Dokapon Kingdom
The King of Dokapon has offered you his throne; all he asks for in return is that you dispose of an invading horde of thieving monsters. Trouble is – you’re not the only one he asked. Contend with up to three friends as you navigate playfields littered with challenges, monsters to defeat, and rare secrets to unlock.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Dokapon Kingdon
I have spent many hours at this game. It’s like if the game Munchkin were to be made a board game that has been made into a video game. It’s great for a group of people… as long as you don’t let tempers flair.
4 Stars Quite Fun
Dokapon Kingdom can best be described as a Mario Party/RPG hybrid. The idea itself is quite interesting and even has some good execution. There are only a couple of things that really hamper Dokapon Kingdom in the long run. It’s not a game that will appeal to a lot of people, however. For those who enjoy RPGs, though, they might very well be taken in by the games initial charm.
It combines the best of what it can with RPG elements. You begin by selecting classes (you begin with a Magician, Thief and Warrior but more classes can be unlocked later on), naming your characters etc. Once this is all done, you begin on a game board. Much like Mario Party, you take turns. Each turn begins with a character spinning the spinner and then moving the number of spaces that it lands on. The map is pretty big, though, and you’re allowed to choose where you go. It won’t move you across automatically.
Dokapon Kingdom is a pretty complex game, however. On the boards you’ll notice several things. The first is that you can land on item bags and spell books, which will bring up another wheel that spins and lands on a specific item or spell for you to use in combat. You’ll also notice that throughout the game there are several towns that have been taken over by monsters that you’ll have to vanquish. And this is ultimately what the main goal of the game is. To rescue towns and in turn, save them. Each town has worth, which can be invested in throughout the game. The more towns you save, the more your net worth is. The goal is to end with as much net worth as you can.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. Especially when playing with friends. You’ll rescue towns, but friends can take your towns, along with the value. Likewise, you’ll be in for a long game. A very long game.
Combat is simple to pick up on, and yet can be strangely addictive. Whenever you land on certain spaces, you’ll be thrust into a battle. In each battle, you’ll be put on two different fronts, both with different options. When on offense you can choose different ways to strike your opponent. Attacking normally, using special abilities or performing powerful strikes. When defending, you can either opt to defend or counter. The game works out like Rock, Paper, Scissors. There is an upside and downside. For example, while Strike is a very powerful command, if the opponent selects counter it will fail. So Counter beats strike. Defend will lower damage from normal attacks. When someone uses magic, M Guard is the way to go. And in the process, you’ll be kept guessing in many cases.
As you might expect, if two players land on the same blank space, they’ll battle each other. The victor has the option of robbing a character of items and equipment (or even taking towns), inflicting statuses or even just playing pranks (such as changing names or drawing graffiti on them).
Of course, at the heart of it, it’s still an RPG, and there are many RPG elements. Such as leveling up. You can increase class levels to unlock more classes, and you’ll also have to worry about your level. This is especially important when saving towns. But beyond that, there are also plenty of shops for you to go to. Even the shops have their own charm, however. When going to a shop, you do have a chance of robbing it. It’s not exactly attacking the shop keeper, however. Instead you’ll end up playing a game of Roshambo (Rock-Paper-Scissors). If you win you’ll get some spoils. Lose, however, and you’ll be wanted, with a bounty on your head as well (given to whoever defeats you). It’s actually quite unique and fun.
There is a bit more, however. From time to time when landing on spaces you might run into other types of events. For example, you might find a girl who wants you to deliver a certain item to a specific town, or a bandit who will gladly rob the other players provided you pay him. Of course, not everything works out for you. You might run into characters who will give you items with negative consequences or characters who will take more of your gold from you (and you can fall into debt). It’s interesting, and there’s actually quite a bit of variety.
In real RPG fashion, it probably also comes as no shock to find out that the game can last for hours. You’ll find yourself having to level up a lot and save many towns to progress through the story. Much of it seems left up to chance, but even more of it is dependent upon who you’re playing with. There’s a joke about Dokapon Kingdom that it is “friendship destroying,” and in some ways you might find yourself wanting to “destroy” your friends in combat when they take your towns, or rob you of a precious piece of a equipment that you need so desperately (or your money). The main story will take several hours.
This brings about Dokapon Kingdom’s big problem. The fact that the story is pretty long for a game like this. It’s a fantastic idea, but after a while, especially when you start dying and having to wait turns to be revived, you might find that it can become really repetitive after playing for a while. It’s fun, that’s for sure, but just the same, it will also become very tedious after a few hours of going at it. Luckily, you can save your game whenever you want. But just the same, you’ll die a lot. Either by monsters or friends. And gameplay can become really stale after a while.
Visually, the game has charm, but it’s not really an eye opening game. It isn’t bad looking by any means. Just rather plain and simple. Artistically it isn’t so bad. It’s definitely got a look and feel about it that works great. The music, while not so bad, will become repetitive after a while as well. Yet some of the tunes, for what they’re worth, are quite fun to listen to. The soundtrack just needed to be a bit bigger for how long the game can last.
Up to four players can play, and they can all even play off the same Wii Remote if need be. You’ll hold it like a control pad. So no, there are no motion sensor controls within the game. You can also use a Gamecube controller if you’ve got one. In short, it doesn’t really take advantage of the Wii capabilities (if you got a hold of the PS2 version you’re not getting much of a different game). At the very least, however, it’s fun.
