YMMV / Patapon

• Adaptation Displacement: It's safe to say that the Patapon series became far, far more famous than RolitoLand, the Web Animation series that the characters who would go on to become the Patapons debuted in, ever was. Not helping matters is that after the official website closed down, the series itself borders on Lost Media due to there not being a lot of recorded footage of it, meaning Patapon is the only real legacy that the series has left behind.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Gorl, the final boss in the first game, has telegraphed attacks like the other bosses and is much less challenging than Queen Kharma, whom needs to be defeated quickly before your army is defeated. That being said, its Beast Form is still quite unpredictable and it possesses a One-Hit Kill grab attack wth a very short window to dodge, so it's still a threat, just perhaps not as much as the build-up to it would have implied it to be.
  • General Kuwagattan is built up throughout several of the Dark One levels of the second game as a threat rivaling General Beetleton from the first game (especially weird because he literally IS the resurrected General Beetleton) or even Gong the Hawkeye, but he only shows up in one level as a glorified Dekamen with a telegraphed attack that can be easily staggered into oblivion and has to be bailed out by Black Hoshipon and Matango.
• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Best Boss Ever: Patapon 3 delivers something that Patapon fans are bound to love to bits—one final all-or-nothing confrontation with Gong the Hawkeye. For a start, the music for the level is "Ushishi's Theme", which is music that played in every level associated with Gong back in Patapon 1, bringing back a wave of nostalgia. Plus, Ravenous is riding on a massive Dark Dragon which is by no means easy to take down, averting many of the other examples of Hard Levels, Easy Bosses in the game. Lastly, after beating the level, the player is treated to a cutscene of Gong finally reconciling with the Almighty and leaving them alone, which is both a huge Tear Jerker and also a great send-off for the character.
• Breather Level: The Labyrinth of Restraint in 3. Despite being the longest dungeon in the game with five levels, it has relatively weak and easy Cyclopes and Reapers as enemies, unlike the last two dungeons, the Castle of Justice and the Estate of Earnestness, both of which are crawling with Fire Salamanders and Treants. It is especially a relief from the previous dungeon, the Estate of Earnestness, which had a Deth Treant on the second floor blocking you from a stressful Timed Mission, neither of which are present in the Labyrinth.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • In Patapon 1, Yaripons-Yumipons-Megapons are among the most common compositions.
  • In Patapon 2, expect to see Toripons, Robopons, or Mahopons in anyone's army. Heroes are also often a Dekapon, Kibapon or Robopon.
  • You'll find mostly only two types of armies in Patapon 2: Maximized damage, or maximized stagger.
  • In Patapon 3, Chin is almost always a Tondenga. This is most prominent if the Uberhero isn't a shield class, as Tondenga gives him (which includes Hatapon) the best survivability. Ton is also a Charibasa most of the time since his buff remains the same while his damage pales compared to an Uberhero.
  • If you're playing online in Patapon 3, expect other heroes to almost always be A) Grenburr (deals ridiculous amounts of damage) B) Cannasault (deals ridiculous amounts of damage) C) Cannogabang (deals ridiculous amounts of damage) D) Tondenga (though slow, deals great damage and has decent HP, and is one of the earliest classes unlocked). There's decent chance of encountering Pingrek and Oohoroc as well, but other classes such as Wooyari and Pyokorider are seldom seen due to either being a counter for a very specific thing, having a situational gimmick or just being a Low-Tier Letdown.
• Contested Sequel: Patapon 3 is definitely the odd one out. While the first two games are mostly similar, 3 suddenly ditches the tactical war game element and makes the game into an RPG, hyper-stylizes the artstyle so that it looks nothing like the last two games, kills off most of the characters you know and love, and gives you a pause button. On the plus side, it has some of the most memorable villains and bosses in the series, the story is the best it's ever been and the hyper-stylization and rockin' soundtrack makes it feel quite Animesque at times. Its focus on Co-Op Multiplayer while heavily limiting the single-player experience also gets mixed reactions, because playing through the campaign without multiple Uberheroes is a lot tougher than doing it with them and many of the game's toughest Superbosses are extremely tough(and outright impossible at lower levels) unless multiple players are tackling them. That being said, many defend the change because playing a co-operative rhythm game is such a novel experience and it almost makes it feel like a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game where you can create a unique character in the Patapon universe and band together with your friends to take on what are effectively raids.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Patapon 1:
    • Dekatons are quite the threat, especially the first few levels where they show up because you can't counter them with some Dekapons of your own, meaning if you can't stagger them(which isn't easy) then they'll wipe out your frontline with ease. Oh, and Dekaton Tower is a level where they continually respawn until the titular tower is destroyed, which requires the Tailwind Juju and Yumipons to do with any amount of speed.
