Developer: TVT Co. Ltd., Ratata Arts
Publisher: Game Source Entertainment
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Ratatan – Review
Back in 2025, we took a closer look at the ‘REPLAY‘ collection of PATAPON, which was an absolute blast from the past. The original PATAPON dates back to 2007 and was originally released for the PSP. This quirky rhythm game quickly made a name for itself as one of the better exclusives for Sony’s handheld, and it had a few sequels over the years. Sadly, outside of remasters, we didn’t get a new entry in recent years. In comes Ratatan, made by the same developers but not under Sony’s publishing, to give gamers some new PATAPON-like content. We honestly dived in quite blind when it came to Ratatan, and we ended up absolutely loving it.
Story
The story of Ratatan is a bit light on content, and that’s perfectly fine here. The game is a roguelite where you will be playing as one of the so-called Ratatan, who want to travel to ‘The Everafter’. This place is a supposed paradise where the long-lost goddess Mira should reside. Of course, this is all speculation, and traveling there is a risky undertaking, but you’ll have a massive airship, the Fortrun, backing you up. It’s a simple framework for the narrative, but it works well enough to keep you motivated to press on.
Graphics
Graphically, Ratatan is a gorgeous game. While PATAPON already had interesting visuals, the development team behind Sony’s classic title really outdid themselves with the design of Ratatan. The different characters look amazing, the enemy models are varied and interesting, and the animations are so fluid. The game also utilizes different backdrops and bright visuals, and we quite enjoyed seeing the different biomes. There is a lot to keep track of on the screen, but the UI never feels too cluttered, and all the important information you need is displayed. Even when things get truly hectic, we never noticed any frame drops or stuttering.
Sound
Even with some track variety, you’ll still hear the same shouts on the same beats from your chosen character and the Chobun following them. To our surprise, this didn’t get old or annoying, and after multiple hours, we still happily bobbed our head along with the beat. The rest zones and other areas have more relaxing tunes than the upbeat battle music, providing a nice change of pace and letting players come to their senses after intense battles. The only voices you’ll hear are the battle chants of your Ratatan and Chobun as you progress through the game. We didn’t really mind the absence of voice acting during dialogues when you are in the game’s hub, but it would have added some charm if the characters made at least some noise.
Gameplay
Ratatan is a roguelite adventure game where you’ll move and fight by pressing the right buttons during the looping beat. It’s pretty much a rhythm game, but with many roguelite mechanics, such as gear management, attacking enemies, defending from incoming attacks, dodging attacks, and completing small quests. The game is the spiritual successor to PATAPON and swaps the level-based structure for a roguelite format. The offset is simple: you try to make it as far as possible during runs, which will give you rewards to make consecutive runs easier. The game does have multiplayer functionality to tackle runs together, but at the time of writing this review, crossplay is not supported for PlayStation 5 players. A crossplay update is expected soon.
Just like in PATAPON, you’re not on your own in Ratatan. Your chosen character is backed up by Cobun, who will fight for you when you give the correct commands in sync with the beat. As you make it further and further into the game, you’ll be able to upgrade the gear of your Cobun and level up passive abilities, slowly making future runs easier. We loved this progression system, and even when meeting our untimely demise plenty of times, we still felt satisfied with our results. Sometimes, however, it was hard to keep track of all the information on the screen, such as our HP, MP, the ongoing beat, and different commands. Don’t get us wrong, as we stated above, everything is neatly structured, but it will take quite a bit of practice to process everything in a single glance.
Conclusion
While not the official continuation of the PATAPON series, Ratatan feels like the logical next step with better management options, more character variety, and an even more enjoyable gameplay loop. The gorgeous visuals went hand in hand with the catchy music and the battle chants, and the roguelite format proved to be really entertaining. This is one of those games that remains challenging and amusing to play during both short and lengthy gaming sessions. Even if you aren’t familiar with PATAPON, if you like roguelites with a fun gimmick, we can easily recommend checking it out. We do hope that cross-play support for PlayStation players is added soon, and we wouldn’t mind a local co-op update either.
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