Patapon Creator Shares New Details on 'Spiritual Successor' Ratatan

Recently at BitSummit, the annual indie game festival in Kyoto, Japan, Patapon creator Hiroyuki Kotani announced an upcoming Kickstarter campaign beginning on July 31 to fund a new music game that will be a spiritual successor to the long-dormant Patapon series.

Originally made public last spring when Tokyo Virtual Theory announced Project Jabberwocky, a rhythm action game with Kotani in the director's chair, the newly-christened Ratatan bears an uncanny likeness to Patapon. IGN Japan was livestreaming on site at BitSummit over the weekend, and spoke with Kotani and TVT CEO Toshiyuki Yasui about their plans for the game.

According to Kotani, Japanese artist Nelnal will handle the character design, and according to their Twitter account, visual design as well.

"I follow Nelnal on Twitter and I'm a big fan, so I've wanted to reach out to them and build a game using their characters for a long time now," said Kotani.

He contrasted the new look of Ratatan to that of Patapon, noting that the artwork featured in his earlier games looked more like "silhouettes", while Nelnal's creations, as seen in the teaser, include much more color.

We know music will serve an integral role in Ratatan, and former Patapon composer and sound producer Kemmei Adachi has already attached his name to the new project.

“He's already contributed a number of tracks for the game,” Kotani said, but added that unlike their previous collaborations, “the songs in Ratatan are almost like theme songs, and they will express the game’s worldview in a more expansive way.”

Kotani continued, “In Patapon, the little eyeball characters consider the player to be a kind of deity, and we wanted to do more with the music that would show their reverence for the player, almost like a scene from a musical – but we didn’t have time to implement this due to the short development period. We hope to do more with the music this time to create those kinds of scenes.”

IGN asked if any other games that Yasui or Kotani have played recently might influence Ratatan, leading Yasui to admit that he is “absolutely awful at music games” despite his involvement in this project, saying that “Patapon was one of the few music games I was able to play, so perhaps Ratatan will be another.”

Patapon was one of the few music games I was able to play, so perhaps Ratatan will be another

Kotani observed that music games have “an insurmountable barrier to entry for many people”, which they must consider carefully.

“For many people, it can be difficult to remember the inputs, and when the game gives the player too much to think about at once, they can’t keep up with the pace,” Kotani said.

“We had this issue when we were making Patapon. Before we decided on the name Patapon, the inputs were just titled ‘Square’ and ‘Triangle’ and so on. I had to give an internal presentation about the game, and I couldn’t even remember the inputs myself. And that’s when I realized the importance of onomatopoeia. By using onomatopoeia, instead of the very dry Square and Triangle type commands, we could present a more direct reference, which helped Patapon a lot. I’m not saying that Ratatan will do the same thing, but that way of thinking will inform how we approach the commands and the UI in Ratatan.”

Yasui added, “Kotani’s rhythm games are very primitive or primal, and they offer a very direct way of enjoying the music. I’m excited to see him deliver a new twist on this approach with Ratatan.”

The passion for Patapon is still strong

Patapon fans remain passionate about the series, as last week's announcement ignited a swift reaction online. What little of Ratatan we can see at this point certainly evokes comparisons to Patapon, as a number of cute characters flee from a large monster, before a Ratatan logo suspiciously similar to that of Sony's rhythm series settles on the screen. Kotani described Ratatan as a "spiritual successor" to Patapon, saying he hopes people find the new title "inherits from the super fun music game" he created years earlier.

Obviously, a crowdfunding campaign carries its own risks, so IGN Japan asked what motivated them to seek fan investment. Kotani pointed out that Ratatan was a new endeavor for both him and TVT, as their first game together, and so he feels “we need support, not just money, to motivate us to press ahead and make the game that players will want – and Kickstarter is a great way to have that communication with everyone.”

Kotani emphasized the importance of communication so that the audience will be able to have fun with the Kickstarter campaign itself, while they’re looking forward to the eventual release. “It will be a two-way process with the fans, not just us dictating the shape of the game ourselves.”

Yasui added, “We realized that there is a passionate audience out there, which is why Kotani was especially keen to do it on Kickstarter. It will take a long time for us to make the game, but in the meantime the players who are waiting for it can enjoy the process and have some input.”

While he could not confirm any specific platforms for Ratatan or stretch goals for the campaign, he said, "Naturally we want as many people as possible to enjoy our game," adding he hopes the audience can play Ratatan "in many different ways," hinting at a multiplatform release.

Patapon, a game where the player uses simple inputs to command an army of tiny creatures in time with the music, first launched in Japan back in 2007 on the PlayStation Portable. A Western release the following year drew just as much critical acclaim abroad as it received in Japan, making it a rare worldwide first-party success for Sony on the PSP. Two sequels followed, ensuring the hypnotic beats of Patapon would resonate in fans' heads for many years to come.

However, the series fell silent in 2011 after Patapon 3. Aside from PS4 remasters of the first two titles, there have been no rumblings of any new Patapon releases for over a decade. The lack of a dedicated PlayStation handheld system and the closure of Japan Studio seem to indicate Sony has no interest in getting the band back together.

With the Kickstarter launch less than a week away, more detailed release information is still to come. Yasui did tell IGN Japan that TVT is developing Ratatan internally, but said that they were still deciding on a publisher. For now, new and old fans alike must wait for more information when the crowdfunding campaign begins at the end of the month.

Diamond Feit is a freelance writer based in Japan. This article includes reporting from IGN Japan Chief Editor Daniel Robson.