it burns
If you happened to miss Namco's attempt to destroy the Klonoa series last week I won't deprive you of the chance to see it. You need to suffer this too. Because you can't truly appreciate the goodness of humanity until you see they worst they are capable of, or something.
At first it didn't make sense to me to poll for a redesign at the point where the new game is so close to finished and he was already redesigned once for it. Then I heard the second redesign was supposed to be specifically for the Western release. The anime style is reminiscent of when Castlevania did the same thing a few years ago to try and "attract new (i.e. younger) fans", which had the same outcome as this would likely have - the established fans would be upset and everyone who didn't care about series before would continue to not care about it. Games with anime art don't do well because of the art, it's because they are usually based on a real cartoon which establishes the brand.
There are a few things wrong with the new design. Two things in particular. The ones sticking off the sides of his head. The loss of the ears makes me think of Matt Groening's philosophy of how the most iconic characters are the ones that can always be recognised in silhouette. That's why every major Simpsons character has a unique 'shape' to them. In Klonoa's case it was the floppy ears that made him uniquely distinctive. I think I can assume no other character had ears like that. Without them he's lost his uniqueness.
I don't much like the smaller shoes and sporty gloves either. I didn't realise until now how much I liked the idea of Klonoa wearing outsize boots and plain gloves, like a boy who raided his father's wardrobe to go adventuring. Or maybe it was the novelty of a character who was well-designed and dressing for function instead of fashion. The new shoes with the turn-ups may be trendier than the old boots but they don't have nearly as much charm.
The good news is the general response to the new design seems to be very negative (at least among the established fans. The non-fans either agree or don't care that much) so maybe we won't have anything to worry about. Maybe.
At first it didn't make sense to me to poll for a redesign at the point where the new game is so close to finished and he was already redesigned once for it. Then I heard the second redesign was supposed to be specifically for the Western release. The anime style is reminiscent of when Castlevania did the same thing a few years ago to try and "attract new (i.e. younger) fans", which had the same outcome as this would likely have - the established fans would be upset and everyone who didn't care about series before would continue to not care about it. Games with anime art don't do well because of the art, it's because they are usually based on a real cartoon which establishes the brand.
There are a few things wrong with the new design. Two things in particular. The ones sticking off the sides of his head. The loss of the ears makes me think of Matt Groening's philosophy of how the most iconic characters are the ones that can always be recognised in silhouette. That's why every major Simpsons character has a unique 'shape' to them. In Klonoa's case it was the floppy ears that made him uniquely distinctive. I think I can assume no other character had ears like that. Without them he's lost his uniqueness.
I don't much like the smaller shoes and sporty gloves either. I didn't realise until now how much I liked the idea of Klonoa wearing outsize boots and plain gloves, like a boy who raided his father's wardrobe to go adventuring. Or maybe it was the novelty of a character who was well-designed and dressing for function instead of fashion. The new shoes with the turn-ups may be trendier than the old boots but they don't have nearly as much charm.
The good news is the general response to the new design seems to be very negative (at least among the established fans. The non-fans either agree or don't care that much) so maybe we won't have anything to worry about. Maybe.