I can't review the game yet, but rather than leave you with no impressions of Patapon 3 from now until possibly after launch day, I'm starting this Patapon 3 Review in Progress. If you've never seen one of these IGN features, it boils down to the reviewer giving you daily updates on what's happening in the game and how it plays. That way, you have an idea of whether the game is for you.
APRIL 12TH: THE GRIND
Today's the official release of Patapon 3, but if you've been checking IGN, you might have noticed the fact that this is PlayStation Week. Sony's showing a whole bunch of its exclusive titles, and I'm down in LA seeing the games to bring you news and opinions. As such, my Pata-play time is a bit limited, but I was able to squeak out an hour or two at the airport. And a funny thing happened on my jet plane this afternoon. I really didn't want to play, and that's the first time that's happened.
If you caught the last update, I'm to a point in Patapon 3 where I need to grind to get my team ready for a big fight. This is always a tough part of an RPG, but I feel it's a bit worse now as: 1) I'm late on this review and just want to get it up for you (that's what she said) 2) It's my own fault I'm in this mess as I leveled my Uberhero with multiplayer pals and now need to level grind my AI buddies to help polish off the game.
The feeling that if I'm not writing I need to be playing is a bit of a drag -- especially when my progress is stalled as I make the squad better and better -- but it's part of the job. I still love Patapon 3 and can't stress to you how good it really is, but the epicness of the game is a bit overwhelming when you're trying to get a review out as fast as possible.
APRIL 11TH: DUNGEONS: THE STORY OF PATAPON 3
Patapon 3 opens with the tribe of warriors destroyed and everyone frozen in stone. Silver Hoshipon -- a silver star with a moustache -- arrives, wakes up four warriors along with the flag carrier, and the mission is afoot. 
Bring it on, baddies.
As the star of the show, we play as the Uberhero, a Patapon with abilities far greater than the average archer, shield carrier or spearman. The Uberhero doesn't remember anything and leads the tribe out into the world to find answers, but it's not long before we run into Dark Heroes -- bad guys with abilities similar to that of the Uberhero but out for their own gains. We need to beat the pants off of them. These folks range from Ragewolf with his destructive claws (and wolf face) to Naughtyrins with her painful spear attack (and feminine wiles). These Dark Heroes guard Archfiends (giant bosses), and there are seven we need to wipe out to win the game.
Honestly, the overall story is a bit of a mystery (How is all this marching and attacking going to get my memory back?), but these Dark Heroes and the cutscenes following their battles are some of the best parts of the game. The dialogue for each of them is varied and creative, the bickering between my tribe members is genuinely funny, and each time I advance a bit, I'm excited to see what Sony has cooked up for the next villain.
Getting to that next bad guy means marching through an Archfiend dungeon. These are three-part levels where you fight from the left side of the screen to the right, then the right side to the left, and then battle a boss. In between each part, you're allowed to bail out and go back to your hideout with your spoils. Do so, and you'll start from scratch next time you choose the dungeon. If you continue on and die, you'll lose the treasure chests you've already earned. Also, if your hero dies in the dungeon, he doesn't come back to life (which he does in normal levels).
I've been through four of these dungeons in my 28 hours of playing Patapon, and I dig them. The gameplay isn't monumentally different from your normal level, but it is varied. There are switches you need to jump on to activate, time constraints, and the risk/reward is a setup that has me asking my multiplayer partners if they're sure they want to advance each time we get to a break.
Still, the best part of these dungeons are the experience points they drop. I've run into a brick wall in terms of progress, and these dungeons are key to getting me out of it. See, over the weekend, I played multiplayer nonstop. This got me ahead in the story and leveled up my Uberhero to a healthy 19, but it kind of stalled me. Last night, I tried to advance the story with just one online partner (you can't fill out online matches with AI characters), and we got obliterated by the bad guys. We just didn't have a robust enough squad to compete.
I figured I could jump into my single-player game with its well-rounded AI partners, and we could rule the day. We also got obliterated. While I leveled my Uberhero to Level 19 with my friends, my AI buddies sat their unused and didn't level up one iota. I was level 19, but they were level 13.
That's still the case. Looks like I have some grinding ahead of me, but like I've said before, that's Patapon.
No comments:
Post a Comment