Video Game / Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal

"A shining Hero Medal. It's the sign of a Hero that children long for. A glorious license that everyone dreams of. Every hero has one! You're not a hero without one! That is the Hero Medal. That is my dream. And... It's just a rumor, but... They say there is a legendary medal with the brilliance of a star that nobody has seen yet... Someday, surely! Someday, certainly!! Someday, definitely!!! That is the Hero Medal. That is my dream..."

—Klonoa, opening cutscene

Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal (The Legendary Star Medal) is an Action RPG developed by Namco for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 and released exclusively in Japan.

Set on an Alternate Universe where heroes are identified and ranked by mystical medals, the story follows Klonoa as he goes on a journey to become the greatest of them all. The boy earns the respect of a bounty hunter named Guntz and soon they meet a bomb expert named Pango who's looking to cure his son from a sleeping sickness. The trio then gets caught in a struggle against the mad villain Janga and his allies who harvest the power of nightmares to rule over the people.

This game's incarnations of Klonoa and Guntz appear in Namco × Capcom. And after two decades since the game's release, a Fan Translation to English was finished in 2022.

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This game contains the following tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: When Klonoa, Guntz and Pango are about to kill Nahatomb in the ending, their Medals turn into Star Medals for a brief instant.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: Character levels peak at 60 for lots of HP in the Extra Visions, but the main game can be comfortably beaten with the trio in the mid 40s. In fact, both attack stats and agility can be maxed out at level 45.
• Actually a Doombot: Joka in his first boss fight is revealed to be a clone. Klonoa and Pango promptly lose to his true form in the following cutscene.
• Actually Pretty Funny: While trying to convince Guntz to join him and Pango, Klonoa tells him that if they lose, they can't win. Guntz bursts out laughing and accepts that as the team's motto.
• All Gravity Is the Same: Zig-Zagged regarding the levels that take place on the moon. The first two levels require the characters to wear their diving suits, not only because they're walking in the vacuum of space, but also so their underwater physics can be used to emulate lunar gravity. The levels taking place inside the Lunar Dome and Lunar Base don't use these dive suits, however, and lunar gravity is ignored during gameplay. This is despite the fact that the reason the Radiant Flower finally blooms is because the moon's gravity is weaker than Earth's, putting less of a strain on the petals.
• Alternate Continuity / Alternate Universe: The game's setting takes elements and characters from both main Klonoa games and the previous GBA spinoffs but is otherwise unrelated to any of them.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Underwater and space levels have the heroes wearing a suit with rather heavy and slippery physics, but gold and experience crystals will always be drawn to them so it won't be an issue to collect them before they vanish.
  • When Guntz comes back in World 5, he's upgraded to be just behind the power curve and there's new equipment for him on the local shop so that clearing his unique stage won't be too difficult. It is also a level without keys hidden by enemies, so the player can just avoid all hostiles anyway.
  • You can save progress between floors. And after leaving a floor through either the entrance or the exit, any unlocked gates will remain open on subsequent visits. It's very convenient if you happen to die in the middle of a long stage.
  • There's a set of diving suit floors with lava hazards everywhere that runs on a time limit. You can easily find an accessory that negates lava and spike damage in the previous stage which significantly breaks this challenge.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Klonoa and Guntz have multiple weapons that pierce enemy shields, while Pango does this by default with his bombs.
• Astral Finale: The last three Worlds are set on the Moon, with the final battle taking place within a dimension of darkness that bursts from its surface once Nahatomb awakens.
• Auto-Revive: Equipping an Angel Ring lets a character be automatically healed to full health at the moment a game over would be triggered. Unfortunately, it is consumed on activation and is a total waste of an equipment slot as you can revive characters up to 18 times with normal healing items already. It doesn't even have any unique benefits like healing status effects.
• Bag of Sharing: All three party members have access to each other's gold, accessories, consumables, and key items, even in sections where they're separated.
• Bag of Spilling: Klonoa's Hero Medal suddenly degrades from Gold to Blank after he returns home. He quickly shrugs this off, declaring he can be a hero anytime. At the end of the Extra Visions, however, the Medal turns straight to Gold after all the hard work Klonoa went through in his wild goose chase.
