*Didgeridoo chime plays*

"O Almighty, please help! Describe the journey of the Patapons here!"

Part Rhythm Game, part tactical war game, part ear worm, pure fun, Patapon is a game series by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable and designed in collaboration between Hiroyuki Kotani and French artist Rolito, using characters from his RolitoLand flash animation series, with music by Kemmei Adachi and lyrics by Kotani.

You are the deity of a tribe of eyeball villagers, the titular Patapons, waging war in their quest to reach Earthend and gaze upon IT, even if they don't know what or where IT is. Along the way you will have to hunt great beasts, slay foul monsters, raze enemy encampments and put thousands to the fire and the sword all through the medium of minimalistic and colorful 2D animation.

The main gameplay of Patapon is a blend of rhythm and strategy that the developers gave the unique label of "Command Carnival"; it has you issuing orders to your army of 'Pons via the four Sacred Drums^note PATA, PON, CHAKA and DON, each corresponding to a button on the joypad/PlayStation controller^note Square, Circle, Triangle and X, respectively. In the 1+2 REPLAY version that was ported to other systems, the buttons are instead represented by directional arrows. There are plenty of commands, each with preset drum sequences, that you have to input in time with the rhythm to successfully issue an order (Advance, Attack, Defend, and Run Away, among others). When you successfully enter your orders in time with the rhythm, your army can then enter into a "Fever mode", greatly increasing their effectiveness in battle.

There are also other rhythm minigames back in Patapolis, the Patapon capital, that you can play to either acquire materials or currency (Kaching), used to upgrade your army.

The games in the series are as follows:

• Patapon 1 (2007)
• Patapon 2: Don Chaka (2009)
• Patapon 3 (2011)

Patapons 1 and 2 received remasters for the PlayStation 4 in 2017 and early 2020, respectively. Patapon 3 received an Updated Re-release in February 2025 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as part of the PSP Classics collection. Shockingly, a second remaster of the first two games titled PATAPON 1+2 REPLAY was announced in March 2025, marking the series' first appearance on non-PlayStation consoles. Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the newer remaster released in July 2025 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Steam, with further graphical polishing and new support features^note difficulty settings, input timing adjustment, and the option to always have drum commands shown on the bottom of the screen. 1+2 REPLAY would also receive a brand-new free Boss Rush Arrange Mode on December 22nd 2025, in which you can organize your strongest squads from the main games and pit them against an endless series of bosses to see how far you can get.

On the 16th of July, 2023, Ratata Arts, a team composed of some of the developers of Patapon, announced a Creator-Driven Successor called Ratatan. A Kickstarter campaign to fund this project commenced on the 31st of July, 2023, and was funded in less than one hour.

"O Mighty Troper, these are the Sacred Tropes!":

• Action Commands: The core mechanic of the series. The player is given four drums corresponding to the four PlayStation buttons, and correctly inputting them to the beat of the music in the game orders your Patapons to perform various actions. For example, the Attack command is PON PON PATA PON(Circle, Circle, Square, Circle) while the Defend command is CHAKA CHAKA PATA PON(Triangle, Triangle, Square, Circle). In Patapon and Patapon 2 you have to unlock new drums and songs by playing through the campaign, but Patapon 3 has you start out with all of them unlocked^note Except for the secret Pause command, PATA PON PATA PON, which can be unlocked by reaching the very very end of the first tutorial. Correctly playing enough commands will put your army into Fever mode, which powers up both their attacks and your commands.
• Aggressive Play Incentive: If you deal enough damage to a boss while it's attacking, it will become "teetered", causing it to flinch the prepared attack as well as drop some Ka-Ching and sometimes an item. This means that if you pay close attention to how much damage your army is doing and how recently the boss was teetered, you can risk taking an unguarded hit to the face in order to gain some extra rewards while simultaneously pressing your attack.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The antagonistic factions in the series are Zigotons, Karmen, Sasoritans, and Bonedeths. The latter two are unlike the former two, in that each and every member has no motivation or purpose beyond being evil. Both are justified examples of the trope, as Bonedeths are mindless reanimated skeletons, and Sasoritans are controlled by the will of a demon.^note It's also heavily implied that they're all the souls of deceased Zigotons and that the demon is Gorl, which makes even more sense given that Queen Kharma gave up the Zigoton bloodline to him.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • The four drums.
  • Signs throughout multiple levels.
  • Minigames have an animate furnace, baby mountain and a cooking pot. And in the sequel, a giant bell and a... brewing machine of sorts... with a mustache.
  • Patapon 2 has one training mission where cannons will speak to you.
• Anti-Frustration Features: If Patapons get killed before you unlock Mater, they'll get revived before the next mission automatically.
• Arc Words: "Oh Mighty Patapon, please lead us to Earthend!"
• A Taste of Power: In 1 and 2, two early levels have an overpowered Tatepon or Yumipon temporarily join your team before dying at the end, giving you the memories you need to unlock the class they represent.
