My pick this week is Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (PS2), a game that I have never yet played in spite of adoring 1997's Klonoa - Door To Phantomile - for the PlayStation. As mentioned in a previous recent Weekend Players' Club thread, I never wanted or owned a PlayStation 2 back in the day as it didn't offer enough for my tastes at that time, but now I'm digging into it to see if there's anything that suits me now; This game was one of only a couple at the time that I would have wanted to play, so it feels like a good one to go with this weekend.

I had a few potential games that I could've gone with this time, but since the Dorito Pope mentioned, above, that rain was forecast, I knew that it had to be Klonoa 2, since its opening stage is full of heavy rain and rough seas*.

*Bizarrely, the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series collection which bundles remakes of the first two games strips out all of these effects and more, leaving this stage brightly-lit and with a pretty smooth sea, which totally spoils the intended effect! (I picked up the collection in a Steam sale, but gave up on it because both games have mechanical alterations over the originals, as well as unnecessary retranslations, full for the first game and partial for the second, that are both nowhere near as good as the originals and at times make absolutely no sense, as if they were written by an AI that had no context provided to it. You are far better off emulating the original releases of these beloved titles.)

Anyway, Klonoa 2 is a 2D platformer - though at the time of its release people called the series 2.5D (to refer to polygonal visuals being used to render a sidescrolling game), because they'd been told that 2D is "old" and thus bad, and couldn't bear to admit to playing 2D platformers. Thankfully that term has since died off. Klonoa is a cute-and-cuddly creature who the promotional materials for the first game tell us is a flying cat, and he has the ability to travel through dreams. In this installment he finds himself washed ashore in a mysterious land called Lunatea, where he meets a priestess named Lolo and her dog-like companion Popka, who are trying to restore the balance of the world - a task that it turns out Klonoa has been summoned to help them with.

The game has lovely presentation, with nice cel-shaded visuals (though unfortunately this and some textures look slightly odd at times when upscaled in a modern emulator - that's not a dealbreaker for me, though), wonderful music that perfectly captures the feeling of traversing a mysterious and mystical dream-world, and a continuation of the first game's fictional Phantomilian language, which, though basic and lacking a 1:1 vocabulary compared to real languages, still has proper grammar and syntax, and can quite easily be learned and spoken in real-life. The controls are as spot-on as the original's were, too.


My only gripe is how they redesigned Klonoa to look edgier, changing him from a charming Studio Ghibli-esque protagonist into something resembling a bad Sonic The Hedgehog fan-character. However, the game itself is entirely like its predecessor and, aside from an incredibly irritating and out-of-character arm-folding pose that he does when you select a stage on the map-screen, they haven't given Klonoa an edgy attitude or anything, which is very good news indeed, as long as you can put up with the worse character-design (which seems to have happened for no reason other than "Because PlayStation 2.").

Other than being a PS2 exclusive (a planned GameCube port was apparently cancelled), it was actually the character-design change that I found to be the most off-putting thing about the game back in the day, and though I could have emulated it long before now, I never did because I was concerned that, like so many changes made to pander to edgelords, it would have a negative impact on the game and series as a whole - thankfully, it looks like I needn't have worried. Better late than never!

[+..••] Other stuff that I played this week;


Bomberman '93 (TG16)


Frogger (Arcade)


Lock 'n' Chase (Arcade)


Sonic Chaos (Game Gear)


Star Fox Super Weekend Competition (SNES)


Stumble Guys (Proton)

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThe storyline.…… There is no storyline so I get to make one up……. The Doritos Pope is asleep….. With the Nacho Nun in bed beside him…….

April O’Neil who is still kidnapped also sleeps while she is tied up and dangling over a vat of Mountain Dew…….

The Doritos Pope starts to stir…… His eyes slowly open…….. He stretches his arms and legs while still in bed and lets out a big yawn…….. The Nacho Nun senses that the Doritos Pope has awoken and beeps back into life herself…….

Doritos Pope slowly trudges through the room and go to the toilet….. After squeezing out a Geoff Award…….. He then has a shave while the Nacho Nun makes breakfast…….

Doritos Pope eats breakfast while reading the newspaper….. The clock ticks loudly on the wall as he sips on the orange juice to wash down the bacon and eggs with toast he just ate…….

He looks at his watch…… Frustrated……. “Where the hell is Pegnling to rescue April O’Neil????……. At this rate April will die before Pengling gets here……. Ive never killed anyone Nacho Nun…… I wouldnt even know how to dispose of the body………. Give her another ring and see when shes coming over…….”

Nacho Nun rings Pengling……. The call is diverted to a automated answering system……. “HI……. I am busy at the moment….. Please leave a message……. Unless you are either the Doritos Pope or Nacho Nun……. Then please DONT leave a message……. Do want you want with the Banana Bint April O’Neil……. Just stop bothering me…….”