• Bait-and-Switch: On the Extra Visions, the heroes chase after rumors that people who resemble Garlen, Janga and Joka are up to no good. However, they go all the way to the Moon just to find the mysterious trio were just Balue, Momett and Mamett on a project to build a theme park to calm the rampaging monsters down.
• Bandit Mook: Mydos are small, pink creatures that suck up any loose gold and dream bits dropped by enemies you defeated. And you can't get them back, even after you defeat the culprit.
• The Battle Didn't Count: In addition to the Cutscene Incompetence examples below, once the heroes beat Garlen's Bugpod D mech, they open up the cockpit to try and bring him out... only to discover he somehow escaped. They then have to chase him into Nahato's Darkness, where he's promptly absorbed by the ancient hero he was trying to revive in the first place.
• Big Bad: Garlen is the ruler of a mechanical empire who wants to awaken Nahatomb and use his powers to put people into a deep slumber and Take Over the World. He's only met in person towards the end, after both Joka — who just wanted to cause havok, and Janga — who told him about Nahatomb in the first place, are dealt with.
• Big "YES!": Klonoa's reaction upon being granted a Hero Medal by the High Priestess, who's not amused and asks him to reflect on what a real hero is.
  Klonoa: YEEEEEEEESSS!!
  High Priestess: But first... I would like to ask you one thing.
  Klonoa: Yes...... Yes?
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: World 4 involve fighting enemies in the Sky Temple, built in dedication to Lunatea's goddess Claire.
• Blown Across the Room:
  • Some weapons will knock Giant Moos back and forth between walls, and unfortunately they'll only damage the player on contact.
  • The heroes will spin backwards upon being knocked out until the player revives them or the game fades back to the world map. Depending of what the damage source was, it's possible to see them blasted away at high speeds.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: You can limit the number of helpers Nahatomb can summon in his first phase by luring him to the edges of the arena. You DEFINITELY don't want him summoning six Heart Magis to heal him at the same time!
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • The Hero Medals are purely cosmetic (aside from unlocking new items at certain shops), so Klonoa recovering his Gold Medal in the second ending is just for it to look pretty in the character customization menu. Of course, making the Medals have gameplay value wouldn't fit with the themes of the story.
  • The Namco Medal comes with a cheat code for the main menu... which just changes the voice you hear upon starting the game.
  • The weapons and armors with maxed out stat limits can only be found in the post-game for fun's sake.
  • The item that focuses experience points towards a benched party member could be very useful, but you'll only have enough collectible dolls for it in the post-game.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The enemies in the Extra visions have stats high enough that even with the heroes' levels maxed out the player can't quite kill them as quickly as before, so spamming super moves is encouraged in the more crowded encounters.
• Calling Your Attacks: Each of the playable characters will shout the names of their special attacks each time you use them.
• The Cameo: A sidequest involves talking with several Namco characters while searching for Susumu Hori's drill. Unfortunately, its reward is pretty pointless...
• Cap:
  • A character's attack, special attack, defense and agility is determined by the points allocated in the specific limits of each weapon and armor. There's a limit of 15 points for each stat, so character levels cap at 60.
  • Each character can carry 10 weapons and 10 armors. 30 accessories can be kept in the inventory at once. As for consumables, you can keep every kind of them but each one has a specific limit on how many can be kept at once. When those limits are broken, the game will require the player to use or toss items upon clearing or leaving a floor.
• Character Customization: Characters can have one weapon, one piece of clothing and two accessories that raise stats or enable some utility function.
• Character Select Forcing: Some areas or entire levels require you to play as only Klonoa, Guntz or Pango, so you'd better level grind each of them every so often.
• Charged Attack: Once unlocked, you can perform two super moves with each chracter by holding either A or B for a while.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of the game, we see Klonoa pick a Radiant Flower, a rare flower that's said to bestow good luck to the holder's loved ones if it blooms, as a parting gift for Lolo. This flower is what wakes Lolo and Boris from their comas at the end of the game.
• Chekhov's Gunman: You get a impression of Garlen from those breakable statues placed from World 4 onwards way before you meet him in person.
• Chest Monster: Tzusuras are spider-like creatures with a Slasher Smile and red eyes that hide within chests. You'll quickly be wary of every chest you see, as the way they cannot be attacked at range while hidden makes it awkward to hit them without getting hit back by their instantaneous Counter-Attack. There's also an equipable accessory that triggers them from a short distance.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Guntz talks like a rude thug/delinquent and, for starters, shouts "damn" every time he gets hit. The English fan translations for both Namco X Capcom and this game aimed to be faithful to his character, so he even gets to say "fuck" a couple times when he is particularly frustrated.
