttons are pressed while airbone, Klonoa will float for a moment. Sometimes, it can be used to collect some dream stones that cannot be possible to collect with regular jumps.
7. If Klonoa gets hit by an enemy, instead of losing a life automatically, he'll lose a half of one heart. Klonoa has three hearts, and losing half of one means that Klonoa has 6 HP. This makes it harder to get a Game Over, so you don't have to worry about losing too much.
8. The controls are tight and responsive. When you press any of the buttons, Klonoa will move without any problem. Additionally, holding any of the jump buttons to float for a very short while is also easily responsive.
9. A lot of emotional moments that can easily give the player some tears, such as the death of Klonoa's Grandpa or Huepow/Hewpoe looking like he died after Klonoa fired him at Nahatomb to rescue Lephise, only to later find out that Huepow/Hewpoe has survived.
   • The reward for the most emotional moment in the game, however, is the ending. In the ending, Huepow/Hewpoe tells Klonoa that the world he lived in was fake and that he gave Klonoa fake memories that he believed in them. Klonoa, however, thought this was a lie, but it wasn't. Due to Klonoa actually being from a different Phantomile, a portal opens up as Lephise sings the "Song of Rebirth" to bring back Phantomile. The ending only gets more emotional when Klonoa gets sucked into the portal, before Huepow/Hewpoe tries to make Klonoa stay, before ultimately sucked into the portal, and the last thing the player sees is Huepow/Hewpoe in tears after Klonoa was sucked back to his true home.
10. The CGI look very good for the time, since the game was released in 1997 and the CGI wasn't as reccuring as now or the 2000s, the CGI cutscenes are also the best one and are easily comparable to those of Pac-Man World (even though that game came out in 1999).
11. Some of the dialogues in this game are memorable, most notably the Wahoo that Klonoa say in the title screen, which became a meme over the years.
12. A very nice reference to Pac-Man in Klonoa cap, since we can see Pac-Man eating a pac-dot, which might say that Klonoa is a huge fan of Pac-Man.
13. In the Wii version, players can shake the Wii Remote for a 'Whirlwind' ability which can stun enemies.
14. The game is played on a 2.5D that is similar to Pandemonium!, in which that genre of platformer wasn't really popular until that both Klonoa and the said game, this was quite original for the time.

Bad Qualities

1. While the voice acting in the Wii remake is great, some of the voices in the English dub sound inaccurate to the original voices. Perhaps the most notable example is Klonoa's English voice. His English voice actor was given very little information about Klonoa, resulting in him giving Klonoa a voice similar to Sonic the Hedgehog. This resulted in him receiving criticisms due to Klonoa's voice, before responding that Klonoa's English voice was based on his design and that he was not aware about Kumiko Watanabe's voice for Klonoa.
   • Although Klonoa's English voice in the Wii remake is fine, despite giving him an inaccurate voice, although he still tried.
2. Some parts can be considered a bit too dark for an K-A rated game. Perhaps the most notable could be Grandpa's death, which, while emotional, can look too dark, especially since Grandpa in the PS1 versions says nothing when Joka/Joker is about to kill him, and the former doesn't even do anything when Joka/Joker is about to kill him. However, this isn't much of a problem in the Wii and Phantasy Reverie Series version as both are rated E10+, although in the Phantasy Reverie Series version, Grandpa also doesn't say anything when Joka/Joker is coming to kill him, but this isn't much of an issue in this version due to the aforementioned E10+ rating.
3. While the controls are responsive, sometimes sliding after you let off the D-pad can result in cheap deaths, especially if you don't time it correctly.
4. Huepow/Hewpoe's true form's design looks rather creepy and a bit ugly to some, and look a bit like a rejected character from Teletubbies.

Reception

Upon release, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile received critical acclaim from critics and players. The game was named as the first notable 3D platformer from Namco and a bid for creating a gaming mascot. The game was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, and other reasons. The Wii remake was also met with positive reception, scoring a 77/100 from critics and 7.9/10 from players.

However, despite both versions' success, they were commercial failures, with the exception being the Japanese PS1 version. The Wii remake debuting as the 33rd highest-selling game in Japan during its first week, selling only 5,800 copies. These commercial failures resulted in Bandai Namco not making any Klonoa games until Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series was announced in 2022 and released in July of that same year.

Despite the commercial failures, the Klonoa franchise developed a cult following and a fanbase. Today, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and its Wii remake are considered to be one of the best PS1 and Wii games, and the franchise is considered to be one of the best franchises ever made.

Trivia

• Interestingly, in the ending in the PS1 version, Huepow/Hewpoe smiled a few seconds after Klonoa was sucked back to his true home, as if looking as if he knew they would meet each other again (which they did, notably in Empire of Dreams). However, in the Wii remake and the Phantasy Reverie Series remaster, Huepow/Hewpoe did not smile. According to Hideo Yoshizawa, the game's director, Huepow/Hewpoe smiling in the PS1 version was an idea of a certain programmer, as Huepow/Hewpoe was not originally supposed to smile, making the Wii remake and the Phantasy Reverie Series remaster's endings more faithful to the original idea.
• Hideo Yoshizawa stated that if the Wii remake would sell well, a remake of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, the game's sequel, would be made. However, because the Wii remake was a commercial failure, the remake of Lunatea's Veil was never made.
• For the Wii remake, Klonoa was meant to have an unique redesign for western versions, due to the original one being considered too "old-fashioned" and "cute". However, the redesign was met with a negative reception from critics and fans, forcing Bandai Namco to scrap the redesign and keep the original one for western versions.
• According to Hideo Yoshizawa, Huepow/Hewpoe was originally supposed to betray Klonoa and would be the final boss (or the true final boss), before being scrapped for unknown reasons.
• The game was originally going to be completely different: the original concept for the game was more serious and featured robots and an "ancient ruins" motif, with Klonoa a robot that would defeat enemies with spinning iron balls. This idea was scrapped and the game became the way what we know it today.

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