• Back from the Brink: In all three games, the Patapon civilization has all but been wiped out for various reasons^note In 1, the Zigotons have been ruthlessly bullying them. In 2, they were scattered (and many died) after their sailing vessel from the first game was attacked by a Sea Monster. In 3, the Archfiends turned them to stone. It's your job as their god to restore them to greatness by leading them on the warpath to conquer their foes.
• Badass Adorable: Patapons and many Zigotons. The Karmen and Bonedeth aren't really adorable on account of their masks, although Sasoritans may still fit.
• Badass Creed: at the beginning of each game, you the player sign a contract as the God of the Patapons. The first game has a rhyming, slightly comedic oath, but all else generally is as follows:
  The Patapon Contract: I swear an oath to become the God of the Patapons to find the end of the world. Even if I do not have a good sense of rhythm, even if I want to quit halfway, I will never give up to the very end. I promise to keep my oath and receive the Drum of Valour as the God of the Patapons.
  1's' Contract: If Thou hast found O Holy Drum, the Patapons shall be your sons. Whether Thou has rhythm or nay, sway thine hips and learn the way. Thine efforts shall bear fruit one day, and Patapons will march and say: "Almighty, Lord o' Patapons, we thank you now for what you've done! Our glory is now back on track; Thank God you signed the Holy Pact!"
• Bag of Spilling:
  • In Patapon 2, the Almighty somehow forgets all the drum beats. In Patapon 3, however, all the old ones are available at the start.
  • In both sequels, the army you worked so hard to raise from the previous game is gone. Justified, brutally, in both cases: in Patapon 2, the army drowns when the kraken sinks the boat, but the Almighty replants Mater to grow new units from. In Patapon 3, the army was turned to stone.
• Battle Theme Music: A weird variation: You're the beat, and the Patapons sing along with whatever they've been ordered to do. The melody changes with stages as well.
• Beast Man: Or Beast Eyeball, in this case. Rarepons appear as Patapons with often animalistic features (e.g. Pyokola, a rarepon with a leporine appearance), but a few non-animal rarepons, such as Menyokki (tree) or Mashu (mushroom) also appear.
• Big Eater: The Patapons; much ado is made about going hunting to feed them at the start of the first two games, and the second comes right out and says they need a ton of food. How much food you may ask? A small tribe of a couple dozen pons eats at the very least one animal 4-5 times their size per day.
• Bigger Is Better:
  • Stronger weapons in Patapon 3 are at least twice as big as the characters who wield them.
  • There are still some in the first two games, but those are subverted in that while they do a huge amount of damage, they slow the wielder down a lot.
  • Whenever the Uberhero holds a weapon in Patapon 3, it's at least twice as big compared to when a regular Patapon holds it. It gets even bigger when they enter Hero Mode.
• Big Good: You, the player, assume this role for the Patapon, saving them from near extinction at the beginning of every game.
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: You create new Patapon troops for your army by burying various materials under Mater, the Tree of Life, after which they trickle down the tree's branches as a ball of light and pop out fully grown. To revive them it works similarly, as you have to retrieve and bury their cap for them to be resuscitated in the same manner. In several items, mentions are made to "babypons" and many Patapons are referred to with genders, implying Patapons are still capable of reproducing sexually and/or have a juvenile stage of development, but no actual children are ever shown.
• Blind Obedience: The Patapon have blind trust in the Almighty (meaning you, the player). And if the Almighty doesn't give them any instructions they will stand around perfectly still while they're getting attacked. The only time they'll break rank is when they're lit on fire and only then will they run around and stop following orders, but still they won't leave the battle.
• Boss-Only Level: Bosses are encountered in their own separate missions to the various "your army vs. another army" missions. This is removed in Patapon 3, where bosses are located at the very end of dungeons, except for bonus bosses, which are rarely encountered in their own levels out in the world.
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Call money/life-force "Ka-Ching". The term was used to justify why it drops from fallen enemies.
• Catching Some Z's: Patapons under the sleep effect will have this.
• Charged Attack: The Charge song(PON PON CHAKA CHAKA), first acquired upon defeating Dogaeen in 1, allows you to command your Patapons to spend a measure charging up their inner energy, which you can then release with either the Attack or Defend songs. Attacking with it allows your Patapons to use a lethal new attack depending on what class they are(Tatepons do a swirling jump attack, Megapons blast out huge persistent projectiles, etc), while Defending protects them from almost all damage if you think you're about to get hit by an undodgeable attack.
• Color-Coded Armies:
  • Patapon units have white eyes and equipment by default, though various bits of higher-level gear and acquiring different rarepons will quickly make your army a rainbow of different colors.
  • Zigoton units and structures are always dark red.
  • Karmen troops are bright orange.
  • Sasoritans don't have any buildings, but their units are always dark purple.
  • Bonedeth soldiers and buildings are bright green.
• The Computer Shall Taunt You:
  • Enemies will regularly taunt you:
    Zigoton soldier: You slimy eyeballs!
