Great news peoples of the blog! The long-awaited much-anticipated PlayStation Network Patapon 2 Demo has been released for mass consumption (i.e. everyone!), so set your PSPs to download and get ready for the war-tastic ethereal musical bliss known as Patapon 2.
What you get, get, get with this fantastic free download is five levels of pure greatness full of Hero Patapon, Patagate, Mater the Tree of Life and all the evolution you can shake a Darwin-sized stick at.
So let’s rewind a bit: back in the glorious days of Patapon 1, this majestic perennial (above) was the birthing (and reviving) spot of all Patapon warriors. If you had a couple of rare items and coffers full of ka-ching, you could grow yourself some Rarepons…but it was a bit of a gamble.
Enter Patapon 2, and introducing Mater 2.0, now with Evolution System! It’s Patapon creation and reanimation minus the guess work! With the new Evolution System you can clearly see your Patapon’s potential and work towards getting him there.
The Evolution System can be simplified into two separate portions: transformation and brawn. The transformation portion is fairly straightforward and linear.
As you progress through the game, you’ll find basic materials and ka-ching that you can bring back to Mater to transmogrify each Patapon to a much deadlier Rarepon. Each evolution has a neat little tag that will tell you exactly what you need. So if you are one Kuneri Fang short of a Pyopyo…you know what to do (hint: kill some more enemies!)
Now that you’ve transmogrified your cute little Patapon into a menacing Pyopyo, you have two options: continue the transmogrification (into another Rarepon) or you can put your Pyopyo through bootcamp and make him stronger. This is the brawn portion of the Evolution System, where you’ll be able to unlock each Rarepon’s special power.
So what are the benefits of leveling up vs. transmogrifying? Well for starters, you can only unlock some of the new Patapon troops. For example, a Robopon can only be unlocked if you’ve fully transmogrified a Tatepon (unlocked all his forms). Each Rarepon also has special abilities such as resistance to fire, ice or sleep attacks while some Rarepons can attack faster or take more damage. It’s important to have a diversified army of various types of Rarepons. This will ensure supreme victory over the Karmen.
In contrast, leveling up does not unlock new Rarepons, but instead it makes your Rarepon’s abilities much stronger.
Level 1(Buff)————————–Level 5 (Semi-Buff) ——————–Level 10 (Ultra Buff)
The difference between a baseline Pyopyo (who is somewhat strong against ice attacks) and his ultra-buff version Pyokora (which can never be frozen and is lighting quick) can sometimes mean victory or defeat, especially when you are battling a level 5 Manboth (yikes!).
Right about now is when I’ll stop yapping about the great new Evolution System and let you get started on the downloading the demo and experience it yourself. Greg Miller over at IGN gives a pretty cool breakdown of Patapon 2, which might help you on some of your missions as well. Just try to ignore the awesome 9.5 rating we got…no really…don’t even look at it (pssst! We got a 9.5!).
With all this talk about the new Evolution System and the awesome reviews Patapon 2 is getting, I almost forgot to let you know that your PSP or PS3 can also be transmogrified into a much better PSP or PS3 by downloading the free new Patapon 2 Battleground theme available now on the PSN!
That’s it for today, and next week we’ll celebrate the Cinco de Pata-yo!
– Chris HM
@ 14 ” pulluspardus ”
The game has been out for a while now in Europe :) and in UMD too!
@48
“Oh yeah, and people who won’t be able to play it if it’s in DD-only form, and people who care about their end-user rights.”
Redundant. I already MENTIONED paranoid conspiracy theorists.
@51
Lets see you buy an item that is actually not yours. Ya I’d say that is a violation of my end user rights.
Sony disappears off the face of the planet and suddenly our games are lost the minute our console is toast.
We decide that we have no use for the game, yet we’re not allowed to sell what is rightfully ours to someone else. Another violation of rights.
Ya Digital Distro is a wonderful idea, you surrender complete control over to a company that has as much chance for survival as I of making my 150th birthday.
@ 52> lol, stop selling your stuff, poor dude
@53
Why should I stop selling things that I have no use for anymore? honestly if I don’t feel that I’m ever going to play Tomb Raider 1 ever again I should be entitled to sell the game and put that money towards Uncharted 2.
Not like I need the money, but it doesn’t hurt to save a few dollars and get someone interested in a series you once enjoyed so they might buy future titles in the series down the road on release day.
