Katamari’s delightful universe just received a new addition that is 4th-wall-breakingly enticing. We Love Katamari is the only sequel in the entire Katamari Damacy series to include involvement from series creator Keita Takahashi, and it was released one year after the original game.
The beloved second game in the series has been remastered in HD and is called We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie. You play as the youthful King of All Cosmos and can control him as he tries to pass the exams his father gave him in a few additional levels that recount his story. For those who are not familiar with Katamari, the gameplay is standard, and the plot is totally reasonable.
With a nostalgic trip rendered in full HD, let’s roll into the review’s experience.
“The best version of what is generally considered the best Katamari title”: Push Square
Push Square speaks about the clever environment design and flow the game has to offer. Based on their review, the original Katamari Damacy is a straightforward game. Many of the stages aim to “make the biggest ball in the allotted time,” and it’s a terrific time for it. These kinds of stages are still present in We Love Katamari, but the game innovates on the core gameplay mechanic of rolling a Katamari.
The King of All Cosmos will launch you into the level to feed his ego as you run around a little overworld meeting with ‘Fans’ of the original Katamari Damacy. Each fan will have a request for you.
Review: We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie (PS5) – A Great Version of the Series' Highlight https://t.co/SAiruStEaN #Reviews #BandaiNamco #PS5 #WeLoveKatamariREROLLRoyalReverie pic.twitter.com/aQEN89nbgp
— Push Square (@pushsquare) June 5, 2023
One level has you rolling around a relatively small Sumo wrestler, collecting food to bulk him up for a match with the local Yokozuna. Another has you raising money for a fundraiser to buy strawberries for the Red Pandas so they don’t turn into normal Pandas. A third has you collecting items to help a guy study in the dark easier. You will need to move quickly in certain tasks, avoid particular objects in others, and develop your Katamari to a precise size. Katamari Damacy’s mission design was perfect in a vacuum, but We Love Katamari is a significant improvement.
Cutscenes that depict the story of the King of All Cosmos’ early life, his connection with his own father, and how he met the Queen of All Cosmos are interspersed throughout the original game. These are still a part of We Love Katamari REROLL’s core design, but the King’s early years serve as the setting for the fresh Royal Reverie content.
As you progress through the game, Royal Reverie becomes available. It comprises of five new stages that put you in the role of a youthful King of All Cosmos. The Bamboo Sword of Memories, which appears on the map, can reach these. Like the Boxing stage, these scenes correspond to the current backstory cutscenes.
The game plays well, and the art style translates nicely to the new engine (again, with the designs more closely resembling Keita Takahashi’s original artwork – like in the first REROLL). Technically, it’s strong, and if you played Katamari Damacy REROLL, you’d know what to expect here.
“This kind of ultra-dumb but ultra-fun game is rarely seen nowadays”: WayTooManyGames
WayTooManyGames sheds light on the absurdly out-of-the-box themes of the remaster. According to them, it’s not at all a drawback that We Love Katamari is essentially more of the same.
In all fairness, there isn’t much you can do to strengthen the franchise’s underlying principles. You expand in size when you roll up a ball upon objects. We Love Katamari is more of the same ridiculous things, and it knows it.
A random human or dog asks the King of All Cosmos for a favor on every single level. He initially declines, but after learning that the requestor enjoys Katamari Damacy, he decides to send you, his own son, to fulfill the request. Most of the time, all you need to do is participate in a time attack, similar to Damacy.
The UI has been updated, and there have been small enhancements to the textures’ quality and resolution while keeping the franchise’s customarily shoddy vibe. The biggest feature, though, is a brand-new set of trials in which you take on the role of the King of All Cosmos when he was younger.
“The world of Katamari is a kaleidoscope of colors and insanity”: Boss Level Gamer
Boss Level Gamer writes about the game’s unique mechanics that blend creativity and bizarre ideas. Based on their playthrough, with the Katamari, whatever you gather becomes a new planet or stardust with the name of what it is primarily made of.
The second game is identical to the first, except that The Prince is now charged with adding more stars because The King only filled in the stars around the Earth. The remainder of the night sky is still entirely dark. You accept requests from arbitrary Earthlings on each level. The game acknowledges that it is a game and that the original was wildly successful and universally adored. As a result, the King made Katamaris to appease his followers.
Fall in love with Katamari all over again. https://t.co/X3WFft7exg
— Boss Level Gamer (@BossLevelGamer) June 5, 2023
There are also cousins and gifts to find during each roll. Any discovered cousins in the lobby can be switched to and played as. They all have incredibly odd appearances. The two characters reviewers liked the best are Macho and Dipp. Macho just starts body rolling if you leave him alone, whereas Dipp is a tiny disco kid.
Rainbows, individuals with enormous pompadours, unicorns, dancing insects – the HD version of everything seems to be present. Every tiny aspect of craziness has been painstakingly repaired and made brighter for contemporary platforms, and everything is clear and colorful. You’ll be perplexed in the highest sense by the leagues of can-canning robots and the King’s never-ending tangents!
Simple controls make for the gameplay. To move about, use the joysticks; to quickly turn, press them in. There is no option to jump, but if you are large enough, you can roll up surfaces. The only catch is that if you collide with anything you can’t roll up, you’ll fly in the opposite direction, lose part of the stuff you’ve rolled up, or both.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie is a flawless remake of an excellent game. Nothing has been altered besides sharpening it and making the colors even more vibrant. With a cast of spooky space kids and a soundtrack of perplexing music, it is multicolored craziness at its finest.
“Whether you’re a fan or getting your roll on for the first time, there’s plenty to love and enjoy in We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie“: CGMagazine
CGMagazine will always remember their first experience with the Katamari series of games. They were horribly intrigued yet also felt strange.
Although the series hasn’t had any new installments in almost ten years, the reviewers still adore it. We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie is similar to the remaster that the original game received. The game easily stands the test of time as one of the oddest, most inventive games ever released, but this port is noticeably superior.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie’s levels concentrate more on gimmicks than the levels of the original game, which mainly focused on the basic gameplay loop of rolling up stuff to expand the Katamari. You’ll create a snowman, a bonfire, help a student learn with fireflies, and even feed a sumo wrestler to gain weight so he can defeat his opponent. The game offers a tremendous amount of variation that never stops.
Naturally, there are more common levels where the main objective is to just roll everything up, including individuals, vehicles, structures, and more. The main source of challenge is that levels are timed, often rather precisely.
The game doesn’t take very long to finish, but it can take a lot longer if you want to finish levels with better scores. The game’s difficulty also varies greatly, with certain stages being straightforward enough to pass on your first try and others requiring some route planning.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie has a lot to cherish and enjoy, whether you’re a fan or just getting your roll on. The game itself is still as oddball and entertaining as it always was, plus the port is excellent, and the high framerate is a delight. There are a few sound issues here and there (some are not synchronized, don’t loop properly, or are missing), but everything else is in order.
The Good and the Bad: What does the game deliver?
Positives:
- It’s Katamari! One of the most fun mechanics in a game.
- The levels have lots of diversity.
- Everything looks better, thanks to the remaster.
Negatives:
- A short game that gets over sooner than expected
- Huge grind to see the endgame
- Camera movement can be weird and feel glitchy.