• Collection Sidequest: Mamett will exchange an item for every five Mamett Dolls you bring to him, including things useful for the final stages or the post-game. The Dolls are found in certain chests and are the rewards for beating each boss rematch at the Momett House. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell which ones you missed in each stage.
• Collision Damage: Touching enemies usually deals damage to the player characters. The agility stat determines how often they'll "dodge" on contact.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Check the health bar of each enemy to see if you should hurt them with red or blue attacks. If their health bar's yellow, it means super moves are their only weakness.
• Comedic Sociopathy: When Guntz refuses to enter a boat because of his seasickness, Klonoa's willingness to knock the wolf out and drag him inside is treated by Pango as the boy having finally grown into a truly manly adult.
• Continuing is Painful: The levels are looong, so you aren't going to like getting a game over in the middle of them. You'll also lose half of your money. However, you may just as well save progress after every floor and reset if things go south.
• Cool Bike: Guntz's Red Clan can fire spread shots and can spin around while shooting. Too bad it is destroyed by Klonoa during their second fight just so the player can't access it.
• Cool Chair: In his first phase, Nahatomb sits on a throne while calling mooks and casting lightning spells. Sometimes he teleports or dives into the ground to chase the heroes.
• Cool Old Guy: Pango is a middle-aged father who specializes in producing and attacking with explosives. He enters the story by getting Klonoa and Guntz out of jail and afterwards pretty much carries the team on his back by offering words of wisdom to the two youngsters, uncovering almost the whole Evil Plan by deceiving Joka and even piloting a rocket into the Moon. He starts out with a Silver Medal, a rank above Guntz, but is a Humble Hero who reminds Klonoa to not get hasty and act heroic just to raise a medal's rank.
• Critical Annoyance: On low health, the player's portrait will glow red and a booping sound will repeatedly play.
• Critical Failure: Even though this is an Action RPG with hack-and-slash combat, having too little Agility will make the heroes "miss" their attacks. Conversely, focusing on having high agility will make enemies miss so often that it's worth the cost of having low defense without level grinding for more Custom Points.
• Critical Hit: The Agility stat determines how often characters can deal critical hits. "Wahoo!"
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Lolo is taken to the Sky Temple to become a priestess, but upon meeting Klonoa and Pango she almost directs them the wrong way and Vision 4-2 only happens because she somehow trips into a waterway. Also, Joka only kidnaps her because she's the dullest priestess in the place.
• Cutscene: Those play before and after levels, as well as between floors of certain levels. In cutscenes, characters are featured as portraits with a good number of facial expressions. By moving and rotating the portraits around the screen, the game is able to portray the characters' actions in surprisingly expressive ways.
• Cutscene Incompetence:
  • Klonoa can beat the crap out of the initial Giant Moo trio and Guntz boss fights during gameplay and they'll still own him in the following cutscenes.
  • After Klonoa and Pango defeat Joka for the first time, it turns out he was just a clone. The real one transforms and blows them away in a cutscene.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: After his defeat, Janga stabs Klonoa with claws coated with a powerful poison that leave the boy incapacitated for a whole stage. The player can't simply prevent or heal this with items like in gameplay proper, no, Guntz and Pango have to carry him all the way to a medical ward.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The very last boss is the only one whose life gauge is as long as the screen. Once the gauge runs out, he'll revive several times with decreasing degrees of effectiveness until he's killed for real.
• Damsel in Distress: Lolo is kidnapped by Joka at Sky Temple so her dreams can be used to awaken Nahatomb and envelop the world in darkness.
• Dash Attack: Klonoa's special sword attack will send him sliding over a long distance. It can be dangerous to use, but deals multiple hits, ignores spiked floors and it's just plain fun.
• Defeat Means Playable: Klonoa defeats Guntz twice before the bounty hunter acknowledges him and becomes the second playable character.
• Degraded Boss: Giant Moos are first introduced as a trio of minibosses who can surprise players by how they bounce all over the place whenever they're hit. A bunch of them then overwhelm Klonoa on the following cutscene, allowing Guntz to make his grand entrance. For the rest of the game, though, giant enemies are just another thing you'll need to fight through the levels.