  • Gargoyles in Patapon 3 are the only enemy guaranteed to drop a chest when killed, but will make the chest disappear if you don't kill them quickly, laughing all the while. They'll even show you what's inside it just to piss you off even more when they magic it away.
• Cool Gate: Baban and its upgraded form Bababan, as well as the Paraget/Patagate (Patapon 2), the Herogate and the Battlegate (Patapon 3).
• Cowardly Boss:
  • Most bosses back off after they've incurred significant damage.
  • Inverted in Patapon 3, bosses will go berserk and attack without warning once they've lost enough health.
• Credits Medley: Each game's credits has a medley of songs introduced in the game playing in the background.
• Crossing the Desert: At certain points in both 1 and 2, your army will be faced with crossing an impassably inhospitable Thirsty Desert (the Deplorable Desert in 1 and the Korakan Desert in 2) that causes anyone who treads through it to burst into flame in order to continue the quest for Earthend. This is your prompt to seek out the hidden Rain Juju in a different level, so that you can summon a rainstorm to dampen the area temporarily and make it passable.
• Damsel in Distress:
  • Meden, later in the game.
  • The Patapon Princess was stuck inside an egg for who knows how long...
  • And in the third game, Meden is petrified right in the beginning.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • The Zigoton Queen sacrifices her bloodline to Gorl and the forces of the underworld so she can defeat the Patapons. It didn't work in the end.
  • What each and every one of the Dark Heroes did to achieve that status. However, it's more like trickery on their respective Archfiend's part than actual deals, though.
• Defend Command: The Lament of Defense (CHAKA CHAKA PATA PON) allows you to substantially reduce incoming damage for a measure, and more so if you use the Charge song first. Tatepons are especially effective using this song, as they will form a shield wall to block incoming fire.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • It is difficult, but not impossible, to kill Goruru and Garuru without them being in Beast Form. They have a unique death animation in the event of that happening.
  • If the player manages to pass the levels "Despair" in Patapon 1 and "Great Despair" in Patapon 2 without obtaining the catapult or Ziggerzank respectively by themselves, Meden will comment on the achievement.
• Dialog During Gameplay: The enemy tribes and Dark heroes sometimes do this instead of initiating a cutscene. Your Patapons also spout out random lines from time to time, but they don't do actual conversations.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: While a critical aspect of gameplay is maintaining Fever mode so your army is at its most efficient, most bosses attack at least a little bit arhythmically. This is where the advanced tactic of deliberately throwing yourself out of Fever so you can Retreat comes in—sometimes it's more advantageous to avoid an attack at the cost of losing Fever than staying in Fever and getting hit by it.
• Early Game Hell: As the start of each game (but 1 especially), you have no money or resources to create better units with and the gear you have will be whatever you can scrounge from the first couple of missions, which makes it hard to build momentum with your default army of Yaripons, Tatepons and Yumipons. Once you've spent some time either grinding for a bit or acquiring new unit types, the game becomes much more manageable.
• Easy Communication: Not giving out any commands or failing to complete an order sequence makes the Patapons stay still as sitting ducks, not making any effort to save themselves. No wonder the Zigotons were owning them at the start of the original Patapon. Although, in the first, if not given an order, some types will still attack. They just do so very, very weakly and rarely.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the third game. After three games and hundreds of years of journeying, you can finally allow the Patapons to reach IT.
• Ear Worm: By the very virtue of the gameplay all the music in the game can become this since tracking the beat in your head so you know the right synchronization to tap commands to your troops is the entire crux of the game. Your brain will constantly have the background music rolling around so you can keep up with the rhythm and that will stick with you, potentially influencing any other music you hear too.
• Easy Logistics: Toripons, Yumipons, and Yaripons have infinite ammo. No Patapon of your army ever seems to get tired in the battlefield, even if you never see them eat, and in fact you never see them leave the obelisk.
• Energy Weapon:
  • Some of the bosses shoot these from their mouths.
  • In Patapon 3, players can get the lasergun for their Cannogabang heroes.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Patapon 2's Dark One is an Evil Knockoff of your own hero, down to changing classes when needed.
  • Patapon 3 turns this up to eleven with a whopping total of 7 Dark Heroes, all evil counterparts to your own Uberhero (as well as each opposing one of the already established Uberhero classes).
  • Black Hoshipon is an Evil Twin of the normal Hoshipon introduced in the first game. A usual gag is Hoshipon "confusing her/him with an impostor" whenever they meet.
• Extra Eyes: Gate Ghoul Baban in Patapon 1 has several eyes. Its upgraded form Bababan from Patapon 2 has dozens of small eyes and a few large ones.
• The Faceless:
  • You never see the face of your enemies in the Karmen tribe, the Bonedeth, Dark Heroes, or even your own Hero unit.
  • Although in Patapon 3, you can clearly see a single eye in the middle of Miss Covet-Hiss' snake mouth mask.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Come Patapon 2, there are weapons and effects pertaining to all three.