  • Patapon 2:
    • Kibamen and Kibatans are capable of pushing your whole army backward and skewering them all at once, making Tatepons extremely necessary for countering them in the levels they show up in to stop them from wiping out all your Yaripons at once.
    • Mahomen are just as if not more strong than your own Mahopons, and possess magic attacks that will wipe the floor with your army unless you can kill them quickly.
  • Patapon 3:
    • You encounter Cyclopes early on, and they're easy enough to deal with — retreat when they tap the ground, advance or guard when they grab at the ground. But Mutant Cyclopes have a habit of smacking you around multiple times per command, and can even outlast a Defense Command, dealing heavy damage to your Shield and/or Spear unit(s). They also have more health and higher offense than normal Cyclopes.
    • Reapers are irritating in that they keep flying in and out of range, but that just makes them Goddamned Bats, right? Wrong. They have a breath attack that lasts an entire Action and Command phase. Not only does it deal constant damage, but it will cause your 'Pons to fall asleep or get the Poison status, which really should be dispelled. Because without fail, the Reaper will follow up with its slash attack. If it's not defended against, it WILL cause critical damage and you may well lose a crucial unit. When you only have four units max, this can end a level in a hurry. It also doesn't help that they're often found in dungeons and can push your whole army into traps while you're completely unable to react.
    • Dragons are a pain in the neck no matter where they show up for two reasons. First, they can deal disgusting amounts of damage by accidentally hitting your Patapons with their legs while moving(which is near-impossible to dodge), and they have a Breath Weapon that lasts almost four measures. Second, when they die, their head slams against the ground and deals damage to those underneath it, possibly swiping victory from you at the last second because you were standing too close.
    • Golems are a massive pain to deal with, namely because of their deadly arm attack. Your Shield and Spear units can hopefully survive the attack, but the problem is the range. The arm attack can, and will, hit your Arrow units — the ones with the least amount of HP, usually knocking them down to either yellow or red health, if not killing them outright. This is merely annoying to deal with if, say, you only encounter one golem per level. But this is not the case. You will encounter several golems in several levels. Not only that, but they can be truly massive in size, will retreat into the ground between attacks for total invulnerability, and staggering them makes them reset their attack pattern so they can hit you AGAIN.
• Even Better Sequel: Patapon 2 adds more enemies, more bosses, more units, more songs, and just WAY more content in general than Patapon 1, and it also does away with several of the more annoying grinding aspects, removed permadeath and overhauled the "combine two rare items to make a Rarepon that you can't change unless it dies" system with a much more versatile and flexible tech tree.
• Evil Is Cool: It's hardly a wonder that the villainous factions in each game get so much love and attention from the fanbase due to how cool they are:
  • Gong the Hawkeye in 1 is a legendarily strong Zigoton general and Recurring Boss who is widely beloved for his cool fighting style, nuanced character motivations and just being a Memetic Badass all round as one of the few humanoid enemies who can give an entire army of Patapons a run for their money. Many in the fanbase see him as just as much of a Worthy Opponent as he sees you and the Patapons.
  • The Dark Ones from 2 onward are The Legions of Hell outfitted with insectoid Cool Helmets galore, making them exceptionally cool adversaries to face off against. A common complaint is that they feel underused in both the second and third games despite how cool of a concept they are.
  • All of the Dark Heroes from 3 get this to some extent due to being the series' best and most fleshed-out example of a Quirky Miniboss Squad, but especially Ravenous due to his just being Gong again, Buzzcrave due to his Cool Horse Ponteo and his status as a very difficult fighter to contend with, and Covet-Hiss for being an abusive Hate Sink and the closest thing the game has to a main villain while wielding a gigantic BFG.
