Patapon has been an obsession of mine ever since I got my hands on the initial PSP release in 2007. Yes, I was in high school, and let me be the first to tell you: the myriad of hours I spent grinding to lead my army to Earthend was worth missing homework assignments. Flash forward almost twenty years, and Patapon is back, ready to force me to miss various writing deadlines to recapture my youth with Patapon 1+2 Replay‘s release.
Despite all of my excitement, one question hung at the back of my mind. Can this game hold up to my memories? After all, there are plenty of games that are better left in the past, and I can still remember how frustrating some sections can be. I am, even now, dreading certain stages as the memories flood back to me. Is it all worth it? Can I relive my past and come out a better person for it? There is only one way to find out, and we have to go through that journey together.
A Great Star is Born
Patapon 1+2 Replay has you take on the role of the Mighty Leader, a god who is meant to lead the Patapon to Earthend to gaze upon IT, whatever it is. However, many foes wish to hunt your people down, and creatures that desire to make your followers a tasty meal roam the lands. These obstacles make reaching Earthend a dream, one that seems impossible at times. However, with your drums and orders to lead the Patapon, maybe you can gaze upon IT, and finally satiate your curiosity.
This story is simple enough, and has enough drive that no other backstory is needed for the Patapon. They are your followers, and they will believe in you until their dying breath, although the story is rather light besides the game’s opening monologue and stage. In fact, I found that at times you could miss story beats, because Lady Meden, your priestess, will sometimes only utter a single sentence about the next stage. In fact, I do have a hard time remembering many details of the story outside of the main goal and certain fights.
This light approach to storytelling is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the light story allows you to play without much interruption, although some may find the quest for Earthend unsatisfying due to that soft touch. Additionally, those who find rhythm games a chore will also have difficulty finding reasons to keep going and may find a better way to use their time. However, Patapon 1+2 Replay has a charm that, even with a light story, many—including myself—find intriguing. Yes, the quest for Earthend may be impossible, and you may never find the way there. But the adventure is entertaining and worth it for those willing to stick with the path.
Find your Rhythm
Patapon 1+2 Replay is a self-proclaimed Rhythm Action title. You have four beats: pon, pata, chaka, and don, which are used to issue orders to your army. The way you do this is by stringing together a combo within a four-beat measure, for example, using pata-pata-pata-pon will tell your army to march forward. If you manage to keep the beat and achieve a perfect combo, you will enter Fever mode, which enhances your Patapon’s strength while they sing along to the beat. However, a single mistimed drum beat will kick you out of fever instantly, forcing you to build your combo back up.
Initially, this won’t be a problem, as the early stages do not require fever, although it is a useful ability to practice. You will only start having issues with Fever after you obtain your first miracle, Miracle Rain. This miracle is required to get past a certain stage, and while the beat is simple, I’ll admit I had problems activating the miracle. The reason for this is that while other orders will use a simple four-beat structure, activating a miracle requires a different pattern, don dodon dodon.
Like I said, the pattern is simple, but the issue stems from the fact that if you mistime your initial beat, you lose Fever and must build it back up. And if you lose Fever and the rain ends? Well, unless you are close to getting Fever back or near the end of the stage, you are better off restarting and trying again from the beginning. I remember this being the main issue with Patapon as a series for me: the sometimes ludicrous amount of precision that is required. I’ve had years of experience playing different rhythm games, ranging from Hatsune Miku titles to Dance Dance Revolution, and I still get tripped up with Patapon’s beat.
I have an idea for why that is, and it’s the fact that so many other noises are happening simultaneously that it’s easy to lose the beat in the noise. This is where Patapon 2 implements the first big quality of life upgrade from the first game. The drums sound different between a miss, a good, and a perfect beat. It’s a simple upgrade, but one that will help you keep the beat, and ironically, can help train you to take on Patapon’s various challenges across the series. In fact, Patapon 2 is a huge upgrade from the original, so I find it very weird that none of its features were transported back to the first game. Initially, this struck me as odd, but I realized that Patapon 1+2 Replay is aiming to preserve the games as they were released. Still, I think it was a missed opportunity not to implement some of the sequel’s quality-of-life updates
A New World Order
I’m going to have to get this out of the way: both Patapon games found in this collection have already been remastered on the PlayStation 4, funny enough, for the same price as this release together. However, those initial ports were shunned for being lazy, with worse performance than the original on the PSP—an issue I feel is frequent with many PlayStation remasters from this era.
I’m happy to say that, aside from the lack of improvements from the second title going to the first, this is the re-release that fans have deserved for years. The biggest improvement is the difficulty and latency sliders that allow you to customize your experience. The first item, difficulty sliders, isn’t as important as the latency slider, but they allow you to adjust the difficulty based on your experience with the game, letting you gradually increase the challenge as you improve. The latency slider is the game-changer for the series, and it is a very common setting in most other rhythm titles.
The thought behind a latency slider is the reality that you will always have a delay when playing on a TV. Unfortunately, this delay can affect how well you keep to the beat. In normal games, this delay won’t be much of a problem, outside of some more intense competitive titles, but for rhythm games, it can be the difference between completing the stage or not. This isn’t perfect because you will need to feel each stage and slowly increment or decrease the slider to your personal needs, a process that can be frustrating. However, once you get the hang of it, this feature is indispensable and absolutely worth the $29.99 for both titles on your preferred platform.
There are too many upsides to this release to ignore, even if you have PlayStation Plus Premium and access to Patapon 1 and 2 Remastered. The visuals look exactly like I remember them, which doesn’t sound impressive at first, but considering this was a PSP game means a lot. None of the visuals look blurry or needed another pass to keep them up to modern standards. In fact, the only issue I had with the visuals is that the drum icons keep the PlayStation controller symbols. However, this doesn’t matter, as they only show up when you acquire them, and everything else will use your system’s controller.
Patapon belongs on a handheld, and while it does look good on my television, I felt at home playing on my Nintendo Switch 2. Ironically, while the game doesn’t have a dedicated Nintendo Switch 2 version, it already feels enhanced for the system in a clear way. I never once had any weird hiccups, almost like the game was a Nintendo original. I would argue that this version is the closest one you can get to the original experience, while allowing yourself the option to try it out on your big-screen TV. I implore you to consider picking this up on the Switch or Switch 2 to take your Patapon everywhere with you.
To Earthend and Beyond
Patapon 1+2 Replay is a nostalgic title that hearkens back to a simpler time for us gamers, when we would spend hours and hours playing a single game. Patapon 1+2 are, at their core, the exact same games that were debuted back in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and many will find issue with that despite the upgrades this remaster offers. Some of the frustration from the originals is still here, and you will spend time trying to learn how to keep the beat while strategizing to get through each stage.
These games, even with these annoyances, are some of the most satisfying times I’ve had with a game in years. I was back in high school, but this time I knew I needed to make sure I hit this assignment’s deadline. After all, I need to make sure everyone hears about this remaster, and I encourage you to pick it up on whatever your preferred platform is. I promise that once you spend a few hours with Patapon 1+2 Replay, you’ll start telling all your friends—and just maybe, you’ll start humming along to the beat too.
Disclaimer: Bandai Namco provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Patapon 1+2 Replay to Final Weapon for review purposes.
