Okay, at long last, I got to play the Patapon Remaster firsthand.
You may remember my article on the announcement and subsequent release of the Patapon 2 Remaster from last month. It’s okay if you don’t. It basically explains the premise of the Patapon series in an incredibly brief way, so it might be worth checking out if you get confused by any of the following.
Anyway, onto the review…
Patapon Remastered is harder than I remember but still a whole lot of frustrating fun.
What I Liked About Patapon Remastered?
I can only guess that the intro cutscene was the original, which is something I personally don’t enjoy in a remaster. In some respects, I feel like the whole point of a remaster is to see the whole game in a new light, right? I understand the nostalgia of it all, but if that is what you’re after then surely you should chase down opportunities to just play the original. (I admit that may be hard with a PSP exclusive title like Patapon, but more generally, I stick by this.) This continued sporadically throughout, but I learned to live with it.
Secondly, I jumped the gun. A lot. Like… I apparently should not play rhythm-based games, although I used to be good at Guitar Hero. I suppose that is a little different. Either way, Patapon Remastered takes timing very seriously, as it should. Although, I found my failures were somewhat amusing early on. This is due to the confusion and anger showed by the Patapons themselves when I messed up.
Back at Patapolis, there is plenty to look at. Logically, given the Patapons’ mission to reach Earthend, it seems weird to have their home settlement as the base of operations, but I chose to overlook this for the sake of my own sanity. You have the ability to upgrade some tree with Pan the Pakapon, use some Ka-Ching to reinforce your existing Patapon units, and then customize these units with a number of different weapons and helms. The depth is not insane, but with everything else going on, it’s certainly enough. I found myself a bit lost amongst the Patas and the Pons when looking into the various percentage bonuses you can have in your Patapon squad.
Thankfully, Priestess Meden, the Patapon’s spiritual leader, helps to guide you through most of the basics which really takes the pressure off of trying to save an entire civilization. Once I got to grips with it all, though, it definitely enhanced the experience and offered more depth and control than what I first experienced.
What I Didn’t Like About Patapon Remastered
One issue I have is that some of the combat felt like it dragged. This could be down to the fact that I am in the relative early game and my Patapons aren’t as beefed up as they could be, so I didn’t take it much into consideration. Similarly, it could be down to my poor playing of the game. (It takes a while to remember all the different commands, okay? It’s been a long week.) But even when I was at peak Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon, it seemed to take a while.
Also, I found several times that I was losing my rhythm streak when I was switching between attacking and moving forward. As my Patapons slaughtered Zigotons, they would be pushed back, and soon, my warrior Patapons would be spread thin, so I thought it best to advance the army as a whole. Apparently, this strategy is frowned upon by the Patapons to the extent that they lose their rhythm.
[penci_review]
The fact that you can input your name and then have the Patapons “Praise Lord Kyle” is enough, in my books, but…
On a serious note, Patapon Remastered is a faithful recreation of a challenging, yet beautifully fun rhythm game. I believe everyone should get a chance to play it.
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(Now… To get stuck in with Star Wars Jedi Starfighter… )
