Klonoa

About

Klonoa is a video game series created by Namco. The franchise was popular in the late 90s and 2000s, before the final game in the series to date, Klonoa, released in 2008. The series has a reputation for its sad content and has inspired fan art.

History

The first game in the series, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, released on December 11th, 1997. Directed by Hideo Yoshizawa, the game follows Klonoa and Huepow in an effort to save the dream world Phantomile from being turned into a nightmare world.^[1] Klonoa, however, is unaware he is in a dream world until the end of the game, when it is revealed that Klonoa has been given fake memories in Phantomile and is sucked back into his own world. It was well-received, and developed a legacy as one of the underappreciated gems of the Playstation era.^[2]

The game saw a sequel, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, and a remake, simply titled Klonoa, for the Nintendo Wii. A full-length anime adaptation was announced in 2017,^[3] but was ultimately scrapped.

Online Presence

The game has been widely praised in the years since its release as an emotionally resonant game that holds up to the current day. On July 18th, 2018, YouTuber ChaseFace posted a long tribute to the game, calling it "the saddest game ever made" (shown below, left). On March 24th, 2019, Caddicarus released a retrospective review of the game, praising its design (shown below, right).

The game has a small subreddit devoted to it, with over 400 subscribers.^[4] Memes about the game often center on the first game's emotional ending as well as the series' long absence.

The game has also generated fan art in communities like DeviantART ^[5] and Tumblr.^[6]

Search Interest

External References