Same goes for my console, sell the system and get a PS3 with BC. Thus increasing the install base, sell the games from the PS2 get new games for the PS3 increasing the attach rate. You know those important things developers look at before they go exclusive.
I’d buy far fewer games and be far less interested in being apart of the latest franchises and less likely to take a chance on a new IP if it wasn’t for the used games market. You know that chance I took on putting 20 dollars down on Patapon 1. Without the ability to sell the game if I didn’t like it, I’d simply not own it. My purchase helped Patapon 1’s success, yet now that 20 dollar cost and UMD is now being looked down upon. I’m sorry I think I’ll pass.
@35
People might actually take you seriously if you had a point instead of just randomly insulting people.
I guess the DD people have had their brains already rotted out and can’t come up with any real arguments.
@51 triple_lei
Paranoid conspiracy theorists?
All it takes to see the problem is some short-term foresight, and there’s nothing crazy about that.
Say your memory-stick gets corrupted. Well no worries, you just have to buy the game, again. Only paranoid conspiracy theorists would know something like that could happen!
And why is it that people who have a poor connection – insufficient with which to download the game, should just be told to “**** off”, huh?
Release on BOTH UMD and DD is the only way to go about this, as it makes everyone happy (except for fanatically intolerant neophiles) – any other method and there will be fans who’ll be forced out of getting the game. All the other regions already got it through this method, so why shouldn’t North America?
@56
as much as I hate the idea of pure Digital Distro with DRM, I thought I’d point out that sony doesn’t limit the number times you can download, just hte number of active systems you can download at any given time.
That’s the only benefit, outside of lower power consumption. But then there is no assurance that they won’t charge us a redownload fee down the road. So maybe that’s what you’re looking at, or even a potential change of policy requiring all titles to be repurchased :( stupid video store.
This download better not be huge, I REALLY don’t want a 2 gig game on my memory stick.
@57 Kaze
Ah, well that’s not as bad, but they still don’t have any guarantee that it’ll be there forever. :/
What about the original Patapon for PSP made available on PSN?
@Kaze
Little tip for you, Companies come and go (remember dreamcast, atari lynx and others.
Digital downloads are not going to kill you. Many ppl download things every day. Ppl have changed and in time when sony drops the umd all together, you will wonder why you didnt follow along. I guess for the ones that chose to adapt will have a good time.
@ mp456
The game is around 360mb. If you ever look on the psn at the psp games you will find most of them are under 600mb, but a few are around 1gb. Also the umd can hold 900mb single layer, 1.8gb dual layer.
@60
That was also available on disc.
That’s all people are asking for now.
Why this is such a monumental task for Sony is beyond comprehension.
@61
This attitude of people who don’t want DD are Luddites is condescending and smug. And really starting to P me off.
@63
Not everyone is asking for the game to be on umd as you can see from some of the posts. Sony made the desision for ppl to download the game to 1, see how many ppl are willing to download, 2. Get more ppl educated on purchasing games straight from the PSN, and 3. to test out load on the servers the first day its launched.
So its not like sony is making all the games DD, but Patapon is a good one to test. But some will say why not test another game…well some of the ppl that play those other games will ether accept it or complain the same so Patapon 2 was chosen.
@64
Being mad at other ppl that do or dont accept changes is not healthy. Ppl will chose what they think is good or bad and that their choice to live with. You being mad just gives them more of an edge on your because they can push your buttons to the part getting other ppl that agree with them to gang up on you. And when they grp up on you then you get more mad, and might make you do something you dont want to do like fling bad words in your posts.
Just be cool and understand that they might not like change, just accept that you do.
@63
Yes, I know, but I’d rather have a digital version of it. If Sony want $35 right now, they’d get BOTH Patapon 1 & 2 in a bundle for those people who have never played before. Or, like me, just got lazy.
Garbage!
I Tried Downloading this demo on 7!!!
different occasions. 7 tries over 3 computers!!
Crazy. Sony, i’m gonna come out and say it – YOU ARE STUPID!
Well, better sign up for ebay now, because I’m definitely importing this game from EU.
Good luck with sales Sony, because you just lost one from me.
@65 A true test would have both DD AND UMD and see which one sells better.
@66
They need to learn how to watch what they say.
