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KlonoaKlonoa is an anthropomorphic video game character, created by the Japanese game company Namco (of Pac-Man fame), who first appeared in the 1998 Sony PlayStation game . Door to Phantomile was unique in that it was the first "2.5D" platform game (that is a a video game which is played on one plane, but other elements, such as background, are in 3D) to be well received. The gameplay was remarkably simple, consisting of using your extremely long ears to hover from platform to platform. Klonoa is also equipped with a jeweled ring to shoot Wind Bullets, which would inflate your enemies, giving you the ability to double-jump and reach higher platforms, or use the attributes of the specific creature you captured to your advantage in solving puzzles and unlocking new areas. It was obvious Namco was looking for a mascot to compete with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Mario. If you look closely, you can discern a little Pac-Man on Klonoa's trademark cap. To further the Klonoa franchise in 2000, Namco followed up Door to Phantomile in Japan with for the WonderSwan, a handheld video game system that was extremely popular in Japan, but was never released in other markets. Moonlight Museum drew upon the same gameplay elements as Door To Phantomile, just without the 3D elements. In 2001, was released for the Sony PlayStation 2, earning the distinction of being one of the first successful platform games to be released for the new system. Unlike Door to Phantomile, where the characters were rendered as two-dimentional sprites, Lunatea's Veil had every character rendered in full 3D, using cel shading to bring an extraordinary, animation-like quality to the game. Soon after release of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in mid-2001, Namco released for the new handheld. Making excellent use of the new system's scaling capabilities, this title was a moderate success and further established Klonoa as a firm presence in the video game market. In 2002, with little fanfare, Namco made the foray into mascot-branded sports games with Klonoa Beach Volleyball, released for the Sony PSOne, the re-designed Sony PlayStation at a time when Sony was attempting to capitalize on the waning days of the now obsolete system with bargain titles, usually aimed at younger gamers. Later in 2002, after their success with the Game Boy Advance in Empire of Dreams, Namco released a Klonoa role playing game called . This game, unfortunately, never made it outside of Japan. The sequel to Empire of Dreams for the Game Boy Advance, , was released in February 2005. While Klonoa is always the star of these games, he is accompanied by numerous friends on his adventures. In Door to Phantomile, he has a sidekick that is borne of the Wind Ring, called Huepow (pictured above). This character also joins him in Empire of Dreams. In Lunatea's Veil Klonoa is cast into a strange land, called Lunatea, where he meets Popka, an outspoken creature with jeweled eyes, and Lolo, an aspiring priestess. These characters also make appearances in Klonoa Heroes and Klonoa Beach Volleyball. The villains usually change in each successive game. There is much speculation as to what Klonoa actually is. Some call him a rabbit, others call him a cat, or Klonoan. The latter is probably the most fitting description. Klonoa is a unique fantasy character. Namco, however, stated that Klonoa is officially a cat with huge ears. It should also be noted that Klonoa also has his own language. His exclamations such as "Hunyaa!" and "Wahoo!" have become his trademarks. In Lunatea's Veil, there are elaborate cutscenes, in which Klonoa engages in extensive dialogue with other characters. While it would be easy to label Klonoa's language as cute gibberish based on Japanese, there does seem to be an underlying order. For example, most of the time Klonoa silences the letter N, pronouncing his name as "Klo-oa."
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