Klono-argh
I know I should be grateful for the Klonoa Wiimake existing at all. The series hadn't had a game for five years and not many mascot-type games get to come back from that sort of unofficial retirement. And on paper the Wiimake is the definitive version of the game; it looks much better, has more extra content and is much more affordable and accessible (especially for the US, where the first game still seems to be held as a collectible: Amazon.co.uk sells PS1 Klonoa in the same price range as the Wiimake, prices for the same game on Amazon.com start around $50 and rise).
But the most important thing about the first game - the story - is something that seemed like it wasn't given much attention in the remake. The story was the reason people became fans of the game and the series more than anything else and seeing it so undervalued in the remake makes it kind of a hollow victory.
First, the three scenes that were FMV before are now done in-engine and don't look nearly as good. Take a moment to compare the openings and see for yourself where the newer game has less detail and animation (the effect on the other two scenes is even more drastic, but I can't in good conscience spoil those for people who haven't done the game). Beyond that the new cutscenes aren't a shadow of their former selves. PS1 Klonoa tied everything together tightly: the text display was synched to the voices, right down to the syllable, and characters animated as they talked. In the remake the text display is much slower than the spoken dialogue, meaning you can see characters reacting to what other characters say long before you can read it and the character models get stuck in awkward poses for a long time while the text crawls it's way out. Also while the new game uses the exact same BGM as the original it has new, longer, 3D cutscenes. The PS1 version had some cutscenes where events were synched to the music and this effect is lost on the Wii where characters take big pauses between speaking and the music doesn't match up like it used to. In the Phantomile dub the characters will often have short speaking lines (sometimes even just one word) that 'translates' into long dialogue, which obviously feels wrong. And this last one might just be me but I don't like the new text translation as much as the old one. It has awkward lines (see the chapter titled "A Lull in the Wind" become the over-literal "When the Wind Dies Down") and text where silence worked before. That's a lot of little things that make the new story worse than when it was told with blurry little sprites ten years ago.
And as many things as the remake added a bunch of other miscellaneous things I was used to were removed or got worse. The Forlock villagers no longer have the goofy greeting where they stick their tongues out which was the best thing about them. Ghadius lost some cool animations and some of the more memorable (for me anyway) voice samples from the original, like Seadoph's scream or Ghadius' eerie chanting, are changed for the worse. Basically things that nobody would notice unless they were an anal superfan of the first game like me.
There was talk about how if the Wiimake was a success it might sponsor another game or even a Klonoa 3 but apparently the game sold miserably so that's unlikely. I should just be happy that the game will bring the series to new people but I really feel sorry for them now because they won't be having the same experience that made so many people fans of the series in the first place. I'm aware what a fantarded thing this is to say but anyone with an interest in the game really owes it to themselves to play the original (or at least watch it on YouTube) and see the way the story was meant to be.
But the most important thing about the first game - the story - is something that seemed like it wasn't given much attention in the remake. The story was the reason people became fans of the game and the series more than anything else and seeing it so undervalued in the remake makes it kind of a hollow victory.
First, the three scenes that were FMV before are now done in-engine and don't look nearly as good. Take a moment to compare the openings and see for yourself where the newer game has less detail and animation (the effect on the other two scenes is even more drastic, but I can't in good conscience spoil those for people who haven't done the game). Beyond that the new cutscenes aren't a shadow of their former selves. PS1 Klonoa tied everything together tightly: the text display was synched to the voices, right down to the syllable, and characters animated as they talked. In the remake the text display is much slower than the spoken dialogue, meaning you can see characters reacting to what other characters say long before you can read it and the character models get stuck in awkward poses for a long time while the text crawls it's way out. Also while the new game uses the exact same BGM as the original it has new, longer, 3D cutscenes. The PS1 version had some cutscenes where events were synched to the music and this effect is lost on the Wii where characters take big pauses between speaking and the music doesn't match up like it used to. In the Phantomile dub the characters will often have short speaking lines (sometimes even just one word) that 'translates' into long dialogue, which obviously feels wrong. And this last one might just be me but I don't like the new text translation as much as the old one. It has awkward lines (see the chapter titled "A Lull in the Wind" become the over-literal "When the Wind Dies Down") and text where silence worked before. That's a lot of little things that make the new story worse than when it was told with blurry little sprites ten years ago.
And as many things as the remake added a bunch of other miscellaneous things I was used to were removed or got worse. The Forlock villagers no longer have the goofy greeting where they stick their tongues out which was the best thing about them. Ghadius lost some cool animations and some of the more memorable (for me anyway) voice samples from the original, like Seadoph's scream or Ghadius' eerie chanting, are changed for the worse. Basically things that nobody would notice unless they were an anal superfan of the first game like me.
There was talk about how if the Wiimake was a success it might sponsor another game or even a Klonoa 3 but apparently the game sold miserably so that's unlikely. I should just be happy that the game will bring the series to new people but I really feel sorry for them now because they won't be having the same experience that made so many people fans of the series in the first place. I'm aware what a fantarded thing this is to say but anyone with an interest in the game really owes it to themselves to play the original (or at least watch it on YouTube) and see the way the story was meant to be.