• Fan Nickname: The Dark Ones from 2 are frequently referred to by the fanbase and even on the fan wiki as "Akumapons" as a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "devil" and "patapon," since there's already a character called the Dark One(who is actually just Makoton). The actual suffix for the Dark Ones appears to be "-tan", as in "Kuwagattan."
• Franchise Original Sin: Patapon 2 had multiplayer elements, but it was Local Area Network-based and was almost entirely separate from the singleplayer story, serving as a fun optional alternate mode. Then Patapon 3 introduced its divisive integrated online multiplayer elements which use PlayStation Network that almost rope off certain sections of the singleplayer campaign for non-multiplayer players, resulting in that game's Broken Base.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Hero Modes in the second game significantly simplify levels if you can maintain a perfect Fever. Tatepon Hero's buff makes the entire army unkillable, while most other classes deal thousands of points of damage in seconds.
  • In Patapon 3, certain Uberhero classes can make later levels very easy. Notably, Mighty Glacier Tondenga, Glass Cannon Cannogabang, rapid-firing Alosson and Lightning Bruiser Cannassault.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • In all three games, Yumitons/men/tans/deths with status effect bows. Because they stand so far away from your army, usually behind a phalanx of frontline soldiers or buildings, it becomes impossible to take them out even with their nonexistent health while they prevent your army from working cohesively by setting them on fire, putting them to sleep, freezing them, etc. This just makes it more difficult to complete a mission that involves attacking enemy fortifications, though the Party song(PATA PON DON CHAKA) which alleviates status effects does wonders to make them less annoying. Even with that song, the frequency with which you'll have to play it can be infuriating at times thanks to them.
  • In 2, Torimen can be very difficult to hit without Yumipons or Mahopons and can prevent your army from advancing as if they were on the ground like a Kibamen, but go down very easily if you can reliably hit them.
  • In 3, Salamanders. They have basically no health and can often be one-shot by an Uberhero, but they force you to stand in place or run away for three measures while you wait for them to explode. Even when they do finally explode, they release a highly damaging cloud with a weird hitbox which can seriously hurt Ton or Chin because they were standing a millimeter too close. And in most levels they're in, they're a respawning enemy that only stop appearing once you reach the end, so you'll have to contend with one shuffling up beside whatever miniboss you're fighting every 40 seconds or so.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Mochichichi/Fenicchi fart on your army with sleeping gas and run away every single time they're staggered.
  • Goruru/Garuru in their beast form have an incredibly annoying habit of shuffling back and forth almost randomly, meaning often you can try a charged attack and suddenly miss completely.
• High-Tier Scrappy: With Patapon 3 having added Uberhero character classes into the mix, this was an inevitablility:
  • Tondenga is typically seen as a cheap and easy way to cheese the entirety of the singleplayer campaign, since its Uberhero ability is an extremely damaging persistent attack that only gets better over time and Tondenga can later prevent entire Bonedeth armies from attacking by causing earthquakes and stagger bosses so frequently that they become a complete joke. It also has a lot of health, making it a great choice for Marathon Levels. The only thing really holding it back is that it doesn't quite have the damage of other Shield classes and the class skills it unlocks just allow it to use more Set Skills, which normally unlock just by leveling classes up.
  • Cannassault is the Lightning Bruiser to end all Lightning Bruisers, with an area-of-effect ability that does disgustingly high damage to everything in it. Its low status effect resistances aren't really seen as a deal-breaker because of how quickly it can kill enemies and then retreat, making it commonly seen as a Crutch Character along with Tondenga.
  • Cannogabang is probably the hallmark of this in Patapon 3; the unmatched single-target damage that it can do alone puts it at the top of players' shit-lists, but it also has two different weapon types that open up crowd-control possibilities, making it The Ace of all the Uberhero classes the player could pick. It's not uncommon to see multiplayer parties consisting of nothing but four Cannogabangs(with potential variations in their equipment) just because of how easily it decimates everything in its path.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The mission "The World's First Hoshipon Convention" in 3 has all the Hoshipons accusing each other of being an impostor, making them sound like they're playing an average game of Among Us, which would come out seven years and become popular over ten years later.
