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SGF 2025: Ratatan Preview – A Rhythmic Revival of the Patapon Spirit

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With rhythm games slowly disappearing from the world of AAA gaming, it’s perhaps fitting that an indie studio is “reviving” one of the genre’s all-time classics. To be clear, I use the word “reviving” loosely; while Ratatan (which is being developed by TVT Co. Ltd and Ratata Arts) has a lot in common with an oft-forgotten Sony franchise, strictly speaking, it’s not a direct sequel. 

“Ratatan is considered a spiritual successor to Patapon,” explained lead producer Saisu Sakijiri Kazuto. “A lot of that came about because the lead designer, [Hiroyuki] Kotani, came back as lead designer on Ratatan. Also, Kemmei Adachi, who handles the music for Ratatan, was the composer on all the Patapon games. The team considers it a spiritual successor with the core key members back.”

While Ratatan doesn’t carry the same name as the game it’s so heavily inspired by, it certainly looks the part, and we wouldn’t blame anyone for confusing it for a full-on Patapon sequel. Players take on the role of a strange being known as a Ratatan, who leads an army of smaller, even stranger (not to mention adorable) creatures known as Cobun into battle.

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Rather than controlling your Cobun army directly, you instead issue orders by tapping specific face buttons (if you’re using a gamepad) to the beat of a backing track. If you keep to the rhythm and issue a valid command, your Cobun will follow your order—attacking enemies, guarding, falling in on your position, or using special abilities—all in perfect harmony. Mess up your timing or tap the wrong button, and your command will be ignored, wasting precious time and leaving yourself open to whatever the enemy might be planning. 

It’s a simple enough setup, but Ratatan has found a home among other titles that have fully embraced the “easy to learn, difficult to master” design philosophy. Interestingly, one of the biggest ways Ratatan deviates from its predecessors directly ties into this; rather than being comprised of standalone missions that players only have to complete once to progress, Ratatan has gone the way of the roguelike, with players embarking on runs. 

“It’s absolutely a roguelike, and there’s a lot that went into the design of that,” Kazuto detailed. “You can pick up items [during a run] and use those to increase your abilities. For example, you can upgrade your Ratatan to be stronger, or you can increase the amount of Cobun you can lead into battle. That being said, Patapon had more RPG elements, and we wanted to keep aspects of that too, like equipping your character with different types of Cobun.

The team wanted to introduce the roguelike aspect and allow for the player to be able to skip some stages as they get stronger and stronger, whereas with a traditional RPG like Patapon, it was very quest-based, and you had to kind of go through every stage in order.”Ratatan Preview image-02

These roguelike elements will feel familiar to anyone who’s dipped their toe (or dove headfirst) into the genre. While we imagine there are other mechanics we didn’t get to see during our half-hour demo, we did amass a sizable collection of Candy and Donuts, which can be traded in for upgrades on the island of Rataport (which is where you return to in between runs).

Admittedly, I did have some concerns that more casual players would eventually hit a roadblock given how Ratatan is laser-focused on the idea of commanding a small army, in real time, to a pre-set rhythm. Thankfully, with the game’s demo having launched earlier this month, the team has already begun plans to add in a few accessibility options.

“So in the very beginning, the team’s target demographic for Ratatan was core gamers, right? And that’s how we’ve been designing the game. But now that the demo has come out, we’ve been receiving all this feedback about it, and we’re hearing from a variety of voices and opinions,” explained Kazuto.

“While there are certain aspects that we can change, you know, we can’t change everything—we are tweaking things. We’re actually considering implementing options for the players to change difficulty settings midway through the game if they want. And then there’s the rhythm aspect; you’re supposed to hit a button right on the beat. We are considering options for adjustment of how early or late they can be for hitting that, a timing window.”

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There’s still a lot to explore in Ratatan; for instance, we haven’t gotten the chance to try out co-op (which supports up to 4 players), and there are large-scale battles that feature over 100 characters fighting on screen. Still, what we did get to experience showed a ton of promise, and with Ratatan set to launch in Early Access on July 25th, we won’t have to wait much longer. Personally, I can’t wait to control an army of Cobun again; there’s something incredibly appealing about leading cute, childlike creatures across a battlefield as they yell “murder!” and “get ‘em!”

Ratatan launches in Early Access on PC (Steam) starting July 25, 2025, with console versions for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch coming later.

If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out the rest of our  Summer Game Fest 2025 coverage:

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Shaan Joshi might spend a little too much time in the world of video games. He's been writing about them for over a decade, and during the day, he spends his time programming them.

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