Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

Developer	Namco
Publisher	ExpandNamco Namco 🇪🇺 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Platforms	ExpandPlayStation (original) PlayStation • i-mode (mobile phone service)
Date	ExpandDecember 11, 1997 (original) 🇯🇵 December 11, 1997 🇺🇸 March 11, 1998 🇪🇺 June 5, 1998
Links	Wikipedia MobyGames The Cutting Room Floor
Related	Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a 2.5D platform game released for the PlayStation in 1997 (in Japan) and 1998 (the rest of the world).

History

Press kit
🇺🇸 1997

Excerpt from Namco's E3 1997 press material (featuring an early English logo)

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Press release
🇪🇺 May 1998

From SCEE, released for E3 1998

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Staff photo
🇯🇵 1998

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• Several pages of concept art from Famitsu's official guidebook (Japanese; February 21, 1998)

Previews

CoroCoro Comic
🇯🇵 July 1997

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CoroCoro Comic
🇯🇵 August 1997

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CoroCoro Comic
🇯🇵 September 1997

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Electronic Gaming Monthly
🇺🇸 September 1997

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Famitsu
🇯🇵 September 1997

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CoroCoro Comic
🇯🇵 October 1997

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GameFan
🇺🇸 October 1997

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CoroCoro Comic
🇯🇵 December 1997

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Ultra Game Players
🇺🇸 December 1997

Erroneously calls the game Kinoa

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Electronic Gaming Monthly
🇺🇸 January 1998

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Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine
🇺🇸 January 1998

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PSExtreme
🇺🇸 January 1998

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PSM
🇺🇸 January 1998

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Ultra Game Players
🇺🇸 January 1998

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Super Juegos
🇪🇸 February 1998

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Official Australian PlayStation Magazine (Next Gaming)
🇦🇺 April 1998

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PlayStation Magazine Edición Oficial Española
🇪🇸 May 1998

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Video preview taken from a CD-ROM bundled with issue 39 of Next Generation

Magazine covers

Game-X
🇧🇷 1998

  Download File

Features

Dengeki PlayStation
🇯🇵 February 13, 1998

Guide to beating the final boss

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EGM2
🇺🇸 April 1998

Guide to the game

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Super Game Power
🇧🇷 April 1998

Short guide to unlockable content

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Tips & Tricks
🇺🇸 April 1998

Guide to the game

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Super Game Power
🇧🇷 May 1998

Guide to the game

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PSM
🇺🇸 June 1998

Explanation of how to unlock the sound test

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Dengeki Urawazaō 2000-2001 Kanzenhan
🇯🇵 ~1999

Guide to various secrets

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• Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Official Guide Book (Japanese publication by Shogakukan; February 10, 1998)
• Official Famitsu guidebook (Japanese; February 21, 1998)

Reader submissions

Nice Games
🇯🇵 Spring 2001

A reader shares their impressions of the game at length

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Advertising

Booklet
🇺🇸 1997

Excerpt from a booklet outlining then-upcoming Namco games

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Print ad
🇯🇵 ~1997

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Print ad
🇺🇸 1998

Taken from the thirty-ninth issue of Nickelodeon Magazine (dated March 1998)

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Nickelodeon Magazine
🇺🇸 March 1998

Blurb from the issue's "advertising directory"

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Print ad
🇺🇸 1998

The infamous STD ad, taken from EGM's 104th issue (dated March 1998)

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Print ad
🇪🇸 1998

Taken from the eighteenth issue of PlayStation Magazine Edición Oficial Española (dated June 1998)

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Print ad
🇬🇷 ~1998

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Store display
🇺🇸 ~1998

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Store display
🇺🇸 ~1998

Closeup picture

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Namco Soft Line-up! 2000-2001
🇯🇵 ~1999

Blurb from a promotional booklet advertising a budget rerelease

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Interviews

• Interview with several developers (originally printed in The PlayStation magazine in 1997; translated into English and posted online by shmuplations)
• Nintendo Power interview with director Hideo Yoshizawa about many games he worked on, including Door to Phantomile (July 2009)
• Famitsu interview with Tsuyoshi Kobayashi (a designer) and Yoshihiko Arai (who worked on the plot & graphics) about Door to Phantomile and its sequel (June 23, 2022)
  • Unofficial English translations (partially done via DeepL): Part 1 & part 3 (part 2 is focused on Klonoa 2)

Reviews

Consoles +
🇫🇷 February 1998

Import review

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GameFan
🇺🇸 February 1998

Panel review

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GameFan
🇺🇸 February 1998

Full review

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Ultra Game Players
🇺🇸 March 1998

  Download File

GamePro
🇺🇸 March 1998

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PSExtreme
🇺🇸 March 1998

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PSM
🇺🇸 March 1998

  Download File

Super Game Power
🇧🇷 March 1998

  Download File

PSM (Italy)
🇮🇹 May 1998

Italian translation of the English PSM review

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Riki
🇸🇰 May/June 1998

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Consoles +
🇫🇷 June 1998

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PlayStation Magazine Edición Oficial Española
🇪🇸 June 1998

  Download File

PSM
🇺🇸 September 1998

The game makes #19 on the magazine's revised top 25 list

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PSM (Italy)
🇮🇹 November 1998

The game makes #19 on the magazine's revised top 25 list (translated from the American magazine's equivalent feature)

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Game-X
🇧🇷 1998

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Hardcore Gamer
🇺🇸 January 2007

Retro review

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Flights of Fantasy review

Miscellaneous

Dengeki PlayStation
🇯🇵 April 10, 1998

Time attack challenge for a bonus level

  Download File

Dengeki PlayStation
🇯🇵 April 10, 1998

Contest to win a Klonoa-branded pencil board

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Electronic Gaming Monthly
🇺🇸 October 2001

Short description of rising secondhand prices after the sequel's release

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Tips & Tricks
🇺🇸 November 2001

Short description of the game's secondhand value at the time of publication

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Websites

• Official Japanese website