• Distress Ball: Klonoa and Pango briefly hold this at the Sky Temple. The main reason Klonoa decided to go with Pango there was because he heard one of Janga's allies say he needed to get something from there, causing him to worry about Lolo, who was studying at said temple. After they meet up with her and she points out where a book they're looking for is, however, they rush off without her to get said book. As a result, Lolo trips and falls into a waterway trying to keep up with them, and ends up being kidnapped by Joka, the very ally Klonoa overheard.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Sign of Hero" is sung by Kumiko Watanabe, Klonoa's voice actress.
• Do Wrong, Right: Pango is outraged when a message from Garlen threatens his family, right after he told Guntz there's no point in yelling at the Nagapoko messager robot. Since he's too polite to really curse at the villain, Guntz offers to send a proper response in his stead. He tells Garlen to "EAT SHIT" and shoots at the Nagapoko for good measure before calmly directing Pango and Klonoa to resume their quest.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The only game in the series where Klonoa gets a fully happy ending.
• Easter Egg: When Valkyrie gifts the Namco Medal to Klonoa, it comes with instructions to press either L or R three times at the title screen. All this does is change the voice on the title screen options to either Guntz's or Pango's.
• Escape Rope: Use Moo Wings to leave levels if you're in a pickle and out of healing items.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Garlen awakens Nahatomb to use his powers and the Star Medal to become a god-emperor, but is instead swallowed up by the demon to never be seen again.
• Experience Booster: The final world contains two hidden accessories that raise experience gain by 20% and 50%.
• Explosive Stupidity: After Pango learns his second bomb-related special move, "Rolling Blaster", he decides to give it a test run... in a warehouse chock full of loose gunpowder.
  Pango: (coughs) T-that's not good. I think I got carried away and added too much gunpowder...
• Extended Gameplay: After clearing the main story, one extra stage is unlocked for each world with some more scenes about the heroes reuniting and taking on more monsters.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: All 3 phases of the final boss fight take place within a nightmare dimension called "Nahato's Darkness".
• Foul Flower: Klonoa and his friends battle Joka — or so it seems. In the last phase of the battle, Joka turns out to be just a clone, who transforms into a floating, fireball-shooting beast called Flower Joka.
• Funetik Aksent:
  • In the original Japanese script, while most lines of dialogue are written entirely in hiragana, the moon people's lines are written in a mix of hiragana and katakana, emulating a robotic, awkward speech pattern. The fan translation instead swaps out any letters that make a "s" or "th" sound with the letter Z, to a similar effect.
  • The Lunar Base robots' lines are written entirely in katakana (all caps in the fan translation) to emulate computerized speech.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The first time the Gael puzzle rooms appear, Klonoa is under orders to only hit them with his bare hands on the side or the back. In the second set of puzzles he isn't but does it anyway and everything actually goes completely unmentioned by Klonoa and Guntz. Much later, the third set at least makes up an excuse for how even Guntz or Pango can't damage the monsters with their weapons.
  • You can visit Momett and Mamett even in two occasions you shouldn't be able to: when the whole world is hit by a sleeping spell and when the two are supposed to be travelling in order to build a monster theme park.
• Glass Cannon: The game forces players to always raise defense last, because agility determines whether you'll hit enemies at all. By focusing on equipment with better attack and agility limits, the heroes will deal high damage and score both critical hits and dodges often but will also be very fragile. Low defense also makes them vulnerable to status ailments. To compensate, it's possible to heal knocked out player characters before they're kicked back to the world map a total of 18 times (10 boiled eggs, 5 cup noodles, 3 curry plates).
• Gratuitous English:
  • "Sign of (a) Hero" has some lyrics in English.
  • Everyone's super moves have at least some English in their names.
  • The two ending messages are in English:
    "We hope you enjoy your dream, and make your day with the mind of hero!"^note the fan translation corrects this to "We hope you enjoy your dreams, and make your day with a heroic mind!"
    "All visions were cleared. Thank you for your heroism !" (misplaced space included)
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Swords are the second weapon type that Klonoa can obtain and he's often portrayed with one in illustrations for the game. Its multiple quick hits are worth good damage and raise the SP gauge fast, but it can't pierce shields and its stylish dash move leaves Klonoa vulnerable.
