Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

"2D platforming at it's best."

Never having played the original Klonoa, I had no idea what to expect from Klonoa 2. After a little bit of frustration and disappointment (you’ll read why later) and a lot of playing, it becomes clear that Klonoa 2 is a very VERY IMPORTANT game to the PS2 library. With all the adult-themed 3D games approaching the horizon this one smacks you out of nowhere and takes you back to what gaming was like in the 80’s. Which is a good thing actually considering that Sony’s machine has provided more of serious, mature gaming experience than anything else. What makes Klonoa 2 very important in its own terms is that it combines the best of 2D gaming and brings it to our 3D generation that consumes our consoles nowadays. In doing so, it has clearly earned it’s place as one of the PS2’s must have games!

Gameplay: Klonoa is a dream traveler on his second adventure to save a dream world in peril from an evil pirate seeking to awaken the power of the elements to “change” the world as she deems.
When you start off, you gain possession of a ring that harnesses the power of your new-found friend Lola, a priestess in training, when she enters it. With this ring, you venture on grabbing enemies and using them in to various ways (jump, attack) to advance through the various levels (known as Visions in the game). Of course the style and the mechanics of the gameplay and the 3D background allow for a good number of puzzle solving in the game too. None of these puzzles are ever bang-your-head-against-the-wall puzzles but yet require a bit of thought to figure out.

Which brings me to my next point. The game is really easy. So easy that I felt insulted for some reason and thought for awhile that I couldn’t like the game. It took me 5-6 hours to beat it my first time through. Yes I admit it, I wasn’t going to like this game simply because it was too easy. Klonoa 2, like Rayman 2, is one of those games though that reminds me that there’s so much more to a game than its difficulty level and it’s length. I've warmed up and I love it. This game is just so fun to kick back and enjoy that you’ll soon forget about the difficulty. This is something that really hasn’t happened much in the last two generations of consoles. Klonoa 2 brings a lot of memories back of the SNES and the Genesis days.

Score: 8.5/10

Sound: Cheesy. Is that bad? Again, this is music that I really haven’t heard since the SNES and Genesis days of gaming. It really is cheesy it’s almost classic in this age of gaming we’re in. Like Rayman 2, Namco took it upon themselves to add a Klonoanian dubbed language with English subs. I like it when games do this as it gives it more of a fantasy feel to a different world.

Score: 8.5/10

Control: Simply put, when you talk about a 2D moving platformer the only thing you really need to ask is if the buttons are responsive. Yes they are. End of Story.

Score: 10/10

Value: As with all platformers, you can acquire all gems (or in other cases stars or fairies). In this case you’re rewarded with nice artwork. You can also unlock two new levels. Beating those levels has its rewards as well. All this plus the enjoyment of the game allow for a lot of fun to be had.

Score: 9/10

Go and get Klonoa 2 people. You owe it to yourselves to enjoy rare gems like these.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/01, Updated 07/27/01