• Fission Mailed: In the first and second game, there is a section where your army will storm a heavily entrenched fortress and slowly but surely get wiped out by its' defenses while it sustains little to no damage. After you lose, Meden will announce that scouts have discovered a secret Zigoton/Karmen catapult for you to steal and use against the fortress, unless you managed to get Sequence Breaking and somehow win, in which case Meden will be astonished at your achievement.
• Gathering Steam: Your patapons will need some good rhythms to dance themselves into a frenzy, the amount of which depends on how on point they are. But once they are in fever they get much higher attack, reach, and/or other useful abilities depending on the class and on the dance.
• Game Hunting Mechanic: One of the things you can do is help the Patapons on their hunts, which will get you items like meat, wood and rocks from killing wildlife, which you can use to create new Patapons or to play minigames that will get you other materials.
• Genre Mashup: The Patapon series is self-described as a series of "Command Carnival" games. Others might describe it as a Real-Time Strategy-Rhythm Game hybrid with various RPG Elements. The third game is a Genre Shift into a more conventional action RPG, so it might be described as as a Rhythm Game-RPG instead.
• Glass Cannon: Several classes. One example are the Megapons, which pack quite a punch, but are defeated in a handful of hits. And the Oohoroc from Patapon 3 are able to nuke everything onscreen with one of the super-unique staffs, yet they are prone to die if there are no other heroes/patapons in front to shield him/her from damage.
• Green Hill Zone:
  • The first "serious" level of the first two games is always a hunting stage, with a blue background, lush green plants, kaching-giving flowers, and light-hearted songs; Patata Plains in 1 and Tochira Beach in 2.
  • In Patapon 3, it's no longer a hunting stage, instead being a series of tutorial levels. Still, the Training Grounds DO look a lot like Patata Plains.
• Green Thumb:
  • Fah Zakpon and, to a lesser extent, Pan Pakapon.
  • In Patapon 3, Bowmunk, the uberhero version of the Menyokki rarepon.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Divine weapons posses gold-colored markings instead of white.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The strongest expletive heard in the world of Patapon is "JEBUS!"
• Have You Seen My God?: Each game begins by showing this trope already happening to the titular tribe, just barely surviving extinction as a result. Justified in that A God Is You, meaning the tribe is only able to feel your influence again once you start the game and begin the story. Thus, this trope is in place only at the start.
• Healing Potion: Sometimes these are dropped by enemy units. Patapon 3 introduces a second type, which heals even more and even revives Ton, Chin, and Kan if they've been defeated.
• Heel–Face Turn: In each Sequel Hook, the Patapons are seen working with their enemy tribe to achieve whatever next challenge they'll be facing. Played with in the second game; Gong just wants his honor from beating you, but realizes about halfway through that the Karmens are a bigger issue.
• Hyperactive Sprite: Your army in the first two games, everywhere from missions to the obelisk/barracks, except during cutscenes. Applies to the enemy tribes as well; it's as if everyone has some sort of disease that prevents them from stopping. Zig zagged in Patapon 3: units have a proper "standing in place" pose on the equip screen and the start of missions, but once again become hyperactive once you've started commanding them. Uberheroes and Darkheroes are the only ones to avert it completely.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Meden's unnamed assistant seems fairly more capable than she is.
• I'm Melting!: Patapons and the opposing tribes melt into puddles when killed, however, it seems to be just the way their body works, as defeated Heroes and Uberheroes melt as well but DO leave their mask behind. All Patapons do leave their caps behind when killed, allowing them to be revived.
• Impassable Desert:
  • Better get the rain juju. It is 'technically' possible to cross it even without the rain juju, but Zaknel's fire attacks hit harder in the heat and your 'pons will randomly burst into flames the longer you stay in the scorching sun. Also, the strongest Rarepon you can create this far into the game actually has a plus 50 percent weakness to fire, so it's generally a terrible idea.
  • Invoked by Gong in 2, as he won't let you pass the Gangoro Wasteland until you get the rain juju.
  • Averted with the Bottomless Stomach Desert in 3, which can be crossed even if you don't have the Rain Dance skill (the equivalent of the rain juju in 3).
• Impossible Item Drop: While Ka-Ching is a representation of life force, things like enemies dropping potions and rocks may be not. The Patapon 3 website justified it on the Bonedeths' part by stating that they bring these potions to battle on purpose, they just forget to drink them.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence:
  • Yaripon are shown to jump 2-3 times their height to throw their spears, specially during fever. Yet when faced with a pile of rubble (in particular in the destroyed Oasis level of the first game), none of your Patapon will attempt to jump or simply walk over the rubble until the rubble is 'destroyed' oddly enough.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • Any Patapon in 1 that loses their cap, either through a boss's attack or failing to pick it up in time.
  • Spiderton, apparently, since he dies shortly after the Ziggerzank is destroyed in "Across Enemy Territory" and unlike his fellow generals Beetleton or Scorpiton, we don't get anyone else in the sequels that look like him (Kuwagattan for Beetleton, The Dark One and Ragewolf for Scorpiton).
