A great evil is unsealed, and darkness falls across the land. This is not a journey of conquest, but of salvation. In their darkest moments, you, the Almighty One, embody the soul of an Uberhero, and lead the Patapons to victory once more.
Man, talk about tonal whiplash. I spent the past two games leading these goofy eyeball people to Earthend, and now I'm playing as a character who looks like they could pop a balloon on contact. And y'know what? It works for me! I think it really nails that cool factor they're going for. The art style's a little more well-defined to reflect these changes, as well as the music. The Patapons know how to get down, but the Uberheroes know how to rock out.
This is honestly the most grind-heavy of all the Patapon games, but I don't actually despise that fact. For one thing, in my review of Patapon 2, I suggested a few ways they could help alleviate the grind. I had no idea that both of my suggestions were implemented in this game. You keep non-treasure loot when you fail a stage, and you still keep the EXP earned for enemies you defeated. Even when I'm going into a battle that I don't expect to win, defeat never feels like a major setback. I just sit back, relax, and indulge myself in the enjoyable, one-of-a-kind gameplay of Patapon 3. If you pick up this game, just know you're in it for the long haul.
The game is now focused on just four party members, like the Patagate from Patapon 2. I guess you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, because I do miss having a whole army of these little guys. These party members each serve a specific role though. Ton, Chin, and Kan can choose from spear, shield, and archer classes, respectively. As you level up each class, you gain evolved classes that serve entirely different purposes. Every class has "set skills" and "class skills". The former, set skills, are great because you earn them at specific levels for each class, and they can be applied to any other class at that point. The latter, class skills, are a reward for sticking to one class and grinding it out for an eternity. Sometimes they carry over to other classes, most of the time they don't, and so I didn't bother. Beyond that, the random equipment drops you collect are what affects your stats the most in the long run. This is one of those games where choosing "optimize" can be a trap in several instances, because you should think harder about your loadout in certain situations.
The uberhero gets his own paragraph due to being a uniquely overpowered case. The UH can choose any of the three main classes from the start, but then you gotta stick with your choice until you reach level 15. Beyond that though, the potential for the UH is through the roof. Set skills play a big part in this, since the UH will eventually have access to all classes with enough grinding. Mixing and matching skills from all classes to make something OP is what set skills are all about. Aside from that, every single class has a unique "uberhero chant", an overpowered skill that occurs every time you hit four perfect beats on its corresponding command. Some create an impenetrable defense, others rain down hell from above. The possibilities are truly endless.
Patapon 3 has its quirks, of course. Every Uberhero has their own unique chant that blends in wonderfully to the music, much better than Patapon 2's loud singing. Summons in this game are far less tedious than in Patapon 1/2, so they're inarguably better, but they're also weirdly abstract in Patapon 3. You ad-lib your way to victory as the game revives/heals all team members and does massive damage to whatever's in front of you. You also lose control of your team in most cases, which can lead to unfair deaths. Speaking of unfair deaths, Hatapon feels like your team's weakest link. As long as your "defense unit" is still alive, Hatapon is invincible, but the moment that defense perishes... He's got no health whatsoever, and when completely defenseless, usually dies in 1-2 hits. Eventually, all my issues compounded upon themselves. I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to beat this game within the next year or so, and so I sought out help. I dove headfirst into Patapon 3's multiplayer community.
CALLING ALL UBERHEROES
The remaining playerbase for Patapon 3 plays on a modded version of the game known as "Dark Covenant X Depths of Infinity", or "DxD" for short. It's decked out with a bunch of new features, bug fixes, more accurate retranslations of skill descriptions, extra quests, and so on. They even added in music from the previous Patapon games, music from outside the Patapon games, and the ability to randomize background music (useful for not going insane via hearing the same exact song repeatedly while grinding).
Playing with four uberheroes is like an entirely different game. A better, more enjoyable game, if I'm being honest. It's a power trip when everyone fires off their uberhero powers at once, but each individual hero is still fairly vulnerable. This is where all the different classes and set skills can synergize with each other, everyone gets to act independently, and you can create your own unstoppable force of nature. I got to play rounds where two people played DPS, and me and the last person simply served to stand back and multiply their firepower. Got carried through some of the harder content that way. All the mechanics just fell into place.
It's not every day that I play a multiplayer game disguised as a single player game. I admire the ambition of Patapon 3, but please do yourself a favor and do not play this game alone, if possible. Google is your friend, and there's a Discord server or two out there that are willing to get you set up to play the game online. I don't really track dates on Backloggd, but I assure you that this game took me about a month to finish, and that probably could've been chopped in half if I played multiplayer from the start. If you're looking for a more genuine Patapon experience, the first two games are definitely a better choice. If you want a Patapon game that you could potentially play forever, you can either play this game, or you could PATA PATA PATA PON your way to your nearest therapist. Pata pata pata pon, pata pata pata pon, pata pon don chaka, pon pon chaka chaka...