Gamestop and Gamecrazy are going to be the downfall of console gaming, it is why COD4 is still 50 bucks brand new. W/O trading/resale from these companies, it would have been 30 dollars or less by now. But the video game companies are making less and less these days. so Digital Download is a must for the survival of video games. Welcome to the future, Nerds!
@70
This is exactly what I’m talking about.
This uninformed, ignorant, insulting attitude has got to stop.
Is there a special weapon or something from the demo that adds to the main game, like the Patapon demo did?
Also, it would be interesting to get a perspective on why Sony is opting to go fully digital download with this when the last time I checked approximately 20%-25% of the US did not have broadband. It seems odd to purposely eliminate that large of a group of people from even being possible consumers.
Also, if this is going to be a trend you all have to work out a PSN game rental plan that can be comparable to Gamefly very soon or start enforcing better demo rules because I don’t blindly buy games.
Also, price reductions over time. As other shave pointed out games can be bought new in stores for $10-$20 cheaper after a year or two (sometimes as little as six months), but we still have year 1 PSN games at full price.
If you want us to embrace digital downloads fully then make it feel just as friendly as the current physical system.
@56 (AnFangsEndes)
“Say your memory-stick gets corrupted. Well no worries, you just have to buy the game, again. Only paranoid conspiracy theorists would know something like that could happen!”
What’s this? ANOTHER person who doesn’t know what he (gotta be a “he”) doesn’t know what he’s talking about?
If your memory stick gets corrupted, all you have to do is redownload the game. And you can do that FOR FREE, as many times as you want, on up to 5 PSPs with your PSN account activated. And if you were smart enough to back up your game and your license to your hard drive in the first place, you wouldn’t even need to bother redownloading.
I must revise my earlier statement: it’s only the old geezers and UNINFORMED paranoid conspiracy theorists who stubbornly refuse to embrace digital distribution.
Again… you’re imagining a worst-case scenario that you completely made up without giving us any reason to believe so, and you’re basing your completely irrational fears on the very scenario that you completely made up.
But hey, maybe the sun could burn up and the planet would be doomed. Worse, we wouldn’t be able to play our games anymore… EVERYBODY PANIC!
Sorry I didn’t post sooner . . . but I was too busy playing the demo, which i absolutely LOVE! Can’t wait to have the full game, and thanks for putting it on PSN! Down with UMD!
“Garbage!
I Tried Downloading this demo on 7!!!
different occasions. 7 tries over 3 computers!!”
Why didn’t you just….I don’t know….d/l it onto your PSP directly? I tried to d/l it on 1 occasion. 6 minutes later, I was playing it. I’ve put 6.5 hours into the demo so far, and I don’t intend on stopping until I have the full game.
And may I remind you all that people have been clamoring for digital distribution EVERY WEEK on these blogs?
They want PS1 games, and they’re not talking about disc re-releases.
They want it DIGITAL, so they could play it on their PS3 and PSP. They want it in a form that can’t get dirty, scratched, warped, cracked, lost, or stolen. I don’t know about you but I’d rather pay $10 for a digital copy of Castlevania: SotN than pay $60 for a used, scratched copy that I can’t even play on my PSP without a PS3 and Remote Play.
Digital is forever.
@68
Did you even have your psp hooked up to the psp media manager or where you just trying to download to just the pc? The game has to be downloaded to the psp first then backed up to the pc. Also when i went to download the game i got a popup stating i needed to update the downloader wich you might not have noticed.
And for saying good luck to sony on losing a sale, well you still will support them if you import a game from another country.
I got the demo early, and have already played more then 200 missions. I have also unlocked every class, and have a ton of ancient weapons from beating the dragons so many times.
I already love this game.
@73 triple_lei
Sexism on the internet!?
So you’re telling me that I can download Patapon 2 onto five of my PSPs, an unlimited amount of times? Even though I can’t access the PSN on my dialup connection? Well damn, I can’t argue with that logic: I must be an uninformed paranoid conspiracy theorist/old geezer, simply because I want it on UMD so I can actually play it!
And you know what? That sounds like quite a deal; I just have to back up the game that I’m unable to download onto my HDD, and in the event that my memory-stick gets corrupted, I can just reinstall the game that I wasn’t able to download onto my memory-stick in the first place, back onto my memory-stick. Nothing wrong with that line of thinking!
