The biggest problem with Patapon 2 is one that returns from the first game: no matter what you want to do in this game, sooner or later you won’t know how. You may just want to progress in the game and play the next level, but eventually you’ll hit a boss that you’ll fight for upwards of ten minutes before losing. Well, that just means you need to level up your Patapons, right? If you’re lucky, a hunting run will yield enough materials to level a Patapon, but any appreciable change requires at least thirty minutes of grinding.

Patapon 2 attempts to alleviate this by offering more ways to grind than its predecessor. Obstacle courses and new bosses are fun to challenge once, but the glamor wears off quickly. What’s worse is that Patapon 2 gives players zero information with specific goals. New unit types are uncovered in the evolution chart, but they aren’t visible before they’re unlocked. The player must accidentally upgrade the right combination of Patapons to unlock a new unit scroll.

Likewise, new equipment and rare materials are hidden away in the game’s stages, but the game offers only obtuse hints for finding them. As a result, many players will see the credits while only experiencing a fraction of the game’s content (assuming they can finish the game without finding important materials and equipment). This also contributes to the game’s lack of new content. While there are new unit types, weapons and stages, most players won’t find them without a walkthrough, which makes them almost redundant. After ten hours of play I didn’t unlock one of the game’s new units, much less have any idea of how to do it even if I wanted to.

Patapon 2 is for gamers with a specific mindset. The priority in this game is killing time. Progress towards any goal players set for themselves, be it finishing a level or unlocking a rare Patapon, is entirely incidental to killing time. If wasting the maximum amount of time is your goal, or if you loved the first Patapon and want an excuse to play the same game again, then Patapon 2 is for you. Players looking for a guided, stress-free experience should stick with more traditional fare.