Oh man, it's good. Like, really really good.
I gotta say, for a director like Keita Takahashi, a man that absolutely fucking HATES the ideas of sequels, despising them to the point of categorizing them as anti-art, whistles, he actually might have made one of the greatest sequels of all time.
The result of how this game turned out is such an insane achievement; The guy absolutely didn't want to work on the game when the idea of a sequel was presented to him. He immediately declined when it was brought before him shortly after the predecessor's release, and in good old fashion business lingo, they basically told him we're making it with or without you. Either way, this was going to be made, so he reluctantly accepted his position as Director once again. Despite the deck being completely stacked against his wishes, I'm thoroughly surprised how excellent this ended up being.
For starters, nothing was cut, you've got that signature Katamari Damacy gameplay: You roll shit up, and attempt to make it bigger than the State of Texas. On top of that, collectables are back as well, returning in the form of presents, and The Prince's diverse assortment of cousins. However, not only do old collectables return, such as the camera, but all the cousins from the previous games make a return, INCLUDING the addition of brand new ones. My favorite had to be Slip, he's basically a Paper version of The Prince, à la Paper Mario. It's such a simple design, but it's so goofy and different compared to the originals cast of what were pretty much mostly color swaps.
So yeah, you've got all your old stuff, but you're probably thinking...that's it? More of the same? Well, yeah, but the real charm of it all is how the levels are structured this time.
In an attempt to become a bigger acid trip than the original, the story of the game centers around fans of the previous game, yes, THE GAME Katamari Damacy, asking numerous favors from the King of All Cosmos, as a result of their adoration of the previous game. It's a metanarrative plot, but it uses this self awareness in one of the best, and most heartwarming ways possible.
The game itself is basically a giant thank you note to all the fans, that supported, and played the original Katamari Damacy, hence the name We ❤️ Katamari. It's a neat way to show the dev's gratitude, while providing an explanation on why we have another bolder, improved, and ambitious Katamari game.
For example, as mentioned before, you have your standard levels where you reach a certain size, within a certain amount of time. However, levels similar to the first game's: collect this specific item structure make a return, but with a much more unique twist. One of these levels involves a fan asking the King to help start a bonfire at the local campgrounds. You do this by setting a Katamari on fire, and fueling the flaming Katamari with objects you collect, whilst keeping the main goal in mind of lighting a pile of wood on top of a hill. These missions are what make the gameplay loop of this particular installment so much fun, you never know what type of level you're going to get.
One of my favorite levels in the game had to be the racetrack; Some dude asks if you can show him cars being rolled up, and you go about this by entering a race with your katamari, and collecting shit at high speeds the entire time. It's your standard "get bigger" level, but you can't stop the katamari from moving so fast.
Another one of my favorites had to be the snowman level; It's such a refreshing pace breaker from the rest of the game's structure, since all you're doing is rolling up a ball of snow, like how you would in real life, except there's no time limit. You can just relax, enjoy the snowy scenery, and choose when you want to stop rolling around the snowball.
This overall, made the game immensely enjoyable from start to finish, and I never got bored because of it.
I also want to mention that I played through the PS2 version of this game, and this was my first time playing through it. The only other games in the series I played were half of the first game (although I recently finished it right before playing this), and about 70% of Touch My Katamari (yeah, that's the title). Reason why I mention this, is because I honestly recommend that, if you can, play the original, and this sequel on the PS2. Your saved progress from the first, to this, carries over; Without giving away how the game ends, it was nice seeing my combined progress from the first and second game come together to help me reach the end goal.
If you can't, playing the remaster should be fine enough, I only played the first two levels of it, and it seems like a nicely polished version for newer audiences.
That being said, this quickly became one of my favorite PS2 games ever, and I'm glad to have finally played it. It's so good that I bumped the first game down to four and a half stars, because this was such an awesome improvement. I'm actually a bit interested in tackling the other sequels in the series, despite Keita Takahashi not being involved with them. I'm curious about comparing those to these two games. So to follow this review, I guess I'll do a Beautiful Katamari review at some point. I WOULD do the PSP game but the controls for that look...clunky.
To conclude, here's my favorite track from the game, and go look at the manual for this, because this is one of the coolest I've seen for a video game.