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • With the right combination, your hero can become this. For example, a Pyokola dekapon with the Rabasarana^note Increases health, attack, speed and crit ratemask.
  • One of the masks^note The Zubaba series, obtained from Ganodias in the Patagateturns your character into one of these by granting both damage and speed, but also gives him a slight case of Glass Cannon.
• MacGuffin: IT is the main motivation of the Patapons on their journey to Earthend. What IT is, though, is unknown to anyone. In the third game, however, IT is revealed to be Silver Hoshipon.
• Man on Fire: Unless you invested time and ka-ching in upgrading your troops' resistance to fire in later levels, expect your patapons to constantly run back and forth through the screen in a frenzy, their asses ablaze and losing health as they disobey your commands and unwittingly get in the way of enemy attacks. Especially if you have rarepons in your army that are weak to fire like Mofu.
• Meaningful Name: The series is filled with them.
  • Earthend, as (if the Zigoton and Karmen myths are to be believed) the Earth will end if the Patapons find it. The result: They're wrong, and Earthend has an altogether different but still literal meaning; it's where the Earth comes to an end, beyond which is an expanse of... something.
  • The prefixes that precede the "pon" of the class names aren't elected randomly:
    • Yari means spear in japanese, specifically a type of medium-range throwing spear, exactly like the type that Yaripons use.
    • Tate means shield, since Tatepons' primary gear are their shields.
    • Yumi means bow, because Yumipons are archers.
    • Hata means flag. As such, Hatapon is the flagbearer of your army.
    • Kiba is the act of riding something, such as a horse.
    • Dekai means enormous. Therefore, Dekapons are your burly Smash Mooks.
    • Tori means bird, since Toripons ride birds.
    • Maho means magic, thus Mahopons are wizards.
    • The exceptions are the Robopon and Megapon; the former derives its prefix from robot while the latter is a pun on the English word "megaphone".
  • Mater means mother in Latin.
  • Gong means leader in Japanese. Cue General Gong the Hawkeye, commander of the Zigoton army.
  • The Dark Heroes' names; Standoffish Sonarchy (bat-like Dark hero of Pride), Miss Covet Hiss (snake-like Dark Hero of Jealousy), Madfang Ragewolf (wolf-like Dark Hero of Wrath).
• Mickey Mousing: In between issued command masures, your Patapons will gesture along in time with the beats of your inputs if they're not currently under some kind of status effect.
• Mimic Species: Several creatures, such as the Poocheek and Gancheek mimic the huntable Kacheeks that you can encounter. They however are distinguished by their strange patterns, such as the Parcheek's yellow-green circle pattern.
• Monochromatic Impact Shot: The very last shot in a level turns the screen black and white, with your patapons and whatever they just killed in black silhouetted against the black background as the "Mission complete!" jingle plays.
• Mook Promotion: Makoton, a regular Zigoton warrior, gradually becomes a formidable adversary later on.
• Motifs:
  • Everything vaguely on the Patapon's side/made by Patapons tends to have the symbol of a Patapon eyeball somewhere in their design, sometimes with a smile under it as in a megapon's face. Here's a list of things with the eyeball symbol: Mater, The Obelisk, The Altar, Paraget, Trees, Weapons, Pillars, the pole that marks the end of levels, the spirits that act as background during a miracle and final dance at Paraget, and the altar that holds the egg during the final dance at Paraget. Zigotons use red rounded squares as their symbol instead, but it's less prominent than Patapons's.
  • Patapon 2 also has a tribal mask motif throughout the game. The Karmen are a tribe of masked people; Dark One is being powered and controlled by a mask; your own hero lost his memories and is powered up through masks of varying power, and even the last boss is a flying giant mask which spawns a body, then mutates. Even Gong the Hawkeye, of all people, uses a mask to conceal his identity when you first encounter him before immediately throwing it away.
• Musical Gameplay: Gameplay consists of inputting Action Commands to the beat of the music to give your Patapon army orders on what to do. Unlike most Rhythm Games, all of the songs have a single tempo that they share, because the game isn't purely about playing the notes correctly and requires you to pay attention to other things which are happening on-screen.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules:
  • Downplayed. Your enemies, be they Zigotons, Karmens, Sasoritans or Bonedeths, don't have to follow the four-rhythm beat to attack that you do. The subversion, along with why this doesn't fall into The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard territory is that the beat is implied to be the reason the Patapon armies are so powerful and deadly, so your enemies are actually weaker because they're not playing fair.
  • Averted by the Dark Heroes in 3 on the other hand. Pay attention, and there is a delay between their movements as they follow the 4-beat command, 4-beat action system.