• The Inverse Law of Fandom Levity: The series is a colorful, cheery kids' game that also happens to make use of the War Has Never Been So Much Fun trope, but is otherwise the E-rated game it's advertised as with obvious Black-and-White Morality where the Patapons are the good guys and their enemies are the bad guys^note Though they occasionally have more complex motivations, and defeating them usually means gaining them as an ally. In spite of this, older players love to flanderize the Almighty and the Patapons into a General Ripper and their army of unrepentant war criminals who Rape, Pillage, and Burn their way across the three games in the series and habitually commit remorseless genocide of other tribes in search of IT.
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: A general complaint people have with Patapon 3 is that it's too punishing on single-player. Ton, Chin and Kan pale in comparison to your Uberhero, who contributes most of the damage. Without them, your party doesn't have enough strength and firepower to clear the rest of a dungeon floor if they die too early. If you don't choose Taterazay at the start of the game, do your best to keep Chin (Shield-class Patapon) alive because once they're dead you have no contingency for keeping Hatapon alive. Bosses will also start attacking out of rhythm, the core gameplay mechanic, which means it's no longer about skill at that point and hoping you've grinded enough to survive. The fact that most of these problems are mitigated or outright bypassed by playing online with other Uberheroes only feeds to the sentiment.
• Low-Tier Letdown: With Patapon 3 having added Uberhero character classes into the mix, this was an inevitablility:
  • Destrobo falls off hard after a certain point, as while it's an effective damage dealer it is primarily meant to be used against buildings, and its extremely low health means there are better choices for clearing dungeons and fighting other Uberheroes, such as Tondenga and Grenburr.
  • Bowmunk is probably the worst class in the game, because it's the only Shield class that can be considered a true Support Party Member^note Even Guardira has combat capabilities. Given that Shield classes are usually supposed to be secondary if not primary damage dealers, sacrificing that role for a dedicated support character(whose ability is situational at that) is an objectively bad choice.
  • Both horse classes, Kibadda and Pyokorider, are less viable than alternative Spear classes. This is because Pyokorider is worse than Kibadda inherently since it can only hit with its special ability once per measure while Kibadda can do persistent damage, but Kibadda is itself outclassed by Cannassault in almost every way in terms of the matchup between their Dash Attacks, so there's really no reason to level and invest in Kibadda when you could just level Cannassault instead.
  • Almost all of the Archer classes are Overshadowed by Awesome except for Pingrek and Oohoroc, which have their uses. Yumiyacha and Alosson can output some respectable damage when leveled, but pale in comparison to the damage a Cannogabang can do at the same level. Wondabarappa is really only useful in singleplayer as a Mook Commander since it's a heavily Nerfed Megapon with some admittedly good buffs, and Jamsch can only attack with Status Infliction Attacks, which are again outclassed by Cannogabang, who can do the same thing with a Howitzer and do more damage to boot.
• Memetic Badass: Gong gets this a lot since he's an extremely strong Zigoton general and a One-Man Army who manages to inexplicably come back from certain death at least once and his desire to defeat the God of the Patapons despite being mortal himself. Jokes abound about him being able to easily solo The Almighty or even the player themself if he ever got the chance.
• Memetic Loser: Poor, poor Makoton, doomed to forever be consumed by his lust for revenge on the Patapons but simultaneously never strong enough to beat them. While in the games Makoton is at least somewhat of a legitimate threat (he even manages to kidnap Meden), the fandom consistently portrays him as a Harmless Villain constantly falling flat on his own face. Sometimes Makoton is even interpreted as The Millstone who causes whatever villainous group he joins to become a Goldfish Poop Gang or even that selling his soul to Baban and Bababaan actually made them weak enough for the Patapons to defeat because of just how much Makoton sucks.
• Narm: The Patapons in your command will usually say pretty warlike and threatening stuff during battle, but they will occasionally say "Spank them bottoms!" with the same exact amount of seriousness.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The final boss of the first game, Gorl (Goruru) is a dragon-dog like demon that has a creepy form switch and moves chaotically. The fight taking place in front of Red Sky, Take Warning with theme having similarities to Ominous Latin Chanting make it a frightning fight. It being summoned by Queen Kharma offering the souls of her entire tribe just to not let Patapons pass because of Zigotons' own prophecy Patapons fit rather well also make it a high-stakes battle.
