Hi forum ! In this thread i have decided to recollect all my thoughts about the future title of Klonoa and eventually try to make some order on what to expect for Klonoa's future
Let's start off with the first point.
1. Is Klonoa Encore going to happen ?The first topic i want to talk about is also the most important one too: is Klonoa encore going to become a reality ?
As of right now, information about Klonoa Encore is pretty scarce, the only piece of official news we have so far was the trademark registered back in September of last year, aside from that, nothing much has happened news-wise.
The only semi-pieces of information and hints we could gather were related to mr. driller, who was also registered on that same day of September of Klonoa encore too.
In those recent months most fans have given Mr. Driller a huge importance since the pattern that it's going through could also be the same one in which Klonoa will follow soon after.
It got an encore trademark, then a new one in Europe, then the game was revealed, this is enough evidence to assume that Klonoa will follow the same pattern...IF it happens that is.
Because unfortunately, i hate having to admit this, but as of right now there's still no current proof that Klonoa encore will indeed happen, we can try to speculate as much as we want about trademarks patterns but that won't change the fact that the Klonoa encore trademark still remains the one and only piece of official news we have so far
Klonoa encore currently founds itself in that awkward position in which the chances of happening are 1% and 99% both at the same time, and only Bandai Namco can determine what the outcome will be, but that isn't to say that we, as a community, cannot help Klonoa.
2. A helping handIn recent times the Klonoa community has been quite active, we have all come together to show support for Klonoa and do everything in our grasp to help him, I'll pinpoint some of the most important ones
Shortly after the announcement that the Klonoa movie was cancelled, a twitter user known as Broski started the famous #SaveKlonoa campaign, this campaign was so successful that
even the community manager RashedNambro acknowledged our request for a return of Klonoa.Another important contributor and ambassador of the Klonoa community is obviously
@mushroom32x that thanks to his blog
Klonoa @ Blog has collected an astounding amount of pieces of media related to Klonoa.
Not only that, but it is also thanks to him that we discovered the Mojipittan Encore survey listed on the Bandai Namco's official website
that could potentially be the turning point for the return of Klonoa, it's only thanks to him that said survey was discovered in the first place, huge props to him.
And last, but not least, twitter user Jeyrolami has made
a fan continuation of the previously discontinued Klonoa Dream Traveler of Noctis Sol webcomic. No matter the circumstances, we as a community all came together to help Klonoa in his darkest times, and judging by the current situation, it seems as if we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
3. When Klonoa Encore will happen ?If we take for granted that Klonoa Encore will happen, then the only question we have to ask ourselves is the when.
Many people are speculating that Klonoa encore will NOT appear in the Nintendo direct of June, the reason for this would be that because Bandai Namco wants to give mr.driller more time to breath between releases and thus, we aren't going to hear anything Klonoa related until June after Mr.driller comes and goes, since both games belong to the same target audience. Which in return means that Klonoa could be scheduled for reveal in Q4 2020 and for release in Q1 2021.
I guess that the only way to be 100% sure of it is to just wait for June and find out ourselves, but i don't exclude the possibility of new trademarks appearing while we wait for it.
4. Putting the money where our mouth isKlonoa is a franchise who is also known for its misfortune, the games, despite being incredibly good, have failed to captivate an audience big enough to make a worthy profit for the series, which is one of the reasons why Klonoa ended: lack of sales.
Now I'm not here to discuss who is at fault of this and how it could have been avoided (we all know the culprit, right Bandai Namco ?) but instead i'm here to say how we can avoid said failure to happen again.
When it comes to Klonoa Encore the situation is quite simple: if it is successful, we will probably get more releases afterwards, if it isn't, Klonoa will return to his state of death, but this time, it could be forever.
The only thing we can hope for now is that Bandai Namco has perhaps learned from it's mistakes and has realized that Klonoa NEEDS advertising in order to succeed, this is Klonoa we are talking about after all, they cannot expect to it to release it without an advertising campaign and expect it to succeed, Klonoa simply doesn't have the same power of Tekken, nor tales of heroes, to accomplish such a task.
But even if Bandai Namco should mess this new release as well, we'll have to take the matter in our hands (again...) and give Klonoa the attention he needs.
There are have been already some positive hints about the financial success of Klonoa Encore, for example
Mojipittan Encore reached #21 on Amazon Japan's top selling Switch games with the likes of Mario Maker 2., and
Mr Driller also seems on a good path.
And i would, without a doubt, put my money on the table and say that Klonoa's return, especially in the motherland of Japan is definitely going to be a well received one.
5. In ConclusionThe battle to bring Klonoa back is (almost, hopefully) over, but the battle to make him stay in the world of the living is about to start, and it's going to a bigger, longer battle to fight, for our fluffy boy.
That was all of my speculation on the Klonoa Encore title, do you have anything else you would like to share ?
