Past meets present: Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
Bandai Namco finally re-released a hard-to-find Playstation 2 game that's deserved better since it first dropped.
This column is “Past meets present,” the aim of which is to look back at game franchises and games that are in the news and topical again thanks to a sequel, a remaster, a re-release, and so on. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.
It took far longer than it should have, but the second Klonoa game for consoles, Lunatea’s Veil, finally received a re-release over two decades after its initial one on the Playstation 2. Klonoa 2 released alongside the original game in the series, Door to Phantomile, as part of the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series collection. While it would have been preferable if the numerous handheld Klonoa games were also included so that it could be considered a full franchise collection, that what we did get is selling for just $40 new instead of the traditional $60 lets me back off of that angle a bit — especially since both included games have been remastered from their original form, not just plopped down into the present with some filters.
The last time Klonoa was mentioned around these parts was back in January, before the Phantasy Reverie Series was announced, as part of the “Re-Release This” series. While the original Playstation version of the game was (and is) still available on the Playstation 3’s version of the PSN, that service is difficult to purchase from and also two generations ago at this point, the rare original physical copy of the game was always prohibitively expensive, and the Wii remake of Klonoa, while more like $100 on the secondary market instead of $700, was nowhere to be found otherwise.
That Wii remake ties into part of why Klonoa 2 has remained locked away since the days of the PS2. It failed commercially, even at its budget price, so plans to remake Lunatea’s Veil and give it a second chance as well were scrapped. Klonoa, for as many games as it has under its umbrella, has never really been a commercial success, especially in comparison to how beloved it is critically. Bandai Namco finally caved and decided to give it a shot again in the present, and this time, instead of just being on one platform at a time, it would be basically everywhere: Phantasy Reverie Series is available on the Switch, Playstation 4 and 5, Xboxes One and Series X|S, and Windows. It also released internationally nearly all at once, with the remakes landing in Japan on July 7, and worldwide the very next day. While the physical release isn’t worldwide — North America has to be satisfied with digital — the fact these two commercial failures can be re-released digitally without the overhead that comes with physical releases is probably part of the only reason they’re even available again at all.
So I’ll begrudgingly accept that. And by that I mean I ordered a physical copy from the United Kingdom while it was discounted in order to negate the high shipping cost. You, too, can do this if you keep an eye out for sales, but if you’re not a weirdo about physical releases like I can sometimes be, digital is right there.
If you enjoyed Door to Phantomile, you will very likely also have a good time with Lunatea’s Veil. It’s both more of the same and fairly different at the same time: the core concepts remain, with a focus on slow, methodical platforming, grabbing enemies to use them as both projectiles and launching pads for higher jumps, collecting 100 gems for an extra life, and optional hidden items. But it’s also pretty clear that Namco — the game originally released prior to the merger with Bandai — was paying a lot of attention to what Sonic Team and Sega were doing with Sonic Adventure. I am certainly not the first person to notice this, but it’s worth noting all the same.
As game developer Bobby Schroeder noted, in Lunatea’s Veil, Klonoa now has multiple snowboarding levels. He rides on top of a plane. The music has vocal tracks. The game is now flush with automated moments that take the controller out of your hands, too. Hop into a cannon, and watch Klonoa be fired across the landscape. Whereas in something like Donkey Kong Country Returns, the barrels that fire you into the foreground or background are pretty quick transitions that let you get right back to what you were doing, Klonoa goes the Sonic route of really milking these moments to show off how cool and stylish it’s all supposed to look. There’s… a lot of this, and it feels pretty empty, and shallow, actually, like it doesn’t need to exist most of the time, and is keeping you from just continuing on your way. Luckily, the rest of the game isn’t like these extremely 2001 moments, and does a better job of building on the intriguing gameplay of Door to Phantomile. And I’m being pretty nitpicky here, too, just to be clear: I imagine these bits got a more loving reception back when the Playstation 2 was first out, as they showed off a bit of what it could do, but a more discerning modern eye might just end up rolling.
And, oh, Klonoa looks so much like he belongs in the Sonic universe now that my wife, who has never played one of these games, said as much even before I mentioned the Sonic Adventure connection to her. Which, you know, is probably what Namco was going for, the curiosity that could be born out of that recognition. They changed his eyes from the sclera-less, cat-like yellow irises and black pupils found in Door to Phantomile to mostly white sclera with narrow, vertical yellow irises and black pupils in Lunatea’s Veil. He now has those cute little teeth with the couple of tiny fangs in them instead of no visible teeth at all. Oh, and now he’s wearing blue. And lots of it! Whereas Klonoa wore red shorts and no shirt in the first game, with a large red collar around his neck, he’s now changed to blue shorts, added a blue shirt with a comically large zipper on it, and lost the belt. His hat is now backwards, too, because that conveys more attitude, a thing Sonic is known for.
It’s all funny, that the platforming is so, so deliberate, so focused on precision and timing, and that this redesign in both levels and appearance was inspired by a franchise all about going very fast that lets you just blow by things entirely because of that speed.
While the earliest stages of Lunatea’s Veil are a little too simple for their own good if you’re familiar with the series, the game builds on its concepts repeatedly, and is introducing new elements for you to master late into the game. The level design is mostly of a high quality, and layered: you end up returning to quite a few previous levels later on in the game, for various reasons, and there is always some new element or element that changes just enough of the layout or your goals and challenges for it to still feel fresh.
