I can't find good games easily. If you're diving into the world of Patapon for the first time or looking for nostalgia, check out our review!
Pluses
+ Game mechanics and environmental details
+ Game structure that pushes to set up different strategies
+ Full of content
+ Distinctive sense of humor
Cons
- Quality of cutscenes is annoying
- Too much gameplay for a tiring rhythm game
- Camera angles can be annoying sometimes
Platforms
PlayStation 4, PSP
About 15 years ago, at a time when all kinds of hand-held electronic devices adorned people's dreams, the eyes of children drooping when they saw Gameboy Colors in the shop windows, and various somersaults were made to convince parents to buy consoles, Sony hit our head with 'DAN!'. . What games didn't come out of this super cool device that blew our minds in those years... God of War, Metal Gear Solid, GTA, Persona, Final Fantasy, Tekken... It would be out of the question not to buy a console that has hosted so many productions incessantly and has become such an object of desire. As a matter of fact, I managed to own a PSP with some money I saved over time by increasing it from right to left. I heard about Patapon from a friend of mine, when there were not many games left to play.
"Don't look at the graphics, brother, it's a very sweet game, try it sometime." This game was buried deep in my subconscious. Finally, after a while, I came across Patapon and bought it at an affordable price. I inserted the floppy disk into the device, hit the bottom of the rhythm and found peace in the cute and cute world of cheerful patapons. If you think I'm going to say something like that, you are wrong. because Patapon is hard. Patapon is hard enough to make you rage quit, and cause you to burst into hysterical laughter as it bites you and throws your beautiful PSP against the wall! Well, could the difficulty of this game be due to the fact that I was a distracted and impatient adolescent who could not control his motor reflexes at that time? Based on my experience with Patapon 2: Remastered, I can say that the crime was in my completely out of tune adolescence.
First of all, let me state: Patapon 2: Remastered is a rhythm game, but with a lot of strategy and rpg elements in it. To put it simply; It is a game where you control the units you have chosen in each mission by giving commands in accordance with the rhythm and try to overcome various obstacles that come your way. Of course, it would be very unfair to describe Patapon 2 in a single sentence like this, because this game is full of details, as well as being full of details, the content offered by the game is also full. In order to complete the main story, you need to bury about 20-25 hours into the game, which is the best case, because the game forces you to grind at certain points. The amount of time you spend grinding is entirely up to you. If you want to see all the content and unlock all the features, it will take you close to 50 hours.
There are 7 different commands you can apply to manage your patapons in the game. You can learn three of these commands in the early stages of the game, some as you progress through the story, and some if we revisit the maps you have played before. After advancing for a while in the story, besides the commands to control your patapons, another thing you will learn is the prayers called miracles. These prayers allow you to change the weather in difficult conditions. Let me add by the way; Weather is an important part of game mechanics. Your patapons are frozen in cold weather and roasted in hot weather. It is possible to get them out of these difficult conditions by using miracles. The effect of weather conditions on the game does not end there; The blowing wind hurls your arrows and spears, foggy weather makes your enemies invisible, and in cloudy weather, lightning rains down on you. Do not be afraid right away, these are all solvable issues. Just keep your ear in rhythm, you will get used to the commands over time.
Speaking of commands, I think you can get a clearer idea of how the game mechanics work if I list the basic commands as follows:
PATA-PATA-PATA-PON: This command is for your cute patapons: “The appropriate step is march!” has meaning.
PON-PON-PATA-PON: Your units attack enemy units with this command.
CHAKA-CHAKA-PATA-PON: You need to execute this command to take a defensive position.
Other commands you will learn in the game are applied in combinations of four like these commands. These four commands you will learn later; It serves to put your Patapons in a heavy attack position, to jump, to gas and to pull back.
There are 3 different upgradeable classes in Patapon 2, namely Yaripon, Tatepon and Yumipon. In the evolution screen you access through Tree of Life, you can develop these three classes as you wish and make each patapon in your army have different characteristics. In addition, with these improvements you have made, you can activate different classes of patapons, so you can have 6 different classes that will help you to apply different strategies throughout the game. Of course this is not free. You'll need bags of Ka-ching, packs of supplies, and chests of materials to complete all upgrades. This is where the grind issue comes into play. The fact that the game guides you in a bit of grind can sometimes be annoying, but you don't have to do it all the time. Don't worry if you feel inadequate as you progress. Go over the previous maps again and you will notice that some things have changed. If you play these maps again, you will return to your tribe with new loot. If you repeat this process a few times, you will easily reach the necessary materials.