Favorite Track : https://youtu.be/bhfnVc49S_I
The Game's Manual : https://archive.org/details/we-love-katamari-manual-ps-2/mode/2up
I gotta say, for a director like Keita Takahashi, a man that absolutely fucking HATES the ideas of sequels, despising them to the point of categorizing them as anti-art, whistles, he actually might have made one of the greatest sequels of all time.
The result of how this game turned out is such an insane achievement; The guy absolutely didn't want to work on the game when the idea of a sequel was presented to him. He immediately declined when it was brought before him shortly after the predecessor's release, and in good old fashion business lingo, they basically told him we're making it with or without you. Either way, this was going to be made, so he reluctantly accepted his position as Director once again. Despite the deck being completely stacked against his wishes, I'm thoroughly surprised how excellent this ended up being.
For starters, nothing was cut, you've got that signature Katamari Damacy gameplay: You roll shit up, and attempt to make it bigger than the State of Texas. On top of that, collectables are back as well, returning in the form of presents, and The Prince's diverse assortment of cousins. However, not only do old collectables return, such as the camera, but all the cousins from the previous games make a return, INCLUDING the addition of brand new ones. My favorite had to be Slip, he's basically a Paper version of The Prince, à la Paper Mario. It's such a simple design, but it's so goofy and different compared to the originals cast of what were pretty much mostly color swaps.
So yeah, you've got all your old stuff, but you're probably thinking...that's it? More of the same? Well, yeah, but the real charm of it all is how the levels are structured this time.
In an attempt to become a bigger acid trip than the original, the story of the game centers around fans of the previous game, yes, THE GAME Katamari Damacy, asking numerous favors from the King of All Cosmos, as a result of their adoration of the previous game. It's a metanarrative plot, but it uses this self awareness in one of the best, and most heartwarming ways possible.
The game itself is basically a giant thank you note to all the fans, that supported, and played the original Katamari Damacy, hence the name We ❤️ Katamari. It's a neat way to show the dev's gratitude, while providing an explanation on why we have another bolder, improved, and ambitious Katamari game.
For example, as mentioned before, you have your standard levels where you reach a certain size, within a certain amount of time. However, levels similar to the first game's: collect this specific item structure make a return, but with a much more unique twist. One of these levels involves a fan asking the King to help start a bonfire at the local campgrounds. You do this by setting a Katamari on fire, and fueling the flaming Katamari with objects you collect, whilst keeping the main goal in mind of lighting a pile of wood on top of a hill. These missions are what make the gameplay loop of this particular installment so much fun, you never know what type of level you're going to get.
One of my favorite levels in the game had to be the racetrack; Some dude asks if you can show him cars being rolled up, and you go about this by entering a race with your katamari, and collecting shit at high speeds the entire time. It's your standard "get bigger" level, but you can't stop the katamari from moving so fast.
Another one of my favorites had to be the snowman level; It's such a refreshing pace breaker from the rest of the game's structure, since all you're doing is rolling up a ball of snow, like how you would in real life, except there's no time limit. You can just relax, enjoy the snowy scenery, and choose when you want to stop rolling around the snowball.
This overall, made the game immensely enjoyable from start to finish, and I never got bored because of it.
I also want to mention that I played through the PS2 version of this game, and this was my first time playing through it. The only other games in the series I played were half of the first game (although I recently finished it right before playing this), and about 70% of Touch My Katamari (yeah, that's the title). Reason why I mention this, is because I honestly recommend that, if you can, play the original, and this sequel on the PS2. Your saved progress from the first, to this, carries over; Without giving away how the game ends, it was nice seeing my combined progress from the first and second game come together to help me reach the end goal.
If you can't, playing the remaster should be fine enough, I only played the first two levels of it, and it seems like a nicely polished version for newer audiences.
That being said, this quickly became one of my favorite PS2 games ever, and I'm glad to have finally played it. It's so good that I bumped the first game down to four and a half stars, because this was such an awesome improvement. I'm actually a bit interested in tackling the other sequels in the series, despite Keita Takahashi not being involved with them. I'm curious about comparing those to these two games. So to follow this review, I guess I'll do a Beautiful Katamari review at some point. I WOULD do the PSP game but the controls for that look...clunky.
To conclude, here's my favorite track from the game, and go look at the manual for this, because this is one of the coolest I've seen for a video game.
Favorite Track : https://youtu.be/bhfnVc49S_I
The Game's Manual : https://archive.org/details/we-love-katamari-manual-ps-2/mode/2up