The Patapons march back into battle in Patapon 2, set to debut on PSP on May 5th. If you played the original, you'll find that the familiar button sequences and catchy beats are back, as well as the tiny Patapons that march to the beat of your drums. We got our hands on a preview build of the game and reacquainted ourselves with our old pata-pata-pata-PON addiction.
Similar to the original game, Patapon 2 introduces you to the PSP's face buttons one at a time. These steps give you sufficient practice to become comfortable with (if not master) the patterns that signal your Patapon army to march forward, attack, defend, charge or retreat. The variety of mission types (hunting, invading enemy fortresses, bosses) require you to employ different combinations of actions -- for example, you'll hit the 'defend' pattern when you notice the dragon-like Dodonga boss attempting to breathe fire upon your army. As always, staying on the beat enables you to reach Fever mode, which increases the effectiveness of your Patapon warriors' abilities.
Balancing issues tripped up the first Patapon – lots of grinding (hunting and/or repeating earlier missions in order to find resources and level up your units) became necessary in order to defeat certain enemies and progress in the game. Patapon 2 adds several new features that may remedy these issues. The first is an evolution tree for each of the class types. With the proper resources, you'll evolve your normal spear-throwing Yaripon into a devil-horned Yaripon with increased hit points. You can also level up each species, which allows for very in-depth customization of your Patapon army.
The new game also adds the Hero, a nameable Patapon unit that you can assign to any of the unlocked units depending on the mission type. In addition to being able to re-spawn as long as there are other living Patapon units on the field, the Hero can trigger a special move - usually an amplified super-effective version of its usual class-based attack. To take some of the sting out of learning the new strategies, the game also displays hints and tips in-between missions instead of standard loading screens.
These measures, at least in the preview build of the game we played, weren't enough to make Patapon 2 feel balanced. The evolution map for each class was interesting, but we found ourselves evolving our Patapons based mostly on which resources we had at the time and not necessarily which species we wanted. And with little to no indication as to where we'd find rare resources, we would've had a difficult time doing so.
Not only that, but another gripe from the first game, the inability to pause while in the middle of a mission, returns. This problem stands out because Patapon 2 is a handheld game that people will likely play in short sessions. A pause feature similar to Neversoft's Guitar Hero: World Tour, which gives players a countdown so they can pick up the game's beat, would have been great to see.
Naturally, more attentive gamers will pick up the nuances of building balanced units and countering enemy attacks before they happen, but since the Patapon series seem like casual games, we foresee some players who expect casual gameplay having a difficult time. Patapon 2 gives returning gamers the tools to develop customized armies to get through the difficult missions without too much grinding. For newcomers, the involvement required to get to that level seems like a barrier that might hinder their enjoyment of the game.
Despite its problems, Patapon 2 remains a compelling experience. The number of different ways to play - between customized units and the beat sequence you choose during missions - makes complications in matching player skill to enemy difficulty almost unavoidable. Whether the problem gets resolved before Patapon 2 hits stores remains to be seen. Regardless, we look forward to commanding our tiny beat-driven armies again.
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