Ratatan attempts to revive the rhythm-based strategy gameplay made popular by Patapon, adding roguelike mechanics, colourful characters and an army of tiny warriors. On paper, it sounds like a splendid combination. In practice, it feels rather like someone has taken a perfectly decent idea, thrown it into a washing machine and selected the most irritating cycle.
Gaming Heaven
The presentation is undoubtedly Ratatan’s strongest feature. Its vibrant, cartoon-inspired artwork gives the game plenty of personality, while the marching-band soundtrack provides an energetic backdrop to the battlefield. The ten playable Ratatan characters offer different approaches, and the simplified controls make getting started relatively straightforward.
There is some strategic depth in choosing weapons, collecting upgrades and experimenting with elemental advantages. Permanent improvements between runs also provide a sense of progression, while procedurally generated encounters offer a degree of variety.
Unfortunately, these ingredients are rather like finding decent sausages in a very disappointing full English.
Gaming Hell
The roguelike structure quickly becomes repetitive, with repeated battles and boss encounters demanding more patience than enthusiasm. Losing a run when your Ratatan falls makes progress particularly frustrating, especially when the game expects you to repeat substantial portions of the experience.
Worse, important abilities and improvements are locked behind repeated completions and end-game conditions. Rather than rewarding experimentation, this often feels like the developers are deliberately withholding the enjoyable bits until you’ve demonstrated sufficient commitment.
The enormous boss health bars don’t help, either. Combat can become an exhausting exercise in maintaining rhythm while slowly chipping away at enemies that apparently have excellent private healthcare.
Final Judgement
Ratatan looks lovely, sounds fantastic and has some genuinely interesting ideas, but its repetitive progression and excessive grinding undermine the experience. The rhythm mechanics are enjoyable initially, yet the surrounding gameplay struggles to maintain momentum.
Fans of Patapon may find something worthwhile here, but I found myself wishing the developers had spent less time making me repeat battles and more time giving me reasons to enjoy them.
