One of the PSP’s best series has slowly been finding new life on the PlayStation 4, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s been over two years since the first game came to the PS4. Patapon 2 Remastered continues these fierce warriors’ journey toward Earthend with you leading the tribe as their Almighty Patapon.
Rhythm is a Dancer
Patapon has always been my favorite of all rhythm games. The entire premise of using music to command troops in battle resonated with me. It just makes sense. Using different war drums, each corresponding to one of the four DualShock buttons, the Patapons in your army march and attack to the beats you play. Patapon 2 Remastered follows the same formula as the first; the two core drums of Pata and Pon are at your disposal, with the Chaka and Don drums to be discovered as you journey across the map.
The Patapon tribe’s quest is never an easy one. Other tribes threaten to destroy the clan, namely the Karmen tribe. In order to defeat the Karmens and monsters that stand in the way, make sure to revisit other locations to hunt and farm for rare materials. Being able to level up and evolve the Patapon to new and stronger forms is a must, but everything requires materials. Visit the Mater Tree to create new units or upgrade existing ones to flesh out your ranks.
Locating missing Patapons and bringing them home will unlock some new troop types and mini-games to play back at Patapolis. This includes Pan Pakapon from Patapon! Helping Ubo Bon scratch his wooden noggin so he drops materials in this particular mini-game never fails to make me smile.
Drawn to the Rhythm
New for the original Patapon 2 was the Hero. Your Hero character can be any class you liked and has unique battle abilities. There are also special masks only he may wear, imbuing him with buffs. My favorite of these was an area of effect damage attack tied to the Friendship Spear I prefer to equip him with. New masks and weapons for the Hero can be acquired, too. Don’t settle for using the optimize option when you are getting ready to deploy. Tweak Hero and your other units to see what works best for you.
With the addition of Heroes came the Patagate. Using the Patagate will give you special missions that can grant you rare items and new masks for your Hero. On the PSP, this was an ad-hoc multiplayer mode that I didn’t get to experience. I could never seem to find other people to play with. In Patapon 2 Remastered, this is now a single-player experience. You’ll still gather up eggs and other special items needed for this mode, but not having to scrape the internet for three more players to run Patagate games with is a real blessing.
Safety Dance
While there isn’t anything new in terms of gameplay outside of the Patagate retooling, Patapon 2 Remastered does have native 4K for you Pro owners playing on a 4K screen. For the rest of us, it’s just great to play the game on a larger screen. As much as I loved playing on my portable screens, the optometrist has given me explicit instructions to minimize time staring at tiny screens.
If you haven’t played the Patapon series prior to these remastered versions hitting the PS4, I strongly urge you to do so. They are challenging yet fun, and the music gets stuck in your brain like the best earworm you could ask for. All we need now is a timely date for Patapon 3 Remastered and for PlayStation to bring Patapon merchandise back to the PlayStation Gear shop.
Patapon 2 Remastered review code provided by publisher. Version 1.01 reviewed on a standard PlayStation 4. For more information on scoring please see our Review Policy here.
-
Same catchy beats on a bigger screen
-
Native 4K for Pro users with a 4K television
-
Where's the merch? I need more t-shirts and plushies
