Lead your army to the beat of a drum! Patapon 2 combines the fast paced hypnotic gameplay of a rhythm game, with the level grinding and item farming found in most RPGs! Does this musical/fantasy hybrid miss the beat or is it a match made in heaven?

Keeping a Beat....
My first impression of Patapon was that it looked like an odd side scrolling real-time strategy game, also known as an RTS, and to be honest, it didn't interest me in the least. However, I learned that looks can be deceiving. Patapon 2 has players leading their army of small one-eyed creatures, called Patapons, who revered me as some sort of god. At the start of the game, the Patapons are sailing to new lands when they become shipwrecked and stranded on a strange new land. The basis of the story is simple enough; the Patapons simply want to get to the "Earthend," which isn't fully understood. The game doesn't have very many cut-scenes to fill you in on the story progression, but instead, all of the story is presented in bricks of text and conversation scenes. Without any voice overs, these scenes run long and I found them rather boring. All was quickly forgiven, once the actual gameplay began.

...To Beat the Baddies!



Patapon 2's core gameplay is actually very simple and incredibly entertaining. Using , , and in different patterns lead the Patapons along the battlefield. A variety of patterns are taught as the game progresses, with each one resulting in a unique action. While it seems complicated, there are only a handful of commands, such as move, attack, and defend. Getting the timing right to perform the best action at the correct time, while also keeping in sync with the song can take some practice, but is easily mastered. Prior to each stage, an army of Patapons is built by picking up to 3 different groups of warriors. Some basic Patapon units include archers, long range javelin throwers, close range assault fighters, and mobile cavalry. Each class has an evolution tree, allowing the player to diversify their groups. There are also two unique Patapons; the customizable hero Patapon, who will continuously re-spawn when killed in combat, and the flag bearer Patapon, who carries the group's flag into battle. The mission is failed if the flag bearer dies in battle. Most of the time, when Patapon warriors die in combat, they are revived back at camp to be used on the next mission. The same isn't true if a warrior is eatten by some of the more vicious boss characters. Boss missions play fairly similar to a regular mission, only real difference being the boss takes a lot more damage to kill. While quickly rushing into a boss mission could easily reduce the number of available Patapon, I found the best way to avoid this was minimal level grinding before tackling a boss.

The Patapon themselves can be upgraded and equipped to make them stronger in combat. Making new Patapon, leveling up, and upgrading current Patapon all work the same way. Players must find a few specific items before they can create new Patapons, or upgrade existing ones. Its very frustrating that leveling the Patapons work in the same way, because budgeting how you spend items can often become a time consuming issue. Some sort of experience system would have been nice. Weapons, however, can only be obtained by picking them up after they are randomly dropped by defeated enemies. This too makes maintaining your Patapon a bit of a headache because you're not guaranteed to get the same weapon for all of your Patapon in a specific group, which can create weak links.

Final Thoughts
While the RPG elements of Patapon 2 aren't all they could be, I was easy to forgive the annoyances once the drums started. Even if you aren't the most musically inclined, or can't keep a beat to save your life (guilty!), Patapon 2 is forgiving ... to a point. This exclusive PSP title is highly entertaining, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a unique game.

Developed by Pyramid, Patapon 2 is available for the budget conscious on the PSN and in UMD format. I spent more than 30 hours playing the digital copy of Patapon 2 from the PlayStation Store before writing this review.