I have a great passion for board games and role-playing games, so I thought Dokapon would be the perfect match for me. Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is a unique combination of a party board game and a role-playing game, similar to a Mario Party and Dragon Quest blend. This latest release is a remastered version of the original Dokapon Kingdom game, initially released in North America for PlayStation 2 and Wii. But is it still worth your time in 2023?
Dokapon Kingdom: Connect
Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is a board game that mixes role-playing game elements in a fantasy world – the Kingdom of Dokapon. The game starts with towns being attacked by monsters, causing people to lose their homes and the King to lose his income through taxes. To solve this, the King rewards any heroes willing to help to be the next in line to the throne and to have the princess’s hand in marriage. While the story is a typical fantasy tale, it sets up a concept that encourages players to befriend or betray each other on the way to becoming the winner of the prize by defeating evil and earning as much money as possible. In Dokapon Kingdom: Connect, money means victory without any involvement of blood.
At the beginning of each game, players are required to create an adventurer. A session can have up to 2-4 players and can be a combination of humans and CPU players. The adventurer creation process is simple. Players need to give their character a name, pick their sex, select a clothing color, and choose a facial expression from a limited pool of options. They also need to select a class, which can be one of three roles: Warrior, Magician, and Thief. These classes are self-explanatory, with nothing out of the ordinary. Warriors have good attacking and defense abilities, Magicians focus on magic elements, and Thieves are suitable for speed and stealing items from other players using their class skills. There are additional classes called jobs, which can be earned during gameplay to add some variety to the basic class skills and stats.
Story Mode & Game Mechanics
The story mode is the most significant feature of Dokapon Kingdom: Connect. The method takes players through a prologue and eight chapters, each representing a quest that needs completion and sending a player to another section of the map. In terms of a digital board game setup, players receive an ordered movement at the beginning, and then each player spins a roulette on their turn with numbers 0-6, representing the spaces they move on the board. The board has various elements like bags, chests, shops, and other icons that present finding an item or weapon. Again, these rewards are awarded by chance by stopping the moving highlighter on a description. There may also be actions or random events that will appear in specific spaces.
Blank spaces are one of the primary actions on the board, which initiate a battle sequence in which the player picks a card that will determine whether they go first or second with their actions. Each side performs one action for each turn, where the first person performs the offensive action, and the second person performs a defensive action. Then, the roles flip for the second person to attack. This cycle continues until someone defeats the opponent or decides to give in. The player gains experience and money from the battle, with a level-up system to unlock better stats through automated and manual skill point assignments. Any death from battle does not mean the end of the game, as the player will skip a turn or two and then resurrect back at the Castle or the last central area visited.
Battles are relatively simple, especially at the beginning, where everyone has basic moves and items. However, as the game progresses over its weeks and multiple chapters, characters level up and gain more moves and gear, and the strategy begins to take over. Players must outpick their enemies based on spells and skills while ensuring that they do not counter-pick on their side. For instance, they must avoid picking “Defend” for a regular attack or “Counter” for a “Strike” attack. The “Strike” attack is a move that deals way more damage than a normal attack if it manages to hit but has less chance of hitting than the default attack. Battles follow a familiar rock-paper-scissor system to keep things simple to understand without going too deep into the game’s spells and skills.
Other Features
In Dokapon Kingdom: Connect, players can battle each other. If a player wins a battle and another player lands in the same spot, they will also battle each other. When a player beats another player, the loser will die, and the winner will take some of their belongings. If the losing player decides to surrender instead, the winner still gets to take their gold, items, or equipment. The winner can also rename the character or change the losing character’s hairstyle, which may insult the loser. Playing with friends is much better than playing with the computer, as players can form alliances with their buddies. However, when the alliances are no longer helpful, betrayal happens. This human element of betrayal makes playing with friends more enjoyable than playing with the computer. Although playing with the computer can be a decent experience, it lacks the unknown factor of how a friend will behave in a scenario, which takes away some of the treacherous fun and makes it more straightforward.
Another critical aspect of the game is that there is only one map, which is quite large, representing the entire world. The map is divided into continents, and a new continent is unlocked as the story progresses to the next chapter. Each map section contains multiple board spaces for battles, shops, and events. However, a critical element for winning the game is towns. Initially, towns are threatened by a monster, and your objective is to defeat this monster to take control of the city. Once a town is in your possession, you will receive a weekly income contributing to your gold score at the end of each week. Remember that the game’s primary objective is accumulating the most gold; taking over towns is an excellent way to achieve this.
Additionally, towns can be invested in to increase their level and earn more gold. However, other players can use a charm potion, an expensive item, to take over a town they own. In the world of Dokapon Kingdom, there is a lot of scheming involved, and despite being called a “bastard” for planning against your friends, it’s all in good fun at the end of the day.
Normal Mode
The game also offers more traditional board game modes besides the story mode. Normal mode allows you to determine the number of weeks a game should last and what level players can start from the Dokapon Castle. The objective is to defeat all the giant monsters and earn a significant cash reward. The other mode is Battle Royale, which has three types: Town Race (win by liberating a town), Kill Race (win by killing a certain number of times), and Shopping Race (win by bringing an essential item back to the requester). These modes help reduce the repetitiveness of the story mode by playing shorter games that can last as long as you want. These modes are suitable for people who do not play many video games as they reduce the learning curve, which can be steep for novices. It may take some time to understand the game mechanics and strategies fully, but once everything clicks, it becomes more engaging for the players.
Remaster
The core game of Dokapon Kingdom: Connect remains the same as the original version released in 2008. However, this updated version has a high-definition output, providing the visuals with a clear and sharp upgrade. The game still uses the same 3D models from the original release, meaning it may not have the best visuals on the system. Still, the added clarity helps to make the old Wii visuals look better than they did in standard definition. Nevertheless, some quirky presentation issues exist, such as the player turn notification remaining on the screen during actions and cutscenes.
Conclusion
Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is a unique title that combines elements of a party board game with baby role-playing mechanics. It has a distinct PS2-era feel with its quirky dialogue and wacky concept, but it stands out. The game’s only drawback is that it requires a significant time commitment to fully enjoy the gameplay, which may not be suitable for everyone. Dokapon Kingdom: Connect may attract fans of Mario Party, but it is more geared towards a small audience who appreciate the blend of RPG mechanics with a board game. If you are one of those individuals, be prepared for an engaging adventure filled with friendly banter and competitive gameplay to become the wealthiest person in the land.
