Game review: Patapon 2 Remastered
The Patapon series debuted several years ago on the old PSP console and the franchise was a hit with both critics and gamers alike. Well Sony wants to introduce a newer audience to the series because it has re-released the second game on PS4 in the form of Patapon 2 Remastered.
I never played any of the Patapon games on PSP, so it was quite an interesting introduction for me to play Patapon 2 Remastered on the PS4. I initially thought the series was a simple 2D platformer, but Pataponis much more different from that.
Patapon 2 Remastered is instead a rhythm game mixed with a god game as you have to control the little Patapons during battle in a 2D style environment. It's essentially a game where you press a series of buttons in the right order and you have to be in rhythm the whole time.
Before I talk about the gameplay, let's first discuss about the story of Patapon 2 Remastered. The player is a 'god' that gets to control a tribe of little beings called Patapons. In this second game, the Patapons are attacked by a huge Kraken and find themselves stranded on a strange new land. In the new land, they have to fight and survive a horde of dangerous enemies called the Karmen.
The Karmen come in all different shapes and sizes and the levels are not very easy to go through. Sometimes you will have to go up against multiple enemies in a row, or you may have to face bigger enemies in the form of epic boss fights.
As the player, you only have a few commands that you can direct to the little Patapons. This includes moving forward, attacking, defending and even some other special abilities that become available the more you progress further into the game.
Essentially, controlling the Patapons requires you to press four buttons in the right sequence and rhythm. For example, to move you press Square three times followed by the Circle button. To attack, this is when you have to press Circle, Circle, Square and Circle again.
Each time you press a button, it beats like a drum and you have to do this constantly in order to gain a rhythm. You cannot just press the buttons randomly because if this happens, the rhythm is broken and the Patapons will refuse to move for you!
It takes a while to get used to, but the game gets more fun once you understand how the game works. After that, you can order your tribe to attack enemies with bows and arrows, axes and more. As you progress, you get access to more weapons and equipment in order to kill enemies easily.
There is a lot of strategy that is involved in the game because you cannot tackle any level without doing the right preparations first. You will need to assign lots of troops in your tribe and you also have to give them the best armour and weapons. If not, the enemies can kill you quite quickly if you're not prepared!
Graphically, Patapon 2 Remastered has been upscaled up to both 1080p and 4K on PS4 Pro and the visuals look nice. That being said, the only thing holding the game down are the low resolution cutscenes. The cutscenes look jaggy and blurry which looks very ugly especially if you're playing the game on a very large TV screen.
Another thing that holds this game down is that it doesn't really offer any new content for older fans to enjoy. If you already own Patapon 2, the only thing worth getting for this re-release is the upgrade in graphics. The remastered version also lacks the multiplayer mode that was available in the original PSP release too.
Anyway, Patapon 2 Remastered is a neat game if you own a PS4 and you have never played the original game before. If you already own the PSP version, there are not many new features on offer aside from the better graphics. Still, the game is very unique and enjoyable if you're trying to seek something that is a little different from lots of other games out there.
Verdict: 7.0/10
