Initially on the humble PSP, Patapon 2 gets a new lease of life on the Playstation 4, as Patapon 2 Remastered. The first Patapon has also already been remastered, with its sequel continuing the journey to Earthend. Without further ado, let’s delve into this review of this frankly, quite adorable game. Drum to the beat of Pata-Pata-Pata-PON!

For the unfamiliar, here’s a little blurb for Patapon 2 Remastered:

Shipwrecked in a new and strange land the Patapons will depend on you, the Mighty One, to lead them safely through this perilous new adventure.  The beat of your mystical war drums will guide your brave tribe through this new land as they come face to face with a deadly new rival tribe, encounter a mysterious and powerful Patapon Hero, and uncover the ruins of Patapolis, an ancient place long spoken of by the Patapons.

Measured rhythmic movements

The Patapon series of games have certainly been one of my favourite music/rhythm games. Tap your leg to the catchy tune! You need to issue commands according to the measured beat to get the Patapons to act. Your weirdly cute little soldiers will get into formation as commanded, moving and attacking depending on the instrument used.

The game’s instrument of choice are war drums, with each drum bound to the buttons of the DualShock. They’re colour-coded too, so you’ll be able to get into the swing of things soon enough.

Each stage has a different theme, with its accompanying story bits. It gives some variety while sticking to the same measure, so you can keep to the same beat as you hit the buttons to get started with the rhythm. Move forward, attack targets, block attacks and back up as needed. All of this is controlled with the DualShock buttons, and it’s certainly easy to follow with the tutorials using the native controller.

Within Patapon 2 Remastered, you can get other commands too, like the “Ballad of 1999” that can dispel any afflictions upon the little troops, as well as the “Song of Miracles” that can charge up miracles you’ve achieved.

A Patapon’s search and rescue is by no means easy. There’s plenty of other outside threats that want to destroy your clan, one of them being the Karmens. There’s monsters around too! For a smoother journey to Earthend, ensure you explore every other location to hunt and farm up offerings and items, and maybe you’ll find something rare too!

Level up and train up your Patapons into new shapes, which is something you need to be doing anyway. The Mater Tree will be requiring various resources in order to create these new units or to upgrade your Patapons accordingly.

As you continue hitting the right notes, it will build your combo meter until you get “Fever” mode, increasing attack and defense capabilities as long as you maintain the beat. Remember to keep your focus because dropping the combo will make you somewhat stagger as you work to regain the combo again. In the fumble, you can be quite vulnerable to attack, so you’d need to pick yourself back up as quickly as you can.

Find missing Patapons in the missions and bring them home to unlock new, technically recruitable, members that you’d need to fill those ranks. You can also play a mini game at Patapolis to meet Ubo Bon.

Pick your favourite Patapon!

One thing new to Patapon 2 is the Hero. Your Hero Patapon can be any class you like, and possess their own unique attacks, as well as various special equippable hats that can provide it with buffs. There’s a weapon called “Friendship Spears” that could be your favourite loadout, with it capable of long-range attacks and inflicting lots of damage on foes. If you’re lazy, you can simply choose to hit Optimize. Do play around with the Hero and your other Patapons to fit the weapons to the situation.

100% clearer graphics from the PSP!

It’s a remaster, and one that’s advertised to have 4K support on the Playstation 4 Pro with compatible display, or 1080p resolution on the PS4 paired with a HD display device. You can now truly enjoy your little Patapon soldiers with their little glo-up. The entire thing is definitely much clearer, considering how much more scaled up it is compared to the PSP.

Conclusion

If you haven’t tried the Patapon series on the PSP prior to the remasters, now’s your chance to play it on the PS4! With the funky beats, cute designs and quirky story, it’s not going to be a boring time as you bop to the beat. Soon enough, the entire series will be remastered and playable on the PS4, so look forward to it.

Patapon 2 Remastered

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: JAPANStudio

Release Date: 2020-01-31

PlayStation 4

Shipwrecked in a new and strange land the Patapons will depend on you, the Mighty One, to lead them safely through this perilous new adventure.  The beat of your mystical war drums will guide your brave tribe through this new land as they come face to face with a deadly new rival tribe, encounter a mysterious and powerful Patapon Hero, and uncover the ruins of Patapolis, an ancient place long spoken of by the Patapons.