[1/2]
[2/2]
I’m fine with DD being available for those that want it, but I want UMD, because I want to actually be able to play and own the game. What I don’t want is to be forced to pay more money for storage as Sony tries to pass along the manufacturing costs to the consumers, especially when it means I won’t even be able to play the games.
At least UMDs can’t become corrupted, or delisted from the PSN; DD on the other hand is only available as long as Sony is willing to–or *can* provide it–blind-faith or no.
Only fanatically intolerant neophiles would ever would want people to be forced out of enjoying a game due to a distribution-model.
In actuality the sun will grow to a size that will envelope the planet, incinerating it, as it runs out of hydrogen and has to rely upon less efficient elements, thusly turning into a red-giant. I don’t see either UMD surviving/DD forevering that, but whatever.
I have been a loyal cusotmer of Sony for years. Every time a new game system has come around from them I have purchased it. Changes to the PS3 that made it non backwards compatable have kept me from updating to a new PS3…what do I do with all my favorite old games?? I keep games I like and pkay them over and over again. Now the changes in the PSP. When I pre-ordered Patapon2 I had no clue it was UMD-less. I never would of pre-ordered. I feel forced into a choice I never would of made. A heads up before hand would of been nice, not after the fact.
I couldn’t be happier that Patapon 2 is coming out…
I’ve heard many negative comments on the “Digital Download” only, and I must say it’s a bunch of garbage…
I’m very happy SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) made this bold decision (and we need more in America) to make a step into the future. If you think about it, after the CDs replaced Cassettes everyone whined… aren’t you happy we changed? That was made possible by bold decisions… do you see a connection? Would you prefer that we still had cassettes?
All in all, I’m happy Patapon 2 is “Digital Download” only.
@30-32: Since you’re 40, you should know by now that Sony/MS/et. all. are trying to get into Digital Distribution.
Why?
Because it’s the future! It means cutting out the retail middle man, generally (I REALLY WISH SCEA would do this) having the games on sale for a lot less than they would be otherwise. Plus, you’re supporting the developers of the game if you buy it through DD.
The only flaw I see with it is the lack of being able to “sell”/”return” the game if you don’t like it. Otherwise you need to get on board and see that the convenience and not having the game take up anything more than space on your memory stick is the future.
If people are out there with modems (and I’m sure there still is, Broadband adoption is still on-going for the US), well, they have a HUGE backlog of games they can download (most are abandonware) for PC or buy old Gameboy/NES/etc. etc. etc. games, hell PS2 has a bunch of RPGs to play that you can get for $5-20 at Gamestop RIGHT NOW. That should tide them over before DD becomes mandatory and you can’t do anything to stop it.
Did PC gamers [DELETED] about DD through Steam? No, they embraced it. Only because they can’t have a “physical” copy that’ll die due to disc-rot (HOLY [DELETED]! GAMES AREN’T FOREVER!? YOU’RE KIDDING ME!?) just like “server farms crashing/Sony dies/etc. etc. etc.” concerns.
>> Say your memory-stick gets corrupted. Well no worries, you just have to buy the game, again. Only paranoid conspiracy theorists would know something like that could happen!
And mis-informed blog commenter enters the ring:
PROTIP: To defeat the DD copy destroyers shoot at–oh, wait…
PROTIP: You have the ability to copy your DD PSN downloads to 5 “activated” systems for that account. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THAT ITEM AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT BETWEEN THOSE FIVE SYSTEMS.
Your memory stick gets corrupted? Not a problem as long as you keep that PSP. Simply get a new stick, download the items again and your golden.
I’d just like to say I’m disappointed. I have never bought a PSN game and I don’t intend to. I am disappointed when games like Noby Noby Boy are released by PSN. As was mentioned, if this was truly and experiment, both formats should be released and see which does better. Is it that difficult and troublesome to release a UMD? Especially since UMDs have been released elsewhere. Seriously, what in the world? SCEA, please listen to your customers. You are turning off a lot of people with your download-only format. People like me, who DO have a high-spee internet, but like to have a solid disc or UMD, and like to be able to trade in a game for another when they’re tired of it. (Sorry if I sound like I’m repeating what was said, I feel it needs to be said again.)
