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Thursday 6 March, 2008
[ entry #2 ]
GAMEPLAY
In my second play session my army grew larger with two new classes of Patapon, archers and axemen. I also acquired the defensive stance order, which allows the Patapon to take less damage from enemy attacks. When the army is in the defensive stance, ranged units attack while the axemen protect the front. Changing equipment seems a little simplistic as the player can manually give them to the individual Patapon or optimize the weapon selection for the army.
This game causes the player to experience flow, as all music games usually do. The game attracted me because I am a big fan of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, and play quite a bit of real-time strategy games although I am not an expert at them. One frustration I had with the game was that if there was some background noise or music, it would throw off my rhythm, making the Patapon stop in their tracks. The game is best played with headphones or in a quiet place.
DESIGN
The innovative element found in Patapon is the rhythm-based real-time strategy gameplay that is at the core of the game. It allows players that are not familiar with strategy games to ease into the gameplay like a rhythm game. The game creates conflict by setting up the story and releasing the player into a level filled with enemies and trying to advance to the end of the level. After a level is completed, its difficulty increases.
The art design of the game is very well done. The simplicity of the black and white Patapon contrasts with the colorful cartoon-like background. Every structure is clearly marked as black and the enemies usually have some color combined with black. The animals found in the world are colored black and white, just like the Patapon which signals to the player that they are not hostile. The game has great value for only being a $20 game.
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