I thought it was weird when Monster Rancher was suddenly in the 2021 news. I thought it couldn’t get weirder, but boy was I wrong. Klonoa, whom we haven’t seen in his own videogame since the Game Boy Advance, may finally be making a comeback. Possibly.
A couple of trademark filings from Bandai Namco have people convinced we could be months away from a new set of Klonoa remakes or remasters. The trademarks are for “Wahoo Encore,” and “1&2 Encore.”
The “Wahoo” part is a rough interpretation of the katakana in the trademark, which is leading people towards Klonoa. The bigger part that perhaps makes this interpretation more solid is the “Encore” part.
Bandai Namco Trademarks Prompt Klonoa Remaster Speculation
“Encore” has been the label Bandai Namco has been using for its recent re-releases in Japan. While those titles changed in North America, previous trademarks have led to Mr. Driller and Katamari Damacy’s recent reappearances.
“Klonoa Encore” was also trademarked in 2019, although nothing has come of that yet.
With these two trademarks, fans and news outlets alike are speculating we could see a new compilation of the series’ first two games, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil.
These games were originally released on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 respectively, with the first game seeing a later remake on the Wii. Lunatea’s Veil hasn’t reappeared anywhere, but Door to Phantomile is available in the PlayStation Classics line and the two localized GBA games were dropped on the Wii U eShop.
Could this really be the return of Klonoa? Previously, production was underway on an animated Klonoa movie, but the project was cancelled. Otherwise, we’ve mostly seen the floppy-eared critter pop up in various cameo appearances (largely in Tales Of games).
Related: Nintendo Direct Slated for Tomorrow, Roughly 40 Minutes Long
Klonoa fans, sign off on Prima Games’ Facebook and Twitter feeds, or in the comments section on this very website! That’s new.