  • The final boss of the second game, Dettankarmen is a similar demon to Goruru with shaman and wolf forms, with about the same amount of Body Horror. Now with Floating Limbs and rhythm-defying fast attacks that can easily decimate your army if you're slightly off. The fight starting with its detached head descending from above doesn't help.
  • The forms of Arch Pandara, the final boss of the third game, are a giant spiky skeleton, a floating smiling chest, and seven-eyed spider covering the entire sky, are as terrifying as they are powerful.
  • Gate Goul Baban (and its upgraded form Bababan), while not a final boss, is a sentient Hellgate to the Underworld. It's heavily decorated with eyes (Bababaan has near a hundred of them) and its center acts as both the mouth and a portal that continuously revives its demonic sub-boss.
• Older Than They Think: Patapons aren't an invention of Sony Computer Entertainment and were around for years before the game. They are one of many assorted characters by the flash animator Rolito in his RolitoLand series, before Hiroyuki Kotani invited him to work on a game using his minimalistic designs.
• Quirky Work: You're the god of a tribe of eyeball people, which you must command into battle against other tribes of eyeball people by drumming four sacred, colored drums, so they can reach their ultimate objective — IT, which is located at the end of the Earth and no one knows what it is, but is said to grant eternal happiness. Along the way, you deal with masks with great powers that wipe out memories when worn; giant multicolored Easter eggs with several Sealed Good in a Can inside, including a princess and the core of the world; massive Eldritch Abominations with a second head on their stomach; star-shaped people that drop money from their body, demons, and even overweight djinns. That's not even including the fact that "Rhythm Game/Tactical Wargame" is already an unusual concept for a game, but that's only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the series' wackiness.
• The Scrappy: A lot of people don't like Meden for various reasons. She often plays The Watson for both you and her unnamed assistant, who seems well aware of everything that's going on (which the player will also find obvious) and frequently seems to just be indulging her ignorance. She also gets kidnapped in first two games, and in the desert part of each game, which is not only a race against the captors across an obstacle course, you also have to avoid killing her accidentally.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • When Patapons die, they leave their caps that let them be revived in the Patapolis if picked up. Strong emphasis on "if". The fact that Patapons can suffer Permadeath in the first game means that you will constantly be cursing the name of Cioking, Shooshookle and any other boss with a special One-Hit Kill grab or Swallowed Whole attack for forever killing your super rarepon that you spent a thousand Ka-Ching on, without leaving a cap. Caps also have a despawn timer like any other item, so good luck against freeze- or sleep-inducing bosses. Thank the Almighty the second game did away with this mechanic.
  • Hatapon the Flagbearer has to protected at all costs, as losing him is an immediate game over. While enemies and your army gets stronger, Hatapon cannot be upgraded, meaning you may need to restart late-game (Or most in 3, due to having only 4 units instead of maximum of 18) missions because Hatapon got hit with a stray shot.
  • The only way to make the Divine and Demon weapons and armor is to play the Ton Kampon minigame flawlessly. Said minigame requires high concentration, as it has increasing tempo and small window for hits.
  • Hell in 3 is an One-Hit Kill Guillotine surrounded by self destructing salamanders, good luck, especially with AI partners.
  • 3 generally using multi-floor dungeons instead of single-field levels. Meaning that if you want to collect better equipment, you have to either go through a trap-filled Marathon Level every time (with reward being randomized) or rely on Sukopon finding a boss on the field, which despawn after one fight attempt. Bosses themselves getting a Turns Red mechanic lets them attack without a pause in a rhythm game, making you lose just because your army didn't have enough HP to begin with.
• Self-Fanservice: Whenever fanartists(especially on Deviantart) redraw characters from the games to have more humanlike body proportions, this tends to happen. Especially with the female characters, and especially with Naughtyfins, who is frequently drawn with a bare midriff despite that not being perceptible in her design.
