HOME | DD

LunarGirl2z [2013-11-30 15:23:35 +0000 UTC]

Aww~ he's one of my fav characters... poor Klonoa, Imma give him hug~

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Akhenamen [2013-11-30 13:35:47 +0000 UTC]

One major problem of the Klonoa games was lack of marketing. From what I gather, Namco didn't put much work into advertizing the game. That's one possibility.

I've thought about this myself a lot. One thing is for certain, there is NOTHING wrong with the game or gameplay. Most people who play this game are sure to love it. The story is beautiful, the places are beautiful, the music is beautiful and so on. Sure, it has quite a childish feel to it. But so do the Yoshi games, but they're pretty successful from what I understand. So, what is the problem with Klonoa?

Well, let's put it this way. Before you hear the soundtrack, before you see the characters, before you play the first level, what is the first thing you notice about a game? I think it has something to do with the title.

Let's imagine that you've never heard of Klonoa. You're browsing through a video game store and you see a game called "Klonoa". Does this word catch your attention at all? My guess is that it wouldn't. Think about it. The word "Klonoa" alone doesn't really mean anything to anyone. Is it a person or character? Is it a place? Is it a magic word? Is it just some word the video game makers came up with because they couldn't think of anything? Is it something else?

The word "Klonoa" is not a word in any known language. Because it doesn't mean anything to somebody who's never heard of the game, it doesn't catch their attention. They'd just look at the case, see "Klonoa", not understand what it means, and move on, totally forgetting about it.

The two games were called "Klonoa - Door to Phantomile" and "Klonoa 2 - Lunatea's Veil". Neither of these titles makes sense. But in Japan, they're called "Kuronoa of the Wind - Door to Phantomile" and "Kuronoa of the Wind - That Which the World Wanted to Forget" respectively.

As you can see, the titles would probably make more sense to Japanese people. And although the name "Kuronoa" doesn't really mean anything in Japanese either, it's made of Japanese syllables. So although it still doesn't actually mean anything, it would sound familiar to Japanese people in the same way that "Kirby" or "Ratched and Klank" would sound familiar to English speakers. These names don't actually mean anything, but the words sound familiar to speakers of each language. So it doesn't sound like complete nonsense.

My recommendation to Namco would be to re-release the games with better marketing than before, and rename the English versions to "Kuronoa, The Dream Traveller - Gateway to Phantomile" and "Kuronoa the Dream Traveller - The Taboo of Lunatea" or something similar. People who look at titles like this will be able to make sense of them easier, and perhaps be more likely to pay attention to the game.


Btw, as for Klonoa's species, he belongs to a made-up species (same as all the other characters, really). Apparently, he's an anthropomorphic cat with long, floppy, wing-like ears.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

AlphaRed9X [2013-11-29 15:39:54 +0000 UTC]

I honestly want to cry after seeing this. It truly sums up how this incredible series has been treated in recent years, and it's nothing less than a damn shame...

Words cannot even begin to describe how much I adore the Klonoa series; the gameplay, the stories, the characters, the charm, the giant ears... everything! There was so much heart and imagination put into these games, yet the payoff was far less than expected, which is baffling to say the least. Now, the only people that even know Klonoa's name try desperately to turn him into a Sonic character, just because his design has a somewhat similar anatomy to Tails (and in my honest opinion, the Sonic series is far inferior to this, and I also freakin' despise Tails)

I can't stress out enough how much I want to bring this series justice, and to give it the attention that it deserves...

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

AKAFoxtail [2013-11-29 05:33:16 +0000 UTC]

I couldn't agree with you more.

Klonoa is one of the many games that had tons (and I mean TONS) of creativity and imagination stuffed into it, and yet...no body ver really bothered to think twice about checking him out...why...I dunno. D:

But at least the fans he does have are super loyal. ovo

Anywho, this pic, glorious, I love it. >v<

Very cute style and the colors are fantastic. X3

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

The90sDoggo [2013-11-29 02:29:57 +0000 UTC]

great job dude

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

PixellPunk [2013-11-28 18:54:54 +0000 UTC]

I think the creator said he is simply a cat with long ears.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

PLASTIC-ROBOT-COMIC [2013-11-28 03:49:40 +0000 UTC]

Yeah me either. But you're right,Klonoa is a great character.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0