Main game
3.38 average rating based on 26 ratings
My least favorite Klonoa game. When I think of the series, I think to myself "why are there only like 4 platformers," but then I played this game and realized what could happen when it isn't done well. Part of it is I'm salty that this is the only game that gave ranks on your performance and you have to beat levels with no damage and no retries and I was struggling. Really frustrating that you get marked down for retries when there are a few levels/rooms that allow you to softlock yourself or give you one chance. Even without taking the ranking into consideration, the level design is incredibly tedious. So many levels require using the same enemy multiple times which just amounts to taking longer to complete puzzles. The hit boxes on the wind bullet are incredibly small, while the hitboxes when holding and throwing enemies is too big to the player's detriment. I still love the series, but I don't think I'd replay this one, at least not 100% again.
Platform:
Gameboy Advance version.
Graphics/Sound:
Technically the graphics haven't changed since Empire of Dreams, neither has the sound. Yet I thing the environments look even nicer here, a little more decorated and unique. The theme choice is interesting, for example one of the worlds has a train theme.
Gameplay:Gameplay-wise this just continues what Empire of Dreams started. You have the same structure of amount of worlds and levels. Even the level structure is the same. Most of the levels you have to collect 3 stars, per world there is one hoverboarding and one autoscrolling level. The boss battles are a bit different this time around, as you virtually compete against an opponent, it's basically working like a time limit. The hoverboard stages are now in a sort of mode7 3D which looks pretty nice, and plays equally well.
Difficulty:
There is a few extra elements to the puzzles and the difficulty in the end is higher than in the first game, but it's a nice learning curve so it's all ok. On the boss stages there is now more action difficulty due to the time limit.
This game keeps almost all of the elements of Empire of Dreams, …
Platform:
Gameboy Advance version.
Graphics/Sound:
Technically the graphics haven't changed since Empire of Dreams, neither has the sound. Yet I thing the environments look even nicer here, a little more decorated and unique. The theme choice is interesting, for example one of the worlds has a train theme.
Gameplay:Gameplay-wise this just continues what Empire of Dreams started. You have the same structure of amount of worlds and levels. Even the level structure is the same. Most of the levels you have to collect 3 stars, per world there is one hoverboarding and one autoscrolling level. The boss battles are a bit different this time around, as you virtually compete against an opponent, it's basically working like a time limit. The hoverboard stages are now in a sort of mode7 3D which looks pretty nice, and plays equally well.
Difficulty:
There is a few extra elements to the puzzles and the difficulty in the end is higher than in the first game, but it's a nice learning curve so it's all ok. On the boss stages there is now more action difficulty due to the time limit.
This game keeps almost all of the elements of Empire of Dreams, and improves on pretty much everything. I still don't think it reaches the awesomeness of the first Playstation game, but it's a good game. But I still think it could have done with 5 instead of 8 stages per world.
Pros:
-- Same engine as first GBA game, so you know what to expect from controls
-- Leaning more towards puzzles than platforming may be your thing
-- Klonoa is still cute...? (whatever he is)
Cons:
-- Puzzle difficulty ramps too steeply; Maybe it's just me, but I tried the puzzle I stopped at for quite a long time and I just couldn't get it
-- Unless the story turns around at the end (as Klonoa sometimes does), the tournament setting is a thin veil to just "play more levels"
-- Controls are well-enough suited for most of the platforming, as in the first GBA game, but not so much for fine-tune, specifically-timed puzzles
Check out my full review at TheKlotzNet