Topic: Patapon GSpot preview!

[Quemaqua]

The game looked cool to me in the first place, but I'm even more curious now.  That sounds pretty awesome.

[sirean_syan]

From the first time I saw the game, it was one of those games that it would take a decent amount of work to make me not want the it. It's nice to see it shaping up.

[Cobra951]

I guess this is another rhythm game?  I watched a gameplay video which looked just plain boring.  It's kind of moot with me.  I've pretty much abandoned the PSP altogether.  I'd need a reason to use portables to care about it again.

[sirean_syan]

And the first review I've seen.

[Quemaqua]

Pretty hard to get a better recommendation than that.

[sirean_syan]

I totally forgot that a demo came out a couple weeks ago.

http://store.playstation.com/store/product.vm?id=UP9000-UCUS98721_00-PATAPONPSNDEMO08

So, I played through the demo tonight and it's awesome (and pretty long for a demo too). It's more or less a straight rhythm game, but with far cooler stuff happening than music battles. It's still battles, but the idea of leading an army with music pretty novel. The best thing are the little Patapons themselves. They're so cute it hurts and the little society designed around them is a lot of fun.

The only problem is I completely suck at rhythm games. Like, I could barely get past the first area in Space Channel 5 suck. Thankfully the beat is pretty easy to stick to in Patapon and only requires four notes at a time, but I can't keep a chain of combos going and I know that's going to hurt later in the game.

[Quemaqua]

Yay, it's an old-school Sy sig with crazy game stuff!  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Preordered this yesterday and will pick it up when I get off work today.  Will hopefully post impressions shortly (but I think I'll need to update my custom firmware in order to play it, so I'm all set to do that tonight too).

[JacksRag(e)]

Picked up my preorder this morning and have been playing it on and off since.  It's really charming and I've been having a lot of fun with it.  One thing you've gotta do with this game though is use headphones.  Otherwise, you tend to lose the beat more easily in louder environments and it's just nicer being able to hear the sounds and music clearly with the nice little effects they throw in.  I'm still trying to figure out all the nuances of the game, but so far I'm having fun with it.

[Quemaqua]

I'm having a blast with it too.  It's very nicely balanced, and it's surprising how well it melds the rhythm game thing with the combat stuff.  There's strategy here (in one mission I failed to kill anything because I had swordsmen out in front who, because of their attack pattern, borked the whole thing), and it's pretty amazing that actively controlling the little guys in real time using button-press patterns actually works like it does.  Add in all the little stuff that gets added to your town and the whole package is just really nice.  And for twenty bucks?  Jeez, it's a freaking steal.  Pretty decent music, the art just oozes charm, there's very little not to like.

[JacksRag(e)]

My only inability in this game?  Sustaining fever mode.  Blargh.

[sirean_syan]

I've gotten much better at holding a fever lately. My problem was I was trying to keep the beat either by counting 4's or following the blinking border visually. Now, I wait a little before a level starts and listen for whatever instrument is keeping beat, then I'll move out and try to stick with that the whole time. Occasionally I have to close my eyes and just go by sound, but occasionally I don't have to do that as often anymore, usually just when fever starts and I have to listen over the Patapon's cheers.

Anywho, the final game is awesome. I've made it past three or so bosses now and things are really coming together. I'm mostly looking forward to getting a retreat song so I can play with the bosses a bit more.

[Quemaqua]

I never had trouble keeping the beat.  Initially the fever cheers were slightly disorienting, but if you just keep the beat through it all nothing ever changes.  I'm a pretty good ways in myself, and I was overjoyed to discover how many different kinds of Patapon there are.  Not only do you have 4 basic types, there are also 4 different types of guys that you can assign to those jobs (not counting the basic black and white one).  It's really quite a cool system, and the only downside to it all is that you have to spend a lot of time doing hunt levels to earn the resources and cash necessary to really flesh out your ranks with the nicer dudes.

But yeah, I can't believe this game was only $20.  It's definitely a $30 game, and it would still be tempting enough at $40 for a lot of people.  It's great stuff.

[sirean_syan]

My problem is I have no rhythm and am completely not musically inclined. I know it's not like real music, but it's a nice place to start if you know how to follow a beat, you know? I have to really concentrate to do well, which can happen now, but it doesn't come naturally to me. Thankfully, I love the game so I'm willing to put the work into it to get better.

[JacksRag(e)]

This rain juju is kicking my ass.  I can get into fever, but once there I just fall apart.