Day 3: Polonte the Hatchling
If there's one thing pieces of fiction like Legends of the Hidden Temple, Evil Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wizard of Oz, and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil taught me it's that you should always fear trees that come to life. Because they will likely grab at you, molest you, beat the hell out of you, toss apples at you, or summon a giant egg monster for you to fight in order to claim 'The Bell of Indecision.'
…
One of these things are clearly not like the other.
Today, we'll be talking about the battle against Polonte the Hatchling from Klonoa 2.
The fight against Plonte is one of the more memorable ones from the game because of you fight this thing.
With most bosses in the Klonoa series, you need to grab something with Klonoa's Wind Ring, usually an enemy, and toss it at the enemy's weak point.
This fight does things a bit differently..
After getting haunted by the taunts of her peers in the previous level, Lolo, the priestess in training that accompanies Klonoa on his journey, falls into a deep depression…which is a problem considering she's the main power source of Klonoa's Wind Ring. You know, your main source of attack.
With no other way to fight this thing, Klonoa harnesses his inner Shaun White and snowboards after the boss, turning it into a fun and epic chase scene.
As you try and catch up with Polonte to crash into him, the boss will try and attack Klonoa by dropping spike balls in his path that you either need to dodge or jump over. There are also small ice blocks in the path that you need to be aware of, and most of these ice blocks have Speed Boost Rings next to them that you need to go through in order to catch up to Polonte.
After going through enough Speed Rings, Klonoa will reach top speeds and you can crash into this overgrown egg. Do this three more times and Phase 1 is complete
With Phase 1 done, the egg concealing Polonte hatches revealing his true form. As Klonoa prepares to continue fighting, however, Popka gives Lolo a pep talk of sorts, and inspired by that and Klonoa's actions, Lolo is able to move passed her depression and give Klonoa his assistance.
With Lolo back to her same, adorable self again, that means Klonoa is able to use the Wind Ring again, and boy does Phase 2 use it to great effect.
Phase 2 is similar to Phase 1 in that most of Polonte's attacks remain the same, but now some of the ice blocks will be buried in the ground, and Klonoa will have to jump over them, and some of the spike balls Polonte throws will be thrown in a more haphazard fashion, making them harder to dodge.
Like before, go through some Speed Boost Rings to catch up the boss, and then Polonte will summon some Moos to aid him. When a Moo gets close, grab it with your Wind Ring and throw it right at the boss to do damage. Do this five times and the fight is over.
The fight against Polonte is just a really fun and exhilarating chase boss with music that, while it doesn't sound like typical boss music, does fit for the current situation Klonoa has found himself in. Snowboarding down an icy slope dodging obstacles definitely deserves some chill and laid back music, even if it is against a giant egg/bird monster.
Add in some character development for Lolo and the fact that this is the only boss that you fight while snowboarding, makes Polonte one of the more unique bosses in the game, as well as one of the better and ones.
But as far as chase bosses go, there's a couple more that I think do it better.
One of them…we'll talk about tomorrow.