• Heroism Motive Speech: Janga's last ditch attack leaves a comatose Klonoa in a nightmare where he's haunted by his insecurities over being a hero. When Guntz starts shouting that he must wake up and keep moving foward, Klonoa realizes why he has been fighting this whole time.
  Klonoa: I...... want to keep moving foward!! I want to move foward! Despite my failures, despite my regrets! I want to take the next step! One step to protect! One step to help! One step to stay strong! Even if it's just acting, keep acting strong, until I become truly strong! That's why! That's why I want to be a hero!!
• Incredibly Lame Pun:
  • After Guntz learns his Shinigami Fire special, Klonoa finds a Chirigami Fire pack of tissue (chirigami) paper. The fan translation localized the terms to Death God Fire and Breath God Fire, with the latter being referred to as a mouthwash item.
  • When Pango shows his Silver Medal to Klonoa, the boy asks to admire it and Pango replies that it's not necessary by mashing the phrases "sonkei" (admiration) and "son na koto nai" (not really) together ("sonke koto nai"). In the fan translation, it's changed to have Klonoa say he's amazed, to which Pango replies "Hi 'Amazed', I'm Pango!".
    Klonoa: (unamused) You really are a dad...
    (Pango laughs.)
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Hero class of equipment is only found in the Extra Visions. They all have the same maxed out stats, so you can pick whichever one you like the best.
• Interface Spoiler: Like with most roleplaying games, you know a leaving member of your party is gonna come back eventually when you can still buy weapons and gear for them. For instance, you can still buy gear for Guntz after he leaves to chase Janga, and shops will still have gear for Klonoa after he's put in a coma by Janga's poison.
• Inventory Management Puzzle: You can only keep 30 accessories and each consumable item has a specific limit on how many of them can be held at once, and you'll be required to spend or discard excess ones between areas.
• Invulnerable Attack: Super moves render the heroes invincible, and, oh boy, with the right items you can spam them over and over and over.
• I Surrender, Suckers: After Janga is defeated by Pango, Klonoa and Guntz, he fakes an apology that convinces the latter to spare him. Once their backs are turned, Janga then attempts to poison Guntz with his venom-tipped claws. Klonoa sees him approaching, though, and pushes Guntz out of the way to take the blow.
• Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: Item prices won't increase as the game progresses... but shopkeepers will still only buy them back at a fraction of the cost.
• Lethal Lava Land:
  • The Moon levels feature lava pools that slow down the player like spikes do but also deal damage at a faster rate. Oddly, at the very first floor they show up you can already find an item that nullifies all effects from hazardous terrain.
  • Sectors B and X in Volk's factory mainly consist of platforms, catwalks, etc. suspended above what looks like molten steel, though the player can't fall in.
• Level-Up Fill-Up: Level ups fully restore a character's health and heal status ailments.
• Limit Break: Each character has two super moves that cost SP and some enemies can only be damaged by them. SP is charged by hitting enemies, even when it does no damage or during the super move itself, and its charge rate can be boosted by a scroll item.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Or, in this game's case, a pangolin named "Pango".
• Lock and Key Puzzle: There are two colors of locked doors and keys can be found either lying on the floor or being held by enemies. In the latter case, it will be either a specific enemy or you'll have to kill all enemies in a given area — there's no way to know until it pops out.
• Lunacy: Karal's mother Pamela goes mad on nights of a full moon and is fought as the boss of the second World. Klonoa and Guntz are unable to do much for them, but Guntz forfeits his chance at a bounty's reward to let the two leave Jugkettle.
• MacGuffin: The titular and highly sought after Star Medal is actually only glimpsed throughout the story. It is designed to be exclusive to Nahatomb and to drain dream power from the holders of the Hero Medals but seems to have a mind of its own. It forces Klonoa to reflect on the nature of heroism and, at the very end, briefly acknowledges the main trio as worthy of having their Medals raised to its rank.
• Marathon Level: Levels consist of multiple acts and get longer and longer as the game goes on.
• Mercy Invincibility: Averted; enemies can and will combo you for a lot of damage if you don't watch out.
• Metal Slime: Rare Moos only take Yellow damage and teleport away if not killed in a single time-freezing super move. By World 4, Klonoa should have enough SP and boosts from items to claim those Moos' high rewards.