However, there is occasionally a pacing issue in some stages, especially later ones, as they are simply too long: 20-25 minutes for a 2.5D platforming stage is a lot, especially in one where you’re supposed to be searching for hidden collectibles. Luckily, those collectibles are optional, and mostly serve to unlock bonus content: find all six hidden star-shaped bells in a stage six times, and it unlocks an optional, timed challenge stage, the completion of which will unlock further goodies, like access to the game’s soundtrack. Within the same area as these challenges and the sound test, you’ll also find time trials for boss fights you’ve already completed in the story, as well as a place to cash in whenever you’ve managed to collect the requested 150 gems in a given stage.
It is worth mentioning that the level length, in conjunction with repeating them (even if they are different the second time around) can make the process of going back to find missed collectibles a bit annoying. There isn’t quite as much game here as there is in something like Kirby’s Forgotten Land, for instance, and the levels are lengthier, the gameplay slower: that makes playing the stages again and again just to find these hidden objects — which Forgotten Land is even more stuffed with — more of an ask, in comparison. And the fact that Klonoa 2’s levels are often designed with both backtracking and future versions in mind can make finding these hidden objects and environmental puzzle solving a little trickier than it should be in the first place, as you aren’t always sure if you just aren’t finding the solution you need quite yet, or if it’s not able to be found just then.
Again, this is mostly nitpicky, but it’s the kind of stuff that makes Klonoa 2 a great game worth playing and re-releasing instead of an exceptional one worth raving about, is all. It’s a shame that, for all its steps forward, the design (and story) take some steps backwards, too, so that Lunatea’s Veil is an improvement on Door to Phantomile, but in the end, not by as much as you’d like.
As for those improvements. The platforming added some newer elements to it, like enemy types you can grab to fly through the sky in different ways, either automatically or by your own hand, and the walking bombs you use as platforms, as boosts for jumps, and as explosives to take out obstacles and enemies. The foes you grab for directed, short boosts in a specific direction, ones that break through block walls, are also a welcome addition, that take some skill to master for maximum effectiveness — say, figuring out how to boost with one enemy in order to grab one of these higher up in the air, and then be able to boost through even more of those breakable blocks to reveal whatever path or hidden item they were hiding.
These all work very well, but the greatest addition to the design is the enemy type that absorbs other enemies in order to change its color, and allow access to different areas through that. Essentially, you grab this enemy and throw them at another enemy, and it powers them up so that they radiate yellow. Do it again with a second enemy, and the color changes to blue; a third, red. You use them to break apart color-coded barriers in your way, and they are almost always attached to some kind of puzzle where you have to figure out not just the correct order of enemies to absorb, but from where, all while knowing what your next step is. Here’s an example of this setup in action:
You have to throw one of the bomb enemies under a low ceiling you can’t carry an enemy through, launch yourself high in order to get back over that obstacle — and before your thrown absorbing pal comes back to you — while nailing a couple of targeted throws below. The video makes it look easy, but you have to take it all in before you can just do it like that (and hey, they missed making all the throws accurately their first time here, too — Klonoa really is about precision and timing).
There is also co-op in Lunatea’s Veil. It’s local, not online, and lets you drop right in and out. It’s not really a full co-op with a second Klonoa or equivalent character, but instead lets someone act in a support role — think something along the lines of a second player in Super Mario Galaxy, who is there to assist more than to play through the game in the same way as the primary player. Basically the mode lets Klonoa jump even higher through the use of a support jump, pulled off thanks to a second player, which can help you with clearing some trickier puzzles or hazards. It’s maybe more enjoyable for a younger or less experienced player who wants to try Klonoa, but maybe isn’t quite there yet coordination-wise in terms of tackling a 2.5D game that expects the player to be able to throw enemies into the background, foreground, the left, the right, and use them for jump boosts, too.
Klonoa 2 does make things pretty easy on you if you want it to, at least, so that less experienced players can take the time to familiarize themselves with how the game works without taking too much punishment in the process. Lives are infinite on the game’s easiest difficulty setting, and health, represented by hearts, comes in greater number while Klonoa himself is more resilient to damage, too. Even on the standard difficulty, the game will pepper in some extra lives for you to collect either if it senses you struggling or if you’re coming up on a particularly insta-death-y section, like one where you are pretty likely to drown at least once or ride your snowboard right off of a narrow pass.
And one thing that’s definitely exclusive to the remake is the pixel filter. It’s kind of a mess in some ways — the HUD, for instance, doesn’t pixelate along with the rest of what’s on screen, which makes for a jarring image, and the filter isn’t trying to recreate the look of CRT screens but simply raw pixels — but it’s also a neat addition in theory, because it creates a Klonoa 2 demake that never existed. While in Door to Phantomile the filter is trying to ignore that it’s all based on an enhanced version of the Wii remake by making it look like the original Playstation release, the Lunatea’s Veil pixel filter… also makes it look like an original Playstation release. I’m probably not going to use it on a full playthrough or anything, because as said it’s kind of a mess in design and in terms of how the filter actually looks, but I do appreciate the idea of both re- and de-making the game at the same time. That’s a neat space that should be explored further in an official capacity.
Lunatea’s Veil has its faults, but they’re pretty minor and easy enough to wave away, especially when the additions to the gameplay from Door to Phantomile are generally so enjoyable. The game deserved far more than it received in its first go of things 21 years ago, so hopefully this second chance will go well, and convince Bandai Namco to not only keep the franchise going, but also to release a second collection focusing on its much vaster portable history.
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