Fans of classic PlayStation platformer games have fond memories of the charm and whimsy that was found in the Klonoa series. The platformer has been mostly dormant since 2008, with the last release being a Wii remake of the original Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. With Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, this release will be introducing the classic platformer series to a new generation of fans as well as nostalgic gamers. This Klonoa collection includes both the first and second games into one package, with releases across all modern systems.
While many fans were excited to see the series being revitalized, Bandai Namco had been rather quiet about the game up until its launch. Other than the announcement trailer in a Nintendo Direct and a gameplay showcase for Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, a lot of the marketing for the game has been almost invisible. This is compounded further by a statement from series producer Ryo Ishida noting the IP could expand depending on the sales success of the remasters. With fans determined to not let the series die due to low sales again, many gamers are encouraging others to show their support and buy the game, coining a hashtag in the process.
Klonoa fans started taking to Twitter in order to show their support for the game's sales, from simple encouragement posts to posts showing that they have bought the game. Klonoa fan art also started being posted, asking gamers who haven't bought the game yet to do the same. In the process, a hashtag on Twitter was also created in order to get more traction, #KLONOASWEEP, aping after the ironic #MorbiusSweep meme.
With this hashtag, some Morbius memes have started blending into the Klonoa fan art, with Klonoa himself even posing in a similar manner to certain memes. While not entirely clear if these meme posts and the hashtag ended up helping, the game actually managed to crack into Steam's Top Sellers list, even beating out another title published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Elden Ring, for a short time.
According to early reports, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series managed to sell at least one million copies on Steam upon its release, though this figure seems to be based on the earlier achievement of it being on the Steam Best Seller category. It is very evident that word of mouth is at least helping the Klonoa series stand out despite its lack of advertising. This shows that fans really want Klonoa to succeed and not let the series fall back into obscurity.
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.