• No Body Left Behind: Any character, be it Patapon, Zigoton, Karmen, demon or random huntable animal disappears after death. Averted for bosses.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: In every game at the very end, there's a part where three patapons (Ton, Chin, and Kan) walk along with Hatapon towards what they believe to be Earthend. In the first two games, these are three normal yaripons (spearmen) with normal spears, no matter what. In the third, the three normal heroes appear as their respective starter classes, each with their normal starter equipment.
• Nostalgia Level: The final duel against Ravenous features the original, unremixed version of Gong's theme as the song. He even says the same thing upon death! At least this time, it's just temporary.
• Notice This:
  • Items on the floor are surrounded by a pulsing aura and make a "hyoom" noise if one appears.
  • Desert levels will switch their background to a boney wasteland if a burning-hot floor appears, prompting you to use the rain juju to extinguish the floor.
  • In 3, once you've unlocked summons, the "fever worm" will turn orange the longer you keep Fever going, informing you if you can summon a Djinn or not.
  • If Sukopon spots a Superboss, he'll emit a beeping noise to notify you on what he's found.
• Oculothorax: The Patapons themselves, the Zigotons and the Sasoritans. The Karmen may also apply since they're similarly shaped but due to their masks covering most of their body this is uncertain.
• Old Save Bonus: If you have save data from a previous game in the series on your PSP (or other system if you're playing a remastered version), you can choose to import said data in order to have your god name as well as a bunch of your resources carried over to the next game in the series.
• One-Hit Polykill: Several late-game ranged weapons (bows, the Megapon's red notes) have got "pierce factors" and can go through several enemies and through structures. In the case of the Megapons, these red notes are so strong that they can literally become one hit polykills.
• Optional Boss: Several bosses get the shaft in the sequels.
  • In 2, Ciokina, Gaeen, Shooshookle and Goruru are relegated to the Patagate game mode, so unless if you want all the masks and komupons for your Hero Unit, you probably won't be fighting them.
  • 3 has almost all of the upgraded bosses, as well as a few normal ones, who are relegated to the replayable versions of the dungeon missions or as Superboss Random Encounters. Garuru doesn't even get to appear in a quest.
• Pass Through the Rings: Patapon 2's and 3's obstacle courses. Only by getting past the signs will you earn the needed time to get to the end. Specially frustrating in Patapon 3 as this is the only way to obtain the Pause song, and to reach it you're going to have to literally wipe out every single obstacle in range with your every attack command to make it to the end in time.
• Perpetual Smiler: The Megapons are always smiling, even when suffering from ailments and dying. They only stop smiling if you mess up the beat, however.
• Physical God:
  • Defied. You, the Almighty Patapon, are unable to interact with your tribe in any other way that isn't drumming a command to them in time (except Meden, whose job as a priestess is to be able to talk to you) and must be content instead by watching them from the skies. the Uberhero in Patapon 3 plays this straight, since they're the result of a Fusion Dance between the Almighty and the Hero.
  • One of the missions in Patapon 2 has you save the Zigotons' massive, anthropomorphic, priest-robed Physical God, which the Sasoritans are keeping captured and chained up inside its home above the clouds. Even General Gong the Hawkeye, of all people, shows up to help.
• Power Gives You Wings:
  • The Patapon 3 intro demo... sort of. Hero gets wings indeed, but... on his head.
  • The Barsala (wings on head) rarepon is the best obtainable rarepon of the original game, and is one of the three ultimate rarepons of Patapon 2. Barsala Hero has been the series' mascot from Patapon 2 onwards, and he even forms part of the Patapon 3 logo. So it's definitely not far off.
• Pre-Final Boss: Both Queen Kharma and Ormen Karmen serve as this in 1 and 2, respectively. They both fight similarly, floating high above your army and raining spells down on them, inflicting various status effects and generally preventing your patapons from operating at maximum efficiency. The idea is to defeat them as quickly as possible or your army will lose to pure attrition.
• Pressure Plate: Some dungeons in Patapon 3 have interactible buttons on the ground, which can either open a door or activate a trap.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: One in each game:
  • Zigoton Generals Beetleton, Spiderton, and Scorpiton(actually Makoton).
  • Karmen Generals Nomen, Kimen and Hukmen from the second game.
  • The Dark Heroes from 3 have shades of this, but they also have fully-fledged boss battles and occasionally team up with one another for unique challenges.
• Rainbow Speak:
  • Whenever your name or the name of your hero/Uberhero shows up in dialogue, they tend to be highlighted in a different color. Also applies to weapons upgraded at the Blacksmith in Patapon 3 if the player chose to name them, but only when seeing your Patapons' equipment in the Barracks/Obelisk.
  • If playing online, any quips your Uberhero says that you wrote manually have a different color too.
• Random Event:
  • In 1, sometimes the rain stops falling on the mission "Search for a Lucky Star", which spawns a Picheek that burps out Hoshipon when killed, who expresses his gratitude by giving you an item that unlocks a Superboss.
  • Happens in Patapon 3. Sometimes (very scarcely) a special boss will appear, a very strong one. Chances are you are going to need multiplayer help to take them down if you don't want to be pummeled, though you may attempt them solo if you grinded enough. You'll be notified when this happens by Sukopon.
