As the literal definition of “let the good times roll”, the Katamari franchise has garnered a fervent cult following since the release of Katamari Damacy in 2004, gradually expanding its line-up of 16 games revolving around a simple but addictive concept – rolling a “katamari” ball over a variety of items to slowly increase its size, absorbing up larger, whackier objects in the process, all while meeting outrageous challenges and time requirements.
It’s an arcadey gameplay formula that has remained the core of the franchise over the years, and something that remains largely untouched as it enters the current console generation with Once Upon a Katamari, the first original console instalment in the series after 14 years, and according to game producer Ishida Ryo, despite the latest title appearing similar to past entries on the surface, most of its finer details have been tweaked to provide fans a fresh experience.
“The only thing that hasn’t changed about the Katamari series from our previous title, the 2023 remaster We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie, is its controls,” explains Ryo during an exclusive interview with Geek Culture and other Southeast Asia media.
“Apart from how you move, we have changed everything else, from the new stages, the way these stages are chosen, and all the other options we have added for players.”
On the topic of new additions, an accompanying 15-minute preview of the upcoming title gave a better look at Once Upon a Katamari’s latest additions, specifically its theme of exploring different time periods in human history, a new customisation feature and a four-player competitive multiplayer mode known as KatamariBall.
To fit its time-travelling storyline, the game features a narrative that’s as wacky as fans will expect, centred around returning series mascot, the King of All Cosmos, as he causes havoc once again by goofing around with a magic scroll, inadvertently destroying the Earth and numerous other stars in the process. As the King’s heir, known simply as the Prince, players must work to fix the King’s blunder by rolling their Katamari through the ages and rebuilding the galaxy.
True to Ryo’s statement, core gameplay will feel instantly familiar to returning fans. Players will still use both analogue sticks in unison to control their katamari ball as they roll around levels, sticking all manner of scattered items of all sizes, from pebbles, flower pots and food items to fully grown humans, animals and even entire houses at once, now themed against the backdrop of the selected time period.
During our brief gameplay session, we were able to experience three of the ages – Modern day, historic Japan and Ancient Rome. Each age offered not only a change in scenery and different missions to choose from, but also provided unique objectives that make use of their associated setting, such as having to roll over and absorb various historic philosophers like Archimedes or Pythagoras in a level within Ancient Rome, or making the Katamari as sweet as possible by absorbing tasty treats within a street market in the modern day.
“As fans will know, Katamari is a game where all you do is roll around and try to pick things up and grow the ball,” notes Ryo, “This time, we decided that instead of having them just roll and make the ball bigger, the goal is not always just to make the ball bigger, but to aim for different goals depending on the stage, and we hope that this gives returning players a sense that it’s not juist another remaster of a previous game, but a brand new experience.”
Having a playground of different time periods to engage with helped the team flex their creative muscles to devise as many unique elements for players to roll over while engaging in missions, which mostly consisted of quick-fire rounds lasting less than 10 minutes.
“The concept behind including different timelines is that each provides something interesting,” explains Ryo, “For example, in the Jurassic era, you could pick up a dinosaur that’s just walking around the world, so some stages feature a terrain that’s purely ice, which gives players a whole new aspect to have fun with. We want to give players the chance to just roll around all these random time periods and ages without thinking too much, where they can experience all the different areas and environments.”
While engaging in all the missions across the ages, players can also relax to the tune of the game’s soundtrack, something that the series has become well known for, and similarly, these audio tracks have mostly been built from scratch for the latest entry.
“Of course, we will still have the base Katamari track from the originals, but because we had all these different time periods and environments in the game, we needed to create a new soundtrack that fit the themes of these stages,” Ryo adds.
“When creating these new original music tracks, we wanted to include as many genres as we could, but of course, we had to look at which stages would match a particular track. For example, if we wanted to create a ballad, it would only fit for some stages and not others, and some stages like in ancient Japan, we had to create something that’s a bit more oriental, more traditional to the Japanese.”
It isn’t just the game world that has seen a visual and conceptual refresh, but the main protagonist too, as Once Upon a Katamari will now feature a customisation feature, allowing players to dress up their Prince and his accompanying companions, known as Cousins, picking from a wide variety of hats, outfits and colour schemes to express themselves, with additional Cousins unlocked by finding and rolling over them within the game’s levels.
“With recent games, especially in this current generation, many times provide ways to customise a players avatar,” explains Ryo, “For Once Upon a Katamari, it’s a bit hard to allow players to fully customise their look due to how the game works, as players will mostly be looking at their giant katamari ball, so we came up with the idea of allowing them to change how the Prince or the Cousins look, so players will still be able to inject their own personalities into the game.”
Closing off the new additions, at least what we discovered in the little time we had during the preview, was the game’s new multiplayer mode, KatamariBall, which pits four players against each other to see who can absorb the most items on the map within a time limit.
This isn’t the case of who can simply create the biggest ball either, as in order to score points, players will have to “deposit” their absorbed items at various zones that temporarily appear at specific parts of the map, losing their size in the process. Being of a bigger size than opponents can even allow players to absorb their competitors, bringing a risk and reward system in play, where players can choose to either play it safe by depositing items immediately to quickly rack up points, or keep their size in an effort to absorb others and garner massive amounts of points at one go, although this risks being absorbed by other larger players and losing it all.
Apart from including these main gameplay additions, the team also took the steps to ensure Once Upon a Katamari was as accessible to franchise newcomers as it was fun and challenging for returning fans by changing up how information regarding its stages is presented.
“In previous titles, players wouldn’t know whether or not they had done the right thing as they played the levels until right at the end, where the King either praises or gets angry at them for their performance, which players oftentimes not knowing why exactly they are being scolded.” explains Ryo, “This time around, we have created an evaluation system which shows up as they play through the level, which not only shows their goal but also ranks them on well they are doing, which motivates players rather than leaving them confused at the end of the level.”
With its focus on meaningful changes and additions over entire reworks of the well-established Katamari formula, the upcoming title is set to provide the same relaxing experience fans will expect, but whether its new time-bending setting and the various gameplay changes it brings can entice franchise newcomers to hop in and have a ball remains to be seen.
Once Upon a Katamari rolls onto PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC on 24 October 2025.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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