Ratatan PlayStation 5 Review

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Fast Facts

A Lot to Live Up To?

A few years back, Ratatan, a spiritual successor to Patapon was announced through crowdfunding. I have never been so happy; I adore Patapon and have played through them all multiple times, getting all the achievements along the way. Could this game ever live up to the hype? Could it surpass its predecessor? Read on to find out.

I will tell you now, in all my years of reviewing, this is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to write. From trying to separate this game from obvious roots to trying to work out whether I liked it or not, it was a gruelling and thankless task, with no winner. Well, apart from maybe you, the reader.

Rata-what now?

For anyone who has never played this type of game before, of which there are very few, I would describe it as a mix of Guitar Hero and Command and Conquer. On one hand, you drum to a beat to organise and give your troops orders and on the other, you are smashing bosses, upgrading your army and in real time, guiding your little group of uncanny characters to glory!

Each of your PlayStation’s face buttons corresponds to a drum, with various combinations of said drums giving your little army a command. Defend, attack, special move, all that jazz. It’s when, where and how you use these commands, against what enemies and staying in time that will determine how well your little war machines perform.

Ratatan vs Patapon

The first thing I noticed was that you could actually move your party leader, or your Ratatan, with your thumbstick. If anyone has played Patapon, you would understand why this ‘felt’ weird to start with. Freely controlling your leader felt odd at first but I eventually got used to it, the rest of your squad needed commands to move them efficiently, though, which felt more natural.

The main difference between Ratatan and Patapon is that the game is now a roguelike, rather than the level-based system of its predecessor. Instead of just tackling the game level by level and repeating levels, where needed, to upgrade. You now start from scratch each time with a card upgrade system you utilise each run and permanent weapons and upgrades to unlock. Standard roguelike fare.

I will be honest, I thought this would be a match made in heaven but after many hours of Ratatan, I think I prefer the old formula. I should love it; roguelikes are some of my favourite games available and I love the genre. Whether it’s the way it’s implemented here or its marriage with this game type but I definitely prefer the game loop present in the previous games. I just found it more fun and rewarding.

Roguelikes and Loops

Playing roguelikes means playing the game over and over again, inching forward each time and getting deeper and deeper into the game’s level structure. In Ratatan, after prepping your army, you will gradually improve it over each run, using both a card system that resets every time and a plethora of random drops and materials used to unlock permanent upgrades.

Over the game’s main 5 worlds, you will come across choices for your troops. Will it be a new card? Increase your number of troops or take back more spoils to spend on permanent upgrades? Well, it depends on where you are in the game and what you want, I suppose. Normally, it would be a new card, which not only introduces elements like fire or water to your fighting prowess but also adds special powers and passive abilities.

It’s how you blend these card abilities and elements together that will shape your runs. You can increase your critical rate, your damage output and even poison enemies. The cards, combinations and synergies are vast but I did find trying to stick to 2 different elements worked best. It is better to be a master of something in games like this rather than being a jack-of-all-trades.

During your jaunts, you can also come across shops, items, altars and all sorts of roguelike shenanigans. Each world has a hulking boss and they get increasingly difficult as you progress. I did find the bosses varied and entertaining, each with their own attacks and strategies to explore.

Upgrades, Customisation and Crafting

When it comes to the actual ‘meat and potatoes’ of the game, you can select your leader, of which there are 8, each with their own squad make-up and special abilities. Each leader comes with a selection of unit types, from archers to shieldmen and bombers. There is a lot of customisation and things to play with, which I did appreciate. It was certainly fun swapping the blend of troops in your squad and working out what fits your play style.

In between each run, you can use your spoils to make your squad better. Weapons can be equipped, upgraded and crafted; missions can be turned in for rewards and resources can be cashed in to permanently increase your number of troops or some other boon to help you on your way. I did appreciate that in Ratatan, you always feel like you are progressing, even if you have a bad run.

FEVER!

When in the field and rhythmically bashing away at your controller, making your troops do your bidding, you will eventually unlock ‘fever’. Similar to Patapon, after keeping in time for a number of beats, your troops become faster and more lethal. Along with the increase in the music and on-screen action, it really feels good to get your troops fighting as one, while they sing along and murder everything they see.

Along with this, you get a special ‘fever’ command that does some sort of fancy technique to once again, help you on the battlefield. I always felt bad when losing fever and losing the beat. Staying in tune always felt good. Killing is fun but killing in time to the beat is always better.

The Sights and Sounds

For me, personally, I thought the sound and graphical presentation of Ratatan were its best qualities. The music, which I loved in previous games, was still strong. It built up as your fever built up, it was chirpy and bombastic. The bubbly, raucous and weird music was brilliant and propelled you through each world.

It’s the same story with the graphics, while there are small decisions I disagree with, like some of the UI and iconography looking very ‘mobile-game’-ish, I found the characters, bosses and world bright, vibrant and beautiful. It was a joy finding new weapons, new enemies and every boss was a treat to meet for the first time.

I found, on the whole, the presentation, both audibly and visually, very entertaining and fitting of the game and its theme. It bubbled and chirped long and with a game like this, that is exactly what is required.

The Performance

While I found the performance of Ratatan very good, it was very smooth and not a stutter or graphical glitch to be seen, I did get booted to the home screen once as it crashed. Hopefully this is an isolated incident but it did save beforehand and put me back to where I was, mid-mission. So no harm done.

I also did not really get to try much multiplayer, as the patch for multiplayer only just went live as I am writing this review. I tried it, though and apart from being peer-to-peer, with no servers, it seemed to work fine. PlayStation is the only ecosystem without crossplay, with another patch being released later to fix that. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.

Final Thoughts

I will be honest, when I first fired up Ratatan, I really did not like it. It was a mixture of me wanting Patapon 4 and not getting it, it’s at times, ‘mobile-game’ UI and framework changes that initially rubbed me up the wrong way.

After that though, after treating Ratatan like its own game and embracing its changes. I did find some joy. While I think I still massively prefer the original Patapon games, Ratatan does have its plus points. Its visual style is bold and bright, it’s music is bombastic and raucous and when you get used to it, the roguelike changes are not too bad.

Ratatan still has the joys of improving your little army of characters, hunting for weapons and taking on huge bosses. All the while tapping your foot along to the catchy tunes and fighting through each world, with a smile on your face.

Out of the 4 games of this ilk, I would stick this one in joint 3rd place with Patapon 3. It’s a good play but nowhere near the majesty of Patapon 1 and 2. If you love the genre and have played the others, you will find some enjoyment here. Otherwise, if you’re new and are curious, I would buy Patapon 1 and 2 Remix for the PS5 instead; it’s a much better, well-rounded experience.