We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie [PC] | REVIEW

The wild and wacky antics of Katamari Damacy are back again, with the game’s sequel getting the remaster treatment this time around in We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie. I loved the original game, but I’ll admit, this is my first experience with the sequel – it has been a real treat though, with the expanded and more creative gameplay loop complementing the charming simplicity of the first game.

Check out some screenshots down below:

We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie follows the formula set in the original game, with players taking control of a peculiar little character known as The Prince as he pushes a special ball known as a Katamari around the environment. Any objects you roll over will attach to the Katamari (provided they’re smaller than it), with its size growing and growing until you’re eventually able to collect those gigantic objects around you. Your goal? To make your Katamari as big as possible and send it back to your father, the King of All Cosmos, to make into planets.

It’s as bizarre as it sounds, but it’s a really fun experience that offers an engaging gameplay loop that’ll keep players hooked in for hours on end. It helps that the core mechanics work so well though, with the controls intuitive and the levels you explore creatively designed with plenty of whimsical sights to see. Admittedly, the controls can take a little getting used thanks to their emphasis on flicking sticks around to pull off manoeuvres, but it’s not particularly complex and players should find it a breeze after a few levels.

“Whether you’re completing some silly little task or simply building up your Katamari as big as possible, it’s just a real joy to play.”

The thing I like the most about We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie is that it goes to the extreme when it comes to silliness (and I mean that in a good way). The levels themselves are full of weird and wacky objects to collect, whilst the fact that you’ll eventually grow to a big enough size to roll up entire cities definitely kept me entertained. The game offers plenty of diversity with its objectives too, with it demanding more than simply building your Katamari to be as big as possible – these objectives come from ‘Fans’ of the series, which feels befitting of the silly vibe with its breaking of the fourth wall. Sometimes you might have to compete with drivers on a racing track, whilst other times you’ll have to grab flammable objects to ensure your flaming Katamari keeps on burning. Another time you’ll have to make your Katamari as bright as possible, and then you may have to feed it plenty of food. There’s plenty of variety across the board to keep the experience interesting, and whilst building your Katamari up in size does feel like the main goal, We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie does a bit more to ensure players won’t tire of the formula.

It shouldn’t take too long to work through the game’s main levels, but with plenty of objectives to complete and unlockables to find, players will definitely be kept busy. There’s also the addition of the titular Royal Reverie content, which gives players all-new levels to play through based around the youth of the King of All Cosmos. Admittedly, it would have been nice to have a few more levels to play through here (there are only five), but it’s nice that there’s something fresh here for veteran players to check out.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Those who want to partake in some Katamari-rolling action with friends will be glad to know there’s multiplayer on offer too, both cooperative and competitive. I’ll get this out of the way immediately: playing in co-op isn’t that fun, with players having to roll around the SAME Katamari rather than have one of their own. Whilst it can make for some funny situations, it never felt fulfilling to play and deterred from the overall experience. On the other hand, competing in split-screen action in the game’s Battle Mode was great, with players racing to make their Katamari bigger than their rival. The gameplay loops lends itself perfectly to competitive play and it makes for a genuinely enthralling experience. In fact, I think Bandai Namco are missing a trick not making a dedicated online Katamari Damacy experience…

It’s easy to appreciate everything that the series does because there really is nothing quite like it out there, whilst the refinements made to We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie make it a more fleshed-out experience when compared to its predecessor. Whether you’re completing some silly little task or simply building up your Katamari as big as possible, it’s just a real joy to play. Add to that the lovely visual style that feels befitting of the game’s quirky vibe and it’ll be easy to see why the game has a real cult following.

Developer: MONKEYCRAFT
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Website: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/katamari/we-love-katamari-reroll-royal-reverie