NeilLegend has become a verifier for Door to Phantomile.

Busy as always, I would often have a lack of time reviewing the new runs… leaving the task to only amoser and Neko (Harutomo being an honorary runner). They’ve been doing great, but you have to admit that two may be a bit light for a game of this size.

Thankfully, the PlayStation Racing event (https://discord.gg/KNGhD2Scjv) knocked at our door last weekend, and we quickly came to our sense about this limitation. A good reminder of that was how the race itself was structured : it wasn’t just about a couple players, it was about 19 of them. Playing any%.

So, here comes Neil. He’s a great player, WR holder of this game and others, active and helping : a clear Klonoa contributor.

At long last.

A new record on the game’s most historical category after more than a year.

The mysterious confines of the 37 minute depth, reached once again. And this time, in a groundbreaking dive. The 38 barrier is now fully open, and the road is being paved.

And I’m happy to say, that this is not just an accomplishment for this tremendous and dedicated Door to Phantomile speedrunner but also an honor.

This player was already a stark figure of the game thank to his activity and contributions. He was a familiar name in the high end of the leaderboard, always seen moving at top speed, and with potential for going beyond. He also improved speedruns by finding new strategies and optimisations. He had knowledge of the game like very few others, but wouldn’t hesitate to go on a length to explain it. Even if it means doing a run in the middle of the GDQ all alone. He actively participated in leaderboard discussions, and that not even just for DtP, but reaching to other games as well. And finally, he’s continuously been active and present for years.

But with this, amoser has now officially cemented himself as one of the greats. With a 26 second leap from his last PB which happened only a day prior, and cutting it out 23 seconds faster than anyone has.

And I feel that with such a resume, there is no question with him being a supermoderator for the game. For everything he has done.

Neko is among other things occupied about his DtP Wii remaster grind, but might come back to challenge this time. Or at least, improve his own personal best, further down the 37 minute area. After all, he has yet to learn some of the new techniques amoser employed.

And I myself would also want to own my own 37 min run in the future. Which doesn’t exclude the possibility of going deeper, although not taken for granted.

But, for now, it’s amoser’s time.

(first time testing this site feature out) You heard it right ! A brand new version that's in Japanese, yet isn't the original nor Namcollection.

After noticing a weird gameplay discrepancy in one of Nazzareno's earlier submitted runs, his help, roughly 8 months later....

...we humbly present to you : Klonoa "Playstation the Best for Family" (https://psxdatacenter.com/games/J/K/SLPS-91169.html)

Some minor, but still notable highlights of the differences :

• "Family" has the 100 gemscene glitch, unlike original JAP
• it has the normal Rongo-Lango hitboxes, as opposed to JAP's completely messed up ones that always push you to the right
• it doesn't have the two Pamela consistent softlocks JAP has
• it doesn't allow the infinite double-jump glitch contrary to JAP
• last but not least, Family's Karal's cry for help cutscene trigger line is situated a few foot away from the door, unlike JAP where it is immediately triggered upon entering the "room". Aside from losing a little bit of time, this difference is key in allowing us to clearly dinstinguish the two versions apart. See the doc of version differences for more info (https://www.speedrun.com/klonoa1/guide/7xo1p)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any reliable info on its date of release. Based off all the differences that we know (https://www.speedrun.com/klonoa1/guide/7xo1p), it is definitely related to USA and PAL, but this is sadly as far as speculation can go.

Whatever it is... we need to add a new variable that distinguishes it with the other JAP versions ! And after that, ideally, all front board JAP region runs will be tested with this and have their info updated, were they ever playing with it.

Well, I've actually already investigated this before. Unsurprisingly, I can already affirm that Nazzareno had played on this version... but it might be of a bigger surprise that Amane also had ! Mostly their older runs, however. It definitely seems much rarer to find than the original around here.

Anyways that's it, rest is left for the mods to handle. Some very exciting piece of news there, at least to me. And I'm sure it's not gonna be the end of it.