• Surprise Difficulty:
  • The game puts you in charge of cutesy eye-looking critters, who you control by pressing either of 4 buttons in a certain order, with commands being mostly advance/attack/defence. Sounds easy? Desert levels, Escort Missions and most bosses will really test your ability to concentrate on the rhythm and also to plan your army composition and equipment.
  • Dettankarmen and Zuttankarmen from 2 suddenly have attacks that are relatively lightning-fast compared to the other bosses and don't conform to the beat. They're also one of the only bosses in the series to immediately follow up an attack with another attack, which can catch you completely off guard the first time and still stumble you after you've memorized their moveset.
  • Patapon 3 has this in spades: the minibosses turned what was once simple farming missions into headache-inducing battles. Fortunately, to compensate, players always get experience at appropriate levels, even for failed missions.
• That One Boss:
  • Gate Ghoul Baban is infamous in the first game for wiping the floor with unprepared armies, as its projectiles deal heavy knockback/sleep effects while a demon general pokes you on the ground. In the second game, it's "slightly" easier with Hero Mode, but still fairly hard.
  • Cioking, the upgraded form of Ciokina, is the only boss with access to a guaranteed One-Hit Kill attack that targets multiple units. Good luck dodging it, because she also has access to bubbles that will put your army to sleep, followed by the said attack. Kami help you if you lose your Hero or Hatapon to this attack. It's especially hard in Patapon 3 when you can only have 4 units.
  • Gluttonous Buzzcrave becomes this in the endgame of 3. He takes over a lot of the Dark Hero Battle quests along with Slogturtle, Sonarchy and Covet-Hiss, but he is undoubtedly the most dangerous of the bunch. His normal attack can one-shot Shield classes with the slightest touch, and his Pest Controller ability gains a massive Critical boost and a much higher chance of inflicting Poison, which is a very nasty status effect. If you can't stagger him or put status effects on him, he will wipe the floor with you.
• That One Attack: Any Status Infliction Attack, especially in 1 and the most of 2, because they prevent your army from tactically retreating or do pretty much anything, and you don't get a power song that can negate those effects until near the end of 2. Your only hope is to defend, which lowers the chance of infliction, and pray the boss doesn't follow-up with a One-Hit Kill attack Hatapon is in range of its Area of Effect attack.
• That One Level:
  • Each of the games have at least one Escort Mission in a desert level that require repeatedly summoning rain to cross while going through rocks an enemies.
  • "Meden kidnapped" in both 1 and 2 is by-and-large considered to be the worst and most frustrating level because of a few things; First, the cart holding Meden is slowly moving away from you, meaning you constantly have to move forward in a game where you can move only a certain distance at certain time. Second, you can't have ANY gear with fire effects, because Meden's wagon averts Friendly Fireproof, meaning you have to settle with weaker equipment. Third, the song that plays during this level is probably the only one in the entire series that could be considered "annoying".
  • "At Ground Zero" in 2 is usually among the top of players' lists of hardest levels. For starters, the deadly combo of General Kuwagattan brutalizing your army every two seconds and Matango perpetually throwing spores which make them fall asleep make it very difficult to consistently do damage to either of them, but Kuwagattan also has a Shockwave Stomp attack which he can use to incapacitate them momentarily. This means that you'll be frantically inputting the PATA PON DON CHAKA command to rid yourself of status effects while waiting for any tiny opening in Kuwagattan's offense that you can exploit to get some damage in, hoping your army will survive long enough. Or you could just use the Tatepon hero ability to make your whole army invulnerable and immune to status effects and essentially bypass the level that way, but more hardcore players will look down on you if you do.