You’ll need to pace yourself when playing through the game with friends. It can be repetitive at times, but being able to break and save whenever you want is a pretty helpful thing when it comes to Dokapon Kingdom. RPG fans might like quite a bit, but it probably won’t appeal to anyone outside of that core audience. Nevertheless, if you do fall into that audience, the game is worth a try.
5 Stars Amazing Game
Take Mario Party and add in an RPG feel and you’ve got one of the best games to hit the wii. This game is tons of fun, especially if you have competitive friends, and it came at an amazingly cheap price. This game is highly recommended for anyone who likes party games as well as cute characters and leveling things up.
4 Stars Dokapon Kingdom: A dungeon crawler in the outside air
Dokapon Kingdom: A dungeon crawler in the outside air
I’d give this game a 7/10 (just like I did on my gamefaqs review, of which this is very similar). All ratings for this game are on a 10 point scale.
This review will be broken down into a number of categories with descriptions. Scores for categories will be listed at the end as a final breakdown.
GAMEPLAY:
First, and always most important in my opinion is gameplay. Because of the layout and presentation of the game, people seem to want to compare this to Mario Party. It’s really not all that similar. If anything I would compare this more closely with Sonic Shuffle, as it more closely adheres to that style of gameplay. I could also see comparing this to a turn based strategy game. If I were to describe this game to someone I would say that it’s like a generic RPG with no story and multiple players. The winner is the person with the most wealth at the end of the game (which is measured out in number of weeks you choose).
There are 3 different starting classes you pick from at the beginning of the game. These are Thief, Wizard, and Fighter. The differences between these classes can be broken down into what their stat points go into when they level up as well as a secondary skill (for instance thieves steel items from players they pass). Each class when mastered unlocks an additional class that can then unlock yet a third class (ie. Fighter > Cleric > Monk).
The map is made up of the continents of our planet with cities on each map that feature some racially insensitive stereotypes. Unlike Mario Party, and like Sonic Shuffle, you can move any direction on the map and cities can be liberated by defeating the monsters guarding them. Cities that you liberate are yours (unless stolen by a monster or another player). The cities are what provide a majority of the money that you will use to calculate who has the most wealth. Most spaces on the map will put you in a fight or an encounter. Encounters are also very similar to those found in Sonic Shuffle. They can be detrimental or beneficial and there’s no way to change the outcome.
Fighting is through a largely rock paper scissors based gameplay, though your stats and equipment do play a role in deciding how much damage you taken or receive or if you dodge or hit your enemy. Every round of combat takes a turn, so if you don’t kill an enemy in one hit, you’ll be fighting the enemy as your whole next turn also. When you die you go back to the starting castle (or last temple you went in). You lose some money or items when you die, and sometimes your hair.
That’s right, you can change your hairstyle. You can also sometimes change your opponents hair… and name. These things can be done to irritate your opponents. This game goes so far as to say that this will ruin your friendships on the back of the box. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I don’t take games as seriously as some people do.
The game controls using the wiimote sideways, a classic controller, or a Gamecube controller. There are no motion controls or waggle. It’s a shame they couldn’t have set up the controls so that the game could be played with the controller held vertical, as there’s no timing based items in this game and it would have benefited from being playable one handed for comfort reasons.
In many ways, this game plays like an old dungeon crawler, except outside. There is leveling up, exploring, etc. but really no story at all. There are even a few dungeons in this crawler, for you to search for other items in.
GRAPHICS:
The graphics in this game are severely aged looking. The graphics would definitely be at home on the PS2 (and I do believe it came out on that system). The colors are all very bright and pleasing to look at (aside from all the cherubs, which my wife found somewhat disturbing). If you have to have good graphics in a game, this one probably isn’t the game for you.
SOUND:
The music in this game is easy on the ears. The voices aren’t terrible, but they’re far from pleasing. For the most part you can just hit a button to skip the talking. Many people talk of having to mute this game, but I would certainly not say it is that bad.
REPLAY VALUE:
I don’t know that it would be worth playing through this game more than once in single player, but a multiplayer game can get very competitive. There’s really very little learning curve to the game, so just about anyone could pick it up and play it with you. This isn’t the kind of game you can just play through in one evening though. My wife and I took about 10 hours to get through our first play through (50 weeks). We managed to explore most of the world in that time.
Breakdown
These numbers are from the viewpoint that a 5 is about average, 1 is terrible, and 10 is amazing. I don’t think this necessarily reflects how most other reviews use numbers.
Gameplay: 8 (but only if you can take a dungeon crawler)
Graphics: 4
Sound: 4
Replay Value: 6 (but only if you have others to play this with)
Overall I would rate this game about a 7 because I grew up playing Wizardry on the Apple II and my wife loves the game, so I have someone to play with.
3 Stars Holy Dokapon!!
This game is a great way for people, young and old, who play rpgs to come together and have a mario party like time. There is a great balance of skill and luck, and the more you’re losing by, the more the game helps you. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the story line and character emotions, but that may be a turn off to some. A great game if you don’t take it to seriously.
Buy/More Info
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