• Might Makes Right: Garlen boasts his Golden Hero Medal before the heroes, claiming it marks his right to rule over everyone. Klonoa finds it laughable and states that if Garlen is worth a Golden Medal, it just means getting one of those can't be too difficult after all.
• Mirror Match: After Guntz's boss battle, once he joins your party, it's possible to fight Boss!Guntz again using Player!Guntz.
• Monster Compendium: The Bestiary only unlocks the full data for each enemy after beating several dozens of them. In the case of bosses, it is needed to fight the rematch for each one in the Momett House.
• Mook Bouncer: Cagies try to slam the cage they carry on the heroes to send them to a previous area in the same floor. Only a single floor in the Extra Visions involves getting caught on purpose to enter a blocked area or to get sent further ahead.
• Mundane Utility: You can pop off a super move just to get past hazardous terrain unharmed.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Apparently, the Sky Temple's library has the only surviving copy of the book "Lore of the Moon and Dreams", which Pango and Lolo believe contains a way to heal the former's comatose son. This becomes problematic when said copy is stolen by the villains, as it also contains directions for resurrecting the hero Nahatomb.
• No-Sell: If you hit an enemy for no damage — whether by being too weak, using the wrong attack color or the enemy being immune to both colors — the word "strike" and a unique sound effect pop out. Even those hits are worth SP for super moves though.
• Not So Above It All: When Guntz and Klonoa are searching for a sea monster, Guntz makes fun of Klonoa for not knowing how to swim, but also shrinks in shame as he admits they couldn't ride a boat either because he'd get seasick.
• Not Worth Killing: Guntz spares Janga out of contempt after defeating him and his Hero Medal turns silver from it. However, Janga then tries to backstab Guntz with deadly poison and Klonoa takes the hit, causing a furious Guntz to blast Janga off a cliff anyway.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: The first floor in World 4's final stage has a large group of enemies including three giant ones right by the exit gate, allowing the player to farm exp points by moving back and forth between floors. In the post-game, the first floor of the final stage will quickly get everyone to level 60 if you kept the two best exp booster items on hand.
• Personal Space Invader: Flying Moos will try to catch the heroes and will repeatedly scratch them until they're killed. There's a brief time window between getting caught and taking damage, so letting it happen can be a easier way to kill them than following them around.
• Plotline Death: The poison status ailment can be cured by several different means: leveling up, drinking Vegetable Juice, or staying at an inn. And one can avoid being poisoned altogether if one holds a Claire Crystal... yet it doesn't stop Klonoa from being poisoned by Janga in the cutscene after the latter's boss fight, and Guntz and Pango don't think about trying the aforementioned curing methods on him, either.
• Pocket Protector: Guntz's (originally Butz's) hero medal saves him from a fatal shot by Janga.
• Posthumous Character: Guntz is looking to avenge his father Butz, who was betrayed by his partner Janga. He eventually learns that Butz accidentally put the plot into motion by uncovering Nahatomb's legend and was killed when he refused to work with Janga to awaken him.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • After Klonoa falls asleep from Janga's poison and becomes trapped in a nightmare about his insecurities as an up-and-coming hero even after Guntz and Pango try to heal him, the two shout at him to not give up, allowing Klonoa to remember why is it that he seeks to be a hero and break free.
  • At the end, all the people Klonoa met on his journey and Pango's son struggle against their nightmares to let the heroes finish Nahatomb off.
• Power-Up Letdown: Guntz talks big about the gun that lets him use his first super move, but while said attack should hit a lot more times than Klonoa's 3-hit tornado attack, the bullets cannot be aimed, don't hit near him and don't even seem to be properly assigned as yellow attacks in the first place. To highlight how useless it is, Pango has the same random super except his thrown bombs collide with edges of terrain to actually blast cornered enemies a dozen times.
• Puzzle Boss: Nahatomb's second form has red and blue life gauges. If only one gauge remains emptied for too long, he will restore his health.
• Randomly Drops: Enemies can drop treasure chests upon defeat.
• Remixed Level: The Extra Visions are just previous level designs with stronger enemies.
• Replay Mode: You can replay the cutscenes seen in the main campaign by visiting Klonoa's house. Additionally, the Momett House lets you fight bosses you've already beaten to see if you can beat your best time.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Guntz is enraged when he meets Janga, the killer of his father Butz, and when Janga briefly makes a hostage out of Klonoa before fleeing, he ditches the boy just to hunt the villain down.