  • The Evilmass of Adamance in Patapon 3, for having a puzzle which is completely incongruous to the game's mechanics. The first floor is no problem; the One-Hit Kill guillotines only drop on a timer which is handily displayed at the top of the screen, meaning you just have to not be stupid to get past them. The second floor is where the stupidity arises; in order to pass the guillotine there, you have to deliberately step on the pressure plate that activates it and then stay on it to prevent it from acting again^note The intended trick is that you're supposed to bait an enemy into stepping on it and then quickly get on the pressure plate while the guillotines are resetting, but even this is infuriatingly difficult for the reasons explained below. Needless to say, in a game where inputting the command to move forward and moving forward takes a combined total of around four seconds, the level of precision required here is almost impossible to actually avoid the guillotines and hold the pressure plate down simultaneously without one of your party members getting instantly killed. And guess what? Even though this floor has a Revive potion so you can restore your fallen party members, it also has respawning kibatans, meaning if you lost your shield classes to the guillotine then it almost guarantees Hatapon's death since virtually nothing can protect him from a kibatan's lance at close range. To clear this dungeon, you will either have to be super lucky or super careful at this part.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Dark Ones tribe in general. They're the souls of the undead given corporeal form (and might even be all the Zigotons you killed in the first game given what we know about Kuwagattan and Dark One being Beetleton and Makoton Back for the Dead), are essentially the Patapon universe's The Legions of Hell, but they show up only in a few levels in the middle of Patapon 2. There's no detailed explanation who they are besides being "the servants of Black Hoshipon" and why are they helping the Karmen before getting locked in the Underworld again. The same thing happens in 3, where they fight alongside the Bonedeths in Slogturtle's zone, but again are never really given any explanation other than revealing that Black Hoshipon herself is the servant of "The Dark Lord", who is also given no explanation and is only mentioned in throwaway lines.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Many players became doubtful if helping Patapons on their quest was really worth it. They initially live in Zigotons' isolation camp, so it's not like they're on a brink of extinction or the world is in danger. Once the Kamipon takes the charge, Patapons grow from a small settlement to, in order: kill fan-favorite Hero Antagonists like Makoton and Gong who are Just Following Orders and genuinely believe Patapons will destroy the world (with Makoton being sent to eternal demonic servitude); destroy a highly advanced Zigoton Empire; turn Queen Kharma over Despair Event Horizon and make her sacrifice her people, living or dead, to summon a powerful demon in a desperate attempt to stop you; do the same to though-less-sympathetic Karmen and shatter the World Egg despite knowing it's a Sealed Evil in a Can (thankfully was a Sealed Good in a Can the second time). Then in Patapon 3, it's mentioned offhandedly that they apparently committed genocide on the Ah-Ooh tribe, leading the surviving King Ighl to release the Seven Archfiends and become Miss Covet-Hiss. All for the sake of restoring Patapon's glory and fulfilling a vague prophecy of reaching The Promised Land, which Patapon misidentify twice and just look for it elsewhere. On the bright side, the defeated tribes went through Defeat Means Friendship and Ormen Karmen was responsible for the current state of the world to begin with.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Black Hoshipon and Aiton are female. Since this is mentioned in gameplay only once for Aiton and never for Black Hoshipon, you would be forgiven for assuming that Makoton had some... interesting feelings about Aiton.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • Mild violence, censored bad words (Rarely in Patapon, at least), and creepy monsters with Body Horror. Yup, E-rated.
  • There is a part in 3 where Naughtyfins sensually touches herself, as well as her regular pole-dances and being the Lust of Seven Deadly Sins.
• The Woobie: Makoton started out as just your average Zigoton soldier posted in Bleak Border Base, with nothing of note about him except a crush on his postmate Aiton. When Aiton dies, Makoton is thrown into such a rage born from grief that he spends the rest of the first game trying and failing to destroy the Patapons, even selling his soul to a demon in the process! It's already not hard to feel bad for the poor guy, who's by that point not even allowed to join Aiton in death, but he gets resurrected in every game by three separate demonic entities and has to serve them with no memories other than his hatred for Patapons. When he only starts to recover his memories in 3, other Dark Heroes pull an immediate You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on him. The only thing he really did wrong was being in the way of the Patapons' advance at the wrong time.
• Woolseyism: All of the Dark Heroes' names in the original Japanese version of Patapon 3 have names that are a combination of Japanese adjectives and Gratuitous English words describing their attributes(e.g. "Fang", "Beak", "Coil"). These were localized in the English version as having a Theme Naming surrounding their respective Deadly Sin and animal mask, some of which are outright Punny Names("RottenLee Ravenous is a greedy raven, Miss Covet-Hiss is an envious snake, etc).

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