Patapons Are Driving Me Insane

I am a huge fan of rhythm games. I played Dance Dance Revolution until I got shin splints, and then I played some more. I would go to sleep and see arrows scrolling in my head. I have over 400 songs in Rock Band and have a total of 4 drum kits for it including the Ion kit I bought late last year. I loved the first Patapon game as well and played it to completion, but the sequel is indeed driving me mad. It is a better game in every aspect. You don’t have to grind nearly as much to be able to advance. The game is no longer stingy with loot drops and leveling up you squads has become much less of a chore, but every time I turn it on and hear the endless pata-pata-pata-pon chant I go bonkers.

Part of this is because I’m used to the grind. The original PSP game was quick to let you know that you weren’t going anywhere unless you were willing to replay every mission at least 3 times. Then and only then did you have a chance to defeat the boss waiting for you. After that you would have to play the mini-games over and over to get one slightly rare item to level up a few of your guys and do not expect to have an entire squad made out of legendary Patapons. Yet I powered through, mostly because JRPGs have been preparing me for games like this my whole life with their required grinding. Nothing is as awesome as making the trek back to an area you’ve already been and coming across a level 5 enemy who used to leave your entire squad nearly dead at every encounter and slaughtering it in one blow now that you’re level 50.

Patapon and Patapon 2 don’t give you that satisfaction. When you replay a level, the enemies level up with you, so it’s just as hard as it was before. Also since you’re playing a level you’ve cleared already, you’re not going to get a new more powerful weapon to ease things up a bit. Your squads don’t even level up in the traditional sense. Instead you have to gather items like stones, fangs, and cabbage from battles and min-games to increase their levels. It can be an awful lot of work for little result but it is required to advance in the game.

Despite all this, I do love this game. It’s like a song that gets stuck in your head you’re super annoyed with but a few days later you find yourself blasting it on your iPod. I appreciate every improvement that was made, and look forward to beating it soon. Sometimes you just need a break. Fortunately I have a brand new copy of inFAMOUS to keep me busy.