Dejected…… The Doritos Pope goes back to looking at the newspaper……. “They reckon is might rain today” says the Pope……..

Oh my goodness, I ended up howling with laughter by the end of this one! It's clearly happening concurrently with my own made-up storyline from when I wrote about Bomberman Hardball, where my robot army and I just went out to play some sports in the sun, hahahaha!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThe Road To PES Penguin 6

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The road to unlock the PES Penguin in Pro Evolution Soccer 6 is at 4300 PES points out of 5000……….

Wait, what? Only 100 since last time?!

Quoting: StoneColdSpider

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Madden NFL 2003 (2002 EA Sports) - Nintendo Gamecube - Sports (Football)

The floodlights and dark-blue sleeves obscure her arms quite a bit, here, and it makes it look almost as if her hands are floating off on their own.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderNow for my bad joke of the week……
Wind chimes are made from the metallic bones of robots that tried to overthrow us…….. Hang them outside your house as a warning to others…...
*ba dum.... tssssh…...*

Them's fightin' words, pal!

Last edited by Pengling on 20 April 2024 at 1:18 am UTC

Quoting: Pengling

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My pick this week is Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (PS2), a game that I have never yet played in spite of adoring 1997's Klonoa - Door To Phantomile - for the PlayStation. As mentioned in a previous recent Weekend Players' Club thread, I never wanted or owned a PlayStation 2 back in the day as it didn't offer enough for my tastes at that time, but now I'm digging into it to see if there's anything that suits me now; This game was one of only a couple at the time that I would have wanted to play, so it feels like a good one to go with this weekend.

The PS2 has such a huge library is legit has something for everyone...... Even if its just 1 or 2 games......

Quoting: Pengling

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My only gripe is how they redesigned Klonoa to look edgier, changing him from a charming Studio Ghibli-esque protagonist into something resembling a bad Sonic The Hedgehog fan-character.

Hes an edgy totally radical...... Skunk....... Cat........ Dog...... Thing........

Quoting: Pengling

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Bomberman '93 (TG16)

GOD DAMMIT PENGLING.......

Quoting: Pengling

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Frogger (Arcade)

May I recommend that you play Ribbit! next week........ Its a very obscure frog arcade game....... That was at the very least published by Seega.....
Its so obscure its not even on Wikipedia or MobyGames.......

Quoting: Pengling

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Lock 'n' Chase (Arcade)

What the hell was that???......

Quoting: Pengling

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Sonic Chaos (Game Gear)

Funnily enough..... "Chaos" perfectly describes the Sonic franchise right now.......

Quoting: Pengling

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Star Fox Super Weekend Competition (SNES)

Do a barrel roll.........

Quoting: Pengling

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Stumble Guys (Proton)

Looks way better than the ripoff Fall Guys........

Quoting: PenglingOh my goodness, I ended up howling with laughter by the end of this one! It's clearly happening concurrently with my own made-up storyline from when I wrote about Bomberman Hardball, where my robot army and I just went out to play some sports in the sun, hahahaha!

Seemed quite appropriate to do that after what you did last week...... Glad you liked it lol........

Quoting: PenglingWait, what? Only 100 since last time?!

Theres only so many hours in a week........

Quoting: PenglingThe floodlights and dark-blue sleeves obscure her arms quite a bit, here, and it makes it look almost as if her hands are floating off on their own.

It does..... I never notice that before.......

Quoting: PenglingThem's fightin' words, pal!

LOL!!!!!!
I knew that would get a reaction........

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThe PS2 has such a huge library is legit has something for everyone...... Even if its just 1 or 2 games......

True, though that doesn't meet my personal criteria for a console worth buying, admittedly.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderHes an edgy totally radical...... Skunk....... Cat........ Dog...... Thing........

Cat.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderGOD DAMMIT PENGLING.......

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderMay I recommend that you play Ribbit! next week........ Its a very obscure frog arcade game....... That was at the very least published by Seega.....
Its so obscure its not even on Wikipedia or MobyGames.......

It's for the best that it's obscure - that Sega logo is terrifying!

Also, the rhyming text reminds me of Yoshi's Story.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderWhat the hell was that???......

One of the more interesting maze-chase games that popped up in the wake of Pac-Man's success in the early 1980s. Lock 'n' Chase adds the gameplay wrinkle of there being doors that protagonist Lupin can temporarily close in order to evade the police.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderFunnily enough..... "Chaos" perfectly describes the Sonic franchise right now.......

I think that's been true for many years!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderDo a barrel roll.........

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderLooks way better than the ripoff Fall Guys........

Y'know, I never got to try Fall Guys before Epic got their hands on it.

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderSeemed quite appropriate to do that after what you did last week...... Glad you liked it lol........

It was great - very funny stuff!

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderLOL!!!!!!
I knew that would get a reaction........

And that reaction is this;

Quoting: Pengling

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