Game:

Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal (2002)

Duration: 8:21:02

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1

Part 3, This game is just perfectly average, ot doesn't do anything too crazy but it also doesn't do anything too offensive either. It's very different from the previous Klonoa games. This one is a top down action RPG. You wander around and beat up your standard Klonoa enemies. You have 3 different attacks, one blue, one red, and a charge attack. Enemies are weak to one type depending on the color of their health bar; blue, red and yellow respectively. You also get a variety of weapons which keeps things fresh and each operates differently. Klonoa gets a his standard wind ring, but also a sword, hammer, parasol, ball and even a boomerang. You also recruit 2 other characters who each also have unique attacks, one with guns the other bombs and they each get a variety of weapons as well. It does keep things fresh-ish. You do get experience from defeating enemies and when you level up you can decide between 4 different stats to put your one point into (attack, special, defense and agility). A big downside is there is no experience sharing and so if you neglect your other characters, which I totally did, you will get yourself into some rough spots. The game very much wants you to grind for levels, I managed to beat the game without ever doing though with some tough brute force and elbow grease. It was a slog some times, but that was my own fault. When you die you lose half of your money which can really bite you, especially if you spent your money on weapons and armor and healing items and have very little left, you'll be hard pressed scraping by. Probably better off save scumming and not taking the penalty. I focused heavily on Klonoa and the difficulty was all over the place. Sometimes enemies are super squishy and then all of a sudden you are out matched and taking insane damage. There aren't i-frames for you or the enemies so taking damage can pile on quickly, but inversely you can also melt enemies. The game is way longer than I thought it was going to be. I was a fool and played for 14 hours straight and thought I was near the end and got a little tired of the game dragging on and that was entirely my fault. The final levels are very long and grueling and will test how well you know the game and the characters. It does force you to split up a lot, which you better hope you have your other characters prepared. It can be hard. There are some puzzle levels here and there, but they are really simple and not that many. The bosses are cool and there are quite a few. Each area has a boss and I do appreciate that. Most boss fights happen after a long level and aren't separate levels themselves, so you better hope you were conservative with your heals, because they can be tough. I don't think I lost to one, but there were more than a few close calls. The level design is fairly basic with not a lot of variety, the areas change but the level layouts are pretty much all the same. The final level introduce some warp pads and force you to use certain characters, but it does not break up the monotony. As usual after you beat the game there are some bonus levels and they were a lot more challenging which was cool. I also acquired an item that allowed one character to get all of the experience so I was able to finally bring all of my characters into the same level range. Unfortunately there isn't a super final boss at the end of it. The re-fights are cool, they are harder than before so bringing the A-game is a must. The final boss re-fight is a crazy challenge and I did appreciate that. The music is fine for the most part, the early levels can get tiresome, but some of the late game levels have some great boppers. The story tatkes all of the characters and throws them into a brand new story which is cool, I really don't understand Klonoa lore. Each new game seems to create it's own new story and universe and contradicts things that happened before, but whatever. I'm glad there is a translation and I was able to play it. There is a bunch of adult words which surprised me and I have no idea if it was the translators taking liberties or faithful to the actual script. It does seem off considering how cutesy and kid friendly the other games are. The game is perfectly average and may be why it was not brought over. If you're a Klonoa fan it's at least worth checking out. Enjoy my blind playthrough.

Translation link:
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6491/

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https://www.twitch.tv/cereal_ki11ah

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