Name:
Klonoa: Door to
Phantomile ('
Kaze No Klonoa' in Japan)
Developer:
Namco
Publisher:
Namco (
Japan and
US),
Sony Computer Entertainment (
Europe)
Platform:
Sony PlayStation
Genre:
Platformer (Techincally
3D, but is better described as
2.5D)
Regions of Release:
Japan,
US, and
Europe
Year:
1997 (Japan),
1998 (US and Europe)
Players: One Player
Rarity: Very difficult to find new, reasonably difficult second-hand
PlayStation Game Code (UK/Europe): SCES 00942
The original
Klonoa game was released in
1997, and although it received a number of
excellent reviews,
Door to Phantomile remains one of those
great games that
nobody seems to have heard of. It was created by (the late)
Hideo Yoshizawa and
Tsuyoshi Kobayashi, as part of an internal development team at Namco. Although
3D in appearance, the
platform game works mostly in
two dimensions, the character only being able to move in one plane, but the
world twisting and turning to create
depth and
expansiveness. Most of the characters in the game are represented with
sprites, while the world is in 3D.
K:DtP is dripping in
cuteness, a typical
Japanese anime-style fest of
lovable creatures and
beautiful worlds, together with a wonderfully touching
story about Klonoa and his friend,
Huepow. A gorgeous
FMV intro introduces us to
Klonoa, who is walking through the
forest one day, and hears something land heavily in the ground. It's a
ring. Pulling it out of the
earth reveals
Huepow, a
spirit who lives inside the ring. They become excellent
friends, and spend all of their time together. One night, while
Klonoa is
asleep, he
dreams about a
flying ship crashing into
Bell Hill, not far from his
village. And one day, his
vision comes to life, the ship crashing into Bell Hill, and it's then that their
journey begins.
Klonoa: Wha...What's that?
Huepow: It's from Bell Hill.
Klonoa: Sounds like something crashed. It's just like my dream...
Huepow: Let's go, Klonoa!
Their lives soon become part of a
epic battle between the
Dark Spirit,
Ghadius, the
Moon Spirit and it's other allied peaceful spirits,
Wind,
Tree and
Water. This battle has happened once before, the
Dark Spirit being
imprisoned by the
forces of light. The
Moon Spirit disappeared after this
war, to try and prevent such a thing happening again in the
future. Only the
Wind Spirit, the
Tree Spirit, and the
Water Spirit can allow the
Moon Spirit to return.
Ghadius has now come back to seek
revenge, however, with the intention of turning
Phantomile into a world of
nightmares.
Klonoa features the platform mechanics you'd expect from your
generic 2D platformer, but adds an
attack which Klonoa can use to
manipulate enemies to help him progress through the game. Klonoa has a
ring in which Huepow resides, and from this ring,
Wind Bullets can be fired. When a Wind Bullet hits a
enemy, the opposing creature
inflates, and you can control it as a
projectile. This can be used to fire one enemy at another, or to enable Klonoa to perform a
double jump, allowing him to each higher places, as well as firing the enemy downwards. Also, if you hold down the jump button, Klonoa will
flap his ears for a short time, allowing you to stay in the air a bit longer (an
essential skill in the later levels).
There are a few extra
tasks that Klonoa and Huepow can perform on their
journey, and they come in the form of
items:
- Dream Stones
These come in two types, green (small) and blue (large, and worth five green stones). Collect one hundred stones, and you gain an extra life. Touch them to pick them up!
- Keys
The generic key, allowing you to open doors that are locked, of course! And all you need to do is touch them to pick them up, and walk into a door to use them.
- Hearts
Hearts also come in two sizes, small and large, the small type restoring Klonoa's health by one level, the large by three.
- 1UP
Give you an extra life, just like 1UP's do in every other game.
- Phantomilian Prisoners
Captured Phantomilians can be saved by hitting the spheres they are trapped in, either with a Wind Bullet or a enemy. They have been imprisoned by nightmares, when an inbalance of the dreams of the world caused nightmares to start dreaming themselves. There are 6 Phantomilians in each Vision (level), and if you collect all of them, you will unlock a secret at the end of the game. They're hidden in numorous places, so look out for any strange activity when you're going through the different Visions. After each Vision, you will see your progress on a map in a book. The saved Phantomilians will appear on the pages, and they play a song for you. The more you save, the more complete the song will become.
- Memory Clocks
A fancy name for a restart point. Hit them to make them ring!
- Ngapoko's Egg
Surprise items await for you if you hit this egg.
Klonoa features quite a few different types of enemy, most of which derive from the the most basic of the
assailants, the
Moo. The basic Moo is pretty
cute, just walking around and minding it's own business (ideal for you to use to destroy things, and get to higher places). Eventually, they begin to cotton on to your blatant nastiness, and start to carry around
shields (hence giving you the Shielded Moo). Some go a step futher, gorging themselves on
Dream Stones, making them transform into
Giant Moos (who, when hit with a Wind Bullet, inflate, so you can use them as
platforms). Hit one of these huge Moos with a projectile, and you'll get a shower of Dream Stones. Then you have the Armoured Moo, who is
intelligent enough to realise that wearing some
protection will prevent him from being used by a Wind Bullet, but happens to forget to attach the
armour that well, meaning it can be knocked off by another enemy. Oops. There are also other types of enemy, some which can be used for their
talents, such as
Tepon, who flies. Grab him, and you begin to float up into the air, before he pops. Another is
Boomie, who, after begin picked up with a Wind Bullet, begins to glow, then
explodes - useful for destroying enemies at a distance, or activating
switches.
Klonoa and Huepow travel through a number of locations, including the
Forlock, the Tree Village; the Kingdom of
Jugpot, and the
Gunston Mine, leading up to the Moon Kingdom. They're all beautifully designed, and they all have impressive musical scores, which add to K:DtP's charm. You will also encounter bosses at the end of each level, usually arranged by
Joka, Ghadius'
evil clown-like
servant.
Most of the reviews have said that K:DoP's only major flaw is the
difficulty level. I have to disagree though, because the later levels require plenty of
tricky consecutive jumping, and a little bit of
logical thought, especially if you want to collect all the items, and finish the game fully. However, the game isn't exceptionally long, and won't pose a great
challenge for a
decent games player. Don't take that as a reason not to buy the game if you see it though, as you'd be missing out on one of the
PlayStation's greatest games. It's a comparitively minor issue to a
highly impressive title.
Klonoa is one of my
favourite ever games. It's
story is one of the best told in a video game, and features an ending which almost
brings me to tears, it is so
wonderul(ly upsetting).
Reasons why Door To Phantomile is great:
It's
fun,
cute,
playable, has a
great story, a nice
secret to unlock, and has one of the best video game endings ever.
Reasons why Door To Phantomile is not so great:
It's not long enough, the character
sprites can sometimes look awful and
pixelated, and has one of the
saddest video game endings ever. *winks*
Although
successful in Japan, K:DtP failed to sell well in the US, because of it's 2D-nature. This did not prevent other
Klonoa games being created, however, and
Namco have developed more games in the
Klonoa series.
Similar games come in the form of
Pandemonium!,
Wild 9, and
Tomba.
The UK version of the game came with a demo of Point Blank, another Namco title.
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