What Dreams May Leave

I've been so derelict in my blog-updating duties! Shame on me!

This month and the upcoming one are so filled with awesome games and collections that I'm not sure how my wallet will survive it. Capcom Fighting Collection! Capcom Arcade Stadium 2nd! Klonoa Phantasy Reverie! TMNT Cowabunga Collection! Couple that with an enormous sale on Nintendo's eShop, and I suspect July is going to be one exciting, if financially exhausting, month for gamers like myself who like to kick it old school.

There's one collection in particular I'd like to talk about at length, and that's Klonoa Phantasy Reverie. Fans of the series know that years after its debut on the Playstation, there was a sequel on the Playstation 2, and a remake of the first one on the Nintendo Wii. That remake seemed like a good idea at the time... the first Klonoa was a little rough around the edges thanks to the limitations of the Playstation hardware, and the Wii version sanded off those pointy polygonal corners nicely, giving it that dream-like quality Namco couldn't fully express in the original.

Really, what the hell was this about?

However, watching footage of Klonoa Phantasy Reverie brings to light an issue with the Wii remake that I hadn't previously considered, a misstep that all the free fish taco coupons in the world can't make you forget. Instead of merely injecting more color and life into the game's surreal backgrounds, Namco also made the questionable decision to age up the lead character. Klonoa is taller and more slender in the remake, with a post-pubescent voice and a more flippant attitude than he had on the Playstation. One has to assume that Namco did this to appeal to fans of Sonic the Hedgehog, but for those of us who were quite happy with Klonoa as he was originally designed, it has the unfortunate side effect of derailing the game's narrative.

(Just a warning in case you don't already know... spoilers are coming.)

Kid, you are not going to like what happens next.
(image from Polygon)

There's a reason Klonoa takes place in the dream world, and it goes beyond giving the art team more creative freedom than it otherwise would have had in a more grounded, realistic setting. The dream represents a state of blissful, childlike innocence, and by the game's conclusion, all of that is torn away from the young hero. Klonoa first discovers that his grandfather, a man (cat... rabbit... thing) who provided love and comfort in the dream world, is dead in the waking world. After he defeats the final boss Nahatomb, Klonoa is told that once balance is restored to Phantomile, he cannot exist within it. A hungry vortex appears in the sky, and after an initial struggle, Klonoa is forcibly swept into it, never to return.

And it hurts. It hurt when I first watched it in my twenties, and it hurts now in my forties, leaving me with tears in my eyes and a heart so heavy, it feels like it's dropped three stories into my intestines. Watching this ending is difficult for the player, but it would be that much harder for a child who's not been through such hardship. Klonoa is probably eight in the original game, and these revelations would be devastating at that age. To a teenager who sees the world through a lens cracked and clouded by cynicism, perhaps not so much.

Fortunately, Namco saw the error of its ways and returned Klonoa to his smaller, cuter, squeakier design in Phantasy Reverie. He's older in the sequel; taller and tougher and with his hat rebelliously turned backward, but it makes more sense there. After all, it's been a few years since the events of Door to Phantomile. He's not a kid anymore... he's seen some stuff.