(total playtime: roughly 25 hours)

I've wanted to play this game for a long, long time. And now that I have, this game is so, so close to being a 5 star for me. It has amazing almost EVERYTHING: The music slams, the art and character designs are super sick, the core gameplay is super satisfying, the fucking SOUND DESIGN is PEAK KINO. So, what's the problem?

It's the same problem Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass has, where the endgame has this super fucking degenerate difficulty spike for no reason. There is a super hard level followed by a straight DPS check, and if you can't do the DPS check then you have to spend hours more grinding materials (which I do not fuck with in the slightest, menial grinding is the worst shit in the world) to level up your patapons to even have a shot at beating it.

I ended up just swapping to easy mode for the DPS check and the final boss, as I did not want to have to do a bunch of bullshit for what was basically the final stretch of the game. It kind of soured the overall experience, especially when one of the LAST bosses (2nd to last) was legitimately just pressing the same command song for 10 minutes straight.

I can say the best parts of this game easily outshine the bad parts, but it still leaves a stain on the game in it's entirety. I fucking love this game, it just has this one tiny part that stops it short of being perfect.

So lucky that I got this game as a kid. I remember playing the tutorial for half an hour, not understanding that the square indicates the rhythm. For many years, it was always a great experience and, sadly, I never finished the last level out of fear of losing.

Patapon 2 is the only rhythm game I like because it does it in an unique way. I love the RPG elements of it, even if they confused me as a kid. And every time you hit Fever Mode, it feels like Heaven. The way the Patapons chant together and the music grows is awesome. The whole design of the game is fantastic, from the characters to the backgrounds. Everything about it is amazing.

Todo lo bueno del primer juego, multiplicado por 2, adoro las mecánicas nuevas como las del Pagaret, que algunos minijuegos estén retocados y ahora puedas escoger el nivel de dificultad en ellos, no estoy totalmente feliz con el nuevo sistema de creación de unidades, pero es mucho más claro y sencillo aquí, digo en el juego pasado tenías que comenzar a combinar cosas hasta que obtuvieras una mejor unidad. Los jefes tuvieron una mejoría asombrosa aquí, son mucho más dinámicos y divertidos de farmear, la historia también es super asombrosa, no deja de ser simple, y me alegro de eso, pues esa simpleza en su trama solo hace que esta aventura sea muchísimo mejor, tenemos más variedad de enemigos aquí y claro, la adición del Héroe, que es de las mejores cosas que pudo tener Patapon, y me hace pensar ¿Como pude jugar el primer juego sin el héroe en primer lugar? Es una experiencia demasiado buena, que vale totalmente la pena probar

I tried doing a challenge. I tried beating the game with only melee classes (excluding the levels before you get the Tree of Life), and it's literally impossible since you need a ranged class to destroy the Sky God's cage.

I still hate the mat grind in this game since it's just a time sink, but it was still a fun time, even though my opinion of it as the worst game in the trilogy hasn't changed.

I also hope some dork-ass loser won't find my review again lol

Suite directe du 1 et mon jeu préféré de la licence, littéralement le 1 mais en mieux. Plus de classes, plus de boss, plus de tout en fait. Cette fois on contrôle en plus de notre armée un héros qui a un pouvoir propre à la classe qui lui est attribuée, et il est plutôt déterminant dans l'issue des combats. La bande son est excellente.
Comme dans le 1, certains niveaux vous donneront du fil à retordre et vous demanderont d'aller farmer pour booster votre armée, et le farm dans ce jeu c'est pas le truc le plus fun qui existe.

Patapon 2, nos dias de hoje, seria o lançamento 1.0 do primeiro Patapon que estaria em Early Acess.
O core de gameplay é o mesmo, um pouco melhorado, mas a progressão adiciona um movimento extra apenas no último chefe, resumindo, completa as mecânicas no fim do jogo.
As classes dos Patapon melhoraram mas com um número excessivo de possibilidades em que mal precisam ser exploradas pra terminar o jogo no difícil.
Boa parte dos monstros e das missões são IDÊNTICOS as do primeiro jogo.
Como eu amei o primeiro, não tive problema de terminar esse segundo.