  • Kacchindonga in Patapon 2 only appears if snow is falling at Dongara Ruins. The relatively more weaker Majidonga appears if Dongara Ruins is foggy, which is relatively more common.
• Red Sky, Take Warning:
  • Whenever you come into a level with a red sky, it usually means demonic forces of some kind are nearby.
  • Averted by Gorl, the final boss of the original Patapon. The sky is just a really bright white. Of course, this doesn't really help things when you notice the sickly reddish tones of the landscape, and the fact the sun/moon is black. Played straight with their stronger relative, Garuru.
  • Also averted by Dettankarmen, final boss of 2 who is fought inside the green Pata-Pole palace, with no sky in sight,
  • Zig-Zagged with Arch Pandara, the final boss of 3, who turns the sky into a dead grey similar to the wasteland that the Uberhero awakened in, but it also turns the sky red during its One-Winged Angel form.
• The Reveal: Downplayed; when the Patapons finally reach Earthend, they don't seem to realize that Silver Hoshipon is IT.
• Schizo Tech: The technological level of the world has remained inconsistent throughout the series. The first two games primarily have armies wielding historical weapons like swords and spears but also have ancient Lost Superweapons that can shoot lasers, demons wielding machine guns and cybernetic Power Fists. Then the third game adds in wieldable cannons and lasers themselves.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Completing a mission in 1 and 2 will return you to Patapolis, where the Patapons will be throwing a huge feast and celebrating in your honor, complete with some kind of ceremonial duel between two warriors and a Battle Trophy of whatever boss you killed or animal you hunted (if you did). Failing a mission will instead have the main gathering area be completely empty and silent. In 3, this celebration is only unlocked after unpetrifying the Patapons in one of the game's endings.
• Shout-Out: A miniboss encountered from 2 onward is a giant mushroom monster. Its name? Matango, a reference to the Japanese B-movie.
• Siege Engines:
  • Both Patapon 1 and 2 posses levels featuring capturing/guarding a catapult.
  • In 2, the Ziggerzank becomes one, as it appears halfway through "Parabola of Hope" to assist you in destroying the Karmen fortress.
  • In Patapon 3, the Charibasa, Cannassault, and Cannogabang are whole classes specializing in this.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Most bosses in the series follow this trope. The early game bosses are usually either large predators or ancient guardians, which while dangerous in their own right, are more or less just wild animals that happened to be in the way of the Patapons. The mid-game bosses are often high-ranking generals or powerful structures of the enemy factions you must face, and the endgame bosses are the demons or deities said enemy faction worships.
• Sound Off: Every theme in the games is a Call-and-Response Song that keeps your army in step with the beat by having them perpetually sing along with your drum playing as they march and obey commands. As such, if you mess up, they mess up and you'll need to get them back in line by perpetually playing well again.
• Speaking Simlish: The Patapons speak vague-sounding Japanese but otherwise only sing the names of the drums. (Pon, Pata, Chaka, and Don.)
• Spectacular Spinning: The "Don Chaka like it's 1999!" dance. Also, the Hero does a lot of spinning in hero mode if he's a Robopon or a Dekapon.
• Squishy Wizard: Mahapons are pretty low on hitpoints.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: In Patapon 1 and 2, you are supposed to lose on a mission involving heavily armed enemies and a giant castle. Meden will then ask you to get a catapult.
• Starfish Language: Downplayed. While the Patapons have English dialogue, its implied in all three games that their main communication amongst themselves (at least in raids) are through rhythmic songs that gradually become more complex with each subsequent verse until they reach FEVER.
• Stock Femur Bone: Most collectible bones are these, sans the fangs.
• Super Boss:
  • In Patapon 1, collecting the Black Star, an item only encountered in the mission "Search for a Lucky Star" will allow you to fight Cioking, who is powerful enough to count as this.
  • When it snows in Dongara Ruins in 2, the much more dangerous Kacchindonga appears instead of Dodonga.
  • If you can tolerate watching the unskippable end cutscene over and over again, defeating Dettankarmen 3 times in Patapon 2 unlocks Zuttankarmen, a Harder Than Hard version of the final boss.
  • Patapon 3 has rare bosses (Gigantus, Manboth, the aforementioned Kacchindonga, Centura, Mochichichi, Zaknel, Goruru and Gigante King) who randomly appear on the map and are capable of one-shotting you with most of their moves.
  • 3 also introduces DLC bosses, which are stronger versions of the abovementioned rare bosses. The strongest of these is Gheek Dongara, a souped-up version of the Final Boss, Arch Pandara. Both Queen Kharma and Ormen Karmen also come back as part of 2 DLC missions tagged [Meanwhile...], with enemies such as Reapers and Thunder Lions backing them up.