The loot you obtain by entering various struggles is left by your patapons to the altar dedicated to you (Yes, you are the god of the patapons throughout the game). You can access the Inventory screen through this altar, and from here you can browse your weapons, key items containing commands you can apply in the game, and the drums you strummed to execute these commands.
Thanks to the stone inscription located slightly east of Patapolis, you can reach the headquarter screen, which shows your progress in the game, allows you to go on expeditions by choosing a mission, and where you can set the army order before going on these expeditions. Just to the right of this stone inscription is a portal called Paraget Shrine. You can use the eggs you get from the bosses in the game here. Accompanied by different heroes, you will be rewarded with various chests if you are successful in this game mode, where you will be subject to timed challenges, and thus you can obtain legendary items. Paraget Shrine is just one of the extra content available in the game. If you move towards the west of Patapolis, you can meet your friends Kon Kimpon, Fah Zakapon and Shuraba Yappon. You can play various rhythm games through these patapons, and you are rewarded with many materials in return. It is really difficult to consume all this content of the game and if you try to consume this content, it is very possible that you will get bored easily and get tired a lot.
Let's talk about the difficulty of the game. How hard is Patapon 2 Remastered? Frankly, I can say it's hard enough to be enjoyable. Of course, if you constantly fail with the same faulty strategy, you can have a nervous breakdown. If you try different tactics when you are unsuccessful, there is no doubt that you will eventually succeed. Let me also tell you that the strategy that will lead you to success will not be the most correct and the only correct strategy. You will think that you have found the right formation in any section, but when you move on to the next section, you will have to screw up and set up different types of strategies with different types of patapons. A single mistake in rhythm can result in disaster. Especially in some boss battles, there is no room for error, do not say that it was not warned.
To be successful in Patapon 2 you have to carefully follow all the indicators. The reactions of your bosses, the environmental conditions, the movements of your opponents, your distance from the enemy battalions, the commands you need to apply according to the situation you are in, and most importantly, the rhythm. With all these factors coming together, you can naturally find yourself exhausted and exhausted.
Well, you will say, Patapon 2: Remastered, what kind of remastered is it? My answer to this will unfortunately be a mediocre remastered. Unfortunately, no improvements have been made on the cutscenes. The resolution is very low and is immediately noticeable. The game has a graphically unobtrusive and unobtrusive design, but although Patapon 2: Remastered is not a remake, one expects to see more chirpy graphics and a more interactive environment at this time. I did not encounter any bugs throughout the game, but unfortunately I witnessed the game crash twice and unfortunately I did not save my progress both times. Despite these two minor misfortunes, I had no reluctance to return to the game. I can say that Patapon 2's highly replayable section designs are the biggest factor that prevents me from complaining about it. Another negative point I can mention about the game is the camera angles. Camera angles can give you a hard time in many battles where you face crowds and mobile groups of enemies. You can easily choose your vanguard with the melee feature, but the units with ranged weapons waiting behind are suddenly out of the camera's view. This situation causes you to make troublesome estimations about the current mobility of your army and make wrong decisions.
As for the music, I cannot make a negative or positive comment. Although Patapon 2 is a rhythm game, it is not a game that stands out with its music. The infrastructure of the music in the game generally consists of percussion instruments and patapon commands. If you make combos one after the other, your patapons get excited with fever mode, which is activated, and they start cheering, so to speak. Therefore, after all the hours you spent at the beginning of the game, the tunes that remain in your mind are; It consists of PATA-PONs and DON-CHAKAs.
Although Patapon 2: Remastered is behind the times in a few aspects, it still manages to be a game worth trying today, with its rich content and ambitious structure. The main story may be a bit too long for this kind of game, but some players may like it. Patapon 2, with its unique sense of humor and cute characters, has a narrative that can put a smile on the face of gamers looking for storytelling in games. When it comes to rhythm games, if you have never experienced the Patapon series, which still has few rivals, or if you are after a little nostalgia despite having experienced it, I can recommend Patapon 2: Remastered to you with peace of mind.