I know this is off-topic, but are you guys ever going to get around to the PS3’s backwards compatability? There’s a handful of PS2 games I want to play but I can’t because of backwards compatability issues like slow moving and hanging. ‘Greatest Hits’ games too. I know you’re busy with PS3 games, but take a break once in a while and fix some problems, hm?
Frankly, I truly wonder where the hell you guys will be if/when the rumored PSP 2/PSP GO! drops the UMD drive for DD services. DSi is nearly there with DSi ware, it’s just a matter of time for the PSP.
I do, however, agree that giving a physical copy would be a smart idea. But I think the better route would be through memory-stick pro-duos (I’m sure a drive in future PSP’s would be easier to keep around than UMD) along with a free download voucher through PSN. This would be a better option than those that buy it through PSN only since you get a memory stick for JUST that game (with enough room for 1-3 game saves for different people) + PSN download options if when you get broadband and/or want to download the game to another PSP through PSN if you aren’t near your memory stick.
I played the demo all weekend. So fun.
Ahhh so much doom and gloom from the ppl that are missinformed.
1. if you get a game from the psn it is now yours to redownload, this helps if your game gets corruppted.
2. the test is to see how many ppl can hook up to the psn network from the instructions in the box/voucher cased version. The more ppl educated on where to go will mean more ppl using the psn to download more games.
3. All you ppl saying you will never download a game, good luck when the industry moves to all downloads. Its not going to kill you to download the game. If you want to work out any bug you have with downloading then try downloading some demos.
Moving to DD is a good idea. You still own the game, its just going to be on your memry stick. Down side is you cant give it to a friend or resell it.
Nice, Patapon got a 9.5 huh? That’s pretty kick arse! Congratulations. Must be a fun game!
@90
You do *not* own the game.
That is a lie.
@92
We own the rights to play the game thats why we get a game license when we download the game.
See we pay for the game, we play it its ours till we chose not to play it anymore.
Its just that with DD you cant pass it to a friend or resell it.
See the game on a disk or as a DD is the same, you just say we dont own it because you dont like the fact that you cant pass the game onto others when done with it.
patapon2 is really cool i have the demo and i preored the game cant whait til it comes out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is where my comment from one of the other Pata-posts tells you that I was right
A free demo was too much too ask for until the game comes out or in this case is about to come out
@93 Naqueil
You do not own it, Sony does.
You’re renting it, at best.
Is this the new mantra of the UMD-only tinfoilers? “We don’t own it?” I guess that’s all they have left after people repeatedly asked for and praised the benefits of digital distribution.
Come on, Sony can’t be bothered to leave up content on their own servers, or even keep their own servers running? Do you realize how NUTTY that sounds? Were you typing all this from your self-powered laptop on top of mountains of toilet paper and bottled water that you no doubt hoarded in preparation for Y2K?
I remember when Walmart announced they were shutting down their servers for their DRM MP3 service. People made some noise and they went back up. So are you saying you don’t trust Sony to deliver computer entertainment? It’s part of their name! It’s what they do!
And by the way – if you haven’t found free & legal broadband access, you haven’t been looking very hard.
How many times does it need to be said
A) Not every place CAN access broadband.
B) Insulting people doesn’t constitute making a point in favour of DD.
A) True, not every place can access broadband, but I think those places should worry about getting clean running water first.
B) Sony can’t very well say your thinking process stupid, but I sure will. #87, for instance, couldn’t be bothered to try Noby Noby Boy – a $6 game on the PSN that would most certainly cost MORE in stores and cause whoever made the game to lose MORE money due to its extremely hit-or-miss gameplay attraction. If the guy had an ounce of conceptual thinking, he would have realized DD = lower cost = less risk = higher creativity.
C) Why the heck did you reply to YOURSELF on post 72? Using your own older post to backup your own newer post doesn’t constitute making a point in favor of non-DD. I guess I’m not needed to make certain people look like a bunch of crazies after all.
@96
Lets see we pay for the game. We hold onto the game fo as long as we want. When we are done we can bak it up to our HDD. And if we need to get another copy due to corruption, or accidental deletion we can redownload.
Look like i said before we own the game and we get a game license at the time of download. The game is ours.
Your just mad that you cant resell it or pass it to a friend if the game stinks.
As for ppl that cant access broadband, they can, go find a McDonalds, most of the time you find one there and its a good hotspot.
Acting like the world is ending dont prove your point of DD is bad ether.