Trivia / Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

• Descended Creator: As confirmed in the credits of the Phantasy Reverie Series version, Joka was voiced by Yoshihiko Arawi, a character designer and screenplay writer for the game.
• Dummied Out: In the Japanese, English, and International versions of the Wii remake, there is unused audio of Klonoa shouting "Bandai", "Bandai Namco", and "Bandai Namco Games" before the title screen appears.
• Feelies: The Wii remake came packaged with coupons for the esoteric Wahoo Tacos chain of restaurants (playing off of Klonoa's "Wahoo!" Character Catchphrase).
• Franchise Killer: The 2008 remake was a total flop in sales, not only canning any possibility of the proposed Klonoa 2 Wii remake, but probably putting the entire game series on ice. While a web comic began publication on September 2012, that ended in 2014, leaving the franchise dead once more untill the film adaptation was announced... until it too was cancelled in early 2019. Eventually, the series would get another chance with the Phantasy Reverie Series, a full 14 years after the Wii remake.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: As seen in one of the early storyboard concepts and the original designs for Huepow and the Moos (seen below), it is originally going to be an Action Horror game in the same vein as Castlevania where enemies get eaten up and their corpses being thrown.
• No Dub for You: The Wii remake's Korean release doesn't offer Korean-language audio - just English and Phantomilian.
• The Other Darrin: Nearly all of the Japanese voice actors were replaced for the Wii remake of Door to Phantomile, with Kumiko Watanabe being the only exception.
  • The Phantasy Reverie remake uses the original audio from the PS1 version for all characters. However, scenes that were originally FMV sequences (the intro, the summoning of the Moon Kingdom, and the ending), retain the Wii audio for Klonoa and Huepow. As such, Fujiko Takimoto and Akemi Kanda are credited for their respective performances as Huepow. Additionally, Klonoa screaming "Grandpa!" before Joka kills him and as he's mourning his death at the end of Vision 4-2 uses the Wii version of Watanabe's performance.
• Uncredited Role: Aside from Klonoa and Hewpoe, none of the original voice actors from Door to Phantomile are credited in the PS1 game. Phantasy Reverie Series, which re-uses the PS1 voice track wholesale, finally credits everyone else.
• Voiced Differently in the Dub: For the Wii remake's English dub, Eric Stitt gave the title character a deeper-sounding voice akin to that of a teenager (as opposed to the high-pitched voice he had in the other language dubs), as he apparently didn't know that Klonoa was supposed to be a child.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before they created Klonoa, the series' creators came up with some other interesting character concepts. They were originally going to make the protagonist a human soul trapped in a robot body. Another scrapped protagonist was a shadow creature named Shady. However, Shady was rejected because the creators feared he wasn't appealing enough.
  • One of the early storyboard concepts that featured nightmarish werewolf-like creatures (which would be later redesigned as Moos) had suggested that Door to Phantomile was going to be a horror game. This is right before the developers decided on the final product.
    • On a topic of originally a horror game, Huepow was going to be a monster that can eat and burn its enemies alive then inflate their corpses after draining their powers. In addition, Huepow can drop the corpses down to the floor into bodily remains.
  • For the North American release of the first game's Wii remake, a proposed redesign for Klonoa replaced his trademark floppy ears with pointy cat ears, and also removed his hat. This redesign was shouted down in favor of keeping the design that was already being used. Here is the original version, on the right◊. It's unclear how Klonoa would have been able to flutter without his floppy ears, or if that ability was going to be removed entirely.
  • Ghadius' original designs were... interesting◊. It's strange to think that such a dark, serious villain was almost a Monster Clown.
  • During development for Door to Phantomile, there was a scrapped female character◊ that vaguely resembles Klonoa's redesign in Lunatea's Veil alongside sharing Klonoa's long ears but notably humanoid. Judging by the concept art, it appears that Klonoa was planned to be given his own Love Interest. According to the Official Guide Book published in 1998, the developers planned on making this character◊ either a Friendly Rival to Klonoa or another female heroine. It's possible that this character later became Lolo who was introduced in Lunatea's Veil, judging by their similar appearances and builds. Similarly, the second design for the unnamed female character might later became Leorina, the sequel's antagonist.

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