We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie Review: Get Ready to Roll…Again!

When I saw that We Love Katamari was available for a review, I thought that it would be a perfect choice as I was looking for a chill and easy-going game to relax with after work. I expected that it would just be a normal, fun game that would have nothing crazy to offer, and boy was I wrong. This has been one of the weirdest and most fun games I have tried, and I definitely did not know what I was getting myself into when I booted up We Love Katamari!

The combination of the cute Katamari Damacy characters, with a fun yet bizarre storyline and quests made this game all that more enjoyable. If you have not played the previous Katamari game, here are some things you should keep in mind before jumping into We Love Katamari!

TL;DR

“We Love Katamari” is a very fun and colourful game. It will provide you with hours of fun and unexpected levels and dialogues that won’t really make much sense. From rolling up inanimate objects, to people and whole planets, it is a game that you will grow to love for its unique style and charm.

Starting where the previous game left off

The whole concept of We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie is very similar to the original game and this sequel has updated graphics, fun remixed levels, and a whole new feel to a game that had been loved by fans for over two decades. In a sense, this game is a tribute to all the fans, and this is something that is frequently mentioned in the game. More specifically, anyone from dogs to people won’t forget to let you know just how much they love Katamari Damacy every chance they get!

One of the main characters in the game is your father, the King of All Cosmos, who is a bit of a drunk and a truly interesting character. His dialogues in the game were honestly one of the most fun yet confusing parts of it as you couldn’t always make sense of what he was saying. Sometimes he speaks in other languages, reminisces about the past, and talks to the NPCs on the planet who express their true love for all things Katamari.

During the game, you can play as one of the many Princes you roll up while creating your new Katamaris. All the Princes are essentially cousins, and you can also roll up items for them to wear when finding hidden presents within the stages.

The purpose of a Katamari

The whole point of the game is that you come across different objects and you have to roll them all into a giant ball of things. Katamari Damacy actually translates to “Bundle of Souls” which makes a lot of sense, seeing how you stick everything, living or not, into a big ball full of random stuff.

The catch is that you have to keep growing your ball in order to be able to stick to bigger objects. These can range from buttons, erasers, and small animals, and later on in the game even people, the solar system, and whole continents.

Each ball you roll ends up becoming a planet that can vary in size and its creative name. After your father accidentally drunkenly destroyed all the stars in the sky during the previous game, it is now your humble job to restore it all back to its original glory. Therefore, it is now your task to roll up everything you find on Earth, both on land and underwater, and create beautiful stars to light up the Cosmos.

Getting used to rolling

One of the things I found challenging about the game at first was the controls. Rolling the ball around requires a bit of coordination and in order to do it correctly you have to get used to it. After a couple of stages, you will be able to roll uphill and avoid all the traps the stages have set for you.

Outside of the levels in We Love Katamari, you can navigate your character within the map and come in contact with different NPCs. They are the ones responsible for giving you access to the different levels. You can chat with them briefly and see what kind of stage they will be part of.

Once you complete a level, you can add the Katamari you created to the Cosmos as a star. If you fail the level, you will come across the anger of the Father, who will rain upon you to punish you for letting down the human who trusted you with a task. You can always repeat the levels until you create the perfect Katamari.

Remembering how to roll

We Love Katamari has a fun plot twist that follows you through the whole game. The main point is that everyone has forgotten how to roll a Katamari after your father destroyed all the stars in the universe in a drunken state, as we mentioned previously.

When you complete a certain amount of levels in We Love Katamari, you get to watch some animated flashbacks which explain a lot about what happened in the past. They can sometimes be rather confusing and do not always make sense. But, to be fair, this is the whole point of the game, as mostly everything looks a little trippy and doesn’t make that much sense.

Underwater levels

One of the things that players were not able to enjoy in the first Katamari Damacy was making Katamaris underwater. In We Love Katamari, this has finally become an option and these underwater levels can be so much fun. You can roll so many different things, like lost items at the bottom of the sea, tiny fish, and even huge corals and sea animals.

You always have to be careful of the traps set around the levels though as you can easily get caught on a fisherman’s bait and quickly find yourself on the surface. While you can wiggle your way out of those in We Love Katamari, you still have to be careful so you don’t waste too much time trying to escape.

The Different Kinds of Stages

Apart from the underwater levels, there are so many different stages you can come across in We Love Katamari. Some of these include cleaning the cluttered room of a child, a playground, a city, or a beautiful scene in nature.

One of my personal favourite levels within the game was the flower power Katamari. In this level, you had to go around, or rather roll around, and collect as many flowers as possible. These were flowers of all sizes, colours and could be found in all kinds of different places. The stage became even more challenging by adding hills, trees that block your path, and moving Venus flytraps that don’t let you pass.

Another fun and super challenging stage in We Love Katamari was one where you had to keep collecting items in order to keep your Katamari on fire, and then light a bigger fire at the top of a hill. These kinds of challenges can be found throughout the game and make it very fun and kind of difficult.

Keeping up with the challenge

I’m not going to lie and say that We Love Katamari was always easy. In fact, I found some levels to be quite a challenge. When a new level starts, you have to make your Katamari into a certain size in order for you to complete the level and make the perfect planet. You usually have to do that within a certain time limit and you will definitely have to repeat some levels a few times in order to get them right.

In addition, some levels will ask you to find a way out of the room or space you are in and move into a different area. There, you will have to continue growing your Katamari into a much bigger version and make your father happy by giving him a brand new shiny star for the Cosmos.

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie Final Thoughts

We Love Katamari is a fun and trippy game that will make you question a lot of things but also provide you with quite a few hours of fun. If you like to play something that doesn’t require much thinking, this will be the right game for you. This isn’t The Last of Us; it’s a goofy little game you’ll love coming back to.

Overall, I enjoyed the diversity of the levels, the crazy dialogues with the father, and the colourful characters. While We Love Katamari is not a game I would have originally gone for, I definitely liked it and I can now understand why it has gathered so many fans around the world.

A special thank you to Bandai Namco EU for providing us with the review copy!