Ontamarama

Did You Know?

• According to Atlus USA, Ontamarama was a worthy project because it stood out as a lively and fun game that is easy to learn yet challenging to master.
• The North American version dropped a few songs from the Japanese release due to licensing issues.
• Aaron Kaluszka of Nintendo World Report said Ontamarama is certainly no Elite Beat Agents, but its style of gameplay is definitely unique.

Plot

The story is set on a tropical island where musical spirits called Ontama live. Someone steals these spirits by hypnotizing the islanders. The main characters, Beat and Rest, are both Ontamaestros—people who study and orchestrate Ontama to create music. They set out to free the Ontama by engaging the hypnotized islanders in musical battles. The Ontama are colorful, playful beings that bring happiness through their soothing music, and they are deeply valued in the peaceful world of Ontamarama. Beat and Rest are childhood friends and friendly rivals, each hoping to become a famous Ontamaestro first. One day, after leaving the OntaConservatory where they train, they find a weakened Ontama on the road—an unusual sight. They discover that a demon named Blast is capturing all the Ontamas for power. The player chooses to play as either Beat or Rest, fighting against enemy Ontamaestros who use captured Ontamas. Beat is a high-spirited boy who excels at sports and can talk to Ontamas. Rest is a smart girl who thinks carefully before acting. Coda, their teacher at the OntaConservatory, has a friendly face but a strict manner and teaches the player how to conduct music with Ontama. Alto is a fairy who was napping with Ontamas when a loud noise woke her; she gets hypnotized by a robot and forced to capture them. Aria, a maid at the village inn, follows a strange woman outside at night. The woman plays a mysterious melody to capture Ontamas, and when she notices Aria, she places a Track Disk in Aria’s necklace, knocking her unconscious. Gig and Club are a pair: Club and his pet alligator Gig grew up together. Gig was too wild to be a house pet, but Club calmed him using Ontama music. They search for an Ontama that plays music on its own. Elegy is a silent, flying robot created by Blast to collect Ontamas.

Gameplay

Ontamarama mixes the rhythm action of Dance Dance Revolution with the stylus-based tapping of Elite Beat Agents. Players use the stylus to hit a D-pad direction as it scrolls toward a circle, but each arrow is color-coded and only works if enough energy of that color has been collected. To build up that energy, players tap colored Ontama that float across the touch screen. Black Ontamas sometimes appear and block the colored ones, and a few Ontama require two taps to clear. Blowing into the microphone wipes all Ontama from the screen, but this ability has a limited number of uses per song.

The main goal is to free all Ontama on screen. This can be done by tapping them individually, drawing a circle around a group of the same color, or holding and swinging the stylus over them. Clearing Ontama earns points, but black Ontamas subtract points instead. Chains and multipliers boost the score—for instance, clearing three Ontama in a row gives a 3x multiplier. Each freed Ontama fills a corresponding colored note, which becomes an arrow on the D-pad that must be pressed exactly when it reaches the circle. Hold notes require pressing the button at the start and releasing at the end. Timing is graded as Good, Great, or Master, and these grades add to the overall performance score.

A performance gauge shows how well the player is doing. If it drops to zero, the song must be replayed. Ontama Points earned in gameplay can be spent in the shop on items. Different colored Ontama have distinct effects: white ones boost the performance gauge and don’t correspond to any notes, black ones lower the gauge, and red, blue, green, and yellow are normal Ontama that fill notes.

Tutorial mode teaches the basics. Story mode is the only mode available at first and contains 12 stages, each with three difficulty levels. Free mode unlocks after the first completion of Story mode, letting players play any song from Story mode, including bonus tracks. Additional modes like Challenge mode and Random mode can also be unlocked.