Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Re-imagining a cult classic is always a risky proposition, especially when shifting genres. Patapon captured lightning in a bottle on the PSP by blending tight four-beat rhythm inputs with military-style army control. Ratatan, its long-awaited spiritual successor, steps out of Steam Early Access with a bold new mission: Take that core musical DNA and inject it directly into a modern roguelike loop.
Stepping into Ratatan for the first time feels like watching a Saturday morning cartoon come to life. The visuals pop with incredible color, the soundtrack instantly burrows into your head, and the sheer joy of commanding a tiny squad of minions is just as addictive as it was nearly two decades ago. However, once the initial visual high settles, Ratatan reveals a foundational paradox. While roguelikes thrive on unpredictable run variance and evolving playstyles, Ratatan sticks strictly to a static set of commands that rarely change, creating a loop that wears thin faster than anticipated.
A Rhythmic Expedition to The Everafter
Storytelling takes a backseat to moment-to-moment action, keeping downtime between runs to a minimum. The narrative follows the whimsical Ratatan heroes as they seek passage to “The Everafter,” a legendary realm where their Goddess resides. To traverse the ruined world of Redo, they rely on Fortrun, a giant, singing airship that transports your squad across varied biomes. As you march across corrupt landscapes, your rhythmic Melodium instruments cleanse native creatures called the Chorus into obedient Cobun soldiers, driving back boss-level monstrosities and the hostile Teshita clan.
Rhythm Meets Roguelike Mechanics
At its core, Ratatan bridges standard rhythm inputs with roguelike progression. Instead of the linear, stage-by-stage layout of Patapon, every journey is a procedural run composed of combat rooms, mini-boss encounters, and mid-run rewards.
You select a musical hero, such as Keroronpa the frog or Harigittan the hedgehog, who wields a unique instrument called a Melodium. Your Ratatan commands a squad of up to nine Cobun units, with each hero determining the weapon types available for recruitment. Inputting four-beat rhythm commands guides your army to fall in, march, attack, guard, or execute devastating, screen-clearing “Hustle Tech” abilities.
The game halts after every cleared room to present a choice of temporary boons. Ratakaruta Cards build your mid-run elemental synergy, such as adding damage-over-time effects or high-crit modifiers to your basic rhythm attacks, while Gold buys mid-run shop items and Stat Shards expand your resource pools.
Progression and Base Upgrades: the Tame Meta-Loop
Death in Ratatan is rarely punishing. While you lose your mid-run Ratakaruta card synergy upon defeat, all physical gear and meta-resources retrieved from chests remain in your inventory. This creates a highly forgiving progression loop where you constantly return to base stronger than before.
At various kiosks in Rataport, permanent upgrades are unlockable with resources and weapons found during your runs. These can vary in many ways but the key ones are:
- Candy Upgrades: Funded by Candy collected on runs, these permanently improve baseline stats across all future runs, including health, attack power, knockback resistance, and guard efficiency.
- Donut Upgrades: Used to expand your army’s infrastructure, allowing you to increase maximum Cobun squad sizes, unlock new crafting recipes, and place helper mechanics like healing springs directly into biomes.
- Weapon Fusion: Extracted physical gear (lances, bows, tubas) can be fed into higher-tier Epic and Legendary weapons, allowing you to level up your best equipment permanently. Legendary weapons can also be created with found resources.
Visuals and Audio: A Sights-and-Sounds Triumph
Visually, Ratatan is stunning. The hand-drawn art, vivid background layers, and expressive character animations make every skirmish feel like a high-budget animated cartoon. I was constantly impressed with the bright and vibrant visuals in this unique and creative world.
The soundtrack is an absolute earworm. A standout touch is how the game handles character audio: While rhythm inputs remain universal across all characters, every Ratatan hero possesses a distinct vocal performance and melody line. Switching from Mimizukyun the Owl to Pyokorappa the Rabbit completely alters the musical flavor of your march, making the audio presentation feel vibrant and dynamic.
Where the Rhythm Stumbles
Despite its charm, Ratatan suffers from an undeniable mechanical monotony. The rhythm commands feel natural and satisfying, but they never evolve. From your first run to your 20th, you are executing the exact same set of inputs: fall in, attack, execute Hustle Tech, dodge/defend. Because the core rhythm loop remains completely static, the roguelike structure starts to feel repetitive much faster on a home console or PC session than it might in short bursts on a handheld like the Steam Deck or Switch.
Furthermore, fans expecting the grand army management of Patapon may be disappointed, as there are strict squad limits of nine Coburns and each hero is tied to specific units. This limits tactical creativity and misses out on complex formations and combined rhythm tactics.
Where roguelike giants such as Hades or Dead Cells continuously surprise players with game-changing build synergies, Ratatan relies on a fairly simple loop inside a gorgeous skin.
Final Verdict
Ratatan is a charming, wonderfully animated love letter to Patapon that hits all the right nostalgic notes in its presentation. Its catchy soundtrack, vibrant visual style, and accessible meta-progression make it a delight to pick up, especially for portable play on the Steam Deck. However, its static command structure and shallow build variance prevent it from reaching the upper echelon of modern roguelikes.
It’s a fun, catchy ride while it lasts, but once the visual high wears off, the shallow shell beneath becomes hard to ignore.
We were given a Steam review code from the publisher via PressEngine. Ratatan is launching Oct 15, 2026 on PC via Steam, PS5, XBOX Series X|S and Switch 2.
