

The main differentiator between Klonoa and other platformers is that you don’t jump or spin or attack enemies to defeat them.

Almost every stage (or “Vision”, as their called in these games) introduced some new type of interesting mechanic or gimmick to overcome, and I was consistently surprised at how creative and engaging almost all these ideas were.

But perhaps most significant to me was that I’ve never experienced a platformer that plays quite like Klonoa. There are a lot of factors that contributed to that, from the games’ adorable character design and vibrant, animated world, to their infectious soundtracks and (surprisingly) funny writing. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series marked my first time playing through these classic games, and perhaps the highest praise I can offer is that I was having copious amounts of fun at basically every second.
