Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil is a side-scrolling 2D platformer on the Playstation 2 that, from what I understand, is a relatively unknown game. Despite being developed by Namco and the series itself celebrating a presence on several consoles from the Playstation to the Gameboy Advance, it’s absolutely a hidden gem and to date, not a single person I’ve mentioned the series to has even heard of the franchise. Well, great! Something cool and new to check out.

Of course, upon doing some research prior to knowing I was about to receive it as part of a collection, it became evident that the complete-in-box copy carried with it a hefty price tag for what was essentially a gamble for me, edging towards the $40 mark for a sequel in a franchise I had only learned of that on some random morning.

Be that as it may, you can imagine my joy to see it in my friend’s collection! And while the journey only took around 8 hours or so to completion, I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. The game enjoyed universal acclaim upon release and it’s easy to see why – the degree of polish on Klonoa 2 is right up there with Playstation 2’s finest, and the platforming, puzzles, and action never allow a dull moment.

Right away there are some obvious stylistic similarities between Klonoa 2 and my favorite game on the console, Dark Cloud 2, which naturally set the mood as well as the high expectations. You assume control of, you guessed it, Klonoa, an anthropomorphic cat who is summoned to save the world. The game takes place in a dream world called Lunatea which you navigate via an overworld map. While the story doesn’t go much further than the initial setup and forced exposition (and doesn’t need to), it’s plenty enough of a setup to get you up and running.

I’ve mentioned “2D Platformer” a few times so far, but it should be noted that this isn’t the same style as, say, Rayman, but rather takes place in levels with a 3D space, if that makes sense. There are some levels where you are riding a board through a 3D environment, but for the most part you are in a layered 2D world with puzzles intertwined within. Klonoa can move in the four cardinal directions, but can also face towards or away from the screen to interact with objects in the foreground and background. It takes some getting used to, but the 2D controlling with the added complexity of a 3D environment makes for some interesting puzzle scenarios.

Speaking of the puzzles, the bread and butter of Klonoa 2, this title can safely be filed with the games described as “easy to learn, difficult to master.” There are only two commands: jump and attack.

Jumping is self-explanatory in a platformer, but as far as attacking goes, Klonoa is equipped with a magical ring that shoots a “Wind Bullet” that, upon striking an enemy, allows him to carry that enemy. He can then double-jump, with the second jump throwing the enemy towards the ground, or can throw said enemies towards the foreground or background, using them to activate switches, defeat other enemies, or perform some specialty trick unique to each bad guy.

There are enemies that act as timed explosives, enemies that can propel Klonoa much higher into the air, and as used in my favorite puzzles in the game, the “Likuries“, which upon being thrown into another enemy, absorb the enemy creating a colored crystal, which can then either be used to absorb more bad guys (and change the crystal color), or to break crystals of the same color.

The puzzles are generally pretty short, but all rely on the core mechanic of the game. An example of a puzzle is as follows:

• Door is blocked with blue crystal.
• There are two normal enemies and one special enemy.
• One normal enemy is up on top of a platform.

The solution would be something like, grab the special enemy, throw it at the top enemy to create a pink crystal, then double-jump over the second normal enemy (throwing the enemy downward) to change the crystal to blue. Throw it at the matching blue crystal and voila! You just completed a puzzle!

That is a rough description, but the idea I’m trying to get across is how quickly the puzzles are solved. That being said, there is a bit of a steep learning curve with Klonoa moveset which can take a fair bit of time to master, as I mentioned earlier. There were plenty of head-scratching moments for me before I figured out what I was doing, but by the time I figured it out I was pretty unstoppable.

Each level, or “Visions” as they’re called in-game, can last from 10-25 minutes, and contain collectibles – so to all the completionists out there, Klonoa 2 got ya covered. While there are your typical pickups and items like hearts to refill your life and alarm clocks to save your level progress, there are 6 stars to find and collect in each level called Moon Stones, and a total of 150 Dream Stones, each unlocking little bonuses in your “Scrapbook” and minor features if you can manage to find them all.

They range in difficulty to collect – personally, some of them were tough to reach, or otherwise very risky. I gave up on collecting everything pretty much immediately. But they are there and add a nice challenge to the game, given you want to challenge yourself even more than the normal game difficulty provides. The levels are also packed with little spring boards and launchers that are quick fun to use, such as cyclones that blast you in a certain direction, or flying enemies that launch you straight up and out of the level. It’s a rush of excitement in a game that, well, more excitement isn’t really needed, but boy is it a fun time!

Navigating each level feels crisp and accurate, the Playstation 2 controller D-pad being what I consider The Ultimate when it comes to D-pads. Very rarely did I feel “ripped off” by falling down a black hole to my doom, although Klonoa can feel a bit slippery during the tighter platforming sequences. Particularly near the end of the game I had some.. ahem, outbursts while getting 90% of the way to the next checkpoint, only to second guess myself and lose it all. It can be frustrating but those moments were few and far between.

And finally, the boss battles. These were absurdly fun and by far the highlight of my playthrough. The boss battles are set up as shown below:

Klonoa can move 360 degrees around the boss, who hovers in the middle, occasionally going through their moveset. They’re all fast-paced and “edge of your seat” kind of battles. While none of them were too difficult, there’s a learning curve with all of them in learning their weakness, and when it’s safe to attack. All in all, a terrific reward for beating a level! While not all levels have a boss fight, there were a fair bit of sweet boss battles in the game. The final boss was a real rager, too!

The Playstation 2 is home to so many terrific and unique titles that I’d love to see return to form on something modern, but in the meantime, it was a blast going back and visiting something brand new to me. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys puzzle-platformers to give this one a try. It has controller precision, good puzzles, and humor, and that’s the trifecta of a solid game deserving of your attention. Go check it out!

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As always, thank you for reading. It’s been great to be back in the swing of things, playing video games and writing again. It had been a LONG time since I sat down specifically to do some writing, and to be perfectly candid, I was really putting myself in a tough place working essentially two full time jobs, logging dozens of weekly hours staring at (more) code. But luckily, Klonoa 2 was there to help bring me back to Earth. And it was awesome.

I hope to bring you more content like this as I play through my buddy’s collection. It’s been therapeutic to me and hopefully enjoyable to you! Coming up next is a Playstation 2 game entitled Maximo vs Army of Zin. Let me know if you enjoyed this or just say hi in the comments below 🙂