Musicote
Bastante más grindy que el 1 , pero la progresión está mejor hecha en concordancia con el grindeo, al menos si usas los rarepon árboles que están OP para pillar materiales
El Héroe es un buen añadido (el Héroe del escudo está roto por qué protegé de todo lo que no sea instakill)
El "Evolution Map" es mejor que tener que vender / perder un patapon para cambiar su tipo
Hay multijugador opcional que recompensa mejoras que puedes aprovechar en ambos modos
Hay más milagros pero solo he usado el de la lluvia por qué me parecen que cortan demasiado el ritmo al Gameplay, si los usarás una vez y el efecto durase todo el nivel estaría mejor
Las nuevas clases están bien, siendo mi preferida los magos por su versatilidad
Los minijuegos dan muy pocos recursos en comparativa a tener un equipo de árboles, la forja, la campana y la cocina son los tres más utiles , por qué dan cosas que no puedes sacar en otros lados , en el el caso de la campana, es la forma más eficiente de sacar Ka-ching

Patapon 1 was simple, but effective. Going into this, I think I would've been happy with just "more Patapon", as long as they addressed some of my problems with the first game. And so, I begin another journey to Earthend...this time, against the forces of Hell. Not even kidding.

One thing I neglected to mention in my review of the previous title were Rarepons. There were only three types, and the differences weren't obvious (unless you got the loading screen that told you what they did). In Patapon 2, Rarepons have been overhauled into a full evolution tree, allowing you to unlock and upgrade each type of Patapon up to level 10. This requires a dumptruck's worth of materials, but Patapon 2 is far less stingy with item drops than its predecessor. Consequentially, this increases the grind to a similarly exhausting degree. At least the grind has a theoretical end this time.

Reaching FEVER mode in Patapon 1/2 has a few shortcuts to it. If some of your drumbeats sound particularly potent, that means you're right on the beat. Hitting four perfect beats in a command is indicated by a climactic cymbal crash, and instant FEVER mode if your current chain is at 2 or higher. Fever still gives you whole team various boosts, just like the previous game. The key to keeping bosses in check in Patapon 2, as well as the way to grind for rare materials, is to stagger them. This is similar to real life; I, too, drop my items when staggered.

One of Patapon 2's bigger additions is your very own hero! I named mine Riki, because there's no better heropon. In essence, he's a customizable one-pon army. You can choose any unlocked class for him, and the highest unlocked level of any evolution on top of that. Heroes don't show their hand until you achieve fever mode though. Hitting four perfect beats while in fever mode initiates a special attack from your hero, a unique one for each class. They range from moderately useful to ludicrously overpowered. The real purpose of your hero is to give you access to the Patagate, where you can play wireless co-op missions with three other heroes (or offline with CPUs). Your goal is to beat the boss and escort the egg so you can DON CHAKA. By "DON CHAKA", I mean that the heroes party hard in order to make the egg hatch. Inside each egg are different types of masks, equippable by your hero for massive boosts.

With all that said, not all is well in the world of the Patapon, and there is a lot of stuff in this game that got under my skin. I hate that the Hero abilities are accompanied by this loud, screaming chant that drowns out the music and other Patapons. It just keeps going eternally (as long as you keep hitting perfect beats), really obnoxious. This game actually introduced three tiers of difficulty, although they only really affect how strictly your rhythm is judged. Hard mode is for human metronomes, and easy mode may as well be playing itself. The Tatepon (sword/shield) hero ability makes every Patapon invincible as long as it's active. Put two and two together, and that's right! You can cheese the entire game this way, if you're patient enough! This was especially useful during the final stretch of the game, where they insisted on reusing the worst gimmicks of Patapon 1's stages: ones where you have to escort something without letting it break, or ones where you have to destroy an objective that's constantly moving away from you.

This was also the point where I realized that Patapon 2's grind was absolutely necessary. It was a flaw in Patapon 1, but the sheer amount of options and the resources they require add up fast. I'm frustrated that they did nothing to improve this, because I have two potential solutions:

A: Let the player keep their spoils even if they fail a mission. Even a fraction of their spoils would work too, just something that ensures they're always getting stronger, even when faced with overwhelming odds. Or...

B: Just implement a typical EXP system. Unlocking rarepon evolutions for each individual patapon is already a resource sink, but grinding those individual evolutions up to level 10 is overkill. Slowly gaining strength over time is a tried-and-true solution.

This game was enjoyable, but it's also really weird to me. It improves in a few areas, and stays the same in many others, usually the ones that needed improvement the most. Frankly, it's a tossup between whether I prefer the first game or the second game. But who knows? Maybe the third one is about to knock my socks off.