 With the announcement of Clinoa Fantasy Reverie series, fans of the long-running, if often overlooked series are excited to revisit both Clinoa, Daughter Phantomile, and sequel Clinoa 2, Lunatius Veil, on modern games platforms. Despite enjoying a cult following, the Clinoa series has never been as commercially successful as other, more widely recognizable cartoon mascots. Publisher Namco has periodically shelved the series, and yet, Clinoa always seems to find a way to return. Perhaps part of the reason why Clinoa has had such a turbulent past is the fact that the series was deliberately designed to be out of step with popular industry trends of the time. The prevailing wisdom among original PlayStation developers was that games should either be gritty, dark, and aimed at teenagers, or cutesy, colourful, and aimed at younger children. Clinoa was designed with the intention of doing both. Said director Hideo Yoshizawa, The honest truth is that I simply wanted to make an action game. When I sat down to think seriously about how to do that, and I looked at the PlayStation market, there weren't a lot of games that were playable for both children and adults at the same time. I wanted to make something that would fill that void. He continued, I think really young children are probably still playing their Super Famicom or Game Boy, and the people interested in the PlayStation are probably at that stage where they're consciously trying to act more mature and adult, right? So we didn't think it would be a good idea to make Clinoa into something overly childish. I also think children aren't really into things that are too kiddy, or too directly aimed at children. We wanted a story that wasn't consciously aimed at kids, but would rather be something that could raise kids up to its level, if that makes sense. This then led to a game which appears on the surface to be colourful and light and fun, but which has such a bittersweet melancholy undercurrent. This wasn't the only way that the game fought against popular conventions of the time. With its 2D level design, Clinoa harkened back to an era of game making that most PlayStation developers were trying to push away from. Said Yoshizawa, there were a lot of PlayStation games with 3D feels that you could walk freely around in, and those games tended to be confusing. Players often don't know what they're supposed to do. That's why we decided to retain 2D controls, but with a 3D-ish feel. By using the PlayStation's advanced processing power to create lush 3D backdrops to the 2D action, the developers were able to give Clinoa a unique and engaging feel, even while keeping the controls simple and familiar. This was all part of the goal of making the game accessible to children while also aiming to appeal to older players. Much of this was done before Clinoa himself had even been designed. As such, a competition was held among Namco staff to design the game's player character, mimicking the process by which Sega had designed Sonic the Hedgehog almost a decade earlier. Yoshizawa said, we invited people from within our development department for character designs that fit the game's nature and chose Clinoa. When our sales team saw the character, they asked if he could fly by flapping his overly large ears. At first, the development team were opposed to the idea because the game would become imbalanced. However, we wanted to respect the opinion of our sales team and compromised by letting Clinoa float for a few seconds by holding down the jump button. Thus, Clinoa was born, and his first game proved enjoyable and popular enough to warrant a sequel on the PlayStation 2, as well as a tennis spin-off and a series of Game Boy Advance titles. Then, a lull. From 2002 to 2008, there were no new Clinoa games. The mascot platformer seemed to have finally died out as a genre. Then, Clinoa returned again, with a Nintendo Wii remake of Daughter Phantom Isle, his first game. According to Yoshizawa, this was intended as a way of testing the water, to see whether the world was ready for more Clinoa. It also came about primarily because of the merger between Bandai and Namco. Said Yoshizawa, Clinoa is a product that is loved and supported by many enthusiastic fans. I still receive many fan letters today. One of these fans happens to be Mr Onozoa, Vice President of Namco Bandai Games. He came from Bandai after the two companies merged in 2006, and expressed a desire to bring back Clinoa. That was the start of the new project. Had things gone differently, this might have been the birth of a new era of Clinoa games. Unfortunately, by all accounts, this remake sold very poorly, and any plans for follow-up games were scrapped. The world still wasn't quite ready for more Clinoa. Now though, after a 14-year absence, not including Clinoa's cameos in other games, the franchise is returning from obscurity once more. Now the mascot platformer genre is definitely back in vogue, and this is the perfect moment for a Clinoa revival. If Clinoa Fantasy Reverie series sells well, who knows, we may finally get some new games in the cult favourite series. The moral of the story is that sometimes it takes time to be fully appreciated. For all of the developer's best efforts to buck industry trends, Clinoa was always just a little too far out of sync with what the gaming public were looking for. The games felt a little dated and old-fashioned when they were brand new. Those who enjoyed these games, though, have never forgotten about them. It's only now, after several decades of hindsight, that the Clinoa games can be truly appreciated for their satisfying game design, and colourful, yet nuanced storytelling.