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.
The series stars the titular character, Klonoa, who 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. Voice acting for Klonoa in most appearances is provided by Kumiko Watanabe, although English dub performances have been provided by Eric Stitt in the Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, and by an uncredited voice actor in Klonoa Beach Volleyball. 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]
The first entry in the series, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (1997), was developed by published by Namco with director Hideo Yoshizawa.[3] The Klonoa character and other game characters were designed by Yoshihiko Arai.[1] The game released to a positive critical reception. Critics labeled it as Namco's first notable 3D platformer and a bid for creating a gaming mascot.[4][5][6] The game has been renowned for its blend of 2D gameplay with 3D visuals.[7][8][9]
After Door to Phantomile, Namco developed two follow-ups simultaneously: Klonoa: Moonlight Museum (1999) for the WonderSwan, and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (2001) for the PlayStation 2.[10]Moonlight Museum was released exclusively in Japan, and set the design standards for future handheld Klonoa games.[10]Lunatea's Veil was released to critical acclaim but weak commercial performance.[11][12]
With no home console release in the series since 2001, Namco sought to revive the franchise with Klonoa (2008) for the Wii, a remake of Door to Phantomile. The game featured revised graphics and voice acting, as well as new unlockable bonuses not in the original. 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.[13][14]
In September 2019, a trademark filing under the name Klonoa of the Wind Encore was discovered.[15][16] Further trademark filings for Wahoo Encore and 1&2 Encore were discovered in September 2021.[17] In December 2021, a trademark for Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series was filed in the United Kingdom.[18]Phantasy Reverie Series, which features remasters[19] of the Wii version of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and the original Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil,[20] was officially announced in a Nintendo Direct in February 2022, and was released in July for Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.[21][22] The game is titled Kaze no Klonoa 1&2 Encore in Japan, making it another entry in Bandai Namco's Encore series of remakes.[23]
The Klonoa series has been mostly critically well received. It was praised for its gameplay, graphics and story.[24][25] It also received several awards including Lunatea's Veil winning GameSpy's PlayStation 2 "Platform Game of the Year" in 2001.[33]
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,[34] 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.[35]
Phantasy Reverie Series made #5 in the UK sales charts in its first week, with 52% of its sales being on Switch and 33% being on PlayStation 5.[36] While in Japan, the Switch version sold 9,602 copies in its first week, placing fifth in sales charts, whilst the PlayStation 4 version shifted 1,252 units and made #25.[37]
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.[41][42]
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, ending the story on a cliffhanger.[43] In addition, Klonoa has made cameo appearances in ShiftyLook's other series Bravoman: Super Unequaled Hero of Excellence, and Lolo, a recurring character in the Klonoa series, appears in ShiftyLook's web browser-based dating simulation game Namco High, albeit with an entirely different personality from her other appearances.
A Klonoa anime film adaptation was under pre-production at Henshin.[44] Hideo Yoshizawa joined the project as executive producer. Ash Paulsen, a former GameXplain member, also joined in as an associate producer.[45][46] After two years with no updates, writer Hitoshi Ariga confirmed the project was cancelled on January 4, 2019.[47]
Notes
^Known in Japan as Kaze no Klonoa (風のクロノア, Kaze no Kuronoa, lit. "Klonoa of the Wind")