Man, talk about tonal whiplash. I spent the past two games leading these goofy eyeball people to Earthend, and now I'm playing as a character who looks like they could pop a balloon on contact. And y'know what? It works for me! I think it really nails that cool factor they're going for. The art style's a little more well-defined to reflect these changes, as well as the music. The Patapons know how to get down, but the Uberheroes know how to rock out.
This is honestly the most grind-heavy of all the Patapon games, but I don't actually despise that fact. For one thing, in my review of Patapon 2, I suggested a few ways they could help alleviate the grind. I had no idea that both of my suggestions were implemented in this game. You keep non-treasure loot when you fail a stage, and you still keep the EXP earned for enemies you defeated. Even when I'm going into a battle that I don't expect to win, defeat never feels like a major setback. I just sit back, relax, and indulge myself in the enjoyable, one-of-a-kind gameplay of Patapon 3. If you pick up this game, just know you're in it for the long haul.
The game is now focused on just four party members, like the Patagate from Patapon 2. I guess you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, because I do miss having a whole army of these little guys. These party members each serve a specific role though. Ton, Chin, and Kan can choose from spear, shield, and archer classes, respectively. As you level up each class, you gain evolved classes that serve entirely different purposes. Every class has "set skills" and "class skills". The former, set skills, are great because you earn them at specific levels for each class, and they can be applied to any other class at that point. The latter, class skills, are a reward for sticking to one class and grinding it out for an eternity. Sometimes they carry over to other classes, most of the time they don't, and so I didn't bother. Beyond that, the random equipment drops you collect are what affects your stats the most in the long run. This is one of those games where choosing "optimize" can be a trap in several instances, because you should think harder about your loadout in certain situations.
The uberhero gets his own paragraph due to being a uniquely overpowered case. The UH can choose any of the three main classes from the start, but then you gotta stick with your choice until you reach level 15. Beyond that though, the potential for the UH is through the roof. Set skills play a big part in this, since the UH will eventually have access to all classes with enough grinding. Mixing and matching skills from all classes to make something OP is what set skills are all about. Aside from that, every single class has a unique "uberhero chant", an overpowered skill that occurs every time you hit four perfect beats on its corresponding command. Some create an impenetrable defense, others rain down hell from above. The possibilities are truly endless.
Patapon 3 has its quirks, of course. Every Uberhero has their own unique chant that blends in wonderfully to the music, much better than Patapon 2's loud singing. Summons in this game are far less tedious than in Patapon 1/2, so they're inarguably better, but they're also weirdly abstract in Patapon 3. You ad-lib your way to victory as the game revives/heals all team members and does massive damage to whatever's in front of you. You also lose control of your team in most cases, which can lead to unfair deaths. Speaking of unfair deaths, Hatapon feels like your team's weakest link. As long as your "defense unit" is still alive, Hatapon is invincible, but the moment that defense perishes... He's got no health whatsoever, and when completely defenseless, usually dies in 1-2 hits. Eventually, all my issues compounded upon themselves. I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to beat this game within the next year or so, and so I sought out help. I dove headfirst into Patapon 3's multiplayer community.
CALLING ALL UBERHEROES
The remaining playerbase for Patapon 3 plays on a modded version of the game known as "Dark Covenant X Depths of Infinity", or "DxD" for short. It's decked out with a bunch of new features, bug fixes, more accurate retranslations of skill descriptions, extra quests, and so on. They even added in music from the previous Patapon games, music from outside the Patapon games, and the ability to randomize background music (useful for not going insane via hearing the same exact song repeatedly while grinding).
Playing with four uberheroes is like an entirely different game. A better, more enjoyable game, if I'm being honest. It's a power trip when everyone fires off their uberhero powers at once, but each individual hero is still fairly vulnerable. This is where all the different classes and set skills can synergize with each other, everyone gets to act independently, and you can create your own unstoppable force of nature. I got to play rounds where two people played DPS, and me and the last person simply served to stand back and multiply their firepower. Got carried through some of the harder content that way. All the mechanics just fell into place.
It's not every day that I play a multiplayer game disguised as a single player game. I admire the ambition of Patapon 3, but please do yourself a favor and do not play this game alone, if possible. Google is your friend, and there's a Discord server or two out there that are willing to get you set up to play the game online. I don't really track dates on Backloggd, but I assure you that this game took me about a month to finish, and that probably could've been chopped in half if I played multiplayer from the start. If you're looking for a more genuine Patapon experience, the first two games are definitely a better choice. If you want a Patapon game that you could potentially play forever, you can either play this game, or you could PATA PATA PATA PON your way to your nearest therapist. Pata pata pata pon, pata pata pata pon, pata pon don chaka, pon pon chaka chaka...