You know me, i absolutely dispise Phantasy Reverie Series, i already made a post on everything wrong with it, but, now, lets think on how could PRS could've been a better re-release in a more creative sense, but we need to go back, to the drawing board.
But first, we need to keep in mind a few things.-Has to be low budget, PRS was a budget game, so it has to still be one.-It has to have a reasonably fast development time, PRS was also a rushed game.-Can not be a remake, has to be based on the originals like PRS does.-The team can still be small like PRS' team.Alright, now that we consider these, here's what i think PRS should've been, but, while still keeping it as a budget title, to make it a worthy return for Klonoa that was not dissappointing.
PRS featured a remastered version of the Wii remake of Door to Phantomile, and a remastered version of Lunatea's Veil, both of which for a small team and being a budget game, shows that, this team kinda can't really pull off good results, they had to work on 2 games, and that shows how there is a lack of polish, they are just, not as good as the previous versions really, so we need a new approach.
Instead of remastering, instead, what we should've had are ports, no, not emulation, but ports of the Playstation and Wii versions of Door to Phantomile (although PS1 DtP could be emulation), and a port of Lunatea's Veil for the Playstation 2. Both are about trying to get the best and most faithful ports of these games, specially because, well, sure, we have near perfect emulated versions of both Door to Phantomile versions, Lunatea's Veil to this day doesn't offer perfect emulation (but it is better than PRS playing on PCSX2 i must say, but not super optimized), so this is the opportunity to have ported natively running versions of these games for consoles and PCs at their best forms. For example, PCSX2 is missing a lot of effects the game used to do on PS2, such as motion blur, lighting rays, and fog, and PRS broke a lot of effects not only for L'sV, but also DtP, both didn't had the time to focuse on getting these effects to work again, and, L'sV also broke cutscene audio.
PRS also tried to make a hybrid version of Playstation and Wii Door to Phantomile, but came out with poor results, having both versions instead available to be played, would be ideal and would give them more time, besides also just, both versions being fine as they are, and yes, the Wii version is heavier, but the Playstation version could very easily fit into modern discs and such, all 3 games could really. PRS' DtP was a trying to have the best of both but ended up being the master of none, presentation is even worse than Playstation and Wii-make (which the re-make already had worse presentation), visually it is not as good as the Wii-make (which is the best looking Klonoa game to date i think), i guess it plays slightly better than the Wii-make for being able to change the amount of hearts and ring range, but it still isn't as good as Playstation, so having both is i believe the best and easier option.
Because of this, the team won't have to try and "remaster" the textures, models, and such, and can get away more reasonably by not having to re-record the voice lines in a higher quality (seriously, it is jarrying the Playstation script with the low quality voice clips on Wii and the poor attempts are re-making the PS cutscenes).
Would be nice to have the option to run the games in their original resolution, or in a higher resolution, i do think older games in higher resolutions tend to show a lot more age and imperfections, but hey, some people may prefer having the higher resolution, but some may prefer to appreicate these games as they were back then.
Which is the ultimate goal of this, to find the appreciation of these games, PRS does not feel like it is as easy to appreciate, it's a strange case of, the PRS version doesn't really have a soul, or the magic feeling of the Klonoa games, they do not have to be more than what they were, because, these games hold up after all these years and are still great to play and is easier to appreciate when you offer these again and now, just like how they were, these games did not need more.
Now, another thing i wanted, was a time attack mode, have a leaderboard with records for each level, you can sort per game, per stage, per country. This could bring some replay value for the games, and would not be hard to implement.
Another thing i reaaaallly want, is that after you beat a certain game, you unlock a portable Klonoa game.
Door to Phantomile for the Playstation, you unlock Moonlight Museum! Now in english officially! That can be emulated too rather than being a port.
Door to Phantomile for the Wii, you unlock Empire of Dreams!
Lunatea's Veil, you ulock Dream Champ Tournament!
I'm not a fan of these games, but i would love to have these as unlockables, but there are plenty of fans for these, and wouldn't be hard, and would be nice to feature them here, and also more have incentive to play these versions more.
Now here's something that isn't needed, but would be lovely too, and could be easy to cram in...
Once you beat Door to Phantomile (either version) and Lunatea's Veil, you unlock Beach Volleyball! It does not have to be a port, like DtP Playstation, it can be just an emulated version.
So, overall, i think this version of PRS could've been much better, not having to updated a lot of graphics, do changes, would give the team time to polish the games when porting Wii-make and Lunatea's Veil, but they could also get away with emulating the other games. Well, i could just emulate for free the same games but better as of now, PRS does not offer something that is better, so 40 dollars for the PRS we got isn't really worthy, specially when for around the same price you can get the PS2 for the best versions of Door to Phantomile and Lunatea's Veil, that even PCSX2 can't nail the emulation of visuals for Lunatea's Veil, so you could finally for the first time, have a version with all the time you have to work on this port, where it can look pretty much perfect to how it was on PS2, all the time that went to the final PRS, was, well, the fact that they had to update a lot of aspects for both games, with a small budget and time, which lead to not great results and even more issues that weren't there before, now you can take advantage of your small budget and time, to something that is, more essential, and even have more games that could be easy to bring up, more replay value, that would be an absolute bang for buck for 40 dollars wouldn't it? There is an art to deals, which could help Klonoa's sales probably even more, because as of now, people will only recommend you to buy PRS just to say "i want more Klonoa" but not because you actually really loved PRS over the old Klonoa games, and this wouldn't be that hard to make, it would take probably as much work as PRS, but we would've gotten something better, more faithful, just, well, the same thing you loved then, is now here, but running natively with the best widely available version of Lunatea's Veil, while also ensuring you are supporting Klonoa in a sense that, instead of just buying PRS because you want Klonoa back, you buy PRS because you loved and had the best version for you and others, and that says you want more Klonoa. The thing about the final PRS, is that, as years go by, less people will care about it, because, well, the original versions were better, and, people were just over-hyped begging for more Klonoa, but, not in the right sense...
Boy, we can dream, we can have our dreams, but it may leave sad reminders that, these kinds of dreams might just be left as dreams.
