Dokapon Kingdom Connect from Idea Factory is a game that offers more than any Mario Party Game could, with an enriching story and a lot of gags with literal HOURS of content?
The land where RNG isn’t with the dice, but with a world wide range of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Spock. Take multiple hours and sessions to complete a whole game, and if you’re backstabbed enough times, you can actually become the villain of the story. Though, be careful with that power, because you might regret it. I did and my wife has me sleeping on the couch.
Building the kingdom, one brick at a time
Dokapon Kingdom Connect, is a remaster of Dokapon Kingdom that was released in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in the West. A Role-playing board game that is meant to be played with 4 people, but can be played alone with up to 3 bots or just experience the game completely solo.
Dokapon Kingdom Connect is a part of the Dokapon series of games that started as far back as 2003 having almost the exact same formula going for them from Dokapon! Ikari no Tekken was a Japan-only game, to Dokapon Kingdom Connect was the first game in this series to branch out and reach a wider audience in the West to enjoy this chaotic mess that would make even Mario Party blush from how long it takes to complete Dokapon Kingdom Connect not just solo, but with a group of either people or bots…at least with the bots you won’t feel guilty striking back if they were the first to cast the first stone.
Some might be wondering why I brought up Mario Party, well it’s because I can’t think of any other board game that people would play that causes the same kind of divide in friendships that is similar to throwing a blue shell in Mario Kart. I’ve honestly spent days with my wife and 1 bot to even complete Dokapon Kingdom Connect using the Steam Remote Play Together, which I’ll discuss more about later.
Step 1: Gain Exp. Step 2: Beat Regional Bosses. Step:??? Step 4: Profit
Now, at the start of the Dokapon Kingdom Connect, after you’ve customized your character by name, colour, gender and job, you are approached by the King of Dokapon. He tells you that the Demon King has sent his minions to take over different regions and towns that are under the King’s reign.
Whoever defeats the Demon King first and has the most money, will have his daughter’s hand in marriage and become the new king of Dokapon. We’re tasked to get strong and help him fight back the attack upon his land. You’ll be taken to this small area that’ll help you gather weapons, gear, money, items, etc. and I highly recommend taking your time going all over the map until the king forces you out of there.
Ignore the stat increase incentive the king would give to the first person to reach him or don’t if you feel like your strategy requires you to go crazy on a specific stat block *cough cough* go for speed. The tool used to indicate movement for each character is the same spinner you see in the Game of Life. The battle system is literally a game of rock, paper, scissors where if you understand your opponent and know their move sets, you can destroy or lose completely if you’re not careful.
Each round ends when everyone finishes what they’re doing and won’t continue until your turn starts up again, or unless you’re battling one of your friends, then it’ll be at the start of their turn. Now you have to be careful about landing in the same space as your friends or bots, doing so will start the combat and I hope you have a higher speed level than they do or you’re going to get hit hard trying to run away from the fight.
I bet you’re wondering, “What am I to do about earning funds for my journey?” And the answer to that is saving towns is the key to having a fatter wallet in the game. Saving the towns and upgrading them as if you’re playing a game of Catan to better your tax revenue. Allowing you to be the IRS but with weapons and magic. However, you’ll need to revisit the towns individually to receive said taxes or reach a certain building that will collect your taxes for you.
After you’ve beaten the main boss of the region and unlocked the path to the neighbouring region continue your path down the road of getting a lot more money. Surprisingly, if you either played this game when it was released for the Wii or you have a guide, you’ll notice that there are a few jobs you can unlock for yourself by completing certain steps for them or having a specific item and taking it to a specific location.
Sure you can just blaze a trail with just the warrior class, but what if I told you that there is something better like being a monk or a spellsword? Or become the thing that haunts this land, the Robo Knight. An example would be going for the Spellsword class, you’d need to master not only the warrior class by reaching max level but also the same with Magician. Once done, you can unlock and start your new job as a Spellsword once you get back to Dokapon Castle.
You can also receive a job that slightly makes you overpowered at the get-go known as the Darkling job. This job is only achieved if the person in last place has been there for more than 2 weeks and gets to the Dark Space once it appears. I don’t want to spoil what advantages you’ll get being the Darkling, but just know that if you’re tired of getting bullied by your friends, then…TAKE…THAT…POWER!!!! There are many places in the land of Dokapon to look around and explore with no time limit or any kind of rush to do everything.
You can stay in one region to somewhat work your way to bulldoze everything that crosses your path, or just hit up the places at your pace. The last thing I’ll inform you about will be the random special events that can occur. From a villager girl asking you to give them something, to actual UFOs kidnaping your butt and bringing you back who knows when. These special events only occur when anyone lands in an empty space.
Who put this on repeat?!
Seems that after 16 years, developer Sting chose to keep the original soundtrack from Dokapon Kingdom in my opinion becomes so repetitive, that just you end up either daydreaming or actually dreaming yourself into the game just from hearing 5 notes of the battle music or just the overworld will trigger flashbacks for me and give me PTSD. My advice when it comes to listening to the music is to accept it and just be quick with the selection of the attack you’re going to do.
I’m glad that they didn’t touch the OST since depending on how the Dokapon Kingdom Connect goes for each user, it can be a nice reminder of your victory or a dark reminder of the load of dirt that RNGesus gave to you throughout your entire journey.
All books have chapters that come to a close
After dealing with the random events that transpire in the empty spaces, rescuing the towns near Dokapon Castle, beating all types of enemies that you’ve come across during your journey and fighting your fellow adventurers just to prank them or change their hairstyle just because you can. Sooner or later, if you want better things for your character to create either peace or chaos, you’ll need to advance the chapter.
The flow of events that happen in the kingdom of Dokapon changes from each successful attempt to defeat the region boss and enter the new region. There will never be a time limit for when each chapter needs to be completed, so you can continue the same pace you’re at to either get an item your character can use on others, or go after one of the hidden jobs to really wipe the board. In the end, only one of you needs to do everything to advance the story to help you and screw over the others to really hold them back and have them all aim at you or fight among themselves to not be in last place.
Overall, having a reason to break out the old Wii U from the closet, grabbing the Wii copy of Dokapon Kingdom and doing some comparison between that version and the remaster. My wife and I had fun revisiting and hunting the changes that were done between the two versions and defeating my wife again after 4 days of 10 hours of playing the Dokapon Kingdom Connect again. I’m down to replay it again and attempt a run where I win as a Darkling.
Though, I’ll either do it alone or drag two others with the wife into a complete chaos stew. Especially since Dokapon Kingdom Connect allows 3 ways to play which is better than on the Nintendo Switch. Through Steam, if your friends have their own copy of the game, you can play through online multiplayer. If you’re all together in the same room, local multiplayer is the available option in that case. Now, with people who are on the fence and you want them to experience the joys of the game, you can do remote play together with 3 other people, which works really well in my case.
And to give the added bonus, Dokapon Kingdom Connect works on the Steam Deck and oh boy, I cannot wait to bring my steam deck to a friend’s house, connect it to their TV and then be kicked out of their house hours later because the game got them heated.
Dokapon Kingdom Connect Trailer
Written by Ruddy Celestial
Find more reviews here https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/category/review/
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co
You must be logged in to post a comment.