4/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil - Phantasy Reverie Series.

Platform: PS5 Time Played: ~6.5 hours Status: Beaten The original version of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil was not the best in my opinion. I know a lot of people have a lot of love for it, but I just couldn't see it. Door to Phantomile just had such a more resonating story for me, and that game was much more colorful and fun for me, and I just overall enjoyed it way more. But knowing that a remaster was coming in the form of the Phantasy Reverie Series collection, I was excited, because this new version of the game looked so much better than the original version in terms of gameplay, graphics, and colors. And now that I've played it, it was definitely an all-around improvement in pretty much every way. Klonoa 2 was clearly the game in the collection that got the most love from the development team, as it looks so much better than the remaster of Klonoa 1 that is in the same collection. The graphics and textures on the characters, enemies, and level designs look so incredibly crisp and gorgeous, which is honestly the one thing I wanted most from the original release. The colors were so washed out compared to what had come before, so seeing this game's world as bright and colorful as it now is was such a treat, and it made me enjoy this game much more than I would have otherwise. All of the levels just look so incredibly unique now, and they look beautiful, colorful, and much more vibrant, fitting closer in line with the overall tone of the series than ever before. It just made the game happier to play through if you understand what I mean. Although this new color saturation does actually become a fault in a single moment in the game; when the bombs are being dropped in Volk City, it just doesn't fit the mood of that scene like it did before, but that is the only time in the entire game where the color saturation goes against the game, whereas everywhere else it works in the game's favor. The updates to the graphics provide a lot of freshness and clarity to the cutscenes, and they now feel much more lively; although I will say that I still feel the same in regards to this game's story even on my second playthrough. In terms of gameplay, it was a little jarring to go from Door to Phantomile, to Lunatea's Veil, as Klonoa controls somewhat differently when comparing both games, but only enough that after just one level I was used to the controls again. The gameplay felt a lot more smooth at periods when playing this time around as well. Especially in the boarding levels which I appreciated and enjoyed a lot more this time around, including the final level which I hated in my playthrough of the original release. Finding the Momett Dolls felt a lot easier this time around as there was a constant tracker on screen for which ones I hadn't yet gotten, although I did have to replay two or three levels because I missed a few. Besides that, the cutscenes were sometimes weirdly animated. Any by that I mean sometimes certain shots would carry on for too long. Especially when all the characters were silent, or the one who was speaking went silent for a moment. It was just weird to see, and a little annoying at times. The King of Sorrow's lip movements were also kind of weird like sometimes his mouth would open way too wide and it just didn't look right. Along with that, text boxes display all the text that a character is saying all at once, instead of just having the text fade in as the characters speak it like in the original release. because of the way they have it set up, sometimes they'll display half of a character's line, and then when the other half appears, it just pops in, and pretty much every time I re-read the original line a second time, it just became annoying. Something I pray and hope they could update in some kind of patch. There are of course still things that were in the original that couldn't be changed in a simple remaster that I still have issues with, such as how the characters speak in this game being a tad bit unpleasant compared to Klonoa 1, or Popka just being an annoying character who I generally dislike and wish that the adventure was just Klonoa and Lolo. Popka and Tat have the most annoying voices ever lmao. Leorina has a pretty cool voice though, and I didn't appreciate her theme song as much as I do now. Speaking of Leorina, after playing this remaster, I like her character much more now. I liked her as a looming threat a lot, and I kept the story going for me. I once again want to reiterate how the gameplay somehow feels better than the original release. I don't know how to describe it, because it might just be the fact that I've played this game before, but it felt much more natural and tighter to control Klonoa than ever before. Like, platforming felt justtttt right, and so did grabbing enemies or clinging onto those grab things midair. Especially in bosses, or in boarding levels like I've already mentioned, although some segments were still frustrating, like being chased by the robot tank in Volk City or playing through the moving platforming in the Revisited Ark (honestly both levels in the Ark are the worst in the game still, they're too long and very boring). Overall, the remaster of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil within the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series collection is such a great improvement on the original, and it makes it pretty much impossible to ever go back to the original. Everything has been improved in pretty much every way, and therefore it is a much more enjoyable experience that I liked a lot more than I did before, and it truly feels like it's almost a worthy sequel to the original. Check this remaster, and the entire collection, out!!