Ratatan Reviews
Ratatan recaptures the charm of Patapon with addictive rhythm-based combat, charismatic characters, and a design that blends action and strategy with plenty of personality. However, repetitive expeditions, a progression system that could offer more variety, and some issues with presentation and performance prevent it from truly shining. It is a highly enjoyable spiritual successor that successfully revives a special formula, though it still has room to evolve.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Playing Ratatan is like opening an old, forgotten box in a closet. You find objects you thought...
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Ratatan is a perfect and weird mixture of action, platforming, arcade, roguelite, and rhythm gameplay, making it one of the most entertaining and beautifully made games I’ve played all year. Ratatan is one of the best spiritual successors ever made. It gets what made Patapon so good and actually makes it better. No kidding, I can say I like Ratatan more than I like Patapon, because the only thing that kept Patapon from being perfect was how long its main story was. It had the length of a mid-sized JRPG, so it could get tiring, but by changing it into a more action-arcade-centric game, Ratatan elevates its premise and makes it more fun and approachable. So, yeah, this is one of the best games of the year. I loved every second of it and will continue to love every second, because I don’t plan to stop playing anytime soon. So, give it a go, and “rat-tat-tat” away!
With its charming concept and art style, Ratatan has a huge amount of appeal. However, its rogue-like structure makes it incredibly repetitive, leading to a certain weariness despite the game’s steadily increasing difficulty.
Review in French | Read full review
While a vibrant and entertaining rhythm game, Ratatan suffers from repetition and a forced grind which makes extended gameplay tiresome.
All the effort in the world is no guarantee of success. Sleepless nights, consistency, and dedication can often feel like a shot in the dark. Yet, seeing a project infused with such love—one that defies the metrics defining success—offers a heartening reminder that the world isn't reduced merely to a sequence of zeros and ones. Even with a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, how many projects were dead on arrival? How many stars burned out before reaching their full brilliance? We live in times where the obvious needs to be stated—loud and clear, preferably—so if this wild blend of Pikmin, rhythm game, and roguelite doesn't click with you, don't go around ranting about it. Not everything is about you or for you.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Ratatan is a worthy spiritual successor to Patapon, mixing rhythm, strategy and roguelike elements with online co-op for up to four players. The lack of local co-op, rhythm commands that could be more elaborate and some technical issues keep it from reaching its full potential.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Everything an original roguelite needs to stand out—especially when it brings the DNA of Patapon into this universe!
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Ratatan captures the undeniable charm, vibrant art style, and catchy rhythm of its spiritual predecessor, Patapon, offering a delightful audiovisual experience for fans of the cult classic. However, the game struggles under the weight of excessive simplifications, including a superficial roguelike card system, stripped-down unit customization, and underwhelming mechanics. Compounded by technical hiccups, such as progress-halting boss crashes, and an unpolished multiplayer mode, this games feels more like a missed opportunity than a triumphant return. While the potential is certainly there, the rhythm needs some serious fine-tuning before it can truly shine.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I can respect what Ratatan has set out to do by reigniting the classic Patapon formula while providing a new take with its roguelite approach, but the resulting execution feels haphazard and tedious. Don’t get me wrong, players can get some entertainment from Ratatan, especially if you’ve been starved for a new Patapon entry for over 15 years, but by trying to create a point of difference, it’s ultimately fallen short on being a solid standalone video game.
RATATAN, folks, is a worthy spiritual successor to Patapon, with addictive gameplay and an innovative blend of rhythm and roguelike elements, even if it suffers a bit from repetition. However, that was somewhat expected given its premise.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
While autonomous movement of your character certainly adds an extra layer, it also makes the gameplay somewhat more cumbersome and distracts from the rhythmic commanding of your troops. I find the roguelike structure even more disappointing, as it too often feels like a repetition of the same actions. I would much rather have seen a more mission-driven or story-driven setup, like the one we were used to from Patapon. The busy presentation and the stuttering performance at the beginning don't help either. Ratatan is certainly not a bad game, and fans of rhythmic action will absolutely be able to enjoy it. But where Patapon was a particularly fresh and unique experience back then, Ratatan tries to borrow a little too many other ideas.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Ratatan strikes the right note with its catchy soundtrack, colorful visuals, and entertaining rhythm-based combat, all wrapped in a roguelike adventure. A few sour notes stop it from being perfect, but there are plenty of reasons to march to its beat.
Ratatan is an aural blast of excitement and entertainment. It has so many fantastic qualities that keep me locked in and instills the “one more run” hook that makes me want to keep going. There are parts that need improvement, and I’m curious if the online mode will be influential on the game’s longevity or merely be a curiosity. Knowing what this is, not what you hope it could be, is what makes it enjoyable and addicting.
Ratatan is a game I really badly wanted to like, but fun gameplay is kept locked behind a poor roguelike that gatekeeps the genuine joy and passion that shines through in the presentation. While I understand that it is a genre that can help a modest budget punch above its weight, here the roguelike design has left a fun ten-hour game absolutely stretched beyond its limits to more than six times that. Hopefully a sequel could realise a stronger overall vision, but right now it is very hard to recommend Ratatan to all but die-hard fans of the original franchise.