[Finished January 27 2025, text wrote June 23rd 2025]
I first discovered the Klonoa series in 2016 from a guy on youtube known as ExoParadigmGamer. Looking back I heavily disagree with his attitude towards game remakes, and I especially find his videos on the classic sonic games to be quite bitter and spiteful towards other reviewers, but that’s all besides the point. Although not a lot about those videos stuck in my mind, the impression that his review on Klonoa 1 left on me certainly did. And for some stupid reason this black and white cabbit has kept showing up in my life ever since.
Klonoa is wonderful. I absolutely adore everything going on with the aesthetic both artistically and on the tech side .The pre-rendered 2d sprites and 3d level geometry combine in this way that just makes the world have so much weight to it. There’s only 13 stages to the game, but the structure of those stages, the detours that the story takes you through, and the constant environmental setpieces all make Phantomile feel so much more larger. The music that plays during the adventure radiates this child-like aura that is just delightful and captures the motif of dreams perfectly. I was already familiar with the soundtrack from I Wanna See The Moon, but hearing it here was a blast. Using enemies as both projectiles and as methods of platforming is absolutely genius and I wish it was explored just a tad further. I don’t want to spoil the story too much, but Ghadius’s brief comments about nightmares are so interesting to me, there is a lot to dig into regarding the themes of dreams and the inevitability of sorrow. That ending too man, god, I knew what happened before going in and I still shed a small tear.
I cannot gush about this game enough dude. I know Klonoa 2 exists and I admit I haven’t seen much of it, but I really don’t think there is another game anywhere close to feeling like Klonoa 1.
Wahoo!
[Finished June 09 2025, text wrote June 17 2025]
The Sega Genesis is a console I’m pretty unread about when it comes to the big non-Sonic titles. Not because I dislike it or anything! I was just a Nintendo kid growing up, and nobody I watched on youtube really talked about Genesis Games. My biggest exposure to the Genesis Canon was honestly probably Sonic for Hire? Anyway, to try and change that I made a big list of games that seemed interesting and from it I was recommended Rocket Knight Adventures.
God damn I was not expecting to love this game as much as I do. The Dash is such a wild movement ability, it’s so uncontrollable but the invincibility it gives you makes it so fun to just spam everywhere, and it just feels great to use on bosses. I love the constant set pieces and the seemingly unwillingness to use an obstacle twice, for a game released in the era where levels were created by rearranging the same obstacles in different ways; it's something I certainly wasn’t expecting. The bosses share this attitude in their design as well. There's an incredible amount of them and they have so many moving parts and phases that it honestly gets kinda funny at points. The Stage 6 boss is the main one that comes to mind when thinking about them. You go through 4 phases taking down different segments on the ship and right when you think it’s finally over the front cannon of the ship grows limbs and starts jumping around the screen. This game impresses me so much dude, it feels so, so fresh. (Also not sure where to put this, but the visual effect on the lava in the first part of stage 3 is CRAZY to me, I didn’t know the genesis could do that.)
Should’ve called it Radical Knight Adventures, I would absolutely recommend this to just about anyone.