Across the last few months, Klonoa has made its name known to gamers again after years of silence. On trademark registration sites, Bandai Namco was found registering different trademarks regarding Klonoa, one of its older and more forgotten platformers. Some fans remained hopeful that this meant that the cute, whimsical series would return, and a Nintendo Direct has revealed its coming to Nintendo Switch and other consoles this July.
Since the last Klonoa remaster that made its way onto the Wii, many fans of the cute lop-eared mascot have wanted to see more of him. While the series was given a webcomic in 2019, the series quickly went silent again once the publishing website shut down. There have been a few Klonoa trademark registrations by Bandai Namco since that gave hope for a more recent remaster, but nothing had ever surfaced from them.
As part of the Nintendo Direct that was broadcast on February 9, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series was announced as one of the Nintendo Switch headlines. The game seeks to remaster the first two games, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. The game is coming to Nintendo Switch first on July 8, with other versions for other platforms to be released later in the year.
The trailer shows that these remasters seem to be focused on the original releases of the game, most notably the original version of Door to Phantomile. While the Wii version featured new features such as voice acting, more health, and a new design for Klonoa, the Wii remaster was criticized for changing what made Door to Phantomile so memorable in the first place. It seems that criticism was followed, and the original PS1 version of the title seems to be the basis for the version found in Phantasy Reverie.
Overall, Klonoa being remastered is a great sign of things to come for fans after going over ten years without a new title. When it comes to preserving the series as well, this should make many fans happy as Lunatea's Veil is made accessible after being left on the PlayStation 2.
However, while the reveal is great, the Nintendo Switch trailer shown in the Direct leaves a lot to be desired as bloom and bright lighting breaks the visuals, most notably in cutscenes. Compared to how the older games featured a more dull color scheme, this may throw some old fans off. The official trailer released by Bandai Namco itself doesn't have this problem, though, so the graphical issues may have been ironed out already.
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series releases on Nintendo Switch on July 8, 2022, with releases for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X coming later on.