Ratatan was one of those games I was genuinely excited to see, but kept myself relatively in the dark about. I had heard it was a spiritual successor to Patapon, with several members of the original development team returning to work on it, and that was all I needed—wanting to be surprised by the final result. It’s a bit of a gamble to bet on a game like this; sometimes you get Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and sometimes you get Mighty No. 9.
Thankfully, Ratatan mirrors the former rather than the latter—taking everything that was good about the series it’s continuing and building on it in ways that are both unique and interesting. Making another Patapon would’ve probably been sufficient for Ratata Arts; instead, they opted to take everything that was good about those games and bring it into the modern day with a bold new direction.
“But where Ratatan really stands out is in its gameplay.”
Similar to its spiritual predecessor, Ratatan puts players behind the titular character, who awakens one day at the behest of a large crow-like creature named…Crow. They’re informed that every Ratatan’s dream is to seek The Everafter and meet The Goddess. In order to do this, they need to journey across a harsh land, battling hostile Testa and local fauna until they reach their goal. Like its spiritual predecessor, It’s simple, light-hearted and a little tongue-in-cheek—balancing a playful aesthetic with some cartoonish violence.
But where Ratatan really stands out is in its gameplay. At its core, it maintains the rhythm-based combat that made Patapon so unique. However, where Patapon was a fairly straightforward rhythm-based RPG where levels progressed along a linear path, and players fought opponents along the way, Ratatan makes two fundamental changes that make a world of difference. Firstly, players can freely control their Ratatan, allowing them to move around the 2D battlefield and command their troops accordingly. Secondly, Ratatan takes the form of a roguelike where battles are randomized, and players choose how they want to progress—similar to Hades.
The function of battle commands has been expanded and simplified somewhat. Unlike Patapon, where players had to input four beats of “Pata” and “Pon” to issue commands, here players only need to input three (despite the game’s four-beat scale). Players are given “Ra-ta-tat,” “Zun-taka-tan,” and “Ya-hoi-hoi”; the combination of each can issue different commands. In addition to this, players can choose between eight different Ratatans, each with their own unique stats and specific unit types. It builds upon the foundation of its spiritual predecessor, while offering so much more variety and approachability.
“Ratatan takes the form of a roguelike where battles are randomized, and players choose how they want to progress”
In addition, freely controlling your chosen Ratatan makes the rhythm-based gameplay so much more interesting and fluid, as when you choose to call your units in, or when you choose to attack, it has a deeper level of strategy to it. Not only that, but it feels the timing window of each beat a lot more gracious because of this—I was hitting perfect notes far more often than I was in Patapon 1+2 Replay. When everything is working, and you get into the groove, it just feels so much more fun and alive than its spiritual predecessor.
This expands further as players progress through the game and are given choices for random elemental buffs called Ratakaruta, which can change how both regular and Rush attacks work, or bestow unique abilities to the player as they progress based on each element. The rhythm-based gameplay combined with the RNG gameplay makes each run incredibly engaging and actually eliminates the grind problem that Patapon had, since each new adventure feels like a small step forward.
Visually, Ratatan has a bright and colourful cartoon aesthetic that fits the expanded gameplay and goes a long way to bringing the game to life. It maintains the same sense of style as its spiritual predecessor, but adds more dynamism to it. Although I will say, while playing on the Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld, some of the characters looked a little low-resolution, with characters having what looks like a small bit of pixelation on them. When played docked, the game is super crisp, enhancing the cartoon aesthetic.
Naturally, the music in Ratatan is fantastic, with multiple fun themes between each of the game’s different worlds that change and get more interesting as you keep the rhythm going and hit a Fever. The added variety really adds to the game’s sense of fun and even helps you hit the beats more accurately since you have a more melodic soundtrack to work with.
I knew Ratatan would be good, but I genuinely wasn’t prepared for just how good it was going to be. Every time I sat down to play it, I left with a big, goofy grin repeating the phrase, “man, what a good game.” Ratata Arts really hit it out of the park here, and I really hope this reminds everyone that those weird, experimental games of the 7th generation still have a place in modern gaming.
