Patapon 2

Question: did you like really Patapon? I mean, really really like Patapon?



For your sake, I hope so. At least, if you’re planning on playing the sequel; and judging from the number of people that loved the original, I’d say most of you will sign up for Patapon 2. That’s fine. But before you dive headlong into the Patapons’ second outing, there’s a few things you ought to know.



You might say Patapon 2 is game of contradictions. It’s longer and deeper than the first game, but it doesn't do much to differentiate itself from its predecessor. There’s been some improvements to the game’s RPG-lite leveling, but it amounts to added depth that isn’t necessarily needed or wanted. New “hero” Patapon can give your army a devastating edge on the battlefield, but the game has become much stricter about the rhythm inputs that make said heroes effective.



While it doesn’t necessary take two steps back for every step forward, there are definitely times when Patapon 2 feels like one of those rare cases where the developer tried too many improvements when they should have just left well enough alone. At the same time, the game is similar enough to the original that it’s more like an expansion pack than the full-fledged sequel fans may be expecting.

Familiarity is something that’s immediately apparent. Halfway across the ocean, the Patapons are attacked by a sea monster and marooned in an unknown land. An unknown land that just happens to contain the ruins of old Patapolis…which is as damn close a replica of the first game’s capital city as Pyramid could have made, right down to the same itchy tree. Things fare about the same with missions—for the most part you could easily mistake the sequel for the first game, at least until your hero Patapon sprouts to life from the seeds of ancient memory.

The Evolution Tree that is a notable change from the previous Tree of Life, and offers a lot of micromanagement-happy options to imbue your Patapon with, spread out across the tree’s large selection of unit classes. Therein lies the problem: the original Patapon struck a chord in balancing the leveling-system with rhythmic battles. Patapon 2, on the hand, arguably goes overboard. The game doesn’t have designs on being a strategy RPG, nor is it a full fledged RTS. Having to individually monitor the strengths and weaknesses of your 20-strong cyclopian army needlessly complicates the game, and often feels like a chore.

This in turn builds on one of the major flaws of the first game that Pyramid inexplicably left unchanged—Patapon leveling and evolution requires the use of several items per unit, and there are still no item shops to speak of. You can deal with this problem in one of two ways: either go foraging for materials by going on hunting missions or play the musical mini-games in Patapolis. Hunting is relatively time consuming, as you can spend upwards of an hour gathering enough materials to level up or evolve your whole army; the mini-games are quicker (but still not quick enough) but will cost you more than a fistful of ka-ching in order to get what you need—either way, you’re going to have to forage for something, whether you want to or not.

To complete this three-pronged design flaw, the game also forces you to change your strategy frequently to take advantage of enemy weaknesses or strengthen certain attributes of your army in order to best foes. For instance, let’s say you’ve beefed up and customized your army to be effective against, say fire. After beating the opposition, you’re faced with snow, so you change your units so they’re strong against snow. Oh wait—doing so means you have to level them up all over again, and you don’t enough materials to do that. Better go forage for another hour.

Frustrations will only mount further if you don’t use the evolution tree enough, as Patapon 2 can get pretty brutal. Hero Patapons can help turn the tide of battle in your favor, but again, the game requires you hit all four drum beats perfectly in order to activate them once—needless to say, keeping this going for longer than a couple rounds can be damn near impossible. Ultimately, these kinds of design catch-22s could easily make you grow to hate the adorable, one-eyed Patapons. It just depends on your tolerance level.

Don’t take my criticisms the wrong way, though. Pata-fans will probably enjoy the added hours of OCD-inducing customization, and to be fair, despite similarities to the first game, Patapon 2’s increased depth makes for a more interesting game. At the same time, the innovation of the first game has lost some of its luster tried and frankly, some of its exclusionary policies are ridiculous.



Sure, the new unit classes are appreciated, and the wild and wooly Patapon universe is even more bustling with new, larger-than-life monsters and beasties. But is that really enough? For the Patapon devout, it may be. But for a game that’s clearly in the midst of an identity crisis, you may want to approach with caution.



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