• Super Mode: Zig-zagged. Correctly playing to the beat for long enough will put your army into Fever mode, which greatly increases their cohesion and effectiveness in battle, but you'll quickly realize that staying in Fever is basically required to perform effectively in a level whatsoever, meaning that regular mode is more like an "un-super mode" rather than the other way around.
• Suspiciously Small Army: At its absolute largest possible size, the Patapon army only consists of 20 units (3 squads of 6 plus the Hero and Hatapon)^note some unit types are only allowed to be deployed in groups of three for balancing reasons, and yet they are easily capable of going to war with the entirety of other tribes and killing hundreds if not thousands of them in combat. It's at least justified in 3—your five-person army in that game is literally all that's left of the Patapons as a fighting force, but one of them is a Physical God and three are the descendants of legendary warriors.
• Tank Goodness: The Zigotons build one in the first game called the Ziggerzank that serves as a miniboss. In Patapon 2, now that the Zigotons are on your side, the Ziggerzank provides much-needed support in the assault against Sokshi Gate., and they later upgrade it for the mission "Covet-Hiss Loves Cannons" for 3, which allows it to shoot ice lasers. The Karmen get in on the action when Black Hoshipon builds one for them, called the Zugagang.
• Timed Mission:
  • The obstacle course training levels in Patapon 2 and 3 have you try to reach the end before the timer runs out. Reaching it is, in fact, the only way to obtain the pause song in Patapon 3.
  • The second floor of Estate of Earnestness has you doing this. Fail to reach the end in time and you won't obtain the key needed to open the gate and get to the boss.
• Title Drop: And how! Its TDPM (title drop per minute) is rather high when playing this game.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: While the Patapon summon a miracle, monsters, bosses and other enemies will just simply wait for you to finish up. Only averted in regards to item drops since all items fade away after a set amount of time; your miracle dance doesn't stop the timer and the item will most likely disapear by the time they finish.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The Hero lost his memory after he destroyed the world egg. The five survivors from the disaster that starts the first game can't remember anything before it, either.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Karmen tend to end their phrases with their species's name or the last three words of it.
  • Bonedeths seem to repeat their species's name a little too much as well.
• Video Game Raids: Patapon 3 has multi-floor multiplayer dungeons that can only be completed with multiple Uberheroes which contain extremely powerful threats but exceptional loot as an incentive. There are also randomly occurring superbosses that spawn out in the world, and while these can technically be killed in single-player the experience will be much easier with other players.
• Visible Silence: In Patapon 3, these happen a lot and often with "..."
• Voice Grunting: In the first two games, Meden likes to say "Papaya!" when her dialogue box appears. She'll also sometimes sigh instead during certain points in the story. Averted in 3, where she presumably lets out a Howl of Sorrow instead.
• Waddling Head: The Patapons and the tribes opposing them. Heck, they're essentially just EYES on stick legs!
• War Has Never Been So Much Fun: Brightly colored backgrounds, absolutely adorable critters as your army and your enemies, defeated units melt into the ground instead of collapsing in pools of gore. The Patapons's ultimate goal is to reach Earthend. Aww, look at the cute little eyeballs with swords and spears go at it!
• Weaksauce Weakness: A lot of Rarepons have at least one status they're incredibly weak against.
• Weather Gameplay Mechanic: Levels can have various weather conditions that affect battles which take place in them (marked by a little icon over the level), such as heavy rain, strong winds or extreme heat. The sequels add more conditions, such as lightning storms, sandstorms and snowfall, and various Jujus allow your army to change the current weather for whatever reason. Weather conditions also sometimes indicate a rare Random Event spawning in during specific levels, such as how Golden Hoshipon only appears in "Search for a Lucky Star" when it's not raining or Kacchindonga only appears at Dongara Ruins if it's currently snowing there.
• Weather Manipulation: Jujus can be used to turn the environmental tide over to your Patapons. For example, they can dance to bring rain to a scorching desert or manipulate the wind.
• What the Hell, Player?: If you start screwing around and randomly mash the drums, your Patapons will get really mad at you.
• When All Else Fails, Go Right: All levels in the series are constructed in such a way that they involve your army advancing to the right via the March command (PATA PATA PATA PON) to complete whatever objective they're tasked with. Notably, there is actually no possible way to move your army backwards to the left outside of ordering them to take cover and dodge an incoming attack until Patapon 3 added the Step Back Strut song (CHAKA PATA CHAKA PATA), and even then it's primarily meant to be used for the puzzles in multiplayer dungeons that require multiple human players to stand in specific spots.
• When It Rains, It Pours: In the first two games, the "raining" weather quality indicates a torrential rainstorm and dark clouds overhead, potentially accompanied by thunder and lightning. Patapon 3 averts this by including a "light" rain condition as well.
• When Trees Attack: Patapon 3 introduces a tree-like enemy. You can set it on fire, making it more susceptible to damage.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: You can't learn new drumbeats until you unlock the relevant "drum" by finding it in the stage it's hidden in. Averted in 3 where you immediately get all of the drums except for the PATA one.

   MISSION COMPLETE