• Rolling Attack: Pango's Rolling Blaster has him rolling at high speeds, but it's the explosions he produces and not the rolling that deal damage.
• Rough Overalls: Pango wears a pair of green overalls, highlighting his role as a pyrotechnician. His son, Boris, also has a pair of blue overalls.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Guntz and Klonoa will be unavailable at certain points of the story, keeping their accessories with them until they're back.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Joka self-destructs upon being defeated, Janga falls under a crumbling cliff and into a lava pit (though Guntz did shoot him with killing intent at this point) and Garlen gets directly absorbed into Nahatomb after escaping from the heroes.
• Sequence Breaking: Avoided by the developers. Klonoa's hammer weapon allows him to jump, but conveyor belts are always at least as long as the jump's reach. The one time a belt can be skipped, it doesn't yield any benefits.
• Sequential Boss:
  • Flower Joka switches back-and-forth between his normal form and a serpentine form as he takes damage.
  • Garlen's bug-like mech has two back-to-back phases.
  • Nahatomb has three different phases with breaks for saving the game: a humanoid armored figure on a throne, a monstrous heart and a giant dragon-like form. On the final one he revives himself several times like the player can do, with less HP every time he does it.
• Shame If Something Happened: Garlen takes notice of Pango and his family from a message the pangolin left on a Nagapoko bot and threatens his sickly son with even more nightmares. Pango gets pissed off at this, but Guntz asks him to calm down... and curses Garlen properly through the Nagapoko before the team heads further into the Moon.
• Shoot the Medic First: Heart Magis can heal themselves and any other nearby enemies, so it's best to quickly kill them on sight. Several areas have them placed in isolated spots to make fights more difficult.
• Shop Fodder: Jewel badges can only be sold to shopkeepers.
• Skewed Priorities: The otherwise responsible Pango takes the time to learn how to make a new bomb for his first super move while Klonoa urges him to focus on Lolo's kidnapping.
• Speaking Simlish: Averted. Other than Klonoa having his usual "Phantomilian" catchphrases (Rupurudu! Wapeeh! Manyah!) as a Mythology Gag, everyone speaks Japanese in-universe.
• Spikes of Doom: Spiked floors slow the heroes down and deal minor damage every second. A few weapon skills or super moves can be used to dash over them unharmed.
• Spoiler Opening: The title screen shows Klonoa, Guntz and Pango watching the moon, hinting at the game's final chapters taking place in there.
• Status Effects: Some enemies can inflict status ailments that can be healed with Veggie Juice, resting at an inn or levelling up. Having high defense and equipping certain items will lower the chances of that happening.
  • Poison constantly drains HP.
  • Amnesia disables super moves.
  • Curse chops your attributes.
• Take Your Time: As with most video games, no matter how urgent the heroes' current situation is (i.e. trying to get to a rocket before it takes off, or rushing a poisoned Klonoa to a medical ward guarded by enemies), the player can level grind or explore all they want before they decide to trigger the next story-advancing cutscene.
• Theme Song Power Up: The uplifting "Sign of Hero" plays in key scenes of the story to hype players up.
• There Can Be Only One: Nahatomb is the one true "hero" who holds the Star Medal and the other Hero Medals are actually designed to identify his servants. He invokes the trope upon confronting Klonoa, Guntz and Pango.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Guntz's refuses to kill Janga after defeating him because his father wouldn't have approved it, and his Hero Medal glows silver. When this mercy nearly gets Guntz backstabbed, with Klonoa taking the hit and falling into a coma, then Guntz retaliates with killing intent. Still, what actually does Janga in is the floor collapsing and dropping him into a magma crater.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Pango can wield various kinds of bombs and they are required to break barriers.
• Time Stands Still: One usable item will freeze time for a few seconds. This has the side effect of preventing attacks from knocking enemies away, which allows Klonoa's boomerangs to strike so much more than they're supposed to that they can slaughter bosses.
• Timed Mission: Visions 6-2 and 6-EX run on a time limit, as Garlen has set bombs in the area that'll explode if the heroes linger for too long.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • Early in the game, Klonoa attempts to give Lolo the Radiant Flower he picked for her before going to fight the phantom beasts on Bell Hill. The latter, however, possibly in an attempt to avert this trope, turns down the gift at first without seeing what it is, saying she'll accept it once the former comes back safe.
  • Guntz's Hero Medal belonged to his father Butz. Janga taunts him over it by revealing the medal's rank has degraded from gold to bronze under his care.
  • Janga reveals his rifle also belonged to Butz and tries to execute Guntz with the weapon before discarding it. Guntz survives because his hero medal blocked the bullet, and then he unlocks his second super move by claiming his father's weapon.
• Trauma Inn: Each world has at least one inn where our heroes can recover their HP and heal their status ailments. The further you get in the game, the more expensive it'll be to stay at one, but also the more likely you'll receive a good bonus item.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Some areas require Klonoa to clear Gaels out of the way to each goal. They can only be hit from the side or behind and will reset the puzzle if Klonoa walks in front of them.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: If an enemy only vulnerable to super moves is carrying a key and your guys are totally inflicted with amnesia with no way to heal it, then the only options are to either spend a potentially massive amount of time to grind for a level up or to just quit the level with a Moo Wing.
• Universal Poison: The poisons produced by multiple different enemies (including Janga) can all be cured the same way if inflicted during battle; drinking vegetable juice, staying at an inn, etc. Even when Janga poisons Klonoa as part of a Plotline Death, Guntz and Pango don't know what kind of poison it was, yet the first antidote they try works anyway.
• Unwitting Pawn: Heroes who covet the status of the high-rank Hero Medals are actually just harvesting dreams to feed the demonic Fallen Hero Nahatomb who is sealed at the Moon.
• Vacuum Mouth: Kow-Gows possess this ability, sucking in the player and spitting out the weakest member of the party.
• Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted; Guntz's flamethrowers erase bullets, deal decent damage and gain SP at a fast pace, their only downside being they can't pierce enemy shields. The best Balue Scroll and Yellow Gem accessories combined with the Fireblaze flamethrower will let you spam the Death God Rush super move constantly.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: At the end of world 2, once Klonoa and Guntz use a boat to leave Jugkettle and move on to the Moon's Ruins, we only see the back of Guntz's head as he throws up over the railing.
  Guntz: (retching) T-This is why I didn't want to go by boat...
  Klonoa: Just when I was starting to think you were cool...
• Welcome to Corneria: Zig-Zagged, as while most villagers get new lines of dialogue as the story progresses, others are stuck with just one line throughout the entire story (for example, one villager on the moon mentions that everyone on Earth must be trapped in a nightmare, even after you beat Nahatomb and clear out the nightmare mist).
• We Need a Distraction: During the third chapter, Klonoa and Guntz plan to infiltrate an underground mine where several people are being held captive by a mysterious man. The plan Guntz gives to Klonoa is that he'll signal the latter over radio when he's about to act as The Bait for any guards inside, allowing Klonoa to progress further into the mine. Though once Klonoa gets into positon, he notices Guntz is taking quite a while to give the signal, so he tries to radio in to check up... only for his radio to give off an alarm. It's after the second time he tries it, and is subsequently discovered by the guards, when he realizes Guntz planned for him to be The Bait. He isn't amused when the two of them reunite.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In the ending, Klonoa monologues about how Pango and Guntz have been doing. Pango healed his son and is preparing fireworks for a festival, while Guntz left in search of more adventure. The final scene is of Klonoa finding his medal reset to Blank form and shrugging it off to go fishing with Popka.
• The Worf Effect: Klonoa and Pango both lose to Joka's true form in a cutscene after defeating his clone and a while later Guntz gets his ass handed to him by Janga without even a playable fight. The three protagonists then come across each other and resolve to become stronger.
• Yet Another Stupid Death: You can miss reviving a character by mistake if you happened to be browsing other items in your inventory, as you can only switch to the next item on the fairly long list by tapping Select. It's about the only time the Angel Ring revival item would be actually useful.
• You Just Told Me: When Pango hears Joka say he'll take Lolo to Volk City, he recalls a rocket is being built there and tricks Joka into admitting everything so far is connected to it. Then, with every word Pango says, Joka keeps spilling more beans Pango hadn't even dreamed of. Joka only stops when Klonoa doesn't get Pango's plan and expresses surprise when the Star Medal is brought up.
• You Killed My Father: Janga killed Guntz's father, Butz, when the man refused to help awaken Nahatomb after discovering his legend.

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"That's why!"

"We keep!!"

"Moving foward!!!"